Hmphf

Yes, hmphf sums up my experience last week with my stay at home week. CSI:NY, while good to see again, was not as good as I had hoped--my IRA storyline would have been much better than a storyline about a couple of con artists that had no direct relationship with the team. Sadly, there were just a few too many rolling-of-the-eyes moments such as showing Mac swimming up through water after a car he was in was dumped in a river and then later panning out on said car showing it only partially submerged. Anyway, this week looks interesting: the band Maroon 5 and some of their fans are going to get infected with Small Pox.

Next up was The Office and frankly (don't kill me) I much prefer a 30 minute Office that leaves me wanting more to the 1 hour office that tries to stretch out a storyline to the point that I begin to get annoyed. I did love it, though, when the boss guy (I'm still new to this show) picked up the computer that Jim and Pam were using to video conference so that Pam could show him where the colored paper clips were.

Numbers wasn't on because of some debate thingy but it should premier this week--Jen I like this show because it is smartly written but not as gory as some of the other crime/investigative shows on tv and because Rob Morrow is cute.

This lack of complete satisfaction has driven me into the arms of a delightful little book so for that I can be a little grateful that stay at home week wasn't all that I hoped it would be. The book in question is another one of those Jane Austen knock offs. It is called An Assembly Such as This and is by Pamela Aiden. And while I am not entirely sure that I like it because it is good or because I have read far too many not so good knock offs, I am thoroughly enjoying it--or was until I discovered that it is book 1 in a trilogy. I fear I may never get my to-read list under control at this rate. Anyway, An Assembly is Mr. Darcy's point of view of Pride and Prejudice and so far I highly recommend it if you are looking for a bit of light fun.

I'm staying at home...

cause that is what you do on National Stay at Home Week (it's like National Turn Off the TV week only the opposite). My stay at home week officially starts tonight (I had thought about watching Biggest Loser last night to get some inspiration but I just can't/won't do 2 hours of "reality" tv) with the season premier of CSI:NY--which just for the record I'd like to say I do realize it is maybe not the best written show on tv but that's ok cause I'm watching it for the man candy anyway. Tonight (if you didn't catch the season finale) we get to find out if the CSI:NY team can save Mac (Gary Sinise)--of course the season commercial showing Mac in other episodes this year kind of gives away that the team does actually save him--again not watching it for the carefully crafted writing.

As to who has robbed the bank and kidnapped him I'm going on record saying that it is the IRA (or former IRA). You may be thinking that since living in Northern Ireland I may just be a little predisposed to suspecting the IRA of bad stuff and you would be correct. But beyond that I think it would make sense as part of the storyline. Here is my thinking: in a fairly recent episode Mac and his crew bankrupt the former IRA in New York so they need money. The bank robbery was supiciously like a recent IRA robbery in Belfast.

Okay, so maybe not the strongest reasons for suspecting the IRA and it probaby won't be the IRA since the season finale of Numbers (also a CBS show) involved gun-running former IRA men--it is highly unlikely that CBS is targeting the IRA as the new "it" terrorism group.

Anyway, regardless of how it turns out I'm glad my men are back on tv. The Office (yes, I've finally gotten on board after watching some episodes on TBS although now that I'm typing this I realize that I don't actually know when it airs so I must look that up) and Numbers. I'm also interested by the new show Kath and Kim--looks like it just might be really funny.

So there you have it. If you need me I can be reached at home...only don't call during CSI:NY, The Office, or Numbers or we will just have to stop being friends.

My Three Sons

I was watching an epidsode of the classic tv show My Three Sons a few weeks ago and saw the most remarkable episode. It was all about television watching. There were 3 stories running throughout the episode that break down something like this:

Sons 2 and 3 were grounded from the television for fighting over what to watch and spent the entire episode in a state of misery for not being able to watch tv.

Son 1 (in college) was involved with a project referred to as reality tv but quit toward the end of the episode because the so-called reality tv was anything but.

and the Father on a business trip became addicted to late night television talk shows but eventually saw the errors of his ways (staying up late makes you tired during the day) and stopped watching and instead wished for an Early Show.

So what I want to know is how did they know and why didn't we listen to them when we had the chance?

A New Favorite

It makes my lashes look so pretty.

To Kill a Mockingbird

My local library, as part of the Nation Endowment for the Arts The Big Read program, is handing out free copies of To Kill a Mockingbird in an effort to get the whole community to read this book together. As part of this effort the library is hosting a large number of fabulous events to get us excited and get us reading. I attended one such event last night--even the kick off event. Dr. Rex Ellis, a fabulous storyteller, historian, and scholar, was the keynote speaker at the event and while the entire program was wonderful one particular comment Dr. Ellis made really hit me hard and gave me something to think about the rest of the night. So now you get to read about and then think about it yourselves. He commented, and I am doing some major paraphrasing here, the he doesn't believe people when they say that they don't see color (we are talking about race relations here). We all see color but the key is not to put a value on the color we see. I think (and this is me thinking now not Dr. Ellis) that too often we spend so much time falling all over ourselves trying to claim that we are colorblind that we end up missing out on opportunities to make real progress toward better so-called race relations (obviously there is no such thing as race beyond the racist stereotypes that have been drilled into our tiny little minds hence the so-called in this sentence). But what Dr. Ellis is saying is that we are different and it is okay (even good) to notice that difference as long as we do not make value judgments based on those differences.


So go out and celebrate, enjoy, find beautiful and awe inspiring our differences and do it without making those value judgments that too many who have come before us and too many currently around us are making (or else I'll come and beat you up--and remember I lived in Northern Ireland for awhile so I know things like how to carry out a kneecapping). Love you all.

A Week's Worth of Thoughts

So I thought I get back in the blogging game with a brief wrap up of some of my recent thoughts and doings.

First, as one final nod to the Olympics (which are pretty much out of my system now) I wanted to mention an article I read recently in The New Yorker. To read the article in full click here. To read about the points I found interesting because he agreed with me read on. First, like me, he (Anthony Lane) suggested the elimination of handball as an Olympic sport for two basic reasons. First, because the goalies wear pajamas. The second reason must be brought to you in full quote because Lane is just too funny (and right): "handball is based upon the experience of a management trainee with a ball of paper and a trash basket on the other side of the cubicle." Lane goes on to agree with me that these games were a bit joyless which he suggests was the result of too many events (sport and otherwise) "packaged and policed to a fault" by China resulting in a lack of any sort of interesting presence. And now I am done with the Olympics.

Next, did anyone catch Saturday Night Live on August 30th? It was a repeat that originally aired November 3rd 2007 with TV news anchor Brian Williams as the host and may I just say the Brian Williams is pretty darn cute (for a near 50 year old) and funny--who knew?

Wish I could find a clip of the show because it was really funny.

I've read a couple of really good books in the last month that I thought I would mention. First is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So very good and really such a good plug for food storage. I highly recommend the book to everyone. Another book that I read and loved is Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier (Science Teacher Mommy I liked this one the best). I recommend this book to any woman who has ever harbored a fantasy about the bad boy with a heart of gold. The hero in this one has a shaved head, half of his body is covered in tattoos, and for a living he is a "gun" for hire and you will absolutely love him! The third book that I will recommend here is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It is a WWII story that is captivating both for its light-hearted humor and its terrible tragedy. Go read it.

I think I'll end here in case I run out of things to say later in the week. I am glad to be back and missed you all terribly. Now I'm off to catch up on all of your blogs.