One of the many things that I love about Joe is the fact that he is an absolute expert on monster movies, especially the BEMs* of the 1950s. Shortly after we started dating, he introduced me to a cinematic gem called The Killer Shrews and I knew right then and there that he was the man for me. The Shrews is just a terrible movie -- true MST3K fodder. The giant shrews are clearly dogs... Read more →
Last night we went to the Betzwood Silent Film Festival, held on the campus of Montgomery County Community College. It was fabulous! You may remember from this post that we live on the site of the Betzwood Studios, which was owned by Siegmund Lubin. The studios produced dozens of silent movies in the early years of the 20th century. Each year the college hosts a silent film festival featuring some of the existing movies. Last... Read more →
A couple days ago I wrote down my to-do list for vacation, to wit: do some cookin' and bakin', go to some movies, give out some presents,d take naps, watch hockey, draw some Zentangles, and glom onto my family. I'm off to a good start, especially in the movie category. In three days of vacation, we've seen two movies. We love going to the AFI Silver Theater. This wonderful old movie palace is 75 years... Read more →
Been a while, hasn't it? Here are ten things that happened in the last couple of weeks. 1. Let's just get this out of way: work sucks. I'm maintaining, but I'm not doing anything that I remotely enjoy. The one project that I actually want to work on -- indeed, my strategic project! -- keeps getting pushed back. 2. But! Out of the blue the other day, I got an email from a former staffer.... Read more →
Things are better at work, which is good because I didn't get the job in St. Thomas. I decided to relax and not get so bent out of shape about shit I have no control over, for one thing. I'm still getting irritated, but hey, none of this is worth getting my bowels in an uproar (as my Pop used to say). I'm trying to breathe and move instead of getting wound up and stuck.... Read more →
I had a bonus day off today! And a good thing too, because I slept not so great last night. Joe was watching Jurassic Park around nine-ish, so I went upstairs to watch Four Weddings. (I know. Shut up.) I saw maybe 15 minutes of the thing, then woke up briefly during an episode of Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta (I know. Shut up.), but Top Gear was on, so I switched to that... Read more →
My mom used to wax nostalgic for her past, usually when confronted with some form of technology that she didn't understand or some behavior that she didn't agree with. "My world is gone," she'd sigh. At one point I asked her when she thought her "world" existed. She told me "Oh, the time around World War II." I was born in 1952 -- which means her world was gone by the time she had me.... Read more →
Home again; yes, I'm back from the beach. We had a wonderful, lazy week. The weather was pretty damn fine. We did lots of beachy things -- here are ten of them. 1. We sat on the beach. The water was frigid, but the sun was warm and the breeze was cool and I fell sound asleep listening to the random rhythm of the waves on the sand. 2. We walked on the beach, in... Read more →
Yesterday I took myself to see the new animated film, The Illusionist, by Sylvain Chomet. I had seen a preview of the film and knew I'd have to see it. It's based on a screenplay by the great French mime and clown, Jacques Tati. If you have not seen any of Tati's Monsieur Hulot films, do so as soon as you can. The film is gorgeous, simply gorgeous! It's full of lush color and painterly... Read more →
Today was a hot fudge sundae -- or Sunday, if you will. First of all, Joe had the day off! It's rare these days when we both have the same day off, so we decided to make the most of it. So we went grocery shopping. Hey, you get your fun where you find it, and this morning we found it at Harris Teeter. We bought almost everything we need for holiday feasting, including the... Read more →