What is so rare as sleeping almost until ten?

We probably wouldn't have, but we stayed up late last night watching those three first episodes of Edwardian Farm. That show is like peanuts.

(If you're wondering why I am home, it's because James worked on Saturday. I took leave today so we could have two days off together.)

It would have been a good day to stay home and hibernate. It barely made it out of the 30s, and the wind was whipping around corners like it was at Churchill Downs. However, we needed mushrooms and "particle board bars," as James calls the Nature Valley granola bars, so we headed to Costco via Chick-Fil-A. James had a free oatmeal courtesy their yearly calendar coupons, plus a gift card he got from work, so we both had breakfast for $1.24.

Had a nice walk around Costco; in addition to our original purchases, we also stocked up on bath soap and Breathe Rights, and I was bad: bought the Jurassic Park Blu-Ray set. I'd rather just get the first and the third movie, since Jurassic Park-The Lost World is such a loser of a film (the only thing it has going for it is Jeff Goldblum, and even he can't save the stupidity of the plot). I also picked up Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, a new Australian television show based on the 1920s Australia-based Phryne Fisher mystery novels.

Phryne (that's pronounced "Fry-nee") is a honey of a heroine. She was brought up poor in Australia until her father inherited a title in England; therefore she became "the Honorable Phryne" and filthy rich. Phryne lives the flapper dream: gorgeous clothes and nice digs, with a husband-and-wife butler/cook team, a ladies' maid she rescued from a sexually-aggressive boss, two adopted daughters, Jane and Ruth, rescued from a rapacious foster mother, a pair of cab drivers who help her with cases, and a succession of male lovers. She can fight, shoot, fly, and drives a zippy Hispano-Suiza motorcar. Bored with society life, Phryne served in an ambulance brigade in the First World War, where she met Dr. Elizabeth McMillan, a Scot who fought hard to become a physician in an Edwardian man's world, who is still a friend. Now back in Australia, she serves as a private investigative agent when a case piques her fancy. The books are slightly outrageous, full of action, and always a little saucy, like their protagonist.

(I haven't read all the rest of the books—the stores here don't sell them and the library has only three—but it looks as if the series has changed the plot line a bit. Phryne now has a missing sister with the same name as her adopted daughter [Ruth is left out] and Mrs. Butler is also missing in action. She meets Jane in a different situation as in the books, and there's an aunt that I'd never heard of in the books. Of course, perhaps it comes in a book I haven't read. Anyway, I still look forward to the series. I love a good period piece!)

Anyway, we had nothing else to do, so we came home. While James worked on cleaning the kitchen, I went into the master bath and tackled that odious shower stall, which had hard-water stains. Even though I have several extendable scrubbing implements which are supposed to make this easier, I still had to get on my knees and scrub the floor. I felt a great kinship with Ruth in Edwardian Farm, who in part one had to get down on her knees and scrub a stone floor!

But then we watched Jurassic Park with all the trimmings. There was a new documentary in three parts, with most of the cast members, including Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards "all grown up." Sam Neill is still looking "mighty fine." :-) I read some very bad reviews about this set, especially about the disc of the original film, due to picture and sound quality. Except for a couple of grainy dark scenes, I found the picture superior to the DVD, and the sound was so good the poor dog was frightened out of her wits every time a dinosaur roared.

James made buckwheat pancakes and chicken apple sausage for supper and we watched a new Antiques Roadshow, the Lassie episode "Father," and finally a great Castle revolving around Seamus Deaver's Kevin Ryan character that painted him in quite a different light.

Labels: books, shopping, television, weather

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