 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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» Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Christmas After All
 During the afternoon I made a short jaunt to Lidl to pick up milk and bread, including a loaf for Christmas dinner. Afternoon dinner was a bit of a disappointment. We usually have macaroni and "gravy" on Christmas Eve, and I made some sauce yesterday, but the boneless pork ribs I used were very lean and hard, and it seemed overcooked. Something fun happened later in the day. A few days ago I was listening to a "Happier With Gretchen Rubin" podcast when she talked about something called a "chaffle," which is a waffle made with one egg and shredded cheese, the ultimate in low carb. I told James about it, and he was intrigued enough to order a small, one-waffle waffle iron from Amazon. It arrived and for supper he made "chaffles" with Swiss cheese and some with cheddar. I tried one of the Swiss. I really hate the taste of cooked eggs, so I poured on the maple syrup alà Addie Mills and found it bearable. Maybe I'll have some eggs once in a while via chaffles. I had Christmas specials on all day and we watched The Homecoming at night. James got so busy with the chaffles that we never did go out and see Christmas lights, and it had to be an early night due to his teleworking next day. I remember all those Christmas mornings I was up in the "wee smalls" because I just couldn't wait for Christmas morning! Since I couldn't get up my mom and dad early, I would gather up my stuffed animals instead and have Christmas with them (I would buy them new ribbons at Garr's Fabrics every year). But now I'm an adult, and the best gift is sleep! So James was at his post at seven, and I slept until after eight. Spent the morning prepping and then the afternoon cooking up the green bean casserole and the baked maple butter carrots I was taking to the Butlers. We had lunch about one and then opened gifts. James gave me three books, a Babylon 5 guide I didn't have, the Rivers of London novella The Furthest Station, and Tip of the Iceberg, a man who travels around Alaska. He also found a new Uno game for me, Uno Flip. This has a second side of differently colored cards that you play when you get a "Flip" card in the regular deck. I bought him a Jethro Tull performance DVD, a book on the sinking of the Bismarck, and one of the two new "1632" alternative history stories. "The fids" also "bought" us seasons 4-6 of Perry Mason so now we have the entire series (which even CBS All Access doesn't!). About three I gathered up the food and the gifts and drove to the Butlers' house for Christmas dinner. James would join us after he finished work. It was a lovely dinner, but Ron and Lin always have a lovely Christmas for all of our "family by choice." Each of the dishes was made with love by someone. Charles cooked a 27-pound turkey. Alex made a roast and Clair a pot roast with delicious gravy. The Butlers bought a Honeybaked ham and Ron made his killer mashed potatoes and Lin made pies. Then there was a big relish tray, corn pudding, the French bread I brought, and biscuits, and challah bread, and our carrots and beans. The green beans came particularly well even though I never did anything like this before. James walked me through it: saute some onions, then I made a mix of cream of celery soup, chopped up fresh celery into it along with slivered almonds, and then layered the onions and the frozen beans, pouring the mixture on top of them, and sprinkling the top with French's french fried onion rings, baking until it was hot. Clair particularly liked it with with the cream of celery soup. Then we talked awhile and had dessert, and talked more and did presents. I opened two and saved another two until James got there, which he did rather late. Almost everyone had left before he was able to arrive and eat some of the food I saved him, but mostly to talk with those who were left. Helped tidy up a bit and then left Ron and Lin to some post-Christmas peace and quiet. Luckily our usual Thursday-Saturday weekend was upon us and we could stay up a little while to digest our dinners. Labels: Christmas, Christmas music, food, friends, gifts, radio, shopping  » 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 » Tuesday, December 30, 2014
A Proper Tuesday
I've finally had the day I've wanted since before Christmas! I had two nice walks with the dog, and did little chores and all the laundry between reading favorite Christmas books and listening to BBC4X—Adrian Mole at Christmas, the Ladies of Letters, and a series about the history of home life in Britain, not to mention a program about the Wise Men and another about the craftsmen in Italy who make creches.James came home in the afternoon and went down to the Man Cave for a while. We had steak and potatoes for supper and later I put on Little Women (with Winona Ryder). The scenery is so lovely in this, and I love the score. » Wednesday, December 24, 2014
The Long Coast Until Christmas
All that preparation, and it all leads up to this: the day before Christmas! All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. How quickly it's all gone by! It seems like yesterday we got back from vacation and were getting ready for Thanksgiving!
It was the usual at first this morning: get up, walk the dog, eat breakfast. It was still gloomy out, but not cold at all, as the cold front wasn't expected till this afternoon. I spent the morning working with some old Christmas photographs to post on Facebook, including two from my first Christmas, when I was only two weeks old. I had BBC4X and was listening to Christmas radio shows, one about stars, David Sedaris' "The Santaland Diaries," and the first part of the very last episode of Cabin Pressure. About 12:42 Snowy burst out singing, and not much later James arrived home. He seems to have a time sense the way Frisky did when I was a kid; he'd always start singing at 3:30 when my dad left work and then put his head under his wing and fall asleep when he arrived. It was as if his job was finished and he could relax! Dad always wondered why the bird was always asleep when he got home! If Frisky didn't sing, invariable Daddy would call to say he was working late. Mom would say "I know, the bird isn't singing." We watched Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 as our late afternoon offering. I think this is James' favorite Christmas film, along with Mickey's Christmas Carol. An American pilot flying a small plane to New Zealand is lost when his navigation equipment fouls up and a New Zealand airliner piloted by an American expatriate is the only one who can help him. Considering the stars spend three-quarters of the film stuck in a cockpit, this is amazingly suspenseful, and after years of viewing we still cheer at the end. I also watched The Night Before Christmas, an animated story about how "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was written, but didn't have time for The Little Drummer Boy because we went out to look at lights. We did some neighborhood lights first, including that development on Old Concord Road where all the homes have double glass doors as front doors. One house is very striking, with white lights and a red spotlight on the front. Then we drove on to see "The Lights of Life" at Life University. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper until you got to the place where you had to pay (alas, no longer free!), and then the rest of the drive was fine. Santa and his team were taking off in their usual place over the playing field, "Santa's Flying School" was up on the main hill surrounded by Christmas trees of all colors, and they had the religious iconography (a nativity, a Menorah, and Noah's Ark) in an alcove in the rear. The sea serpent swam in the pond and near the apartments Victorian couples celebrated with a kiss and bears snowballed each other and penguins cavorted before igloos. Then we came back by way of Spring Road and the Park View community before returning home and I put on The Homecoming: A Christmas Story as always. Later NBC played Midnight Mass from the Vatican, but Channel 11 cut off the Pope smack in the middle of preparing Communion for yet another replay of the Spellman-Morehouse College concert. And a Merry Christmas to you, too! Besides, it was bedtime anyway. Labels: birds, Christmas, Christmas lights, movies, pets, radio, television » Sunday, November 16, 2014
Descent Into Rain
Sadly, the bed here is not as good as the one in the cabin last year ("Creek Fever," a couple of cabins down the dirt lane); the other was much firmer and had better pillows), but at least I didn't have to climb into it. I felt like Tenzig Norgay last year. This cabin doesn't have a drawer front falling off, a broken can opener, and other problems, and the hardwood floor in this one ("A Love Shack"--I know, that's so wet, as the Brits say) is fabulous. However, we were both so tired last night that we fell asleep not noticing there was a window in the loft bedroom. But the light woke us up! And, miraculously, we slept fairly well.
