Details.

Candies made: Fleur de sal caramels dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with salt, Guinness truffles dipped in dark chocolate and topped with a bit of white, to give the effect of a lovely pint and bourbon balls, adapted to suit my father’s request of “no nuts” but no nuts just means there is more room for bourbon. For the first time in the many years I have made these candies, everything went swimmingly. So swimmingly that I now believe that I want to be a chocolatier…which is like a mousketeer but with better hats. Maybe if I open a little chocolate shop I will find Alfred Molina asleep in the window one morning (They’ve been showing that movie on cable a lot lately, you know…Spiderman 2. No, wait…Doc Ock never fell asleep in a chocolate shop window…did he?)

Baked goods made: 3 half sheets of brownies, two with chocolate chips, one with peppermint chips. All taken as potlucks or given as gifts.

Types of guacamole made: Two, spicy and not so spicy.

Baked goods not made: the dough for almond scented sugar cookies remains in the fridge. It’s going to have to be frozen and baked when I get back.

Gifts exchanged: Many and it’s not even Christmas yet. (Personalized sharpies and a cookbook by Robert Irvine (who is, by the way, built like…like…something godly) feature among my booty).

Holiday Specials watched: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which I marvel at and learn from every year. The colors! The rhyme scheme! The mimicry of Clement Clark Moore! BRILLIANT. Also, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, a classic in these here parts.

Holiday Parties attended: Three. Office luncheon, Friend’s open house. Eggnog Party.

Packages Mailed: many. Check your mailboxes!

CDs made: see above. Many. Many.

Gifts wrapped: None yet. Well, no, I wrapped all the gifts for our California Christmas but all the New Jersey gifts are waiting for me to arrive.

Suitcases packed: None. Gotta fix that! Must remember warm socks and gloves!

Peppermint Soy Mochas consumed: only a few. But that could change after the jet lag hits.

Plans made to see movies: Sweeney Todd on the 21st. Oh yes. Please. Johnny who? It’s all about the Rickman, baby. Futurama: Bender’s Big Score in the new year. I’ve seen it once but I can certainly see it again.

Mp3 players loaded: One, mine. With mellow music. Papa M, Mogawi, Iron and Wine and a little Kaiser Chiefs for good measure. Throw in some New York Dolls, Jarvis Cocker, Thom Yorke, Radiohead and Lemon Jelly, add a little M83, some Boards of Canada, a dash of Thievery Corp, maybe some Snow Patrol, a few Premiere Opera podcasts and the audio books of The Hitchiker’s Guide and Anansi Boys and that should cover a very long flight.

Books chosen for trip: About 14. But I am trying to tell myself to only take two , Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham and The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (Brenda, have you read Jasper Fforde? I have a feeling you might like him.) But I can pretty much guarantee that there will be more.

And just because…my current desktop:



Have a happy whatever you celebrate!

Falling.

Oh I thought I was good. I thought I was ahead of it all. I lorded it over my friends and got cocky. And now it’s biting me in the butt. I did my Christmas shopping early, oh yes. And I was very proud of myself. And we all know what pride comes before don’t we? Well, in my dictionary, it comes before “prideless” but now I am thinking that pride comes before you realize that all those presents still have to be wrapped, and they are all on the other side of the continent. Pride also comes right before the realization that you still have all that candy to make, oh and those brownies that your father, who has been ill and is frail and elderly (heh…yeah, he’s been ill but “frail”? that’s kind of an exaggeration), asked for specially. Pride also comes before packing a suitcase that will, inevitably, get lost in transit, and a plane flight that will be bumpy, crowded and either way too hot or ridiculously cold but either way, not comfortable. Pride will generally also come before that one last present that doesn’t seem to have shipped yet, and it always comes before you try on those sweaters that you haven’t worn since last year only to discover that they are a) too small b) too ratty or c) packed away somewhere that you couldn’t possibly get to before your flight…somewhere like…Guam.

I think the holiday stress is kicking in…how about you?

Cut.

The history of my hair is pretty much the history of hair in the 70’s. The Pixie, the Pageboy, the Little Orphan Annie (dude, that was a bad idea), the Shag, the Pixie again, the Bob, the Girl Mullet, the Body Wave, the Wings, the Faux Farrah…I tried them all. And none of them really worked. I never had shiny ringlets or Cindy Brady pigtails. I pretty much always had a tangled mess, or at least, a not-stylish mess.

When I was old enough to take care of my hair myself, it turned into a litany of 80’s styles, the French Braids, the French Braids with headband, the ring of curling iron curls around the face (Do you know that one? It was deeply unattractive.) There was the asymmetric New Romantic Cut, the Rat Tail, the long curly perm that one hoped would turn into gentle waves, the spiral perm, the Pixie (again-it made a comeback!)- as did the Bob.

Then there were the colors. The brassy “Sun-In” orange, the burgundy, the crayon red, the red streaks that sat in the sun too long and turned pink, (just in time for freshman year in college), the blonde, the blonde streaks, the strawberry blonde, back to red, then eggplant, then back to red, red with blonde, red with purple, brown, brown with pink and the one time only, never to be done again, brown with blue which quickly faded to green, thus causing east-coasters to ask if I was a “really big Eagles fan”.

My hair has always been the bane of my existence. And my mother’s, for that matter. It was never long or glossy or luxurious. It was never where it was supposed to be and it never did what it was supposed to do. It frustrated me and made me cry and I can’t imagine that it ever looked…nice.

It’s very straight. Very. And very fine. And thin. I don’t know the actual circumferece of a shaft of my hair but I have to believe it’s about half of yours. Because a ton of my hair is still a lot less then a ton of most other peoples. Not an actual TON. A ton is a ton. A figurative ton. A lot. A bunch. Like the bunch of hair that was lopped off my head last night. All in one shot. About 12 or 14 inches. It’s hard to say because it was lopped off in one big braid.

This is something I have been planning on for a while. Actually, more than a while. It’s been…more than two years. Not just the stylish haircut but also the donation of the hair left behind. I don’t know why I decided this would be something to do, but I did. And I did it. And now it’s done. In a way, I feel bad for someone who ends up with my hair now that I have confessed that it has given me trouble my whole life. But I also think that if I had lost my own hair due to some force other than choice, I would like to have the opportunity to…cover up sometimes.

I now have a stylish bob. Think Victoria Beckham (minus the really high heel and really fake implants). My husband called it “chic” (I didn’t even know he knew that word!). A co-worker deemed it a “10 out of 10”. And my morning routine is now about 15 minutes shorter. I don’t really know that I feel like I have done a “good thing”. I feel like I have done..a thing. But it’s done. I hope it maybe makes someone’s life just a little bit easier.

Thoughtful.

Things I am currently wondering:

Why the air conditioner is running in this office. It’s COLD!! I am wearing two sweaters and a scarf.

Why my headache won’t go away. (A: Change in barometric pressure, perhaps?)

Why can’t I type more than one word without making a mistake.

What’s for dinner? (I’m thinking miso soup and cheap sushi)

Is it stupid to go to Target tonight? I really do need toilet paper…

How did my 12 year-old self manage to time travel and tag the billboard in front of this building with the greatest graffiti ever?

In big hot pink letters it reads “I (PINK PUFFY HEART (actual heart, which is pink and puffy)) HORSES.” I don’t know who did it but it is the best graffiti I have ever seen. And in my imagination she is 12 and has her hair in a side ponytail and she is wearing rainbow leg warmers and overalls and possibly one of those headbands that goes across your forehead. But my imagination does tend to run wild.

Go, graffiti girl, whoever you are! And please don’t ever tell me that you are just some dude with pink spray paint. That would spoil everything.

Holiday.

Ah Thanksgiving, how I miss you already. You, with all the cooking and dish washing and burning of the fingers, you were my relaxing day. Although, come to think of it, I didn’t actually DO anything Friday and Saturday at the craft fair. Who knew that sitting for seven hours could be so exhausting?

Yeah…craft fair. It was kind of sad. It was a really nicely run fair, everyone said it was well organized and coming from Comic-con, I don’t have anything to compare it with but hey, they would deliver food to you…in your booth! That’s pretty awesome (even if I didn’t have them do that) and the organizer, she knew my name! And my products! And she was super nice. But apparently, that’s just not enough because NO ONE SHOWED UP. No one. Well, a few people, but not many. And the people that were there? They didn’t actually purchase things. Oh they stopped, they chatted, they loved our stuff…and then they walked away. It would appear that it was not us, for once. We were showered and non-stinky and friendly (well…most of us were…ahem) but the crowds were not at all crowd like, they were more singular. And it just…wasn’t. We had some lovely jewelry designers on one side of us (although I must say, I was terribly distracted by the fact that the male half of the team showed up early one morning topless. And it’s not like he was ripped or anything but apparently, I am easily distracted by half naked men…and shiny things too…ok, fine…I am easily distracted) and an excellent illustrator on the other side who didn’t even show up on the second day. So yeah, that was kind of a bust. But I think we found our niche at comic-con and am happy to stay there. Also, once you have dealt with a building full of 100,000 nerds and geeks, anything else is gonna seem tiny by comparison. So, basically, it was two pretty nice days spent sitting in the sun. Which, as I said, totally exhausted me. Who knew that sitting could take such a toll?

So, now it’s on to bigger and better things. Christmas and travel and family and…stuff.
Oh and for the record, turkey, totally not dry. Totally that other word that I don’t like…the m-o-i-s-t word. Someday I will go to Brenda’s house for a deep fried turkey since there is no way in hell I am going to be allowed around a bucket of hot grease, but until then, plain old roasting works just fine for me. It even took less time than I expected. I put the turkey in and figured it would take about 3 hours. Somehow, I got distracted…probably by something shiny or naked…and then when I finally remembered that I probably should baste the poor dead thing at least once, I opened the oven and it was done. So dinner was a lot earlier than I had planned on, but that’s the nice thing about a small Thanksgiving. You can just go with the flow. Now, several days later, I am officially done with turkey until Christmas. Seriously. I even tried to pawn some off on the cat. She just horked it back up onto the rug. So there’s one (more) failed experiment.

