So I have Emma's package off. I had less luck at Barnes & Noble (August British Country Living not out yet), but did find a used copy of the 1995 Get Smart series in CD Warehouse.

Hit Michaels and found a couple of bargains. One is a small beach-motif stool painted blue (supposed to be a plant stand) that I found on clearance. I bought this to repurpose in the hall bath as a small surface to keep magazines on. Also, I keep a seasonal banner on the front porch. This is bad news for the banner since the house faces west; due to the continued exposure to the Georgia sun, I have to retire the banners every two years. I reluctantly retired the spring banner, one with birds and birdhouses, this year, and, with a coupon, bought a banner with pansies on it for next spring, although to me it looked more like a summer banner. At Michael's today I found another birdhouse banner—and it was also on clearance!—so I can use that for spring and save the pansies for next summer, since the ladybug and sunflower banner will be toast by September (and I've never liked the darn thing anyway).

Since the ladies on Christmas to the Max are always talking about Garden Ridge, I made the mistake of stopping there today. :-) Actually, I was good, a hard thing among aisles of Christmas ornaments and autumn and Hallowe'en decorations. I bought a birch tree for the village, a couple of white trees for a vignette, two gingerbread ornaments for the kitchen display, a circular piece of beveled mirror glass with an oval-shape ivy vase—and a $5 copy of Gosford Park. (I'll watch it when James isn't home. <g>) The beveled mirror will go under the ivy vase, which will be filled with the acrylic acorns (the size of real acorns) that I purchased from Michael's. These come in three colors, a pale corn color, orange, and the dark amber brown color of maple syrup. This will be worked into an autumn display when I get a couple of more items.

Picked up a few things at JoAnn, too, including two $1 circular whiteboards which will be used to identify what is in which cabinet in my craft room. I love those dollar bins; I find a lot of organizing items in them. Plus I bought new sheets for our bed with the Linens'n'Things coupons. Our present sheets are getting worn and faded, and also the fitted bottoms have never fit our 14 inch thick mattress properly. This is the first time in years I have not purchased blue sheets; since the coverlet is now mostly autumn-colored, I bought a set in sage green and a set in maple-leaf gold to match. The set comes with two extra pillowcases, so finally all the pillows will match.

On the way home I stopped at Food Depot. We had decided we were going to stay home tonight and watch opening ceremonies at the Olympics, so we had originally planned on ordering a pizza. But remembering the yummy meal we had a couple of weeks ago at the Lawsons, I bought a jar of spaghetti sauce and some pork bits. I browned the pork bits, and they have been simmering for the last two hours in the spaghetti sauce while I watched all of the "new" Get Smart (there were only seven episodes made).

You know, when this premiered I thought it was the biggest bunch of crap I'd ever seen. I watched it solely for Don Adams and Barbara Feldon and absolutely loathed Andy Dick. I still loathe Andy Dick—but actually the show has improved a bit with age, especially compared with the breathless idiocy of Under One Roof. I found myself chuckling several times. If only this show had been castrated (in other words, Dickless), it would have been much improved (better scripts would have helped, too, but the "star" was the main fault). The episode where Siegfried returns is undoubtedly the best (one has to laugh when his daughter complains to Zach that her father had always hidden the fact that he was a spy: "He told us he was a doctor on a cruise ship" LOL). I had completely forgotten about the series' supporting characters: Agent 0, the master of disguises, who can be anyone from a burly construction worker to an old lady to an African-American woman; Agent 9, a nine-year-old redheaded child; and Trudy, the inept secretary of the Chief of CONTROL—that would be Maxwell Smart—who makes Larrabee from the old series look like Albert Einstein, and I had always been fond of Agent 66, played by Elaine Hendrix.

The DVD also contains two "minisodes," which are shortened episodes of old television series. One was an ep of TJ Hooker with William Shatner's ex-wife as a guest star. The other was an episode of Newsradio, in which Andy Dick also starred. I think I watched one episode of Newsradio, partially because I never liked Dick, and also—sorry, guys—I was never a Phil Hartman fan, although it was terrible what happened to him. Swelp me, I never realized Dave Foley was even on this series, nor that Stephen Root played his boss. Foley, of course, played Alan Bean in From the Earth to the Moon, and Root played Chris Kraft.

Labels: autumn, decorating, DVDs, food, house, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:39:00 PM

Comments:

I have never laughed harder at one individual on a TV series more than Stephen Root on Newsradio. His Jimmy James kept the show going even after the unfortunate death of Phil Hartman.

# posted by  Ivan G Shreve Jr : 1:22:00 AM

 

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