After Tucker had his walk, we started out to breakfast. Trish's Place isn't open on Sunday, so we dropped our registration papers off at the office and went to the Mountain Lodge, which was recommended to us. It was a good breakfast, but not as good as Trish's. Then we went through our favorite back route to Sevierville, full of farmhouses and cattle and little Baptist churches, marked with fading fall leaves but surprising bits of color, autumn decor on some homes, and a nice sense of peace, except when the crazy Tennessee drivers pass us. These people drive so quickly on these narrow roads! We spent an hour at the Tennessee Aviation Museum, which was a refuge from the rain that had finally started in earnest. James bought a lovely Thunderbolt T-shirt and some Christmas ornaments as we exited. Since the weather report is talking about ominous black ice on Tuesday, we stopped at Kroger for extra suppers and a lunch, and some peppermint cocoa from Starbucks. Then we had a late lunch/early supper at Mel's Diner. The food here is fabulous. I had mesquite beef bits with their onion rings (best onion rings ever) and applesauce. James had meatloaf. From there we tried to stop at the Incredible Christmas Place, but the place was SRO because of the rain. As we walked around the smaller Christmas place, my back started giving me fits (it's been cramping since yesterday) and we just went on to do a quick recce of the Book Warehouse. My back gave out in earnest before we were even done and we had a scary ride up the East Parkway because the numbskull behind us had his brights on and it was reflecting off the fog drifting over the road; James was finding it hard to see with the glare in his eyes. I had my heart in my mouth several times despite him being a good driver. Thankfully we got in safely and because everything on television is rubbish or stuff we'd already seen and James didn't want to listen to Sounds of the Seasons while we read, we have been listening to Cabin Pressure (the BBC radio series with Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch) while drinking our hot chocolate. (The final episode of the series airs at Christmas! Must keep a lookout for it.) » Sunday, November 09, 2014
Why Doesn't 72 Hours Go By This Fast...
...when you're at work?Slept fifteen minutes through the alarm on Friday, then didn't stop going all day. I had to stay home anyway because TruGreen was supposed to be here today, and they never give you a specific time. So there was a dog walk, and breakfast, and I spent the rest of the day doing a bit of dusting, putting up the Thanksgiving decorations, clearing off the dining room table, tidying, sweeping the stairs and the foyer and the downstairs hall, and writing out Thanksgiving cards (I tried to mail them, too, but for once the mailman came early). I finished reading Carola Dunn's The Bloody Tower, had another walk with Tucker, and was happy that James came home early (he worked overtime earlier in the week). Oh, and TruGreen never showed up. Thanks a lot for nothing, guys. We mounted James' new purchase, the strap-on bike rack, on the back of my car with a minimum of cussing (mostly me because the sun was, as always, in my eyes) before going out to dinner. It worked really well with the Rollator, although we will have to use independent straps instead of the built-in ones because they are built to fit a bike, not a walker. We decided to have supper at the West Cobb Diner and grinned when we realized the Spiveys were just arriving ahead of us. We all had dinner together along with Ken's mom and Mrs. Medina (the mother of Jesse who is married to Ken's sister Deb). Following that we went to Barnes & Noble with our coupons. James got the new 1632 book and I bought Dallas 1963. Since I was imprisoned by TruGreen on my day off, I decided to go out a little when James worked yesterday. I went to the Farmer's Market to get James some chicken salad and Tucker some dog biscuits. I didn't even bother trying to park out front on Cobb Parkway; just left the car in the public lot behind Johnnie McCracken's Irish pub. This was actually a good thing because they had the market in front of the old courthouse again this week and it was a shorter walk. I scored the dog biscuits (they have corporate sponsorship now: new bags and correspondingly higher prices) and two bacon, cheddar and chive scones for dinner tonight, but the place that makes the chicken salad lost their lease and they have to find somewhere else that has a USDA-approved kitchen before they can make it again. :-( I mailed the Thanksgiving cards, then drove to the antique mall that's on Cobb Parkway, across the street from the Big Chicken. I love to go to antique stores before Christmas, when they scatter garlands and ornaments and old decorations among the booths to give it a festive look. There was a big lighted tree at the entranceway, and they were collecting toys for Egleston Children's Hospital. I hadn't had breakfast except for a couple of samples at the Farmer's Market, so was happy to nab a couple of free ginger cookies while I walked through the aisles of different booths. Found several dealers who had some Happy Hollister books, but didn't buy them, and enjoyed all the vintage goodies, including a tall Edison phonograph with two levels of storage for records below, an old Underwood and 1940s Smith Corona typewriters as well as an IBM Selectric II (yeah, sad: Selectrics are now antiques), 1950s metal kitchen tables with formica tops, old plows, seeders, a nice Hoosier cabinet despite the warped bottom door, old electric organs, vintage furniture, and even an old Bakelite Viewmaster like I had as a kid, plus lots and lots of china tchotchkes. I was pretty peckish by the time I left, but I really didn't want to eat lunch out. What I did want to do was find something for supper tonight. I thought some of Publix's chicken and wild rice soup would go great with it. Yep, of course they didn't have any. At the first one I got some French bread for my sandwiches this week, paper towels, and donated $10 worth of food to the can bank and got another reusable shopping bag with the Pilgrims on it. I took the food home and then went to Costco, where I noshed on some samples, bought milk, a copy of Planes: Fire and Rescue for James, some crackers and some lobster spread, and what I really, really needed: omeprazole. With the milk in the back I now had to work fast, so I was happy to see there were not long lines at the gas station, where it was $2.75. Of course by the time I made my way around to the line, eight other cars had gotten in ahead of me. Thank goodness it didn't take so long. The second Publix just had chicken noodle soup, and I gave up and bought it, then came home, put everything up, and watched Love Actually, which I'd heard a lot about. I could have lived without Kris Marshall's storyline of the young guy who just wanted to get laid, but was totally charmed by both Colin Firth's and Liam Neeson's storylines, and got a good giggle out of Martin Freeman's part of the story. I was supposed to be warming up supper when Tucker abruptly decided he needed to go out, but supper was done pretty quickly by the time James got in. I had more noodles, chicken, and veggies than soup, so I thinned it with vegetable broth, added a little white wine and ginger, and warmed it up slowly. With the scones on the side, it was a nice treat. James needed it because they ran the air conditioning so high all day he was freezing. And then it was time for the season finale of Doctor Who. I'm still waiting for a dangerous version of the Master rather than the full-crazy version they have had lately, and I wish they hadn't killed off Osgood, but...Kate! Danny! And that coda with the Brigadier! I'm still not satisfied with the stories they are giving him—my favorite this season was "Flatline" because I've been watching the old series on RetroTV and this was the closest I've seen to a classic episode in ages—but I absolutely love Peter Capaldi in the role and I wish they'd give him more to do; why is the companion always the salvation lately? I liked Matt Smith but his Doctor was getting too wired and the stories were like puzzle pieces. Can't we just have a simple straightforward adventure any longer? Slept in this morning, and then it was rush, rush, rush all afternoon. First was the weekly run to Kroger. I needed yogurt. We ended up with a scooter cart basket full of all sorts of things, including sale meat, burritos, and popcorn. James forgot and left the newspaper on the "trunk" in the bed of the truck and we almost got it home, but it fell in the street when we turned onto Gray Road. Luckily it didn't scatter much and I was able to collect it. With the groceries put up, we went out to celebrate our anniversary one day early by having dinner at Longhorn. We shared a plate of ribs and had the shrimp and lobster dip appetizer. Between those two things, we were too full for dessert. James bought me a pretty sweatshirt at the Apple Festival and has something on order for me, but I was able to give him his gifts: the Planes DVD, of course; a gift for us both, all 44 of the Dave Allen shows that were broadcast here in the United States; and something he's been looking for for years, a copy of the series Our World with Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf. From there we went to Hallmark to use some coupons. Got a couple of ornaments and two additional Thanksgiving cards. We also stopped at Petsmart to get a few things for Tucker. Couldn't find what I needed to get for Snowy, though. Best part of this trip was the nice ride through