 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, January 07, 2024
New Year: Parade Dreams, Films, Friends, and Fun
 This week began with the Rose Parade and ended with party cleanup.The Rose Parade was covered live on KTLA in Los Angeles and we watched that feed cast to the television instead of the commercial-ridden network broadcasts. Other than sorting medications for the week, did nothing on New Year's Day except eat junk food and watch Galaxy Quest. The day ended on a satisfactory note with the two-hour M*A*S*H retrospective: just the cast and the producers talking about the show and the changes of format, no dubious celebrities telling us how much they loved the show. Tuesday I updated all the copyrights on my web page so I could do my monthly web site backup. Except when I went to do the backup, the backup drive was gone. It usually sits next to my computer desk and has been in that location for over a year. But, apparently, it, and the container it was in, at some point tipped over and fell in the wastebasket, and it was sometime previous to when I emptied the baskets for trash last Thursday. Annoyed that I now have to go waste money on a new one. Kaiser still hasn't reupped James' referral to physiotherapy, so we went to MicroCenter on Wednesday instead; I got the cutest little two terabyte (it's about the size of a deck of cards) backup drive that can be hung up on the side of the tower instead of near the basket. It was a grey, bitterly cold day and it was good to get home after we went to Publix next door. Thursday we did our monthly trip to Canton: strolling the aisles of Books-a-Million, then lunch at Uncle Maddio's Pizza, and finally a stop at BJ's for maple syrup and fruit cups. On Friday James had his second iron infusion. I posted a short story on AO3 and cross-posted on Fanfiction.net. We ate supper out so as not to have to dirty dishes. Alas, it seems the Okinawa on Dallas Highway doesn't have beef bulgogi like the one on the East-West Connector. I had Mandarin beef instead, but it wasn't a fair trade. And Saturday was our Twelfth Night party! We ran to Hair Day quickly to get James' hair cut, then came home to finish tidying up and then it was time for food and conversation. We had a couple of call-outs as the Spiveys and the Butlers both were under the weather, but it was a great time anyway. Clay and Maggi and Bill and Caran were here until midnight talking up a storm. Sunday was cleanup day, and I went outside and took down the lights as well since there's a massive rainstorm coming on Tuesday. Watched three good movies this week: Operation Mincemeat (now I can't wait to read the book!), Feast of the Seven Fishes (which kinda reminded me of Mystic Pizza but more low-key; I liked the Italian family dynamics more than the jerky Yuppie mother who was trying to force the rich boyfriend on the blond girlfriend), and Knives Out, which was so really convoluted (and I thought some of the families on Law & Order: Criminal Intent were bad). Labels: books, computers, electronics, fanfiction, food, friends, movies, New Year, nostalgia, parties, shopping, television, weather  » Sunday, December 31, 2023
Holiday Week
Christmas Day was quite pleasant; we had a leisurely breakfast. We had no gifts to open--James hadn't wrapped mine (the Law & Order monopoly game) and his hadn't arrived from Amazon yet (a new food processor), so we watched The Little Drummer Boy and The House Without a Christmas Tree until it was time to go to the Butlers for dinner, conversation, fuzzy Christmas feelings, and a gift exchange.The food certainly beat Bay Breeze all hollow: perfectly cooked turkey, ham, and Clair's pot roast, over half a dozen veggie sides, desserts from pie to the little Favorina florentines, and of course Lin's cinnamon-and-sugar piecrust folds. She always makes them and I always hug her for it. I remember when I was a kid and would only eat the pie crusts; the filling didn't interest me at all. One of my aunts used to make the little pastries out of piecrust. too. HAPPY 2024, EVERYONE! Labels: birthday, Christmas, errands, food, gifts, health, illness, New Year, restaurants, videos » Sunday, January 08, 2023
Same Old New Year
We have had a rather blah new year. Neither of us felt much like celebrating. James' bad leg has been blistering again and it feels like I'm fighting the tide. We didn't even watch the Rose Parade, and I've watched it every year since I was a kid. It was just too much trouble to go look for the live link and watch it directly from California, which is so much better than the network crap.For the rest of the week we had to do the usual chores as well as prepare for the Twelfth Night party. This is our first one since the pandemic since James ended up in the hospital last year and we had to cancel. I was excited about it, and we had a very happy time seeing everyone again—Clay and Maggi even came up from Warner Robins—but I was as dispirited about prep as I was about cleaning up, and if I was dragging my feet putting up the Christmas decorations, it's going to be even harder taking them down (even though taking down is easier). My soul is so tired sometimes... » Saturday, December 31, 2022
Books! New Year's Eve! Books! Lunch Again Finally! And Did We Mention Books?
