Thank you, Julia…

…I just made — and am presently eating — an omelet a la Julia Child. It is soooo very good!

The weather was gorgeous for the three day Labor Day weekend around here. Let’s see:

Saturday I went to see Julie & Julia in R-town with H and Southern Cousin. What a fun movie! Meryl Streep did an excellent job of portraying Julia Child. H and I agreed it would have been better just to have a biographical film of Julia, but this one was fine.

Soph and I then had a big adventure Sunday, when I decided that we should cross the highway downtown and head towards the park on the other side of town.

First we were nearly run over by a driver doing an illegal “turn on red”… I mean really! How could you consider plowing over a pretty little dog as Sophie?

Next once we were across the highway, I saw a woman walking a dog…um…two dogs and one was crossing the road towards us.

Ah yes.

You have seen the invisible dog on a leash? This was a dog on an invisible leash – a pug mix type dog – and it was headed our way.

Lucky! Lucky! The woman was also crossing the street and hollering for the pug. Looked to me that she was holding the business end of a retractable leash… an invisible leash.

Well — whatever she was doing — I was scooping up Sophie and wondering if the pug was serious or not…

“…Uh — are you going to be able to get your dog…do you need help?”  I ventured.

No…they got this dog from a shelter…it doesn’t know it’s name…Lucky! Lucky, come here!

What?! Dear Lord, this is wrong in so many ways…

But away the dog walker (?) went, away from us, because Lucky (might want to consider changing your name, doggie) changed directions and was going to the tanning salon, I guess.

Soph and I went on our way — past McDonalds — but we didn’t quite make it to the other park. Nice as the weather was, it was getting humid and Soph was a-panting pretty good. So we turned around and went home. Like usual Sophie gulped down some water and came into the living room to stretch out on the cool tile.

Monday H came by for lunch. DH grilled hamburgers and brat patties outside while I had the baked beans, coleslaw and peach cobbler ready inside. It was YUM. Afterwards Hil, Soph and I went to the state park and visited the Chief — a huge statue formally known as the Eternal Indian – or something like that. Soph is always just a bit intimidated by the Chief, but she is getting a bit better. However, her tail doesn’t make an appearance until we are going away from him…

Anyways — today is Tuesday, so back to work for me.

Need to exercise first if I ever can tear myself away from this blogging thing…

Sunday doin’s

…recently back from a lovely afternoon with Southern Cousin, which included going to the theatre to see The Proposal, a walk, and a trip to Culvers for a turtle sundae.

During our conversation at Culvers, I found out she didn’t know who Victor Borge was. He is always good for a laugh and since she’s been needing one, I sent her the link to youtube.

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Before that trip to R-town, I was outside filming the flowers and while finishing that up, a lady came by walking a Pembroke corgi! How cute!

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NP: Late night news.

Soph?: Sacked out on the floor — she piddled her bedding so it took a trip to the washer/dryer.

Mood-o-meter: Somewhat melancholy. My knees hurt.

Trekking

Well, it’s late Sunday afternoon and I am just coming out of a two-and-a-half day, verge-of-a-migraine headache.

I don’t know why I can’t have the one day garden variety migraine and get it over with.

However I managed to push it into the background Saturday afternoon whilst H, Southern Cousin and I went to see Star Trek in R-town.

Oh what fun!

J. J. Abrams did not mess it up one bit. The actors did a fine job portraying all the characters — Spock and Bones, especially.

H had a charity function to attend in the evening, so that left Southern Cousin and me to make our way to Culvers to finish out the day over a couple turtle sundaes.

Still a bit fuzzy to be posting…

Supper and home entertainment

Broiled boneless pork chop.

Asparagus with butter.

Homemade mac & cheese.

Chocolate chip cookie.

Yum.

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NP: 24

PP: Chuck season finale. Wow.

Up next: Castle.

Do you watch too much TV?: On Monday nights, yes.

