Thursday, December 27, 2018

Frugality

First, I just cost us $25 because Chase has, in their infinite wisdom, a double opt-in on their online payment system.  Credit card payment was due yesterday, so I smartly (I thought) went to set up the payment on Monday.  But apparently I forgot to hit that second confirmation button, so today I found the "Oops, where's your payment??" email.  Ugh.

Last Friday, car wouldn't start.  Battery.  The replacement battery cost about 10% of what my car is worth.  Fun times.

I resisted the Breyer warehouse sale (mostly because the ones that I wanted, like Julien, Cosette, and Sophia, I already bought last year. 

But then someone posted a purple Fruitcake Filly for sale, cheap, and even though I have one purple, I kinda want a second one.  Because purple.  But $25 shipped is a good price. 

So much for cutting back. 

Also, I like the Tightwad Gazette books, and the Facebook group for followers/fans is good, but I wish there were a good science-based frugality group.  The TWG Facebook group is full of pseudoscience and woo. 

Friday, December 21, 2018

For future reference - a test of the library's book system

After sitting on the hold list for a couple of books forEVER, I'm running a little test.  The library seems to have a bog-down somewhere in the cataloging and processing part of the system, since we can sit on the hold list for weeks, for a book that's sitting on the shelves at B&N or the local indie bookstore.

1. I put a hold on the Elon Musk bio on November 19th, I think.  Book released to stores November 27th.  I was first on the hold list, and just got the pickup notice today.  That's 3 weeks, plus 3 days.

2.  Just ordered 2 more books, one released last April, one in 2015.  One is The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip (2018), the other is The Cassini-Huygens Visit to Saturn: An Historic Mission to the Ringed Planet (2015)  I would be able to order either of these online from a dozen sites and have them inside a week.  Could maybe walk into Barnes & Noble and find the Hip book in the store, depending.  (More likely in a Canadian store, for sure.) 

Assuming the library orders either of them, I'll automatically be put on the hold list for them.  Now it's just time to wait and see how long it takes. 

Friday, December 14, 2018

Odd movies

The current winner for slowest movie I've ever seen, and strangest, is Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce,1080 Bruxelles.  Belgian movie, I think, from 1970ish.


I watched it on TCM last week, recorded actually, and it took most of three lunchtimes to finish it.  It's 3 hours and 20  minutes long, no soundtrack music that I recall, and very, very little dialogue.  Two main actors, a couple of bit-part shopkeepers.  There's a 3-minute scene of Jeanne mixing the meat for meatloaf.  I kept going, with liberal use of the FFW button, because the synopsis mentioned a murder, and I was really wondering why and how a murder ended up in this very benign movie.

Yeah.  The murder happens at 3:10, I'm still not sure what the motive was, and the last seven minutes is a shot of Jeanne sitting at the dining table with blood on her blouse and hands. 

I'm glad TCM runs foreign films in the wee hours, but I'm also glad I didn't pay to watch this. Ha ha.

Holiday plants

The holiday zygocacti are blooming pretty well, although the peach one is taking the year off, along with some others.




I did buy another amaryllis today, since I think most of my others have shriveled away to nothing.  I resisted buying any new zygos today, though - no colors I don't already have.  I did bring home a couple of pieces that had fallen off the store plants, and a picture of a massive (and expensive) white zygo at Gerbes. 

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Christmas ughs

I do not like Christmas.  Too much stress.  Too much travel. 

Anyway.

One of my big gripes this year was that nothing matches in this house.  (The bedroom curtains?  Four curtains, 3 shades of beige.  Clearance.)  You can tell I bought most of the lights at the after-Christmas clearance, and I was even late for that, because I don't have 2 of anything for lights.  Well, I do have two strings of warm white net lights.  Except that one of them is only half-working for some reason.  So, outside I've got one blue net, one multi net, one cool white net, and one twinkling multi net.  And the twinkle is not changeable. 

So, I just spent $85 on Christmas lights, in spite of just getting the heads-up on middle school tuition for next year.  But, I'll have 4 matching LED nets, damn it.  And they can even do multi, warm white, or blink between multi and white.  But they were 30% off and buy 3 get 1 free, decent brand name (Philips), and have a 3-year warranty.  And while i was at it, I got 4 strings of purple LED sphere lights.  Only 10% off, but also buy 3 get 1 free. 

