 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Sunday, March 31, 2024
Almost Easter
 Sort of an interesting Holy Week in making some old progress. Back in 2022, I stopped listening to the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts (I was busy writing, and I can't write and pay attention at the same time). I had caught up on all the Gretchen Rubin podcasts, and need to catch up on "A Way With Words," but wanted to get to the Williamsburg ones, too. This week I started listening to them again and hope to keep up with Rubin and catch up with both the others.
Most of the opening of the week was chores. James did have an MRI on his toe on Wednesday. His right baby toe, the one that showed up with a sore in January, is still not healed. It doesn't look infected, but skin isn't growing on top of it and healing it up, so the doctor wants to make sure the bone isn't infected. (Got the report later in the week; it's not.) Thursday James' Procrit shot was scheduled early, although we tried to change it. So we went by Lidl on the way home, and I got both chicken drumsticks on sale and some boneless pork ribs, so I made cacciatore for supper and also made gravy for later. And we had a nap, too! It was a quiet Good Friday: we had to run out to pick up meds, but I did listen to the BBC Lent Talks. On Saturday while our low-sodium ham was marinating in pineapple, we went to Barnes & Noble and to Hobby Lobby. In the evening I watched the spooky movie Stir of Echoes. Kathryn Erbe is in it, just before she did Criminal Intent. It was pretty creepy, but turned out to be a little of a murder mystery, too. And Easter was quiet. Unfortunately I had to wash towels since we were out of facecloths. I watched my two Easter favorites, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, and we had ham and potatoes for dinner, and then...dark chocolate Lindt bunnies! Yay! Labels: Easter, food, Good Friday, health, holidays, movies, podcasts, shopping, television  » Sunday, April 09, 2023
Easter and Other Cotton Tails
We are spoiled, and it began the day James retired.We have no bedtime anymore. Unless we have to get up early—and we try to make appointments so that they're 11 a.m. or later—we don't go to bed at least until midnight (for a while, until I set the timer on the television to turn it off at midnight, we were staying up to watch Barney Miller on FEtv, since it follows Emergency!). By the time we shower, medicate, and I treat whatever outbreak James has on his left leg this week, then read for fifteen minutes, it's 2 a.m. We get up between 9:30 and 10 a.m. and by the time breakfast is over, since James has been making delicious homemade oatmeal every morning since the first of the year, it's eleven or after. (And, yes, I know this is going to play hob with Tucker's dog walk once it gets really hot. I already have a rash from the few days it's been warm.) So it was literally hell this morning to have to get up at 7:00 a.m. to drive Tucker across town to get his teeth cleaned. We had to get him there before nine so we could pick him up by 2:30 (and when we got there they said 4:30, and I said, "The doctor said that if I got him here before nine we could have him by 2:30," so they took him back and said 2:30). Now we had to hang around Perimeter Mall for almost six hours. We started out with breakfast at Panera. I have been spoilt by James' oatmeal; Panera's was as heavy as a rock. Combined with a bagel, it sat on my stomach for hours. Then we went on to the Container Store to get a few things, and next the Barnes & Noble next door. I needed something I thought I might find in Michael's, so we went there, and we also checked out Hobby Lobby. We ended up having lunch at Tin Drum. Sixty dollars for two meals out. Incredible. Finally it was time to pick up Tucker, who blinked at us sleepily. The bill was over $800. And we got stuck in traffic on the way home. A couple of more appointments for James this week, the usual chores. We went to Lowe's one afternoon for a paving stone; I put it over Snowy's grave and also put up a little white bird metal ornament where the birds are buried. Anyway, I left the DVD recorder/VCR unplugged for a week and now it seems to work fine. The reason neither it nor the Chromecast (which were both on the same HDMI switcher) were working was that the USB electrical plug for the HDMI switcher died. A new plug solved the problem. Spent a long cold Saturday dubbing stuff off the DVR. Then Easter Sunday was nicer: watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, we had ham and potatoes for dinner with half a Lindt dark chocolate bunny for dessert. Later on it was time for Call the Midwife. Labels: dogs, Easter, food, pets, retirement, shopping, television » Sunday, April 17, 2022
Books, Bunnies, and More D'Onofrio
This was about an average week. Earlier I got the dog brushed out and trimmed the nandina bushes out front (the firecracker bushes are still partially dormant, which is odd). And the grass was cut this week, but at least I wasn't woken up by the mower!Alas, it was another Thursday we had to go by Kaiser. James is on his third UTI in a row. He'll stop taking the antibiotics on Monday and by Wednesday things get cloudy again. Happily, James sent a note to his new urologist and they ordered him up a test right away on Monday; Thursday being the first day we could go. And then we had to go shopping, the usual nonsense. I was incensed when I picked up some cans of no-salt mushrooms for James: the price on these little suckers has doubled since the pandemic. Labels: books, Christmas, Easter, food, Good Friday, health, movies, shopping, television » Sunday, March 03, 2019
Another Worker Bites the Dust, Book Frenzy, and Bread Addiction
