I believe a short re-cap is in order.
Because of the snowy weather, the daughter’s jeep got left in London for Christmas while the daughter and her fiancé came here for the holidays. When they got back to London for the final stages of moving down here permanently, it was discovered that the jeep was broken into. Again.
The insurance company grumbled and whined and had the jeep towed to the designated body shop to have it fixed. Because they had to send to Texas or Nevada or some such state for a part, the jeep was not ready to make the move with everything else. It has been ready to go for a couple of weeks now, but unfortunately, it cannot drive itself down here.
We planned on going to London last weekend, but although it was clear here, it was snowing there. The daughter is not comfortable driving in snowy conditions (having been involved in a bad accident in snowy weather) so there was no point in driving up if we weren’t all going to be driving back.
Yesterday the husband and I were supposed to go up, but although the weather network swore there was only supposed to be light flurries all day, it snowed steadily from the time we got up. I checked the road conditions and the whole way to London was “partially covered” to “slippery sections”. Sorry, that drive is bad enough under good conditions.
And of course, once the decision was made to stay home, the sun came out. Fortunately it was only teasing us and we returned to our regularly scheduled snow storm. But still, I was not amused!
On the plus side, we still got to enjoy my bean and sausage soup for supper. Originally I was going to have it simmering in the crock pot while we were gone, but once I started putting it together I had to switch to my big stock pot. Then it kind of kept expanding. It turned into one big pot of soup!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
LOST Again
No, I’m not going to do a Lost update every Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I promise. But I found this on You-tube and couldn’t resist sharing.
I gotta tell you though, it was another awesome installment of Lost last night. More questions answered than asked for a change. Although now that I think of it, there was no Jack or any of the other Oceanic Six. It pretty much focused on the Island and Desmond. Can’t wait until next week!
Even if you don’t watch Lost, this clip is worth watching. It’s a drawing done of one of the main characters, done at high speed. Amazing what you can do with a good graphics program. I would love to know how long it took in real time.
I’d like to finish this post by saying that I’ve had enough snow, it can stop and be spring now.
Seriously.
I gotta tell you though, it was another awesome installment of Lost last night. More questions answered than asked for a change. Although now that I think of it, there was no Jack or any of the other Oceanic Six. It pretty much focused on the Island and Desmond. Can’t wait until next week!
Even if you don’t watch Lost, this clip is worth watching. It’s a drawing done of one of the main characters, done at high speed. Amazing what you can do with a good graphics program. I would love to know how long it took in real time.
I’d like to finish this post by saying that I’ve had enough snow, it can stop and be spring now.
Seriously.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Movies & Books
Last night I watched the second part of a two part movie called the Last Templar. It was based on a book that spent 22 months on the New York Times bestseller list and I’d really like to find a copy of it to see how it differed from the movie. Though I enjoyed the movie (I’ve always liked historic/religious stuff) I really didn’t like the female main character. She seemed a little ego-centric and worked at cross-purposes with the FBI.
I checked the Last Templar on Wikipedia and the summary it gives for the novel is much different than the movie. For one thing, the female lead isn’t such a jerk. Makes me wonder if the little romantic story-line between the female lead and the FBI agent was actually in the book.
It really irritates me when film-makers take liberties with the books the movies are supposed to be based on. I don’t understand the need to do this. If the book isn’t exciting enough as it stands, why consider it for film in the first place?
I think the first time I came across this was the movie version of Mysterious Island. This was (and still is) my favorite Jules Verne book. Imagine my delight when I caught the movie version on the late show one night. A delight that lasted maybe ten minutes into the movie. I kept watching, hoping it would get better, but it didn’t.
There was an interesting thread about this on Absolute Write, the question being: How would you react if the movie of your book was much different than your book? The general consensus was, “Curse under my breath all the way to the bank”.
Sounds good to me.
I checked the Last Templar on Wikipedia and the summary it gives for the novel is much different than the movie. For one thing, the female lead isn’t such a jerk. Makes me wonder if the little romantic story-line between the female lead and the FBI agent was actually in the book.
It really irritates me when film-makers take liberties with the books the movies are supposed to be based on. I don’t understand the need to do this. If the book isn’t exciting enough as it stands, why consider it for film in the first place?
I think the first time I came across this was the movie version of Mysterious Island. This was (and still is) my favorite Jules Verne book. Imagine my delight when I caught the movie version on the late show one night. A delight that lasted maybe ten minutes into the movie. I kept watching, hoping it would get better, but it didn’t.