Annnnnnyway…Thanksgiving good. Craft fair bad. Oh except I did make a purchase from the Mincing Mockingbird and I totally recommend you check him out. Excellent stuff that.

Crap.

I am tired. Bone weary, I would say, but that might seem a bit dramatic. Tired enough to sleep right now, but always too tired to fall asleep at night. Partially it is getting ready for this craft fair (and yes, everytime I type that it comes out as “crap fair”) and partially it is just my insomnia rearing it’s cuddly and pleasant little head (I figure if I am nice to it, it will go away). But today…tired.

On the other hand, as of tonight, all crap fair stuff will be done. And there may also possibly be a pumpkin pie baked and some sweet potato casserole made. Don’t get your hopes up but anything is possible, right? RIGHT?

Actually, it’s all good, it’s all fine and I can probably even sleep late tomorrow. Gone are the days of the 4 a.m. wake up just to put the turkey in the oven. My tiny turkey will take no time at all. Oop. Probably just cursed myself there. Have you ever had that turkey that refuses to cook? It’s totally defrosted, the oven is working, but for some really strange reason, the turkey remains that weird pinky-blue color and just sits there. The internal temperature rises but not enough, no juices fill the pan…it’s sad really. It happened once, I hope it doesn’t happen again.

Annnnnnyway, tired, turkey…that’s pretty much it. I have things to say and things to do but you know, it ain’t gonna happen until after the holiday.

I love Thanksgiving. I am a very thankful person. I hope that your day is filled with nice things and if they aren’t nice, I hope that they are at least tolerable. And if they aren’t tolerable, have another gin and tonic and be thankful that you have gin…and tonic. Or just gin, whatever makes you happy.

That’s the real point here. I hope that Thursday brings you whatever it is that makes you happy, unless what makes you happy is kicking puppies…so, I guess the real point is..

Um…Happy Thanksgiving?

Noisy.

I am I a bad person just because I joined FaceBook for the sole reason of annoying my nephew into giving me his Christmas list? Probably. But that’s what technology is for, right? Shaming the ones that you love into doing what you want?

It’s a hectic race down to the day after Thanksgiving now. The Tired Girl Collective will be at the Handmade for the Holidays event at the Fairfax High School and I am…not quite prepared yet. But I will be! Well…I hope I will be. We are planning a low key Thanksgiving just for this reason. But, also, because it’s just the two of this time, although I will say, it’s pretty darn hard to find a turkey that weighs less than 12 pounds. I was ready to go for Cornish hens myself.

Heh, I just very dramatically reached for my headphones to signify to my co-workers that I do not want to hear their reviews of current books or movies…and for once it actually worked and they moved away from my desk. This is the problem with the open floor plan office, you are subject to the conversations of EVERYONE ELSE. And quite frankly, I don’t care what they thought of the movies they saw this weekend! And let me just mention here that I was given a wonderful pair of noise canceling headphones for my birthday and my co-workers appear to be the only thing that these headphones CAN’T cancel. They’re loud. Very loud. And proud of it.

Ok, back to work so I can go home, shop for all the Thanksgiving ingredients so that I can then work on things to be sold at the craft fair. Sigh. Never ending.

Pathetic.

I am the queen of sad lunch. You know sad lunch? That’s when the place you work has a fridge and you know you have some stuff in there but you aren’t sure what it is but you don’t really want to go out and get something else, so you eat what you find. Sad lunch.

Today’s sad lunch: youghurt eaten standing up…with a fork. Three “tofu nuggets”.. Just tofu, not chicken flavored or anything, tofu flavored. They were ok, but not something I want to eat more than three of at any given time. A few crackers with hummus. Then I gave up. It’s wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t…it was sad lunch.

In other news. I received a phone call from a co-worker this morning. Naturally, I thought he was at his desk, why wouldn’t I? Turns out he was in the comic book store and he was calling to ask if I wanted him to pick me up the new Scott Pilgrim comic. And I did! So he did! (I thought I was special but when he showed up and handed it to me, it was a stack of like a million). But now I have the new Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together. And I started reading it. And it is good.

Today.

Today

-I have now commenced purchasing Christmas presents for real. Significant purchases have been made. This is good. Things can get to my mother’s house and she can tell me they have arrived and I can wrap them when I get there. I feel better now.

-I did not go get coffee today. I did however find not one, but TWO different kinds of soy milk that I have been wanting to try at the grocery store: pumpkin spice (it scares me but I can’t look away) and chocolate peppermint (Schwee said “Oh man, there is no chocolate peppermint cow’s milk! That is so unfair! I might have to drink soymilk now!” So, you know, it looks good).

-That organizer? It’s still empty but I did put a sheet of paper with my christmas lists in it. And I did rearrange the pages. Slow and steady wins the race people.

-The moonflower in the terrarium has died. The sensitive plant appears not to be all that sensitive and the aloe just will not grow. But there is a dragon plant now. And more Black Dragon coleus.

-I went to Momoberry. I liked it more than a grown-up should.

-I regretfully must amend my earlier assertions that the elderberry stuff has lessened my cold. While said cold is significantly less brutal than previous colds, it’s still here and I no longer feel comfortable urging others to take elderberries…more testing is necessary. I can advice you that zinc may well shorten the duration of a cold but the taste of it will make you hate life.

Yesterday.

Things I am thinking about right now:

-I want new warm boots and man are the fur ones warm but then something furry had to die to make my boots but if nothing had to die, why are the fake fur ones so expensive and something dies to make my dinner almost everyday but that makes me feel bad too and yet I don’t quite have the gumption to just go and become a vegan but that makes me feel bad and..and…
I guess I’ll just have cold feet.

-Thanksgiving menu for two: Turkey, smallest I can find. Stuffing, bread style (no cornbread, no sausage), roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic, sweet potato casserole, gravy, cranberry sauce (from a can because that’s what I like), pumpkin pie. Husband demands deviled eggs and “bread of some sort”, I demand he makes his own.

-There was no coffee this morning because I left the house early. I miss coffee.

-I still have a cough. But most of the rest of the sudden, unreasonable birthday cold has disappeared. I am attributing that to elderberry capsules and UMKA cold care, which I believe is also made of elderberries…you can’t prove it didn’t work, so I am just going to go ahead and say it did.

-Trying to figure out how my cat can be at the vet’s from 8 am to 4 pm and not have created ANY urine at all. For heaven’s sake just PEE ALREADY!

-I have never made chili in a crockpot before. Tonight’s dinner could be a bad experience.

-I now know what all my Christmas purchases will be…now I just have to purchase them…sigh.

-Why are there no cupcakes here?

-I bought myself a new “organizer” over the weekend. I do not have high hopes that it will help.

-It’s awful cold in here.

-There goes Mike with a coffee. Why didn’t he get me a coffee?

-I am wearing fur boots, two sweaters and a scarf and I am still cold. Something is terribly wrong here.

-Ha! I walked to Star*ucks and now I have coffee! The day has come full circle, well, it’s more of a pear shape but not in that “it’s all gone pear shaped!” way.

Chilly.

Well, I just ate a Lean Cuisine Chicken…something, what was it? Oh, Carbonara for lunch. It wasn’t good. It was edible but you know, not really tasty. It just seemed like a good day for something warm and starchy, as it’s chilly and grey and kind of…it’s not rainy really, it’s more like the heavens are giving me rapberries (or Bronx cheers, if you prefer) and I keep kind of getting sprayed but not wet. In general, it’s vaguely miserable but not entirely horrible. Gloomy. That’s a good word for it. Gloomy. So, I guess the Chicken Carbonra was fitting because that too was pretty gloomy and not at all satisfying. So I had a cracker with some Rosemary, Apricot Chicken Salad but that too was not as pleasureable as it should have been. And it had almonds on it. Which, in theory, is fine, because hey, I like almonds. But in practice? With the rosemary and the apricots and the chicken, was just too much going on. And the crackers were kind of eh too. So I got rid of that and had some yoghurt. Which was good. So it’s not a total wash. But you know what? I could have milked the impending anniversary of my birth for a lunch out. But I was foolish. I am not one to have the week long celebrations (ahem, BFF and husband, it’s a birthDAY not a birthWEEK).

So, the point? Um…it’s chilly? See, that’s how I tie today into something I started writing yesterday and didn’t finish.

Now that it is getting chilly here in L.A. (but don’t get used to it, we will have some randomly blisteringly hot days still…probably around the time I need to do any large amount of cooking. Thanksgiving maybe, or whenever I decide I need to make 20 dozen cupcakes for a party or something). But for now…chilly. Not cold, not icy. Just cool enough to be uncomfortable if you weren’t paying attention and didn’t put on a jacket before you left the house. Chilly enough, for a normal person, to maybe want to sleep UNDER the covers. Chilly enough for me, an unnormal person, to sleep in three layers with two blankets and a hot water bottle. Yes, I took a hot water bottle to bed with me the other night. My feet and nose were cold and I couldn’t decide where to put it for optimal heating. It ended up on the feet. The nose suffered.

We have lit the heater and washed the winter comforter. The cat has begun burrowing under blankets begging for cuddles. And it’s what? 60 degrees? That’s nothing. But it’s enough nothing to make me shiver.

Currently regretting: lunch
Currently talking about: Beau Brummel and prison versions of Hamlet
Currently wishing: I had another sweater

Hollerdays!

