Confessions of a One-Track Mind

Saturday with the gals was good. Soup, salad and breadsticks, followed by One for the Money, which was better than I expected. They were fairly true to the book as far as plot. Casting...Katie Heigl wasn't bad, although she's *not* a real Jersey Girl. Their Morelli was okay, despite reminding me uncomfortably of Mel Gibson (YMMV). Ranger was hot, though. Pretty close to who I'd envisioned. Lula, Connie and Vinnie, all good. Debbie Reynolds isn't quite what I had in mind for Grandma, although Estelle Getty is dead, so it wasn't gonna happen anyway. The really irksome thing was Big Blue: subbing a 1970s Buick for the 1950s Buick it should've been---not cool. But anyway, I'd give it a strong B+, maybe even an A- if it was out on dvd and I could kickback and watch it at home.

Visited Bunny at the pawn shop afterward, and took advantage of their 10 for $15 table. ($2 each, otherwise.) Ogled bling, shot the breeze, went over to J's with my loot and we watched 48 Hours. I kinda nodded off in her recliner for a half-hour in the middle of it, but that's okay: I have it on dvd now. And I felt much refreshed, so it was good.

Then we saw something new to both of us: The Maiden Heist, a caper flick with an outstanding cast. Namely, Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and the always delightful Willian H. Macy. I'd seen a preview of it on The Accidental Husband, and it looked amusing. A museum is sending most of its contents to a museum in Denmark. Our heroes are guards, each of whom have been there for years, and who each have their own special favorite artworks. Walken's is a painting called "The Lonely Maiden", which gives the movie its title; the guards decide they can't bear to be parted from their beloved artworks, and hatch a plot to substitute forgeries and spirit away the originals. Quite fun! Also a B+. The cast is terrific, but the pacing is a little slow.

Wrote a ficlet Friday evening, but didn't get it posted til Sunday because ff.net was being a total bitch-up. Seriously, I liked it better when you could buy a membership, block ads for a month at a time, and things WORKED. *eyeroll*

Something to look forward to: CF drives a minivan. I may be able to get her to take a fieldtrip to ReStore so I can score a door or two. Remains to be seen....

TTFN!

.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I had a great breakfast, both in terms of quality and quantity. A pastrami and swiss cheese omelet...nom nom nom! (PJ left me his membership card for the local wholesale club, and they take food stamps. Got 2 lbs of pastrami for $6, score!) Ate myself into torpor, but it sure was yummy.

Took care of business, namely, I banked my earnings from the house-sitting gig---PJ is having his bank mail me a check every week, just like a "real" job. It was enough to pay insurance on the car and house, and I've got a whopping $12 left over. Mind you, FPL wants money, but it's not dire yet. (October, on the other hand---!)

Got to J's before 5, which is a bit on the early side...she said she was just about to go shopping (out of TP and cat food, both essentials), and she ended up taking us out for all-you-can-eat pasta at Olive Garden.

Now, IMO Olive Garden is as generic as Italian food gets. My sainted Aunt Mary was Italian and cooks the real thing, but OG delivers a consistant standard of what they do, which is edible if uninspired. That said, their new mushroom-parmesan-with-sun-dried-tomato sauce was orgasmic over penne pasta. It was like a very grown-up mac-and-cheese. The pizziola sauce (which I also had over penne), was also quite tasty. The server was a doll and kept me well caffeinated in addition to bringing me a third helping midway through my second and not giving me a hard time about bringing a box for most of them. (Some places are very snotty about carry-out boxes for AYCE means.)

We did speed shopping and made it back to J's just in time for Kitchen Nightmares. Our feature presentation was a documentary (borrowed from SI's library):Spooked: The Haunting of Waverly Hills Sanotorium. J inflicted An American Haunting onme last weekend, so I thought I'd return the favor.

Had the worst insomnia, 3AM at least...dragged myself out of bed at nine. I am determined NOT to fall back into the rut of sleeping til noon!

.

Friday was so hot, it poached my brain. I was so hot, I didn't even have the energy to drive over to J's to partake of her A/C. I did, eventually, late that evening, ring up Mb and ask her if she was up for a WalMart run. Didn't have very high hopes, but to my utter glee, she said yes and zoomed by to pick me up. She announced, as I was climbing into the car, that she was going to treat me to Steak'n'Shake, which is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

Alas, we got there and were looking at menus---the server hadn't even got our drink orders, when two large, boisterous parties came in. Teens, who at a guess had just gotten out of a movie across the street---and not only did the servers get their orders before they came around to us, the noise level was painful. We decamped and went to Denny's. Pricier, but much more civilized.

Mb gave me an overview of couponing while we waited for our orders. She has a system with a big binder and a couple boxes, and she says she hopes I have a good printer with lots of ink. (Good printer, yes. Ink...I'm still on the cartridge it came with.) Did our WalMart run, and although Mb says she and Bunny shop together, I dunno. Yes, I think couponing can save money if done systematically, but oh boy, what a pain in the ass. Multiply that by two people, and Fluffy will be shopping solo, thanks.

