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Casual Sundays with Mr Curry
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That which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.
Sounds good but it just might be the stupidest saying ever repeated.
If it were true, then eating spinach and surviving a heroin overdose would both make us stronger and while one does just that, the other causes massive brain damage.
The act of surviving does not equal strengthening.
Oh, it can, depending on circumstances, of course! Training, both physical and mental, can be unpleasant to the point of painful, yet the body and mind do become strengthened by it. It's the blanket statement that renders the above quote stupid.
Having visited hospitals and geriatric homes, I know that it takes a bit more than merely surviving to become strong. Physical hardships can make you mentally and spiritually stronger even as they sap your strength and leave your body useless.
Have you ever seen footage of concentration camp survivors? Having been brought to death's door, they should be the strongest folks on earth. I'm sure very few of them appreciated the experience. Others who survived similar ordeals became physically impaired while gaining not an ounce of wisdom. According to Nietzsche, the former POW should have beaten the pampered Choom gang punk to a pulp. didn't work out that way and now we're all 'getting stronger'.
Look at any ninety year old. Having survived nine decades of whatever life throws at you, they should all be Hercules and they aren't. They aren't strong. Most of them aren't particularly tough and few of them are wise.
Clearly, it takes more than simply surviving to gain strength.
I have a dear friend whose illness has left him utterly immobile; a gifted musician, he has allowed his disease to bring him closer to God and while his body wastes away, his mind and his soul are so powerful that he's dragging his friends closer to God too, whether they know it or not.
Not everyone so afflicted reaps that benefit.
For plenty of unfortunate souls, illness and infirmity simply make them bitter, angry and weak. The world is stuffed with fools, incapable of learning anything from experience. In fact, it's stuffed with fools who only learn the wrong thing.
"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."
Vince Lombardi; now there was a guy who knew his stuff.
Taking the obvious truth in Lombardi's statement and overlaying Nietzsche's glib squib, you get "That which doesn't kill us can be of philosophical benefit if we have the wisdom to make it so but that which is good for us makes us stronger."
Stupid is easy; wisdom is hard.
Surviving is easy; growing stronger is hard.
Physical strength is easy; spiritual strength is hard.
Practice is easy; perfect practice is hard.
But in the words of Jimmy Dugan "If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."
The problems in the world are not because it's too hard for so many people but from the sad fact that so few even try.
The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions and the escalator to Hell is packed with folks who just wanted the trip to be easy.
Just think of how easy it would be if you really could go to Heaven just by killing your enemies!
If that were true, then Heaven and Hell would be the same place and no matter what Stephen Hawking thinks, I'm sure that's not the case.
Now I'm out of time and I have to go paint Christmas ornaments. Making people happy, one ornament at a time. That's my calling. |
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I just finished watching The Wire.
The show ran on HBO for five seasons, from '02 to '08.
We had HBO at our house way back in the early '90s but got rid of it around the time the kids got old enough to turn the channels. I've depended on DVDs to see things like Sex and the City, The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm, all great shows that I liked enough to buy.
I've been aware of The Wire for years, having been told that if I liked The Shield (I loved The Shield), I'd like The Wire.
If I liked The Sopranos, I'd like The Wire.
If I liked Justified, I'd like the Wire.
Everyone who ever said that to me was right.
The Wire is better than all those shows put together and you can throw in Rescue Me and Dexter, too.
The writing, acting, character development and story arcs are deeper, rounder, more realistic and less glamorized than anything I've ever seen before, which made the show more heart breaking than any of those others.
It starts out very slowly. It's not like any other cop show, where cases get solved constantly and every episode features chases, gun play and lives hanging in the balance. Set in Baltimore, the first season is about one case; the cops are trying to bring down a drug kingpin. What makes the show so compelling is that in place of chase scenes and tense situations, it chooses to build slowly, layer upon layer, the story of all the characters involved, from the cops to the drug dealers, both bosses and soldiers, letting the situation evolve to the point where something has to break. The tension and suspense build over the course of the entire season and it ends like so much of real life ends; you may not get what you want but you get feels unmistakably true.
Each season of the show adds another layer of life in the inner city. Season one is cops and drug dealers and it's not easy to choose which organization is more corrupt. Season two looks at unions, season three gets into politics, season four deals with schools and season five adds the media to the mix. Everything is connected, everything builds on everything else and as one of the characters says to his former partner about a seemingly small misake he made a year earlier, "It mattered. Everything matters."