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Chuck finale

Getting ready to watch the last two episodes of Chuck.  We watched the whole series as it was on originally, but I never watched the finale.  Denial, you know.

So far, that part with Morgan and the invisibility cloak was hilarious.

The Awesomes are awesome.  "Grandma, what did we say about Baby Clara seeing firearms??"

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

The Chuck re-watch

Season 5. 

Oh my word, I'd forgotten the string of guest stars they had.  Bo Derek, Ben Browder,

Chuck versus the Bullet Train - Angus MacFadyen and then, the loud laugh when Ben Browder showed up.  And Jeff with a flame thrower, Lester wearing Casey's ops gear. 

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Chuck - season 5 and more

In the continuing parade of "Hey, it's X" guest stars on Chuck - S5E2 has a younger Justin Hartley (Kevin on This is Us). Plus, same episode - Carrie-Anne Moss (Matrix, also the obscure FX: the Series) and Jeff Fahey (the equally obscure 6-episode flash-in-the-pan The Marshal).  Then, next episode, Morgan goes rogue, and we find out why Jeff is so Jeff.

The premiere for this season had Mark Hamill, Richard Burgi, and Ethan Phillilps, who I recognized by voice alone. 

I'm up to the season 4 finale of Chuck, and it's awesome. Lester's creepy video, Jeff's nice one, and now Chuck's going all rogue rebel with a super-secret motorcycle. Plus, Linda Hamilton, Timothy Dalton, and Richard Burgi.

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Rewatching Chuck and TV news

The big Chuck re-watch is almost to the end of Season 4.  I'd forgotten how many well-known guest stars they had - Linda Hamilton, Timothy Dalton, Gary Cole, and loads more.  And my favorite, Scott Bakula. 

I watched this on the original run, but I'd totally forgotten that the Awesomes had a baby in Season 4. 

In other TV news, the Mohu Leaf 50 antenna, when put in the right window upstairs, can pull in between 16 and 20 channels, including the CBS affiliate that has a surprisingly weak signal.  So, in spite of the tree blocking the Dish, we can watch the network shows again.  Just in time, CBS started a lot of new stuff last night, and they're fickle about what they put up OnDemand. 

Monday, September 10, 2018

Rewatching

The Eureka re-watch is finished.  On to Chuck, and I'm finishing Season 2 right now.  Scott Bakula, Chevy Chase, Bruce Boxleitner, all in one episode.  Wowza

Monday, August 6, 2018

The Eureka re-watch

I need a break from watching Flashpoint while I"m on the computer, so I switched to Eureka. 

Eight episodes in so far.  I forot that Beverly (Debra Farantino) was a snake from the beginning.  And, it's filmed in Canada - one Flashpoint actor (David Paetku) just popped up in Episode 8.  Plus, Artie from Warehouse was in an episode, and who knows who else will turn up.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Reading List 2018 updated

Presenting, the reading list for 2018.  A work in progress. . .

I'm attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, so it should be a fun ride.


