This American Life (of mine)

Today I found out that there is a big training type dealio at work tomorrow that is an all-day meeting that somehow was not on my radar. Probably because of the thousands of emails in my InBox, I overlooked it since it wasn't mandatory. So instead of working from home as planned, I will now be in an all-day session that starts at the buttcrack of dawn (translation: 7:30am). Yippee!

And directly after work, I am meeting up with Kate and Adam and Adam's adorable mother (who is my New Favorite) to see This American Life Live! at a theater in Huntington Beach. All the LA venues sold out, so the crew is coming southward and we're catching the show down here. I have to admit, that I am not an regular TAL listener, but the cool kids all swoon over Ira Glass, so I have done my due diligence and listened to some of the (free!) podcasts and he's won me over, too. Plus, how can you NOT love David Sedaris telling a story about people pooping in retail stores? I defy you. You cannot. Plus, there are rumors of cheesecake after the show...

Ryan won't be joining, because he'll be putting in face time over at Top Cow (in LA) and then meeting up with Zach for dinner and some good times at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater to see an improv group with Paul Scheer. Also of interest at UCB this weekend: a telethon to cure boners!

On Friday night, we'll be living it up in LA to see Hair of the Mangy Dog perform at the LA Comedy Festival. I have to say how proud I am of this whole group. They are really funny and all seriously nice people. I couldn't be more happy I am that they are getting some recognition and being asked to join these festivals. It's a big deal! And so are they! Kudos to everyone!

After some Mangy good times, we'll probably be heading back to the OC [don't call it that] to one of Ryan's favorite shops, Alacazam Comics, to cash in on their Midnight Madness sale. Last time they did this, Ryan won the Grand Prize and has a big honking gift certificate for the store, so he's looking forward to buying everything he can get his grubby little hands on. In a sideways plug for the shop, I give it 2 major thumbs-up for their library system. They allow you to 'rent' graphic novels (trade paper back books) for a week at a time and it's free to enroll and $1 a week to rent. Which means if you're not a huge comic book nerd, you don't have to make the financial commitment to buying books -- you can check out what's going on with the TPBs and then decide if you want to buy it. I love that. They have 2 stores near us and the staff at both are awesome people. Seriously, comic book people are the best sometimes.

Speaking of which, we come back to Adam who had suggested the Phil Hester book "Deep Sleeper" as something I could buy for Ryan while I was in NY and oh. my. god. it is SUCH a fantastic book. Phil is writing the current installment of the Darkness which Ryan is working on, but that is the only thing that I have read of his. Seriously, awesome. And the art is fantastic too.

ALSO: I don't want to forget to welcome the S Squad to the blogosphere. Christy and the Todds were formerly our downstairs neighbors who became our friends and now they have started a blog to keep in touch as they leave California for Hawaii. I know, tough life. They are a fun bunch in real life and I love that their blog feels exactly the same. Click over to see little Todd give a tutorial on making your own mixed ice cream (a la Cold Stone) and for the daycare run-down from Scrappy the dog. I'm so glad they're blogging now, so we can stay in touch (until we come crash their new place in Hawaii - oh, did I say that out loud?). They are also comic book and Adult Swim converts, thanks to the Alacazam rental system and Ryan's nerd-core persistence. Ask them about Marvel Ultimates or Samurai Champloo if you don't believe me!