My favorite aspect of the show is that every single character, from the Mayor to the state senator to the drug lords and kids who act as lookouts is a three dimensional, fully fleshed out human being. Every one of them has flaws, weaknesses and virtues. Nobility and venality are found everywhere. Jay only saw about four episodes with me but he was sucked in to each one. He kept asking me "Good guy or bad guy?" and he didn't like my answers.
"Well, he's a good cop but a dreadful human being"
"He's a total bad ass killer but the only one on the show with an unshakeable moral code."
"He was an awful cop but a pretty good teacher."
There was really only one character I can think of who didn't seem to have any human decency in him at all. Everyone else behaved out of a sense of self preservation, rationalizing the righteousness of what ever they needed at a given moment in time. Rather like you and I do, every day.
One of the show's producers says in the bonus footage that 'the system is broken and no one knows how to fix it'. It seems to me that the 'system' is fine; it's people who are broken. We've always been broken. What The Wire really shows is not a broken system but what happens to a society that discards the only code of behavior that has every fixed people; Judeo-Christian religion.
The Wire shows a society in which corruption is everywhere, might makes right and betrayal is around every corner. Assassination is sudden, mundane and usually anti-climatic. There are no Tarantino-esque gobs of blood fountaining through the air; just a small pop and a body crumples to the pavement. Life in the city; ugly, brutish and short.
You mourn every one of them because you get to know them, you root for them to escape, to get out but very few of them do.
It's not all bad; there are a few who get out. I noticed in the last episode that a common thread runs through the lives of the survivors; family.
The heroin addict who gets clean is finally accepted back into his family, the corner boy who knows he doesn't have what it takes to make it in the game is adopted by a former police and the cop who's addiction to police work is as destructive as heroin gives it all up and returns to the woman and kids who make him feel human.
If there is a lesson in all of this, it's that nothing will get better until individuals take it upon themselves to be better. The streets can't do it, schools can't do it; the cops can't do it and the politicians are even less equipped to do it than anyone else.
Anyway.
Everyone was right; If you ever liked a cop show, a drama or any other character driven work, The Wire is as good as it gets. |
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For my legions of fans out there, waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on all things large and small so as to know what they should think about the issues of the day, I apologize for not posting much lately.
HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAhhaha...
Hi Dad!
Seriously, there's so much going on right now, about which I could write entire volumes, I've just been snapping into sensory overload and ignoring all of it. Like a kid in a candy shop who develops diabetes just standing there, I've run away to live my life instead of ranting and raving at the lunacy masquerading as modern life.
The attack on our consulate in Benghazi last September 11, which took the lives of four Americans, including our Libyan Ambassador, Chris Stevens, is finally getting some attention. Now that it's too late to rescue those men or (far more importantly,) to effect the re-election of our most incompetent Commander in Chief since Jimmy Carter, the press is getting curious about what really happened that night.
I recently watched Argo; at the end of the movie is a voice over by former president Carter in which he seems to take pride in the way history unfolded over the 444 days in which American citizens were held hostage by Iranian 'students'. I was old enough to pay attention when it happened and let me tell you; Carter has nothing to be proud of. He claims that no lives were lost. What about these guys, Mr. President??
Carter spent his years in office trying to dismantle the CIA that hatched and executed the plot that the movie Argo depicts.
It's thanks to Jimmy Carter that the CIA was the toothless entity that couldn't see 9/11 coming nearly three decades after he wreaked the havoc that eviscerated our intelligent services. And Mr. Carter doesn't bother to mention the occurrence that actually freed the American hostages; the election of Ronald Reagan, of whom no one doubted he would wreak a completely different kind of havoc on any nation that dared to treat Americans that way. If the press had covered the Iranian embassy invasion the way they treated the Libyan embassy attack, we wouldn't have heard about it until it had been going on for 450 days. The country wouldn't have been full of trees bedecked in yellow ribbons and no one would have ever heard of Ted Koppel.
But we would have had four more years of Jimma so Ted was a fair trade.
Lately the press also tried mightily to ignore the trial of 'Dr.' Kermit Gosnell who was only accused of eight counts of murder. You'd think serial killing would get some media attention but you'd be wrong. Gosnell killed babies and no one cares about babies around here anymore.