Lower Roswell Road out to Merchant's Walk. With only a little daylight left, we decided to take Tucker and Snowy out to the other Petsmart at the East-West Connector. I'm still getting Snowy used to the carry box and he is wide-eyed and a little nervous, but he did burble to his mirror quite a lot. Petsmart flat awed him: all the colors and the sounds. The one thing he didn't do was chirp back to the budgies! Maybe he thought they were television. I was so filled up from lunch I didn't eat until eight, and then only a bowl of cereal. We watched Friday's Hawaii Five-0 (look, how many times are we going to see one of the team be tortured? it's really gross) and yesterday's This Old House, and the tribute to Robin Williams that PBS ran last night, and then missed the first seven minutes of Alaska: The Last Frontier because, while the DVD had it programmed into the schedule last night, it was completely gone from the programming today. Got to call Dish; half our music channels haven't worked since last Christmas, and last Saturday the signal dropped out on Doctor Who in the middle of recording. Both the DVR and the dish itself are slowly dying. Oh, and we are dropping James' SiriusXM subscription. He hardly listens to it anymore, and when he does, it's always the same few songs. Tired to death of "Me and Bobby McGee." Labels: birds, books, Christmas, Doctor Who, dogs, DVDs, electronics, friends, nostalgia, pets, radio, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Friday, April 04, 2014
Elementary Afternoon
Business to take care of before of pleasure this morning: since James was going to be busy tomorrow, I just went out and did some shopping: Publix and then Kroger. It was spattering rain at this point, but by the time I finished the sun was trying to peek through. We eventually never got the rain they had been predicting all week.Kept a weather eye out on the traffic. It was still green eastbound when I left about two. After stopping at the ATM, I headed for the hotel where 221B Con was being held. The parking lot didn't look overwhelmed, so I drove up to Barnes & Noble and killed an hour there. By that time it was 3:30 and I was going to have to think about dinner, since I was pretty much blocked for panels from five to eight. So I drove a little further up the road and picked up a cup of soup, a half a tuna salad sandwich on honey wheat, and a bagel with cream cheese at Panera. There was quite a lengthy line already formed at four when I got back into the hotel, so I just took a bathroom break. Registration opened at four so the line had already moved once I emerged. Got in line behind two people, one dressed as Molly from Sherlock (there are a lot of Mollys here, also a lot of Irene Adlers from the same series, several with "riding crops"), and listened to the babble around me and hoped I'd get my badge before my soup got too cold! Registration took twenty minutes all told, and then I retreated to a little nook at the end of one corridor where there were two armchairs and a table to eat my soup and peruse the con booklet and the pocket program. Then I took a turn around the hotel to see where things were. Where panel rooms were at Anachrocon were the dealer's room here, and what had been the dealer's room was the tea, which will be panel rooms tomorrow. Here I stopped to talk to Anthony Taylor for a few minutes. All my panels tonight were in the side corridor near the pool; actually all of them were in one room, Polk. The first panel was "Minorities in Elementary," which was entertaining but eventually wavered into discussion about Irene Adler's character and why people felt no adaptation ever gets close to her real character. The moderator was very opinionated! (Not necessarily a bad thing, but slightly off-putting.) Detective Bell has a lot of fans. :-) They also discussed non-traditional teamings of Holmes/Watson on the web. The next panel was about Sherlock Holmes as featured in radio series. This was talk about both British and American productions, as well as adaptations from companies like Big Finish. One of the gentlemen on the panel had something like 500 recordings of Sherlock Holmes radio shows! (He asked some trivia questions; this is the person who will be setting the questions for the trivia contest. Yikes! These were hard! Do you know the first television Sherlock was not Ronald Howard?) A few excerpts were played, including a funny sketch from what sounded like a Command Performance radio show during World War II era, in which Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce switched roles (Rathbone was supposed to be Watson and Bruce Holmes, but it got a bit mixed up at the end, and Dick Powell even showed up), and a special treat from Big Finish at Christmastime, in which Holmes stays up to catch Father Christmas. Louis Robinson was sitting in on that panel, and during the break between the radio panel and the next, he asked me if we had enjoyed the performance at UUMAN two weeks ago. I told him we had and he said that the pianist (Brian) had been a last-minute substitution and they had come up with all the things I loved, like "Pennies from Heaven" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" at the last moment. Well, you really couldn't have told that at all. The last panel was "British Panel Shows." Louis was on this panel as well as he used to work for "Auntie Beeb" and he gave us some idea how these "unscripted shows" were scripted. The panel show was something we used to have here—What's My Line, for instance, and I've Got a Secret—but faded out, which were a pity, because those shows are classic. I hadn't heard of several of the panel shows discussed; they were both on television and on the radio, with most of the conversation concentrated on QI, which you can find online and which is really a very funny series with Stephen Fry as the perfect host. I've seen some of the radio ones which they mentioned on the BBC schedule but have never listened to them; I must try them. I also didn't know there was an unexpurgated version of QI. I'm sure that gets very rowdy! Well, I'd toyed with going to the Canon 101 panel at nine, but after wandering around a bit, peeking into the dealer's room, which I never did get into, and taking a picture of a super TARDIS they had in the middle of the floor, and talking to Caran Wilbanks, I figured I would just head for home. I have a full day tomorrow and it would be nice to have a couple of hours with James. But I had to laugh when I headed out to the parking lot; the lights around the hotel and the close lot were so bright that the birds were still shouting from tree to tree and it was nearly dark! I stopped under one tree where a mockingbird was beating out one song after the other and started to imitate him. You really piss off mockingbirds this way. :-) Anyway, traffic was normal as it usually is by this time, and James played Tom Bodett (he left the light on for me <:g>). So we talked and Snowy sang and we watched the "viewer-built" episode of Hawaii Five-0 and I cooled off and watched the weather report with horror because now it's going to pour on Monday. Just what I need...grrrrr! And I have no idea what happened to my glasses; I took them off at some point when I got home and now can't find them. Where's good ol' Sherlock when you need him? Good thing I have a spare pair! Labels: books, conventions, errands, radio, television » Wednesday, November 20, 2013
From Country to Christmas to Chocolate
Yay! The cough syrup worked. Yeah, I had to take it, too. At least it has no alcohol in it. Still tastes wretched, but that's any cough syrup. At least I got some sleep, and James did as well.We had breakfast in again, and shared one whopper of an apple; it looked like a professional-sized softball. Outside it was chilly, but warming rapidly--it jumped ten degrees while we were eating--so I just wore a long-sleeved sweatshirt and tossed my pashmina over my shoulders and across my chest, and carried my light hat, and that was discarded pretty quickly. (Did bring my jacket, and I did need it later on.) Today we were just going to bum around and check out places we hadn't gotten to yet. When we'd asked the people at the bird store if they knew what hours the hobby store on Winfield Dunn Parkway was open, we heard different things: James heard 10-5, I heard 2-5 (which I thought was weird; open three hours a day?). So we drove out to the needlework place in Wears Valley first. I am just in love with this place! You leave "Glitter Gulch" and in a mile have even left the trolley stop and the Winterfest decorations behind. Then there is along the road a dotting of antique stores and even more occasional country stores, and even a place on the river where you can have weddings, but mostly it turns into country, with fields covered by round hay bales, divided off by fencing, with the soft peaks of the Smokies in the distance looking like dark blankets laid in folds, occasionally interrupted by a little knot of businesses. The needlework shop is between fields laid in hay bales, with an old barn and a farmhouse across the street. It's a lovely little shop, too, seemingly larger on the inside, mostly cross-stitch. I found "Stony Creek" magazines; I haven't seen them in years! They are quarterly now, and I got three of the four issues for this year. Picked up a pattern of state birds/flowers/trees for five of the six New England States, and a small holly heart pattern, and some plastic buttons that you can put cross-stitch into (never seen those at all), and also a piece of photographic artwork they were selling in the back, a beautiful fall