Tim Daly Stream of Consciousness

Yesterday's mention of Tim Daly and his new series on ABC got me to thinking...

Remember him on Wings? He was totally the cute brother... Brian was the fun brother but Joe was the good looking one. How were those two even brothers? Didn't look a THING alike.

Who knew that Tony Shalhoub would go on to be the most successful of all those Wings actors? Have you seen Shalhoub's movie Big Night by the way? Very fun little film... I would love to see a timpano made in real life.

Speaking of food,I'm surprised that girl who ran the lunch counter in Tom Nevers Airfield main terminal didn't go on to have a bigger career after Wings.

Actually, now that I think about it, the guy who I liked most on that show was Lowell. Lowell once took over Helen's lunch counter for a day and made a delicious cold shredded cabbage salad with a tangy dressing he called "Lowell-slaw." I STILL think that's funny.

A friend of mine growing up lived down the street from a guy named Lowell who was kind of slow... we were probably 14 or 15 and he was probably close to 20 but was really challenged mentally. He could hold a conversation and all but he got scared really easy and had that sort of uneasy look all the time. Like a deer who thinks it hears a hunter coming but is really thirsty and trying to get a drink out of a pond while staying tensed up just in case it has to bolt. Lowell also did this kind of praying mantis thing with his arms and hands... not due to a palsy or anything, that was just the way he held himself. I remember always being surprised at how fit Lowell (my friends neighbor, not the Wings character... though he was fit too, everyone on TV is) was. Didn't seem logical to me that this guy who was so crippled socially could posses the drive to keep his body so... well... hot. I remember too that Lowell had chest hair and I thought that must be so confusing for him... here he is just a child mentally, but he has all these grown up physical attributes. Actually, it was probably perfectly normal for him and confusing to ME, now that I think about it.

Did Joe ever marry the lunch lady on Wings? Helen?

Mr. Daly was on a lawyer show for a while after Wings... or a detective show maybe... but last time I saw him on TV he looked older, less like the cute brother on Wings.

USA used to have this programming block called "Primetime in the Daytime" and they would show Wings INCESSANTLY! Wings and that show with Leah Remini, the redhead who was married to Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue and that little, hairy, muscled, fucker. They all lived in a clock tower over a bar and sold advertising or something. "Working" and "Suddenly Susan" too. Those shows were ALWAYS on USA. Sometimes you'd get a "Caroline in the City" thrown in there for spice (did ANYONE believe for a SECOND that Caroline's TOTALLY GAY assistant was ever in love with her?) I used to have a crush on the kind of slow guy who always wore roller skates on Caroline in the City. I saw him on something else recently... Cold Case or something, as a cop maybe... still looks good. Whatever it was, it was probably the show I was watching when I saw the promo for Private Practice. That's when Tim Daly stepped back into my life.

He's gone from kind of Joe Hackett skinny-fit to kind of Christopher Knight big-fit, and it suits him. I think my tastes are changing... 51 is very often just as hot at 25 for me lately... maybe because I see these older dudes lookin' awesome and think to myself... it's not too late! So I've set a TiVo Season Pass for this new show, and even set one for Grey's Anatomy even though I have never seen an episode of that show before.

By the way, Roy Biggins... the owner of Sandpiper Air's competitor: Aeromass... totally gay. SURE he TALKED a lot about the ladies... but trust me... he was the one who taught Senator Craig "the tap."

Tests I can't study for...

Never was good at studying anyway. In fact, it's AMAZING that I graduated high school at all... have NO IDEA how I got into college. They must have wanted that "out-of-state" tuition or something, because my SAT scores sucked (actually fell asleep during the test) and my grades were pathetic. So I guess it's good that I cannot study for the tests I'm taking this week.

Yesterday I had to drink a bunch of stuff that I believe is mildly radioactive while they took pictures of my innards. Today I am BLOATED and unable to sleep.

This afternoon I get to have MORE pictures of my innards taken. This time inside a computed tomography machine. Did you know that's what the CT in CT (or CAT) scan stands for? Computed tomography. I didn't. I AM going to try and impress my technician with that though.

OR MAYBE I should TEST my technician!

Condoblogger: (wearing paper smock and socks) "So what does the CT stand for in CT scan anyway?"

Technician: (wearing whatever it is that Tim Daily wears on that new Grey's Anatomy spin off that he's worked so hard to get into shape for) "Um... CT... it's um... like a brand name... like G.E. or Philips I think."

Condoblogger: (somehow managing to look smug in paper smock and socks) "Actually it stands for computed tomography."

Technician: (wearing heavy iron smock and standing a safe distance away) "Yeah dude, whatever... deep breath and hold it!"

Just realizing that in writing this post, I actually DID study for this test a little...

Fantasy Dancing

OK... there were no takers on my Fantasy Football team.

No takers on the Survivor pool.

How about the Dancing With the Stars pool? That gay enough for ya?