There was an interesting thread about this on Absolute Write, the question being: How would you react if the movie of your book was much different than your book? The general consensus was, “Curse under my breath all the way to the bank”.
Sounds good to me.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Stupid Weather
The daughter made an interesting observation when I was driving her to work today. Changes in the weather make people stupid. When the weather turns cold, people drive stupid. When the weather turns warm they walk stupid.
Was it only Monday that we got all that snow out there? And Tuesday that was so bright and cold? Yesterday was milder than it’s been, but still sub zero temperatures. Today, however, there was a definite bite of spring in the air. Hence, the stupid people out in droves.
There was an abnormal number of jay walkers out today. What is wrong with these people? They don’t bother to look to see if anyone’s coming before darting out across the road, a lot of them aren’t even using the sidewalks they just walk on the road - where-ever they like.
Later on, when I was taking the daughter’s fiancé to the bank, the narrow, one-way street we needed to go down was blocked by some dumb-as woman who was going the wrong way. Giving us a dirty look, she finally pulled over (still facing the wrong way) so we could pass, along with the three cars behind us. And this wasn’t even one of the two one-way streets that have their polarity reversed when there’s a celebration going on downtown that requires the blocking off of the main street (yes, I live in a small town).
But it’s no wonder people are going crazy because of the weather. Monday we had 10 inches of snow in a steady fall. Tuesday was bright and sunny, but very cold. Today was +2. Tomorrow is supposed to be -17 again. And just to round things out, next week we’re supposed to get snowed on again.
And while we’re on the subject of stupid, what’s with the fluctuating gas prices? They’d been in a steady decline until they reached around 65 cents per litre and suddenly, last night, the price jumped 13 cents! I’ve been keeping my eye on the gas prices around town all day and they’ve come down a few more cents, but it’s still high enough to make me think twice about filling my tank. Which is kind of ironic, because it wasn’t that long ago that gas was up over a dollar a litre and I would have jumped at the chance to fill up at these prices.
I guess that’s just the way the world spins.
Was it only Monday that we got all that snow out there? And Tuesday that was so bright and cold? Yesterday was milder than it’s been, but still sub zero temperatures. Today, however, there was a definite bite of spring in the air. Hence, the stupid people out in droves.
There was an abnormal number of jay walkers out today. What is wrong with these people? They don’t bother to look to see if anyone’s coming before darting out across the road, a lot of them aren’t even using the sidewalks they just walk on the road - where-ever they like.
Later on, when I was taking the daughter’s fiancé to the bank, the narrow, one-way street we needed to go down was blocked by some dumb-as woman who was going the wrong way. Giving us a dirty look, she finally pulled over (still facing the wrong way) so we could pass, along with the three cars behind us. And this wasn’t even one of the two one-way streets that have their polarity reversed when there’s a celebration going on downtown that requires the blocking off of the main street (yes, I live in a small town).
But it’s no wonder people are going crazy because of the weather. Monday we had 10 inches of snow in a steady fall. Tuesday was bright and sunny, but very cold. Today was +2. Tomorrow is supposed to be -17 again. And just to round things out, next week we’re supposed to get snowed on again.
And while we’re on the subject of stupid, what’s with the fluctuating gas prices? They’d been in a steady decline until they reached around 65 cents per litre and suddenly, last night, the price jumped 13 cents! I’ve been keeping my eye on the gas prices around town all day and they’ve come down a few more cents, but it’s still high enough to make me think twice about filling my tank. Which is kind of ironic, because it wasn’t that long ago that gas was up over a dollar a litre and I would have jumped at the chance to fill up at these prices.
I guess that’s just the way the world spins.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
LOST
Any Lost fans out there?
.
.
.
.
.
Anyone?
.
.
.
.
.
.
*cue sound of crickets chirping*
What’s wrong with you people? Lost is a great show. Sure, it requires patience - a lot of patience sometimes when the television powers that be fart around with the sequence of the episodes like they did in season two (where they showed a new episode, then a couple of repeats, new episode, repeat, and so on)- but that doesn’t lessen the inherent greatness of it.
I was in Lost heaven last night. Space has been running the series at 7 p.m. weeknights and timed it so that the last episode of season four showed last night. Then, before the season premier (on a different channel) there was a one-hour re-cap show that explained the people and pertinent plot points. Then I got two solid hours of brand new Lost.
Yippee skippy! It was so worth the wait! A lot of questions were answered, and, of course, a few were created, the most important being how are the Oceanic Six going to get back to the island now that it’s disappeared. I’d also like to know what’s going to happen once they do return. The journey shouldn’t take more than a season and there’s two seasons before the show reaches its resolution.