Friday night we had to race out of the house as soon as James quit work for the evening; he had to get a blood test in prep for his nephrologist appointment next Friday.* Then we'd gone to Uncle Maddio's pizza joint for supper and finally, did the shopping at Publix. One of the things I'd picked up there was a 16-ounce container of chicken and wild rice soup, mostly of the content (rice, chicken, onions, carrots) rather than the soup because their soup is so salty.Saturday morning was lazy: we slept in as much as we could, Tucker had a nice walk, and about one o'clock James decanted the soup and thinned it with no-sodium broth and we each had a small serving (James sprinkled crushed crackers on his and I had mine with the last of a Lidl baguette), and, since I couldn't find an appropriate retirement card last night, I made one up this afternoon. Yes, we were off to another retirement party; this time it was Ron Butler's turn; he'd formally left work on Thursday. His wife Lin retires at the end of this month. We met at O'Charley's and discovered to our delight that Terica and Ben had driven up from Warner Robins. We had a nice crowd which was of a size to have appeared to overwhelm the wait staff: we arrived at three and some folks didn't get served until way after four. But...whatever. We sat with Ben and T, and Juanita kept making circuits of the room talking about how much fun she was having camping, and then I visited Caran and we chatted how she and Shannon were now the only two left in the once formidable group of us that worked at CDC (me, Juanita, Alice, Clair, and T formerly, plus Keith and Jerry were both contract employees there at one time), and how much we were enjoying The Orville. After cards, gifts, and cake, we were on our own again and decided to go to Sam's Club. James needed "plastic cheese" and I needed milk and slivered almonds for my oatmeal. We got a rotisserie chicken as well. And then we headed home for a quiet evening. We really chilled; I even got tired of the television yammering and put on the Family Life Christmas channel (apparently they have orders to do replays on "Tennessee Christmas"...I heard it three times) which is all quiet mostly-instrumentals We chilled so much we didn't get into bed and shut the lights until 2 a.m. We had wanted to finish the shopping by Saturday night because today it was supposed to rain all day, or at least all afternoon. But when we got up around nine I had a wild hair. Barnes & Noble had something like 400 books on sale half price. I was interested in seeing if any were suitable Christmas gifts. James also admitted he needed mushrooms; we had only two cans left. (For James this is practically famine; he loves his veg and fungus.) So we skipped breakfast—James had a Belvita bar instead, but I couldn't stand the thought of something that sweet early in the morning—and slid out of the house about ten o'clock after I'd walked Tucker. I did a flying stop by Lidl to get fresh bread: two buns (one which I had for breakfast), a baguette, two chocolate chunk cookies for dessert, and Lidl's "dark chocolate" bar (that's its name, "Dark Chocolate"), and then we drove to Dallas Highway, where the Avenue at West Cobb has a Barnes & Noble. Across the street was a Kroger, and once again I just ran in—we had Butch and no power chair—and got some mushrooms and also scoped out the Easter candy: last year only Kroger had the Lindt dark chocolate Easter bunnies. And there they are again! So that's noted and logged. We came to this Barnes & Noble because it's small enough for James to limp around, and it has a café with enough seats that he can drop into one when his hips and knees really start to hurt. I am incorrigible. I left with five books, only one which was for a gift, including one I'd wanted for a while: Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. I also found this year's "Country Sampler" Home Tours edition, which I get each year. It's time for a new "Bella Grace," but I shall skip this one and the summer issue. All I ever do in the spring issue is scribble in the exercises how much I love the spring blossoms and hate my spring allergies, and as for the summer issue, all I do is rant against it. James got lucky: one of the half-price books was the new David Weber novel. We made it home just as the first drops of rain were beating upon the car windshield. This was followed by several hours of rain, during which I washed and dried the towels, sorted this week's prescription drugs, started gluing a project, and farkled around the computer, and watched the live stream of today's "Tech Guy," which totally delighted Snowy. We turned on the television to find the national news was talking about a tornado in Warner Robins, GA. James gave his mother and sister a call to make certain they were okay. We had the rotisserie chicken for supper along with the potatoes James made in the air fryer. They were quite good. The evening's entertainment was America's Funniest Home Videos, an episode of Perry Mason, and the season finale of Victoria. * James was rather reluctant to look at his tests results, as he's had certain problems of late. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that most of the results were good, and his creatitine score is down to 2.0. His BUN is still high, but one third of the score that it was when he was at his worst. We are crossing fingers that we are doing everything right and can continue to do so. He will see the urologist on Wednesday and the nephrologist on Friday. Next week he has to have a small skin cancer removed from his forehead. We are hoping for the best on this. Labels: books, Easter, food, friends, health, magazines, retirement, shopping, weather » Sunday, April 16, 2017
Easter Ease
It was a lovely, relaxing day. We slept until ten (of course we didn't go to bed until two, so it wasn't the sleep-in you might think). James walked Tucker whilst I sorted my meds for the week, then we had breakfast and I put on EWTN where the Stations of the Cross droned in the background while I tried to make order out of chaos. I finally got the winter decorations put up—yes, I've been slothful, but I just haven't had the heart or the time to take it all down (and puzzle-piece it back into the box, which is the most difficult part)—and put up the spring decorations, which are easy, because there are only a large clear shoebox of them. I'm afraid that I just can't get all het up about spring, except for the filigree-type china sheep. I also got the Christmas gifts off the hearth and put where they belonged. We'd completely forgotten we received a Regal Cinemas gift certificate; we could have gone to see Rogue One after all. Oh, well, I am off tomorrow, so maybe I can pick it up then. Someone—maybe it's Target—has it for $20 on BluRay.At noon we watched Easter Mass from the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in DC. Much beauty and pageantry, and a lovely service. They are having a new dome installed with what looks like an absolute magnificent mosaic on it. Afterwards we watched Easter things: the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, and finally Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We had shrimp grilled in butter/garlic/chive sauce and linguine for supper, but we skipped the dessert. Somewhere during the afternoon I brought out our Lindt chocolate bunnies and both of us ate the whole thing, so we had our dessert before our supper. 