Monday morning my lower GI rebelled against all the rich food from Christmas dinner. I did get some cleaning done, but most of the day I was in the bathroom. Fortunately this let up by Tuesday because I opened Facebook that morning–
–and discovered that on Monday and Tuesday Barnes & Noble had every single hardback in their stores half price. I started the laundry then we went out forthwith, first to the B&N at Akers Mill, and then to the B&N in Buckhead, and bought lots and lots of Christmas gifts for next year, nine gifts all told including two for James, and, yes, I bought books for myself, including the Crayola anniversary book, the anniversary coffee table book for A Visit from St. Nicholas, full of wonderful illustrations, a Norman Rockwell dog book, a gorgeous Frances Mayes photo book about Italy, Sarah Miller's Marmee (same author who did Caroline about Caroline Ingalls), Vesper Flights, and Christmas Past. By Friday we were able to go back to our weekly lunches, although O'Charley's cheated us out of our salads this time, and by Saturday I'd found the Susan Branch calendar I'd misplaced, I wrapped up a few last gifts for the gift exchange at the Lawsons on January 14, and put up the 2023 calendars. We watched The Poseidon Adventure and Ellery Queen: "The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne," and finally Rudolph's Shiny New Year and had dinner, and spent the evening at Alice and Ken's to end off the year, enjoying snacks and goodies, and watching some football. Happy 2023 everyone! Labels: books, friends, movies, New Year, television » Thursday, December 31, 2020
And the Year Came Tumbling Down
I usually write about Christmas and New Year in Holiday Harbour, but these winter dates have been no holiday for us. 2020 ended, as it has for many people, on a bad note for us. On Christmas night, James developed a fever and his left food was red and swollen. On Saturday morning I took him to Urgent Care. Of course I was not allowed in, so I went off to make some after-Christmas purchases. I wandered aimlessly around At Home (formerly Garden Ridge), found a couple of things at And That, stopped at Barnes & Noble, then came back to Urgent Care. They released James about suppertime, with two doses of antibiotics and some Tylenol3 (Tylenol and codeine) for pain. I thought this was very strange, as the last time his leg and foot looked that bad, they kept him and gave him IV antibiotics. But we ate a small meal at Panera and went home. James seemed fine in the evening, but at bedtime when we uncovered his foot for him to wash, the foot was scarlet, swollen and angry. I was appalled. Why had they sent him home with antibiotics? He needed IV medication! I called the Advice Nurse and she said we should wait the forty-eight hours Urgent Care told us to wait and if he was worse to take him in. He did develop a temperature, so I suggested he take some Tylenol3 and see if it controlled his temperature. It didn't, but it rendered him almost totally insensible. I finally walked him to the futon in the spare room and there we stayed until he wasn't so zonked out. The next morning James' foot looked quite a bit better—it wasn't anywhere near as red or swollen—and he had no fever. This was the first day of his vacation and he rested and I did a few of my usual Sunday chores. But by the time bedtime was back, the foot looked horrible. I took him back to Urgent Care and they kept him overnight on IV antibiotics. On Monday morning, January 28, he was transferred to Emory St. Joseph Hospital. And there he stayed for four days. Even though the ingrown toenail I was treating since mid-month showed no sign of infection—not red, swollen, oozing pus, or any of the other signs—there was an infection, and it has turned inward. The reason James' foot was so red and swollen, and his left leg up to the calf was swollen and hot, was that the infection was growing into his bone. I am furious. If podiatry had cut the ingrown toenail when we asked about it at the beginning of December, this never would have happened. The doctor at Emory thought James was dehydrated and started loading him with IV fluid. Plus, he has not been able to wear compression socks, as he is required to to control the cellulitis on his left leg, due to his swollen foot and leg. So wham, next his left leg broke out into blisters, including a big bottom-of-a-teacup sized blister on the arch of his foot. We had to nag them for a couple of days to just bandage the thing. In the meantime James was given IV antibiotics. Several things bothered me about his hospital stay. I would have settled for the olden days visiting hours of two to four and seven to nine, just to get some input. He said everyone was very nice to him, but they never gave him a sponge bath, and he had to complain that the blister was leaking on the floor when he walked before they bandaged