ps to those thoughts

I love Designing Women. And it was nothing after Delta Burke left. NOTHING.

thoughts on a Monday night

My doctor has today confirmed that I am, indeed, allergic to the state of Iowa.

The song on Bones tonight, where the car is blowing up, I will always associate with Trainspotting. I love that movie. "It's such a perfect day..."

I was going to review Bohemian Highway Cabernet Sauvignon, but that was two bottles ago, and all I can say is that it's light and slightly fruity, but not too fruity. What kind of fruit, I cannot say. But it was good!

Now we're on Tapena Tempranillo (it's Spanish.) It's spicy, but not too bold. And also slightly sweet, but not too sweet. I get black cherries. And it goes down very smoothly. Yes, I might be a wee bit tipsy right now, but I highly recommend it. Thanks, Schnucks Wine Guy!

Gerard Butler is seriously attractive.


Seriously, look at that. He may pick shitty movies, but he is actually very talented. And very, very attractive. (But his talent does make him more attractive. Except for that one really, really shitty movie he was in. Yes, Shattered, I'm talking to you.)

Whole Foods should charge a tax on anyone who drives an SUV to the store. Doesn't that just seem wrong? Although it does make me totally feel hippier than thou in my tiny high mileage Fit.

Whole Foods carries St. Andre Triple Cream Brie cheaper than your regular grocery store. Worth the trip, seriously. Also, you can get Wensleydale with cranberries. I love cheese.

This flood in Iowa is seriously cramping my Netflix style. Mama needs her DVDs.

Omg, seriously, I believe that red grapefruit juice lowers your cholesterol. I'm too lazy to link to the real studies right now, but Google it, you will see. My cholesterol dropped 31 points and all I changed was I started eating oatmeal in the mornings and drinking grapefruit juice. And it didn't even raise my blood sugar. 100% grapefruit juice, by the way, no sugar added. And it was raisin, walnut and date oatmeal. Made with 1% milk. It's actually yummy.

Hey, Dave? Thanks for being a close friend even though I'm a really shitty friend sometimes. You are totally Shupershtore.

I am so glad I'm not in Iowa right now.

Stan Winston, we salute thee

Stan Winston, creator of the creatures from Alien, Predator, Terminator, Jurassic Park and Congo passed away yesterday. I admired the man greatly, and not just because he had a hand in The Star Wars Holiday Special, but also because he went to UVA. The first Virginia Film Festival that I took part in had Stan Winston as a guest, and I will never forget sitting up in the booth and watching him introduce a movie. He talked about how he used the scare the crap out of his kids when they were little, because he would test his creations on them.

Interesting Wikipedia fact - Stan Winston was the second special effects artist to receive a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. (Dennis Muren was the first. Shout out for the original Battlestar Galactica and Willow!)

And...What the heck?! Are you freaking kidding me?! Stan Winston sculpting the head of Davros of the Daleks from Doctor Who?! My first and all time favorite science fiction television show?! Are there even enough question marks and exclamation points in the world to express the awesomeness of this?!

So Stan, I raise my glass to you. Thanks for all the nightmares!

um, what, Netflix?

I love my Netflix. And usually, when I add one thing to my Netflix, I will spend the next many minutes following it from suggestion to suggestion and adding several other things to my Netflix. Sometimes, it suggests things that I've already seen and I go ahead and rate them accordingly. Sometimes, I log onto the Netflix just to rate things! I love the entire process. But it threw me for a loop tonight. Because I loved Amadeus, Fargo and Moonstruck, it thinks I will love To Kill a Mockingbird.

Um, how does that logic go?

Yes, I do love to Kill a Mockingbird. My all time favorite book and one of my favorite movies, yes. Stuck on a desert island? Give me Mockingbird! In fact, that book inspired by adolescent short stories, my desire to write, and my fascination with Southern Gothic anything. But to follow Fargo and Moonstruck there? I'm a bit confused. Moonstruck is a romantic comedy. Yeah, it has dark moments, why do you think I love it? But Mockingbird - there ain't no romantic comedy there. Amusing moments, yes, but Atticus and Miss Maudie don't bump into each other fighting over a taxi cab and follow it up with dinner, do they? And Fargo? Fargo is, well...it isn't related to Mockingbird in any sense. Boo Radley never chopped anyone up in the wood chipper, now, did he?