😀 The chocolate silk mini-pies will have to wait till tomorrow or a more prosaic meal. We watched Make Room for Daddy as well. I think James is quite enjoying them, although some are better than others. One story about Terry's friend who had neglectful parents was very pointed along with the humor, but the one about Danny thinking Kathy will be jealous of a woman appearing with him in Pittsburgh was kinda eh. And the finally it was time for Call the Midwife, in which we learned Sister Ursula's motivation, which explained a lot about why she was so strict and bitter. I felt quite bad for her by the time she left. She had forgotten she was there to serve Him and not "them." Labels: Easter, food, holidays, movies, television » Sunday, March 27, 2016
Bunny Hops
Hope everyone had a blessed Easter and is enjoying the first days of spring. It's certainly spring here: the trees and bushes are all in a riot of bloom, with the Bradford pears and the forsythia already past their prime and both white and pink dogwoods brave with blossom, and the daffodils and tulips bob their heavy heads Spring in the South would be gorgeous if everything wasn't coated with a pervasive yellow haze of pine pollen. The only Easter decoration I put up outside was the lily/cross flag, since all the spring decorations are clotted in yellow and I don't want to get the Easter things dirty. It rained today, but the only thing that did was to create a yucky yellow-edged scum over everything.Not to mention every bird in the neighborhood is singing a territorial song of domination and the sweet courting sounds of the chickadee (fee-beeeee, fee-beeee...) are still heard occasionally. I'd enjoy spring better if horrid, sticky, sweaty, summer with its sickly rancid asphalt-and-rotting mulch stench didn't follow. Due to our late night last night, watching The Amazing Dr. Pol and Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet, we were up very late this morning, giving me just enough time to perambulate the pooch and us to eat breakfast before we were off to the movie theatre near the old house to see Zootopia. Saw a whole bunch of Disney previews (Jungle Book does look compelling) and nothing more, so no Fantastic Beast this time. Zootopia was, in a word, terrific! I enjoyed the characters, especially Judy and Nick, who are Betty Roberts and Scott Sherwood in an alternative universe, the mystery plot, the villain reveal, and even the little lessons that were snuck here and there painlessly. And the ending! Oh, goodness! We will have to get the Blu-Ray, just to see all the details, because the picture on our television is probably three times better than the screen we saw it on—this was the bargain theater and the picture was so dark. We sat in the front, a little to the side, because I didn't want to sit in front of a little girl1, and both sides of the screen were so gloomy that we really didn't get all the brilliant details of the film. I've heard digital films are darker, but...really. And still love the wonderful joke with the sloths at the DMV: someone has visited the Rhode Island department of motor vehicles for sure. By the time we got home, it was almost time for dinner. We had ham with pineapple sauce, potatoes and butter, and a wonderful diced cucumber/tomato/onion salad with lemon balsamic vinegar and garlic olive oil. Tres manifique! We ate and watched Rick Steves' European Easter, which was pretty cool. He basically showed Spanish, Italian, Eastern European, and Greek customs, and I especially appreciated the latter, as I had never seen an Eastern Orthodox service before. The Spanish "procession" was very beautiful with all the golden floats representing Christ's life and passion, and the somber statues of a grieving Saint Mary. Later we watched the two annuals: The Easter Promise (the third Addie Mills story, with Jean Simmons as a local actress with a secret) and Rankin-Bass' generally rollicking Here Comes Peter Cottontail. The song "The Puzzle of Life" has helped me in a lot of unhappy moments. 1 I always snap back to my days going to Disney movies at the old Majestic Theatre in downtown Providence, now the home of the Trinity Square Repertory Company. The Majestic was a big old marble-facaded vaudeville house, and its seats were such even back then that everyone should have gotten a good view. Mother and I always came early, to get good seats. In case we needed to use the bathroom, we'd sit near the back, but she was always careful to pick a place where I could see the screen. And then, invariably, two minutes before the big red velvet curtain opened to reveal the Buena Vista opening screen of the 1960s Disney films, some tall adult would sidle in the row in front of us and invariably plunk down right in front of me. I remember a succession of films, from Thomasina to The Jungle Book, with some stupid grown-up's head right in the middle of my field of vision. And that's why I never sit in front of little kids, even with stadium seating! Labels: Easter, food, holidays, movies, television » Sunday, April 05, 2015
One Fine Easter Day
Just after midnight I went outside to put up the Easter banner, and I also pulled the resin cross from the background and put it on top of the china cabinet among the vintage-looking decorations. I never feel comfortable putting them up until Easter Sunday has begun. Then I continued chatting with Emma, and James and I watched the October 1962 episode of Our World.Needless to say, when I woke up this morning, I found James sitting at the side of the bed. "What time is it?" "Oh, about quarter to ten." That's all I remember until 10:53. :-) After breakfast we drove out to Acworth to see if Books-a-Million was open (basically the same thing we did last year). It was perfect out, just chill enough for me to wear my pashmina and James his light jacket and have the windows down in the truck. The Bradford pear trees are now gree-leafed instead of looking like big snowballs and it's way past forsythia blossoms, but there are flowering plums and cherry in purple and magenta still, and azaleas blooming in vivid reds and pinks, and now the white and pink dogwood flowers are out as well. We took our favorite "country" route, West