scene (I bought a card of a different scene, with mist on the mountains). I could have bought so many more things: bell pull hardware, boxes with tops made for cross-stitch, scraps of fabric to be used as bookmarks. They alo carried crochet yarn, had a back corner for needlepoint, and when I walked in, there was a display of tatting and tatting equipment. My mom used to tat and it brought back pleasant memories of her metal shuttle snicking in and out as she sat under the floor lamp in the living room. Meanwhile, James had a good read sitting on the comfy porch while waiting for me. By the time we got back to Pigeon Forge it was lunchtime, so we ate at Mel's Diner, which had great ratings on Trip Advisor. It was a keen diner, all chrome and bright paint on the outside, and someone had painted the big windows with winter scenes: horses and sleighs, drifts of snow, houses with smoking chimneys. Inside there were framed old magazine ads from the 1950s through the 1970s, and tin signs for bread sponsoring The Lone Ranger, radios, motor oil, etc. The waitresses were all peppy and friendly, and we had a great meal: James a big cheeseburger and chili fries, me an open-faced roast beef sandwich and onion rings for me. Everything was delicious, and the crowd at the restaurant seemed to confirm that this was standard. Almost every booth was full, and there were many of them. By then it was after two (we had called up the hobby shop at ten, and no one seemed to be there), so we drove there. No lights, no nothing. We went on, and stopped at the Incredible Christmas Place for a while. James sat and read his tablet while I wandered about. The Incredible Christmas Place isn't anywhere near as large as Bronner's, but you can get lost in there for a while. There are rooms devoted to various themes: children, cooking, old television, German pyramids and smokers, vintage-looking ornaments, a wall of Christopher Radko things, and also some Kurt Adler, a big room with Nativities, a room of Christmas trees and of lights, and, my favorite, the room with all the Christmas villages. I bought a few things: a prim Santa and a vintage-looking bottle brush tree to go with it, an Irish Christmas music CD, a small Jim Shore sculpture of a cute cardinal, a reindeer salt-and-pepper set on discount (it has some paint chipped, something easily fixed with some paint pots), and a [mumble] for [mumble]. It was getting late in the afternoon, but we decided to check out the Books-a-Million that was behind the strip. The GPS on the phone had a weird hiccup, and it tried to direct us up a church driveway that was blocked off, so we used the regular GPS unit and were directed to the correct place (on the other side of the highway from where the phone GPS placed us--wicked bizarre). Wasn't really looking for anything, but checked out the magazine stand--this BAM had an outstanding one that covered almost the entire back wall of the store!--and looked at the Christmas books. Then I sat down with James at the Joe Muggs cafe and we had some of their "intense dark chocolate" hot chocolate. It tasted like someone liquified a Lindt dark chocolate bar! Quite delicious. By now it was late into sunset, a fading red smudge on the edge of the mountains. Both of us were running "out of gas," so it was a rather quiet ride home, but I was picking out little details of the Winterfest lights: a mare and a colt romping near a restaurant, the pattern of the "snowflakes" falling on the Parkway, bears doing this and that in various scenes, the long view of the initial stretch of lights in Gatlinburg that wouldn't be visible if the trees still had leaves. Took a last look at the antique store with the extraordinary crystal chandeliers in each of the windows before we turned up the East Parkway. When we emerged from the car, something extraordinary was above: we've had light clouds almost every night, and have missed the Hunter's Moon everyone else has been raving about. But tonight it was clear (and cold! glad for my jacket I was!) and the stars were picked out above like cold white ice on black velvet, and you could see the flurries of the Milky Way faintly (too many lights from the cabins to make it really dark). Lovely! Not sure what happened after that. I took Willow outside while James started supper; he was using the leftover chicken breast along with leftover KFC potatoes, some mushrooms and onions, to make a kind of hash for dinner. As I waited, I started consolidating our purchases, and as I did, I started feeling queasy. Perhaps it was the onion rings; I really shouldn't eat them, but these were excellent and not greasy at all. James served the hash hot, but I couldn't eat it. I did have some milk, and some bread, and later some peanut butter on gluten-free crackers. Watched a Nova about long-ranging electrical inpulses called "sprites," which pilots first spotted when bolts of lightning struck the canopies of their jets. Didn't listen very well, however, as I was listening to the BBC on the netbook. They are doing two episodes of a series called The Radio Detectives, and the first two were about Paul Temple and about Sherlock Holmes. (I believe I have one downloaded about Lord Peter Wimsey.) Labels: books, Christmas, cross-stitch, dogs, health, magazines, nature, radio, shopping, television, weather » Saturday, November 02, 2013
Ticking Off the To-Do List
Today was made possible by yesterday, which was my work Friday as opposed to my compressed Friday off. I would have gladly swapped places with a day off Friday morning, as we had a cold front coming in. At 6:20 when I left the house it was dark, raining, and murky. The dividing lines on the freeway easily disappeared in the murk, the pelting rain, and the glare of the headlights, not to mention the abysmal drivers merging on I-85 northbound. Really, it rains in Atlanta and half the population's brains turn to mud. Yo! Be glad you aren't in Oregon!The miserable rain combined with the front moving in gave me a killer sinus headache. At nine I gave up, took three ibuprofin, and went to the very back of the darkened break room for ten minutes to get some relief from the fluorescents. The ibuprofin didn't kick in until about ten, and by noon the headache was back; at lunch time I took two extra strength Tylenol and went in the car to nap, which killed the monster for good. It was a 180 from the morning, all blue and white and glowing sun, with a nice breeze, and normally I would have taken a walk, but between the fluorescent lights making me woozy and the headache, I wasn't feeling all too steady on my feet. Drove home listening to "A Way With Words," and arrived home to discover (a) my book of Eric Knight's letters had come and (b) Willow had made a bit of a mess in the bathroom again. This time I got all my ducks in a row first, and managed to clean it all up, including rinsing the grass pad, in less than twenty minutes, by which time James was home. We ate at the West Cobb Diner (their turkey and dressing is almost as good as the Colonnade's), and, essential to getting things done this weekend, finished the shopping at both Publix and Kroger. Except for the leftover Hallowe'en bags, all the ghosts and goblins have been completely stripped from Publix and when you walk in there are rows of good things to eat for Thanksgiving and Christmas: baking supplies, canned side dishes, candies, fruitcake, gravies, orderly blocks of color that prelude the holidays. Today we had to take Willow to the vet for another cortisol blood test. In order for them to draw blood for her around ten o'clock, I had to set my alarm for six so she could have her pill four hours before the test. You should have seen it. We had prepped the pill in the Pill Pocket last night and had it in a snack bag, so all I had to do was shut the alarm, pad into the hall and get the pill, and give it to Willow. Of course she was asleep. "Willow! Cookie!" Blink. "Come have a cookie, Willow." Snuffle. "Cookie, Willow!" She stretched and came out of her crate, looking drowsy, sniffing. Then she gravely took the Pill Pocket and devoured it. I said "Go back to sleep, Willow. Good night," and disappeared back into the bedroom, leaving her blinking at me. I expect if she could talk she would have said, when the real alarm went off, "Mommy, I had the weirdest dream. You woke me up and gave me a cookie. It was so real I could taste the cookie." I just wish I'd gone back to sleep like Willow. Alas, it was only a half-asleep snuggle under warm blanket, as the cold front had finally arrived—hurrah! Anyway, we took her to the Farmer's Market with us and she attracted several small children, not to mention several adults. :-) We bought chicken salad, cucumbers, two baking potates, grape tomatoes, dog biscuits, a pot roast pot pie for Sunday supper, and, as a very extravagant treat, some locally made chocolate, a bar of 62 percent cacao. The guy apparently goes to South American and buys the cocoa beans directly from the cocoa farm. I also fell in love with a young maple tree that one of the nursery vendors was selling. The leaves were such a brilliant red; I should have taken a photo of it. Unfortunately this was not a sapling tree; it was already taller than James. We would have needed a professional to plant it. Lord, that was a pretty tree. I hated to leave it. Next we took Willow out to Dunwoody. After abandoning her to her fate, we went to Panera for breakfast. Outstanding steel cut oats! Also had a plain bagel with cream cheese and some super hot chocolate which tasted more of chocolate than of sugar, which is a great rarity. James tried the pumpkin bagel with