Dealing with the start of a new week, and January, and didn't win the weekly bonus, which is throwing a monkey wrench into any plans I might have to fight these blues.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun Times has their review of Spamalot up, you've got a week to go check it out.

I know everyone's hearts are atwitter over Frank Miller and Jim Lee doing All Star Batman and Robin (or they're posers trying to make a name for themselves by sneering at it) And it's got my interest, don't get me wrong, but word from Steve Englehart is he's teaming up again with Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin to do more Batman stories. As he recently e-mailed:
"DC will issue a 6-issue series (biweekly) called DARK DETECTIVE. It features the long (really long-) awaited return of Silver St Cloud, and the Joker, with first appearances (by us) of Two-Face, the Scarecrow, and, uh, Dr Double X. (The Scarecrow's in the movie, too, but we did our own take on him in our story.) Silver's moved on, and the last thing she wants to do is meet Bruce Wayne again, but fate, you know... And the Joker is running for governor with a simple slogan: 'Vote for me or I'll kill you.' "
Courtesy of Tony Isabella.

Received word from the homefront just after leaving work today that the power company restored power. Stopped off at the local DVD store to pick up "House of Flying Daggers" and getting ready for a fun weekend to make up for the crap of this week, and the post-holiday blues.

Well, made it to number 300. And it was a year ago today that I started all this.
I was going to ask you to nominate me for the Best of Blog Awards, but apparently the nominating is closed. Doh!

Had an ice storm in our neck of the woods Wednesday and have been without power since then. Latest word is it might not be back on until tonight, maybe tomorrow, possibly early next week?
Fortunately, my dad got one of his generators working and since we're the only house without heat, got hooked up for a few hours last night. Got nice and warm, but boy, it got cold real fast. Made getting up for work real fun. And we still have water, even hot water, and we even have some in our basement. Oh joy!

Last week I was in Chicago having a good time, this week I'm riding out an ice storm with the power out. Ah, the vicissitudes of life...
Heading up, I was warned about delays on 80/94, so I went further up north to the Indiana toll road and ran into little traffic. Fortunately, Indiana's habit of never changing our clocks worked for me as it gave me an extra hour to get there, as it was put to good use. After self parking and schlepping everything up to my room, I had about a half hour to get to the theatre that was a block away. Made it in plenty of time.
As for the show, although it uses the original film Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the basis, it does liberally borrow from other Python lore. For instance, the "Fish Schlapping Song", the opening number, is based on the "Finland" song that the scholarly narrator comes out at the end and points out the play takes place in England. And act II has "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" from Life of Brian that the cast leads the audience in after the curtain call.
The play was a lot like a rock concert, in that the first sound of something familiar is greeted with enthusiastic applause. The clip-clop of cocoanuts, "Who ees eet?" from the French Taunter, and the "None shall pass!" of the Black Knight. The battle is moved over to act II, where thanks to some clever staging and an "alms for the poor" gag (Patsy the squire/cocoanut clapper puts the Knights arms in the monks basket) done while guard is set up against the castle wall for the leg dismememberment.
A welcome addition is the character of the Lady Of The Lake, played by Sara Ramirez, who is delightful, funny and sexy. She fills in for other roles as well, including the Witch and the Cow, who gets a torch song before a stand in cow is flung over the castle wall.
David Hyde Pierce was especially good as Sir Robin, who after King Arthur presents the Knights of Ni with a Shrubbery, is charged with putting on a Broadway show to pass through their woods, "a country that hasn't been created yet". Sir Robin leads a groan starting but amusing number teaching King Arthur that to have a successful show, you must have Jews.
I am trying to keep most spoilers out of my review, but to answer the questions does Guinevere appear and is there a love triangle with Lancelot, I will only say yes and no, respectively.
As far as souvenirs, at intermission the bar had bottles of Monty Python's Holy Grale, that the bartender poured into a glass. When I pointed out I wanted the bottle, she told me that she couldn't give it to me, but that the empty bottle would be placed at the end of the bar that I could sneak out later, wink wink. Happened to find several, snagged an extra one for eBay. Why? Souvenir shirt for $25 and official cocoanuts for $15, not to mention the beer was $6, that's why.
As for the hotel, I was concerned at first about paying $150 for hotel, parking and taxes; but the Hilton Palmer House was well worth it. They put me on the 23rd floor, which is apparently a higher class room, as it had its own elevator with seat, view of some of the city, and free breakfast. Not just the usual doughnuts and container of milk and juice, there were all sorts of items to choose from.
Before leaving, I did a little sightseeing and saw some of the Christmas decorations, the Marshall Fields Christmas display, and the Picasso sculpture as seen in The Blues Brothers. All in all, a good time.

"Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail
They've asked that we sign our e-mails with name, department, ext, etc. I opted to add a movie quote. For the last week, I've used the above quote to tie in with my trip to Spamalot. I've just had a supervisor ask what it was, and I explained it was a movie quote. Her response was "only Tony".
I'll be posting more as soon as I shake the post-holiday January blues. I had a good time going to Chicago last week, details (hopefully) to follow...