Here's the thing, though - their logic doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but they are right. I DO love me some To Kill a Mockingbird.

Oh, you!! (insert wagging my finger at Netflix in a bemused manner.)

Dave made my day

Technically, Dave made my day yesterday. Yesterday was a long, not so great day. And while I am not prone to watching you tube videos, even when sent to me by reliable sources, when Dave says "hammock up!" and sends you this, you go.



The first time I was introduced to the Bananaphone song, it was sung by little cartoon critters. Little skunks or gophers or something. Marmots, mayhaps. Anyhoo, Dave knows how much I love the bananas. They are natural antidepressants, they help relieve muscle soreness if you eat them before or after working out, they help prevent charlie horses, and they help lower your blood pressure. Plus they are yellow. And, let's face it, phallic. Anyhow, love bananas, love the song. And apparently avid you tubers have placed many a video to this song. There are at least two Harry Potter versions, one of which is awesome just because they have Dumbledore going "boop boop be doop."

But thank you, Dave. Not least of all because I am in the Middle-of-nowhere, Iowa and have no air conditioning at the moment. I needed that.

best google ever

Beth is clearly the Google queen of Blogger, but I've gotten my fair share of hits from the Google. (By the way, spell check on Blogger takes capitalized Google but not lower case Google. Clever spell check...) Most of my hits are from the Rojo Mojo wine review or my multiple Gordon Ramsey posts, and I've gotten a few random Monk hits, but that's pretty much it. Surprisingly enough, no chicken pot pie Googles, go figure. And I clearly don't post enough on cheese! But I digress. Thanks to Beth and the good folks at Stat Counter, I got my best Google hit ever today. "Marmots human killers." Now, as I said, marmots may have carried the Black Plague, but, awww, they're so chubby and cute! Anyway, my "marmots human killer" Googler, I hope you found what you were looking for. And feel free to use me as a citation on your term paper.

To Jude

Lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick and think of you...

I love that song. Time After Time. The summer before I was a freshman in high school, my family moved to a new city in a new state. And Strictly Ballroom came out in theatres, and my mother was kind enough to take me. From that first scene, with the ballroom dancing and the interviews, I thought, "I love this movie. And my mother is not enjoying this." My mother did end up enjoying the movie (just not the beginning,) and I of course ended up loving it. To the point that it is One of my Favorite Movies of All Time. And, of course, I love the scene where Time After Time plays, and Scott takes off Fran's glasses and Scott's dad dances. (the "all girls are more attractive after you take their glasses off" post is for another time.)

One of the first CDs I was given was the Strictly Ballroom CD, courtesy of my sister. Freshman year of college, my friend Pete would sing Time After Time to me. I loved Pete, as a dear, dear friend. And that song, however it was meant at the time, took on a new meaning for me, as he went off for his Mission the following year.

And then, then there was Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. And, in the dream ballet of every plain girl or gay boy in high school, there was the awesome dance sequence at the reunion to Time After Time. That movie means a lot to me. Mainly because some of my friends love it as much as I do, but also because, hello, I was Romy. Or Michelle.

Anyway, I love that song. That song means a lot to me. A lot of memories, a lot of happiness, of feelings of happiness. But also, that song is what my best friends mean to me. "If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me; time after time." It goes both ways. To my friends who are patient enough to last through the dry spells with me, I am always yours. "If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting; time after time." I've had friends catch me in my free fall too many times to not feel that lyric deep within. And I want to be the one who catches them.

And "the drum beats out of time" belongs with one of my posts about lyrics about rhyming and how deeply they resonate with me. But that's a post for another time...

But it's a rare while when an entire song hits me where I say "Yes. I identify with this." Time After Time, stereotypical and retro as it may be, is one.

Suitcases of memories...