Chips Ahoy!

Our first Chip Party was a success last night. We ordered a party pack of Kettle Chips experimental flavors and invited people over to try them. There were little voting cards and every one tried the 5 different flavors and rated from a scale of 1 to 5. People brought over a few things as well. There was a 4-pack of Guinness, a bottle of wine, and some stir-fry, so we weren’t just pigging out on chips all night. Not that the chips weren’t enjoyed.

While everyone enjoyed the chips, there was no big favorite flavor standing out above them all. My favorites were the Royal Indian Curry and the Island Jerk, but I thought that the Twisted Chili Lime was one of the better chili lime chips I’ve had. It just wasn’t unique enough for me to appreciate it as much as the others. The Dragon 5 Spice had some potential, but didn’t quite meet it. It was like the flavors cancelled either out. The Aztec Chocolate scored the lowest out of all of them. I think it’s because it wasn’t really flavorful enough, it wasn’t a spicy mole chocolate but it wasn’t a sweet chocolate either.

If we do this again next year, which I think we might, we’ll have to start the festivities earlier than 9:00 I think. Hopefully this will help start up game night again.

Crunch. Crunch. Mmmmm, that was tasty.

Crazy Coincidence

Last night Emily and I were flipping through channels and came across NOVA. They had a special about a family that had four members that walked around on all fours. They didn’t crawl like babies do, but “walked” bent over, using the bottom of their feet and their palms to get around. The scientific interest in them is that some believe they can help lead to a discovery of the gene that enables us to walk upright, and possibly the gene that increases our intelligence and allows for language. It went on to explain that all animals have the same set of genes. It’s the difference between which ones are active and which ones are dormant that make up all of the differences seen in the animal kingdom.

What’s really interesting is I’m currently reading the Uplift series by David Brin. These books take place in the future when humans have made contact with other alien species, and apparently there’s been a multi-billion year practice of one highly advanced species “uplifting” a much less advanced species to the same level. Of course the newly advanced species will have to repay this honor through a few million years of indentured service. Anyways, humans had uplifted chimpanzees and dolphins by the time contact was made and saved us from being “uplifted” ourselves. The whole point of this, is that right now, we are at the beginning of the process. We’re taking the first tiny steps towards being able to genetically modify a species, enabling them to speak and have higher thought processes. I love it when science and science fiction begin to meet.

Talking animals?! But who will listen?

Oh Happy Days

Things have been looking up for me recently. On the home front, things are slowly being cleaned and organized. We finally got our settlement check from my grandfather’s inheritance. With it, we’re able to pay off the remaining balances on our credit card debts. That’s huge! You have no idea how relieved and excited we are about this. Well, maybe you do. We can finally start saving up for things and making plans. We’ve even started to loosen our belts a little (in a financially regards). It’s great!

In the country, Democrats take back not only the House of Representatives (229 to 196) but the Senate as well (49 to 48). As if that weren’t enough, we finally get our first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. How ridiculous is that? Other countries have had women Presidents by now, Presidents. All of this couldn’t have been done (or maybe more appropriate, wouldn’t have been done) if it weren’t for Howard Dean’s 50-State Strategy. It consisted of fighting for every election in the US, not just the one’s that looked winnable. It’s reminiscent of Angel’s last season, but with a much happier outcome.

In the world, not sure if you heard about this, but it looks like Donald Rumsfeld (who was finally resigned, yea!) is being charged with war crimes by Germany. That’s right, Germany is charging him with war crimes.

To top it all off, I got my Guitar Hero 2 pre-order in with the red guitar controller and guitar carrying case.

Ah, life sure can be sweet.

Short stories done in six words

In the new issue of Wired, they did a small article on short stories, six words short. Apparently this was all spawned by something Ernest Hemingway wrote: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. They said he called this one of his best works. I’ll admit, it’s very good. Anyways, Wired then had some other notable creatives from TV, books, and such take a stab at 6 word stories. I thought it’d be to try my hand at it. Here’s a few that I came up with:

Oh God, I’m pregnant! By whom? (I modified the punch line to a joke I got at work).
Red rockets in flight, afternoon delight. (Ok, I didn’t come up with this one, but when it clicked in my head that this was 6 words I was very excited.)
Susan, look out behind you before . . .
Whispering willows wave to the wind.
I hope she hears me out.
Maybe the cannibals are just friendly.
Where’s Chris? Was he left behind?
Ka-boom! Then there was only silence.

