Link via tzikeh, this Discovery Channel promo is one minute and one second of SHEER UNADULTERATED HAPPY. And Girl Scout campfire flashbacks.

Srsly. If you haven't seen it already (or even if you have -- I've had too little tube time lately, so it's new to me), GO.

After a soul-suckingly hellacious couple of days in Corporate America, I submit the following Facts of My Tuesday:

• I remain happily up to my eyebrows in a fandom that has somehow managed to avoid descending into a snarling weasel-pit of shipwars. With a canonical triangle, yet. I have no earthly clue how this has happened, but I'm so not questioning it.
  
• It took five painless minutes and much less energy than it would have taken to run him through with my smallsword to submit an Angie's List report on the sewing machine repair guy from whom I finally got back my Bernina today after nine months. We loves Angie's List, yes we does, my preciousss.
  
• On a related note, I now have my Bernina again. neonhummingbird? We need to talk costumes soon if you're gonna have 'em for Worldcon.
  
• It was brought to my attention this morning :: kowtows in lizbetann's general direction :: that the 1982 Broadway revival of Camelot is FINALLY out on DVD.
  
• Cadbury's Creme Eggs are reliably and consistently yummy.
  
• Maureen O'Hara with a sword will never, ever not be cool.
  
• My "This way to the egress" mug (which each of the production staff received as a gift from the Barnum cast) is still made entirely of win.

amaka sent me virtual milk and cookies.

Man, I love my friends. :: is all warm & fuzzy now ::

Thank you!!

(And yes, I now owe you guys two Designer Crack posts. They're coming, I swear!)

Someone was saying something snarky in their blog about Victorya's design from last week. An activity of which I heartily approve, as I want her gone more desperately than I do Christian.

Except there's a typo, and it's referred to as "Victory's dress."

Blood Ties folk who have either read the books or been made familiar with that particular nickname for Vicki through other means will understand why that bid fair to make my head explode.

In other news, I finally said "The hell with it, the to-do pile isn't going to get any smaller" and spent two hours this morning rearranging my office so that the window is no longer directly behind me. I can have the blinds open and see the computer at the same time! I can sit and watch the icky wet snow while attempting to catch up on those two hours of work! GLEEEE!

Thing What I Have Learned This Weekend: Going to a con with 18 hours' notice (up to and including participating and taking Best in Show in the masquerade) can in fact work out quite well.

If, of course, (a) said con is taking place forty minutes from one's house, (b) one remembers where one put away the nine zillion pieces of the already-existing costume one intends to present in the masquerade, (c) one actually manages to pack all said nine zillion pieces in one's car (despite forgetting one's camera), (d) one runs into old friends like jennetj and new friends like maiac who give one a bit of a focus for one's rather hyper and scattered brain, and (e) new friends like maiac are kind enough to volunteer their hotel rooms as changing space so one is not reduced to wrestling with pocket hoops in a very small public restroom. (Not enough gratitude in the world.)

It also helps to have friendly and entertaining guests like Tanya Huff; a dealer's room chock-full of tempting pretties (to which I did not succumb); a hotel full of smart, creative and free-spirited people to chat with or just watch go by; nifty and interesting panel topics; and a nearby Chipotle.

Definitely the ol' general interest con experience I've been missing, if a bit condensed into one day and lacking the late-night silly fun to be had when staying in the hotel.

And okay, a whole new crop of people oohing and ahhing over the clockdroid isn't bad for the ol' ego either. :-)

One of the collectors was just delivered a mylar balloon attached to a box of the biggest damn chocolate-covered strawberries I have ever seen in my LIFE.

He won't tell us who they're from.

We forgive him, because he's SHARING. :-D

As many/most of you know, I'm currently studying voice with the founder/artistic director of my hometown's (not quite fledgling, but definitely still building) opera company. She is one of the more adorable human beings on the planet, still unmistakably French-Canadian after fifteen years in Chicago, and blessed with an abundant ability to laugh at herself. In the last year, she's helped me rebuild my classical technique from the ground up after identifying that my voice had gone and matured into something I never really expected. I'm finally starting to feel like I own it, that it belongs in my body, and starting to actually nail a song or three again.