Sooooooo, hey there. Hi, how are you? Thinking about Christmas, Hannukah, Hanukkah or Chanukah? How about the Winter Holiday of your choice? No? Too early? Well, just in case, let me point you in the direction of the paperlotus design collective etsy store. We have all kinds of things that you might find suit your holiday needs. We’ve got cards for all sorts of holidays, shirts for all sorts of kids, totebags for…ok, they are pretty much only for nerds but maybe you are a nerd, or you know a nerd who totes things? Yes? We’ve also got nifty all occasion cards by the box that would make great stocking stuffers or prizes for parties or…look, we have stuff, you need stuff…why don’t you take a look? Thanks!

Bars.

I haven’t been making vegan muffins lately, have you missed them? Me neither. Oh, I like them just fine but I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in my car and muffins tend to crumble all over the place, even the…moist…ones (oh how I hate that word). And they take two hands to eat. Too much trouble, says I. Well, for the moment anyway. I am sure I will go back to them at some point. But not now, no sir. Because I discovered the vegan energy bar mix…and quickly dismissed it for being too expensive. Don’t get me wrong, they were really good, but I couldn’t find them in the grocery stores and once you add shipping from the manufacturer…wayyyy too expensive. Ah well.

But wait…I can cook. I know how. I know what goes in…food. I know ingredients and stuff! And all the ingredients are listed on the box, so all I need to do is figure out proportions, right? So what’s in these things? Rice Syrup Solids, Oat Bran), Vital Wheat Gluten, Fructose, Non-GMO Soy Protein Isolate…oh.

Ok, so I thought about it and though about it and it was really easier than I thought. Once I started flinging things into the bowl it all started to make sense. And it was easy. Really easy. And good. And, as far as I can tell, good for you. Here’s what you do:

Mix together in a large bowl:

1c. whole wheat pastry flour
1c. rolled oats
½ c. soy flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons whole flax seeds

add:

1c. fat free soymilk
¼ c. canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

mix until blended and add in
nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips…I’d say to taste but then it would just be all chocolate chips and nothing else, wouldn’t it? Let’s say start with a ¼ c of each and see what you think.

Bake in a lightly oiled 8x8, 9x9, or, if you are like me, some weird sized pan from Ikea, I think it’s about 7x9. Small enough to fit in the toaster oven, at 350° for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to the touch.

Let cool before cutting into 8 pieces and wrapping indivudally and storing in the fridge. I wrap mine in wax paper and then put them all into a plastic bag and that seems to keep them nice and fresh.

I am not a nutritionist but I think we can safely say that these have a reasonable amount of fiber and some protein. The fruits and chocolate add some antioxidants and are yummy so, you know, it’s a decent meal. It’s got all the important food groups, fiber, protein and yum.

I have made these twice now and the first time I used 2 eggs instead of canola oil. It worked but I was really surprised when I used the canola oil because they came out much fluffier with a more tender crumb.

The only caveat with these is kind of…well it’s fine, it doesn’t hurt you or anything but whole flax seeds don’t really digest in your system. The ones that get chewed will fill you with lovely omega 3s but the ones that stay whole will pass right through you…so don’t think that it was a clot or something…it’s just the flax. Sorry, I know, I know…I just wish someone had given me that kind of warning the first time I ate fresh beets. So, I thought I’d let you know.

Wordy.

Colleen posted seven of her favorite words and asked commenter to do the same. I had to think about it for a few minutes, even though I knew right away what four of them would be.

1. peace
   
2. grace
   
3. lazy
   
4. blessed (but pronounced bless-ed)
   
5. grackle
   
6. Phillip
   
7. cherry (especially when followed by “red”)

But I don’t think I could tell you why I like these particular words. Mostly it’s the way they sound and the way they feel when you say them. Peace, grace, lazy and blessed all share sibilant sounds…well, actually, is “z” a sibilant? I don’t know, Brenda will know but I am pretty sure it is. Grackle is just fun to say. Grackle, grackle, grackle! And Phillip? I cannot explain Phillip. It’s the name I give to anything that doesn’t have a name. I think I particularly like the plosive “p”. Cherry…cherry, that one is more about visuals than linguistics. I love the phrase “cherry red” which I realized first when listening to an ‘80’s song called “Midnight Blue” sung by Lou Graham. I confirmed my love for that later when I realized that Mick sings that his favorite flavor is “Cherry Red” in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (You’ll remember that he and Mr. Jimmy decided that they would have a soda…).

I do love words, and I do love complicated and over the top words, but my favorites are all pretty simple. I’m not sure what that says about me…shutup!

Historical.

I read an article about how many Brits are up in arms over the “history” in the Showtime series “The Tudors.” I watched the first season. I enjoyed it. At some point I realized that the history was wonky. I checked, noticed that the television show was not accurate or factual (Imagine that!) and thought. “Oh, well…it’s not like it’s a documentary.” I went back to enjoying the show. Does everything that involves historical figures need to be factual? Can there be no historical fiction? Does it really matter that Henry the VIII was a red-head and that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is not? He's still pretty. And he's a reasonably good actor. Silly people. It’s television. You can’t believe everything it tells you!

And speaking of Brits and history and historical fiction…I saw Michael Sheen in the grocery store the other day. He looked a little bewildered by the choices for lunch. As was I. There seemed to be lots of food but very little to eat. I contemplated mentioning to him that I was very fond of several of his movies (Dirty Filthy Love, Bright Young Things) but since I haven’t yet seen the movie he has become most famous for (he plays Tony Blair in The Queen) I was hesitant. And I don’t talk to people anyway, why would I talk to him? I should have told him not to get that butternut squash soup though. It wasn’t good.

That particular grocery store has proven to be excellent for celebrity sightings. So far it’s been Michael Sheen, Ken Wantanabe, Aaron Eckhardt, Jon Heder, Miss California and Catherine Oxenberg and Casper Van Dien (together). I don’t go goofy when I see actors out and about, but I am always interested to see if someone is, say, taller or shorter than I thought (Michael Sheen is taller, Catherine Oxenberg is shorter), more or less unusual looking (Jon Heder is really very cute when he’s not Napoleon Dynamite), more or less handsome (Ken Wantanabe is very handsome, Aaron Eckhardt is more rugged, poor Michael Sheen just looked tired (but still as cute as a shiny button!). It’s just interesting to me I guess. Do you ever see any one of note out and about? Did they surprise you? Who was the best sighting you ever had? I still think Evander Holyfield is still my favorite...or maybe Carrie Fisher…but Michael Sheen is pretty good. He was the werewolf king, after all.

Ash.

The sky is a weird glowing grey. I don’t think sound is actually muffled but it SEEMS muffled. A strange sort of hush that could just be my imagination. The air doesn’t smell of smoke so much as…something burned. Rubber or gas or a little wood of all of it together. And this time, the ash isn’t falling like snow, not in Santa Monica anyway, and not at home in the valley. I can’t see it coming down but my car has a fine coat on it and when I wipe the windowsills, they are covered with grit again a few minutes later.

I don’t normally have breathing problems but my short walk to the grocery store has left my throat burning and my lungs raw. And the constant onslaught of stuff in the air has me stuffed up and sinus headachy.

So far, everyone I know is safe. Their houses are safe and their families are safe. But that’s just a few people. So many more are still in danger of losing everything. We are fine. The valley isn’t on fire but it makes me wonder, if it was, how fast could it move?

A co-worker called in the other day to say he wasn’t being evacuated but he was preparing, just in case. He said he had packed his wife’s car with their stuff and was trying to figure out what else he needed to gather. He said his wife wanted family photos and the like but he wasn’t interested in that kind of thing. He wondered what was actually important enough for him to worry about losing. I suggested he gather his legal papers, his birth certificate, marriage license, passport, wills. He said he hadn’t even thought about that stuff. In the end, his house was safe and he didn’t have to evacuate.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, it was an “el Niño” year. It rained a lot. That song wasn’t wrong, the next line after “It never rains in Southern California…” Is “It pours, man, it pours.” The past few years however, not so much rain. Yesterday there was 8% humidity. It’s better today, it’s 9%. Everyone is telling me that they can’t get enough to drink and I am itchy all the time. The winds have died down and it’s not as bad as it could be but it’s still really dry and hot. The weather reports actually say things like “areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times.” I never thought of smoke counting as “weather" before I lived here.

Suited.

Ah, who knew that mentioning hose could stir up trouble? I did. But jeez, with all the silly things I say, why you choose to comment on hose is beyond me. But it does remind me of the rules of interviews, as I was taught them anyway.

Did you get some sort of instruction in college or high school on interviewing for a job? A little advice or maybe even a class or a seminar? I am pretty sure I had SOMETHING but I really don’t remember what. I do know, however, that on the east coast, when interviewing for pretty much any job, in the nineties and before I should say, who knows what people expect now, it was strongly recommended that one wear business clothes and when in doubt, err on the side of formal. Suit and tie for a guy. Suit, heels and hose for a girl. And when I say any job, I mean any job. I was in charge of interviewing people for a shoe sales position and if they showed up in jeans, they were not considered. Period. (Although, I do know that one girl I worked with interviewed in nice slacks, heels and a cropped sweater and got the job. I wouldn’t have hired her but I am not a dude. And for the record, she was a nice person and did ok as a sales person but could not be trusted to make change at the cash register because she couldn’t really count.)

I am pretty sure that I went to every job interview I ever had at that time in a pretty formal business suit. Probably something staid and navy blue. Eh. Not my thing but yes, appropriate. I am also pretty sure that if I felt the need to show any individuality on a job interview I did it with a slightly funky bag or piece of jewelry.