I *did* get over to J's Saturday afternoon, and hadn't been there more than five minutes when T showed up. We all chatted about schnauzers and mango season and DIY projects...he's going to buy/install a new ceiling fan for J, and it looks like I'm going to inherit Susie's iPod. (And possibly her Palm, which would be nice, as it's a fancy one with a bunch of games installed.) Still, a real iPod would be awesomesauce; depending on which model it is, I *might* even have a case for it already---courtesy of Liz Claibourne back in the day. Although I'll be editing the hell out of whatever is on there, as I don't share Susie's passions for James Taylor, Elton John or even Jimmy Buffett. A little goes a long way.

I brought a couple Bogo pizzas for dinner. After T's departure, we examined J's DVD collection, since my poached brains had forgotten to bring any of my own media. We started with "Open Season"---animated, cute---if somewhat predictable. Followed it up with "Miss Congeniality", which we'd both seen before and like. Concluded with an ep of "The Dog
Whisperer".

Before we went to the dogs, J was washing dishes, and somehow we got onto the subject of Connect-the-Dots, which is basically Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon played with ANY two actors. Since that's how I lull myself to sleep---and have been since before anyone had ever HEARD of Kevin Bacon, I told her I was up for the challenge. She soon found out that trying to stump me with Johnny Depp, Robert Mitchum and even Denver Pyle wasn't going to work.

The only one that baffled me for more than a couple minutes was the last one of the night, which came to me on the way home (and took all six degrees): ( Michael Caine to Gordon Ramsey. )

Today church, CUUPs afterward, then home and a wee nap. No TV yet. PJ and I have scheduled it again, tentatively, for Wednesday afternoon. Third time's the charm, I hope.

.

I spent this afternoon at J's. She requested comedies, and I showed her two of my favorites, neither of which she'd ever seen: In and Out, with Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck, and Oscar, with Sly Stallone and everybody (Big, awesome cast!). Definitely lightened her mood! Good for me, too, because during the movies, I got her dog to join me on the bed (TV is in the bedroom) and he, love sponge that he is, lolled back and let me love on him, very relaxing.

Afterward, I took gwilliondream's advice and did something nice for myself. I stopped in to Fashion Bug on my way to Publix---and I found some jeans! (I've been trying to find some decent jeans for several months---not only did I find a nice dark wash bootcut pair, but they were on clearance. Marked down an additional 20%, they were just under $16. Woohoo, I can haz jeans!!!

Came home, futzed around for a little while, then watched Royal Pains, yay

Tomorrow is movie night at church, Good Night and Good Luck.

Otherwise, the status is quo. Quo far, quo good.

.

I got home yesterday afternoon to an unexpected parcel on my front doorstep. The return address informed me it was from a company called Woot, in Texas, and the contents were an adorable crib quilt, mostly in navy blue, appliqued with sheep. No packing slip to let me know who it was from.

Quite a mystery, as there are only a handful of people who were in on the sheep joke originally. Back when I was working 2nd shift at the answering service---about 20 years ago---I was staying over at SBJB's because my water had been turned off, and at one point, I left a note saying, "Gone to sheep." I meant sleep, but suddenly, sheep jokes abounded.

Discovered the culprit was none other than sbjb, who said she saw it on the Woot site and thought of me. (According to her, it was $8 and shipping was free---quite a deal, IMO, since it's the best made of any store-bought quilt I've seen.)

Movie night at church was great---I really enjoyed "Taking Woodstock", even though there was minimal Jeff in it. The protagonist was a sweet kid, and his parents were really well played. One scene (the tripping-in the-van scene) threw the pace off a little, but on the whole, it was excellent.

I made it home with time to spare for Supernatural. ( Thoughts and spoilers under the cut. )

Afterward, I made an impulse buy on Amazon. I had credit left over after getting my Trauma DVDs, and went to check Catch and Release, which I'd watched over at Schnauzerland. Cute little movie that reminded me A LOT of PS--I Love You, with Timothy Olyphant in the JDM role as the guy who helps the heroine find love after her fiance dies. Got it for $3 and change including shipping, and I *still* have a few bucks left. *grin*

I feel no desire to write anything for Season 6. None.

.

I just had a call from T, letting me know they're coming home tonight rather than tomorrow as originally scheduled. I think it's safe to guess that things didn't go too well. S has probably been drunk the whole time, and knowing her, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that she caused a scene/some kind of trouble. It wouldn't be the first time. It's T who I feels sorry for.

So now, I'm trying to do four things at once: Pack clothes, toiletries and food---including perishables---burn a couple CDs of the stuff I've been downloading---which has to be converted to MP3 from wav? whateverthefuck---try to figure out where I'm going and in what order aftr I leave---jolly.

The good part of it is, I will be home tonight and *not* have to run back over here after movie night and SPN. (Tonight's movie is "Taking Woodstock", which I have long wanted to see.)

There really is no place like home.