  1. A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev
  2. knitting book (find picture)
  3. model railroad book
  4. Aunty Lee's Delights
  5. Maigret - Pietr the Latvian (1/10/18)
  6. Street Magic - Tamora Pierce (1/21/18)
  7. The Dark is Rising (1/30/18)
  8. Ranma 1/2, books 1 & 2 (1/31/18)
  9.  Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2/2/18)
  10.  Pegasus in Flight, by Anne McCaffrey (2/3/18)
  11. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase series #1 (2/3/18)
  12. Slightly Chipped, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
  13. My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (2/5/18)
  14. Firefly: Those Left Behind (graphic novel) (2/6/18)
  15. Firefly: Better Days graphic novel #2
  16. Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2/9/18)
  17. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (2/14/18)
  18. Hail to the Chin, by Bruce Campbell (2/19)
  19. The Revolution was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall (2/21/18)
  20. Squire, by Tamora Pierce
  21. Page, by Tamora Pierce
  22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith (e-book) 
  23. Excuse Me, but I was Next. . . : how to handle the top 100 manners dilemmas, by Peggy Post
  24. Who Knew? 10,001 Easy Solutions to Everyday Problems (lots of bogus ideas)
  25. Crazy like a Fox, by Rita Mae Brown 
  26. The War that Saved My Life
  27. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9/18)
  28. Slayers & Vampires: the Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel, by Edward Gross (3/9/18)
  29. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (3/10/18) 
  30. Murder on the Orient Express (3/13/18) 
  31. New Minimalism (3/15/18)
  32.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (3/15/18)
  33. The War I Finally Won
  34. The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover, by Susan Wittig Albert (3/21/18) 
  35. Life Below Stairs: true lives of Edwardian Servants (3/25/18)
  36. Confessions of a Shopaholic
  37.  
  38. Queen Anne's Lace, by Susan Wittig Albert (4/5/18)
  39. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (4/9/18)
  40. Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (4/9/18) 
  41.  
  42. The Life I've Picked, by John McEuen (4/10/18)
  43. Best Food Writing 2011 (4/23/18)
  44. Death of a Gossip, by M. C. Beaton (4/15/18)
  45. The Missing Kennedy, by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (5/3/18)
  46. Soviet Daughter, a Graphic Revolution - by Julia Alekseyeva (5/3/18)
  47. Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (5/3/18)
  48. Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (5/8/18)
  49. Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce (5/8/18) 
  50. What do You Care What Other People Think, by Richard Feynman (5/14/18)
  51. I am Not a Number, by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer (5/15/18)
  52. Arctic Adventure, by Dana Meachem Rau (5/15/18)
  53. Great, by Glen Gretzky and Lauri HOlomis (5/15/18)
  54.  Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
  55. Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
  56. The Day the Crayons Came Home (5/15/18)
  57. The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (5/19/18)
  58. Death Need Not Be Fatal, by Malachy McCourt (5/23/18)
  59.  
  60. Hannah's Mill, by Rhoda Wooldridge (5/26/18)
  61. Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America (5/2x/18)
  62. News of the World (5/29/18)
  63. The Invitation-Only Zone (5/29/18) - about North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.  Interesting, but I wish there were more details and follow-up.
  64.  The Help (6/2/18)
  65.  
  66. Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese (6/4/18) Heard about on the CBC Q podcast
  67. Death of a Cad, by M.C. Beaton  (6/5/18) 
  68. Jason Priestly: A Memoir (6/6/18) - Interesting, fluffy, he doesn't seem to be the airhead I expected. 
  69. Ready Player One (6/9/18)
  70. Death of an Outsider (6/9/18)
  71.  

Friday, May 11, 2018

Infinity Wars speculation

Warning: Spoilers ahead










Thor got a new eye!!


So, deaths.

Non-Thanos-dust deaths:
  • Loki
  • Heimdall
  • Gamorra
  • Vision

Thanos-dust deaths
  • T'Challa
  • Groot
  • Star-lord
  • Drax
  • Spiderman
  • Doctor Strange
  • Falcon 
  • Bucky
  • Nick Fury
  • Nick's sidekick
  • and more
  •  

Still alive:
  • Thor
  • Rocket
  • Stark
  • Captain America
  • Okoye
  •  Bruce Banner
  • Rhodey
  • Natasha?

Now, I figured if anyone died permanently, Captain America and Stark were good candidates, since their contracts are up.   I also figured ahead of time, simce the Time Stone was mentioned in comments, that there's a good chance that someone will get the Time Stone and hit the rewind button, but that some people may still end up dead.  Eithter the non-dust deaths, or people who are resurrected and then die again, or people who are alive now but won't be later.  See Cap/Stark reasoning above.  Non-dust deaths are more likely to be permanent (sad face - Loki is a villain, but he's a good foil)

Idris Elba is on the poster, despite being killed tout suite.  Ditto for Loki. 

Groot-the-teenager is both funny and scary, since I have a tweenager of my own.  Also, Grootish is taught on Asgard?

Peter Parker's dusting was the hardest - flashbacks to Tenth Doctor's regeneration.

Perma-death possibilities:
  • Loki
  • Heimdall
  • Cap
  • Stark
Have to be resurrected, because they have sequels coming:
  • Peter Parker
  • T'Challa
  • Guardians?  

Monday, April 2, 2018

Asparagus

I am tired of asparagus.  Unfortunately, it seems to be the one vegetable my mother-in-law will cook without either smothering it with cheese, or serving it swimming in butter.  I will rant now about how she will always have something gluten-free for one grandkid, the tea is always decaf because of one person, but even though I'm lactose-intolerant and on the low-fat gallbladder-hates-me diet, my veg choices are asparagus or sometimes strawberries.  Or cold salad.  Warm veg is for everyone else - either mac n cheese, broccolli-cheese-rice casserole, or scalloped/cheesey potatoes.  Peas, swimming in butter.  Green beans, ditto, plus added ham stock for super-saltiness.  Mashed potatos, de-freaking-licious.  Because of butter, and milk. 

