A Fundamental Truth

I blame other people for not posting on their blogs more than I accept responsibility for not posting on my blog.

Thoughts on tonight's episode of Monk

I love Monk. I've loved Monk for a good long while now. It's a great, fresh, funny show.

Not that I haven't had my fair share of criticisms for Monk. I mean, lately, I've found it pretty easy to pick out the murderer, the method and the motive early on ('cause come on, who didn't know this was going to be about the diamond the first time Julie popped up to mention it?), but I do still enjoy watching the process.

So tonight, after weeks and weeks of withdrawal, we get the Christmas episode of Monk! I love USA. I love that Monk comes on with new episodes when I'm stuck with reruns for all my other shows. (For the record, I love Psych, too. Way to go, USA!)

Monk tends to make me feel awkward during episodes. I mean, seriously, why couldn't Monk have legitimately won that basketball trophy? He deserved a damn trophy! Oh, and when Monk got to play with Willie Nelson, but he couldn't play the instrument 'cause someone else had used it? So not fair! But I digress. These are thoughts on tonight's episode.

1. I love Larry Miller. LOVE him. And I love that Larry Miller is reguesting on this episode. But, seriously? Even when you are innocent, you don't want Larry Miller as your lawyer. BAD idea. And Captain Stottlemeyer, I am surprised at you, calling Larry Miller to be Monk's lawyer when you really must've known how incompetent he must be.

2. Leland Stottlemeyer, I am surprised at you again for even appearing to doubt Monk's side of the story! How many times have you doubted Monk, have you thought that he was having some sort of episode, only to be shown, in the end, that Monk was right? It always reminds me of that episode of Simon and Simon (and dear Lord, I LOVE Simon and Simon, why does no one rerun that show anymore?) where Jamison Parker (I mean AJ) was on vacation and saw a murder and no one believed him. I mean, even Rick thought that he imagined it. Jessica has had that happen to her a few times too, and even Doogie Howser had it happen to him on an episode of Murder, She Wrote! Um, anyway, my point is, whatever Monk says, is kosher with me.

3. The interview was live? Really? I find that VERY hard to believe.

5. Okay, so the old woman gets attacked by a thug, knocks him down with her canvas bag (I am always prepared to do that) and sprays the shit out of him with her pepper spray. And then Santa comes up and she's all "oh, thank goodness, he has a knife!" like she's suddenly a big victim? I'd be all "back the fuck away, Santa! I'm on a roll!"

6. San Francisco is so fickle. How many times has Monk saved YOUR ass, SF?!?!

7. Just on a side note, 'cause I was actually thinking about this in the shower today, but I like Natalie more than Sharona. I liked Sharona a lot, and when she left, I was really dreading what was going to happen. And at first look, Natalie parallels Sharona a lot, single mom, one kid, etc. But maybe they really wanted a single mom as his assistant. And Natalie's awesome. And Julie is totally more awesome than Benji was (sorry Benji.) But yeah, I find myself liking Natalie more than Sharona.

8. Ooo, Monk just figured it out! (I totally caught the one walkie talkie thing when Disher first mentioned it, too.) I LOVE it when Monk figures it out! Even if I have already figured it out. Not that I'm bragging, it's just that I've watched a lot of Murder, She Wrote in my day. A LOT. I know the signs.)

9. "I'm feeling something."
"It's joy, you're feeling some joy!"
"I don't like it."

Aww, but at the end of the day, Monk makes me smile.

Ooo, and not only do I now get to watch the Christmas episode of Psych, but I get the promise of new episodes of Monk in January!!

Merrrrrrrry Christmas!

I will buy a Jeep

Yesterday, my friend Tom showed me this Jeep commercial on Youtube.



I am what Beth calls "an advertisers dream" because I believe in rewarding good advertisement. After all, that's what their job is, and I believe rewarding a job well done. Of course, I've always wanted a Jeep anyway, so it's no stretch for me to say that if I could, I'd buy a Jeep right now. And since I don't have the means to buy a Jeep right now, it's kind of a moot point anyway. But it's a darn cute commercial! Good job, Jeep advertising people!

News of the Day

Say It Ain't So!
According to the CDC, there's been a salmonella outbreak caused by Banquet POT PIES. I'm fairly certain that this is one of the signs of the apocalypse. Some of you may be aware of my love for pot pies, chicken in particular. Come on, the food even has it's own theme song.


Jimmy Pardo has a great stand up routine about pot pies, in which he confirms that "chicken" is the correct answer. He might love pot pies as much as I do. Go listen to it now. Make sure you wait a minute for the page to load. Go on, I'll wait.

Brilliant, wasn't it?! God Bless that Jimmy Pardo.

Luckily I've always been a Swanson girl. In fact, I've got one in my freezer right now!