cheesecake cream cheese and enjoyed that. We had a little over an hour to kill, so we went to Five Below. Stocked up on some dark chocolate, and found some Hanukkah paper, and I bought a blue pashmina, as I heard on a Rick Steves program that a pashmina was the most useful clothing item a woman can carry when traveling; it can be used as a head covering for churches/mosques, a scarf, a shoulder-shrug in overly air-conditioned buildings, a sash, etc. [We've had all the windows open and as the temperature dropped tonight, I tried it on. Works pretty well.] We also went to Barnes & Noble and I quite happily picked up some magazines, including the Christmas "Just Cross Stitch," the November "Period Living" which had an article about decorating Sherlock Holmes-inspired rooms, an October "Best of British," the new "Blue Ridge Country" with autumn photographs, and "Christmas Cottage." Did get a look at Doctor Who: The Vault, another big, lovely 50th anniversary book. This one's sweet, full of memorabilia like "Radio Times" articles, official photographs, and some dandy color portraits of the Doctors. Yum! Noticed that, as a takeoff of the British Museum's History of the World in 100 Objects, there is now the Smithsonian's History of the United States in 101 Objects, and there's also a book based on Neil MacGregor's other Radio 4 series, Shakespeare's Restless World. The vet called just as we were about to check out, and we ran next door to the Container Store to get James two more lunch containers before picking up the dog. Another $115.00 for another blood test, and that didn't count the medication and the Pill Pockets. Sigh. But it was a nice ride home; we kept spotting lovely autumn color. That hard freeze last week did all the trees a treat, as what was turning previously were dull colors. The frost brought out the brilliance and the results have been stunning: saffrons, golds, rich oranges, scarlet like the beautiful maple tree at the Farmer's Market, and even maroon shading to purple. It's not all the trees, and the oaks are particularly disappointing, but the rest are delightful. When we got home, we took a bit of lunch and watched British football, which was on NBC (I had to go look up why Arsenal is called Arsenal; I was right and the team was originally founded in Woolwich, where the famous Woolwich Arsenal was), and then I helped James with a project. Last year after Christmas Publix did clear storage containers buy-one-get-one. We bought ten, and James started loading them with the models forming towers in the middle of his hobby room. He wanted to sort them by type of model, so it was taking him time, and he only got four filled. They've been sitting in the library all summer with the six other empty boxes, and a larger clear storage box we had removed from our bedroom closet. Now, it's about a month until I start decorating for Christmas, and I haven't been able to shelve any completed mystery novels because the boxes were in front of the bookshelves devoted to mysteries. So today we both went downstairs and James picked out models and I sorted them into boxes: prop planes in one (ended up as two), jets in one (ended up being three), ships in one, etc. Also sorted models in cardboard boxes into the clear boxes, and was able to make a box full of spaceships, real and fantasy, from a Saturn V to Serenity. As we got models off the floor, I vacuumed, and once each spot was done, we stacked boxes. We got rid of some empty product boxes and cleared out sprues and clips of decal paper off the floor, and now you can walk around and see the completed models on the shelves again. It worked out pretty well, too; we were done in two hours, just at suppertime. I had wings and James had Chinese, delivered to the door, and we ate and watched This Old House. We had the expensive chocolate bar for dessert. It was lovely, so smooth when it melted on your tongue like the finest dark chocolate pudding, but it's a treat we won't be indulging in again; the price is just too high. Also watched the last two episodes of Elementary and this week's Father Brown with Mark Williams, and James went trucking downstairs to the "man cave." I tried watching both Spies of Warsaw and The Odd Couple II, but I found the former dull and the latter simply stupid, and finally gave up and put the BBC on. I'm listening to the Book of the Week, about a Canadian man who became an astronaut. Labels: books, Christmas, food, magazines, organizing, radio, shopping, television, weather, work » Friday, April 12, 2013
"There's Gonna Be a Wedding"
Well, it was a long morning and a short one all at once. We slept late, then had to spend the rest of the morning finishing packing and getting all those myriad trip prep stuff.
I'd taken yesterday afternoon off hoping to do some of it then, but the most we got done was to start the packing and I washed some clothes. I did go out to return my library books, get milk and fill the car with gasoline, and stop at Publix to get a few things. Had goat cheese for lunch with some great garlic and chive crackers from Aldi. When James came home, we ate supper and then went to get me some cash, which I forgot to do at Publix, but I was racing the rain home. We had a real gullywasher of a rain last night, which I hope will get the pine pollen out of the air. The car looks like it has a horrible disease, since it got rained on enough to turn pine pollen powder into pine powder blotches. Twi needs a good vetting anyway, a tune-up and a vist to the car wash, and his A/C inspected; it runs fine when the car is moving, but tends to warm up at idle. So back to today: finally it was time to leave and we stuffed first the dog crate and the bird's tray in the car, then the suitcase and the C-PAP machine and the animals' bag, and then the wedding gift and Mom's belated birthday gift, then got Schuyler's cage belted in, and finally put Willow in the car. We dropped off the check for the $15 we owe the state into the mail--holy cow, where did that rotary on West Street come from--and got on the road. Wil whined a bit, but Schuyler sang for a while, especially after I put the phone on. I played "The Reunion--Doctor Who," which aired on BBC Radio 4 last weekend. William Russell (Ian), Carol Ann Ford (Susan), and Peter Purves (Steven) were interviewed along with the actor who played the first Who villain and one of the directors. It was a lovely piece; my favorite bit of dialog was them talking about how old and small the studio was in those days: "The cameras were bigger than the Daleks!" Too funny. Also part one of "The Nazad Conspiracy," the first episode in the Scarifyers radio series with Nicholas Courtney, who played the Brigadier onWho. We arrived at the La Quinta in Macon a little after three. There is a dog show in the area and lots of dogs at the hotel. We are upstairs, but, alas, unlike the Staybridge, the windows don't open. We got the animals set up, then brought in the luggage, and then went in search of "tea" to tied us over to dinner. We drove down to Warner Robins and had a bowl of soup at Panera, then went to his mom's house, but no one was home, so we hung around at Books-a-Million for a while--I found the new Doctor Who FAQ book there! We also stopped next door at Michaels to get a little potted plant for James' dad's grave. We had supper with Anne and Clay at Longhorn, sharing a Chocolate Stampede among the four of us for dessert, talking of work, conventions, books, etc. It was a blast. Then we stopped briefly back at Mom's house to say hi to everyone before heading back to the La Quinta to take Wil out for her walk and talk to Schuyler. She was singing so when James was sitting next to her! Willow knows the crate covered in the big soft towel is hers and she is lying in there half asleep, with her head pillowed on one of James' old shirts, on top of a fleece and another towel. Tomorrow we will bum around Macon some and then come back to the hotel to iron our clothes and get dressed for the wedding. James' youngest sister is getting married tomorrow! Labels: birds, books, dogs, family, friends, pets, radio, travel » Friday, March 29, 2013
In Contemplation
I shouldn't have slept late, but my body craved it so. Finally woke at ten and had to skip breakfast in order to get to Walmart. James needed BreatheRight strips, and I wanted to get a new thistle sock and two new pants' hangers for the new jeans I got at BJs. I couldn't find one thistle sock in two different Walmarts, but I did get the other things. (I also bought bananas there because I'm sick of walking into Kroger and Publix and finding only green ones.) At the second Walmart I also picked up a new tray to use for the bird cage when we go on vacation, since the old one is now providing storage space for my lunchbox and carry bag in my new tiny cubicle.But I did make it home before noon and grabbed some breakfast so I could sit and do my devotions for Good Friday. I've done this for the past couple of years and like the spiritual calm it gives me. First I listened to the six "Lent Talks" that BBC radio does each year. This year's theme was "abandonment," and, as always, there were varied speakers. Alexander McCall Smith, the author, was one, as was an Imam. I was particularly intrigued by the story of Benjamin Cohen, who was raised in a Jewish neighborhood but attended a Christian school. Every year they would do a Christmas pageant without realizing who all the characters were. He feared abandonment by his religion when he came out, but his synagogue accepted him. After the Lent Talks, I did the Bible readings for the day: the first reading was from Isaiah 52:13-53:12, and the second from Hebrews 4:14-16 and 5:7-9. The Gospel was John 18:1-19:42. Finally I put on David Huntsinger's "Autumn in New England" album very low and read Madeleine L'Engle's And It Was Good, the first book in her "Genesis Trilogy." I really enjoy her religious nonfiction. And, just to prove chores don't stop, not even on Good Friday, I needed to take Willow out and then vacuumed the carpet. I hadn't finished before James arrived home early. We had supper at Hibachi Grill, then went over to Barnes & Noble with fifteen percent off coupons. They had the Blu-Ray of the first Hobbit movie for a ridiculous discount, so I got that as well as the third of Jennifer Worth's midwife books. (I chickened out on getting the second one, which emphasizes the workhouse patients; it's simply too sad.) I also got a lovely new cross-stitch magazine with pretty blackwork patterns. And then we did the shopping because I didn't think the supermarkets would be open on Sunday, but we will need to go back to Kroger because they didn't have any buns for my lunch. » Friday, March 01, 2013
