Life goes on

IMG_0718, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So Brenden is playing baseball this year - the 5-6 year old league uses a pitching machine and the rules are closer to real baseball than T-ball but not quite. Brenden's team, the Dodgers, is in last place (0 - 4). That doesn't bother me because it doesn't seem to bother Brenden. The first game of the season I found myself rooting for the Dodgers against the Braves and boy did that feel wierd.

I have watched maybe a total of 15 minutes of pro baseball on TV this year - man I don't recognize anyone except Chipper Jones and he's the old man of the team. Even Bobby Cox has retired.

We had our new island and gas range installed. I love it but I have to learn how to cook w/ gas all over again. I'm not complaining! Photos soon come.

This last weekend I learned how to drive our new zero turn riding lawn mower. Once I felt comfortable I let Brenden sit on my lap and we conquered the front lawn. We had fun but I need to buy some ear plugs.

What I'm Watching:

The Tourist: Ugh. Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie romance - adventure. Adventure romance? Either way it seemed pretentious and Jon and I had worked out the shocking twist in the story about the time the opening credits started. If this had been made in the mid -50's starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly I think I wouldn't have had such a negative reaction to it. It wasn't that bad - it just seemed like an anachronism.

The Karate Kid The remake - It takes place in China now. A young african-american kid and his mom have moved there from Detroit and he is having a hard time fitting in. After he gets beaten up by a bunch of kids who study kung fu at a local school the handyman (Jackie Chan) from his apartment starts teaching him kung fu. So yeah why they didn't call this movie The Kung Fu Kid is beyond me. It wasn't as good as the original but that opinion may have been caused by my age. Seriously, I sat there missing Pat Morita. Over Jackie Chan.

Grown-Ups A stupid Adam Sandler comedy featuring many, many refugees from SNL. I'm ashamed to say I laughed.

American Idol I'm not really watching it - I just wanted to say I've seen a little and Steve Tyler grosses me the hell out. I'm surprised his daughter Liv hasn't keeled over with embarrassment.

Pelican Plunge

IMG_0598, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Thursday, March 17th:

Thursday was a sea day - we started the day with a character breakfast; while we were served breakfast a bunch of Disney characters would come by the tables for autographs and photo opportunities. I left midway for a pedicure. Really! And I enjoyed it! That seemed to be the theme for this vacation for me - doing relaxing girly-girl stuff.

We did more sea day things - Brenden went to the kid's clubs and played with Lilly then went to the pools and played with Brett. Jon and I played Bingo (yeah really) but we didn't win anything. Oh, it was Saint Patrick's Day so in celebration of not having a drop of Irish blood in me I drank Guinness Stouts all day.

Disney sometimes premieres its movies on board the ships the same time they are coming out in theaters so we watched Mars Needs Moms. When we got home I was amused to note that this movie bombed hard. It wasn't that bad. We liked it. I was a little freaked that the little kid who was the lead character looks like an 8 year old Seth Green but then I lolled when I saw the credits - Green had provided the voice and the character movements.

Friday, March 18th:

Friday was Castaway Cay day, on Disney's private island. I knew ahead of time that the Flying Dutchman had been dismantled - it was a movie set after all and time and some serious storms had taken their toll. I'm glad we got to see it on our first cruise!

Jon and Brenden went and rented a paddle boat - I found us some chairs and an umbrella near the Pelican Plunge and I read my Kindle and admired my shiny toenails in the sunlight. When Jon and B came and found me Jon went snorkelling and got some nifty photos of some creepy cuttlefish (they may be squids - my marine taxonomy is a mite shaky) and I helped Brenden build a sandcastle. A cute little 3 year old asked his mommy if he could help us and she told him to ask us. He did and I said we needed all the help we could get.

When Jon came back he took over sandcastle duties so I lounged and read some more. When we got back to the boat I took one last trip to the Rainforest Room, which I had all to myself. Yay!

Friday was the last full day and I don't remember what we did that evening except say goodbye to our Canadian dinner partners as well as our multinational servers.

Saturday, March 19th:

We woke up to see the ship docking at Port Canaveral, boo. We ate breakfast one last time then left the ship and took the shuttle to the car rental place. Since our plane didn't leave for Huntsville until 3 pm, we had some time to kill. Like many cruisers, we killed it by visiting the Kennedy Space Center.