Then I moved to California. New rules. New rules that I did not know and I could have never guessed. I showed up at interviews in my summer suit. Navy blue with white trim and blue heels. I got told that I was “overqualified” (OK, I probably was for at least one of those jobs but certainly not for all of them) and that I seemed “so serious!” And I couldn’t figure it out. I was properly dressed; I had a decent resume with no typos. What was wrong?

It wasn’t until I got a “drop off your portfolio” type of interview…where you don’t really interview but you drop off your samples and your resume and then if they like them, they will call you for a proper interview. Now, I was probably not really qualified for the job but hey, I was a textbook illustrator and a digital artist and damn if I was not going to apply for any job that I was even vaguely qualified for. I dressed up, dropped off my book and subsequently got the call to come pick it up…no interview. Fine, didn’t really expect one. I also did not expect to run into the guy who actually got the job in the lobby. And, for that matter, I did not expect his name to be “Crash” or for his pants to be baggy and sagging down past his boxer shorts due to the huge wallet chain. And aside from that, I didn’t expect him to be wearing yellow bug-eye glasses and to have his hair in a Mohawk. Nope, didn’t expect that at all. Look, I know I work in a fairly “creative” field but really? Really?

So I rethought every thing I knew. I went out and bought a new suit, but this time I kept it a little more casual. Scuba style jacket and short skirt, tee shirt underneath, funky chunky shoes and a man’s chunky watch. I retired my beautiful linen and leather satchel and replaced it with one made from recycled tires and seatbelts. Same me. Same sample book. But now, I had job offers.

And for the record, I still wore hose, because that’s what I was told to do when going to a job interview. Saved me too, the skirt was too big on the new suit and it got twisted around and I found myself in a casual interview, sitting next to the guy who might be my new boss with my skirt hitched up way too high and the kick pleat slit that should have been in the back now in the front. Believe me, I was glad to have the hose on that day.

Pajamas.

Boo! I am suddenly depressed. Here I thought I was getting a leg up on things and today, a CHRISTMAS present that I had ordered for my brother arrived and…I don’t like it. And I think I have to send it back. Rats. And YOU may think it’s early to be Christmas shopping but my mom is done. And all of her presents are wrapped. And she has some set aside for next year. So that’s the suck. I thought I was cool and yet again, I was so, so wrong. Boo.

But over the weekend I went to a “re-commitment” ceremony. Some friends celebrated their 25th anniversary by doing it all over again. Crazy, says I. It was a big enough pain for me the first time, I can’t imagine doing it a second time, but I also can’t imagine being alive after 25 years of marriage…well, let’s just say one of us won’t be alive and ya’ll can start taking bets on who is going to make it.

It was a lovely service though, right on a cliff over the water. There was singing and dancing and food and everything you expect at an event like this. And there was Glen Campbell, which you kind of don’t expect at an event like this. But there he was. I didn’t believe it at first. I was sitting outside and I refused to get up and look until I heard “Rhinestone Cowboy”. And when I heard it, I looked and sure ‘nuff…Glen Campbell. Groovy.

The one problem I have with events like this though is the dressing up. I am not a dressing up kind of girl. I am a barely able to get out of my pajamas kind of girl. I am aa “is an old holey sweatsuit appropriate for a job interview?” kind of girl. And when the invitation says “cocktail attire” well…in my house dressing for cocktails involves that ratty old bathrobe and slippers, just like every other event. And “cocktail attire” is pretty vague I think. I mean, if I were to go out for cocktails with say…SnarkyDork, I might wear nice jeans and a pretty sweater. Or if I were going to cocktails with Glen Campbell…well, I am sure it would involve rhinestones. But I don’t like dresses and I don’t like all the stuff that goes with dresses.

I have worn dresses. I wore dresses for work and I wore dresses for play but I just never think of them as comfortable and I DON’T WANNA! When I did wanna, I did it well, I wore “Designing Women” suits, I wore high heels, I wore hose (because in New Jersey, you wear hose. In the south, you wear hose. In California, you are all sluts who don’t wear hose!) and I was well dressed. And the dresses got caught in cross breezes and blew up (I once even had a wrap around skirt blow completely off!) and the hose got runners in them and the high heels did terrible things to my feet and I DON’T WANNA!

So, I wore some pretty wide leg trousers and heels and a pretty silky blouse with kimono sleeves. I kept stepping on my trousers and the pretty silky blouse kept sliding off my shoulders and exposing my bra and the heels ended up giving me foot cramps that kept me up all night.

Next time I am totally wearing my pajamas.

Soy.

So, that long threatened essay on why I hate a tv show that no one watches anyway? I am still working on it. It’s taken on a life of it’s own really and I am thinking it’s much closer to dissertation than blog entry now. The thing is, and this is slightly embarrassing, I have a deep and undying love for vampire stories. And not for the reasons that you might expect. Actually, I don’t know what reasons one could give for such a love that isn’t embarrassing so I am going to go with “metaphor for…” um…I don’t know. I like vampire stories but I don’t have any real interest in the “erotic” nature of them. I don’t want to be a vampire or to be bitten by a vampire or anything like that. It’s much like SnarkyDork might say “I like stories about dogs” or how someone might like mysteries or romances. I like vampire stories. So this is why I have such strong feelings about Moonlight, and why I thought I had so much to say about why it didn’t work for me. But the more I talk about it the weirder it seems.

Aw jeez, and now I am really tired and I don’t feel like writing anymore.

Oh but just in case you were wondering, there have been cupcakes, chocolate with vanilla frosting, that were dubbed “Awesome” and “Better than Sprinkles” (which frankly, isn’t hard) by a multi-millionaire (no kidding). So I can’t finish an essay on the importance of the history of the vampire legend and how taking away his weaknessness does in effect, leave him toothless but I can bake some kick-ass cupcakes. And my secret? Boiling water.

And now, my hands smell of soy sauce so I am done.

(No drugs were involved with any of this. I am really just that weird. And Sarah? Now that you have been outed as the secret reader from Ontario, do you have a blog? I’d love to stop by.)

Ew.

Does your face hurt?

Because I got a face full of hot coffee this morning and mine stings a little.

Oh and…because it’s killing me…sorry, had to finish the joke.

That’s not the way you want to start the day though, caffeine is really not meant to be absorbed through the face, or the shirt…or the counter, floor or cabinets for that matter. Jeez. What a pain.

You might be getting the idea that I am a little clumsy. I’ve hit myself in the face with a car, taken a spectacular fall on a city street…but really, this is the worst thing I’ve done lately. And I blame it on the microwave.

But here’s something weird. I do have a stat counter on this blog and although I don’t look at every stat report, I do occasionally check to see if whomever that is in Hamilton, Ontario is still reading (Hi, nice to see you’re still with me, how are you?) but I am not all that big on stats. I have noticed that I get hits for the same things over and over again, Shane McGowan, Cyndi Lauper and goth bakeries. When Rome was on the air I got a lot of hits for Ciaran Hinds. Sometimes I mention someone like Hugh Laurie and I get linked in a listing on a fansite. And I get a lot of hits for that picture of the bunny and the penguin dreaming. I’d like to know why but…I don’t care all that much. Today I took the extra step of checking to see what people were searching for that got them here…apparently it was “moist boobs”. Yeah, thanks, we don’t have those around here and really, nice way to search for the two words that I most dislike. It’s like you are trying to freak me out. Gross.

Things here have been going apace. The terrarium continues to terrorize, the moon flower is out of control but the Dragon Coleus as now sprouted so I am thinking it’s going to be a battle royale. The sensitive plant has also sent up some shoots. Unfortunately it’s planted right between the moon flower and the coleus so…it’s only gonna get more sensitive.

Not much else has been going on. I wrote a long rant about a particular television show and haven’t finished it yet. Oh and A.C.? Commercials are stupid so you will remember them. Just ask anyone from the Delaware Valley “Hey, where did everybody go?” and I can almost guarantee you that they will tell you, “They’ve gone to Betson’s!” and if you mention Michael’s Furniture to anyone in Los Angeles they will tell you it’s the store with “lllllleeeeeessssssss overhead!”. The stupid, it sticks in our brains. True, it also sucks out the IQ but it stays there and we remember it. But then, every once in a while, you get a gorilla playing drums or a cowboy herding cats and that makes the lower IQ worth it.

Answers.

Answers to random questions posed in the comments which I keep forgetting to answer:

Brenda: the punch is from a Bit of Fry and Laurie and you can watch it here. Also, I don’t think I noticed the PoP gallery at Disneyworld but that may have only been because I was drunk. (Oh, I’m just kidding, for heaven’s sake!)

As far as how much TV I watch, it’s not that much, I was commenting on the NEW shows for this season, you will notice that I did not mention House or Doctor Who (for once). I do watch quite a lot of TV but probably less than you think. That said, our little family is largely powered by TV, we depend on it for our incomes and because of that, we use it as an excuse to watch as much as we want.

PW (Perry White, is that you?): You didn’t ask but I am going answer, I wrote a whole post about Moonlight but then decided not to publish it because hey, someone likes it…but…I keep complaining about this show at home and James is getting tired of hearing about it…I’ll clean up the language and tell you why I got so angry soon…(seriously, Prince of Wales? PRINCESS OF WAILS? Could it be?)

Donvan’s Mama: I think I told you about the chops and how I cooked them but the greens were the mixed bag o’ greens from Trader Joe's. I didn’t let them cook long enough and I didn’t put in enough vinegar, but they were edible.

Snarky Dork: This is from a while ago but I do not know if the changes to Pirates are the same in Florida and California because I have not been to Disneyland since the update. None of the changes are major but I do think the new animatronic moves much better than the old (and that is certainly helped out by the odd movements of Johnny Depp in the film) and I am happy that a character I like (Barbossa) is in the ride. The ride itself has never been a favorite but the updates make it more fun for me.