Sure, it may not be Hemingway. But it sure can be fun.

Stupid Entropy

I’m not complaining, not in the least, but we got quite a bit of stuff from our wedding. There were the gifts, obviously, but also clothes for the ceremony and reception, as well as all the decorations and settings and platters and whatever else was bought for the reception. We’ve been spending most of our tie trying to clean and organize the house, with an emphasis on organizing. So far our efforts have been concentrated n the upstairs (the living room/dining room/kitchen space). I think we’re progressing fairly well.

We gave the fridge a much need cleaning out: tossing out old foods and items we’ve never touched and have no plans to ever do so. We even gave it a decent sponge bath. We’ve put away all of our gifts and taken away all the appliances they replaced to make room. Slowly but surely things are starting to come together. Unfortunately that’s the thing that’s driving Emily, my wife (it still seems a little weird saying that), crazy.
She wanted to take a week off right after the weeding so that we could spend some time together and get the house straightened out. I didn’t know all of this at the time and thought that it’d be better for me to safe my vacation time for when we had plans (I didn’t know f her plans at the time). In hindsight, I should’ve taken the week off, but by the time I realized this Emily’s schedule was already finished, which would make her trying to get the week off incredibly hard. I think we both still feel ragged and could really use a chance to just recuperate. We plan to take that week between Christmas and New Year’s off. But with those two holidays and Emily’s Birthday in between them, I don’t know how restful it’ll be. Maybe we’ll some how arrange to take a week off before then.

Wedded Bliss

The big day came and went. Man was it hectic, especially the day before and that day. That day before, there was so much running around, decorating, purchasing and setting-up. It was crazy. I just want to give a BIG thanks to everyone who helped and contributed to it all, especially Cherish, who planned and organized most of it.

The rehearsal dinner was fabulous. It was so good. Everybody was impressed with how delicious the food was. Coming from a family of foodies, that’s something. Unfortunately, Emily had a toothache earlier that day and had a quick dentist visit beforehand. She was able to join us in the dinner, but I think mixture of all the food, wine and novocaine didn’t agree with her and she got a little sick afterwards.

The ceremony was simple, short, and touching. The day couldn’t have been better. It was cool, sunny and the leaves were starting to change but hadn’t fallen yet. Emily was gorgeous and I’ve been told wasn’t too hard on the eyes as well. Pastor Judy’s ceremony was very in keeping with our values. It was very lovely.

The reception was a blast. We kept it very mellow and inviting. Dim lighting, candles everywhere. There was great food. The Golden Johnny Whiskey-seed seemed to be a big hit. The DJ kept the music playing all night and was tuned in pretty well to the dance floor. Of course it took a little time and a few drinks before people started dancing, but once it got going I think it went very well. It was great seeing so many friends and family.
I know that what you all really want to see are pictures of the whole thing. Well, here’s what I’ve collected so far. (Will be posting them onto flickr when I get a chance).

Crazy, Crazy

Holy cow, it’s almost time. A lot of what’s need is done (for example we both have clothes that fit). All that’s left are details really (for example we’re still ironing out the jewelry). Although I guess that depends on your concept of details.

We’ve got a photographer arranged now. Our neighbor Yumi is going to do it as a gift for us. She’s a professional and has done this before, so yea! We also worked out the ceremony plans. Pastor Judy is going to do it for us. Her beliefs coincide with ours so the ceremony works well for us. Plus she’s done a few these before, so no problem there. We still need to work-out our vows and write-up and print out programs. Like I said, details.

The food is being taken care of. We finalized the menu and worked out a cooking schedule. Luigi is looking for any volunteers to help with the preparation and cooking Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, if anyone’s interested. We’re also going to need some volunteers to help set-up decorations. I think we’re decorating the reception space on Friday and the Ceremony will be done Saturday morning. We do have decorating materials now, yards of fabric, neat little table decorations, candles and candle holders. I think its going to turn out great.
Other than that we’ve been trying to get the house clean. You think that since we’ve hardly been home that much that it would’ve stayed fairly clean. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. We’re hoping to get all of that done before people start showing up wanting to look around the house. I think we can do it, it’ll be tough but it think we’ll get it done.

