Category: DVD/TV/screens

Sundry and various

Tomorrow I take the car (which at the moment can only turn right) in a cunningly planned foray through New Westminster; then I’ll drop it off at the krankenhaus and with any luck, I’ll have a plated, functioning, air-cared vehicle – my first in my whole life. My dad gave me a car once, but due to a miscommunication Paul registered it in his own name, which I didn’t actually think was legal and squawked about like a sad old hen at the time.  So, technically, this will be the first car ever that’s registered in my own name.  I’m 51, and I’m an idiot for buying a car, but when the thing you hate most about your job is not the job but the commute by bus, a car seems like a necessity.  Also, ROAD TRIPS.  Also WRECK BEACH.  Also, going to the Island to visit relllies, and not just my parents.  Yes, I’m going to put major miles on that puppy this summer.

My mother is still slowly working her way through the ancestral diaries.  Henry Wake was a fascinating critter, and I’ll be really happy when all of his diaries are where I can easily peruse them.

Keith is over, and as soon as he’s finished with a boss fight in Arkham Asylum, we’re going to watch Deadwood (me for the nth time) and then I’m going to cook him a pork chomp dinner.  Jeff’s on the Island.

I’ve put the new song in Songwriter.  So I actually did something creative this weekend.  John would be pleased.

Finally saw The Hurt Locker

Recommended, if a little grue-y in spots.

Tentacle porn Tarot deck.  You bet your ass it’s not safe for work.  The shizz you find on Facebook!  Anyway, there’s just one card, but the descriptions are pretty awful.  If I did a Tarot deck it would be updated for modern life, and there’d be an internet major arcana, and one of the suits would be grease (as in petrochemicals).

Tonight, laundry.  Tomorrow night church meeting.  And soon, soon, I will go to the opera for the first time in my life. Course I have to pay for the tickets first.

1/4 of Pink Floyd is coming to Vancouver on December 10 and I wanna go.

I stared at a tesseract for a long time last night.  It is helping me come to terms with change.

If I sound a little odd…. it’s because…. I am!  Bet you didn’t see that one coming.  I’m just happy cause I thought I lost my cell phone, but Jeff found it in his car.

Sunday Sundries

I saw one of these in knife edge flight over Lake Ontario in the first month after I met Paul.  So you know, it was a long time ago.

I saw this movie and loved it, I want to immediately see it again.  RIP.

Saw the girls yesterday and agreed to buy Kat’s vehicle.  I am the shallowest person on earth. Why else would I buy a purple car with a working sunroof?  Anyway, the car already has a name.  I am going to call her Ziva.

Update…. Seal eats octopus.

Happy Easter

Well do I remember John’s voice coming up the stairs, “Happy Crucifiction Day!”  Yes, I misspelled it.  Lady Miss Banjola warning, do not look at this baby bird. This kill it with fire baby bird.

I had a completely useless day at work yesterday.  I felt like I had spring fever, Alzheimers and an incipient migraine all at the same time.

Keith and Kate were both over last night, and it was wonderful to have them around.  Especially Katie; she’s having an unusual time adjusting to being Dax-free at the same time she’s still living with one of his family members.  I know it can’t last, and so does she; but the problem is she’s in better shape and happier than she’s been since she was in her early teens, getting enough exercise and eating properly (she’s lost ten pounds she didn’t need and looks awesome).  We watched Milk and it was awesome.

Mt Laundry has been conquered

Yeah, but that’s not what everybody will be talking about at work.  Sitting down to watch the amazing US-Canada gold medal game yesterday I knew the Canadians would win, but it was a nailbiter there for a while.

Foreigners who have covered 17 Olympics say that when it comes to public drinking at the Olympics, there is no second place.  On that basis I am very very very glad I never went downtown.

Watched Zombieland.  It’s got Sean of the Dead in a headlock for the title of the best Zomcom.  Woody Harrelson is fantastic, and I really liked Abigail Breslin, even if her character nearly gets everybody killed.

The start of the thing before the thing.

Here are the lyrics and here is the song that Katie likes the most these days.  Safe for work and utterly charming.  Katie says the song is about insomnia….  speaking of which she cured her insomnia.  She quit eating sugar.

My chance to dig out the garden plot was yesterday afternoon and it corresponded with the hockey game.  Sigh.

The power of the checklist, and other news items

Finance, airplanes and checklists.