There, that is my duty done. I should have been more prompt but I wasn’t and I never will be. I will happily answer any other questions you ask but I warn you now, I don’t know anything. But I would be happy to make up answers to any questions you do have.

Happy-ish.

Things that have made me ridiculously happy today (actually, yesterday…I've been slow to post):

News of an upcoming Wallace and Gromit Movie (short). Yay! I’ve just watched Flushed Away and I actually really liked it. I went in thinking there was no way it would work and ended up thinking Hey that was cute. The story was a little abbreviated but I actually thought that the computer animation worked ok. Sure, it’s not as lovely as the stop motion clay animation but you know, it fills in the gaps. It will do.

Spin Magazine’s Slacker radio station. I’ve been listening to punk today. I feel rebellious. Or something.

Vegan Yum Yum’s jellied cranberry sauce. I like cranberry sauce, and I have made it from scratch and it is good. But secretly, what I really like is the canned stuff that comes out with a splorching noise. Out of the can, I mean. I like to carve my name in it. Now I am I going to try making it myself…and then I will carve my name in it.

A few recipes from the Veganomicon cook book. Still not a vegan but still love her cookbooks.

Words that SOUND dirty but aren’t. Duty, ball cock, and manhole…I could go on for hours, seriously. Ms. Fond of Snape started it…but it’s still cracking me up.


Things that have made me less happy today:

Traffic.

The soy tacos from Whole Foods. Not good.

None of my mail arriving.

BUT TODAY:

Heavens to Betsy (as my mother would say) I think I have mental powers! Not two days ago I was watching Stephen Fry in a semi-illegal downloaded thingy and thinking “But goodness wouldn’t I like to read a blog written by him? He’s an interesting guy and I bet he’d be quite good at it.” (yeah, I do think like that). And today, I am alerted to the existence of this. Now, Mr. Fry, I will concentrate on you coming by with a beer and a SALMON taco for me. See you in a bit.

No, seriously, thank you, Mr. Fry. You made my day that much better. Well, you and the fact that the soy tacos are gone. They were really bad.

AND! AND! I planted a terrarium, the other night. I’ve actually had the terrarium for quite a while but seeing as it is a “Gothic Garden” and will eventually contain such things as “Black Dragon Coleus”, Aloe plant, Sensitive plant, Dragon’s Tree and Moonflower, I thought it appropriate to get it growing now in hopes that it would be in full bloom for Halloween. This morning I discovered sprouts, Moonflower sprouts. And they are growing at an alarming rate, Every time I leave my desk I worry a little that I will come back to jungle. I swear I can hear the rustle as they grow (Did you know that rhubarb grows so fast you can hear it? It apparently creaks. It also apparently likes the dark, or more specifically, candlelight. Rhubarb is creepy. And it probably should be in my Gothic Garden, listening to some Bauhaus, or at the very least, some Morrissey).

Anyway…what was I saying?

Hotdamnandhellyeah.

What I am reading: My mother and I were talking the other day. She mentioned that she had asked my dad if he read more than one book at a time because she was currently reading two…I am currently reading…too many. But I am enjoying them. Just about done with The Devil in the White City and hotdamnandhellyeah what a good book. The writing is lively and kind of fun, even when the story is grim. The history is interesting and yes, I do have a weird fascination with certain serial killers, I didn’t know anything about either H.H. Holmes or the Columbia Exhibition before this book. It is a “fictionalized non-fiction” book of sorts but that’s how it stays entertaining.

At the same time I am also reading two Georgette Heyer novels, Behold Here's Poison (because that's one of the best darn titles ever!) and The Nonesuch. In another gaping hole in my education, I had never heard of Georgette Heyer, I don’t know why, I read mystery novels and she wrote quite a few of those, but I suppose her Regency romance novels are really what she is known for and I am not up on romances. I have read a few here and there and I have no issue with them, I just tend to read other things. Well, a few months ago, the BFF mentioned that she had been loaned these two books that the loaner had described as “as close to Jane Austen as you will probably get”. That intrigued and frightened me, I love Jane Austen and often times when someone says, “This is what Jane would write if she were writing today” they are usually about as far from Austen as you can get. But Heyer wrote a lot and here was a personal recommendation, so I found a few books on half.com and started reading. I am about halfway done with Behold here’s Poison and only starting The Nonesuch but…Georgette Heyer keeps popping up in my life. After I ordered the book, I happened to win another book (by a different author) online, and in researching THAT author, I came across many references to Heyer. Then I asked my mom if she had ever read any Georgette Heyer as mom is very well versed in Regency romances…and pretty much any other book out there. She told me that she not only knew who she was, she had read all of her books when I was a little girl! Finally last night I was watching a documentary sort of thing on Stephen Fry and he was talking about his guilty pleasures. Apparently, aside from darts and punching Hugh Laurie, he loves Georgette Heyer. Heck, she’s even widely credited with creating the Regency romance genre…well, the kind that wasn’t actually written during the early 19th century.

I guess the real question is, what rock have I been under all these years?

(Incidentally, Stephen Fry has the most beautiful stage punch ever. Straight out from his shoulder and right to the jaw. I could watch him coldcock Hugh Laurie all day and not got tired of it.)



I think I am also reading a few other books but I tend to leave them scattered around and pick them up ever now and then. I am kind of puttering around with a few books on fairies that I am using as inspiration for some new pictures. And I picked up a YA book in “Great Britain” in Epcot called I Am Morgan le Fey by Nancy Springer. I just found the title interesting. We’ll see if I like it.

I think I did startle two little girls in that store though. Oh and hey, why is there not a bookstore in Disneyworld? Or is there one and I just couldn’t find it? There were several Disney books that I was looking for (and eventually found in different places throughout the parks) but it just seems like a good idea…one store, all books. Most of Disney’s movies were inspired by books and heck, Disney has it’s own publishing branch, but it took me forever to find the Mary Blair book I was looking for (found it in Mexico in Epcot, didn’t buy it, too expensive). Anyway…these two young girls were perusing the meager selection of books in the toy store in Great Britain and one of them said to the other “Who is this MANDY”? referring, of course, to the book, Mandy, by Julie Andrews. AND here’s where the story gets a little Ren…I had just come from the pub and was a little…happy (just a little) so I swooped in and proceeded to school these kids on good books, Mandy being a story I had read at their age. I also heartily encouraged them to read the Mary Poppins series as well as the Narnia books. They took it all in stride but kind of backed away slowly. And then when one of them asked for a book her mother said, “I am not paying $20 for this! Come on!” and dragged her out of the store. Sigh.

And the same goes for you! No, no, I would totally buy you a $20 book...ok, i wouldn't, but I do think you should read the Mary Poppins series...and at least The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe of the Narnia series. It's good stuff.

Premiere.

After a conversation with the BFF about the new shows, I wrote up this whole entry about what I was interested in, but now that most of them have premiered, and I have seen a few, I went back and added some editorial comments


Hmmm, not sure why I am doing this but I am doing it anyway. Yes, I probably watch too much TV. But I watch a lot less than most people. And I read. I swear I do! But last year I wrote a bit about what new shows I was looking forward to and it seem like a good time to follow up.

I guess the new season has actually started and I have already fallen behind but…I don’t care. I did record and watch the premiere of K-ville and…well…it was ok. I probably won’t watch it again. It was kind of melodramatic for my tastes but the very nature of the story makes it necessary to be that overblown. Overblown is a bad word for it, I guess, but do you know what I mean? The setting alone is dramatic, the back-stories of the characters are dramatic…it’s very…dramatic. And Cole Hauser is cute but not cute enough to make me need that much drama.

Watched the first episode of Back to You because I am a fan of the half-hour sitcom format. And if you are gonna have a sit-com, these are the people who should be making it. It’s really the cream of the crop as far as that goes, the writers, the actors, the producers and creators, they are the big leagues. But the show…eh. Not that interested. So, so far, this season, I am not really clicking.

What else is there? Kitchen Nightmares? Nope. I have seen some of the British version of this show and that tends towards the “kinder, gentler” Gordon Ramsey. If you have very loose definitions of “kind” and “gentle” but I really feel like he’s less shouty on the British Kitchen Nightmares and the commercials for the American version seem to feature a lot of shouting. So…no.

Gossip Girl? Nice try but if you are going to use the voice of Veronica Mars but not the actress, I’m not going to watch. Not much into the teen drama thing anyway.

Oooh, Kid Nation! I admit, I think this is the best idea for a reality show EVER. Unfortunately, I don’t really enjoy reality shows, so…nope.

Viva Laughlin. Got me. I am so there. If only to see a spectacular disaster. I loved Viva Blackpool (which was originally just called Blackpool, I think). David Morrissey AND David Tennant with a spicy dash of Sarah Parrish. Yep. Loved it. I can’t imagine it will play as well here but I am terribly curious to see. Plus there is the added possibility of a singing, dancing WOLVERINE…well, ok, so Hugh Jackman was a singer and a dancer before he was a wolverine but who cares? As long as he sings…and dances.

Life is Wild. Probably not but maybe. It’s another Americanization of a British show. Could be good (like The Office (after three episodes)), could be bad (like Coupling).

Chuck. I will watch it at least once, just to see, but…look. I am a nerd. I work with nerds. I live with nerds. What’s with all the nerd shows? And are they really going to give nerds their due? Or are we just another punch line?

(OK, so I have since watched Chuck and much to my surprise…I kind of enjoyed it. It was fun. It was pleasant and how did I not know that Adam Baldwin was on it? My husband says I just have a thing for Jane but in reality, I just have a thing for My Bodyguard.)