Things Are Starting to Come Together

As the time draws near, things seem to be falling into place. This past weekend we picked up Emily’s undergarments and another shawl. We also retrieved her new glasses. While we were out, we purchased her shoes as well. These shoes are awesome. We’re both very excited about them. Her family also took her to get alterations done on her dress (which’ll end up costing almost half of what her dress cost them). Then we got some wedding rings. Nothing fancy or expensive, but they’ll do what they need to do and if we lose them (which I hear happens quite often for those first rings), we won’t be so distraught over it. We also returned 2 shawls that didn’t work while we were out. Yes, Emily let go of some shawls, bringing the grand total to 2 with material to make a third.

I’m picking up chairs this week. We’re also meeting with our officiator this week as well. We’re going to go over the ceremony and work out what we’re going to do and how and all. We found out about this a rental place here in Northfield, where we might rent all of the glasses and silverware and such. Though, that’ll be a lot of cleaning afterwards. We’re not sure if that’s how we want to go yet. I dropped off a bag of CDs for our DJ, so he has some music that we like and can get a feel for our tastes (which ranges from Hip Hop to Caribbean to Classic Rock to Hard Rock to Crooner to Alternative). I haven’t actually gotten a chance to talk to him yet, though.

We still need to work on decorations for the 2 events. Plus, I’m still not sure about the cake issue, though I won’t be surprised if Emily’s mom shows up with one. She’s been somewhat obsessed about it. Oh and there’s the photography issue as well. It might be nice to have photos of the event.

Only 10 days left.

My God That Was Good

Thursday night, we went to Fermentations in Dundas to talk with the chef/owners of the restaurant about having a rehearsal dinner there. They brought out all kinds of samples. I think there were only 3 things from the menu that we didn’t sample. Their menu’s not huge, but it was still a lot of food. Plus, they served us 10 glasses of wine, each glass of wine from a different bottle. This place is fabulous. I don’t know why we waited so long to go. The food was just exquisite. None of the wines we had were bad. Some we preferred over others, but we would have gladly had any of them. We spent quite a bit of tie just talking to chefs about plans and our opinions on the food and wines. It was so fun sitting there discussing food with other foodies. We’re definitely going there again, even if it means we don’t eat anywhere else all month just to save up for it.
We were able to work out a menu for the evening. I should clarify; we were able to come up with some ideas for the menu. We still haven’t figured out the entrée (narrowed it down to 6 options) or the dessert situation. This weekend we plan to hash it all out. Oh, and the best part was that when asked if we owed them anything for all the samples, they told us no.

Wowza!

Been keeping busy as always. Melanie. Emily’s sister took us out to get Emily some new eyeglasses. Which is a big deal since she hasn’t gotten new glasses since she began college, some eight years ago. Then we looked for fabric for her shawl (in case the other 3 we have didn’t work). After that she ended up staying at her sister’s because I was late for a party.

Some (5) friends of mine threw me a Bachelor Party. It was pretty crazy. First off, these friends of mine are all women and not exactly the shyest people. We had some pizza before we headed off to the bar. They dressed me in a dare shirt (shirt had all kinds of dares for people to do) and they themselves wore black “clever” shirts (like Mountain Dew Me). They handed me my date, a tame blow-up doll (she wasn’t naked and had no holes, but was some what articulate) who we named Lola. We went to Bogart’s where we saw Paragon play. They’re a cover band who does 80’s, 90’s, and recent hits. The singer was sporting a Thundercats shirt, so I had a god feeling about them. They were a decent, fun band. They even played a Metallica song (!!!!), and fairly well (from what I could tell). I had had a few drinks by then. I believe that the final total was 5 shots of coconut run, 3 glasses of Honeyweis, 2 Car bombs, 1 Jager bomb, and a 3 wisemen. Oh, wait, I forgot the Screwdriver at the end of the night (with 2 Advils and an orange juice chaser). I didn’t puke once that night, and I felt fairly well that morning. I was a little tired and sore. That was due to most of the dancing I did. I can’t recall how many women I danced with, but it was damn fun. For one song I would be dancing with someone and soon after someone else would cut in and then someone else. It was awesome. One of the most fun nights of my life.

We’ve been getting RSVPs back from people. It’s getting very exciting as we’re finding out who’s going to be attending. Believe it or not, we’re still trying to get invitations out to other people. They all already know about the wedding and have been informally invited. Emily would just like to formally invite them. Problem is we ran out of the materials to make more cards and we don’t really have the time or money to get more, so we’ve resorted to getting decent copies made. Emily’s having issues with it all. She feels bad about handing a sub-par invitation to someone, so we went shopping Wednesday night to get some materials to make them acceptable. We’ll see how that goes.

