Captain Von Trapp is HOT!

I've been watching "The Sound of Music" once or twice a year every year forever and ever. I don't know what took me so long, but the realization hit me this summer when I watched, and this Christmas viewing has just confirmed it. I know Christopher Plummer is old as dirt, but back in the day he had a Jon Stewart thing going on.

wet sleeves

Bad luck? Inconvenience? Minor annoyance? Trigger for a psychotic break?

I don't know if it is a global human reaction, but, for me, few things rank up there with getting the cuffs of your long-sleeve shirt, jacket, or sweater wet, say, while washing your hands at the sink after using the loo.

You pushed your sleeves up as far as they could go, bent uncomfortably at the knees and the back to try to cheat gravity, and then mid-suds-session, without warning, a cuff springs loose and is getting drenched directly under the stream of water.

Then the cuff is cold, and it gets all stretched out. You keep oddly shaking your arm, extended at your side, as if it were the Liberty Bell, in an attempt to air-motion dry the sleeve. It really can ruin a whole day.

Well, today I had the mother of all sleeve-drenchers.

Tomorrow is trash and recycling day. The collectors start coming around right about 7am. So I usually have a choice: put the cans out Wednesday evening or stumble around at 6:30 Thursday morning to get everything out in time. I usually try to do whatever seems less disruptive to my neighbors, as my cans stay on a concrete pad in my side yard, and our houses are very close together. The depressing thing is, right now, it being winter, it's dark both at 6:30 in the morning and 6:30 in the evening. And that side of my house is pitch black. No moonlight, no streetlight, nothing.

I got home from work at a reasonable time this evening and decided to get the trash & recycling to the curb tonight. I collected everything from the house, carried it to the side yard, reached for the trash can lid - and kapow. Kablooey. Splish-Splash. Whatever sound effect you want to add. See, we've been having rain the past few days, and the temperature dropped significantly today. My trash can lid is depressed on either side of the handle and so it is the perfect rain-collecting device. Except, I couldn't see that in the darkness that was enveloping that corner of the house. So I did as anyone would do with a bag of trash in one hand - I reached for the lid the with the other hand and lifted it off. Straight up. Not sure what degree of angle I was at, but I can tell you this: I was at the perfect angle for all of the water collected in the lid to run up the inside of my coat sleeve. Not to the wrist. Not to the elbow. Half way up the upper arm. On the underside. I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt under my coat, and the shirt sleeve and coat sleeve had absorbed some water on its journey up. So now I had ice-cold fabric against some of the thinnest, sensitive, most tender skin.

Immediately I had to decide who was at fault: the garbage man for the way he placed the lid back after last collection day? My dogwalker for the direction she put the can back on the side of the house? (Yes, my dogwalker brings the cans back up every Thursday when she is here taking care of my dog. Never asked her to. Just does. Part of her services, I guess. And I tip her well.)

Thankfully it wasn't too early or late, because I'm sure my neighbors heard the string of expletives 10 feet away inside their house.

is anyone paying attention?

Has everyone seen this "Open Hearts' commercial for Kay Jewelers?










HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT IT LOOKS LIKE TWO BUTT PRINTS??? Where exactly did Jane Seymour get her inspiration? After-hours pranks on the office photocopier?

good movie!

Just saw "Slumdog Millionaire". What a fabulous movie. Could have sat there and watched the whole thing again. (But only if the yahoos next to me were not there -- wifey had to explain every nuance to the husband all the way through, and she felt the need to exclaim out loud obvious facts. I'm v.v. intolerant. I'm working on it, but there are some things that are unforgivable, and screwing with my movie viewing experience is one of them. Yes, I know, then I should stay home and watch on DVD... but there are some movies that must be seen in the theatre.)

I don't see many movies any more that inspire me the way this this one did.

And I mean really, that's what we're all looking for, right, someone to love us despite our scars?

today's elixer

I was in a very bad, foul, angry, bitter mood for the past several hours. Then I got home and this was in my inbox and I watched it and all of my problems have disappeared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1hyqA6UTY

exhaustion abounds

I have been officially chastised for not posting in so long!

And I've been sitting here for the past hour trying to think of something to write.

But all last week I worked 10-, 12-, and 14-hour days and had a $520 car repair.

I am sapped of creativity.

But "Anonymous" could update me on how the new job is!!!