Sandtown past "Addie's Pond" (a development that really has a pond, unlike all the "[Fillintheblank] Farms"), briefly on Dallas Highway, then down Due West Road, which goes schizoid at one intersection where Due West turns left, or goes right as Due West Kennesaw Road, and straight as Due West Acworth Road (got that yet?). There's only one shopping area, at that Due West crossroads, and the rest of it are homes, small acreages, and a few scattered developments. Had a lovely browse in Books-a-Million and got a new "Just Cross Stitch" and two decorating magazines, a discount book of Christmas humor, and a book I bought totally on a whim, Born on a Mountaintop, about the fictional concepts of Davy Crockett as compared to the reality of the man, with a big picture of Fess Parker on the cover. Intriguing. James and I shared a frozen hot chocolate—they really do them so well here—and then had an equally nice ride home. Sat down to watch the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise after we arrived home. Drat it, these stories will never get a good DVD release; all the interior shots had vertical streaks up the very left edge. Otherwise the picture is very nice; they seemed to have solved the problem with the house scenes being too dark and the garden scene being too glaring. During dinner, a yummy concoction of ham slices with a glaze of pineapple/cherry/honey, garlic potatoes, and corn on the cob, we watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail. If nothing else, Rankin-Bass will keep Casey Kasem's memory alive. Afterwards we watched Friday's Hawaii Five-0 and then it was time for Call the Midwife. Labels: books, Easter, holidays, television A Happy Easter to All! » Friday, April 03, 2015
A Quiet Friday
Since 2011, I have been taking Good Friday off to observe some spiritual time. (I tried just taking the afternoon off in 2010, but I barely made it home in time after working for four hours.) As a Catholic we're supposed to observe silence between noon and three, which is the time Jesus spent on the Cross. Sadly, these days, if I'm silent, I'm asleep. {wry grin} So I observe in other ways.Meanwhile, the morning is made for mundanity: getting eight hours sleep, having breakfast, taking Tucker on his walk, and doing chores: sweeping the kitchen floor, vacuuming the upper story, cleaning the hall bath. Right before noon, I had something to eat, and then sat down to do some reading and listening. I began with yesterday's and today's Mass readings on Laudate, and then eagerly turned on the BBC Lent Talks I have been hoarding since Ash Wednesday. Each year they do a series of six talks with a theme, this year's which was "Performance." I especially enjoyed the first two, the first by James Runcie, who wrote the Grantchester mysteries, in which he equated the Mysteries of the Passion with a real mystery story, and the second by Kate Saunders, who talked about being an Anglo-Catholic. The very last Talk was by musical conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, discussing Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passions, so I put that on after the talks were completed, from a performance on YouTube, and read The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. I'm enjoying this book, especially talking about how you can feel the love of God when close to nature, or with your family; you don't need to be in church. It's like this afternoon. It was a blessing of quiet and serenity. James stayed quite late at work last night, so he was home about 3:30. I had already walked Tucker again—he was really good between noon and three, except for a couple of barks—and was dressed to go out. Since he was early, we decided to have dinner at Golden Corral. Going to have to keep away from this place until I turn 60; dinner here is much too expensive anymore. Did get a nice variety of meat: steak, pork pot roast, dark meat turkey, chicken, popcorn shrimp, and seafood salad. James wasn't feeling well, so after a short stop at Publix, we just came home, and he ended up lying down for a while. I watched Doctor Who (the second two part of "The Keeper of Traken") and read a little while until Doctor Simon Locke came on. RetroTV announced way back at the end of last year that they were going to start showing Police Surgeon in the second quarter of 2015, and I was absolutely gobsmacked to discover on Monday that they were showing the series predecessor, Doctor Simon Locke, as well. Locke's gone down in TV annals as one of the first original programming results of the Prime Time Access Rule as well as a mediocre show in which what was going on behind the scenes was more interesting than the series itself. It was originally conceived as a series about a young doctor (Sam Groom) joining the country practice of an older doctor (Jack Albertson) and their clashing medical methods. Instead Groom's antagonist became the town sheriff (Len Birman) and Albertson was reduced to playing the crusty old doctor figure. The show was also shot on the cheap, not just on videotape, but providing no dressing facilities for the actors. We're not talking about plush dressing rooms here; they didn't even provide trailers for them, so that the actors were changing costumes out behind trees and bushes, sometimes in frigid weather. Scenes that were not quite correct were not being re-shot. Albertson, an Oscar and Tony winner, was very conscious of the show not being up to snuff and finally walked out on his contract. At that point, since the show had low ratings, the producers just moved Locke back to the city to become...go figure...a police surgeon. Television in 1971 had just swept away all its Westerns and cornball comedies and pretty much was doctors/lawyers/police all the time. I watched Police Surgeon for about a year, until Len Birman left, and dismissed it as a bore and quit watching. So after all this time...I'm still enjoying Doctor Simon Locke. The filming is mainly abysmal, there are many clunky lines and/or clunky performances, Jack Albertson is definitely not happy and it shows. But...put Locke up against any sort of reality television or totalitarian dystopia or endless zombies from a asshat cable channel who will remain nameless, and I will take Locke, warts and all, any day. Just wish it was on a channel I could record! At least I can update my Locke web page! Labels: chores, Easter, food, nostalgia, radio, reading, television » Sunday, April 20, 2014
He is Risen!