To be honest, I’m just glad there’s finally something on television that justifies the monthly cable bill. I have Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Fringe. And the daughter is doing her best to get me addicted to NCIS. So far I’ve been resisting.
So far . . .
.
.
.
.
.
Anyone?
.
.
.
.
.
.
*cue sound of crickets chirping*
What’s wrong with you people? Lost is a great show. Sure, it requires patience - a lot of patience sometimes when the television powers that be fart around with the sequence of the episodes like they did in season two (where they showed a new episode, then a couple of repeats, new episode, repeat, and so on)- but that doesn’t lessen the inherent greatness of it.
I was in Lost heaven last night. Space has been running the series at 7 p.m. weeknights and timed it so that the last episode of season four showed last night. Then, before the season premier (on a different channel) there was a one-hour re-cap show that explained the people and pertinent plot points. Then I got two solid hours of brand new Lost.
Yippee skippy! It was so worth the wait! A lot of questions were answered, and, of course, a few were created, the most important being how are the Oceanic Six going to get back to the island now that it’s disappeared. I’d also like to know what’s going to happen once they do return. The journey shouldn’t take more than a season and there’s two seasons before the show reaches its resolution.
To be honest, I’m just glad there’s finally something on television that justifies the monthly cable bill. I have Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Fringe. And the daughter is doing her best to get me addicted to NCIS. So far I’ve been resisting.
So far . . .
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
S’no Way!
I have to admit, yesterday was very pretty. Amazing what a 24 hour, steady snowfall will do for a dreary winter landscape, especially when the sun shines on it.
Sunday it was supposed to be cloudy, but clear and we had wind driven snow off and on all day. Monday was supposed to be light flurries and we accumulated a good eight inches in a slow, steady fall. Today, and the rest of the week, we’re supposed to get light flurries. It will be interesting to see just how much more snow we accumulate over the next few days.
It makes me feel nostalgic. I remember when I was a kid (you know, a couple of years ago) and we used to get crap loads of snow every winter. People today talk about how bad winters are, but really, they have either no idea or no memory.
Speaking of nostalgia, I was driving the daughter home from work yesterday and heard a song on the radio that brought back lots of memories.
Sunday it was supposed to be cloudy, but clear and we had wind driven snow off and on all day. Monday was supposed to be light flurries and we accumulated a good eight inches in a slow, steady fall. Today, and the rest of the week, we’re supposed to get light flurries. It will be interesting to see just how much more snow we accumulate over the next few days.
It makes me feel nostalgic. I remember when I was a kid (you know, a couple of years ago) and we used to get crap loads of snow every winter. People today talk about how bad winters are, but really, they have either no idea or no memory.
Speaking of nostalgia, I was driving the daughter home from work yesterday and heard a song on the radio that brought back lots of memories.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Weekender
It’s been a sad week in entertainment.
First we have the death of Ricardo Montalban, best remembered for his role as Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island, and his most important role of all, Kahn.
And second, Johnny Dep announced his intention to get married. Jeez, Johnny, just because she had your children doesn’t mean you have to marry her.
In other entertainment news . . . did everyone catch the new Battlestar Galactica? It kind of reminded me of an episode of Lost - it raised more questions than it answered. Like, WTF was going through Dee’s mind? And who really is the fifth cylon? It’s not as cut and dried as it first appeared. Even though I was not a fan of the show when it first came out (I was a big fan of the original series) I’m looking forward to the remaining 9 episodes.
Then I was up late trying to dull the pain in my back enough so I could go to bed and I caught X-Men Last Stand (I think it was called). Was it really necessary to kill off Professor Xavier in that manner? And of the X-men that suvived, half of them are powerless now. If they didn't want to make any more movies, why didn't they just stop making them? Although there is going to be a Wolverine movie . . .
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Something new for me, I have a recipe to share.
Sundays I like to serve up a proper dinner and I get tired of having either a roast or ham. When I was at the doctor’s office on Friday I was leafing through a Chatelaine magazine and came across this recipe. It’s as easy as it sounds and it turned out really great, even though I had to make a couple of substitutions (like honey mustard for the Dijon mustard, and a loin roast cut length-wise in two for the two tenderloins). If you want the original recipe, go HERE . The one below is how I made it.
Easy Pork Wellington
450g pkg frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
8 slices prosciutto
2 pork tenderloins
2 tsp honey mustard
salt and black pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Have an ungreased baking sheet ready.
