Man, this week is just not my week:
- every time I think my cold is finally retreating, I've been fooled;
- the psoriasis on my arm flared up again and I couldn't find Second Skin products at our local Wal-Mart; and
- Vogon is cranky about the "check engine" light coming back on in his car yesterday before he was going to take it over for a new inspection sticker and it seems to be pouring over into everything here.

On the bright side, I've fixed a bunch of formerly dead-end pages for Sesame Street videos at MuppetWiki (hooray!), will be creating a page for composer Stephen Lawrence today, and I'm about to go sit with a form I made to take notes on the Elmo's World format to flesh out the page for whatever episode shows today, providing it's not one that's been written up (most haven't). If I can finagle a working VCR somewhere, I've got a bunch more on tape I can summarize and screencap.

Also good, and of interest to my foodie readers: an interview with Anthony Bourdain in the latest issue of Bookslut.

edit 1220: Score! "Sky" was an episode I hadn't summarized yet, the form I made worked well for writing on while watching the TV, and someone already uploaded a screencap from the episode. (I'll probably still add Elmo's World: Reach For The Sky to my NetFlix queue so I can screencap the Elmo Variants, though.)

Taste Addison is this weekend. I thought Vogon wanted to go, but it doesn't look like it. Maybe next year. I really want to try the dessert fondue from the Melting Pot's booth.

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I've been quiet here because I'm having a wiki-writing spurt elsewhere -- a little at Wikipedia, a lot at MuppetWiki. I hope to invest in a paid hosting service in the not-too-distant future and wikify TODCRA with my freshly-honed skillz. Wiki wiki wiki.

I was going to make some screencaps this week for MuppetWiki, but it turns out this computer doesn't have a DVD decoder installed on it. Everything the Windows Media Player plugin site recommends is out of my budget. I'm willing to use a standalone program if it's free and found VLC media player, which I'll be trying out later today. Is there another free program you'd recommend?

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It looks like the same kind of caterpillars that stripped a 12" pot of thyme bare in two days last year are back. I knocked two off the grapes and one off the oregano today, then dispatched them with fire (a long-handled lighter). I'm not sure how often I'm going to have to go out and check for these things, nor do I know how to refill the lighter. This could get interesting.

I'm concerned for the limes because the spider mite infestation has gotten really bad, but I'm not to use insecticide because of Vogon's mantids and I'm not feeling up to washing down two densely-leafed trees as tall as I am several times a week. Wiping it down leaf by leaf and paying attention to the branches to get every sign of the mites off will only keep them in check, not eliminate them, and I'm not sure that's a good trade-off for two trees that probably won't produce fruit this year.

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Today's installment of things I would buy if I had a million dollars: a wind-up tin toy of Neko Bus. This may not be interesting to those of you that aren't Totoro fans, but the combination of cute with something I'd like to collect (I have a couple of Schylling wind-up toys) made me smile.

If I had access to my box of toy parts that I left back in Colorado, I would be *very* tempted to make my own Sesame Street Typewriter Guy Kitbash. Oh yes.

I now have the truetone version of Pinball Number Count song (history from composer Walt Kraemer) as my default ring, thanks to Sesame Street Mobile.

If I could acquire a copy of the All Things Considered theme as a ringtone, my jones for public broadcasting music as ringtones might finally be sated.

...And you thought the polyphonic Sesame Street theme ringtone I had on my previous phone got stuck in your head.

[cue evil laughter]

As many of you know, I'm a big Sesame Street fan. Since I recently extracted the audio track from the video (pinball.mov, 22 MB) of the DJ Food remix of the Pinball Count Song that appears on the ZENtv DVD Ninja Tune compilation so I could add it to my iTunes library, I thought I should say something about it. Then I forgot what I was going to say, except that it's hugely entertaining and Walt Kraemer should be honored for composing a song that has been stuck in my head for over 20 years.

While digging up the link to the video file, I found out that York University a cappella group Wibijazz'n did covers of both the Sesame Street theme and the Pinball Count Song on their 2002 album In The Pocket, so that's been added to my future purchase queue.

I've conceded that I no longer have the mix CD that had the Smart E's remix of the Sesame Street theme. If anyone can point in me in the right direction to acquire another copy, I'd appreciate it.

Yesterday, Laurel danced to most of the 1978 album Sesame Street Fever, which I actually owned on 8-track at one point but currently have in in MP3 format courtesy of SesameSeventies. (Sadly, the site appears to be down.) There's always something funny about Robin Gibb interacting with various Sesame Street characters.