it. He wasn't sure he was getting all his medication (he wasn't). We asked them to get James an unna boot like they use at the Wound Clinic at Kaiser and put it in a pressure bandage, but instead they have just wrapped it in some zinc-impregnated bandage ("viscopaste," nasty stuff) and covered that. Since he was required to treat it once he came home, I had to learn how to rebandage it by contacting James on Zoom and watching the nurse do it. How frustrating and infuriating. New Year's Eve they fitted him with a PICC line. This is a catheter that goes into a main vein of the heart to deliver antibiotics. On New Year's Day they will send supplies and a nurse to the house to show James and I how to give him IV antibiotics twice a day through this line until February 10! (We tried to get a home health nurse but Kaiser would not allow it because they say we are capable of doing this ourselves. They would only send a nurse if we were incapacitated in some way.) We will also have to go to Kaiser once a week to get the PICC line cleaned. Every day I will need to irrigate it, prepare James' medicine to go through the IV tube, connect it to him and let it flow, and then irrigate it again and flush it with Heparin, in the morning, and at night. And all with keeping it germ-free. What a wonderful new year this will be! [I'm sure you don't need a sarcasm alert for that statement, either.] Emory didn't release him until 8 p.m., what with one thing and the other, and by the time we got home we were both exhausted. He'd probably slept eight hours in the four days he'd been there and was tired out. We sat in the living room and cossetted Tucker for a while, because he was trembling at the fireworks already going on outside, but finally we got James cleaned up via sponge bath, and by the time 2021 began we were already in bed, listening to the cannonade of fireworks going on outside from various homes in the neighborhood.
» Tuesday, December 31, 2019
And So, It's New Year's Eve Again
It's a chilly day, starting out in the 30s, going up to the 50s, just the way I like it. When I took Tucker for his walk, the sky was a fierce, bright blue, the kind of color that hurts your eyes in its beauty. Birds were calling from the trees and a brisk wind swept in from the north; hard to believe two days ago it was 70°F—I much prefer the weather today, even if I could have used a heavier coat and stockings!
James is teleworking today. The swelling in his hand appears to be going down, and it hurts less, so we are crossing fingers that it was only a sprain he got when he probably slipped and caught himself (possibly when he thwacked his elbow and made it bleed on the sheets). We ice it three times a day and support it other times with an Ace bandage. I think having him not go into work yesterday, as the advice nurse suggested, was a good idea; he didn't have to risk losing his balance again or having to catch or push something with his bad hand, or lift his laptop case. Tucker is experiencing his usual anxiety about the popping noises outside. He desperately hates fireworks. We tried tranquilizer treats on him last year and they did not work, even though we took the Petco lady's advice and started them almost a week early. At night he huddles next to me on the sofa or James on the recliner and shivers. Nothing bothers Snowy—unless it's a loud noise close by or Mommy doing weird movements on her stepper. He's enjoyed the last few weeks with all the familiar Christmas stories and music playing away in the background. Raise the volume, he sings louder. He had a good time last night when I ran an old recording of the Boston Pops holiday concert, with Conan O'Brien reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas." We had a quiet Christmas, but it's hard to tell because it zipped by with the speed of light. One minute Thanksgiving was over and now it's New Year's Eve. I know I decorated, made cookies, replaced 150 light bulbs on two Christmas trees (I still haven't told that story yet), walked around downtown, went to the ARTC Christmas performance, and to the Butlers' for Christmas, but that all seems like it went by in seconds. Maybe the best thing about work turned out to be how the hours crawled by any time I was in the office. 