He unclogged my pipes
get your mind out of the toilet ;)

I found a plumber! My toilet is now up and flushing. It turns out I needed a flushometer valve. I thought it sounded made up, like The Flux Capacitor in Back to the Future, but I looked it up and it is indeed legit.

Definition: A device that discharges a predetermined quantity of water to fixtures for flushing purposes and is closed by direct water pressures. (dictionary.com)

But I ended up being over two hours late for work. The guy was supposed to be here at 8:30 am, arrived at 9:30, left to pick up a part and was not back till 10:20. urghh!

And why is it that when you are late your boss always seems to be right near the front entrance and the VP near your desk as you enter and remove your coat?

I bought my first plunger today...
Isn't life in the city exciting? lol

Can anyone fix a toilet? Because I sure as hell can't and my new plunger keeps flipping inside out :-/ I actually don't think it's clogged though, the pressure is off, it might be something that has happened in my building. urghh, I'll look for a plumber on CraigsList tomorrow.

Hope & Faith Taping
I went to a studio taping of the ABC TV show Hope & Faith, starring Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford, which by the way is one of the only TV series to tape in New York City...well, Queens to be exact. It's at Silver Cup Studios, where The Sopranos and Sex and The City were/are filmed. I actually had been to a taping there before, but this time it was more fun because the cast kept messing up their lines and were joking around a lot. Kelly's gorgeous husband, Mark Consuelos was on the set too, so it was fun seeing him hanging around, he even hugged a lucky female fan in the audience.

The cast all get along really well. Faith and Kelly would hug a lot and joke around. Also, actor Ted McGinley (Married with Children, Love Boat) would tease the younger kids on the show and Ripa. And during set changes they would play disco songs and dance with each other while reading lines, it was cute.

One audience member asked Ripa how she was able to do her morning show with Regis, be a mom and do Hope & Faith, and she jokingly replied "I take uppers, sir."

Another woman called out to her saying that she missed watching her on "All My Children" and wondered when she would be back on the soap. Ripa said she actually hadn't been asked back yet.

Hope & Faith airs on Friday nights at 9pm EST on ABC (I DVR it since I'm never home) and is the highest rated comedy on Friday evenings.

Blog of the Day
Yay! My site was featured as The Blog of the Day!
Check it out:

The Jacket
Yesterday I saw an advanced screening of The Jacket and was very surprised to find that I liked it a lot. Adrien Brody who I never found attractive, did a great job and this movie made me change my mind about him.

The story is about a military veteran played by Brody who returns to his hometown of Vermont suffering from bouts of amnesia from head trauma induced from an accident in the Gulf War. When he is accused of murder and lands in an asylum, an experimental doctor (Kris Kristofferson) puts him on some heavy drugs, restrains him in a straight jacket, and locks him away in a body drawer of the basement morgue. While inside the body drawer Brody is able to see what he believes is the future and... well the rest you'll have to see, it's very Sixth Sense and Momento.

I thought the movie would be scarier than it was, and fortunately for squeamish me, it wasn't too bad but indeed freaky. At times the content was uncomfortable due to camera work that makes the audience feel as if they are going through the same torture as Brody's character. Also their were some bloody scenes and needles.

It was nice seeing Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh back on the silver screen, it had been awhile for both of them. Keira Knightley also did a good job but her voice at times annoyed the shit out of me, it was very mumbly and hard to understand, I was impressed at how different she looked with the dark hair and unkempt look.

Lauren Bacall and Then Some

My 2nd favorite actress, Lauren Bacall (Katharine Hepburn being my first) is re-releasing her autobiographical book, By Myself and Then Some today. It's actually a combination of her first two books, "By Myself" and "Now" but with a continued afterword. By Myself is my favorite autobiography, it was wonderfully written and very captivating even the parts before she was a star or married to Bogart.

Now, on the silver anniversary of its original publication, Lauren Bacall was at Barnes & Noble on 48th street signing copies of her updated memoir. So I switched my days at work and headed to the store with my first edition copy of By Myself for her to sign. I also bought her new combined book too.

The line of people wrapped around the outline of the first floor and a few unlucky late arrivers were stuck outside in the snow. The crowd was pretty diverse, surprisingly there was actually more men than women present, plus a lot of French speaking women and a group of Asian men. The age range was probably 25-75.

With the sides of her hair pulled back, the Manhattan resident and classic actress looked amazing at the age of 80. On the floor next to her was her little papillon, Sophie, eating some doggy treats and watching intently as she signed hundreds of books.

The man ahead of me in line asked Ms. Bacall if she liked the colorized version of her film Key Largo. She said she did not, and that adding color to a black and white film ruined it. She said the colors looked fake and weren't meant to be there. She also added that she didn't like the color version of The Big Sleep either.

Another woman in an accusatory voice asked when we would see her on Broadway again. Bacall quickly responded, "Ask the writers, they aren't writing anything."

When it was my turn I told her how much I liked her book and blah blah, I really don't remember for sure. My time with her was sort of rushed because a publicist from Harper Collins started talking and the woman behind me was already sliding her book on the table and the staff at B&N were urging me out of the signing area. Photos were not allowed :(

The following Cameron Crowe quote rang true for me:
"Heroes usually belong at arm's length--on a bookshelf, in a record collection. At a heroic distance."

NY Times Article: AT HOME WITH LAUREN BACALL -- To Have and Have Not