How come people don't visit Missouri?

Gordon and I went to visit Katie this weekend! We had a TON of fun (of course... there's only fun times with Katie!). We went all over Missouri and even ventured into Kansas for a little bit (but we hurried back out as soon as we could).

Katie says there's not much to do in Missouri, but Gordon and I (and I'm pretty sure, Katie, too) were exhausted after our trip! Kansas City is the city of fountains and my first trip to the city I saw only 1 fountain. This time, I may actually believe that it IS the city of fountains as I saw definitely over 10. Some observations about Missouri's fountains/statues:

- they like horses. I asked Katie what the horses were about, but she didn't know. I don't know either. UNLESS... it's going back to the whole homesteading/western expansion era. hmm. possibly.

- they really honor their firefighters. Seriously. Every fire department I saw had statues of firefighters. Katie says that firefighters are heroes and should be honored. I agree, but just pointing it out.

- Kansas City and its fountains are like Philadelphia and its art. Everywhere you turn, around every corner, there's a fountain. However, I found KC to be quite cleaner than Philly (but I hate Philly).

We went to the Great American Barbeque Festival. We got there before the midwest crowds descended upon the place, so it's like we had the whole place to ourselves. The barbeque was GREAT... and American. haha. It was a lot of fun even if there was a crappy 80s cover band.

Katie took us to the Nelsons-Atkins Art Museum, a surprisingly good museum. I say surprisingly good, just because would you have expected it? It had some good works by Calder, Renoir, Monet, Manet, etc. A lot of good sculptures, too. The Asian art was also a good collection. Apparently, the Kansas City must-see art are these giant shuttlecocks (haha) in the sculpture garden of the museum. Very whimsical and interesting. I recommend taking pictures of yourself like your holding a shuttlecock in your hand. We did.

We went to the Liberty Memorial which offers a great view of the city. I enjoy any skyline view - it gives a better sense as to how big the city is and help put it in perspective and shows you landmarks so you can't get lost (scratch that, easier to get un-lost). :) We walked around the Plaza (the high end shopping area. Think Rodeo Drive but in middle America). I bought the Paul Shirley book, but missed his book signing. If you don't know who Paul Shirley is, you can check him out here (he's funny and cute - of course, I like him!).

Katie drove us across the whole state (past many many many porn stores and billboards) to St. Louis to see the sights and go to the Cardinals game. Katie got to catch up with her friends from school and I got to FINALLY see a Cardinals home game - and in the new Busch stadium! The stadium is awesome, the Cardinals are great (even if they aren't playing consistently well this season), and we all had a lot of fun. Even when they had a rain delay with 1 (ONE!) out to go. The Nats decided to play some baseball and try to rally in the 9th inning, but with the heavy rain not letting up, they covered the field. Then they uncovered the field. Then they covered the field. Then they uncovered it again and started throwing fresh dirt between the bases. And it kept on raining. So we left and stayed at Katie's friends' AWESOME victorian house which made me consider settling somewhere and buying a house. But then I re-thought that and decided no. The Cards finished playing the game sometime later. They won. YAY! :)

We saw the Arch with all the rest of the Memorial Day tourists and then headed back to Kansas City (with a stop at Mizzou and Shakespeare's Pizza - yum). Completely pooped (yes, pooped) we baked cookies and stayed in (my perfect night in) and watched movies. Yesterday we went to see Katie's family for lunch before heading out. I love Katie's family. If I were living in the midwest, I'd want them to hang out with. Her family is SO much fun!!

I had such a fun time hanging out with Katie!!! I wish we lived closer together. Maybe after grad school we'll move to Seattle and have more Julie and Katie fun times. Besides, she likes Gordon too... so he can come along if he wants. :)

When we got home... we thought (silly us) it'd be a good idea to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 at the Uptown. A good movie. Long, but good.

Mad about TV

This week are the network tv upfronts where they tell the public about what's on this fall. It's a time for shows to finally get renewed or cancelled. It's a time to show us what looks good and what's worth recording (or TiVo-ing if you're into TiVo).

However this time around, there's been nothing (as of yet) to get super excited about.

Friday Night Lights was renewed (YAY!) but it's been put to a crappy timeslot at 8pm on Fridays. Seriously? Fridays? Thanks, NBC for bringing back a quality show-- one that needs to get viewers, but already has the critics on their side. What better way to get viewers than to put a great show on Friday night when almost no one is watching TV!!! Why did you have to bring it back, NBC, if you were going to put it in a suicide timeslot? Just so you can get all of us who are hooked even more invested and then you'll take it off your schedule after a few bad ratings?

CBS canceled Jericho. Another good show, that yes, maybe was slow after the long hiatus, but was a good show. So now we'll never know what could happen after a nuclear holocaust. The season (now series) finale left us with them fighting it out to save their town-- a little Angel-esque, but even Angel is finishing the story in comic books. CBS says that Jericho wasn't performing even though it had a pretty solid following in the beginning. CBS shouldn't have waited so long to put it back on the air (ABC did the same with Lost and got the same results-- but would you cancel Lost? Of course not.) Maybe the network execs shouldn't put such long breaks in the middle of intense tv shows.

ABC took Men in Trees off of the schedule this spring and didn't let them finish their season... even though they had finally gotten viewers after Grey's Anatomy (don't even get me started on that crappy show). So they brought Men in Trees back (yay!) but also put it's original timeslot of 10pm on Friday. Really? When it didn't get a good following in it's first run in that timeslot? The network knows it doesn't work, so why try it again?

I'm still waiting to hear if my other show on the bubble, Supernatural, will be coming back to the CW. I mean, it's the CW... what ELSE will they put on that network?? Chances are with the way things are going... another good show will bite the dust.

But what's in store for the fall? Prepare yourselves for another slew of television's worst -- 2 shows based on Lipstick Jungle? Didn't we already have Sex and the City?? A spin off of America's Co-Dependent Women, I mean, Grey's Anatomy? A show based on the Geico cavemen? Do you think it'll be funny beyond a 30 second commercial?

ABC Fall Preview
NBC Fall Preview
CBS Fall Preview


I don't think that network executives actually watch tv. How did they feel when their favorite tv show got dumped from the schedule in the middle of the season? How about when they became invested in one really good show only to have it pulled in the second season?

While I will be giving up on TV next year because of studying (we'll see how that works out)... am I really going to be missing anything important? Have the network execs really given up on providing quality television for whatever next celebrity reality show sells (really, Skating with Stars)? Will there be anything other than CSIs -- maybe a CSI: NO ONE REALLY CARES? Can we see something other than America's youth embarassing themselves over trying to be the next idol, model, etc? Somehow I think I'll get out of school and still see the same crap television that's just recycled and repackaged for the next year. Great...

UPDATE: Supernatural was renewed. :) Yay!