HBO Weekend

As someone said, if inciting an insurrection isn't an impeachable crime, nothing is. If this type of behavior by elected officials is tolerated, the country will fall apart. Censure is not enough.
 

After the insurrection, Trump told the participants that he loved them and they were special. This man-baby has not "touched a stove he won't touch again," for God's sake. Get real, Republicans who are still on the Trump train to nowhere.

Quantum leap to a very light subject... We tried to watch the movie Let Them All Talk on HBO the other night, and it is the worst. I thought it would be great, with the big talent lineup. Despite the title, no one really talks about anything of any importance whatsoever, and when they speak, they spend most of their dialogue on ummms and uhhhhs. (Every time someone says a throwaway word, take a drink!) We stopped watching about a half hour in. I couldn't take any more. I did enjoy watching Gemma Chan as a "real girl" after being so used to watching her as a robot on three seasons of Humans. Ha!

The Bee Gees documentary was fun to watch, with all their music, and bonus Andy Gibb. Reminded me of my Tiger Beat days, and my childhood bedroom literally wallpapered with magazine posters, including the Bee Gees and Andy.

Also watched Jo Jo Rabbit, which was great.

The Flight Attendant jumped around too much without much progression in any direction the first few episodes, so we stopped watching that. I also never could muster up any sympathy/empathy for Kaley Cuoco's character, since she's just drinks and parties and doesn't do anything to help herself. The show wasn't funny enough to overcome those things. Maybe it's not supposed to be funny?

Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling was super-interesting. I had no idea he was so into self-reflection and journaling and Buddhism, etc. Of course it was so funny, too. Lots of surprising scenes of small groups of giant names of comedy just hanging out together.

Did I mention Normal People before? It's a Hulu show, a great Irish drama series about a complicated young couple who go in and out of each other's lives in their teens and 20s.

We did get outside this weekend, too. (WHAT?! I know.) We hung out by the boat launch under the Pennybacker Bridge. It was FRIGID. Oh my god. We didn't stay long, but it was nice to just sit by the water and absorb some nature.

Read more...

Resign

The human garbage that is the President needs to resign. Seriously. We cannot tolerate any more of this insanity. It's only a few more days, but still. 

 

I made it through the shock and sadness stages of grief from Wednesday's insurrection, and now I'm on to the just ticked off stage. I think that may be out of order, but there you go.

 

The President and his goons have repeatedly encouraged and directed these traitorous anarchists' violent behavior for years, and they bear full responsibility for their part. If there is no punishment, it will continue to happen. They cannot be above the law any more than the people who carried out their bidding.

 

The current charges against the jackholes who entered the capitol are mostly unlawful entry. While that's better than trespassing, it makes it sound like they walked through an open gate labeled "Employees Only." It doesn't quite capture the fact that they stormed the country's capitol, destroying barricaded windows and doors, to stop the the government from confirming a President-elect. Prosecutors need to get this right. They must fully prosecute these people.

Read more...

Survey Time

Answer each category with a song title that includes something in the category. No repeats and don’t use the internet. (It's tempting, but try not to!) Go with the first song that comes to mind.

 

Something to Wear - "Raspberry Beret" Prince

A Place - "A Summer in Ohio" from The Last Five Years musical

A Food - "Watermelon Sugar" Harry Styles

An Animal - "Black Cat" Janet Jackson

A Number - "1, 2, 3, 4" Plain White T's

A Color - "Brown Eyed Girl" Van Morrison

A Girl’s Name - "Adia" Sarah McLachlan

A Boy’s Name - "Samson" Regina Spektor

A Profession - "Tiny Dancer" Elton John

Day of the Week - "Friday I'm in Love" The Cure

Read more...

Aggies!!!!!!

Happy New Year! #5 Aggies Orange Bowl win over NC 41-27! Whooooop! The game was close until the 4th quarter, which made for a good game, but... ack. Lauren went up to bed in the 4th, and immediately the Tarheels got a dramatic touchdown. I was about to tell her she needed to come back downstairs and get back in her seat, since she'd obviously upset the Aggie Football gods, but then we started looking like ourselves and took control of things. Whee!

In the TV recs department, I have the following for you:

"Letterkenny" season 9 on Hulu: a couple of lame-o episodes in this season, but still hilarious. Needs mores produce stands scenes.

"Home for Christmas" on Netflix: a very funny and entertaining comedy series from Norway, about dating, friend and family relationships. Total winner! 2 seasons available.

We just got HBOMax for a month, so I'm about to watch some things like Zen Diaries of Gary Shandling, The Undoing, and the Bee Gees documentary. 

 

Bee Gees, y'all!

Read more...

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!

Read more...

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.)

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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!!

Read more...

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Watching The Queen's Gambit now. Evidently I'm not alone in thinking at first that it didn't look interesting, because... chess. You don't have to like chess at all to like the show! It takes place mostly in the 60's, and has a supercool vibe. It's a great story. When we watch it, it also reminds me that we haven't watched the latest season of The Crown yet. (SHOCKING.)

Started watching Long Way Down, too. So far, we're still in Europe, so we haven't met any bad "roads" or gangs with guns yet. In the backwoods portions of the series, they are slowed by various terrain obstacles, and in places like Europe and the US, they are slowed by Ewan McGregor fans. Ha.

 

Crystal may take a job in Odessa. Then I'll know one person in Odessa. 

 

Lauren has been recommending some places for us to retire. So far, Jeff and I have only talked about College Station specifically, but we're open to other places, especially somewhere cooler. Her suggestions- Colorado and Columbia, Missouri. Those might be a little too cold/snowy for us, I think, but good choices! We've got over a decade to decide. Tick tock.

I'm ready for Thanksgiving. All the regular dinner dishes will be prepared and we'll decorate for Christmas. Will zoom with the in-laws on Thursday and my fam on Friday. For most of the past 30 years, it's been just a phone call, so this year is actually more Thanksgiving togetherness than ever! Happy Thanksgiving!

Read more...

No Banging in 2020

A German news outlet on Facebook posted a story about a possible cancellation of New Year's Eve fireworks. The translated version asked, "Can you do without banging this year?" Ahahaa.

We finished watching Long Way Up, the docuseries with Ewan McGregor and his best buddy Charley motorcycling from Argentina to LA. Now we're watching Long Way Around, their first motorcycle trip from London eastward to New York City. (Loving the series! There is also a second season, Long Way Down from Scotland to South Africa.) At one point in Long Way Around, they are drinking fermented camel milk, and Ewan says it tastes like homemade yogurt... that's been carbonated. Ack! And LOL.

Did I mention I finished playing The Witness? Yes! Great game, but I have to say I found the ending to be most unsatisfying. I did have an expectation of one particular thing happening at the end, that didn't happen at all, so maybe it was just disappointing to me, but I'd love to find out what others thought.

The Travis County weekly public health update is on right now and Mayor Adler is constantly on mute. So funny. Oh, and we're back to Stage 4 restrictions, not that it means anything different for our household, since we have remained pretty locked down since March. 

 

How some people have made a pandemic into a political and/or religious issue is beyond my understanding. (That is the nicest way I could phrase that, I think!) Crazy times.

Read more...