It was a nice Easter day. We slept late and had a leisurely breakfast, and then in the afternoon we made a quick run to Kroger because we needed mushrooms and a newspaper, and then went to Barnes & Noble for a nice walk about and a treat.Thankfully I was able to get a book review done as well. For supper we had luscious ham marinated in pineapple juice, Yukon Gold potatoes with butter, and sweet corn on the cob. Everything was wonderful. And of course some of a Lindt dark chocolate bunny for dessert with a Call the Midwife chaser. On to Cosmos (and later The Bletchley Circle). Nothing better for Easter than tears, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and mystery. :-) Labels: books, Easter, food, television » Sunday, March 31, 2013
» Saturday, March 30, 2013
Happy But Sleepy
After a nice Friday, it was simply too annoying not to sleep well last night. I had two dreadful what I call "nagging dreams," where something is wrong and I need to fix it, but don't know how, and it just nags and nags until I wake up. I woke up another time for a completely unrelated issue, and then because I had a bad stomachache, and then early because it was just so warm outside, even with the fan pointed directly on me, that I couldn't sleep. My head ached and my nose was all stuffed; evidently the pollen is already up and at 'em. My ears were ringing all day.We went to the Farmer's Market to get more chicken salad, bacon, and dog biscuits, and would have headed directly to Hair Day, had not James forgotten our contribution, succotash out of Bobby Deen's cookbook. This is an odd duck; to me succotash is corn and beans. This also has tomato, onions, and turkey bacon. James waited outside while I ducked in the Kroger on Macland Road to get the bread I couldn't find last night. We had a nice time at Hair Day. Juanita and Jessie could only pop in for a while, but after a while we had a houseful. We were able to stay until two, when we had to hit the road and go across town to the Marlay House for this month's Brittrack get-together. We had a small enough crowd that we could sit in the "snug" at the rear, but a large enough crowd to bat around stories and have a good time. I had a lovely cup of beef and barley soup, followed by the lamb stew, which I had to savor because they don't serve it in the spring and summer and it will be off the menu by next week. James went traditional and had "bangers and mash." It was a great time, and we were all reluctant to leave even at six o'clock. The rain predicted for later tonight started to spatter on our way home; it had been bright sun as we drove to Decatur, to the point where James got sunburned, but when we emerged it was finally cooler, breezy, and cloudy. An hour or so later it was raining in earnest, and—once again, blotted out a brand new Doctor Who not long after we'd started watching it! Blasted rain always comes at the wrong time! I've set all the repeats to record, so hopefully we'll get an intact copy, although we did get to see the last twenty minutes in standard definition. For the rest of the night we had on The Ten Commandments, one of those they-don't-make-'em-like-this-anymore films, with expansive, over-the-top performances. The special effects, like the pillar of fire and the snake/staff, are amusingly animated these days, but there's still a magnificence about it. And now that it's nearly midnight, I will go to put the Easter flag up. It has a cross on it and I don't like to put it up until after the proper hour. Labels: Doctor Who, Easter, food, friends, holidays, shopping, television » Saturday, March 23, 2013
If You Give a Linda a Wake-Up Call...
Ohhhh...after a week of 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. wake up calls, I was so looking forward to this morning to sleep in. Unfortunately James had to go to work this morning, but at least he got to sleep until 6:45 rather than six.The weather was predicted as being miserable, so I wasn't surprised when I got up for a "pit stop" that everything was grey and dark outside, perfect for sleeping. As I shambled back to the bed, drowsy-eyed, I noticed my phone was on. It does turn on in the mornings, so I shut it off and got back into bed, turned over...hm. Phone on again. Now, I have Timeriffic turn the ringer of the phone off at night, so when I looked at the phone a second time I realized I'd gotten a phone call. From James. He'd locked himself out of his truck and the keys to his desk were on his keychain. As he signed off, thunder pealed and I checked the phone. Oh, wonderful. Tornado warning. In a few minutes I was dressed, only to find Willow tucked up tight near the gate (presumably because of the thunder). But I had to leave her to take poor Twilight out in the pouring rain. The windshield wipers beat a boring accompaniment. So I got to the building and James got his keys, and I was headed home and back to bed until I thought...Easter cards. Publix has cards on sale. So I turned back to the store. They had several other things on twofer as well, and a box of bargain books at the front of the store. I rooted inside and found The Great Upheaval for myself, a gift book, and a board book copy of P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother?, which I adored as a little girl, with the cute baby bird and I thought little Jack Wallace across the street might like it. I also went to two more Publixes (Publi?) for cards and then came home. Hm. It was only 10:30; I could write out the cards and then mail them. So I did that, and realized I needed at least three more cards. So I printed out and then took the address list, plus the pens, the stamps and the return address labels with me, went to the Publix on Macland Road for the cards (and found dessert for next week to boot: Entemann loaf cakes were twofer this week—yum, chocolate pound cake) and wrote them out in the car, then drove down Powder Springs Road to the downtown Marietta post office to