Speaking of acceptable, Emily tried on her dress, to compare shawls, and found out it was the wrong size. Her dress was supposed to be a size 18 but they gave her a size 20. (Actually they gave her mom and sister the dress, which is why Emily didn’t try it on before it was bought.) They’re getting it altered this weekend. Not knowing much about dresses or sewing, I have no idea how hard or costly that’ll be.

A few things we have finished: We have chairs for the ceremony and reception reserved. We have the violinists set-up to play at the ceremony (provided the weather is nice enough). The rehearsal dinner is basically done, just a few details that need hammering out. A shawl was chosen, even though we bought some fabric online for a shawl. Either way, she’ll have a shawl she can wear.

A few things we’re still working on: Rings (looked at some, but haven’t decided or purchased yet), reception music (a friend is asking her brother if he can DJ or maybe provide speakers, then there’s picking out music), Ceremony and officiant (we’re talking to a friend’s mother about doing it), Photographer (we have someone volunteering, we just haven’t worked out details yet), Decorations (not really my department, Cherish is working on that), and Helpers (we need people to help set-up chairs, take down chairs, set-up decorations, etc.).

Oh, we’re still waiting to hear about the insurance claim on the house.

Yes, Another Update

My mom came down for Labor Day weekend. That went pretty well. We went to the State Fair, which was fun. Then on Sunday we did some wedding shopping. I now have a suit for the wedding, Emily has the bottom half to her reception outfit and a couple of possible shawls, I’m pretty sure my mom has a dress as well now. At the very least she has an idea for a dress. Oh, she also bought us some household items/wedding presents. That was enjoyable. Monday we spent at home. Mom helped clean the house up some, which drove Emily crazy. We also have a possible rehearsal dinner location. I’m looking into that.

We still need to get rings, I might need shoes (we haven’t checked to see if the ones I have are acceptable), Emily needs shoes, a brooch, and she’s still on the hunt for shawls. She also is looking for new glasses.

Last night we talked to our friend Luigi about food for the reception. We came up with a list/menu of foods and drinks to be served. We like it and have something of a plan for it now. We think that the food will cost about $500 and the drinks around $200. Where the money’ll come from, we’re still working on that.

We got the majority of invitations out now. We’re making the last few to give to local peeps here. There’s a handful that still need mailing, but we need addresses for those. I’d again like to reiterate that if you are able to make it, then please do.

Our original plan for the ceremony fell through, so we’re looking at other options. That’s not nerve wracking. We still are unsure of the Wedding Cake Situation. Emily’s mom really wants to make one for us, but we’re very nervous about it. One of Emily’s co-workers is making a Scandinavian ring cake, which’ll be nice. Emily really wants a fancy wedding cake. It’s like the only thing she cares about for the wedding. Unfortunately the wedding is in 22 days and we haven’t really done any shopping for one, plus, they’re expensive. I feel bad about it, but I don’t really know what do. The wedding’s taxing us financially, what with the eating out more because of all the shopping and running around. It’s very upsetting.

This thing seems to keep growing, especially when you consider that all we were really planning on doing was seeing a Justice of the Peace and maybe having a small dinner with our immediate family. If it wasn’t for the reaction from our friends and family (All of whom seem to be really excited about this. Hell, we’ve got some friends saying they’ll be here who we never expected to make it; we only sent an invitation in the hopes that they’d send a gift.) we’d have cancelled this thing. But, we feel obligated to carry through with this (somehow) now that some many people are involved.

Show must go on, or something like that, eh?

30 Days to Go

Talk about busy. We cleaned up our yard (mostly) with the help of Emily’s parents. We filled 2 trash bags of broken material (siding, tables, dishes, lights, etc.) and 18 bags of tree branches and leaves. We still have some large piles of leaves and branches to bag up, but the majority of it has been picked up. We still need to take them to the dump though.

Last Thursday our insurance agent came by and looked the house over. From what I’ve heard, he was way better and much more amicable then what my neighbors got. He recommended that all of our siding get replaced, deck get painted, roof on the house replaced, shed get painted and re-roofed, garage door get replaced, lights replaced and included all of our things we had outside. Our neighbors said their agent was suggesting that they only replace the parts of siding that are damaged, which might save on materials but would probably increase labor costs. Part of it might be that a lot of people in Northfield have the same insurance company where as we have USAA, which is more national. He still needs to send it in to the office and they come up with the final numbers, but the process is off to a good start at least.