We call them 'fetuses' so we don't have to care. These were 'fetuses' that were lying on tables crying their little lungs out but 'fetuses' nonetheless. There's a frightening part of our society that considers those babies nothing more than acceptable collateral damage in their crusade for the right to have lots of sex with people they don't like. The biological fact that sex causes babies is just an inconvenient truth we've decided to ignore.
The IRS just apologized for targeting conservative organizations that disagree with the current administration.
Oh big deal; it's only about money. It's not like the IRS was denying anyone a liver transplant.
Yeah, that'll never happen. No one is that callous.
OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!
You can't make this stuff up.
The media is finally getting it's undies in a bunch over the fact that the DOJ apparently demanded phone records from the AP (associated press). Yes, they get upset when they're the ones in the crosshairs of power. They don't give a rats anus when it's you.
Do you think it's okay to make a mess and poison the air and water?
Of course not.
An old Indian saying was "We don't inherit the earth from our parents, we hold it in trust for our children."
That's a good saying and I believe it's true.
But don't we also owe future generations a culture and a society that's as sustainable as the environment? I think we do.
Is a culture that disregards the well being of children sustainable?
I don't see how it can be.
We call babies 'fetuses' and pretend there's a difference so we can deny them their personhood.
You don't have to be religious to recognize that abortion dehumanizes all of us. Anyone who thinks this is okay has lost their humanity.
We think so little of raising children that we dismiss women who dedicate their lives to it. All you stay at home moms know exactly what I'm talking about. How many times have you seen eyes glaze over when you told someone new what you do? As though the care and raising of human beings is somehow less worthy than the breeding of cats, horses or orchids. We think so little of child rearing that we've convinced ourselves it's no big deal if women do it all alone, even if they're still teenagers. Hey, if it takes a village to raise a child, what difference does it make who they live with?
We think Mother's Day is a good time to celebrate birth control.
Next earth day, I'm going to celebrate by burning down a forest.
Here in Minnesota, we've decided that marriage has nothing to do with the creation or raising of children. It's only about the love between the adults. We're going to ignore the fact that some couples can make people and some couples can't. Because that biological fact no longer interests us. Procreation is not important.
The only way two men or two women can be as "married" as a man and a woman is if babies no longer matter.
It's not religion but logic that tells me a society that doesn't have or care for children isn't going to last very long. |
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I hate it when people use language to obfuscate what they're saying. I don't mind big words; I love big words. I like lots of words that mean the same thing because when used properly, language can be musical, interesting, variable and fun. I endorse a large vocabulary!
But I still don't like the new fashion of using 'explicate' when 'explain' will do. And 'replicate' instead of 'repeat'. And 'indicate' when the speaker means 'said'. I can see using those words if one is trying to avoid the overuse of a single word in a paragraph, ie "I tried to explain the mechanism to her but was unable to explicate it's uses until I drew her a picture." Or "We repeated his experiment six times but were unable to replicate his findings". Word repetition is boring so knowing an alternative that means the same thing is helpful. But that's not what I'm noticing.
I'm hearing (and reading) folks using the same schmancy words over and over. As in "I indicated that we should meet at six and he indicated to me that seven thirty was better so I indicated that I would be there at seven thirty..."
Doesn't that make it sound like the entire conversation took place with hand signals?
The editor in me just thinks that if you're going to repeat the same word over and over, you should keep it simple.
But there is an oversimplification going on too.
It's gotten to the point where if someone says "Amazing" all I hear is "Bwaaaaaaaah!"
'Amazing' is the new awesome. It's over used to the point of becoming meaningless and it's annoying the heck out of me because 'amazing' is a perfectly good word with an actual definition that it's current users don't seem to understand.
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines 'amaze' as to be astounded or bewildered and 'amazing' as causing amazement; wonderful; astonishing, almost unbelievable. It lists as synonyms wonderful, astonishing, surprising and incredible.
I wish people would use some of those words once in a while. Last night on TV, a girl used the word 'Amazing' three times in twenty seconds. What she meant was wonderful, incredible and marvelous.
'Amazing' is not synonymous with 'good'.
The video footage of the tsunami hitting Japan is amazing. It's also horrifying.
So when the girl who just finished singing on the Voice says the experience was "Amazing!" we don't really know how it was, do we?
But at least we can imagine that singing on the Voice is an amazing experience. Far more annoying is the over use of the word everywhere else. Everyone describes people they like as "Amazing".
"I met the most amazing guy!"
Oh? Is he a magician or are you just impressed by anyone who can walk and chew gum at the same time? Or do you mean you're amazed that he noticed you? Your description of him tells me nothing.