Journeyman. Early Edition meets Quantum Leap? Ah, Kevin McKidd, you haven’t done me wrong yet…yet. Rome was televisions saving grace last year. Dog Soldiers made me love horror movies again. (Werewolves! People doing things that people would actually do when attacked by werewolves! If you have not yet seen this movie, I heartily encourage you to do so! Plus…KEVIN MCKIDD and SEAN PERTWEE and Oh! Someone else I like…who was it? Oh, I think the Irish dude from Prime Suspect was in it too, Liam Cunningham!!!)

Cane. Hrm. Jimmy Smits. Good. But…but…I don’t know. I have no real reason for having no interest in this show. I kind of want to watch this show. But…I kind of don’t. But for no real reason at all. How’s that for wishy-washy?
(Decided not to watch it. Not that interested and eh, I watch too much as it is.)

Reaper. Oh, this could be great. Or terrible. And I will watch it because I am hoping for the great and expecting the terrible. (Watched it, liked it. Husband pointed out that it has a very Shaun of the Dead vibe and I thought it really carried the mark of Kevin Smith, and I hope it continues to do so. Also Bret Harrison has been a fave around our house for a while and there is no one better to play the devil than Leland Palmer (Ray Wise).

Private Practice. Nope. Gave up on Gray’s Anatomy when Izzie cut Denny’s heartline thingy. Not gonna bother with a spin off of a character I don’t like.

Dirty Sexy Money. I set a record. I was kind of into it just for Donald Sutherland. Oh you can keep your Keifer, I like the big daddy. But the commercial made me snicker and it looked like a good “Love to hate them” kind of show. (Watched it, really, really enjoyed it. It’s just over the top enough to be fun but not wacky. Also, it’s nice to see Donald Sutherland just enjoying himself. And those teeth…are they his real teeth?)

Bionic Woman. BFF says she will watch it just to see the lead get kicked around by Starbuck. I’m not sure I will even bother. The woman who is playing Jamie Sommers (is she still called that, I don’t even know and can’t be bothered to look) used to be on the Brit soap opera East Enders. She played the whiniest, most…annoying character ever. However, she was also in Jekyll and I didn’t hate her in that. But still…Bionic Woman? I still have my Bionic Woman doll from when I was a kid. The only things I liked about it were the handbag and the weird rubbery skin on her arm that you could roll up to see her bionics.

Big Shots. Seeing as I have seen very little about this one, I am going to take that as a warning sign and stay away.

Moonlight. Dude, wasn’t there a show called Forever Knight just like this? Mostly I won’t watch it because, despite my love for vampire stuff…I can’t stand the way the guy looks on the billboards, kind of startled. (OK, I couldn’t help myself. I have a deep love for vampire stories so I recorded it. I haven’t watched it yet and I am not hoping for big things but…it does feature Sophia Myles, who geeks may remember as Madame De Pompadour on Doctor Who and Jason Doehring, late of Veronica Mars. I am a geek. I will watch it at least once. Lord knows we could all use a good vampire story round here.)

Good lord, there are more new shows and I am already bored doing this and I can’t even imagine who might still be reading…

Aliens in America. I’ll try. That’s all I am saying.

Cavemen. Um…no. While I am actually not bothered that it is basically a spin off from a commercial (Hey, if they can pull it off, they might as well!, I am just not into it. And now I am hearing people talking racism? People...TV show about cavemen...from a car insurance commercial...let's not get too serious here.)

Carpoolers. Oh god help me, something about this looks funny to me!

Pushing Daisies. OK, this was the show I was most interested in and yet…it’s either gonna be good or so darn precious that it’s awful. But it sure looks purty.

Women’s Murder Club- I know next to nothing about this. Let’s not take this as a good sign.

Samantha Who?-ah, another show that’s not been getting a lot of press. But hey, I like that Christina Applegate, and hey, I love Overboard, seen it a million times. And since this pretty much appears to be the same thing, I’ll give it a go.

That’s a lot of TV. And it doesn’t even cover the stuff I really do watch and love like Weeds, Dirty Jobs and Bizarre Foods. The thing is, I really don’t watch them all. I kind of wander around and see stuff as I go along. I still haven’t seen the last three episodes of last year’s Heroes and I have like an entire season of Medium stored on the dvr. But that’s the nice thing about it, now I can watch something I want to watch when I want to watch it. Half of these shows will be cancelled, some for good reasons, some for bad. Some I will lose interest in when they pull a stupid stunt or let a good actor go. It doesn’t really matter. It’s only television.

Randomly.

I had crappy, crappy coffee in Disneyworld. I even tried to doctor it with some hot chocolate…I never thought hot chocolate could make something WORSE. Jeez.

I also had a chicken bastilla. Which is…chicken and some stuff like…um…almonds, wrapped in phylo and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. I still don’t know how to feel about this. It wasn’t unpleasant but…I am not a fan of the sweet and savory together as a general rule. This broke that general rule and yet it was not NOT good. It was good, just…uncomfortable.

I decided that I could never go to Morocco for reasons pertaining to good looking men.

Oddly, I just returned to a visit from the restroom and had the strange feeling that I had been gone a long, long time. Like I am the Rip van Winkle of the lady’s room…weird.

I have now purchased TWO Christmas presents. One for the husband, one for a brother. YAY, ME! And yes, my mother is not only finished ALL of her Christmas shopping, she has it all wrapped as well. I think I’m probably adopted because I sure as hell can’t be related to that.

I made the best porkchops of my life the other day. I have tried all your recipes, the crockpot, the skillet, the apple juice…all of it. Never liked it. But the other night I breaded the chops and because I was too lazy to tend the stove, I chucked them in the skillet and then into the oven. Perfect. Finally perfect. Served with greens and corn bread. Good dinner.

Cough.

No, no, it wasn’t a two-week vacation. That would have been nice, but no. I got home well over a week ago. Then it took a few days to recover…then it took a few more to get sick. And then recover again, which I am still working on. The recovery, I mean. And no, it wasn’t the typical “caught a cold on the airplane” thing. Although I am very, very good at that. I returned fully healthy and sort of relaxed, even though it would be quite a stretch to call the vacation relaxing. It was pretty hardcore, go-go-go, theme parking. But when I felt pretty well recovered from that, and back in the correct time zone, I noticed that a few of my co-workers were suspiciously missing from work. And the cold has since plowed its way through the office, taking us down one by one.

So I am back but I am not recovered but whatever. I was at Disneyworld for a week. It’s worth the cold. And although I wouldn’t call my vacation “relaxing” it was fun, fun, fun. And surprisingly, everything pretty much went our way. After being told by a concierge that no reservations were available at one of the few restaurants we deemed unmissable, we walked up to the door and were told we could get a table. OK, we said when do you have an opening. Um…when do you want to eat? No fuss, no muss. And it was good. And so was high tea. And so was not having to wait in line for anything for more than about 20 minutes and most of the time walking right on a ride, then walking off and walking right back on again. Sure, it was hot. About ninety-five most days. And humid. 100% humidity and several bouts of rain. There were blisters the size of Cadillacs and emergency “get the hell out of the sun!” moments but it was good. And we had fun. And now we are both at our respective homes and it’s a wee bit sad.

And if you are headed to Disney, do not miss the new-ish pirates. It’s, as I am sure you know, the same old pirates with a few new additions. I’ll be honest. I was never a huge fan of the ride and even less of one after being stuck in it for half an hour back in 1987, but I liked the updates quite a lot and it made the ride less…ok, look, I am afraid of water rides, OK? I can handle “it’s a small word” but that’s about it. I just keep waiting for something awful to pop up out of the water. So far nothing has, but the lovely new animatronics Jack Sparrow kept me engaged without being twitchy. And I am not really a Jack Sparrow fan. I’d much prefer a little more Barbossa myself. Or even more Davy Jones. But hey, yes, lovely job.

Now I’ve got to get back to coughing and wishing I could take a nap. Sigh.

OMG!

I will never get used to opening my email and finding something titled "OMG!" from my nephew. I am old. Very, very old.

Warm.

Oh it must be back to school time because I am looking at notebooks and journals and schoolbags and wishing I needed some. The stationary lust hits hard in September but I am well stocked and have no need for just one more sharpie set or one more blank book. Don’t get me wrong, I will find a reason to have them all but at the moment…nothing. My husband did give me a big ol’ handful of mini gel pens though, that ought to keep me at bay for a while.

So, it’s been hot. Did you know? Like super hot, hot. Like even I think it’s hot kind of hot. I am the girl that requires sweaters until it’s in the eighties and three quarter sleeves until it’s 93 degrees out. I sleep in sweats or long pajamas and even I wore a tank top to bed. Over one hundred degrees for many days. This made the weekend quite unpleasant and claustrophobic as we only have air conditioning in one room. Going to the bathroom was brutal. Going to bed in the actual bedroom was unthinkable. More than ten minutes in the kitchen? No way. But going out? Also unthinkable. Imponderable. Unbearable. So I sat in my little corner of the couch and read and watched Mad Men and…did very little. Hey, I would have cleaned…really…if it hadn’t been so hot. But…you know it was for my health that I didn’t.

Now in truth, it has been my experience anyway, that it’s really only unbearably hot in Los Angeles for about two weeks of the year. Not always two weeks in a row but in general, only about 14 days a year require me to use the air conditioner…but also keep in mind, I am like the lizard. Cold blooded. I like the warm. In general, when everyone else is saying it’s way too hot, I am quite happy. But when I say hot. It’s hot. But two weeks is ok. I can handle that. People tend to forget though. In a week or so it will still be pretty warm and people will start saying things like “It’s September, it should be cooler than this” as they have said every year in all my ten years here. And guess what. Every year it’s been this hot around this time. So, what do I do? I leave. Next week I am off to Florida, where it is…hot. But I will be in Disney where there are may cool places to hide, so I won’t mind. Also, Disney as an adult…much more entertaining. There are already plans in motion for cocktails and…well, more cocktails. I can’t wait. And then after cocktails there will be much shopping and more cocktails and IT’S A SMALL WORLD. It shall be grand, I tell you, GRAND!