mail them. Well, since I was downtown...there are two new books I am dying to read, but they are both in hardback (Age of Edison and On Looking), so I thought "I'll try the library." As always, I was disappointed; the library only seems to get new books when they are best-sellers and all that chick-lit nonsense. However, I was amazed to find a Richard Lederer book in the stacks that I had never read (how'd that happen?), and I also picked up what looks like a humorous book on pronunciation, so I did not leave the library empty-handed. (I could have come home with more; they had a book about Edward VII and Queen Alexandra I'd never seen either.) In addition, I picked up a mystery book I'd enjoyed as a Christmas gift for a friend; the Marietta library, like the Smyrna library, now has a standing set of shelves with books for sale. This was brand new and perfect. So since I was coming home that way anyway, I stopped at Aldi for a gallon of milk and also got some bread for toast (toast mania continues), and then, finally, stopped at Kroger for gasoline and then really did go home. By then it was almost two o'clock! I had some toast for lunch with a glass of milk, answered a bunch of surveys on the computer—I know I get points for these things, but dang, they aggravate me, asking stupid things like how I "feel" about my credit card; seriously, guys, I use it, I pay it off, I gotta "feel" something about it, too? How stupid!—and then was so sleepy as the clock ticked by three that I gave Schuyler a kiss and told her I was going to take a nap. I remember waking once, about 4:15, thinking I ought to get up, but I hadn't slept on my left side yet...that futon is miiiiiighty comfortable, I tell ya. It calls your name. "Warm and woozy, soft and snoozy..." So the next thing I knew it was 5:30 and James was home. As we were going out the door, I noticed Kristie and the family were outside, so I grabbed the little book and took it to Jack. He's so cute! We had supper at Panera. James tried their new bruschetta pasta and said it was really good; they cooked the pasta properly and didn't turn it into mush. We also stopped by Publix on the way home because I had forgotten to pick up a Passover card, but after that there wasn't much else to do, so we came home. Watched an episode of Lassie ("The Brat"), an old episode of Flipping Boston, and last week's Elementary. Labels: books, Easter, food, gifts, holidays, shopping, weather, work » Sunday, April 08, 2012
An Egg-Citing Weekend
Last year I did something I found very pleasing: I spent Good Friday afternoon in quiet meditation—no doing chores, or dubbing off something, just inspirational reading. After the mess I ran into on Thursday, I didn't know if I could do it this year. However, I made enough progress on Friday morning to feel vaguely confident that I could do so again. Traffic was so fidgety that I just barely made it home, changed clothes, and had gathered my reading and listening supplies before it was noon. However, the ride home was super-pleasant because it had been cloudy all day and low 70s all day. When I got home I was able to open the door out to the deck and enjoy a nice breeze and hear birdsong.And it was so pleasant. I put on some low instrumental music (Aureole and then carols from St. Thomas in New York) and did the Mass readings from Thursday and for Good Friday, and also read the Lent and Good Friday chapters in Madeleine L'Engle's The Irrational Season, which follows the liturgical year. The rest of the time when I was reading, it was a continuation of the Monks of New Skete book I had begun earlier. I also listened to five of the six Lent talks that BBC radio broadcast this year (sadly, I missed one), my favorite being the mathematician who spoke about there being no conflict between science and religion. Online I also found a Stations of the Cross as narrated by Mary. An excellent afternoon. We had supper at Panera, then stopped at Barnes & Noble where I purchased Madelyn Alt's latest in paperback and the new "BBC History Magazine" (there's an article called "How Did the Tudors Smell?" by the author of The Time-Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, which has just come out in paperback) and the April issue of the British "Country Living." Later we stayed up to see Julie Scardina on The Tonight Show. She brought on two tamarinds (small primates), a hyacinth macaw, and three sun conures who fell in love with Kristin Chenowith's head. :-) Saturday we were up early to go to the Farmer's Market. This was the first day of the regular market, which means the vegetable vendors were back in the mix and the whole setup moved from Mill Street near the railroad tracks to the north side of Marietta Square. It was sunny, but there was a nice breeze, very comfortable for strolling! We bought fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet corn, and strawberries for dessert on Sunday, more goat cheese, homemade chicken salad, some double chocolate chip cookies, two bunny-shaped dog cookies for Willow for Easter (I know...like she'll know), and James got a tiny sweet potato pie and some boiled peanuts. We tasted some pot pie and bacon. Goat Cheese Guy had two little kids with him this time, a brown one about a week old, and a little white one someone said was born yesterday. Even the tiniest children could tell it was new and petted it oh-so-gently. After about ten minutes, it fell asleep. We passed on having breakfast downtown, as it does get expensive, and brought the produce home. Then we headed out for the day, first to the hobby shop for a while, not forgetting to pick up James' dress shirts next door at the dry cleaner, then to MicroCenter to return the stylus I didn't like, and finally to Michaels, where they were having a 30 percent off everything coupon day. You can't use the the coupon on sale things like you can at JoAnn, but this is the time to get those inexpensive bits of things that combine