"She's amazing!"
She's not. (this should be said in Ron Howard's voice.)
Lebron James is amazing on the basketball court but at dinner? I doubt it. It would be amazing if he showed up at my dinner table but I think I'd find a different way to describe him as a person.
But people can and do amaze. That little girl on the voice who had no other word with which to describe her experience amazed me with her remarkable singing voice and stage presence. She was marvelous!
I heard a designer say "We bought them this amazing dining room table..."
No, you didn't.
Unless the table can be folded up and stashed in your wallet or it makes and serves dinner itself, I'm not amazed.
It may be unique, beautiful and meticulously designed and put together but it's still just a table, which case I think 'amazing' is a stretch.
This bothers me because it contributes to the flattening of the language. If a table can be amazing, what word will you use when something truly marvelous, incredible and wonderful occurs? If the guy you met at the gym is amazing, how will you describe singing on the Voice? Any your overuse of the word robbed the girl who actually did sing on the voice of her ability to describe the experience. Although using the same word three times in twenty seconds makes anyone sound like a moron.
It's usually people under thirty. Come on, kids; don't you know any other words? WHY NOT?
Wonderful, beautiful, marvelous, incredible, astounding, awe inspiring, stupendous, mind boggling, super, great, grand and excellent are all praise worthy ways to describe things you really like. You don't need to use them all but please make yourselves free to use some of them once in awhile.
That would be awesome.
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Today was gorgeous! blue skies, sunshine, 70 degrees. It's only May 6th.
Last night I dreamt I was in the Veronica Mars movie. I'm not; I couldn't afford the speaking role. Then, suddenly it was the new Star Trek movie. That's not all that strange; I first became a fan of Kristen Bell watching her in Heroes. Where this happened. So you see, the V.Mars/Star Trek link makes perfect sense. In my head.
Plus, I'm very excited about both movies.
I loved Iron Man 3, as I said in my last post. Later this week, the Great Gatsby comes out. I've been looking forward to it ever since I first heard that Baz Lurman was doing his take on the American classic. Plus, Leonardo DiCaprio! What could possibly go wrong?
Then, next week, the second installment of J.J.Abrams Star Trek comes out. I loved the first one more than words can say; it was the perfect new take on the classic show; all the characters were themselves without being charicatures or impressions of the original cast. Lovely.
Later in the summer, I'm looking for ward to Will Smith's new movie, After Earth and Joss Wedon's take on Much Ado About Nothing.
I also just finished Vince Flynn's latest book, The Last Man. It was exactly what I hoped it would be. I'm now reading some old Michael Crichton, which I gave Josie for Christmas. She loved Jurassic Park, so I see no reason she wouldn't enjoy more of his stuff. I ordered a couple of books online yesterday. They came highly recommended.
I also ordered season 7 of Dexter. As soon as I have a few more bucks in the bank, I'll order season 4 of Justified. Love me some Raylan Givens!
Plus, I ordered two sizes of canvas last week so I'm extra broke. I hate it when I run out of two sizes at once, the stuff is soooo expensive. But without it, I can't make any money so there it is.
Now that it's May, hopefully the snowbird stitchers will all be back in town and ready to buy new canvases. Otherwise, I'm going to have to look for a real job for the first time in my life.
No one wants that to happen.
I just finished washing all the windows in the back of my house. Later, I have to run up to the hardware store to get nails and wall anchors. Also, if I don't get to the store, it'll be peanut butter for dinner again. My life is nonstop excitement, I tell ya. |
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Because even though it's May, it looks like New Years around here. It won't stop snowing. Winter and Spring are having an epic battle this year. Spring is ignoring Winter's obnoxious refusal to vacate the field and is blooming along like she always does but Winter won't go away. It's May 4 and it has been snowing darn near every day this week. I have daffodils in my backyard, the park is turning green and the lilacs are starting to bud...in the snow.
None of the snow is accumulating but still...the air is full of snow.
It's annoying.
Sort of like Life On Earth. I know how it's going to end and I know it's all good; Spring will win. But it's still terribly annoying to have to put up with all this snow.
Wednesday, I was up in my office working and Jay was downstairs, theoretically making me dinner. Turns out, he wasn't. My office is upstairs and the TV room is down, almost as far from my office as one can get and remain inside the house.
I heard him yelling from there "You wanna go out?"