😕 I can't say it's been a bad year because we had only one scare and that ended up as spending the night in the emergency room. James did have to have those two skin cancers removed, one from each side of his face. Glad that, after a false start, the Plaquinil Dr. Salazar prescribed for James did work and he's not in such terrible arthritis pain, that the new blood pressure meds helped as well, and that just by tweaking his work snacks we reduced his A1C numbers. I want to keep this positive vibe up, because most of this year I feel like I've been an emotional wreck. I am not over the car accident last year: I hate driving anywhere anymore, even if it's to Lidl to get some of their amazing "dinner rolls," and, as James will (somewhat irritatedly) tell you, I am hyper-nervous when we drive in traffic. I am so glad I do not commute anywhere any longer (especially since traffic on both of my previous routes to work grows worse every day, and each nightly news show is lit up with the horrible accidents every day). I don't seem to get any comfort out of my crafts or writing any longer; it's only when I can disappear into a book with that great soother of souls, instrumental Christmas music, in the background, that I feel any peace at all. I feel like a lot of times I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I spent Sunday prepping a new journal; sometimes it seems as it is the sole thing that keeps me sane. Yesterday I started writing out a "20 for 2020" goal (re Gretchen Rubin's "Happier" podcast) and ended up with only seventeen items. I also answered the questions in the back of this year's journal and my answers came out pretty sad. Today I slept nearly eight hours and already I'm in the mood for a nap! » Sunday, December 31, 2017
No Fireworks Inside
It's been a quiet New Year's Eve day. I had a screaming nightmare last night and then was sick, so I slept in until nine. I really didn't feel like getting up at all. I didn't have the heart for it. James had gotten up a little earlier and had his breakfast. I had mine and just watched Dr. Pol. We had a grilled cheese sandwich and an orange for lunch and I put on The Nine Tailors, because the mystery starts on New Year's Eve. This is my second-favorite Lord Peter Wimsey story, and even if Ian Carmichael was much too old to portray young Peter going to war, I think including him in the wedding party worked better than having an information dump, which is fine for a book.
I took some time today to wash and dry the towels and of course the pills had to be sorted and the bed made. I was still feeling down by suppertime. Since we originally planned to go to Bill and Caran's party, we just ate a cursory bite of what was leftover for our party contribution, peanut pork in phyllo cups, and I put on "A Year for All Seasons" from M*A*S*H and Ellery Queen's "The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne," but didn't even have the heart to put on Rudolph's Shiny New Year. But I was feeling so emotionally weary, and while I would have loved to have seen everyone, the idea of driving 45 minutes across town exhausted me, and the idea of doing it again after midnight exhausted me even further. So we stayed home and watched Rogue One and soothed a nervous terrier as the booms went off outside, and then switched to Steve Harvey. Been a bummer of the past two days. I was so determined 2018 would be better. Now I'm not so sure. . . . . Fr. Mulcahy, M*A*S*H Labels: dogs, health, New Year, pets, television » Monday, January 02, 2017
The Party's Over
Well, this was it. The last of eighteen days of freedom. Most were wonderful to okay. One was scary. Two were depressing.
Today was...rainy. But we needed the rain. I was inside warm and dry (except during dog walks) where James was teleworking. Slept until almost nine, had the usual breakfast and dog walk, and settled in to do my annual chore: updating the copyrights on my web pages. Between my web software and Firefox's FTP software, this didn't take too long. Keep looking at my web page, which is now so dated, and I've never done web pages for Snowy and Tucker. I keep promising myself to do something, and then when I have time, I have no inspiration. So...just waiting. Cleaned up a few things in my craft room, tossed some stuff away, but most of the day I was recording off the BBC and reading Facebook and Christmas magazines and listening to Christmas music. We had the Christmas tree on, and James' work was very slow. In the morning we watched the Tournament of Roses Parade on HGTV with no commercials. The usual colorful show: beautiful floats, bands, horses. Several cavalry troops. Farmer's Insurance did a float based on one of their commercials (the swimming dogs). Netflix's float featured the Little Prince. The National Hockey League had a float to celebrate their 100th anniversary. There was a neat Monkey King float that made me want to watch Alakazam the Great again. The Trader Joe's float had a steampunk "driver." Was going to watch this year's outdoor hockey game, but it wasn't snowing, so, no fun. We got mail today; my winter flag arrived, covered with snowflakes and nice and blue. Beef bits and Yukon Gold potatoes for supper, and I'm now watching The American St. Nick, about an American soldier who played St. Nicholas in a Luxembourg town in December 1944. Labels: holiday, New Year, television, weather, website » Sunday, January 01, 2017
Drippy New Year
Well, it hasn't been the most sterling New Year's Day.