We've been talking about a need for comic numbers in my rep, and tonight I started working with her on "This Place Is Mine." If you are familiar with the Kopit/Yeston Phantom, and have any idea what it takes to be in charge of a not-quite-fledgling-but-definitely-still-building opera company, you've probably already guessed where this is going.

If you're not, suffice it to say that in that version, Carlotta owns the opera house, and is a few candles short of a chandelier. And if you don't, well, I'm sure you can guess that it's a lot.

So when I sang this particular number at the holiday party, I introduced it as "This is what we don't want to happen to Solange!" I hammed it up within an inch of my life, and everyone roared. Except Solange, who was in the kitchen and missed it. She had never heard it until tonight.

I'll probably be doing it in our summer concert.

As an over-the-top parody of Solange.

At her request.

Sometimes I love my life. :-D

Via bentleywg, a few tantalizing clips of the forthcoming new Bionic Woman:

- Jaime wakes up after surgery (1:00)

- Three clips--two with Katee Sackhoff, one with Miguel Ferrer (total: 2:18)

I see a blog with no videos at this one, but maybe you'll have better luck:

- Two more clips in yesterday's Chicago Tribune (with sponsored ad before each clip)--one has interview with executive producer; the other is a scene of Jaime with younger sister. link

[ETA: And because Bentley is a genius:

if the Trib vids don't work on the webpage, try these links:
- the exec producer interview
- the clip with the sister (both play in Windows Media).]

I had to correct the spelling of whoever put them on YouTube, because I am that big a dork. :-}

I am six, I tell you. SIX. Squeeeeeeeeee! JAIME!!! Okay, not MY Jaime, 'cause nobody has Lindsay Wagner's smile. Not even Lindsay Wagner anymore, but I wouldn't either if I were hawking mattresses with built-in air compressors. But a Jaime, and what looks to be a very cool one indeed. I'm getting some definite Alias influence vibes, but as long nobody goes straight from one Sooper Sekrit HQ to another in the same dayglo hair, I'll be okay with that. And Miguel Ferrer's character will make me miss Oscar *snif*, but looks potentially interesting.

And yet. With the squee.

Man, this better turn out to be as good as it's starting to look. Look for me to take it hard if it doesn't. ~meep~

Phantom trailer! (Thanks to tzikeh for the link.)

For the record: I don't care that I haven't trusted Joel Schumacher to make a decent movie in years. I don't care that certain segments of the fandom have been having conniptions over the casting of Gerard Butler. (Whom, for the record, I consider to be a damn good actor and hot as hell to boot anyway.) I don't care that I'm insanely jealous of this American answer to Charlotte Church they've got playing Christine.

It's coming! Squeeeeeeee!

Is it December yet?

Okay, I lied. We interrupt this insane workday for a brief Squeeing Fangirl Moment, courtesy of suzvoy's pointing out of the Atlantis casting announcement.

Torri! TorriTorriTorriTorriTORRI!

I have loved that woman to bits ever since Erica did her Cathy Earnshaw impression on FK. (And the accumulation of FK alumni in the 'Gateverse continues. Yet somehow they seem to be immune to the unwritten law that you can't make a TV show in Canada without putting Nigel on it at some point. *chuckle*) I was almost as cranky that they killed off her character in the first ep of HL:TR (yeah, yeah, like I didn't see it coming a mile away, but still) as I was about the suckitude of the show as a whole (and the fact that they had Liz Gracen playing some chick who happened to be named Amanda and happened to be an Immortal thief, but who otherwise bore no resemblance to anyone I knew).

I was kinda bummed when I heard that Jessica Steen would be replaced. But, Torri!

This concludes our Squeeing Fangirl Moment for today. We will now return to the exciting world of collections and give your virtual ears a rest. ;-)

Cath! CathCathCathCathCathCathCath! CATH!!!

Or rather, co-workers gushing about her...

...in RealPlayer format here.

That rumbling beneath your feet if you're anywhere near the Midwest? Would be the alarming concentration of Chicagoland NatPackers yelling "About freakin' TIME she got a good project!!" while simultaneously conducting a collective bouncefest.

CathCathCathCathCATH!!

*ahem*

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, relatively dignified LJ. ;-}