2. Unroll sheets of pastry, spread with mustard.
3. Vertically lay 4 slices of prosciutto in centre of pastry, overlapping slightly. Place 1 tenderloin horizontally across prosciutto, tucking in skinny end of pork so meat is of even thickness.
4. Fold bottom part of pastry and prosciutto over pork. Fold in pastry edges. Then roll pastry around pork to form a log. Pinch edges to completely seal. Place log, seam side down, on baking sheet.
5. Bake in centre of preheated oven until pastry is a deep golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Turn sheet halfway through baking time. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.
First we have the death of Ricardo Montalban, best remembered for his role as Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island, and his most important role of all, Kahn.
And second, Johnny Dep announced his intention to get married. Jeez, Johnny, just because she had your children doesn’t mean you have to marry her.
In other entertainment news . . . did everyone catch the new Battlestar Galactica? It kind of reminded me of an episode of Lost - it raised more questions than it answered. Like, WTF was going through Dee’s mind? And who really is the fifth cylon? It’s not as cut and dried as it first appeared. Even though I was not a fan of the show when it first came out (I was a big fan of the original series) I’m looking forward to the remaining 9 episodes.
Then I was up late trying to dull the pain in my back enough so I could go to bed and I caught X-Men Last Stand (I think it was called). Was it really necessary to kill off Professor Xavier in that manner? And of the X-men that suvived, half of them are powerless now. If they didn't want to make any more movies, why didn't they just stop making them? Although there is going to be a Wolverine movie . . .
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Something new for me, I have a recipe to share.
Sundays I like to serve up a proper dinner and I get tired of having either a roast or ham. When I was at the doctor’s office on Friday I was leafing through a Chatelaine magazine and came across this recipe. It’s as easy as it sounds and it turned out really great, even though I had to make a couple of substitutions (like honey mustard for the Dijon mustard, and a loin roast cut length-wise in two for the two tenderloins). If you want the original recipe, go HERE . The one below is how I made it.
Easy Pork Wellington
450g pkg frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
8 slices prosciutto
2 pork tenderloins
2 tsp honey mustard
salt and black pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Have an ungreased baking sheet ready.
2. Unroll sheets of pastry, spread with mustard.
3. Vertically lay 4 slices of prosciutto in centre of pastry, overlapping slightly. Place 1 tenderloin horizontally across prosciutto, tucking in skinny end of pork so meat is of even thickness.
4. Fold bottom part of pastry and prosciutto over pork. Fold in pastry edges. Then roll pastry around pork to form a log. Pinch edges to completely seal. Place log, seam side down, on baking sheet.
5. Bake in centre of preheated oven until pastry is a deep golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Turn sheet halfway through baking time. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Ch-ch-ch-changes
The new year brought a rash of people changing the appearance of their blogs. What’s up with that? Some of them have been changed so drastically I have to keep reminding myself who they are and why I’ve got them book-marked. It’s a little disconcerting to click on a blog and be taken to what looks like a whole other site.
Someone else might be tempted to make this post all about how change is a part of life and we all need to change, blah blah blah blah blah. But not me. I’m more a fan of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I can understand wanting to reinvent yourself and change things, but I find it interesting that so many people waited for the new year to do this.
I’m a lurker extraordinaire. I have a whole list of blogs I read faithfully, but most of these bloggers don’t even know I exist. Why? Because, like most people, I don’t leave a comment.
Sometimes I just have nothing to say, sometimes I just don’t feel comfortable making a comment. Most of the time, I'm feeling either too shy or I read the other comments for the post and feel like I’m intruding, that these people are all good friends and I’m just butting in. Truth of the matter is, these people probably only know each other through their shared interest in that particular blog.
I wonder how many people out there read this blog and don’t leave a comment? Don’t be shy, I don’t bite. Honest! :-)
For my change this year I’d like to start commenting more on blogs I really enjoy but for one reason or another haven’t been commenting on.
Just because I can, I’m going to finish with David Bowie singing Changes. Not only is the song appropriate, but the singer is as well. Bowie was famous for reinventing himself. Just witness the difference between the first version, in his Ziggy Stardust days, and the second, a more mature Bowie.
The man is like a fine wine, he just keeps getting better with age.
Someone else might be tempted to make this post all about how change is a part of life and we all need to change, blah blah blah blah blah. But not me. I’m more a fan of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I can understand wanting to reinvent yourself and change things, but I find it interesting that so many people waited for the new year to do this.
I’m a lurker extraordinaire. I have a whole list of blogs I read faithfully, but most of these bloggers don’t even know I exist. Why? Because, like most people, I don’t leave a comment.