As always, we drove out to Bill and Caran's New Year's Eve party last night. Rain is predicted for the next two days, and it was already drizzling, cars were darting in and out of traffic, and on the freeway we got in back of a car from Florida being driven by someone who had evidently already been celebrating, as he/she was weaving in and out of lanes (but still using a turn signal; go figure). We called 911, but since we didn't have the plate number, it wasn't really useful. Anyway, I hope he got where he was going safely. We had a great time. It was a smaller crowd than usual, probably because of the weather, but it didn't matter. All the company was good, and both Chris Cook and Marilyn Teague were there—we hadn't seen Marilyn since her husband died, and Chris for several years. There were lots of nice goodies besides our chicken sausage: quinoa and rice, two big cheese balls, cold cut slices and various breads, little smokies, pigs in blankets, and a tray of cocktail shrimp. By the time the ball dropped in Times Square, I was crying with relief (although 2016 extracted one final piece of flesh, as we found out William Christopher had passed away). I'm not sure I'm allergic to shrimp, but it does have detrimental effects on my digestion. If I'd had the brains God gave a goat, I would have had one and left it, but no, I had a few. James was sort of quiet as we started out home. Right before he got onto the freeway, he admitted that he was having some type of a pulling feeling in both armpits. I wasn't doing so well myself. I'd left the house feeling fine, but by the time we were well on our way, I suddenly was feeling two different urgent calls of nature. Even worse, everything I'd eaten, which wasn't a lot, was starting to give me heartburn, and when my heartburn is at its worst, my heartbeat feels like it's irregular. It was raining in earnest now and the freeway was all spooky, shiny slick with rain and reflections from headlights and rear lights and buildings. Spring Road was terrible for this, as it's lined with orange construction barrels. Everything looked Dutch tilted. James told me testily that the pain was not in his chest or jaw or down his arms, just a pull under his armpits. We made it home and he said the moment we got in, the pain vanished. Perhaps it was just tension from having to drive home in such weather? I took my heart pill when we got home, too, and that straightened out part of my problem. I ran to the bathroom, but was sick for the rest of the night. James got ready for bed with a tiny recurrence of the tugging (but not when he came up the stairs) and a headache. I was sick to my stomach by then and we didn't crawl into bed until 3 a.m. Not sure when I fell asleep, but I know when I woke up: it was seven o'clock and I had a terrible stomachache and my right ear was ringing like a churchbell. Sat freezing in the bathroom until I gave up after I had to get up a third time and put on socks and the fleece bathrobe we keep hanging up in there. I didn't get back to sleep, and finally about 8:30 just got into clothes to go lay down on the futon. Out of sheer frustration and fear I started to cry, waking James the rest of the way up. He told me the tugging had gone away the moment he got some sleep. (It came back briefly today, not when he climbed the stairs twice and took the dog out, but just walking from his computer to his chair; he fell asleep and it went away again. He'll have to tell all of this to Dr. Mobley on Thursday.) I spent the day on the sofa, reading, and asleep for at least two hours. Watched a bunch of Aerial America episodes: California, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and New England. Had some bread and milk only for lunch. Outside it gloomed and drizzled and finally poured. For supper we had the homemade turkey soup with the square "pot pie" noodles. It was epic! Gingerbread men for dessert. Watched AFV and then this year's HGTV Dream Home. It is another remodel this year; have they taken flak for building new homes? This year's is a beach house on St. Simon's Island. The host is gushing over the views out the back door, which include this fetid looking creek. He's thinking view and I'm thinking mosquitoes! Beach people are weird. ツ Looks good in some rooms, though. And now it's time for Sherlock... Labels: friends, health, New Year, television, weather » Friday, January 01, 2016
The Happy New Year
It did not rain on New Year's Eve, so James went in to work. I tried to sleep later because of Bill and Caran's party later on, but finally I had to get up to get things done. First there was breakfast and dog walking, and then working a little bit on my craft projects and putting things away. About 11 o'clock I went out to pick up what I needed for the party: French bread.Sadly, Publix didn't have any and neither did Sprouts. I did get yogurt and Triscuit for our party at Publix, and just picked up sourdough bread at Sprouts, along with cashews for James, Italian wedding soup (of course), some of their huge chicken legs and great beef bits, and some great salami slices on sale. In fact, if I'd seen the salami before I got the idea for the beef paté, I would have bought the salami for tonight. I had it with their gluten-free crackers for lunch. James was let free early—a good thing, too, since he didn't bring lunch intending to eat at the cafeteria and it closed at eleven—and