Happy "Talk Like a Pirate Day"

Personally I don't really get the whole "pirate" phenomenon. I like Captain Jack Sparrow well enough in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Di Niro's Captain Shakespeare was a funny/campy turn in Stardust. The animatronic Pirates in Disneyland are my favorites though... especially the ones who are locked up in jail and trying to get the keys to their cell from a dog who's got the ring in his mouth. I have even been to a real life "Pirate Party" thrown by a guy who really does try to live (I'm being totally serious) a pirate's life. This was years ago in Portland, Oregon. Fun party.

Overall though, the whole Pirate thing escapes me.

So why a post about "Talk Like a Pirate Day" then? Because of my brother. He is the director of a school in Tokyo, Japan that teaches kids how to speak English... (he's actually much more than that, and I would love to direct everyone to his blog and his projects, but he doesn't know about this and I want to keep it that way). He's always looking for fun ways to get the kids singing and moving around while he teaches. Today on his blog he posted this cool video as part of a guide for other teachers looking to incorporate "Talk Like a Pirate Day" into THEIR classrooms... once you get past the very beginning it's pretty cool!

link

Little crush on one of the pirates in the vid... can you guess which one?

Arrgh.

Survivor Fans?

If you'd like to play along with me I have 7 spaces open on my Survivor Fantasy League Private Tribe! There are prizes...

Shoot me an email (condoblogger at gmail dot com) and I'll send you an invite!

busy, fun, weekend

Saturday morning "P" and I and a couple buddies (one of whom is a Georgia Bulldogs Football Season Ticket Holder) made the drive to Athens to watch the DAWGS destroy the Western Carolina Catamounts. Always a good time at the game. They take their football S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y at the University of Georgia. Not really being a fan though, I usually just go to drink beer and watch frat boys drink beer. This was the view from my seat:


Yeah, my view had GREAT arms. Final score: Dawgs 45, Catamounts 16, Condoblogger 8 (beers).

Saturday night "P" and I crashed at "This New Condo." Made dinner, watched TV and talked a lot about our trip to China next year. We also talked more about the inevitable "move-in." That's been a touchy topic... right now we have no plans. We are going to keep looking though, and if we find a place that we both agree is "PERFECT" we will start taking things more seriously.


Sunday was a great day. Got up REALLY LATE... had some coffee and fruit and headed downtown because I got a call from work saying there was something wrong with the show I'd produced to air today. Turns out there was nothing wrong, but I was REALLY glad I went and checked... it would have bothered me all day.

After all that though, the show didn't even air. I wonder what Alanis would say about that... It was shot on Friday and over the weekend there were big changes in the two topics that were discussed, so this morning I got the emails saying that the big bosses decided instead to replay a show from last week that didn't contain as much topical stuff. That's happened a couple of times now, and it sucks, but it's the nature of the beast I guess.

Since we were already downtown "P" and I got some lunch and headed into Centennial Olympic Park and ate subs while watching kids play in the "Ring Fountain."


A new tourist attraction has been open in downtown Atlanta for a few months now... "P" and I had not been to check it out yet, so after the ring fountain we continued on down through the park to the new "World of Coke."


The two highlights inside are the real working bottling plant (one of the coolest robots I've ever seen is a part of that operation) and the "Tasting Room." In the tasting room you can sample different Coke products from all over the world. $15 bucks a ticket for adults seems a little steep if you ask me... but at least now if I have friends in town who want to go I'll know the drill.

Finally, on Sunday night we went to the Tony Award Winning Alliance Theatre to see a new musical called "The Women of Brewster Place." It's in previews here before moving on to Broadway. I liked it but I have two criticisms:

One - All of the women who live at Brewster Place, a fictitious housing project in an unnamed northern US city, all seem to have been educated at Cambridge. I'm not saying that I expected them to be stupid, but I WAS expecting them to speak in the vernacular common to people of all races who live in those types of neglected urban areas. Instead they all enunciated as if they were having high tea at Buckingham Palace.

Two - the second act of the play focuses on two characters and their particular struggle trying to fit in at Brewster Place. This is a play full of rich, full characters, set in a location that really drives the action, and yet the relationship of these two women really overwhelms the rest of the story. I personally would have much rather seen more focus on "Brewster Place" itself.

The music was peppy and there is an interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream within the play that really steals the show. I'm giving it a 7 out of 10.


Later that night we came home to find that Big Brother had started late because of some sporting event so TiVo only recorded a few minutes of it. Fine with me, I am not Dick or Danielle's biggest fan. We were both glad to see that Kim won on Design Star though.

Overall an awesome weekend!

Bionic Bad Start

So TiVo has this feature where you can download movies and stuff... kind of like "On Demand" from your cable company except Amazon.com is TiVo's partner and all the content comes from them. It's called Unbox and I don't think you need TiVo to use it. I'VE not used it much because it usually costs money to download content and I don't need any other splurges in my life right now.

AAAAANNNYYYWAYYYY...

Last night I noticed that NBC is offering FREE downloads of some of it's new fall season pilots on TiVo's Amazon Unbox service. One of the shows offered: Bionic Woman.