As a nerd, that's kind of like visiting a holy shrine for me. We wanted to see the space shuttle on the launch pad but the tour for that lasted too long. We walked around some and I let Brenden play in a play area while I listened to a tour guy talking about the space programs while leading a group around their rocket exhibit.

Maybe I'm prejudiced, but the US Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville is a much better museum as far as I'm concerned. I do know touring the Marshall Space Flight center might not be as exciting as seeing the frickin Space Shuttle on the launch pad but still.

We stayed and watched an IMAX movie, Hubble 3D (Waaay nifty) then headed for the airport. The trip home was extremely uneventful. I managed to walk off the ship with a scratchy throat and ended up with a nasty chest cold that kept me home from work Monday and Tuesday. I'm glad I didn't get that at the beginning of the trip.

Manatee

IMG_0173, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Nifty, eh? Nothing else to say, the rest of the trip report soon come.

Captain of the Bones

IMG_0289, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Tuesday, March 15th: St. Maarten

I must have low standards or something because everyone told me Saint Maarten sucks but I liked the place and we had a great time.

There is a nice beach near the cruise dock so we all went there for the day. I went in the water a few times but it was cold. That never stopped Brenden. He made a friend named Brett whose family was on the same cruise so they spent time together throughout the rest of the week.

St. Maarten had a lot of people on the beach hawking cheap merchandise, if there's a drawback to that place. But, it's fairly easy to smile and say 'no, thank you' so don't let that stop you.

We also bought a new camera while on the island, an SD 1400, and we also bought a new underwater case because the old one didn't fit the new camera. Here's a kicker - the new camera and case were about $50 less than what we paid for the old camera alone. All the photos that are up on Flickr currently were taken with the new camera.

That night was Pirate night - I'm glad Disney hasn't disbanded that tradition in light of the Somali pirates reminding everyone that pirates are really cruel, bloodthirsty, evil, vicious, and don't even say "ARRRR!". Of course Disney has a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out this summer. I am so torn about that. I've already bitched about them ruining my favorite Tim Powers book, but on the other hand, Ian McShane is in the new movie! And he's playing Blackbeard! How awesome is that!

I digress - Jon took Brenden up to the top deck where the party was and watched the fireworks. I watched them from our balcony.

Wednesday, March 16th: St. Thomas

We went on an excursion, sailing to a small island not too far off of Charlotte Amalie harbor to do some snorkeling. Brenden got flustered about the snorkeling and so I stayed on the boat with him while Jon got some nifty picks of turtles. On the way back he loaded up on the painkillers (the drink) being offered around but I stayed away from them. The last time I drank a painkiller I was on Jost Van Dyke and woke up back on St. John having no clue how I got back to the villa.

A woman sitting next to me got loaded up on painkillers and decided she and I were best friends. This is why I try to stick to beer.

The excursion itself was a lot of fun despite my lack of water time. On the other hand, it was frickin cold for the caribbean so I didn't regret it too much. The 'sail' part of the excursion is debatable - sails were hoisted but I don't know how much they helped the engines. But the crew was entertaining and got everyone into the fun of things, including letting the kids steer the ship a little as well as help with the sails. I realized I really miss kicking back on a boat and just watching the islands float by.

By the time we got back on the ship, Jon decided he needed more rum, so he returned to Charlotte Amalie and bought 6 liters of Cruzan rum. Like we don't have a 2 year supply back home. So now we have a 4 year supply.

I was sorry to see St. Thomas go as the cruise ship left the harbor, but instead of being totally bummed I reminded myself that we would be back in June (yay!). Jon had a hell of a hangover at dinner that night.

Aaand in case you are interested, here's a common painkiller recipe:

rum
coconut milk
equal parts pineapple and orange juice
garnish with ground nutmeg

I think the painkiller's deadliness lies in the fact that you can mix a hell of a lot of rum in this recipe without noticing it. It is quite tasty!

Disney Magic Redux part 1

IMG_0213, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Friday, March 11: Travel Day

Our flight left for Orlando at noon so I just kept Brenden out of school and started his Spring Break early. We took Air Tran, which just recently started flying out of Huntsville. The flight to Orlando was uneventful. This time around I had booked us a hotel room in Cocoa Beach instead of staying at a hotel in Orlando. How the hell did I ever plan a vacation before internet forums?

So we got our rental car, got to Cocoa Beach, checked in, and went and ate dinner at of all places Boston Beef and Seafood. Pretty doggone good food, I might add. Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy a soft-sided cooler and a case of Yeungling beer. Even adding in the cost of the cooler it was much cheaper than if we bought 24 beers on the cruise. I'm glad Disney lets you do that.