Where’s Sophie?: Here in the living room, trying to get a treat out of her Kong.

How’s work?: My fire extinguisher is empty. Oh well.

Can’t wait for: the new Star Trek movie…okay, and the new Terminator. Yes, my geekiness is out of control.

Furlough bullets, continued

Thursday:

• Netflixed a documentary on General William T. Sherman.
• Started cleaning the bathroom and was appalled. It really needs help. The floor is worn out. The plaster walls need painted; the lower half – which appears to be painted over imitation tile – needs wainscotting or really tiled. The trim needs either replaced or painted. The door…oh the door! Don’t know what to do with it. The radiator needs replaced with one that hangs on the wall. The room needs ventilation. Yes, the bathroom is very needy indeed.
• Cleaned out the linen closet. Pitched and threw away and rearranged. I even have some extra room now…hmmm…what to do with it now?
• Cleaned out the coat closet. Pitched and threw away and rearranged. I even have some extra room now…hmmm…what to do with it now?
• NP: the second half of Elizabeth.
• Put a roast, potatoes and onions in the oven.

Furlough bullets

As I am now in the middle of my second week of furlough, I thought it best to list what I have done thus far so I can see I didn’t Completely Waste My Time Off (and before I completely forget…)

Monday:

• Developed a headache in the morning — dreadfully nasty rainy weather one.
• Netflixed the first part of Elizabeth, with Helen Mirren
• Went to Rockford for an appointment. Listened to Chris Cornell on the drive up.
• Sorted through books upstairs — what to keep, what to donate/sell.
• Moped around due to headache
• Tried to watch Chuck, 24, and Castle…slept through the end of Castle. Argh.

Tuesday:

• Tried unsuccessfully to watch Castle online: hint to ABC — please include the audio portion of the video playback … soooo figured a work-around that…
• Shredded more stuff from the 80s and 90s. Found the hospital bills for when H was born and for J when she had spinal meningitis
• Still headachey
• Had teeth cleaned…so much for the headache. Ugh.
• Bought groceries.
• Discovered ceiling leak upstairs. Sigh.

Wednesday, thus far:

• Netflixed a History Channel biography of Abraham Lincoln
• Washed dishes.
• Reconciled checkbook
• Sorted through and organized my church music
• Took Sopher to the groomers for a nail clip and bum buzz.
• Netflixed an A & E biography of Charles Dickens.
• It’s LOST Wednesday!
• Leaving for eye exam right now… UPDATE: Where to begin? I went in to get glasses and Doc tells me I’m a candidate for having an intraocular lens put in my left eye — my vision has deteriorated a lot. I wasn’t exactly prepared to hear that, so will have to do some research on the procedure. Then it got a bit more stressful as the optician had to call the lab to see if they could even make my prescription…and if I could have  progressive (i.e. no-line) bifocals. And she said it would be better if I selected plastic frames with a wide side arm to hide the whoppin’ thick-even-though-hi-density lenses.
• I want my old eyes back!
  

Wah-wah pedal on!

What’s with the wah-wah? Well, wah because of the weather lately. Wah because it is really going to interfere with our Christmas travel. And as I type this: wah because Soph tracked poo all over the floor she just watched me mop. Sigh! And she had been such a fun girl this evening. At least she didn’t make any big deal over me cleaning her paws with a baby wipe.

…sorry — I know, TMI.

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NP: Phil Keaggy’s Master and the Musician DVD and a kicking version of Time

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Where’s Sophie? Watching Daddy make his lunch…yep, he is going back to work after a week being laid up — slipped and fell on the ice delivering salt he did. Somewhat the cart before the horse sort of thing. Sort of.