Katie is still in Victoria looking after Granny.  Having somebody there is making life a lot easier for my folks, who are mad with worry about her, and for Garry and Dianne and Greg and Tracy, all of whom have come to visit her.

I talked on the phone with Katie for about half an hour yesterday.  Apart from her reading Twilight, (Keith’s anguished cry, “I tried to set her on the right path!”), and not getting enough sleep, she’s doing well.  I am so proud of her helping out like this.  Kat and Kashka miss her.

Watched Touching the Void yesterday.  UNBELIEVABLE.  A must see.  I cannot recommend it highly enough; suitable for all ages except at one point there’s some quite lurid cursing, and since there’s a lot of atheism in it it’s not recommended for deists.  The lurid cursing seems entirely appropriate to me.  You’ve broken your leg, hung in midair for 90 minutes, had your climbing partner cut the rope and you’ve just fallen an additional 100 feet into a crevasse.  I’d be painting the air a pretty bright blue meself at that point.  Except right about then I’d give up, and Joe didn’t.

It being Sunday morning, here, have some curse words

Stephen Fry on swearing. SPECIAL BONUS, Hugh Laurie in drag.

Attended a Jim Scott house concert at Tom and Peggy’s last night.  I am going to be in a minority here, but I think it’s possible to write songs about peace love light cooperation and the rain forest and still keep some edge in the lyrics. Let me recast that.  His choice of words irritated me a lot, also, too much repetition, please please please have more respect for the audience than that.  Oh, really it was an indoctrination session?  Why didn’t somebody tell me?  He has a lovely voice and a lot of Brazilian nylon string guitar style but I enjoyed the a capella song about peace the most.  There was lots of singing along and I couldn’t open my mouth or I just would have coughed through the entire concert.  Also a church member and his squeeze talked ALL the way through, and when everybody else is quiet and you’re the one sitting next to the rude people it doesn’t add to the joy. Since this person behaved rudely at the last event we both attended, I’ll let him know when he’s had his third strike. It would be polite… no sense bottling it up and when I can firmly and respectfully tell him he’s rude.

However, Al Sather’s mini mousse tarts put some life back into me.  MAN they were good.

Had a migraine by the time it ended, walked home in the rain and collapsed next to Keith on the downstairs sofa (I walked 6.4k last night, pouring rain both ways), while he groused his way through the new Assassin’s Creed II.  Bastards dicked with the UI AND the game play, so you spend a lot of time falling off things you didn’t intend to.  Also, Ezio walks as if he tucked a carrot into his ass crack and his jumps look… well I’ll let you see it, because I fell over the first time I saw it.  Someone’s going to do a mashup of all his moves to techno, and it will be funny.

I am still feeling odd. Part of it is irritation with myself over something I can’t speak of in public, but I think I’m genuinely sick, too.  I’ll see if church is still an option after I have my vitamins and some coffee.  I kinda want to boycott church until they fix the sound system, but really that’s not a sufficient reason.

Tomorrow I interview Denis, and I am so looking forward to it.

Watched these two movies over the last couple of days.  Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima.  HIGHLY recommended.

How do YOU set boundaries with loved ones?  Just asking.

Productive day

Jeff and I emptied out the last storage locker (saving $1200 a year) and did a bit of a shop.  The Commercial Drive Can Car truck rattled and squeaked like what it is, the highest mileage car in the fleet, and when I got to our place the s.o.b. wouldn’t start again; sounds like the starter motor is going.  The third time I fired up I got lucky and while it was running I called the office and gave them my sad tale.  Then I scooted back to drop it off and then Jeff got me and we went to Main St, where both of us realized that we’d forgotten John’s Jukes is closed on Mondays so no rubber bumpers for us.  As a consolation prize I went to Kam’s and got egg tarts and red bean pastries (best I have ever eaten).  Managed to get within eyeshot of Pulp Fiction without buying anything.

So now of course, after finding a home for all our furniture, books, etc we have to squeeze down again.  I’m considering buying shelving to put in the guest room, it being the last place I can think of in the house that has anything resembling room.

Keith came over yesterday and we had another Homicide fest.  I LOVE that show, there has been one lame episode in five seasons so far and even the lamest episode has something to recommend it.  Also, it’s funny seeing Michelle Forbes (who plays the massively loathesome Marianne in True Blood) before she got her teeth redone and playing an intelligent and likeable (albeit buggo) character.  She has one of the best voices in TV.