Justice Wins Again
An Indiana court awarded worker's comp to a stripper who injured herself pole dancing. That's just awesome. I mean, logically looking at it, it's nothing spectacular. A woman injuring herself at work in the course of duty should get worker's comp. But it involves a stripper, which makes it just plain awesome.

Manna from heaven

I usually reserve the term "manna from heaven" for cheese related items, but something new passed between my lips today. Something sweet, something crunchy, something chocolatey... Normally I'm not such a big fan of chocolate, either. I mean, it's alright, and I've even been known to crave it once in a while (particularly during That Time,) but I've been known to pass on chocolate on many an occasion. But The Powers That Know What I Like have taken my favorite That Time chocolate crave - the Nestle Crunch bar, and added WAFERS (and I DO love wafers!) and creme, and now we have...

The Nestle Crunch Crisp Bar!

I am telling you, people, if you like chocolate or Nestle crunch or wafers, then this is the bar for you! In fact, even if you're just so-so on chocolate, this is still the bar for you! The really great thing that Nestle has done here is make the chocolate coating on the bar not too thick. I don't like thick chocolate coating. But the coating is nice and thin on the sides and bottom, and a little thicker on top, but that's only because of the puffed rice for the crunch bar part! And then a few thin layers of wafer with a few thin layers of creme sandwiched in between. I mean, it's perfect. Which probably means it will be discontinued soon.

I should totally get paid for this. Nestle, feel free to send me some Crunch Crisp bars as compensation.

Wine Review: Rojo Mojo Shiraz

I had a glass of the Rojo Mojo Shiraz at Riddle's the other week, and was pleasantly surprised at how light it was. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see it for $8 at my neighborhood Schnucks. I highly recommend this wine as an "everyday red." It's particularly nice during these days where it might be a bit cooler, but it's not full fall weather yet, so if you want red wine, you need a summer red. It's a beautiful crimson color, and the nose is not overwhelming. The official tasting notes say the nose is "intensely stewed cherry and blackberry fruit characters followed by tobacco, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves." The fruit is definitely there, and I get a hint of the tobacco, but I don't particularly like peppery reds, and I didn't sense any here. The palate notes say "A full bodied expansive wine providing a big fruit blast with firm yet friendly tannins," but I feel that's over blowing it a bit. I feel it's more medium bodied, for a red, and it doesn't "blast" fruit as much as infuses your mouth with a flow of dark fruit. Blackberry, cherry, and I want to say the slightest hint of pomegranate, and I do again get a hint of tobacco, but it's not spicy. It's got a soft finish, with just the memory of the first taste lingering on your tongue, whispering sweet nothings to your taste buds. The tannins are definitely friendly, and it's very slightly dry. I definitely agree with the "pleasant and satisfying finish" in the notes. A quick Google search will reveal that it scores highly and is repeatedly recommended as a "refrigerator wine" and a bargain buy.

Rojo Mojo is grown in the Villarobledo region in La Mancha in Spain by a fourth generation family winery and was harvested the week before my birthday in 2005. Grape yield was 30% smaller than the previous year, leading to a higher quality wine for this vintage. It's 100% shiraz and aged 100% in stainless steel.

I recommend pairing it with cheese.

Cheers!

One of the many reasons I love Murder, She Wrote

Uncle Jesse from the Dukes of Hazzard is playing Megan Mullally's (Karen from Will & Grace) grandfather.

I swan, I could watch this show all day.

Oh, wait, I do. :-)

And speaking of Sean and Emma

How fantastic is it when Emma hugs Sean at the courthouse before his hearing and he sighs "mmm...vanilla" right after Petertheassholepunk had complained about her vanilla shampoo. Emma is such a dolt for not believing Sean right away, but I forgive her because I do so love Sean and Emma together. Even through all of her mistakes, I still love Sean and Emma.

And Marco. Ooo, I love Marco.

To Everything, There is a Season

So, I'll be 30 in less than 36 hours. I've always made light of the idea of having an existential crisis because of a birthday, but I suddenly find myself in that state. The only difference between today and two days from now is that, on some questionnaires, I'll be checking a different age bracket box. But suddenly I find myself thinking of all the goals that I have, over the years, set to "do before I turn 30." Sure, some of them I've reached, I did finally sing "Living On a Prayer" at karaoke. But I feel like I've wasted my time and that I should be in a different place than I am now. I should be more settled, more stable, more sure of things. It's as if, by turning one significant day older, suddenly all these opportunities have past that I will never have another chance at seizing and I should be acting like a real adult. It's ridiculous, of course. I can apply for grad school just as easily at 30 as I could have at 29. Being in debt for one more year isn't the end of the world, especially considering some of the unexpected expenses that came up this past year, and I am chipping away at it. Staying up late and sleeping in late is acceptable behavior when one is in theatre. And I have new goals, long and short term, that I'm happy with. But, damn, turning 30 sucks. And thinking it through logically really doesn't help my emotional upheaval.

