Friday Randomness

(Lovely painting of our local mountain, Mt. Diablo, by Mary Lou Correia, found here)

The weather here in Sunny California has been, well, mostly Bright and Sunny, so I’ve been taking a lot of walks. Often I walk along the bike trail to the grocery store, pick up a few things, and walk home. It’s 3 or 4 miles round trip, I think. One thing I’ve noticed on the trail is little plastic bags full of dog poop. At least, I ASSUME that’s what they’re full of….I don’t open them and check. But they’re the little bags that are dispensed periodically along the trail, often next to a garbage can, encouraging people to clean up after their dogs. So my question is, why in the hell would you leave a bag of dog poop on the side of the trail? Who do you think is going to clean that up? Why are you such an inconsiderate pig? Grrr.

The Republican primaries are interesting, no? At this point we’ve had Gingrich win a few, Romney win a few, and Santorum win a few. It’s worse than the Obama/Clinton primaries in ’08. I wonder how long it will take for them to decide? And as a liberal Democrat, I felt like when we were choosing between Clinton and Obama, we had two pretty decent choices. They’re both pretty darned moderate, and neither as left leaning as I would prefer, but at least they seemed like they would know what they’re doing. I wonder how Republicans feel about their options this year? I heard a Republican comedian, PJ O’Rourke, say something akin to, ‘all of the good Varsity team were out sick when the draft was going on, so now we’re stuck with these bozos’. I don’t know if that’s a common feeling in the party, or if my Republican friends might feel like they could get behind and support whomever comes out the winner. And if so, is it just to beat Obama, or is it because you really like their policies? If it’s just to beat Obama, I can sympathize. Because while I genuinely liked Obama and Clinton in ’08, I think I would have voted for just about ANYONE before letting Bush have another term. (I do know that Bush wasn’t up for another term…I’m just saying that I hated having him as a President THAT MUCH).

Genevieve has a UTI, and the anti-biotics that the vet gave her made her so nauseous that she threw up and wouldn’t eat. So now guess who learned to give her a shot of anti-biotics? That’s right, I did! YAY me! It was actually kind of interesting and very easy.

Do you ever miss your college days, or wish you had gone? Did you know that you can download lectures on iTunes U? I didn’t, until Ted told me about a really great class he was listening to on The Civil War. If you’re at all so inclined, it’s under ‘Open Yale Courses’, and the class is titled ‘The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877’, taught by Professor David Blight. It’s fascinating, and the professor is made for audio. He doesn’t um and ah, and he has a great radio voice. I’ve learned a lot in the class, though surely not as much as if I were reading along with the student, and taking notes in class. But it’s well worth your time if you find yourself in the car looking for a good diversion, and maybe want to learn something. Ted downloaded it, so I’m not sure how you go about doing that part. He’s tried a few other classes that he didn’t think were worthwhile, but this one is a keeper.

Guess what I did the other night while my curried shrimp sauce was simmering on the stove? I organized my spices. I cleaned that stupid cupboard out, and threw away the things that I never use, like seasoned salt, allspice, pumpkin pie spice. Also, we had a ton of duplicates, so I looked at those and tried to figure them out. Keep both? Toss one? Combine? I know, it’s not amazing or anything, but it made me happy to think that I might actually be able to find something when I want it. My mother (who always had her spices alphabetized and would have been HORRIFIED at the state of my spice cupboard) would be proud.

Looking for something to watch on DVD, aka, Netflix? Ted and I got completely hooked on ‘Gavin & Stacey‘ a couple of years ago. LOVED it. So darned charming, so darned funny. But only Season 1 was available at the time, so I put Season 2 in our queue, and forgot about it. Then at some point our queue got empty, and so I cancelled the disc service, and forgot about poor G & S. Well, this last December, Maya decided she wanted to watch a DVD that they saw in her European History class, and the only place we could find it was Netflix. So we turned the disc feature back on, which encouraged me to look at our queue, which encouraged me bump G & S back to the top of the queue, and we got HOOKED again, and couldn’t stop ourselves. The thing about G & S is that while the ‘main characters’, Gavin and Stacey, are charming and sweet and young and lovely, their sidekicks, Smithy and Nessa (played by James Corden and Ruth Jones, who are the writers) are the real heart of the show. LOVE them. Also, Gavin’s parents are hilarious, and Stacey’s uncle is great. Really, you will love this show. You can watch season 1 on Netflix right away, and see how you feel. Seasons 2 and 3 are only on DVD. They’re honestly really worth paying for the DVD service for a month if you so desire. Netflix will let you do that. Just join and cancel whenever you want. See if you find yourself saying, “OH!” and “What’s occurrin’?”

Are you a George Clooney fan? He was on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday. You can hear the interview, here. He has some interesting points about aging on camera for all the world to see, and being famous. And if he wants to shake your hand and say hello? Put down your stupid cell phone camera and be in the moment. Good advice in a lot of circumstances, I think (though I love my camera).

This weekend is giving blood (blech) and picking up girl scout cookies (I like the yummy lemon ones this year) and borrowing snow clothes from Maya’s cousin for a trip to Tahoe over Presidents’ Day weekend. Also? Some exercise and walks and naps and who knows what else.