To counter their fabulous weekday children's programming (kids' stuff from 0700 or 0730 to 1800 except for an hour and a half in the early afternoon which is either arts/crafts or women's issues, then a half hour of a GED or ESL program), the statewide PBS in North Carolina puts their Saturday morning programming really early so there's crap to watch after 1000 on Saturdays until the cooking shows come on (I love America's Test Kitchen, it appeals to my stomach and my inner geek) since we refuse to watch crap like Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls and Endurance on NBC's Discovery Kids block. I'd guess this is why normal people get cable. (If Noggin still showed vintage 'Street, Electric Company and such in the wee hours of the morning I'd get digital cable just to PVR/tape them.)

So since I'm heading into that last premenstrual day where I'm suddenly manic, I woke up with Laurel for once and turned the TV on and said "holy sh*t it's Elmo!" before I realized she was in earshot. Not a pleasant thing for me to see this early in the morning, that's for sure. I want Grover back. I want to hear Jim Henson's Muppet voices. And I want to get the piano at my parents' tuned so I can play it after I get home until I'm threatened with a beatdown if I play "Somebody Come And Play" one more time.

Also, I want to go out and get a McGriddle. They can't screw those up like the last time I ordered a bacon egg and cheese biscuit and got a biscuit with the egg, but something that looked like poorly made cheesesteak instead of bacon and cheese. I'm still giggling at the memory of dictator88's comment that their thesis should be lack of pork causes terrorism... except that the only pork I eat is bacon. I don't like the texture of pork.

Now that Angelina Ballerina's on, I fail to see what children see in it although the line "Mrs. Thimble's turned to stinky cheese!" made me laugh. At least they speak intelligible English, unlike Maisy or the increasingly speech-impedimented Baby Bear. I dislike his presence on Sesame Street too since part of the original aim of Sesame Street was to model good English-speaking skills for children.

kenwestervelt, if you want our recliner I'd appreciate it if you could pick it up sometime soon.

I swear the heavily accented ballet teacher on Angelina Ballerina just said the foreign student coming to visit was from her "homeland of Wachovia". (Wachovia is a bank/financial services company in the southern United States.) I need to turn the captioning on since this is almost as difficult to understand as when local news channels are "cute" and have local schoolchildren read the weather in a drawl so thick it could be canned and sold next to pie filling. Denver people: am I the only one who looks forward to Kathy Sabine's weather forecasts on channel 9? She's yummy.

Those of you who've known me for awhile already know I'm a fan of Sesame Street and collect recordings of mainstream musical artists' appearances on the show (mostly MP3s, but I have a bunch on VHS too -- where do you think the MP3s come from?).

It was announced on Monday that a new Sesame Street boxed set will be coming out late August/early September called Songs from the Street, which will include Tony Bennett's "Little Things", Melissa Etheridge's "Like the Way U Does", the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes", and the Fugees' "Happy to Be Me" (the latter's currently available on Elmopalooza).

I am literally itching for this to come out, although it may just be the ant bites again.

And just to be facetious, the photos in the copy of the announcement on ToughPigs (yes, there are entire adult fansites for Sesame Street and the Muppets) are, top to bottom: Sheryl Crow singing a parody of "Soak Up The Sun", the Backstreet Boys singing "One Small Voice", R.E.M. singing "Furry Happy Monsters", and Gladys Knight Patti LaBelle (thanks, cathouse!) leading a sing-along of the alphabet song.

I don't like the price of new decorated children's shirts, so I bought a half-dozen plain shirts to embellish. I'm still finishing up the ruffly girls' shirts with cross-stitch, but I've finished the plain t-shirts with Sesame Street characters.

( Three painted t-shirts and Laurel wearing one; four images, 209 kb total )

Remember that 1982 Sesame Street cross-stitch pattern book that I can't seem to get on eBay due to snipers? Got one thanks to Buy It Now, and for less than the ones I've missed out on go for.

Also found one of the two 1983 McCall's Sesame Street puppet patterns and placed the opening bid, but I expect not to win it since I don't want it enough to offer more than $10 for such a small pattern.

Those of new to reading me: I love classic (prior to a certain red Muppet becoming obscenely popular) Sesame Street. If this skeeves you out, you might want to bow out before I disturb you. On the other hand, if you have 1984 or earlier Sesame stuff and want to sell/trade, drop me a line.

Actually, Mr. Noodle's Brother Mr. Noodle (the original Mr. Noodle is played by Bill Irwin).

Forgot to turn the TV off at the end of NBC Nightly News and one of those entertainment news shows that follows it surprised me with the news that actor Michael Jeter died Sunday.

This is a bad year for children's shows -- Mister Rogers, Lynne Thigpen (the voice of Luna on Bear in the Big Blue House) and now Michael Jeter.