A quiet weekend here at Chez Young (well, except for the visit to Kroger this morning, which I don't want to talk about...not Kroger's fault, ours). We went to the Hallmark Ornament premiere yesterday, out at Betsy's Hallmark at Merchant's Walk. Got their lovely Father Christmas and a few others, and a Great Pumpkin ornament: "I got a rock." My favorite scene; I couldn't resist! Also found some pretty gifts. James bought three different ornaments for his airplane tree, and also the new Enterprise.

Today we did the usual grocery shopping, then grabbed a bite at Wendy's and went to Cumberland Mall to walk around. It's pretty much a dead loss as a real mall anymore; it doesn't even have one bookstore, or anything like an FYE, and places like Kirklands or Yankee Candle or Brookstone, or any kind of housewares place. Game Stop is still there, the Radio Shack, a Bath and Body Works, a GNC, a Hallmark and an American Greetings, a couple of eyeglass places, and a Spencer Gifts, but everything else is clothing, shoes or jewelry. Bore.

Found a nice bargain at American Greetings: they had many things on sale, including Christmas cards and gift tags. These were 90 percent off. I got a lovely set of Christmas cards, and also about 260 tags for only $1.10.

Any money I saved had to be invested in hideously overpriced soy isoflavones at GNC, since I can't find them anywhere else anymore.

Had some good video watching the past two nights. Last night we watched a new (to us) British mystery series that we got from Netflix, Pie in the Sky from the 1990s. This stars Richard Griffiths, now notorious for being Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films, as Henry Crabbe, a 25-year police veteran who is seven weeks away from retirement, a gourmet who is looking forward to opening his own restaurant (the "Pie in the Sky" of the title). However, on a case involving a highly-sought criminal, someone tips the man off and he gets away. Later Crabbe's officious boss, Fisher (a right arsehole), whose only goal in life seems to be to do things that are "politically" right to keep him in the correct circles (this appears to be a motif of the series), blackmails Crabbe into working "occasionally" as a consultant or he will be prosecuted for taking a bribe. So the stories are about Crabbe's juggling of the running of the restaurant along with criminal investigations he is dragged into.

Griffiths is charming as the curmudgeonly Crabbe, whose traditional cooking—he makes a mean steak-and-kidney pie—charms more than one "savage beast." As a humorous counterpoint, Crabbe's wife Margaret, an accountant, not only has no interest in food, but she loves crisps and junk food. His assistant and ally in the police department is detective sergeant Cambridge, who both admires and is bemused by him.

We really enjoyed this and are looking forward to more episodes.

Tonight we didn't see anything of interest on and I just put on the I Love Lucy marathon which Hallmark Channel was broadcasting; at this point they were showing the European episodes. They still make me laugh.

Labels: errands, mystery, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:17:00 PM

Comments:

I'm not sure if I could get into a series about an English gourmet. The Brits are known for some of the worst cooking in the world.

I always think of Griffiths in either Withnail and I or from The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear. Might be because I've never seen any of the Harry Potter flicks. My niece conned my parents into letting her watch one (I think it was the second) and my mother was positively revolted by it--she says to me: "There's a scene in that movie where some kid vomits up slugs."

Dad: "If I had slugs in my mouth, I'd be throwing up, too."

And I think I'm going to start calling the Hallmark Channel the I Love Lucy Channel. I swear, sometimes I tune in and that seems to be the only thing on.

# posted by  Ivan G Shreve Jr : 8:39:00 AM

 

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