to make something bigger. In this way I have two nice gifts and some other stocking-stuffer type things. We also had a 10 percent off everything coupon for Cost Plus World Market, so we went over to see if there was anything interesting. Now, we have been talking about what type of a sauce to use on our lobster tortellini that we have for Easter dinner, and looking into some recipes for light sauces online. A straight tomato sauce would overwhelm the lobster taste, as well as anything garlic and butter. Cost Plus had different Italian sauces on sale, including brandy sauce and vodka sauce. These both had cream in them (the vodka one also has cheese) and we thought these might be more suitable. Also got some Japanese buckwheat noodles, summer sausage and salami at two-for-one, and some chocolate spread. We were home by three and could watch episodes five and six of the Barrington, RI, house on This Old House before supper; we had Papa John pizza, which was on sale if you ordered online. Excellent, and leftovers for lunch to boot. Later, James went downstairs to the Man Cave and I dubbed off last week's Castle and watched Easter Unwrapped as well as the version of Little Men with Mariel Hemingway. It was okay. I didn't like the kid they got to play Dan, and they worked in a silly "horse taming" metaphor into the subplot, and apparently John Brooke died from smoking (Laurie and Amy were not in the story, although in the book it is Laurie who sponsors Nat, not John). And what's with Nan hanging around Nat? Nat always liked Daisy best! I spent about an hour online waxing nostalgic. One of the people on This Old House was a woman who owns a home goods store in downtown Providence. She said she was located in "an old department store." So I plugged her address into Google Maps. I'm not sure, but she's either in or next door to what used to be Woolworths. I can tell because she's right across from the Alice Building, where I got my very first pair of glasses. I walked out of the building and the first thing I saw was the big bold, red Woolworth sign. If it's another store I don't recall which. I can look at that big green space where the Outlet Company was, see that the building that Read-All Books and later Strawberries was in has been knocked down for a parking lot, find the old Shepard's building and the iconic clock as well as the Arcade and the old Providence Gas Company building and the building where Newberrys was, but I am less clear on the stores I disliked: Gladdings, Peerless, Kennedys, Cherry and Webb, because they all carried only clothing. :-) I can still point out where Paperback Books was, even though the building front is radically changed, and I think they knocked down the building where my godfather's shoe store was. Later had a fun conversation with Jen, Mike, and Emma on chat. I've been being good and signing off at one, but it was Easter, after all, and I didn't want to go early as we were discussing movies and the lack of imagination in American television. James and I didn't get to bed until three and my silly alarm woke us up around nine or something. Ugh. James got up but I stayed in bed dozing until 9:45, waking to the lovely smell of peppermint chocolate-chip scones. I found these at Cost Plus after Christmas, along with pumpkin spice scones. James said he wanted to try the peppermint ones and they were delicious, especially with chocolate artisan butter. After breakfast we headed to Kroger to do the weekly shopping, running into Juanita's intended, David, in one of the aisles, brought the spoils home, then went on a more pleasant trip out to Books-a-Million in Acworth with yet another coupon. Now that "the ditch" is finished, it's a nice straight shot up Windy Hill to Macland, then right on Old Lost Mountain Road which becomes Mars Hill. This isn't exactly country any longer, but there are large properties interspersed with developments and it was a mostly nice ride until we got close to the store, as the intersection is very busy. We saw more rose bushes on OLM/Mars Hill, huge masses of them covered in bright scarlet roses. Lovely! Plus it was cool enough to drive with the windows down. We listened to a March segment of "The Splendid Table" on our drive. This is the only show I know that can make asparagus and wines sound tasty. A nice stroll around the bookstore netted us some magazines and John Stossel's new book for James and two gifts to put away and a fantasy book in my purchase. We tried to stop at Hobbytown on the way home, but they were closed, as was Michaels. Oh, well. We were home about 3:30 and I settled in to watch Here Comes Peter Cottontail and then the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise before supper. We used the brandy sauce and it was a bit more tomato-y than we expected, but did not overwhelm the lobster filling of the tortellini all that much. We had a cucumber and tomato salad on the side, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Willow had wet dog food we had picked up at Kroger this morning, one of the two rabbit cookies, and got to lick out the strawberry bowls. Schuyler got some millet. A very nice day, ending with Frozen Planet and Mythbusters. » Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Hot Enough to Boil an Easter Egg
I've been putting off putting up the Easter decorations because the porch was covered with caked-on, ugly yellow pine pollen, but after work I decided it was now or never; it would be ridiculous to be putting up decorations as late as Holy Thursday. James was late anyway, so I took Willow out, then pulled out the hose and rinsed everything down. Even with the spray from the hose it was like a bake oven out there; the brick porch just concentrates all the heat. You couldn't cook a pizza out there, but it would sure warm it up! By the time I'd finished hosing off the porch steps and rails, the walls were already dry and the front door and window only held a few spots.
