Ah, sweet Saturday of sleep-ins! Our late sleep-ins, back in the apartment days (pre-1995) are long gone, though. I remember sleeping until eleven or later on Saturdays. Now if an aching joint or two hasn't woken one of us around nineish, Willow's yips or a call of nature will.

We spent about an hour at the hobby shop a little after noon, where I annotated the list that I spent the morning working in front of the computer; it will accompany a gift. [There, that's cryptic enough. Heh.] Since we had nothing else to do before evening, we went home, where James began warming up the little "smokies" we were taking to a combined game night/late Christmas gift exchange with the Lawsons, and baked some sugar-free brownies. We were due at the Lawsons at 5:30, so we left a little early so we could hit the nearby Trader Joe's for some supplies: chicken salad and sausage, something for James when he has to work next Sunday, popcorn, etc. We arrived on the dot at 5:30.

Had a great time! We ordered pizza, and Jerry even got me a bacon and black olive without cheese. Unfortunately it appears Domino's uses pepper in its tomato sauce, so I only ate three small slices. There were baked chips and a veggie tray, as well as our smokies and the brownies, which weren't bad, just a bit overcooked on the edges. We played two games: Five Second Rule and Origins. The first was fun (you must name three like things within five seconds, like three Big 10 colleges or three state capitols), but our middle-aged brains aren't made for quick five-second answers anymore! With Origins you had to concoct the origin of an expression (like "baker's dozen" or "a stitch in time"). We were about to play Scattergories when it was time for the gift exchange. The Lawsons always give a neat smorgasbord of gifts in some type of reusable bag. This year was no exception: some science or SF DVDs, a nifty pair of gloves, a book of Naval trivia for James, and other neat things. And the bag itself is waterproof and zips (another Ikea find)!

We came home about ten o'clock and then had a pleasant few hours chatting with Jen and Emma. While we were chatting, I put on a 2010 movie called Sherlock Holmes—not the one you are thinking of! This movie stars Gareth David-Lloyd of Torchwood as Dr. Watson and Ben Syder as Sherlock Holmes. James sat down to watch with me. My gosh, what a howler! I can't even list all the howlers...take the one scene where Watson goes for a morning constitutional and Holmes accompanies him. Within short walking distance from 221B Baker Street, in the very center of crowded, cobbled metropolitan London, apparently there is an extensive overgrown—and I mean overgrown!—wood with some deserted outbuildings! The film also involves a sea serpent, a dinosaur, and what looks like a copper robot, plus a clockwork human and Sherlock Holmes' older brother (not Mycroft Holmes) who is a former police detective. Not to mention that the actor who played Holmes was shorter than everyone else in the cast (Doyle's Holmes is quite tall) and played the role in such a colorless manner that he pretty much faded into the woodwork! Was this because the more well-known Torchwood actor was playing Watson?

When it was finished, James said "Well, there's over an hour of my life I'll never get back." LOL.

The most entertaining factor was that, even with his heavy moustache and thick curly hair, Gareth David-Lloyd was almost a dead ringer for Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. Wilson on House (who is, of course, based on Dr. Watson).

It was warm all day Saturday (almost into the 70s; I almost didn't wear my new pink sweatshirt with the heart on it) and it was still positively tropical by bedtime; was quite afraid I wouldn't fall asleep. However, I was quite soundly asleep at 9:30 this morning when Willow started to yip. James got up, but I snuggled a few more minutes until I absolutely had to get up.

I found out about a week ago that AntennaTV has been showing The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on weekend mornings. I thought it was on Saturday, and was irritated to find out it's actually Sunday, since I missed it last week and they showed the "origin" first episode, where they mention how "Corporal" Rusty and "Private" Rin Tin Tin came to live at Fort Apache. This morning I was determined not to miss it.

Now I had heard that there was a set of these episodes on DVD in Great Britain, and there were several comments about how the score had been changed to something more modern, including a new march theme for the opening and credits, and some voice dubs. Well, this is the version they're showing on AntennaTV. Of the two things, the score is the least irritating. You can tell it's not original as the fidelity is different and doesn't fit the background scores of the time. But the dubs are absolutely awful. I'm not sure why it was done. You can tell looking at the moves of the characters' mouths that they're saying the same words. And whomever they have dubbing Rusty's voice is dreadful. It's very obvious this is an adult miming a kid's voice (possibly even a woman doing the voice) in a terrible nasal tone.

Ironically, the print is gorgeous compared to some 1950s series that pop up these days! It would have been quite enjoyable along with a Sunday morning treat—James made biscuits!—if not for those changes.

Okay, now this is the type of grocery shopping I like! We left the house at 11:10 a.m., went to Publix for twofers (including shrimp platters for "the big game" which we shall use for dinners instead), then went the few miles down South Cobb Drive to the new Kroger and bought the weekly supplies (milk, yogurt, bananas), plus a pork and a beef package from the "managers special" shelf for Tuesday and Thursday dinners. We were home by 12:25; two stores in 75 minutes!

Once we had everything put away, James decided he'd like a hobby room day. Fine with me! I indexed all the cross-stitch magazines I bought since November, used the two new crates to make extra storage space in the pantry closet, brought Willow's new bag of dog food upstairs, cleaned some in the main floor bathrooms, made sure all the reusable shopping bags were back downstairs, and gathered the trash. We had also already read the newspaper, and I had even cut out and put away the coupons, something I usually put off as long as possible (which means Thursday, when the trash goes out).

So it was a nice quiet afternoon in which I read my book (The Tale of Oat Cake Crag) and popped on Facebook occasionally.

We had soup from Kroger for supper (and James also had a small deli sandwich) and watched the final three episodes of season two of Murdoch Mysteries. Two were nicely done episodes in which bigotry figured, without heavy-handing moralizing which writers of American shows appear to find mandatory. Bravo!

Oh, and wasn't that a great game! Some terrific touchdowns, super action, and fun commercials. My favorite player was Australian, and unfortunately did not get voted MVP, but he was spectacular on the field.

Well, yes, of course he could be Australian. I was talking about the Puppy Bowl—darling little white (with tan ears) Australian sheepdog mix named "Aberdeen." His sister "Abilene" was also in the game; she was almost all black. Loved the cockatiel "tweeting" the results!

Wait, you mean there was another game on today? :-)

Labels: animals, books, dogs, food, friends, games, shopping, television

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