Bopping to the Beacon
Finally some peace. Work is driving me mad and I've been having some absolutely bizarre dreams, including one in which Jonathan Frakes was my boss and he was pissed at me. (I can't imagine where that came from; the last time I even thought about Jonathan Frakes was when I saw him last September at DragonCon.) I got up to use the bathroom at 7:30, and then fell fast back to sleep until 9:15. I get my best sleep between six and eight, so this is no surprise.Had breakfast and decided to go out to Publix, as they had instant oatmeal on twofer and the lower-sugar maple and brown sugar runs out almost immediately; it must be the most popular flavor. (What's usually left over? the fruit and cream. I'm not surprised. I wouldn't eat it, either.) Hit the Publix closest to our house, and, sure enough, only two boxes left. I got James some Arnold thins, too, and two "emergency suppers," and a baguette. I then tried to withdraw money from the bank machine after checking out, only to discover my debit card had expired and the bank hadn't sent me a new one. I got the chatty guy teller at the bank kiosk, the one who keeps trying to push a credit card on me. Does your credit card give me book points? No? Go away. Anyway, he ordered a new card for me and gave me some cash. So I headed for another Publix, stopping at Big Lots/Family Dollar on Atlanta Road on the way. I'm looking for a cheap small alarm clock (one that looks like a clock and runs on a battery, not a digital one that plugs in) to put on the shelf in the kitchen, since the clock on the stove quit working years ago. Not a clock to be seen either place. Scarfed up six boxes of oatmeal at the Atlanta Road Publix and another six at the one near I-285. I also found the turkey flavor Rachael Ray dog food and bought Willow a bag. She's been turning up her nose at the six-ingredient lamb-and-rice stuff and is apparently sick of both the beef and the chicken flavors. [Gave her some of the turkey at suppertime; she gobbled it right up.] Finally I stopped at Barnes & Noble looking for the new "Home Tour" edition of "Country Sampler," which someone on my Christmas group told me was out. I shouldn't have expected B&N to have it anyway; their deliveries seem to occur with the swiftness of a bored sloth. I was right; it wasn't there. I did get "Geek" magazine with the Star Trek cover, and bought a little rechargeable iHome speaker for work. My aging ears are having trouble hearing music or podcasts over the constant hum of the fan under my desk and the noise around it, and I could get the gadget for 10 percent off at Barnes & Noble. I'd planned to be out for about an hour. I got home just before three. Schuyler even glared at me. On the whole round trip I had the phone clamped in the Bracketron and I was listening to a collection of musical "bumpers" over the course of the 1960s through 1975 on the NBC radio show Monitor. If you are a "person of a certain age," you may remember the weekend Monitor broadcasts. The closest thing that exists today to Monitor may be NPR's Morning Edition, where you'll find book reviews, commentary, news, special features, and op-ed pieces rubbing shoulders. Monitor was all that and more, with music, comedy routines, news and weather, and the talents over the years of some fine radio people including Dave Garroway, Bob and Ray, the unquenchable Henry Morgan, and John Bartholemew Tucker.Up until 1960, there were five minute episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly on Monitor. Guest hosts included Frank Sinatra Jr. Anyway, this is a chronological collection of bits leading into station breaks, sports reports, or celebrating holidays, and I was laughing by the time it was halfway through, because, even if you didn't hear the "1970" uttered in a couple of the bumpers, you could definitely tell when you got to the 70s music! The set ended with the Monitor theme and the famous "beacon," which aired when the show cut back and forth to the local stations, a combination of telephone tones and Morse code for the letter "M" for "monitor." monitorbeacon.net is devoted to the show and has several hours of Monitor broadcasts to listen to over the years (click on "Sounds of Monitor"). [Later we went out to eat at O'Charley's to celebrate "Mama C's" (Juanita's mom's) eighty-second birthday, then stopped at Wally World to restock on wild bird seed. Still couldn't find a small clock I liked. Walmart had one, but it was plug-ugly. BTW, you can watch Disney's lovely Oscar-winner "Paperman" on line here at Hulu: "Paperman"] » Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Weekend Whirl
We had a treat yesterday morning.We usually just go to the Winter Market and come home, but we wanted to go to the Corner Shop, which doesn't open until eleven. So we wandered the marketplace, enjoying the scents of bacon and shea butter and other savory food. There is a vendor who sells nursery items, and today they had lilacs. The vendor told me these are southern lilacs, which will do well in this climate. Most lilacs have to have certain days of frost to grow properly, and our climate does not provide for it, but these have been bred specially for the South. I would like to have one of those some day. I remember the lilac bush at the back of our yard, growing insistently through the fence from Charley's yard, in May thick with fragrant pale violet blossoms. I would bury my nose in them (and pay, courtesy my stinky allergy, later) and drink in the sweet scent with delight. Shillings has breakfast specials, so after picking up some homemade dog biscuits, we crossed the street. There in front was a big sign saying the Saturday breakfast began at 9 a.m., and the door was wide open; however, when we walked in there at a quarter to ten, a rather disheveled looking man told us they wouldn't be "open" for 20 more minutes. Fine. We walked past Glover Park and went to the Australian Bakery instead. It took a while to get served, but we just busied ourselves with an Australian food catalog and our Nooks, and had a delicious breakfast. James had something with egg, ham, and potatoes, and I had a bowl of yummy oatmeal and a bagel with cream cheese. Just at eleven we strolled over to the Corner Shop and wandered among the British Easter candy. James got some sale orange and mint creams for desserts, picked up a couple of pasties for lunch and some bangers for us to have for supper, and I picked up a few of the heavenly Fry's orange cream bars. We split a bar once we got back to the truck; these are exquisite, with a very orange-tasting filling with plenty of zest so you have an aftertaste of dark chocolate and sharp orange in your mouth for some minutes afterwards. We came home to put the bangers in the freezer and the rest up, then went to the mall to price eyeglasses. James had his eyes examined on Wednesday and found, though he has no damage to his eyes from diabetes, his prescription has changed radically again. He used to be very nearsighted, then a few years ago it developed that only one of his eyes was very nearsighted, and the other was near normal. That was four years ago. Now presbiopia has done its work. His very nearsighted eye is now only slightly nearsighted, and the formerly slightly nearsighted eye is now farsighted! (James was a bit worried about a visual problem he had occasionally: a "sparkly" circle effect in one of his eyes which he explained in detail. The opthamologist asked him when this happened and was told it was chiefly at work; the doctor told him these were a visual migraines, probably caused by stress!) First we went to Lenscrafters where we were helped very efficiently by a young woman. He found some frames on sale that would do, and got a quote for those. Then we went downstairs to VisionWorks. Well, they had a twofer deal, and frames that he just loved, and ended up ordering them. They didn't cost any more than the last two pair I bought, so I thought it was a good deal as well. I need to go have a checkup myself, but in looking at the same brand of glasses he had, the ones I liked best were pinky-purple. Yuck! I have so much trouble finding glass frames. I hate the little narrow metal "John Lennon" glasses or plastic "David Tennant" glasses everyone seems to be wearing now, and I especially don't want plastic. My complexion is still greasy enough that I'd have the same problem I had in school, my glasses always being slimy and sliding down my nose. From there we decided to go to Micro Center. I'd had an idea to do something, but it wasn't