Sometimes I just have nothing to say, sometimes I just don’t feel comfortable making a comment. Most of the time, I'm feeling either too shy or I read the other comments for the post and feel like I’m intruding, that these people are all good friends and I’m just butting in. Truth of the matter is, these people probably only know each other through their shared interest in that particular blog.
I wonder how many people out there read this blog and don’t leave a comment? Don’t be shy, I don’t bite. Honest! :-)
For my change this year I’d like to start commenting more on blogs I really enjoy but for one reason or another haven’t been commenting on.
Just because I can, I’m going to finish with David Bowie singing Changes. Not only is the song appropriate, but the singer is as well. Bowie was famous for reinventing himself. Just witness the difference between the first version, in his Ziggy Stardust days, and the second, a more mature Bowie.
The man is like a fine wine, he just keeps getting better with age.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Bless Me
Bless me blog-o-sphere for I have sinned. It has been many days since my last blog entry. It’s reached the point where I’m getting complaints *coughChippycough* about the lack of my pearls of wisdom.
To be honest, I have no pearls. No wisdom. I’ve been sick most of the time and we’ve all been adjusting to the new living arrangements (two extra humans, two extra cats). I think everyone is pretty much settled in, except for Oliver, the youngest cat. The other cats are pretty much “the cat who walked by himself” but Oliver is very friendly (read, he’s in your face with ADD) so he gets a room of his own. Actually, it’s not a bad deal, he gets pretty much the only clutter free room in the whole house.
I fought the good fight with a bad cold (bronchitis maybe?) over Christmas and New Year’s, only to get the flu instead. In time for my birthday no less. My BFF and I had big plans to go to the ROM in Toronto for the day (she has the good taste to share my birthday) only the night before I started getting sick.
Yes, I’m still bitter about it.
Since the year so far is sucking as much as last year did, I’ve decided to become Chinese. Therefore, my new year will start on January 26th. Hopefully the Year of the Ox will be kinder than the Year of the Rat was.
Okay, to celebrate me being back, I found a song for you. And not just any song, my favorite song. So don’t just skip over it, listen to it!
To be honest, I have no pearls. No wisdom. I’ve been sick most of the time and we’ve all been adjusting to the new living arrangements (two extra humans, two extra cats). I think everyone is pretty much settled in, except for Oliver, the youngest cat. The other cats are pretty much “the cat who walked by himself” but Oliver is very friendly (read, he’s in your face with ADD) so he gets a room of his own. Actually, it’s not a bad deal, he gets pretty much the only clutter free room in the whole house.
I fought the good fight with a bad cold (bronchitis maybe?) over Christmas and New Year’s, only to get the flu instead. In time for my birthday no less. My BFF and I had big plans to go to the ROM in Toronto for the day (she has the good taste to share my birthday) only the night before I started getting sick.
Yes, I’m still bitter about it.
Since the year so far is sucking as much as last year did, I’ve decided to become Chinese. Therefore, my new year will start on January 26th. Hopefully the Year of the Ox will be kinder than the Year of the Rat was.
Okay, to celebrate me being back, I found a song for you. And not just any song, my favorite song. So don’t just skip over it, listen to it!
Friday, January 2, 2009
First Post of the New Year
Don’t ask me why, but this feels like Monday, not Friday.
You notice there are no New Year’s Resolutions any where on this blog. That’s because I don’t believe in making them. At least, not for myself. Why set myself up for a fall? 2008 was something of a craptacular year, I’m not sorry to see it gone. Here’s to hoping 2009 will be better.
I’ve been pretty quiet on the net this last couple of weeks - between all the holidays, moving the daughter, her fiancé, and their two cats home, and the cold medication I’m on, I haven’t had the energy for much of anything.
I found something really cool this morning that I just have to share. It’s a time-lapse video highlighting the sky in motion. Not only does it show the sun, moon and stars, but it also features satellites and meteors, as well as clouds moving along the horizon.
túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.
You notice there are no New Year’s Resolutions any where on this blog. That’s because I don’t believe in making them. At least, not for myself. Why set myself up for a fall? 2008 was something of a craptacular year, I’m not sorry to see it gone. Here’s to hoping 2009 will be better.
I’ve been pretty quiet on the net this last couple of weeks - between all the holidays, moving the daughter, her fiancé, and their two cats home, and the cold medication I’m on, I haven’t had the energy for much of anything.
I found something really cool this morning that I just have to share. It’s a time-lapse video highlighting the sky in motion. Not only does it show the sun, moon and stars, but it also features satellites and meteors, as well as clouds moving along the horizon.
túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.
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