I'll Be Fiiiine and Dandy...

I really enjoyed the Christmas Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood special. I didn't intend to watch it, but it came on and it was live, and they were taking requests! I sang "Hard Candy Christmas" with Trisha at a pretty good volume. I hope the neighbors enjoyed it. Garth and Trisha sang "Shallow," which was hilarious, because... not Christmas. But we all need a little bonus awesome these days, so I was into it.

This NCAA football championship selection thing is a gigantic load of bullcrap. Just saying. The Aggies were stellar this season and they should be incredibly proud. I didn't really care if we got in or not, but I know the team wanted it. Next year!

I received all the USPS packages I was worried about, so yay for that. Did some in-person gifting this weekend. (Socially distant and masked, of course.) It is crazy to friends I haven't seen in person in months. Just got my curbside grocery pickup put away, and now settling in on the back porch, where it is 70 degrees and sunny. GORGEOUS. Thanks, global warming!

Happy holidays!

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USPS Delivery Woes

Lauren's birthday gift cards from her grandmother were never delivered by the US Postal Service in November. I ordered a gift and gift card online at Williams Sonoma way back on December 2, and while the items were delivered via UPS, the gift card (via USPS) has never arrived. A Macy's order I placed a few weeks ago has been delayed three times, and it is still not here. AND... a Christmas item being sent from Grandma from the retailer was coming via UPS, but UPS did that thing where they drop it off with USPS for local delivery and now it's looking like it may never show up either.

I know there is a lot of shipping going on for the holidays, and there are life-saving vaccines for the big boys to deliver to the masses and all, but holy cow, USPS can't even manage to provide accurate tracking for half my missing stuff. I blame the incompetent Postmaster General. Is it January 20 yet?

The new season of Song Exploder is out on Netflix. Watch! (Wait, there is a podcast with six gajillion- OK, 199- episodes? Whaaaat?! Coolio.)

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Sweet Tea and Oysters Contraband

An armadillo is digging up our backyard at night. I know that's one of the most Texas things you've ever heard. He is hunting for grubs, my husband tells me. We live in suburbia, but along a greenbelt and the grubs in the woods should be the same as or better than the ones in the yard. Why cross the fence? Stick with your forest-y, free-range grubs, not our domesticated, fenced-in ones! Gah.

 

Speaking of Texas-y commentary, here is a lunchtime exchange between the hubby and me yesterday-

 

Me (after taking a sip of my 50% sweet tea): ACK. This is not my half-and-half tea. It must be your sweet tea. Either that, or their sweet tea is VERY... 

Jeff (taking a drink of his full-up sweet tea): ACK. No, this is definitely the sweet tea.

 

A little mention for Evangeline Cafe, in case some of you Austinites haven't thought about them in a while. Call them up and order takeout. There were two people there on Friday night and only us picking up an order! Last time I was there, it was rockin' live music, super-crowded as usual. Such a weird thing to see it empty. My favorite thing there is the Oysters Contraband.

 

We watched the episode of The Crown last week where they covered the palace break-in by Michael Fagan in 1982. (I don't remember this event at all, but who knows what the heck I was busy doing in 1982.) They spent the entire HOUR on this guy and his life situation and background story, and how he and the Queen spoke for ten minutes about politics and the monarchy and "what the people want," before security came in and retrieved him from her bedroom. So so weird. This show has consistently been about the royal family. Most of this episode was about this random guy. AND... it turns out The Atlantic wrote an article about fictional elements of The Crown, and mentioning there that the conversation was not about that subject matter at all. So a whole episode devoted to this Fagan chap and a completely false chat. It is historical fiction, so I don't have a problem with it being inaccurate, just why waste a whole hour on it? 

 

We did complete the season. It feels like this season had a lot of political "messaging" to it. (Or maybe it's just PTSD from the past four years of politics here.) Hope the next season is better.

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Today in Pictures

I know you all need this for your homes:

 

In other random news, THIS is continuing:

WHOOP!

We're finally watching The Crown. Wow, this season is depressing. They really went there with Prince Andrew in that one scene, right?

 

And we finished Long Way Down, completing the three series... um... series. My general thoughts during that show are how lovely people are most everywhere and how beautiful all the scenery is. It does seem that during all three trips, they most enjoyed tackling seriously daunting obstacles like crossing muddy rivers and stuff, which I find perplexing and would have avoided at all costs. Maybe it's a "guy thing?" I would drive a couple of days out of my way to avoid using a winch. Loved the show though!

Brand new Letterkenny season 9 will be released on Hulu on December 26!

 

Wheeeee!!

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