I waited until after dark to put things out on the porch, figuring it would be cool. Fat chance. The air is thick and moist like the hot towel in an Old West town barber shop. But I put the things out, then decorated the Easter tree on the table in the foyer, flanking it on each side with Sunny and Pastille, the two Webkinz bunnies (I put the curly sheep that sheds and the basket of birds' eggs under the table on the shelf), and put Hazel the rabbit in the Easter basket on the divider and the standing rabbit before it. The resin statue of the little rabbit on the swing under the spring tree and the bunny resting on his back over a bowl that were Mother's I put on the tier table along with an egg topiary and the two crocheted ducks in crocheted eggs. I didn't really take any of the spring things down upstairs, just moved them about for cute chicks, foil-covered "chocolate" bunnies, funny chicks dressed up in feathers, resin eggs in figural egg cups, two rabbits that look like vintage statues and a bunny riding a sheep, two little white rabbits that look like they're out of a Rankin-Bass cartoon, and a wooden rabbit whose feet dangle over the side of the cart in the dining room, and a tiny stuffed lamb and stuffed bunny. In the end, instead of taking the spring garlands down to put the Easter ones up, I put one on the fireplace mantel and the other around the mirror in the foyer. As a last step I put the two small stuffed lambs, Baaasly and Baabsey (don't look at me; those are the names they came with) in a silver wire basket, flanked by the two stuffed rabbits, Rupert and Leonard, on the hearth. It all looks a little higglety-pigglety because the regular fall things are still up. Just call it mixed media. :-) Labels: decorating, Easter, holidays, weather » Friday, March 30, 2012
Shop Till You Stop
A fair sleep-in, the usual breakfast, then off to Publix to score some twofers. A treat this week is a coupon for two-for-one Hallmark cards, party supplies, or gift wrap. I got two things I can use later this year. Unfortunately I bought something refrigerated, so had to return home before I could go to Kroger, pick up my prescription, and finally get off to business.I stopped at Michaels for something else, but ended up with some clearance products, including something for [mumble]. :-) From there I went to Costco for another reason altogether, and found omeprazole on sale. Score! (This is how you know when you're getting old; you get het up when your medications are on sale...LOL.) I also bought a package of Forever stamps, since I was about to max out the remainder of mine. And finally I did get what I needed at Office Max: a tray to corral all my sticky notes and tabs for work. Bought a new pen and paperclip holder as well and messed around with the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet. Came home by the Publix near our Kaiser office, and bought two more cards, graduation cards for Aubrey and Jessie. I was going to get some soup from the deli, but they didn't have anything in a chicken flavor that I liked. I did find lamb shanks on sale and scored two of those, and bought a surprise for dessert Sunday night since James has to work. My final stop was at the Publix on the East-West Connector. This one had some appetizing chicken and wild rice soup which was so thick it was practically stew. I bought a couple more cards, then was teased by the enticing soup odor all the way home. I had it with some milk and a piece of the baguette I had bought during the first Publix stop—an excellent lunch!—while watching a cute movie I had recorded at Christmastime. Margie is the cute story of a teenage girl growing up in 1928 middle America (the movie was actually filmed in Reno, Nevada), within the framing story of a mother telling her bobbysoxer daughter (the film was made in 1946) the story of the bloomers and the chain found while cleaning the attic. Margie's mother has been dead many years and she lives with her grandmother; her reserved father is an undertaker and visits her on Wednesdays. Like everyone else in school, she makes sheeps' eyes at "Jonnykins," the coolest guy in the school (with the porkpie hat and the raccoon coat), who's played by Conrad Janis, the actor who played Mindy's father on Mork and Mindy, and is befriended by Roy, who writes poetry (Alan "Wilbur Post" Young in his first screen role). Then, like all the other girls, she develops a crush on the new French teacher. This is a fun movie, with a great soundtrack of 1920s songs. Margie's grandmother is atypical for movies of the time as she was a suffragette (thus the chain stored in the attic) and encourages Margie in her role on the debating team and hopes she will some day become the first woman President. There's a running gag about Margie's bloomers (she's a bit careless with her clothing) and also the subplot about Margie's dad discovering that his daughter has grown into an intelligent and vivacious young lady whom he should visit more often. Didn't get much else done since I had a bee in my bonnet about sending some Easter cards this year. So I sat down and wrote them out, and then realized I had no Passover cards. Well, rats. Luckily James got out early, and he had to go to Cumberland Mall to pick up his second pair of glasses; the first pair came in earlier this week. While he was at VisionWorks, I walked down to the Hallmark store and bought the cards I needed. Then we had to struggle our way northbound. It's the Friday before spring break and traffic was an appalling snarl everywhere; at 4 p.m. there were four traffic accidents in a seven-mile corridor on I-75 North. We completely abandoned not only the freeway but US41, and wound our way through surface streets (with only Powers Ferry being a slowdown) to get to Williamson Barbecue on Roswell Road where we were celebrating Ken Spivey's birthday. We sat with the Boulers and discussed books and e-Readers, ate yummy barbecue, traded talk with other tables, and watched Ken open his gifts. On the way home we used our last Baskin-Robbins coupon on dessert. So now we have a nice pile of cards to mail tomorrow. Going to pop the $20 we owe to the State of Georgia in the post as well. Labels: Easter, food, friends, holidays, movies, nostalgia, shopping, work » Sunday, April 24, 2011
Too Much Egg-Citement
Well, we shut off the alarms and tried to sleep late, but Willow started barking about nine o'clock and James got up to take her out.We had absolutely no plans. James made buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. I put on the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise, then Easter Unwrapped. Then we had to run to Kroger to do the weekly shopping. After we had the groceries finished, I sat down to watch Here Comes Peter Cottontail. About ten minutes into it, I saw Willow lie down on her bed, looking a bit ill. We had offered her a treat and she didn't want to take it. So I went down to sit next to her and pet her...and she threw up. (Not on me, thank God.) She threw up again three other times, once on the stairs and twice in the dining room. So we made her rest for a while and are now keeping an eye on her. We're not going to feed her until tomorrow and then see how she feels. She was hungry again by suppertime, so perhaps it's just an upset tummy. But it was pretty yucky to have to clean up, and now there are big patches on the carpet that are wet with little dots of paper towel on them to remind us not to step on it until it's dry. We bought a very small bit of uncured ham (four pounds) at Trader Joe's yesterday. James marinated it in pineapple juice, pineapple bits, a little mustard and brown sugar, and it came out exquisitely. We had it with potatoes, with a little cup of Edy's slow-churned ice cream as a chaser. Yum. Been dubbing off things all afternoon: Nova's "How Smart are Animals," and also And Man Created Dog. Then watched R5Sons Alaska and a Drew Carey's Improv-a-Ganza. The latter runs hot and cold; some of them have been very funny, others have been deadly. Now watching an old favorite: The Dream is Alive, which shows regularly on Documentary Channel. Labels: dogs, Easter, food, shopping, television » Sunday, April 04, 2010
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