The Plentiful Vintage

Didn't make it to down to Jersey yesterday for Thanksgiving. My cough was just too bad. That's twice now in three years I've been too sick to make the trip, and it's getting a little frustrating. And despite knowing it was likely I'd have to make my own Thanksgiving dinner, I didn't bother to go out Wednesday night to get a roaster of some sort and associated foods. So dinner was some frozen chicken thighs baked on top of cornbread stuffing. I made the cornbread from scratch, so that's something, but no cranberry sauce, and no sausage in the stuffing. It was fine. Maybe I'll do something better Sunday.

This is the weirdest cold. If I hadn't had a flu shot I'd swear it was the flu*. Not much nasal congestion or sore throat, but I'm still woozy here on the sixth day and it's totally rototilled my lungs. The fever and associated aches have mostly broken at least.

* I keep flashing back on an old Law and Order episode where a bunch of people died because some doctor decided to buy really cheap flu vaccine that turned out to be saline solution. It was one of Jack McCoy's famous "depraved indifference" cases.

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With nothing better to do, I've been rummaging through the DVD collection and watching movies, something I rarely do anymore. Comedies, mostly. So far, I have watched Hogfather, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, Chicken Run, What's Up Doc?, Lilo & Stitch, and Lilies of the Field, although I dozed off early on during the last. I've also been catching up on The Big Bang Theory, a show I never really got into before.

Heading to Jersey for the weekend to visit mom and family in general. Mom is doing well and spamming folks with her laptop. Have remembered to load spaghetti squash in the truck for delivery, which is better than the last couple of years when I didn't remember to do it until Easter.

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It's been rainy lately, so there have been few opportunities to ride. Played volleyball Thursday, and went out for dinner after. That's half the reason I started going again, to get out of the house to socialize. Now that I'm home all the time, I rarely speak to anybody, other than to myself.

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I watched the entire run of Young Justice over the last few days, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I have a tenuous connection to it in that Greg Weisman, the producer, is the brother of Jon Weisman, the owner of Dodger Thoughts, the baseball blog I most often hung out at. Jon wrote of few of the episodes for the show. Alas, Jon retired Dodger Thoughts a couple of weeks ago, but for 10 years it was the best Dodger blog out there.

Time to hit the road.

The Brazil trip is postponed until at least March whilst we try to figure out the visa sitch*, and also because the tickets will be way cheaper. The visa thing is weird. My visa is one set of fees because I have a Jersey drivers license, while the vp's is another because his license is from Maine. The rules are more complicated than those of some of the old SPI wargames.

* Thank you ellenbs. Nobody here thought of it, nor did our travel agent mention it.

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Got the first substantial snowfall of the season over the weekend, but it's already melting pretty quick. It's been too cold to ride since the first week of January, so shoveling the fluffy stuff was good replacement exercise.

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I've been watching The Finder, mostly because it's on, rather than for any investment. I wonder how long it'll stay on the air without making some major changes, like ditching the annoying juvenile delinquent who looks too much like Zoe Carter. It's a bad sign when they're already bringing in Bones crossover guests in the second episode. OTOH, I never watched Miami Vice back in the day, but the send up was funny**.

** Remember when Mario Van Peebles was the next big thing? And what's worse... he's only four years younger than I am.

But that wasn't the best meta reference in the show. The best was when Michael Clarke Duncan told the death row inmate "If you're lying to me, I'm going to bring you back from the dead and electrocute you again." That was terrific.

Sherlock is back. Hurrah!

I liked the episode a lot. ( Spoilers within... )

Heat Wave — "Richard Castle"

I just watched the "Nikki Heat" episode of Castle, which was a hoot, and even more so because I'd just finished reading Heat Wave. In the episode, The actress who's to play Nikki Heat in the film version of Heat Wave shows up to do some research into the role by following Beckett around. As Castle notes, it's all very meta. And often hilarious. I enjoyed the heck out of the episode.

I wasn't sure I was going to get through the book at first. The prose tends to the purple end of the spectrum. I saw someone write that it's written like a Dan Brown novel. My own thought was that they probably tries to emulate James Patterson or (the late) Stephen Cannell, who have both appeared on the show as Castle's poker buddies. I don't actually know, since I haven't read any of them.

Anyway, the prose eventually settles down to something a bit more tolerable, and the mystery is a good one. There're lots of meta references to snicker at. Nikki Heat keeps wanting to hear the balding, poker playing Judge Simpson say "D'oh. In the series, the poker playing judge is played by Dan Castellaneta. There's also way more nakedness than on the show. There are worse ways to spend a few hours.

Loving Leverage so far this season, but why did they have to move it to Sunday nights. I usually don't even turn my TV on on Sundays anymore. Thank goodness for the intertubes.

( Anyhow... )

Okay, so I haven't been watching Dollhouse because I dislike the premise. That aside, Eliza Dushku's new Dollhouse themed Hulu commercial?

Whoa! </Keanu>

Okay, having Kari Matchett play Nathan Ford's ex-wife on tonight's Leverage was a stroke of genius.

OTOH, showing mountains in the background of a series that is supposed to be set in Chicago, not so much.

Have watched the first half of The Colour of Magic. ( Casting spoiler... )

Spent the holiday at brother #2's house, which was fun. Ate way too many Christmas cookies and discovered Yeungling Black and Tan. Better yet, he loaned me his hammer drill, so now I can put up some shelf brackets on the concrete walls down in the basement. We also talked about doing the Five Boroughs bike ride in May.

Got lots o'loot, with the emphasis on DVD sets. Got the complete Monty Python's Flying Circus set, the first two seasons of Newsradio, the only season of Crusade, and Buffy season 5, plus a couple of other things that were also on my Amazon wishlist, so I have plenty to watch while I'm home between now and the New Year. Already started in on Newsradio, which still makes me laugh like a loon. I also watched the first several episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati (downloaded from the web) on Christmas Day, so there's been a bit of compare and contrast going on in my mind about the two shows.

Compounded the loot factor by stopping at an outlet mall on the drive home yesterday and buying myself some presents. Picked up three sweaters, a pair of pants, some kitchen stuff, and a B&D Workmate portable workbench. The Workmate was regularly $30, on sale for $15, with another 20% taken off at the register. $12! I also picked up a new wristwatch, a Timex, for $20. I was going to look at somewhat pricier watches because my current watch appears to be on it's last legs. It was one of two Sierra Club watches bought for half price at Lechmere's going out of business sale ten years ago. They weren't super expensive (I paid $75 for each) but they were the most expensive watches I'd ever bought myself, and they didn't even last all that long. The other stopped keeping good time two or three years ago, and the buttons that control the digital chronograph functions on my current watch don't work anymore. I paid the watch hospital $70 about a couple years ago to rehab it, but it didn't help much. Plus the seals are now shot. Last time I washed my hands while wearing it, some of the water got inside. Not good. So rather than spend another $70 to try and rehab it yet again, I figure the Timex will last me almost as long for $20, and when it dies I can just chuck it with no qualms.