Though part of the problem is that sometimes I still feel and act like I'm much younger. I mean, I am sitting here watching reruns of Degrassi: The Next Generation, crying over JT's death and giddy that Sean and Emma are together, for this episode, at least.

If only people would stop saying "oh, you have a BIG birthday coming up!"

Fallen Heroes

So, there I am, watching Good Eats (I do love the Good Eats) and Alton is doing lobster. And he straight up says that a 3 oz serving of lobster has the same amount of, or less, cholesterol than a 3 oz serving of chicken breast, which normally I would file away under "now isn't that interesting," but this particular tidbit of information at that particular time triggered a "now wait a minute" in my brain. Didn't Brian get called out by Chef Tom for using lobster when he was supposed to be making a low cholesterol dish on Top Chef? No, I must be remembering it wrong because it can't be possible that Daddy Tom and Alton Brown were saying two different things. But sure enough, I watched the repeat of Family Favorites and everyone, including Chef Tom, berated Brian for choosing such a high cholesterol protein. I googled it immediately, not because I don't believe every single word that comes out of Alton's mouth (because I do,) but because I wanted to see what websites had to say. And of course Alton was right, but this meant that Daddy Tom was...wrong. I love Chef Tom. Adore him. His low voice, his incredulous looks at the poor choices the chefs make, his propensity to call anything "the worst dish in Top Chef history." How can you not love that man? And, well, he's a chef. Shouldn't they have a general idea of the cholesterol content of lobster? It was just...devastating. It would be like finding out that Shel Silverstein plagiarized The Giving Tree or that Ralphie really did say "fudge." But I suppose that we're all human. And I suppose that I should cut Daddy Tom a little slack. I suppose that I'll have to stop saying "you were wrong about the lobster! How could you be wrong about the lobster? Why, Daddy Tom, why?" at the t.v. whenever he appears. I suppose I should accept the fact that every once in a while, one of my heroes might slip on their pedestals.

But, to be clear, that doesn't apply to Alton. He's never wrong.

Addendum to post:
Praise be to Ted Allen for realizing their mistake and, of course, blogging on it.

Delilah After Dark

My friend Molly loves Delilah, and I have to admit that I do, too. It's not one of those things one would normally admit in mixed company, but when I found myself in the car tonight thinking "ooo, Delilah's on!" I decided that it was time for me to come clean about it. When I've had a long day, and things have been loud and busy, and I'm driving home at night, sometimes it's nice to listen to something a little mellow. Something about the dark night with scattered stars of headlights and street lamps just calls for the dulcet tones of Delilah sometimes. Often, the music is too sappy, and not anything to which I would normally listen, but damn if Delilah doesn't make you say "yeah, this is all right."

I had such a day and such a night last week, and stumbled upon Delilah while flipping stations futilely looking for something that didn't make me restless. A lady called in and, as they are wont to do, shared a long story with Delilah about her husband and how they met. But what made this particular story memorable is that her husband proposed to her in a graveyard. I think that's pretty awesome, and wouldn't mind that scenario myself, but wouldn't think there are too many average women who would agree. Delilah was a bit taken aback herself, in her mellow, loving way. The lady's husband-to-be told her that he wanted their marriage to start there because that's where he wanted it to end. And though my knee jerk reaction is to make a joke and say something like "and then, after 10 years of marriage, he poisoned her tea," it also makes me pause and think "gosh, that's sweet." And then it made me tear up a little bit, because that's the way I roll.

It's just nice to be reminded sometimes, as we all struggle through this world with and without relationships, that there are success stories out there. And that they call into syndicated radio shows.

And that proposing in a graveyard is an awesome idea.

I like to create blogs

I like to create blogs.

I started one a few years ago on live journal, but I lost interest pretty quickly. Only about 3 people read it, and I didn't tell anyone else about it because I spent too much time whining. Whining and quizzes; that's basically what it was all about. And it was very plain.

My blog on myspace last a good bit longer. But myspace is a pain to log onto; it's always very slow for me. The last time I tried to blog on it, myspace wouldn't recognize any of my 'i's. Every time I typed an 'i', it gave me 3 periods instead. Blogs are not much fun when the end result looks l...ke th...s.

I started a blog dedicated to my pirate puppet, Black Bart. I intended to take him various places and take photos of him and post them, and review or share any pirate related potpourri - movies, festivals, holidays etc. But I kept forgetting to take him on trips. And let's face it, a pirate blog is very limiting.

I like commenting on blogs. I like commenting on wahooty's blog. I like commenting on her blog so much that my comments on her blog became more of a my blog than my other blogs.

So here we go! Fifth time's the charm, right?