Thursday, January 26, 2012

It's new to me

So here are some things that I've discovered/tried/liked lately.
  1. This whackadoodle gift shop at my local mall. I've walked past it many times but never gone inside until today. OMG. If you're ever in Austin and need someplace to buy a fake skull that holds restaurant-style salt and pepper shakers in its eye sockets, a life-sized semi-pornographic fairy sculpture for your garden, a neon pink katana, a crapload of cell phone charms and some Pocky, I can hook you up. One-stop shopping!
  2. Elk. You know, the animal? Or more accurately, the meat from the animal? I am always looking for non-CAFO animal protein to which none of my family members are allergic (P is allergic to poultry, C is allergic to beef, my body can't metabolize non-heme iron and we are all sick of pork). My local health food store had ground elk so I made meatballs out of it and we all loved it. It's very lean and tastes a lot like beef, only richer. Not gamey at all. Will DEFINITELY buy again.
  3. Starbucks. Oh, I know. But see, I've managed to completely avoid Starbucks all these years. First I didn't like coffee, then I DID like coffee but couldn't handle caffeine, and I was intimidated by all the roasts and shots and pumps and whips and whatnot. However, while we were traveling over the holidays P taught me the code words to say for the drink I like and now, a couple of months later, I've got a grande decaf soy latte monkey on my back. (And he brought his friend, the cranberry-orange scone monkey.) I feel so unclean. But I cannot deny, that freaking coffee is DELICIOUS. (And so are the scones. God help me.)
  4. Sherlock, the contemporary version of the classic with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson. My local PBS station shows this on Sunday nights right after Downton Abbey, which means Sunday nights are suddenly the most awesome nights of all time. I don't usually like "updated" classics but this one, I love. Cumberbatch is pitch perfect and I have adored Martin Freeman since The Office.
  5. "Resistance" by Muse. This really could not be further from my "usual thing", musically speaking, but I heard it while sitting on an overstuffed ottoman waiting for daughter H to finish trying on clothes at Kohl's and I fell in love with it. I don't even know myself anymore, you guys. (Do I like Muse now? Am I ALLOWED to like Muse? Are they too young for me? OMG, THEY PROBABLY PLAY THIS SONG AT STARBUCKS.)
In other news:
  1. I have a new laptop, because I keep killing laptops. I hope not to kill this one anytime soon. My old favorite photo editing software doesn't run on the new laptop because apparently the company that made it was bought by another company in 2004, which tells you how old my copy of this software is, and anyway I can't edit photos now so I'm not posting any until I get new software and have learned it. And since learning curves are my anathemata ... it might be a while. Is what I'm saying.
  2. Son C fell in the shower yesterday and while he did not get hurt (apart from some bruising), WHICH IS THE IMPORTANT THING, he did somehow manage to destroy, like, an entire wall in the upstairs bathroom, and all the tile on it, and all the plumbing behind it. We picked an excellent time to replace our floors, eh?
  3. Speaking of the floors, the dog is still completely freaked out by them and I am so over it. We have done everything but smear the floors with cheese and cat poop to convince him they are awesome and totally not going to kill him, but he is not having it. I think we might have to lobotomize him. Or I might have to move to another house and take the floors with me. Or start drinking more.
Yep. That's about all that's going on around here.

13 comments:

  1. When I saw the title of your post, I was sure it was going to be about Jane Eyre.

    I tasted caribou once. It was so delicious I almost fainted.

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  2. Muse is amazing, the Exogenesis Symphony, life changing. When you are feeling really adventurous, try out some of their older stuff, it's all good.

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  3. You need some doggy robeez for his little paws.
    I just gave up my Starbucks addition and apparently handed it to you. You're welcome.
    I have loved Dr. Watson since Love Actually. I also love the new Sherlock, but apparently Angie does not. Go figure. Val probably doesn't like it, either.
    Did you see Touch last night. I am avoiding going out of the house as I fear everyone will now ask me if Youngest can predict the future. With numbers. Thanks, Hollywood.

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    1. I don't watch TV shows about kids on the spectrum. I just can't. Something about them always pisses me off and then P has to listen to a protracted rant about Everything They Did Wrong and it's just not healthy for any of us. (I'm looking at you, PARENTHOOD.)

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  4. Um hello, how much do I love that I can reply to individual comments now? You all are going to get SO sick of me.

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  5. Love your updates :-)

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  6. You live in Austin?! I'm green over here.

    Ahh ... Sherlock. I can't WAIT for the next season! (We get it through Netflix since we don't get any tv.)

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  7. Downton Abbey and now Sherlock are the only 2 shows I watch on tv. The boys know that I disappear promptly at 7:55 on Sundays, and am not to be trifled with thereafter. I go in and smooch them when they are angelic, ie asleep after 10.

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  8. That must have been some fall! How'd he take out the wall, etc?

    Would love to hear your views on Parenthood.

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    1. He landed on the spigot and bent the pipe to which it was connected, which was behind the wall. So the spigot ripped out of the wall, the little button you pull up to make the shower work is bent at a 45-degree angle, tiles have cracked and/or popped off, we have no idea how far back the pipe is bent but they'll probably have to rip out a good bit of the wall to find out, and a ceramic towel rack is broken. Oy. The kid weighs all of 130 lbs., we have no idea how he managed to do this much damage. It's amazing he wasn't badly hurt.

      Re: Parenthood, I only watched the pilot. And I only watched that up to the point where the little boy was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (which is what C has) and his dad flipped out and acted like the kid had died or something. C's diagnosis was an absolute blessing -- it did not at all change the boy we knew and loved and the person he was and had been all his life, it just told us what to expect, how his brain worked and how to help him. It was a godsend. I cannot relate to FICTIONALIZED accounts of people having the exact opposite reaction to my real-life experience, and there is no law saying I have to watch it, so I don't. Also, I sort of hate Peter Krause.

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    2. Elk, caribou ... interesting.
      Nasty fall ... sorry
      Broken tiles/pipe/shower ... SORRY
      Downton Abbey ... YAY!!!
      No Starbucks over here
      I watch a lot of TV shows, TiVo them or online

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  9. Looooove Sherlock--I think I recommended it to you back in June or so last year when you were talking about TV you were watching (Breaking Bad). Love both leads. Watching Downton Abbey's new season, and...it just seems so soap opera-y (not that I'm still not watching it! :-)

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