Once we got back to the hotel room we saw (and heard) something nifty kewl - a Delta rocket had just been launched.

Saturday, March 12th:

We weren't in a hurry to get to the port - the boat doesn't even start loading until 12:30. So after some dawdling, including checking out the beach, we returned our rental car and took their shuttle to the port terminal. We checked in and boarded almost immediately. Things went really smooth! I like that.

Then, while we were on deck 9 playing ping-pong, I saw another nifty kewl thing: a manatee! I ran downstairs to the promenade deck to get closer and snap some photos. I'll post those soon. Really! Any way she was leisurly swimming around, investigating the Magic and the nearby fueling barge.

Jon and I amused ourselves from our room's balcony by watching the dockworkers engage in a Charlie Foxtrot trying to load some steel sheeting aboard the ship. They were sweating and cursing up a storm and running their forklifts around in a tizzy because it was time for the Magic to sail. They made it by about a minute. They were still buttoning up the ship while the lines were being cast off.

So nothing else exciting happened that first day - we had an early seating for dinner (5:45) and this time we shared the table with a family of Canadians - Grandma, grampa, mom, dad, and their sweet daughter,Lilly, who was Brenden's age. I thought we all got along pretty well. I spent most of my conversations with the grandfather, who was a retired schoolteacher, comparing Ottawa's climate with Alabama's. I enjoyed it, he was a nice guy. Actually they were all really nice. Very Canadian, eh? I don't think I could have asked for better dinner companions who were strangers. That can be awkward.

Sunday and Monday, March 13th and 14th:

Okay, these two days are somewhat blurry. I do remember Brenden broke our trusty Canon SD 900 on Monday. He was so upset neither Jon nor I had the heart to punish him - he was doing a great job of punishing himself.

I do remember Jon and I got cruise passes to the Spa's Rainforest Room - basically a place to relax and listen to new age music and tinkling water fountains or sit in a sauna for a while or take a nice shower. I enjoyed it - wonderful quiet time.

When Brenden wasn't in the kids clubs he was swimming in the pools. Jon and I took turns watching him.

I remember a lot of food and a lot of beer. There was a reason I gained 5 pounds while on the trip.

Mice in the Dining Room

IMG_0395, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I would say I was slack, but I'm also sick, a souvenier from the cruise. Thank goodness my cold didn't manifest until we got off the boat.

We got back from our cruise Saturday, and I did have the wherewithal to post some pictures to my Flickr account. I will write up a trip report as soon as I get the gumption.

Overall, we had a great cruise, but as an introvert I got my fill of other people real fast. If I had a highlight to list it would be our day at St. Maarten. I didn't do anything but sit on a beach and watch Brenden frolic while I drank a few El Presidentes.

Trip report soon come!

WTF stovetop

WTF stovetop, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm going to reply to Nancy's comment as a post: I like the island, too - I mentioned before we are going to have a new one built around a gas range that I've already ordered. We've also hired a cabinet maker to build the island for us. Once that's done that wall between the kitchen and living room will come down, the oven, the cabinets below and stovetop will go bye-bye and the countertop will be replaced. The cabinets below will remain and we're turning that into a bar between the kitchen and living room, if that makes sense.

That, I hope, will be the extent of our remodeling for now.

Jon is still heavily involved with the drop zone, and I suspect he will for a long time coming. He is helping the new owners as well as flying their plane, training the tandem instructors, doing jumps, etc. I think since a huge chunk of responsibility was taken off his shoulders so he is actually enjoying skydiving again. Me, I have no intentions of jumping again.

We are buying a souped up riding mower today. With 5 acres we need something speedy.

We are pretty much totally moved in; we need to clean out the garage and attic and Jon needs to clean out his desk then take that behemoth to the dump. We hope to start getting it ready for sale next week.

Investigating the Kitchen

Kitchen, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm slack, I know it.

We had our first thunderstorm in our new house last night. The winds got up to 60 mph. No damage to us but there was a tree down in the park. 4 or 5 more good storms and the park will be treeless.

Yesterday I stayed home and waited for repair guys. Our toilets were making funny burble noises so the roto-rooter guy came out and hunted for the septic tank. He said it hadn't been emptied in like forever. He also had to clean out the drain pipe between the septic tank and the house - could someone tell my why anyone would use cheap trailer pipe, not even a quarter inch thick, for sewage? I've priced PVC pipe at Lowe's and it's not that expensive. If you already have the damn trench dug, put in the good stuff so you won't have to do it again.