I assumed he was yelling at the cat, who loves to be outside and now that there's grass and birds, is constantly scratching at the sliding doors to go out, only to balk when we open it because of the...snow.
He kept yelling "You wanna go out?"
I'm used to hearing his voice down there; most of the time when he's home, he's on the phone so I long ago got over the idea that just because I'm the only other person in the house, it doesn't mean he's talking to me.
Besides, who ever thinks that the person down stairs on the other side of the house is talking to them while they're upstairs at work?
He finally stuck his head around the bottom of the stairs and asked "You wanna go out?"
What an inefficient way to invite someone out.
We've been together for 33 years and he really thinks I can read his mind; that every thought and feeling he experiences, I'm experiencing too. It's sweet but I never know what's going on.
We went downtown to a place called Eli's which is close to his campus and several of our friends from academia were gathered for a drink.
It was fun; while Jay talked shop at his end of the table, I sat with the bunch who likes the same kind of tv and movies as I do. We discussed the pros and cons of Oblivion. Tom liked it but Mary felt the same way I did about it; boooorrrrrrinnnnng. And Tom Cruise was so bad he may as well have been Kevin Costner. We're all looking forward to Star Trek, which opens in two weeks.
Zack had Friday off so we went to the noon showing of Iron Man 3. We loved the first two but after last year's Avengers, I was afraid that it would be a let down. Avenger's was the most fun movie I've seen since Star Wars; it was practically perfect in every way. I didn't expect all that much from IM3, but it surprised me; it was really good, very funny and actually moved the story of Tony Stark forward. If you like scifi or comic books, you should enjoy it.
Last night we joined a large contingent of Pivecs to celebrate Molly's birthday. The whole crew wasn't there but there were still more than enough of us to have a great time. I found out that our nephew Andy will be performing at Toby Keith's bar next weekend in a battle of the bands type thing. I plan to gather folks from my side of the family to go on down to cheer him on.
There's another party tonight. We know how to defeat winter around here; keep having parties till it gives up and goes away. |
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It's snowing out.
I know it's irrational but my overwhelming impulse is to find a global warming alarmist and beat them to death. |
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No, not Sanibel. Haven't been back there in years, unfortunately.
I had to shake the dust of Oblivion out of my mind by watching a good science fiction movie so last night I checked my stash and pulled out The Island.
Like Oblivion, the twist in The Island is that the main characters are clones but don't know it. Unlike Oblivion, The Island is fun, suspenseful, has characters you care about and actually makes sense in it's own world. Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson find out their entire lives are a lie, everything they've been promised is a lie and in fact, they only exist so that the 'sponsor' of whom they are copies, can harvest their organs at such a time as needed. All this is uncovered in the first half of the movie. The second half involves escape, evasion and rescue.
It's a good story, well told, with lots of emotional and ethical ramifications.
Josie came home from work and watched the last half with me. She had seen it when it came out but all she remembered was she loved it.
"This is a great movie!" she said as it was winding down. "why is it so under rated?"
When the movie was over, we turned back to TV just in time to catch an ad. I don't know who bought the ad but the visual was an older woman strapped to a gurney, while a middle aged couple sat sadly in the hall, looking on. The first voice over was a young woman saying "I just can't take care of a baby right now..." which was quickly replaced by an older voice saying "We just can't take care of your mother right now." As these voices spoke, the old woman on the gurney was being 'tended' to by medical personnel. She was wide awake, watching them as they attached her to an I.V. drip. The last voice over was the old woman saying "I don't want to die." Then the needle went in her arm, the door shut so the couple in the hall wouldn't have to watch and the last voice over said "A culture that won't protect the life of it's youngest, most vulnerable members can't be counted on to protect the life of it's oldest, vulnerable members. Who's next?"
Clones, fetuses, non persons, useless eaters...once you decide that killing is just business, it really doesn't matter who you kill.
That's why the Island is a great movie and that's also why it's under rated. |
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Streaks wouldn't be streaks if they didn't come to an end, so I shouldn't be surprised. During the last week, we had two blizzards. The sun is too high in the sky for the snow to last so it's all gone, again. This is the third time this spring that the ground has been free of snow. Hopefully, it's the last as well. While it snowed and snowed and snowed, I watched season three of the Wire. Jay caught only two episodes but he was hooked. It's a very good show. Meanwhile, Zack got a handful of movies off redbox and we watched Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Flight and The Life of Pi, all of which were thoroughly enjoyable. I think my favorites were Life of Pi for being brave enough to stick to the book and visually beautiful (I'd love to go to India someday; outside of the squalid cities, it looks gorgeous) and Flight for being such a great character study of a very flawed man. And Denzel Washington is always great.