picked up gas and a hamburger on the way home. So since we had a nice free afternoon, we went to see Star Wars: the Force Awakens. Enjoyed it quite a lot, even if one character seems overly emotional (and a little like a young Severus Snape). Yeah, when the bridge scene came up, I pretty much knew what was going to happen; after all, "the Montana speech" had been made earlier. Loved the Rey character and also Finn, and of course it was heartwarming to see all the old familiars again: Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, R2D2, and C-3PO. However, at the price they're charging for "bargain" matinees ($9.36 each! and I got a senior rate!), I think I'll wait to see it again when the Blu-Ray comes out. Plus, what is with the sound at the movies these days? We noticed this the last time we went, too: it is too freaking loud! Is everyone deaf today? Came home to have a bite to eat and for James to fix the beef-and-mushroom paté: he chopped up the roast beef I bought and mixed them with minced mushrooms, then warmed it in cream of onion soup with some beef stock and red wine. Yummy, but I wish we could have kept it warm. It tasted better that way. Sat down to watch Rudolph's Shiny New Year and then the Ellery Queen episode "The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne" before dressing and leaving for Bill and Caran's annual party across town near Stone Mountain. It was a relatively small crowd this year. Sat talking to Alice and Ken and Clair and Daniel most of the evening, and even at midnight could still get near the television to see the countdown both at Times Square and at the Peach Drop. We stuck around way after midnight and did not get home until 2:30 and didn't get to bed until 3:30 a.m. when we were very happy to shower and crawl into bed. Slept in so long this morning that we missed the first ten minutes of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Also realized we still had the air conditioner still on, and not the auto setting. It got so chilly last night it was 61°F in the house this morning. It was wonderful for sleeping; now that it's cold again I can shut the vent in the bedroom so we can snuggle happily under the blankets. Absolutely great parade. The theme was adventure as a salute to the anniversary of the National Parks, and the Grand Marshal was documentary maven Ken Burns, so there were many beautiful floats of animals and birds and beautiful plants. Of note was a gorgeous float in salute to Downton Abbey, and later a Disney anniversary float with Frozen at the front, the castle in the center, and Star Wars at the end. Apparently although George Lucas thinks Disney bastardized his story he wasn't upset enough not to ride on the float. After the presentation of Disney characters, fireworks shot out of the castle. Cool. Plus all those wonderful horses, of course, and some huge bands that filled the screen of the television. We were pretty much in a ho-hum mode today. We didn't even get dressed to go anywhere, although I was happy to discover it was finally cool enough to wear a sweatsuit! We didn't even have a special New Year's dinner, but ate the Italian wedding soup. After we finished with the parade, I eventually put Galaxy Quest on. We saw this at the movies the very first time on New Year's Day and have pretty much watched it at New Year ever since. When it completed, I noticed that Close Encounters of the Third Kind was on TCM. This was one of my dad's favorite movies; he actually paid to see it a second time and he was too thrifty to do that any other time. I still enjoy watching Richard Dreyfuss' odyssey and the wonder in his eyes at the end. In the interim between flying saucers and awaited stories, we watched the program about this year's HGTV "Dream House." They renovated a house this year instead of building one, although with all the repairs they had to do they might as well have built a new one. A nice house, but not with some of the special features that previous houses have had, and I simply hated that the television was off in a little room off the kitchen, like they expected you to sequester yourself there, and do nothing in that big main room but watch the water. The house was on Merritt Island in Florida and all I could think about was sitting on that big patio with about four million mosquitoes. No thanks. People can keep "the Great Green Swamp." Finally it was time for the premiere of the Victorian special of Sherlock that they have been teasing us about for so long. Both Cumberbatch and Freeman looked terrific in Victorian clothes, and I loved all the sly little asides to "Watson's" stories in "The Strand." There were a lot of inside references that told you the story wasn't all that it seemed—Mycroft gave one big clue himself (I like that fact that in the Victorian iteration Mycroft was his usual weight)—until the switching back and forth began. I wasn't twelve minutes into it when I broke into a big grin and stayed that way for most of the story. Finished off the evening with the news and the Maine episode of Aerial America. I believe they have filmed all the New England episodes in the autumn, which is when it shows its best face. The trees in this one were absolutely spectacular. Labels: food, holidays, movies, New England, New Year, television » Thursday, January 01, 2015
» Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Best Wishes for 2013!