Still, I'm loving the new house. There's so much room compared to the old house. I've already bitched about the stove top, and the laundry room is claustrophobic. Other than that, and the cheap-assed repair work I've seen (all easy to fix correctly, thank goodness), I'm pretty happy.

For the kitchen we're going to put in a longer island with a gas range in the center. I've already ordered the range. We're also going to eventually take that wll out where the oven is so the kitchen will be more open to the living room.

That reminds me: looks like we have the airplanes sold. We just got wired the remaining money. I'm not going to breathe easy until the new owners take possession of them. Then we have to jump through all the fun hoops to close the business.

So next on the agenda, besides closing the business, is getting the old house on the market. In the meantime, next month we're going on a cruise. Yay!

It's a done deal

IMG_4219, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Yesterday we signed 30 bazillion pieces of paper and now we have a new house! Photos soon come, I promise. That is all.

Quiet

IMG_0109, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Not much is happening. We got some more snow last night. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. Then it started raining and it ruined it all.

What I'm watching:

Red I've been wanting to see this movie since I first heard about it and I was somewhat disappointed. I think the problem was the plot was too pedestrian meaning I guessed everything before it happened. The cast looked like they were having fun but I wish they got more to do. I mean if you have Helen Mirren in your movie as a hit man let her whack a bunch of people not just one or two. Also, instead of having the lead's love interest kidnapped so the last third of the movie gets where it's going, why not have her get more involved with the action? Have Helen Mirren teach her how to shoot mooks with a sniper rifle, something like that. And Karl Urban never took off his shirt, not once. What's the fun in that? He got to be the butt monkey somewhat, but again, the script didn't take it far enough. Potential was wasted all over the place in this movie.

Eh, it wasn't that bad I just expected more.

On the other hand, The Expendables was exactly what I thought it would be. It was a violent throwback to old 80's action movies. The best thing about this movie was it was 99.99% serious so it was even more funny than if they tried to be tongue-in-cheek. The cast was wonderfully hyper-macho (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke plus cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Swarzenegger) and there was plenty of HoYay although it was a little squicky. I mean Stallone is in his mid-60's! He didn't take off his shirt, thank goodness.

Jon and I did talk about this movie after it was over - mainly we were marvelling about how intensely ugly Mickey Rourke is. He fell out of an ugly tree roughly the size of a redwood and he's still falling and hitting branches.

Overkill is Underrated

IMG_4216, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We may have the planes sold - at least the guy buying them gave us a significant deposit and will pay the rest in a week or so. The holdup is paperwork - Jon just payed off the note which means the bank has to notify the FAA who are notorious for snail-like behavior. Seriously, they make the post office look like it's staffed with cheetahs.

After a long stretch of not really watching anything, we watched 3 movies on 3 successive nights. I've already raved about Inception - we watched Despicable Me on Tuesday and it was a good CGI cartoon about an evil villain who adopts 3 orphans to help with his nefarious plans to steal the moon. Last night I finally got to watch The A-Team, and man it was stupid. This movie is exactly the type of crap William Goldman was railing against. There is no way in heck I can completely dislike any movie with Liam Neeson in it though (Krull being the one exception). I also loved the show way back when so sue me, I liked it.

A new episode of Fringe is on (YAY!) Friday night (the Timeslot of Doom.BOO!).

Inception

Inception, originally uploaded by BestLife Movie.

On Saturday Brenden and I visited a cousin (to be more precise: the daughter of my father's mother's brother. Got that?) who is in town getting a Cracker Barrell restaurant ready for opening at the end of this month. That's her job - she travels around the country and oversees getting these restaurants open. I can't decide if I would like that kind of job or not. Traveling is great, but that's an awful long time to be away from the family. Her children are grown up and have families of their own though.

It was a fun visit - I haven't seen her since I was a little girl and Neoma is as nice as I remember her. Brenden was about to blow a gasket - the store part of the restaurant was partially stocked so that means there were a lot of toys and candy he wasn't allowed to touch.

I finally saw a movie worth remembering last night - Inception. Christopher Nolan, most famous for his Batman movies that don't suck, also did Memento. Like Memento, I highly advise watching Inception when you can give the movie your full attention (and no beer! Trust me on this). I wish they made more summer movies like this; there's car chases, gun battles, explosions all over the place, and you have to *think* about what is going on!