Crankypants.

I am clearly the surliest person alive. I went to a “rock” concert the other night (ok, well,it was Crowded House so do you call that rock? Because they did, indeed rock but I feel like rock is kind of more like…you know, ROCK! Like Warrant or something…no, I am totally kidding…or am i?) annnnnyway, Crowded House, at the Greek, live. Lovely. They sounded wonderful, I liked Pete Yorn, who was one of the openers, I didn’t hear Liam Finn, who was the other opener, except for a moment and that sounded a little trippy for me but…I am wandering here…surly, right.

So, I am sitting in my seat, quietly appreciating the music. See, I paid money to hear Crowded House, not the sort of freaky dude in front of me carrying on a conversation with Crowded House, because he totally was. Every time Neil Finn would say something this dude had and answer. And his girlfriend, man she could clap loud…but not on beat. And that other girl, the one to the left who kind of danced like she was having a spasm, totally needed to stop. And that OTHER guy, the one who was gonna take out someone’s eye with his flailing arms…yeesh.

All that would make you think I didn’t enjoy the show. But I did. A lot. But all those people need to stop talking and dancing and chatting on their cell phones and PAY ATTENTION! And get the hell off my lawn. And stop making that damn racket! And…man I am surly.

Frosted.

I had a cupcake jones the other night which resulted in vegan chocolate cupcakes with chocolate velvet (vegan) icing. I thought they were ok. Jason thought they were gooooood. But he thinks everything is goooooood. My problems probably more had to do with ingredients than anything else. I didn’t have any baker’s sugar, which is what I like to use for this kind of icing. In fact, the only sugar I had was super hippie, coarse washed crystals of love or something. Organic dried cane juice nuggets. Whatever. It’s just sugar but it is extremely coarse, kind of kosher salt coarse. And it has a lot of the molasses flavor still. But a cupcake jones will not be denied and I forged ahead. Then I realized that I didn’t actually have any vanilla. I only had vanilla flavor, which was a shopping error, so don’t yell at me for not using real vanilla. I normally would but I apparently picked up the wrong bottle. So I used some of that and made the up the rest with REAL ORGANIC chocolate extract. Damn hippie. Oh, and then when I made the custard that is the base of the icing…and it’s a really lovely icing, I cooked it too fast so I added a little soy creamer to try and slow it down a little and I think that may have given the icing a little too much of the hippie overtones. But you know, overall, totally edible. Pleasant and if you are not me, you probably wouldn’t notice the problems I had with them.

The icing is…hmmm, well I don’t actually know the non-vegan equivalent. It’s not a cooked butter cream, which I love the flavor of but hate making. But it’s not a straight up quick butter cream because you add this custard element to it for creaminess and stabilization.

I made a really delicious cooked butter cream once, Swiss butter cream, I think they call it. It was going to be the icing for a bridal shower cake for Donovan’s Mama (yes, she has a real name but I don’t know if she wants me to use it and since Donovan has his own blog where he details all her parenting mistakes…well, you get the picture). I say this icing WAS GOING TO because, well, if you’ve ever made a cooked butter cream, it’s…not exactly complicated but it is kind of involved, you need to cook it and there’s hot sugar and your whipping things so they don’t curdle and whatever, but at some point you need to use a candy thermometer to make sure the sugar is the proper temperature. I am not fond of candy thermometers. I don’t really know why though. I mean, when I make candy I usually use the “put a drop in water and see what stage it’s at” method (what do they call that, you know? When the sugar makes a soft ball or a hard ball or a ribbon or it cracks…I don’t know…) but this time, because the recipe called for it, I used a candy thermometer.

The icing was lovely, fluffy and white and just gorgeous. And it tasted nice. Well, it did until I realized that a huge chunk of glass was missing from my candy thermometer. Uh-oh. I thought really hard about this. I hadn’t heard anything grinding in the mixer, I had tasted the icing and it seemed fine…I could just ice the cake; no one would have to know…unless they all started choking and bleeding all over my friend’s wedding shower.

I made a second batch of icing.

Guilty.

Guilty Pleasures
Funyuns
Watching portions of the same movies over and over again on cable
British tabloid websites
Emo-y and drone music
Twinkies
Wet ‘n’ Wild eyeliner
Oreos with peanut butter
distaste for the pop culture phenomena of my youth
scratchy, nearly illegible fonts
The Spice Girls
blank note books

What about you?

Daily.

Tired, tired, tired. I don’t what is going on in here but man I am tired! Sleeping has gotten difficult due to…whatever and I just can’t seem to catch up. But I figured a tired mind turns out some weird stuff so I thought I’d see what dropped out of my brain today…

Well, first I would like to share my three favorite breakfasts with you. Why, you ask? Because I already told you, I AM TIRED and my brain is funny. And this morning I had one of my favorites and I thought it was funny (remember…tired) and the other day I was reading a blog that listed the some of the blogger’s breakfasts and…whatever…here…

My standby breakfast is Nature’s Path Flax Plus organic cereal with fresh blueberries and soy milk. I can hear you sobbing right now but seriously, this stuff is good. It doesn’t taste like cardboard and unlike certain other healthy cereals it doesn’t contain anything referred to as “twigs” (I’m looking at you, Kashi!). Although, to be honest, I had never noticed that my Kashi contained twigs until my mother pointed out and told me that it was just too…healthy tasting for her. When I don’t have blueberries, I sometimes add raisins or I just buy the raisin bran version. And it was actually Donovan’s Mama that got me eating this cereal, even though she wouldn’t eat it herself. Added bonus, well…sort of a bonus…um…let’s just say, I may not be normal but I am totally regular. Sorry, couldn’t help myself there. Also, Nature’s Path makes what we call in our house “Hippie Pop Tarts”. I will on occasion buy their toaster pastries and I really like them. So much so that now when faced with an actual Pop Tart…not interested. And I see they also have some kind of Pumpkin Raisin Flax Crunch thing going on…gotta find that. Wait…what? Fig and Flax waffles? Dude. Oh and if you totally have a pie fix but you think you are all kinds of healthy and don’t want to make a pie but also cannot imagine doing the McDonald’s drive thu kind of pie, this same company makes something called Pie-Oh-my! I think the name says it all.

You thought I had lost my train of thought here, didn’t you? You thought that I forgot that I was naming my three favorite breakfasts and had just gone on a rant about hippie food, Didn’t you? Nope, I remember. Second favorite breakfast is whole-wheat couscous made with soymilk and mixed with dried fruits, nuts and cinnamon. It’s great hot and it’s good cold and I can make a big container and it will last a few days. It’s a nice alternative to oatmeal, which I like but will rarely make, and you can do just about anything you want to it. If you stick with the whole-wheat couscous you are getting some fiber. And with the soymilk and nuts you’ve got your protein. It’s very filling and comforting and OH SO EASY!

Third favorite is what I had for breakfast this morning. Well, sort of. What I had this morning was a toasted English muffin, covered with I.M. Healthy brand CHOCOLATE soy nut butter and topped with blueberries. And it was good, but what I really like is when have some fresh from the farmer’s market whole-wheat pita. The kind that doesn’t even have a pocket. That’s good stuff.

Finally, my fourth favorite breakfast is one I only get when I am on vacation despite the fact that I actually OWN the necessary tools to make MICKEY WAFFLES. Somehow they just taste better in Disneyworld. And in just a few weeks, I will be indulging in them daily. Maybe by then I will be less tired….maybe not.

So, why blog about breakfast? Well, it is the most important meal of the day. But mostly because I am still tired and it entertained me.

Honestly, breakfast has always been a difficult meal for me. I don’t like mornings much and eating in the morning just isn’t my thing. So when I dedicated myself to a regular breakfast, I knew it would be a struggle. Turns out, if you like what you are eating, it’s a lot easier. Some of that came to me when I discovered that soymilk didn’t upset my stomach. (Before that I was eating my granola covered in grapefruit juice, which makes most people cringe when I mention it). And I understood it even better when I found a cereal that I actually LIKED that wasn’t full of junk. Even more when I found things I could eat in the car that wouldn’t cause accidents. Once I figured all that out, everything else became a lot easier. Hunh, it only took me…almost forty years. So, I’m a slow learner.

Dainty.

I was just reading Santo’s instructions on making petit fours (so pretty). She talks about the teas she attended at her school as a child. This made me think of the teas at my college. Well, it made me remember the fact that there were NO teas at my college. No charming ladies dressed in lawn tea gowns and white gloves, passing antique china cups across the President of the college’s living room. Did you have teas at your college? See, here’s the thing. Just before I went away to my tiny southern college, I fell in love with a dress. It was, for those who know about such things, a Jessica McClintock dress and at the time that meant demure, lacy and fluffy. I see that now Jessica McClintock doesn’t mean quite the same thing but that is beside the point. The point is that I fell in love with a pretty, lacy, Little House on the Prairie meets sort of Victorian Day dress. I mean you would actually have to call this something like a day dress as it was not a gown but was something totally different. It even had a little bustle. It was blue. With flowers. And it was nothing like anything else I owned. It was, in fact, nothing like anything I would ever wear. But I loved it nonetheless. It was beautiful and I wanted it.

It was also expensive. In retrospect, what I considered “expensive” was probably something like $70 or $80. You can barely buy a pair of pants for that these days…maybe a pant, one half of a pair of pants. But certainly not a little house on the Prairie meets sort of Victorian Day dress. I was torn. What would I ever do with a thing of such beauty to warrant it’s massive price tag?