» Monday, January 02, 2012
Just Another Monday
 Or would have been, except for the Tournament of Roses Parade. We had breakfast well in hand as the HGTV "Making of" show aired, mostly showing how the HGTV float, based on this year's "Dream House" built in Park City, Utah, was constructed. This one has a snow machine as part of the design.Well, it was a lovely sunny day in Pasadena, perfect for a parade. There was some inventive stuff this year against a theme of imagination, including a float with three dinosaurs, many dream sequences, a super flying saucer presentation with little green aliens, a float from Paramount Pictures that went from the biplane in Wings to the starship Enterprise, enough marching bands to fill several stadia, and a final float that was a tribute to Roy Rogers, playing "Happy Trails" to end the parade. Unfortunately the HGTV announcers are developing more logorrhea every year. How about shutting up and letting us listen to the marching bands, guys? (The Wisconsin band, of course, was playing "On Wisconsin"!) Once the parade ended, we had to get to the errands. Since we needed various things and not just a headlight bulb, we went to Wally World. James found two more strings of blue Christmas lights in someplace totally unrelated to the Christmas clearance area (which was pretty much stripped; just junk left; I did get three clear snowflakes for winter decor, and also some small autumn paper plates for a future game night), I picked up some socks, noted some sweatshirts and pants, and we did get the headlight bulb for the truck. We came home the long way, via Publix, to pick up paper towels on sale and buy a few twofers and more supplies for the party. I think all we have left to get is the chicken wings. We were barely in the garage when James started disassembling the headlight in order to get the old bulb out. The left headlight is cheek by jowl to the battery and it was a concern for some minutes for him working in such a small space. But he finally got the light unplugged, the rubber protector off, the spring that held the lightbulb off—only to discover that the guide to buying the lightbulb at Walmart had given us the wrong number and therefore the incorrect lightbulb. So we had to pop in my car and run up to Advance Auto Parts for the correct type. Once home, it was replaced in a trice while I ran outside to "help" our log reindeer. It has been clear and sunny, but terribly windy today, the type of wind that sneaks under your coat and down your collar no matter what you do. It was rattling the banner so much that I took it down for the evening, but I did right "Woody" and "Holly" and replace Holly's antler. Alas, one of Woody's antlers (a tree branch with bows on it) had vanished completely. Spent what was left of the afternoon reading and watching "Lassie's Gift of Love." James took one of our containers of turkey soup and made it with dumplings, ala chicken and dumplings, a warm treat for such a chilly evening, thick and savory, with small dumplings, vegetable flakes, and pieces of turkey. Labels: errands, holidays, New Year, television, weather » Sunday, January 01, 2012
Tracking Unicorns...
» Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wishing You a Happy Sylvester...
» Friday, December 30, 2011
Time Flies...
» Saturday, January 01, 2011
Rainy Days and New Year Always Get Me Down...
Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2011! » Friday, December 31, 2010
As the Clock Counts Down...
 ...we count our blessings, talk to our friends, garner one more treat, and enjoy home in Holiday Harbour.Labels: Christmas, Holiday Harbour, New Year |
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