going to work out. However, we did talk with one of techs and decided that we did need a new router, as the computers are having dropouts from the wireless connection. We found a Linksys on sale, which was at definite advantage to our budget. Spent some time at the hobby shop; I mostly read The Grand Mirage while James shot the breeze with the guys. Then we drove home via Dragon to pick up some supper for ourselves. Ah, but before that could be happily eaten, there was one more chore to get through. We had a very grubby dog, and, having found a surprise on the doorstep when we arrived home, it was time to do something about it. So first I stripped the old recliner cover off the recliner and happily threw it out. We've had the old one for years and it's a bit threadbare. The problem was remembering where we bought the first one, especially as it showed up for a year or so at the As Seen on TV Store, but was now gone again. I knew it was either at Lillian Vernon or Harriet Carter, and last week I was successful in finding it on an internet search and bought a new one, which arrived in Saturday's mail. Next I vacuumed the recliner...and vacuumed...and vacuumed...well, all the dog hair never will come out, but I got the worst of it, and also collected any crumbs. Then I gave it a spray with Febreeze and some Lysol and left it to rest. James later used a towel to sit on it as we ate supper and the arm covers and headrest that went with the chair were washing and drying. And then I drowned the dog. Well, that's the way she sees it. I gave her a bath and she whined her way through it, but she came out looking fluffy and a shade lighter. Not soon afterward we were able to put the new recliner cover on. Later I got on chat and had fun talking with Jen, Emma, and Mike. This morning we were awakened by barking, but it was only a few minutes before the alarm. Breakfast was accompanied by Rinty and Rusty: "The Legacy of Sean O'Hara" and "The Barber of Seville." Next was a trip to Kroger for the usual weekly items. Once these goodies were put away, we gathered our two coupon books and headed out to BJs. We had some good coupons for fruit/vegetables/nuts/toothbrushes/soap, etc. which could be stored away. On Wednesday I had, on the way home from work, begun listening to a Rick Steves program about Scotland and Wales. I was enjoying it so much that I never finished listening to it and instead played it as we drove up to Woodstock. Rick talked to a woman from Scotland and a man from Wales about tourist traps [cough...Loch Ness], natural beauty, the difference between Welsh Gaelic and Scots Gaelic, and all sorts of delightful subjects. The BJs trip was a nice stroll around the store; I even picked up a 16GB thumb drive on sale. On the way home we stopped at a little bookstore in a strip shopping center less than a quarter of a mile down the road from BJs, the Book Browser, mostly used books and a few new ones. Found a lovely book called Our Mothers' War, about women during World War II and also picked up a "Dear America" about a frontier schoolteacher. And then I found something I'd wanted since I was a kid but my folks couldn't afford it, the Walt Disney's Story Land book. This is a book of stories based on Disney's animated features and shorts. The stories based on films are either just an excerpt from the movie (Alice in Wonderland is just the tea party, for instance, and So Dear to My Heart has just an animated sequence with Danny the lamb at the fair) or the whole story (Dumbo is the longest, telling the whole story in detail, but there are more abridged versions of Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians among others). It even has the full text of the Scamp Little Golden Book. The other stories are based on cartoon shorts, from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to stories from the compilation films ("Once Upon a Wintertime" and "Johnny Appleseed") and even "Ben and Me." We finished Rick Steves on the way home and then listened to the end of an A Way With Words that I wasn't able to finish because of telephone calls I needed to make on Thursday. And then we had a nice late afternoon reading the paper. I got a few things off the DVR and James cooked some pork chops for dinner. There was enough left for me to have a pork sandwich and have leftovers for a lunch as well. Watched the new Frozen Planet and the season premiere of Mythbusters (Adam and Jamie surviving with only duct tape), with an intermission of going outside to see a stellar show: Venus, Jupiter, and a tiny gondola of a crescent moon hanging in the western sky. Even with the streetlight it was beautiful. I tried to snap a few photos, but they were totally inadequate to what was seen. As a nice capper to the evening I found out the newest Bryant and May book is on its way to me; I've had it pre-ordered for a while. It was bad enough they published it last October in Great Britain and I've had to wait all this time for the American edition! Labels: books, Disney, dogs, food, radio, shopping, television » Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Broadcast from Pearl Harbor
» Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Networkin'
The NBC network is 85 years old today.
NBC Chimes Through the Years NBC Chimes Museum Three Famous Notes of Broadcasting History Labels: radio, television » Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Just an Ordinary Workday
A bit of an aggravating one, as there has been a problem with Earthlink's DSL since Monday. Our download rate is supposed to be 5MB and we were barely chugging along at .22. Several calls to Earthlink determined the problem was theirs, except there was nothing on their website about it, and their first and second tier support knew nothing about it. Way to go, guys: don't give your employees the information they need to work properly.
The clog finally cleared about noon; it didn't really bother me unless I wanted to look something up. I worked on an advertisement and four new orders, and in the afternoon was finally able to listen to some things on BBC Radio 4X that I couldn't listen to earlier because at that slow a speed the player just clogged up after five minutes—they had started a new series of a Paul Temple mystery story; I really enjoy these, which are a breezy old-fashioned type adventure of a husband (detective story writer and amateur sleuth) and wife (journalist). This one is "Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair." They have something I want to listen to tomorrow: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. At lunch I took down and put away all the Hallowe'en decorations and put the fall things back up. I've usually not put up the Thanksgiving things until after Veteran's Day in the past, but it gives me so little time to enjoy them. Didn't have time to put them up today, but may later in the week. Soup for supper, then the laundry finished, and Harry's Law followed by Extreme Couponing. Labels: computers, radio, radio drama, television, work » Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The World is Poorer Today
» Sunday, October 16, 2011
And So It Ends
» Sunday, June 05, 2011
A Weekend to Remember
It was an eventful weekend even if we've been taking it a bit easy today.James had to work yesterday, so I got up and finished the housework that got behind after Timegate last weekend, plus I had to whisk the spare room into a bit better order since we were having a houseguest that evening. When I was finished with the final task, vacuuming Those Damn Stairs :-), I went to Costco to get some paper towels and also bought milk, looked into getting a couple of other things including a outdoor rug for the deck and a copy of Tangled, but that can wait for the next paycheck. Not much in the sample department in the mornings. Made it home by one o'clock, put some other things away, and cleared off the rocking chair so it could be used as an extra seat, then sat down for the afternoon to complete my May book reviews and listen to Agatha Raisin on BBC 4X. I've never read the Agatha Raisin mysteries, but Penelope Keith is playing Agatha in the radio adaptations and that's good enough for me! I'd started the first episode of a 12-episode Sherlock Holmes series with Clive Merrison as Holmes when the internet crashed. So I took Willow outside and fetched the mail, and by the time I got back in the DSL modem had rebooted and I could restart it. By the time Sherlock was approaching the three-quarter mark, our evening guest arrived! Our friend Rodney asked us a few months ago if we would be home on June 4, and if so, could he stay overnight? Well, sure! He didn't say why he'd be in the area, so we've been speculating for weeks. Turns out he was on his way back from having taken a cruise to Mexico and Belize! He's been busy for several months working overtime and reorganizing his home, and he figured after all that he deserved a vacation! So he'd driven down and spent some time with a friend, drove to Port Canaveral where he boarded his ship, and, on the way back, had stopped by for the night. So until James got home, he told me about the trip, going to see Mayan ruins, etc. I had an idea for the evening, but only if everyone wanted to do it. Louis Robinson posted on his Facebook page that he was appearing at a music venue, Ragamuffin Music Hall, in Roswell on Saturday night with some other musical artists. I'd never heard of the venue, but Rodney has eclectic taste in music and James and I always enjoy Louis. So I called to see if they still had seats (the place only seats fifty) and they did. We had a humorous, minor bobble