Enter Mom. My mom is a marvel. She is kind and generous and lovely and beautiful and everything a mom should be. And she is an Olympic level shopper. She can shop like…a mutha. It’s amazing. If she leaves the house for more than twenty minutes you can rest assured that she will come back with bags of something. Art, jewelry, groceries, books. Anything. She is such a good shopper that I can guarantee you that today, right now, August whatever, she already has all of her Christmas presents for this year purchased. She may even have some wrapped. And there is also a very good chance that she has several purchased for next year as well.

I am not like my mom. Well, most of the time I am not like my mom. I have my spurts of shopping but in general, I am a think about it shopper. I tend to mull a purchase over in my mind for days…weeks…years. And I firmly believe that if the item is no longer available when I go back then it was never meant to be. I also have a similar theory involving price tags. If the item doesn’t ring up, it’s not for me. It’s a cheap theory but it has saved me tons of money over the years.

So back to the pretty, lacy, Little house on the Prairie meets sort of Victorian day dress, I wanted it but there was no way that I could justify it. I was a jeans and tee shirt kind of girl. In fact, my freshman year of college involved pretty much jeans, tee shirts, a Baja hoodie and no shoes. Dirty hippies do not way day dresses and there is just no way around it. And no way I would spend or ask my mother to spend so much money on such a frivolous item. But I felt compelled to show the dress to my mom.

She was, naturarlly, enchanted. I think she would have been enchanted by pretty much any outfit that did not involve a Hoodoo Gurus tee shirt and a pair of my brother’s boxer shorts layered over long johns. She would have loved anything that required me to wear shoes. And hose. And comb my hair. She offered to buy the beautiful dress. And still I hesitated. What would I ever do with it?

It was then that my mother asserted that I would need the dress for the tea parties at the President of the College’s house. Surely his wife would host such gatherings. And I could wear it to the fall cotillion. Or maybe the homecoming dance. It was even appropriate for the Christmas service. I would get so much wear out of the day dress that it would be worth every penny.

I don’t really need to tell you that I was never invited to a tea at the president’s house, do I? I did watch old kung-fu films with him a few times but I would have been incredibly overdressed if I wore the Jessica McClintock. I don’t think we had a fall cotillion but I did go to a freshman dance in my hand painted overalls. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t wear shoes or hose with them though. I know we must have had a homecoming dance but I suspect that I was out drinking during that and would have ruined a day dress running around the President’s rose garden with a bottle of Boone’s Farm. I also strongly suspect that there was some sort of Christmas service and that I may have even gone to it. But I doubt any of us dressed for it. In fact, my shoes of choice, when I did finally put shoes on, were duck boots.

Sorry, Mom. No petit fours for me. No wafer thin china and no white gloves. I still have the dress though. I will never wear it again. It’s outrageously out of style and…well, not all that lovely when I look at it now, but it’s still there. I think I will probably keep it forever, just to remember all those teas I didn’t go to.

See, once again, it all ties up in a pretty bow. Santos makes petit fours and I remember that I never got any.

Now.

Ah, you people forget. It’s not about having a lot of free time to draw diagrams, it’s about having been a textbook illustrator for near ten years and being able to whip out a chart, diagram or map at a moments notice!

But I am glad that most people seemed to like my prom story and the diagramming thereof. I guess I should do more charting and such. Maybe a flow chart on the intricacies of a college theater department and why I did not become an actress? Nah, that bores even me. And no, sorry MamaMin. No photos of my prom, you’ll have to settle for the written horrors of it all. I wouldn’t even know where to look for those pictures. Although I was reminded by the BFF that the girls all took pictures together so that we had alternatives to just the ones with the ill-fated dates in them. And at least one girl put smiley face stickers over her date’s head (the girl with flowers over her nipples, in fact).

And now, instead of content:

What I am reading: Now that I have finally settled down from comic-con, I am starting to read all the comics I bought or traded for. Right now, sitting next to me, “Breeding Season” by Tammy Stellanova. Tammy had the table next to ours and I have to say she was utterly charming. She is…well, I want to say she is primarily a nature illustrator but that’s not exactly true, she is primarily a very cool girl who happens to like to do classic nature illustrations but she’s got a very nice clean style and a sort of modern flair to it all. She also makes her art into lovely jewelry. I am kind of stuck on the bee myself and I will probably break down and buy it soon.

Also in the pile, the new Snakepit collection My Life in a Jugular Vein by Ben Snakepit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I don’t know what draws me to his stuff but I can’t stop reading it. Heck, he does a strip a day, gotta admire that!

The new Tank Girl is staring at me. I am not sure how to feel about it yet and I am kind of putting off reading it. I love the original Tank Girl stuff and I love Jamie Hewlett’s art. This is Ashley Wood and I love his art too but…I don’t know. I’ll reserve judgment until I read it I guess.



There are currently half read books strewn throughout the apartment. Now that I feel like I am getting things together I intend to finish off Devil in the White City, which is just amazing. But then…Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows arrived today so… (OK, so I wrote this last week and I have since received Harry Potter and started reading it and to make this aside even more aside I will just mention that I have NEVER read a HP book immediately after release but rather when I was free. I am enjoying it but I only feel pressed to read it RIGHT NOW because people in my office have demanded that I do so. They would like to talk about it. Eh, whatever. EDIT EDIT: I have been reading it at night in little snatches and I am half way through. I’ll talk about it with you sometime next week if you want to discuss it.)

What I am listening to: This morning it was The Good---WAIT, I’ve got to do a different category here for a second as I just finished my lunch---

WHAT I AM EATING- Holy moly! I just had lunch and it was really, really good! I had the “Tuna Lunch with Mediterranean vinaigrette” from Trader Joe’s, some whole grain crackers and a few figs drizzled with honey. Maybe I was just hungry but I highly recommend this as a tasty meal!

Ok, now where was I?


What I am listening to: This morning it was The Good, The Bad and The Queen. I am having a little bit of a hard time getting this because…it’s Damon Albarn. And I like him, quite a lot in fact, but…this seems like… Damon Albarn, a lot like Blur and a lot like the Gorillaz. I think the problem I may be having is that his voice is just so distinctive that it always just seems like…Damon Damon Albarn. It’s certainly not that I am not enjoying it. It’s just a little odd. I also just recently bought an Air cd. Talkie Walkie, in fact. I have heard Air on the radio but never owned any, unless maybe I have some on a soundtrack somewhere. I look forward to listening to this all the way through (EDIT: I listened to the Air cd and I liked it well enough. It’s not good driving music though). Still on a bit of a Joe Strummer kick too, so there’s a lot of that thrown in as well. (EDIT: And Radiohead. Someone put me on a Radiohead kick and there I am. OH and Brian Setzer. Town without Pity over and over again. Sigh. Dreamy.)

(I don't know which is prettier, Brian or his guitar.)

What I am watching: Lately there has not been a ton of TV watching time, but now I have to clean up the DVR a bit so I’ve been catching up on Burn Notice which I am enjoying (puh-leeze, you could make Jeffery Donovan and Bruce Campbell clean bathrooms and I’d watch it!). I’m also a little behind on John from Cincinnati, it’s pretty impenetrable but damn if I don’t like the rhythms of a David Milch show, so I am hanging in there for the end of the season. Finally caught up on Big Love and wow…that show is making some pretty dark turns at the moment. A little concerned that they are, pardon the expression, blowing their wad on all the lies here as it all seems to be happening at once, but of course, that’s what TV is all about, telling a story that keeps one intrigued, no? Still trying to catch up on Doctor Who and Torchwood and a few other British shows that I may have kind of found online. OH! I do have that final episode of Hex to watch too! Damn, forgot about that. And it’s all about the end of the world too! (EDIT; Yeah, again, wrote this a while ago, finally finished watching Hex and…eh. One of the least satisfying ends of the world ever. BOOOOO!)

What I am eagerly awaiting: Weeds. I just love that show. No real idea why. The story telling can be a little uneven but the acting is all a blast, although Mary whatshername really needs to open her eyes all the way SOMETIME.
EDIT: Damn, I am slow in posting. I must have written this like a week or so ago. I have now watched the season premiere of Weeds and it made me laugh. Mission accomplished.

Also looking forward to watching Jekyll. I’ve got the first two episodes waiting. That James Nesbitt is a fine actor. In the past few years I have really been into “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” adaptations for no real reason. I read the original novella and watched (whisper this part) Mary Reilly and then all these different versions of the story started appearing and for no apparent reason, I watched them all. It’s an odd and fascinating story to me

Who I am crushing on: Dude, this is like the silliest thing ever. Why do I continue to expose myself like this? Well, mostly in hopes that Mike Rowe, Andrew Zimmern or Tim McInnerny will read it and decide that they love me. I am doubting that will happen but I will spread the love anyway. If you don’t already watch Dirty Jobs, please do. It’s awful and disgusting and perfect. I have had my share of dirty jobs but nothing like the jobs Mike Rowe tests out, and always with a beaming smile and some bad jokes. If there is one thing I find truly attractive in people it is this sensibility of “I may not love this but I am going to try it and see and then I am going to politely freak out”. Andrew Zimmern is also excellent at this ploy. Bizarre Foods is great fun and while he seems completely game to try anything at all, I love it best when he can’t quite choke down the stinky tofu or when there is an glimpse of honest fear in his eyes as he is presented with the cobra he is going to eat…before it has been slaughtered. Both these guys come across as so good-natured and genial in almost every situation and that makes them so terribly crushworthy in my book.



And Tim McInnerny? Well! The announcement has come down that he will be appearing in Doctor Who next season and said announcement proved overwhelming for me. I literally squealed with joy when I read it. CAPTAIN DARLING! (That may be too geeky a reference for some of you but if you know what I am talking about, and then you know why I love him).