...Someone Else to Catch this Drift

I've been listening to Jagged Little Pill, so I'm in a "girl power" sort of mood!

 

Why are you so terrified of silence? 

Here, can you handle this:

 

... 

...

 

;-)

 

The second season of Who Killed Sara on Netflix is good, but not as good as the first. It's very "messy." The jumping around in time is sometimes throwing me off. There are a lot of things that feel randomly added. So many people involved in too many crimes to count at this point. Still watching!

We binged Halston in a few days. It was also medium-good. It is entertaining and has lots of pretty things to look at. I just couldn't find much to like about the title character. Talented, but his egomania and the careless way he treated most people just didn't give me any sympathy for him when things went wrong. The actress/singer who plays Liza Minnelli is outstanding, and of course, there's the greatness of Ewan McGregor!

I caught Valerie Bertinelli's new show, Valerie's Hot Dish last weekend. Comedic actresses Melissa Peterman and Nicole Sullivan ARE Laura and I cooking together. They are hilarious. I just looked it up, and there is only one episode. What the heck is up with that?! More please!

 

Dr. Mark Escott is stepping into his new role as Chief Medical Officer for the city, leaving his post as Interim Medical Director and Health Authority for Austin Public Health. For Austinites during the pandemic, he's kept us informed, and led at least once weekly press conferences, Q&A's, etc. He's been a voice similar to Dr. Fauci, always clear and firm on what is happening and why, explaining when we don't know the "why's" yet, and such. He's done a superb job. I'm not exactly sure what the CMO for a city does, but I'm sure he'll do that with the same integrity and competence. These days, those things seem in short supply all around.

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Mask Weirdness

I've been laughing at us- people including me- as we navigate not wearing masks and getting closer to each other. Some people are nervous and feeling a little uncomfortable with the huge change, but also, we've spent the past twelve months identifying people without masks as jackwagons, and none of us wants to be mistaken for them.

 

We were at the mall on Saturday, and I would say it was about 80% of a typical Saturday mall attendance. 90% of people were wearing masks. The mall itself is mask-optional for vaccinated people, but individual stores set their own requirements and most currently require masks. We were walking the corridors without masks, but it was SUPERWEIRD.

I've also been to Target and Kohls, both of which are "masks optional" for vaccinated people, and pretty much everyone was wearing their mask. I wore mine in both places. 

 

In the end, my personal policy is to first do whatever the rules require, and if it is optional, to wear it if I'm uncomfortable without it for whatever reason. Over time, we'll all get over the weirdness!

 

Went to Austin Land and Cattle last night for our anniversary. Our actual anniversary is tomorrow, but we thought Monday night would be less crowded. We were wrong. Ha! Super-crowded! The tables there are separated a little more than usual though. Steak was amazing as usual. Any steak would be good after 14 months without, but theirs is definitely awesome.

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No Masks for the Fully Vaccinated!

Your favorite Greek-Italian-American chef, Michael Symon, just said gyro as "jigh-ro" instead of the Greek pronunciation. WHAAAAA?? He says he goes back and forth. Mind blown, y'all.

 

Well, it's official- CDC says masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated people! Yahoo!!!! Finally! Businesses can still require them, but it should be changing soon, even in Austin. Unvaccinated people should continue wearing their masks (if they were wearing them to start with).

We're getting to the end of The Challenge: Double Agents. It's really gotten wacky now. My favorite moment of this season so far was Devin "pulling a Josh" after JUST absolutely destroying Josh for missing the helicopter rope during a mission. I used to find Devin completely obnoxious, but this season especially, he is hilarious.

Jeff took Friday off and we drove off to Blanco to get out of the house. Stopped at Peyton Colony on the way. It's a ghost town founded by freed slaves, with a couple of historical markers and a little Baptist church that has been continuously active since the late 1800s. We took a walk through Blanco's city park off the town square, which has some heeeUGE trees and about a million squirrels. Very pretty! Bought some jerky in Johnson City on the way back.

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Palmettos

Had a great Mother's Day weekend! We drove out to Palmetto State Park near Gonzales on Saturday. It's very shady/swampy, so it was nice in the dry heat. Later summer days at 104 with 1000% humidity, probably not so much. I had never seen palmettos, and didn't think we would have something like them in Texas, but there ya' go. Very cool!

 

Texas Monthly did an interesting write up about the park. I didn't know it is home to "a hairy biped called the Ottine Swamp Thing." Also, otters? Wow!! We didn't see either of those, but we did catch two gigantic black birds hanging out in a tree together on the Interpretive Trail.

 

Here is the other-worldy landscape. The light green is algae covering the water...

 

Afterwards, we tried to visit the Gonzales Museum (with the famous "Come and Take It" cannon), but it was closed. Too bad! Visited Santa Anna Mound, but it wasn't worth the time.

 

We watched The Mitchells vs. the Machines on Sunday. It is really good. Movies during the plague have mostly sucked, but this is a winner for family viewing. 

We also finished Season 35 of The Challenge, and started Season 36: Double Agents. Whee! This most recent season has so many twists and turns, your head never stops spinning. The rookies are putting all the vets up, so vets are falling like flies.

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Catching Up on The Challenge

Since Hulu finally added MTV, we've been binging the last two seasons of The Challenge that we missed since we cut the cord for streaming. We're almost to the end of Total Madness, and all I keep wondering is... Does Sting get a penny every time they play his "MTVeeeeeee" at the beginning of shows?

 

This season has been one of the best ever. LOVED the Bananas/Wes love story. Crossover with Big Bro is awesome. 

 

Speaking of those guys, Big Brother will start again soon! Yipeee!

 

My boss-of-eight-years left the company abruptly last week. Not sure if it was a re-org or she's leaving for greener pastures (or both). I also wonder if it was as much of a surprise to my full-time-regular colleagues as it was to me! (There's too little water cooler chat with the contractor.) I'll have to ring someone up and find out the story.

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