We’ve also finalized the invitations and gotten the first batch into the mail. We still need to address quite a few of them and mail those off. Oh, we also created a wedding website on The Knot. It’s really not that fancy or amazing, but it’s got our information out there. We’ve started working out the menu for the reception. My grandmother is going to officiate the wedding, and we’re working out the ceremony details with her. The location is reserved and some decorations have been planned and purchased (colors are blue and orange; though I’m sure there are fancier names I should be calling them). Registries are pretty done. Emily still waiting to get her gown purchased, it’s been picked out, just not bought. Then she’ll be better able to pick out jewelry, hair, shawl, and other accessories. We still haven’t picked out a suit for me yet. Oh, we’ve picked out reception music, somewhat. The plans are to hook up an ipod to a decent sound system for the reception. I think that’s it. I know there’s more we need to do, but I can’t remember right now.

My mom’s coming up for the weekend; should be good. The plans are to go to the Great Minnesota Get Together on Saturday; could be fun, if it doesn’t rain too badly. I think we might work on wedding stuff Sunday, or just hang out. Not really sure, we haven’t planned that out yet. Oh well.

Ah, one more thing to add. Last month was year end at Agriliance, so it was a mad house. Everyone was trying to get all of those projects they’ve been putting off done as well as stuff as many sales as they could before the books closed. We’ve been switching over to a new system, so the numbers weren’t as good as they usually were and management was worried about their bonuses (we were too). From what I hear, it went very well. I’ll be excited to find out about this bonus people talk about.

I need a nap.

Gifts!!

We've got a registry started now. We have 2 actually. One at Target and one at Amazon. So shop away. We don't expect most of this to be purchased, but every little bit helps right?

We've been working on the wedding more. Got the invitations pretty much made. They should getting mailed by the end of the week. At least the one's we have addresses to.

Last Thursday a huge hail storm came by, followed by a thunderstorm (that produced a tornado 30 miles south of us). We're ok but the exterior of the house got torn up. Our patio furniture is destroyed and all of the siding needs replacing. We also had 2 windows busted. An insurance agent is scheduled to look at it this Thursday, so we'll know more then about how to get this all replaced.

It's Getting There

Last week I played a pick-up game of Ultimate. I had no idea I was that out of shape. I mean, I knew I was out of shape, but I thought it was my usual out-of shapedness. The I’m-not-at-my-top-performance-level kind, not the can-barely-breathe-after-one-round kind. I was sore for like 2 days. I’ve really got to start moving around more.

Wedding plans so far are still progressing. Emily went shopping for some apparel. I believe she plans on changing her outfit mid-way through the reception. Invitations are coming along, though not as fast as hoped. Oh, we’ve come to realize how dependent we are upon the internet/email. We don’t (at least we didn’t until now) even have an address book, let alone mailing addresses. Any address provided would be helpful. We’ve been able to collect some we’ve found from slips of paper around the house and with the help of others. If you have an address we could use (yours or someone we know’s) please send it to me. Thanks.

We have reserved our wedding locations and started to formulate plans as far as procession, ceremony, decorations, and such. We’ve decided to provide wine at the reception, so it’s not quite BYOB, but more like BYOBOW (Bottle of Wine). Though I don’t think it will be needed really. Also, in that vein, while we do have some younger cousins and all, we think it might be more appropriate if younglings don’t stick around for the whole time. That’s still being worked out, but just thought I’d throw that out there.

Oh, we learned that the reception space will hold more than we originally calculated, so more people can come. We were originally thinking only 50 people, but now we’ve been told closer to 100. I feel if anyone’s willing to make the trip out here on such short notice, they deserve to be included. I don’t really think there’ll be such a flood of people that we won’t be able to handle it. So there you have it, an open invitation to whoever can come.

Turtle Like

Our plans for last weekend were originally to go up north, camp, and watch the meteor showers. When we discovered the we were too poor, we had to make some adjustments. We decided to stay home and get a few projects done. We were hoping to start and finish the porch, however the farthest we got was buying the paint. The house did get a little cleaner as well as the lawn. Due to the ambush staged by Emily's mom and sister (Michelle), Emily has now picked out a wedding a dress. I haven't seen it, but she did draw me a picture of it, and I think it'll look good (of course it will, Emily has a knack for picking out clothes). The invitations got pushed back another week, but the calls all pretty uch down, so I'm not too worried about those.