Being sci-fi dork to begin with I was already excited about this show... and the fact that the producers of the new Battlestar Galactica (which is awesome) on Sci-Fi were the ones behind this "re-imagining" of The [original] Bionic Woman I was over the top excited.

Not so much anymore.

Just SO MANY PLOT HOLES!!! SO MANY CLICHE'S!!! SO MANY CHARACTERS!!! SO MUCH BAD SCIENCE!!! SO LITTLE HUMOR.

The new Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) does have a very sideways resemblance to the bionic woman I remember as a kid, but she has NONE of the character, charm, wit of Lindsay Wagner's Jamie Sommers. For the 44 million dollars more the new Jamie costs I think they could have afforded a bionic personality to go with her arm and legs. I DO like Miguel Ferrer but I wish his character had been named Oscar Goldman... just as a nice nod to the original. I was very pleasantly surprised to see more than just one Galactica cast member making an appearance in the show. Along with Katee Sackhoff, Aaron Douglas who plays Deck Chief Gaylen Tyrol on BSG has a (what I hope will be recurring) role in the pilot.

I don't want to give any of the season premiere away, but wow... if you can't see every single one of the "twists and turns" from a MILE AWAY then you might want to look into getting a bionic eye of your own because they are blatant and frankly a little insulting.

Another strike against the show... Isaiah Washington who was so famously fired from Grey's Anatomy after an incident where he called (the adorable) T.R. Knight a bad name will begin a several episode arc in the weeks following the premiere.

This is only the pilot... so a lot can change by episode two, but I'll only be watching to see if Aaron Douglas is back. The official season premiere is Wednesday 9/26.

The results are in!

And they are inconclusive. In fact we know a little less now about what is going on in my neck than we did before the biopsy. This whole thing is like an onion (literally in a sense) because as we peel one layer away there is another and another and another and each one is not what we expect it to be. Frankly, one of the layers is pretty disgusting.

More tests are coming, the last of which could not be scheduled until NEXT MONTH! In fact it will be over 30 days till I can have it done. Calls have been made to try and speed that process up.

I still feel fine, not in pain, not fatigued, not sickly in any way... still just anxious to get this all over with.

New Toy

I finally splurged ($19.95) and bought myself a toy that I have been wanting. It's electronic... and that's all anyone needs to know. I've had it for only about a week and already I am addicted and ashamed.

BattleSCAR GalNECKtica

If you ever need a thyroid nodule biopsy guy, let me know. I have a good one. Results in a few days...

Meanwhile here's a guy I covertly video'd in a MARTA station singing about sex...



The first 15 seconds or so it's hard to understand him... he was on the platform across from mine and walking away from me... but when he turns and begins walking in my direction again (about 17 seconds in) he gets into a nice "sex" groove... I believe the lyrics go a little somethin' like this:

Sex... everyday.
Sex... there I go.
Sex... there it goes.
Sex... everyday where I go.
Sex.
Sex.
Sex... you're on my mind
Sex... all the time.
(it gets a little Otis Redding here)
Sex... everywhere I go,
Sex... babe you know.

And then I kind of loose track... maybe you have better speakers than me and can make it out.

Pain in the neck

So a few weeks ago I mentioned a trip to the ER. The symptoms I was feeling that led to that ER visit turned out to be nothing... HOWEVER... one of tests they ran DID show something else. Unrelated to my visit.

Turns out I have two thyroid nodules that aren't supposed to be there. Now, these things are fairly common. In fact the ultrasound technician who did the secondary "viewing" of my thyroid said that she has one too.


My bloodwork has all come back normal for Thyroid Hormone levels. I am in no pain or discomfort... no symptoms of anything... so I'm basically healthy... it's just these things growing in my neck.

Once the ultrasound confirmed that there was something that looked weird I made another appointment with an ear nose and throat guy. So far all my exams had been pretty easy... a CT Scan, an ultrasound, a neck massage... but this guy wanted to look at my vocal cords. This is a procedure in which a tube with a light at the end is shoved up your nostril and down the back of your throat... such a weird sensation. Worth it though to verify that neither nodule is effecting my vocal cords or my ability to swallow or breathe.

One of my nodules is not suspicious... it's just a little guy, chillin out. The other though is large and "unusual" so tomorrow they are going to biopsy it and see what it's really made of. The procedure is called a Fine Needle Aspiration which sounds fairly simple, but I'm getting mixed signals from my docs... one dude said it was no big deal, the other starting talking about how "vascular" the thyroid is and that I might want to take a day off work. Right now I am planning on working tomorrow night. Frankly it all depends on how stupid my bandages (if any) look.

There are three possible outcomes... cancer, not cancer and unclear. I'm pulling for "not cancer" of course, but even worse than cancer would be "unclear." If the result is cancer there are specific courses of action to take, if it's not cancer there are also clear options... but "unclear" just opens up a slew of possibilities.

So that's that. I'm not freaked out and I'm not scared... just anxious to get the results back. Hopefully by Monday next week.