oh, my jonas!

after school yesterday (sadly, not a minimum day), the teen, the bean and i headed to old navy to see if we could score on some good deals for warm weather wear. it's been hot balls lately, and i think it's probably here to stay. blergh.

i managed to find lots of cute, cheap stuff for the bean, and the teen spent a good chunk of that honor roll cash between old navy and tilly's, just next door. by then, it was just after 4:00, and we still wanted to go to the nearby toyota dealership to check out that prius and eyeball trunk space and test seat comfort.

why was the time so important? well, i'll tell you: the first in a series of live webcasts with the jonas brothers was scheduled to start on facebook at 5:00 and go for an hour. and the teen, of course, had been looking forward to this for weeks.

so we zoomed over to toyota, i stuck the bean in the fat suit, and we made a beeline for the showroom, where i was convinced that we'd be able to check out that hybrid and suck up some free a/c at the same time.

sadly, it was not to be. for some unknown reason, the showroom featured a scion xB, a toyota highlander, and - get this - a red ferrari, with "don't touch!" signs all over it. how lame. so we headed back out the door, back out to the ninth circle of hell, to find a freaking prius.

as soon as we walked up to one, we were approached by a salesman - although in this economy, i was actually surprised that they weren't circling like hungry vultures hunting for prey. i fired questions at the poor guy machine-gun style, asking about maintenance, battery life, warranties, availability, etc. i had him open the doors for us so we could see if the behemoth stroller would fit in the trunk, sit in the back seat and test it for comfort and legroom, give an overview of the instrument panel. finally, i got his business card and then we hightailed it outta there. by the time we were all buckled up and on the road, it was 4:53. the teen was jumping out of her skin.

we finally got upstairs, in the door, and at the computer by 5:07. now, i'm a total webcast virgin. i had no idea how to get to the stupid thing, and ended up going around in circles on the jonas brothers facebook page before finally figuring it out, only to find this:

yes, we had it open in several different windows. a quick peek at the comments left by other frantic fans told us that no one was seeing anything. and then we checked twitter and found this:

Jonasbrothers:Having a little technical difficulty here....we'll be back up in just a minute - JB

the teen was slightly comforted by the fact that she wasn't missing out on anything. just slightly. and then she flipped out when the boys came on screen and heard nick's voice: "sorry guys, we've been having technical difficulties, but we're here now - "

and then they disappeared again. oy vey.

while the teen was wigging out, the bean was calmly playing and watching "wow wow wubbzy" on noggin, and the dog was standing guard at the front door.

at 5:37, the screen read "on air" and in seconds, nick, joe, and kevin were visible again. the teen rejoiced. well, she was way more excited, but she refused to let me photograph the bliss.

as promised, they debuted their new single, and the teen grabbed the point-and-shoot to catch it on video.

i was amused as i watched the number of viewers change from one minute to the next.

the webcast lasted for a full glorious hour. they took calls (she tried to get through, but no such luck), answered questions, cracked jokes, and talked about the upcoming summer tour. and since they got a late start, with the first 15 minutes continuing to bring those technical difficulties as they popped in and out, it was 6:47 by the time they finally bid their fans a fond farewell.

the teen insisted on keeping the window open until the screen once again read "off air" and faded to black.

look at that! over 140,000 folks viewing it at the same time. no wonder their server had trouble keeping up.

and then later that evening, as we pulled up to sansai to grab dinner, the teen was squealing all over again when the new single was played in its entirety on the radio. i have to admit, the new song is pretty top 40-radio friendly.

last week, i got an e-mail from the fan club announcing a contest for l.a.-based members (they have my e-mail vs. the teen's, because she doesn't check hers too often). apparently, the brothers jonas are taping a special next weekend, and the fan club was giving away 100 pairs of tickets to the show. of course, i entered her name, and we'll find out on monday if she's won or not. that's her birthday.

that would make for quite a lovely birthday present, wouldn't you say?

edit: the monkey just reminded me - OMG! i completely forgot the hilarity of the comments we were posting on the webcast's facebook page! the teen doesn't have facebook - "facebook's for older people, mom." so we were using my account for the webcast. we giggled for about an hour straight as we continued to post comment after question after comment - and i had NO idea that the comments that actually went through were going to be posted on my facebook wall. i only found out when california girl remarked on it later!

little do y'all know - we posted FAR more comments than were actually seen. heh.