Even if she asks what I want, there's nothing I can come up with that anyone else will eat (roast parsnips!) or that she will cook without butter (peas!). 

End rant.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Updates

It's 11:30 Friday night.  Haven't touched this computer since about this time Tuesday.  The Boy has been on spring break and took over the PC.  No big deal, no important emails, and facebook is still there.

Just started Season 2 of Psych.

I think both my yellow roses are dead. :(  Red ones are sprouting leaves.  yellow ones still just sticks, no green under-layer either.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

TV watching

Working through Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman on Amazon Prime, since I was getting a little tired (shock!) of re-watching Flashpoint.  I'm just starting Season 6, and remembering a lot of things I forgot.  Like how much of an ass some of the townspeople were (Jake, Hank, even Loren at times, but most especially Preston the Jerk Banker).  How sad it was when Dorothy had to burn the book she wrote about Cloud Dancing, to keep the soldiers from getting it.  (I wonder if she kept the first draft?)  I'd forgotten that Myra left Horace, and that he attempted suicide.  That Mr. Rogers had a guest role as a preacher. 

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Read Harder challenge - January update

After one month, I've completed 8 of the items for the Read Harder challenge.  So far, most of my books have fulfilled more than one item.

  1. A Bollywood Affair - for #5 (a book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries).  I'm not a big romance fan, but this one was pretty good.  Fairly quick read, sort of a beach book.  Also, lots of descriptions of food.
  2. RanMa 1/2 - for #4 (a comic written and illustrated by the same person), #15 (a one-sitting book), #16 (first book in a new-to-you YA or Middle grade series), and #18 (comic not published by Marvel, DC, or Image).  I actually read the first two books in the series.  My first manga, this one is about Ranma, a boy who fell into a cursed pool while training with his father.  Now, when he's splashed with cold water, he turns into a girl.  His father, who fell into a different cursed pool (it was the Area of 1,000 pools, and apparently they were all cursed), now turns into a panda when he gets splashed.  A splash of the other temperature water turns them back to their original form, so it's all good.
  3. Firefly: Those Left Behind - #15 (a one-sitting book), and #18 (comic not published by Marvel, DC, or Image).  The first in the Firefly graphic novel series.  I've had it for years, but never read it yet.  And I still miss Firefly.
  4. Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer - #16 (first book in a new-to-you YA or Middle grade series).  First book in Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series.  This time, instead of descending from Greek gods as in Percy Jackson, Magnus is the son of the Norse god Frey.  But his cousin Annabel is the daughter of a Greek god, so I guess the pantheons intermingle.
  5. Pietr the Latvian  - #19 (a book of genre fiction in translation). The first of the Maigret novels, translated from French.  This was a fairly recent translation, so I wonder how an older translation done closer to the original date would be different.
  6. Aunty Lee's Delights - #21 (mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author).  First in another series, this one set in Singapore, where an older-but-not-elderly widow cooks food, owns a restaurant, and solves crimes accidentally.

She sells seashells by the sea shore

Went to Goodwill today to return the Slik tripod from last week.  I've got a "real" tripod and 2 Gorillapods now, so the extra tripod wasn't really necessary.  And, $6 is $6.  While I was there, I of course had to look around.  Not much to speak of, until I saw a big seashell misplaced amongst the furniture.

 Bigger than my hand, in really nice shape, and only $3.

And, it was sitting next to a bag of shells, also in lovely shape, also $3. 





 
So, I didn't come home with $6 more than I left with, but I've got some gorgeous shells, and can at least pretend I've been shell-hunting at the beach. 

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Estate sales 2/2/18 and other shopping this week


Only one estate sale in town this weekend.  It was in an older neighborhood, where the streets were definitely not laid out in any sort of grid.  One street name actually jumped streets here and there - three sections of street, not connected to each other directly, with one name.  Very confusing.

I bought a carroms board set for my mother.  Missing some of the game pieces, but vintage.


A neat pair of crocheted Christmas ornaments, similar to the trio of pandas I found a few months ago.  These have "Made in China" stickers.


A handful of china animal figures.  There were more the first day, but I missed seeing them and they sold before I went back on day 2.  I did buy a horse (marked Germany), a trio of bone china swans made in Japan, a Hagen-Renaker dragon with a missing tail tip, and a Hagen-Renaker Canada goose.  Wish I'd bought the frog and pair of chickens.