I just finished a book, "The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood?", a series of rants essays by noted screenwriter William Goldman that were written during the 90's. It's a chronicle of the ongoing degeneration of movie quality as he writes about summer movies, Christmas movies, and the Oscars. It's a hilarious and depressing read. It's telling that one of the last things he rants about is a car chase in Micheal Bay's movie The Rock, where Sean Connery escapes from Nicholas Cage. Goldman recalls watching this and being stunned when Cage recaptures Connery, meaning there was no point at all to the car chase. Bay is NOTORIOUS for putting crap in his movies because it looks neat. (That reminds me of Ben Affleck's amusing commentary in the Criterion edition (!!!) of Armageddon - he kept pointing out all the helicopters that keep showing up in shots for no particular reason except they look cool).

So anyway I told you that to tell you this: Christopher Nolan is the anti- Micheal Bay. I'm not saying Nolan's movies are super-sophistimicated, I'm saying they are smart and they get people talking after the movie is over. And Inception made a boatload of dough, so maybe there's hope for Hollywood yet.

I wouldn't bet any money on it though.

Dawn on Monday

IMG_0107, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I took this photo shortly after dawn on Monday morning. We received about 6 inches of snow, which isn't a record but it's definitely the largest snowfall we've seen since moving to Alabama. The last time I can recall a significant snow was New Year's Eve 2001 and that was at maximum 3 inches.

We had a home inspector come out and look at both our house and the one we are looking to buy. For our house everything looked ok except the roof shingles need replacing - apparently because of hail damage. Fun!

The other house looked pretty solid except some of the wiring was done by someone with a pocket knife and electrical tape, especially in the kitchen. I don't know who remodeled the kitchen but it wasn't someone who liked to cook. There is tons of counter space, which is wonderful, and the kitchen is open, which is terrific, but the stovetop is jammed up caddycorner to a column of cabinets plus the oven. I need to post a picture. That might not sound like a big deal, but the microwave is just below the stovetop and there's less than 11 inches of clearance between the stovetop and the bottom of the microwave(1). Seriously, how the hell can you cook on that thing?

Needless to say, the first thing we're doing to that house is moving or replacing the cooktop (ok second. Repairing the wiring and putting in proper junction boxes comes first).

We made an offer, the owner counter offered, and after a little bit more we settled on a price. Jon and I have been collecting all the paperwork for the mortgage which mysteriously requires a lot more paperwork than when we got a mortgage in 2003 and 1998.

Brenden has had 3 snow days in a row. At this rate his school will stay in session well after Memorial Day. That's annoying because we have vacation plans for around that time. Teach us to make plans.

Rest in Peace, Sir

Dick Winters November 1944, originally uploaded by carljay725.

So I am up and was surfing when I read a news article that Major Richard Winters has passed away. He died January 2nd after a long illness. Here's a wikipedia article on the man or you could rent Band of Brothers to get an idea of what an amazing soldier he was.

Wish I was here

Soper's Hole, Tortola, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So Jon has the dz sold, and apparently he misses all the stress, because he wants to buy a new house. It's about the same size as our old one, except it's on 5 acres, there's no pool (Yay! No - Boo! Crap, I don't know), and there's a huge storage building / garage, hopefully big enough to store all of Jon's stuff.

It's also a couple of miles from our old house and in the same school district so Brenden won't have to switch schools.

I just got my VA guaranteed loan certificate of eligibility renewed (and I must say it was effortless and took just a day and boy is that a humongous improvement in the system!) and we're making an offer. Yeesh! Stay tuned...!

And in other news the weather people are predicting more white stuff for Alabama Sunday night through Monday. Since I'm not planning to go any where I doubt it will happen.

2010: Not so eventful but not too bad

IMG_1145, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

January: Not a damn thing. Brenden made a joke.
February: Not a damn thing. I do remember it was so freaking cold we had a fire in the fireplace almost every day.
March: Not a damn thing. Katheryn Bigelow won Best Director, I guess that's something.
April: Brenden plays Tee ball. He enjoyed it and so did we.
May: St. John! The highlight of the year, especially since the family we went with "got" St. John and loved it.
June: Brenden's 5th birthday, culminating in a trip to the Tennessee aquarium.
July: I saw one and only one movie in the theater this year but it was a great one: Toy Story III.
August: Brenden started Kindergarten.
September: Impromptu trip to Gatlinburg. Fun! The traffic still sucks though.
October: Brenden played soccer. He likes Tee ball better though.
November: Not a damn thing. Fringe got good - that's about it.
December: SNOW ON CHRISTMAS IN ALABAMA! Naturally we were elsewhere.