I also worked away on “Wish it was Mine” which is one of my fave songs of mine, just because it’s so passionate about the ways in which men and women are always misunderstanding each other, and yet is so very short.  Brevity is one of the things I like best in my own work; even if you hate it, it will be over soon.

Katie is coming over or I’m going down to New West at some point today.

Watched the Ellison doc last night

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  Mike, Paul, Keith, Jeff and I had a glorious evening of pizza, beer, G&Ts, wasps drowning themselves in our drinks (this being August in Vancouver and virtually impossible to avoid), me printing out songs of mine for Paul to put in his songbook, me and Paul hanging the Japanese door hanging in the R. John Caspell Memorial Pinball Parlour, pinball (Great Finagle, but how much better that thing works when it’s level), bodywork, cheesecake and fellowship.

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is a must see if you’re into Neil Gaiman, BSG, or the English language.  The initial ‘interview’ sequence between Robin Williams and Harlan Ellison is PURE COMEDY GOLD. Also Richard Thompson does the soundtrack.  Once again, how much do I miss sharing stuff like this with John.

Now I am trying to wheedle Jeff into getting milk so I can make waffles.  I haven’t made waffles in ages.

Paul and I said to each other last night how much we missed small group ministry.  You think it’s Newage Nonsense, but it’s not – it’s major amounts of stress relief for your poor ol’ brain.  I remember the group meditations as being just about the only thing that kept me sane during a very trying period of my life.  Earlier in the day Paul came by and remonstrated with me about my lack of a rear view mirror on my bike (as well as to pick up the sewing kit, which is going back and forth between our houses like a sorry assed ping pong ball) and then he went out and not only bought one for me and installed it free gratis he got me a couple of really good bungie cords too.   All demonstrations of interest in my safety and comfort gratefully accepted, thanks.  As soon as the weather cleared in the midafternoon I went to get beer on the bike, and what an awesome ride that was, the temp being perfect, and the only hitch was when I tried to clear the intersection at Mary and Edmonds and nearly got crushed between two cars, and pulled a muscle in my calf.  It still stings – it’s a consequence of my ongoing L5S1 nonsense in my back, with the sciatic nerve pinging like a gas station bell – but I am taking painkillers PRN and otherwise ignoring it.

Also, I watched a DVD about church growth from a U*U perspective (man, it was interesting!) and had a long, interesting conversation with the minister.  Also, I practiced guitar for two hours and worked out the chords for Catnip on My Shoes, which I had never done before, so I can actually perform it in public now.

And here I was thinking I didn’t DO anything yesterday.

Fluttery

I am feeling a bit fluttery about Miss Margot’s operation today.  She has a strong heart (Persians sometimes run to heart trouble) and her pre-op screen came back okay, but I’m still unhappy, and listening to her cry for her lost dinner and breakfast is making me sad.  Wait til she comes home reeking of anaesthetic, loopy as all get out, while the boys gather round goggling at her.  They’ll be happy to have her so subdued …. And so will the rest of us, she’s about to go into heat. (Noiser, more affectionate and really anxious to go out).

Jeff has just left with Miss Margot.  There was a flaw in my cunning plan… I didn’t give him my credit card to pay for it all, so I think I will just go there at the end of the day and Jeff can drive us both home.  Continue reading Fluttery

nothing to say

so I’ll just blather.

Checked the Vancouver open mic scene.  There’s nothing I want to do until the 18th of March… I put it on the calendar.

Jeff’s up doing garbage, it being that time of week again.

Watched The Bank Job last night. I quite liked Jason Statham as a venal everyman forced to think fast.

I am going to try to get to work early this morning, the weather was supremely uncooperative yeesterday.  I left 20 minutes early and got there 2o minutes late.  I hope the person who made the decision to put the office at the top of that bloody hill gets a sound caning at some point.

We’re in the Phony War part of the depression.  Nobody but the homeless believes it’s happening.  You can still get sushi and big screen tvs.  China’s governors are proclaiming 8 percent growth this year.  I cannot believe, after closing 65000 factories, that anybody in China or out of it could spout such nonsense.  Global and domestic demand has plummeted.  There are millions of unemployed who left the cities to go back home so as to at least be able to mooch food off their families.  They sit around smoking and gambling and getting into trouble, and this is going to help domestic tranquillity how?

