Happy Mother's Day Ma!

That's my Mom and me on January 2nd of 1974, seventy six days before I was born (if I did the math right). I was born in plenty of time for Mother's Day that year, giving her the benefit of 43 such celebrations since the picture was taken. She deserved them all. Happy Mother's Day Mom - I wouldn't trade you for the world!

My Esteemed Dance Career

This weekend is the annual dance recital for the kids. In their honor, here's a Throwback Thursday - er, Friday - post of my own dance pics circa 1978.

Mix and Match of This and That

Just for posterity: I passed my driver’s license exam at 11:50a.m on 05/07/93 at test site “MSWI” (Loomis Road) with a total of 9 points off.

AND

 on 12:57 PM on May 28, 2006 I purchased an XM Satellite Radio from Best Buy.

AND

on February 28^th, 1980 S. Pat Meir, SSSF presented me with the “Sweet Smell of Success” (inc a grape smelly sticker) certificate announcing that I knew “all his ABC’s visually!” J

(on June 6^th of that year she’d give me a similar certificate for general “good work in kindergarten”

 Not that the super-lame stuff is out of the way, let us proceed with the merely-lame. 

 Yesterday – or was it the day before? – we Redboxed “Snow White and the Huntsman”. Lisa and I both enjoyed the movie, and I for one thought the films were striking. However, it was mighty long and mighty dark, and one wonders what riches or enjoyment the Queen could take from an empire literally reduced to mud and ashes. Plus, while she is attractive enough, we both found it hard to believe Kristen Stewart was the ‘fairest one of all’, especially in a kingdom where Clarize Theron resides. Grade: B

Several weeks into the new fall season, I think our consensus is that Animal Practice, while amusing, is far from LOL and fails to live up to its potential. I don’t see it sticking around long-term without significant shifts in direction.

Matthew Perry’s new sitcom, “Go On”, on the other hand, is a keeper. It needs to develop and fine tune some things, and it remains to be seen how long the rather limited ‘group therapy’ angle can work, but it is a) well written b) well acted by all involved and c) actually, if only occasionally, LOL funny.

My reading has been severely curtailed recently, although I’m at a loss to explain why. My Nook e-reader deleted my library two months ago, and while I restored it from a backup the loss of my ‘shelves’ and whatnot were a crushing blow. Combine that with a switch of shifts at work and an uptick in my writing time and I find my desire to read is next to nil. I have to kick it back into gear to crack the long-desired century mark.

I did however; finish reading the Stephen King/Stewart O’Nan tale “A Face in the Crowd”. It’s a short story, so it doesn’t qualify for my reading list, but I thought it entertaining and admired the quick way it introduced you to the characters and got you into the action, something I’ve noticed seems to have been fined tuned by the late great Rod Serling. I rate the story an ‘A’.

I’m inordinately pleased to see, on a used book I purchased on Ebay, a sales sticker reading “Zayre”. There was a Zayre store on S. 27^th when I was growing up. It occupied the former site of Treasure Island, aka the current location of Pic ‘n Save and as I recall there was a dry cleaning shop inside Zayre just as you were exiting the store. Anyway, my Mom worked at both Treasure Island and Zayre’s, and the sight of this sticker made me happy. Of note: the book , “West to Cambodia” by S.L. A. Marshall, retailed for $3.50, but it was on sale at Zayre for $2.80.

[I believe I read the book sometime in the early ’90’s, but may read it again]

Some songs that are among my faves lately (and that haven’t been mentioned before), I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz, As Long as You Love Me by Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift’s We are Never Getting Back Together and Fun.’s latest release, Some Nights.

This and That

Just for posterity: I passed my driver’s license exam at 11:50a.m on 05/07/93 at test site “MSWI” (Loomis Road) with a total of 9 points deducted off.

Tuesday I made stuffed green peppers for dinner, the first time I've ever prepared it myself. They turned out very well - I seriously, objectively think they were some of the tastiest I've ever had. The kids (minus Ginger) liked 'em too, and Smiley praised my cooking. Yay me.

Yesterday, while the peppers were cooking, I finished the last of the episodes of Psych available for streaming through Netflix (seasons 1-5). I adore the show. I think the characters are well developed and interact flawlessly, the mysteries are fun and interesting, and I find myself LOL at a lot of the lines. It’s become such a favorite in the house that I caught the kids sneaking episodes of it on their Netflix enabled TV when they should have been sleeping! Grade: A++++++

I’ve also just finished Season 1 of Monk on Netflix. I’ve seen a few scattered episodes from later years and this season lacks the humor and ease of those examples, but that’s to be expected as a series feels its way out of the gate. It hasn’t caught on in the house – Lisa commented that she believes it both glorifies and diminishes those with mental illness – but I like it. Grade: B

Tonight I finished reading “Running out of Time”, a young adult novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix that Grace polished off a few weeks ago. It’s the story of a young girl raised in a village in the 1830’s that discovers it is actually 1996 and her family is part of an elaborate historical preserves. When diphtheria hits the village she alone must flee to the outside world to bring help. Remind you of The Village? Me too, but this predates the movie and makes a lot more sense. I liked it – Haddix has a knack for spinning a good yarn. Grade: B

Book# 78 of 2012

Do I like my new job? Hmm. Let me answer the only way an adult with four kids and a mortgage SHOULD answer: It doesn't matter. As long as the paychecks keep trickling in, and so long as there is nothing better knocking down my door, then the answer is "I am happy to have a job, ANY job, in this so-called improving economy". 

Moi