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And since TV has been utter dismal: Watched Return of the King on Sunday. So admire Sam…Watched another episode of Bramwell…will Eleanor ever find happiness?! Don’t have that many episodes left…

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Latest computer flub-up: Further messed up already messed up iTunes library. Didn’t quite panic though. Did that earlier a few days ago when I noticed it wasn’t doing what I thought it should. So after Return of the King (oh…finished watching it on the computer because the DVD player was on the blink…) I dove in and managed to get it all sorted out.

Christmas Get To Know You

Of course, leave it to Sylvia at Christian Homekeeper to pass along the fun stuff…

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
some of both

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Artificial…three feet tall.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Used to be the day after Thanksgiving. Now it’s when I find a ’round tuit…

4. When do you take the tree down?
Fairly quickly after Christmas

5. Do you like eggnog?
Oh do I!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Oh my goodness!!! Sylvia had a “Mr & Mrs Mouse House” TOO?!! I still have the Mr & Mrs in my cedar chest, plumb nekkid if I recall…not sure what happened to their jammies or their house.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Dad

8. Do you like Christmas best as a child, or as an adult?
As a kid.

9.Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I mail ‘em!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Some sort of wooden box that tilted to let marbles fall through the holes. Sorry Aunt M – I don’t think you ever knew that I didn’t like it at all.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It’s A Wonderful Life

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
First part of December – internet connection burns up…

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Everything we used to have at Grandma T’s on Christmas Eve…BBQ, eggnog and all sorts of homemade candy. Grandma made plum pudding with hard sauce one year and Uncle Ron brought real eggnog from a real dairy in a glass container.

16. Lights on the tree?
Not this year…no handy outlet. Had to put the tree up…thanks, Sophinator…!

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I’ll Be Home For Christmas

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Travel travel travel…

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
Some of them.

20. Angel on the treetop or a star?
Bow for me too…

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Yes.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Nearly everything. I am working on my attitude…a little.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Plum, cranberry, gold

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner, Ham or Turkey or other?
Roast beef

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Just to get through it.

26. Who is most likely to respond to this?
Why, all my loyal blog readers…all two? three? of you…

27. Who is least likely to respond to this?
See above.

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Pardon the funky formatting…not sure what’s up with that…UPDATE: Fixed that, I think…

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NP: The space heater in the living room…brrrr! It is COLD!!!

Four by Four

Have a bit of time whilst Sophie tears into Benny Da Bull — already minus his tail and one horn — so I present to you:

Four jobs I have had:

1. Record store clerk. Records. You know, the big, black CDs. Started my Moody Blues collection back then. Yes, waaay back then.
2. Grocery store clerk. Bananas were nineteen cents a pound. Really.
3. Chamber of Commerce office secretary. All I really wanted to do was their monthly newsletter.
4. Finance department account clerk.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Rear Window — pretty much any movie with Jimmy Stewart in it.
2. Lord of the Rings — any of them.
3. The Philadelphia Story.  More Jimmy.
4. This just in: Iron Man

Four TV shows I like:

1. The Office (USA)
2. Burn Notice
3. As Time Goes By
4. Doctor Who

Four Netflix rentals:

1. Bramwell
2. The Adventures of and the Return of Sherlock Holmes
3. Foyle’s War
4. Moody Blues: Live from Royal Albert Hall

X-Files Weekend

Went to the new X-Files movie Saturday afternoon.

I suppose it could have been another “oh, let’s wait to Netflix it” situation – we have A LOT of those, like Prince Caspian, the new Indiana Jones, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and I guess the Batman movie – but with little Sophie coming in a couple weeks, it will be a while before we are able to take off to go and do much.

Anyway, back to the movie:   We liked it.

So much so that we hunted up the VHS version of Fight the Future to watch this evening — the most annoying thing about that movie was the VHS version and the inability to just skip the opening features/trailers that were at the beginning of the … tape. I had forgotten about all the adventures in fast-forwarding.

We liked that one too. Not having watched it for ten years made it an almost-like-new experience.

Might just have to start watching the TV series again.

NP: Foyle’s War…isn’t Michael Kitchen terrific?