Tom Cruise is always great, too. I've said for years that even when the movie is no good, he's always good in it.
So when Zack asked if I wanted to go see Mr. C's latest, a sci/fi adventure, I said "How High?"
He stared at me in confusion.
"I meant yes." I explained.
So we went to see Oblivion, of which we'd been seeing previews for months.
Lets see; I almost fell asleep three times, there were several scenes that were so obvious I was able to speak the lines along with the characters, I saw the big twist coming from the moment the scene started and when the credits rolled, I burst out laughing and couldn't stop until tears rolled down my face. As I laughed, my son's review was simply "Oh my God."
Tom Cruise plays a space technician whose job is to maintain drones that protect and repair giant water sucking stations that will transport the earth's oceans to Titan, the largest moon of Jupiter, whence the human race has relocated due to a war with aliens which ruined the planet. Yes, our hero is a maintenance man.
Morgan Freeman is also in it, playing who he always plays; Morgan Freeman. I've come to the conclusion that the man can't act at all; he's had a wonderful career based on the fact that he can talk. Like Joe Biden said "He's clean and articulate!" If it's true, you're not a racist.
Without going into the details let's just say the movie stole from Star Wars, The Island, all the Mad Max movies, The Village, Star Wars some more, Independence Day and probably a slew of movies I've missed or forgotten...but none of the good stuff from any of them.
Poor old Tom plays every scene like it's the dramatic high point of the movie, uttering every single line like it's the money quote. Maybe it's the director's fault, maybe there was no room in the budget for Kaopectate. The effect of all this angst and drama was to have me struggling to stay awake twenty minutes in and we were at a matinee.
There were lots of details that made no sense as well but the overall badness of the movie was so overwhelming as to cast such nit pickings into the shade. Apparently the title, Oblivion, refers to the state one must enter to be impressed by this piece of crap.
Can't wait for Star Trek; Into Darkness to open!!
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Yesterday was my brother in law, Steve's, birthday.
I always remember Steve's birthday because it's the same as mine. He usually wakes me up with a birthday call because he's a morning person. I'm not. I am incapable of making a phone call before 9 a.m. Can't see the numbers, can't read the display, can't think.
So, for the 33rd year in a row, Steve beat me to the punch.
I don't remember a year where we got so much snow on Steve's birthday.
I remember plenty of years where the weather was so nice we could wear shorts and tank tops while toasting Steve but this is the only time I remember a full scale blizzard with a side of cake.
It snowed all day long; fat, wet, cold flakes. The heavy, soaking springtime blizzard usually reserved for State Tournament weekend showed up three weeks late this year.
Three weeks!
I told my sister this couldn't last long; the sun is too high in the sky. She answered "It's already lasted too long!"
I meant this particular snow fall, she meant this winter. She's right; this has been a loooooooong winter.
I mean, it's late April and we have a foot of snow on the ground!
My son, who lives in Texas, shot a 73 on Wednesday.
Why don't we live in Texas?
I did have a lovely birthday, blizzard or not.
The kids went off to work and school and Jay and I went out for lunch. We went to Wally's Roast Beef a few miles up the street. We'd never eaten there before but it was great! The food was delicious and reasonably priced and since there were very few people out and about in the middle of the storm, we had a nice long chat with the owner, who graduated from high school the same year as Jay.
I spent the afternoon painting a footstool. I didnt' finish it, I have to go get some blue paint. I did have some green in the right shade for the feet, so I got a little bit done. I could have walked up to the hardware store two blocks away but I didn't feel like it. I had the fire going and a cookie jar full of devil cookies and a pile of Veranda magazines to go through...why would I put my boots back on?
Oh, Jay made me sno-blow the driveway when we got home from lunch.
"It's easy!" he said "It' fun, you'll love it!"
It was easy. It was fun, too. I wouldn't go so far as to say I loved it but it was way better than shovelling, I'll tell you.
Then he had to go to work. I let Josie take the car to work, too. Zack got home, bringing me a huge bag of peanut M&Ms. We ordered pizza. When Jay got home, we ordered another pizza and watched Zero Dark Thirty.
Good movie!
All in all, I had a great time on Steve's birthday. |
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