Earlier this week, I checked out the local Goodwill.  It was a good day - a full-size tripod for $6 (although I may return that, since we have one tripod already), a large-ish Joby Gorillapod for $3 (score!), two like-new manga books for the Burrito, and a French copy of The Little Prince.  Oh, and two sets of battery-powered "sno lites" that won't be used for snow around here. 

In illogical Goodwill fashion, the manga were $1 each because they apparently aren't "comics" or "childrens books" (I'd dispute both of those, although realizing that manga aren't always for kids), but Le Petit Prince was considered a 50-cent kiddie book. 

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Estate saling

This week's haul at the thrift and estate shopping:


Goodwill:
  • Wrebbit lighthouse puzzle
  • Pippi Longstocking, early HB from Oxford Univ Press
  • The Silver Gryphon
  • neat Japanese/Chinese picture of a bird, half price

Upscale
  • 3 shot glasses
  • Jacqueline Cochran autobio from the 1950s
  • something else
  •  
  •  
Estate sale #1
  • 2 nail polish ($1, .50)
  • 2 crochet booklets .50 each
  •  

Estate Sale #2
  • 2 boxes of staples $1 each
  • ceramic origami crane ornament $1
  • beaded bird ornament $1 
  • mustard can .25
  • woven basket with lid $1

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

The 2018 Reading List

Presenting, the reading list for 2018.  A work in progress. . .

I'm attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, so it should be a fun ride.

  1. A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev
  2. knitting book (find picture)
  3. model railroad book
  4. Aunty Lee's Delights
  5. Maigret - Pietr the Latvian (1/10/18)
  6. Street Magic - Tamora Pierce (1/21/18)
  7. The Dark is Rising (1/30/18)
  8. Ranma 1/2, books 1 & 2 (1/31/18)
  9.  Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2/2/18)
  10.  Pegasus in Flight, by Anne McCaffrey (2/3/18)
  11. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase series #1 (2/3/18)
  12. Slightly Chipped, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
  13. My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (2/5/18)
  14. Firefly: Those Left Behind (graphic novel) (2/6/18)
  15. Firefly graphic novel #2
  16. Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2/9/18)
  17. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (2/14/18)
  18. Hail to the Chin, by Bruce Campbell (2/19)
  19. The Revolution was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall (2/21/18)
  20. Squire, by Tamora Pierce
  21. Page, by Tamora Pierce
  22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith (e-book) 
  23. Excuse Me, but I was Next. . . : how to handle the top 100 manners dilemmas, by Peggy Post
  24. Who Knew? 10,001 Easy Solutions to Everyday Problems (lots of bogus ideas)
  25. Crazy like a Fox, by Rita Mae Brown 
  26. The War that Saved My Life
  27. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9/18)
  28. Slayers & Vampires: the Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel, by Edward Gross (3/9/18)
  29. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (3/10/18) 
  30. Murder on the Orient Express (3/13/18) 
  31. New Minimalism (3/15/18)
  32.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (3/15/18)
  33. The War I Finally Won
  34. The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover, by Susan Wittig Albert (3/21/18) 
  35. Life Below Stairs: true lives of Edwardian Servants (3/25/18)
  36. Confessions of a Shopaholic
  37.  
  38. Queen Anne's Lace, by Susan Wittig Albert (4/5/18)
  39. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (4/9/18)
  40. Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (4/9/18) 
  41.  
  42. The Life I've Picked, by John McEuen (4/10/18)
  43. Best Food Writing 2011 (4/23/18)
  44. Death of a Gossip, by M. C. Beaton (4/15/18)
  45. The Missing Kennedy, by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (5/3/18)
  46. Soviet Daughter, a Graphic Revolution - by Julia Alekseyeva (5/3/18)
  47. Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (5/3/18)
  48. Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (5/8/18)
  49. Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce (5/8/18) 
  50. What do You Care What Other People Think, by Richard Feynman (5/14/18)
  51. I am Not a Number, by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer (5/15/18)
  52. Arctic Adventure, by Dana Meachem Rau (5/15/18)
  53. Great, by Glen Gretzky and Lauri HOlomis (5/15/18)
  54.  Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
  55. Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
  56. The Day the Crayons Came Home (5/15/18)
  57. The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (5/19/18)
  58. Death Need Not Be Fatal, by Malachy McCourt (5/23/18)