We did spend Monday in the cities, that was nice. We went to see Body Worlds, which was intriguing. If not for the exhibits, then for the crowd itself at least. I had no idea that so many people go through their lives oblivious to what goes on inside them. We overheard ne person talk about how she never knew before what her surgery was all about. If I was getting major surgery done, I would want the surgeon to explain what's going to be done and why. At the very least so I know that the doctor knows what's going on. Then there was lunch at Green Mill, which I thought I had a gift card for, but turns out it expired/was empty. We also ran into Sarah at Half-Price Books. The seeds for the return of game night were planted in that meeting, very exciting.

We do plan to have a regisrty for the wedding. We've got a few places in mind (Target, Home Depot, Amazon, etc). We wanted to have one at Ikea, but they don't do that sort of thing there, however Ikea gift cards are always appreciated. At some point we'll figure which store(s) we want and go shopping/selecting there.

It figures

So progress on the wedding is slow going. We didn't get as much done as we would like last week. We are still working on the official invitations, but in order to give people time to prepare, I have started calling family and friends to let them know ahead of time. I've only just started and can only call those I have numbers to. Plus we know how much I love to talk on the phone.

Emily is going out with Cherish and her Mom to try on wedding dresses Thursday. I guess a family friend of theirs is an excellent seamstress, so they're picking out designs that they like and sending those and Em's measurements. Then when she comes to the wedding, voila!, a fabulous dress.

This weekend we have plans to strip and paint the deck, as well as continue cleaning and seriously working on making those invitations. (We had both originally taken time off of our work to go camping at the North Shore and see the meteor showers, but those plans fell through).

Oh, and one of my "worker bees" (Hannah) at Southgate Cinema is going to St Olaf for a music degree and is an excellent violin player. She has volunteered her services for the occasion. (She has informed me that since the ceremony is planned to be outside there have to be fairly specific weather conditions for her to play outside.)

Oh, while I'm thinking about it. As of now the wedding is BYOB. There will probably be a few bottles of wine/champagne offered, but not enough for the likings of some of our friends. So plan accordingly.

Holy Moly!

I know I haven't posted in a long while, but it's hard to write up a post when you have no immediate access to the internet. That's going to have to change and soon.

But what I really want to say, to whoever still happens to peruse this site, is that Emily and I are getting married (yeah, yeah heard it before). The wedding date is September 30, 2006 come hell or high water. Right now the plans are for it to be held in Northfield, MN. This week we're working on fixing up the house a little more (no, the wedding will not be held there but I'm sure people will want to see it and we might even be providing a few people places to sleep) as well as making invitations that we will be mailing out the end of this week. (See, it must be serious if we're mailing out invitations). The plan (so far) is that the ceremony will be outside so whoever wants can see it, but the reception will be inside and somewhat small due to the space we're being given. It's looking like maybe 60 people. If you don't get an invite, don't feel bad, we just have limited space right now. Any gifts, donations, and well-wishes are appreciated.

I'll keep this updated per week until we either 1) get married and/or 2) get internet back (in this case I'll probably update more often and Emily probably will too).

Firefly 2?

Is it even possible? I don't know if it is, but it's nice to dream.

There's a survey asking people if they would contribute to a viewer-funded TV show season. Episodes would be available for download or by mail or by pay-per-view. Honestly, I don't think it would be possible to make a new Firefly season through such means. It requires too many special effects and the actors aren't as small time as they once were. I mean, that's a lot of contributions that would have to be made. Plus, you'd have to collect quite a bit of it beforehand, with really no guarantee of getting a show out of it. Then there's the piracy issue; how much would the average joe be willing to pay to download an episode if they can just get it for free elsewhere?

It certainly does raise questions about the future of television shows. I'm not saying it isn't possible to produce any show in such a way. Get a small comedy or drama that can be filmed on a couple of cameras, with mostly no-names. It'd probably be fiscally feasible then. Of course, you wouldn't have as much up-front support that way. Still, it's interesting to think of television production as a publicly controlled enterprise.

I still signed-up, of course. Just in case. ;)