The one thing I really liked about 2010: I made no trips to the hospital. Yay! Also: we sold the drop zone. Double yay!

So what are my new year's resolutions? Same old - lose some weight, exercise more, finish paying off the HELOC.

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Festivus Pole, originally uploaded by freshfiction.

Yeah I know I stink.

So North Alabama gets a white Christmas and we're out of town. That figures. We were in Tampa, and I was in a tee-shirt for Christmas Day so there's that. We spent Christmas at my dad's house. I got to see both (brother) Jonathan and Andrew, which was a great bonus. I'm sorry that I get to see them so rarely. We met Jon's new girlfriend Niko, who stole Brenden's heart because she was totally game with playing with paper airplanes and pretend guns with him. Brenden wants her to know that she's invited to our house any time to play Wii.

We didn't do much except a trip to Busch Gardens which was fun. Brenden loved it, loved the train and the animals, the log ride, all the mega-jungle gyms they have all over the place. I'm definitely going to take him to 6 Flags over Georgia sometime next season for a weekend romp.

Brenden racked up the presents as usual for a kid: my brother Ed wins Best Present for Brenden again this year with a remote-controlled robot dinosaur that stomps around, roars, and bites things. Brenden loves it and the cats hate it.

I totally racked up the loot: my beloved iTouch was murdered by a heartless humidifier (I don't want to talk about it) so Jon gave me one of my presents a little early: an iPad! I love it. And I'm totally addicted to Angry Birds.

Dad and Ilu gave me several nice heavy-bottomed pots and a saute pan that I love - I threw out some of my cheapo scratched crap and I keep searching for different recipes so I can use them. The right tools/equipment for the job are always important. I also got a set of Japanese ceramic knives. I've wanted them ever since I saw one of those How It's Made episodes about them on the Discovery channel.

Jon also got me the entirety of Battlestar Galactica on Blu - Ray! Now all I need is some time....

Loading the Magic

Loading the Magic, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

The drop zone has been sold. Jon spent the last weekend there and worked as a pilot - he seemed to enjoy the fact that every problem was Not His Problem.

Now if we could just sell the King Airs.

Brenden is doing fine - I'm glad school's out for Christmas break. He seems to be getting bored with the whole school thing. The next 12 years are going to be fun.

For Brenden's spring break, we're doing another Disney cruise. I really enjoyed the one we did last year.

I really don't have much to write about, and I'm sorry for the dearth of updates.

I will say this about What I'm Watching: I finally got through all the episodes of The Walking Dead. It's pretty bleak, that's all I'm saying. I like the old guy the best. Hope he doesn't become dinner any time soon.

Also, I was talking with my brother and he agrees with me: Fringe has rapidly gone from a "hey it's on, might as well watch" show to the best thing on TV since X-Files / Buffy / Battlestar Galactica / Lost was cancelled. Really, the third season so far has been a wonderful payoff for sticking with the series. So naturally Fox has moved it to Friday Night, the slot where TV shows go to die. Thanks a pantload, Fox! By the way, when Fringe comes back at the end of January, the first episode is appropriately named "Firefly".

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Even the Elder Gods were adorable babies.

My "big news" is we are in the process of selling the drop zone. Jon has officially HAD ENOUGH. He also wants to spend more time with his son.

Next weekend should be our last weekend. All I can say is HOORAY!!!!!

Bored Much (not the movie, the blog)

HTTYD feature, originally uploaded by HP PC.

My how the time flies. The deep-fried turkey was a semi-success. I fried it too long so it was a little tough. I did manage to not set the house on fire so I can't complain.

I also made a stuffing that was predominantly vegetables and it was NUMMY. So there was that. Both Jon and Brenden seemed far more interested in the Moose Tracks Ice cream I bought than the Thanksgiving meal.

We watched a movie later, How to Train your Dragon and it was really good! What a nice surprise - I was expecting another crappy Dreamworks animation bore but I ended up enjoying it an awful lot. I wouldn't be surprised if it competed with Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Movie for the Oscars for this year.

Speaking of animation, I don't think I mentioned I finally saw The Princess and the Frog. It was OK, except Disney (not Pixar, mind you) tried to cram every single damn Disney animated princess movie trope into the story. Some day I'll make a list but that might take me a long time. Which I don't have right now.