before leaving. Rodney had been low on fuel on the way to our house, figuring he would fill up with gasoline when he left this morning. He parked backwards on our driveway, which slopes downward, in front of the garage door where I needed to get my car out. When he tried to start his car to move it to the opposite side of the driveway, he was so low on gasoline that it wouldn't. James finally got our gasoline container and went out to the closest gas station to get enough to get him going again. We didn't really have time for a sit-down dinner, so, by means of my restaurant advisor (Google Maps on my Droid), we found Firehouse Subs on Johnson Ferry Road. Yum! I had a plain beef brisket sub (not even cheese) and it was quite good. I would have enjoyed the place more had it not been so warm in there, though! It went up to 94°F today and their air conditioner obviously couldn't keep up. At this point we were only five miles from the place, which is on the corner of Roswell Road and Atlanta Street, across from the Roswell Mill. It looks like at one time it was a realty office or some sort of store. On the left is "backstage," while on the right is a tiny cafe with drinks and some snacks, plus CDs you could purchase. The middle section was the performance venue, very informal and comfy, with the rafters exposed and all sort of interesting things hung up there: a paper hot air balloon, big stars, a chandelier, and other things. There were a last few seats available around a table in the corner, so that's where we sat. And we had a grand time. Tonight's performance was "Ashley Harris and Friends," with one of the performers being...surprise!...Ashley Harris, the owner of Ragamuffin. :-) Ragamuffin is also a music school, and at least two of the younger performers were students from the school. I'm sorry to say my memory is utterly terrible and I don't remember all the names or all the songs, and I apologize to the performers. There was a young man (James, I believe his name was) who played several songs, including the anthem "Alleluia" on piano; a young woman, Kailie (sp) did guitar duets with a young man with a banjo; another gentleman (Nick, I think) did several songs, including "At the Beach" and "I Love Trains" (the latter made me smile; I do, too); and Ashley closed the show with several songs including "Unfinished Woman." Louis did four songs after the intermission: "All in All" by Pat Walsh; a wistfully sweet song written by Amanda McBroom (who composed "The Rose") about her dad (actor Donald Bruce) entitled "Errol Flynn"; the song he played at the Timegate cabaret, "For Ireland"; and "Those Were the Days." So we had a great variety of music all together: folk, a bit of rock, bluegrass, country, ballads...quite nice. I liked doing this on the spur of the moment. We have to find more of these unexpected things to do in the summer, as long as they involve being inside, since neither of us can tolerate the heat. We pretty much hibernate in summer. There's a Brittrack Meet-n-Greet coming up soon and I want to go to that, barring emergencies, and I'm hoping we can have a "gang-movie night" when Deathly Hallows part 2 comes up. We did get on chat when we got home, a small crowd with just Emma. She'd found some neat records at yard sales, so we were chatting about them a lot. Rodney was leaving early this morning, about 7:30, but I figured the dog would start barking when he started to move around, so I didn't set an alarm. Willow, who barked up a storm when Rodney arrived, snoozed through his entire awakening and taking his backpack downstairs and opening the garage door. I guess she'd accepted him into the pack! I thought I heard his alarm go off, but figured I was dreaming until I heard the garage door go up (he'd stowed his big suitcase inside for the night). So we have a last picture with us that I took, but James and I look very rumpled and baggy, being in hastily tossed-on clothing with "bed hair." LOL. Rodney asked Ashley to take a better one of us at Ragamuffin last night, so hopefully we'll have that as a neater remembrance. Not sure why I didn't take pictures; I think I was just enjoying the moment. He had a long drive ahead of him, so I've felt vaguely guilty all day really not doing much! We went to Kroger to get a few things including something for supper, stopped at Food Lion for a few more things (including cucumbers, which Kroger was out of), and then came home. I looked at the sale papers, but there wasn't anything we needed all that badly to go out in 90-degree heat again. I did change the bed in the spare room and fold up the futon again, and put most of the things we store in there (the vacation snack bag, the party bag, the vacuum cleaner, and the extra seats) back. For most of the afternoon we watched the BluRay of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (completely forgetting we hadn't watched Chamber of Secrets yet). Excellent picture, but again, annoyance with the BluRay. If it has a main menu, I have yet to find it. When you start it, it goes directly into the movie. If you press "top menu," it goes into the extras menu, which is another level of futility. Usually there is a different color font, or a little pointer or symbol, to show you which extra you are on. We couldn't see any pointer or any different color font, and basically blundered through using the arrow keys until we'd seen everything on the menu. Finally, right at the last couple of features, we noticed there was a different color font for the selected item, but it was such a pale blue it was indistinguishable from the white font. Way to go, guys. However, the extras were all worth watching, especially the cast and crew interviews, even if they did get cutesy and have the talking shrunken head from the Knight Bus helping do the interview [eyes roll]. Now James is watching a BluRay DVD of air shows which he bought at Costco. Wow. The picture is so bright and sharp it makes your eyes hurt. Nice quality, if the narrative is rather careless. Labels: chores, events, friends, music, radio, shopping, work » Sunday, May 09, 2010
A Cool and Groovy Morning (and Frustrating Afternoon)
Well, cool at least! It was only 58°F out when we got up at nine. James made buckwheat pancakes again...light and tender. My Mother's Day gift from Schuyler was a kiss, and from Willow the fact that she was definitely feeling better. I couldn't sleep for thinking about her, and I got up before James did to give her breakfast and her antibiotic and analgesic. I put each pill in a Greenies Pill Pocket and she swallows them like candy; two chews and a gulp. Is there such thing as catnip for dogs—'cause if there is, this stuff has it! And she mooched food from us all morning.
Then the usual Sunday trip to Publix for twofers and Kroger for the rest. Came back through Jim Miller Park to see the progress on "the ditch." Put the groceries away. Then we went back out to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I had a $5 off $15 coupon, and James needed something to use on the grill for small things that might fall between the grill bars (we had bought some chicken tenders and he wants to grill them). We got a small pan with a handle, and also more of the tape that secures rugs. On the way back we stopped at Cumberland Mall to go to Radio Shack. Got a vent mount to hold the Droid. Will be useful for using the navigation function. Some users on droidforum.net recommended this one, a "Bracketron." There is also one which mounts through the power jack. When we got back we pulled the old XM antenna off the car and took the radio out. After lunch we're going to install the new Sirius one and then go through the activation hoops (since I need to activate one and cancel the other). It's just a little over four years since I subscribed to XM. It was a nice four years (well, three years, since the suck-ass Sirius schedule began last year). Bye, guys. [Later: Sheesh. They say installing these things is sooooo easy. As if. First we had to get the antenna fastened to the car, then wind it under the molding to the front of the car. The clips on the vent clip mount didn't fit my vent slots and the radio was wobbling horribly. James unfastened the clips from the old XM mount and they slipped into the slot for the Sirius clips, and it fastens it down better. Then we had trouble tuning in the radio to use the FM modulation to play the satellite radio through the speakers. We never did find a channel that was static free; we think this is deliberate because they don't want you doing that anymore. So I just used the cassette adapter. Then I called to get the new radio activated and the old one deactivated. Since I didn't know the number of the old one—I don't even know where the old one is since I've been using the XM radio—I had to tell the Sirius guy which serial number I didn't want to cancel. So that was done. Then I tuned in the radio. This one has only ten presets, but I never listened to most of the others anyway. I have preset NPR, Radio Classics, the Standards channel (Siriusly Sinatra), 40s on 4, Escape, Watercolors (cool jazz), Spa (New Age), classical pops, and for when James drives, 60s on 6 and Classic Vinyl (if you flip up one channel on the Classic Vinyl preset, you get Deep Tracks, which he also likes). The radio I bought has a "jump" which will take you to a preset traffic channel and then jump you back to the station you were listening to, so I didn't need to preset the traffic channel. This all took two hours! Then I came in and called XM to cancel...and that, as they say, is that.] |
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