Katie has a plan to move out of her dad’s place and in with two girlfriends.  I know for a certainty this is not going to end well, and I can’t do or say a damned thing about it.  She can’t really move until she has a job, and I have tried to help her with that, including a snotty voicemail to change her equally snotty voicemail message.  If I was an employer and I heard that message I’d slam the phone down and say ‘next’!

Darwin is the cutest baby I didn’t give birth to, but I’m sure he’ll lose that crown when Tanya’s tamaiti is born.

I left Grampa’s stories in Paul’s car, and now he and Keith are reading them.  Bwa ha ha!  My evil plan is working.  That would be the plan where I do things by accident and things turn out well anyway.

I can’t think of anything else and I should shower and caffeinate and swap laundry and depart.

In Victoria

Paul and Katie and I made the crossing – my new boss, may he be praised and adored – another Finn, what is it with the Finns anyway? – let me out early enough that we could easily catch the six o’clock.  It is one of the new boats, the German ones, and it shudders and groans like it was a twenty year boat needing drydock.  Paul of course went and talked to a staffer and learned that the screws don’t submerge deep enough and the damned things burn fuel like a Viking funeral.  Argh, what the hell is wrong with this province?  Didn’t we learn about this kinda crap with the Fast Cat?  Argh I say again.

Work ended, amusingly enough, with me going to my new boss, who is, as far as I can tell, a man who prizes his ability to keep his facial expression under tight control, and saying, “Hey, somebody is going to come by you and say that I’m lazy, incompetent and a menace to the company!” “Which somebody?” “Really?  When she comes to complain can I ask her about the 15 emails I’ve sent her that she’s never answered?” Then his face twitched, and I burst out laughing.  What happened to Patricia?  Alaaaaaaaaaas, she went to the dark side and into Inside Sales.  LTGW said, tersely, “A good fit for her skill set.”  Well, duh.  Anyway, I have to come up with a good nickname for my new boss, because he richly deserves one and I am not going to use his real name because he does not have the same sprightly approach to life, work and all that as my previous (and much missed for the joy of her physical presence, I have to say) boss.

The middle part of work was also amusing.  The new VP engineering sat with my lunch bunch, which freaked the hell out of me.  VPs never sit at my table.  I looked around at the guys and said, uh oh.  New VP sez, What?  “Well I’m not really used to controlling my language,” to which the response was, “It’s okay, I was in the navy.”  “Not like this you weren’t” but of course that just meant that everybody at the table peppered the new VP with questions about life on a fast attack nuclear sub, for which he was the chief maintenance dude.  I should mention at this point that the new VP is in his mid forties, could give George Clooney a run for his money in terms of looks and charm, and is a triathlete.

SIMULTANEOUSLY ScaryClown and I asked if he’d ever been attacked by a giant squid.  Actually I got the question out first, but ScaryClown said, “I wanted to ask that!” Then we burst out laughing and gave each other a fist bump.  Our new squid overlords are turning out quite fine.

The rest of the day I sent angry emails, entered returns, made Tanya laugh, missed Cris, had yet ANOTHER email encounter with the WORST CUSTOMER EVER and wrote one email which triggered another email which said, “Oh yeah, we didn’t actually consult customer service about that.  My meeting, let me show it to you.”  Then I abruptly remembered that I have a new boss, and made a pretence of consulting him, and then he said, “Uh, I think that’s a meeting I want to attend… I have a few questions myself.”  So once again, I poked the bear and lived.  And my boss let me leave early.  And Paul let me drive.

Back to Victoria.  Lexi and Darwin -asleep and thus not evident- were here, as were the parents and Unca Barry.  Unca Barry had brought a really interesting documentary about the last sailing of a four masted cargo vessel around Cape Horn, which I didn’t watch because I was too busy blabbing with Lexi and Katie. 

I had a really good night’s sleep, although I miss wireless, because normally I sleep with my computer (what?  What?) and I just roll over in the morning and start surfing the internet. (Yes, I know that will have to change when the heavens open and I actually have a special somebody to sleep with on a regular basis, in the meantime, it’s how it is in my life.  At least it’s warm.)

Paul went off to stay with his bro, Dr. Filk, and will be back to collect me as we will be flying up the Island Highway to see his cousin Ruth IF the weather cooperates because it’s supposed to bucket snow.

Keith really wanted to come but somebody had to feed kitties.  Also, unlike Katie, he is actually physically and emotionally capable of getting here on his own; thus the requirement to have an adult always accompany her.

 

I can hear Darwin!!!! Time to go be a cousin.