(*Then again, I don't know. I haven't watched in years and I know they went through some pretty unfunny times)
* Yes, there's another horror taken place in the world, this time in Midland/Odessa. I have told myself it's probably not healthy for me to even try to understand what would motivate someone to do that. And the less said about it, the better.
* Last night I watched "The Goonies" (in its unedited theatrical form for the first time since like 1986). And yes, a couple gags that I remembered but that didn't make the cut for the network edit were there (there is a bit with a small reproduction of Michaelangelo's David getting a key part broken off, put back wrong and a comment of "If God made *you* like that, you'd be peeing in your face.") It's young-teenager humor, pretty much, some of it skirting around the edges of blueness, but skirting far enough that I still find it funny. In some ways it's a dated movie (the special effects especially) but that seems part of the charm to me. (I also seem to remember reading that Jonathan Ke Quan, who played "Data" in the movie, had promised his parents he wouldn't curse, and at a pivotal part where the "s word" was to be used....he spelled it out! Hah. So he found a loophole, at least was the story I read). And it's just one of those "good guys win" sort of movies, which you need some times...
I also knitted more on one of the pairs of socks I'm making my mom for Christmas. I'm using the Weasley Homestead pattern but probably am going to just knit the feet plain - it's faster, and more importantly, if you wear your socks inside shoes (rather than with Birkenstocks) like my mom does, plain knit feet is more comfortable.
I'm going to do 2-3 more pairs. I have another one already on the needles, I have the "sweet potato" colored yarn....and I have another yarn in colors I know she would like, so I might make those up into a quick pair of all-stockinette socks.
*The tree guy came. It was expensive but he did have to use a bucket truck, and they got rid of the dead branch that broke off, and he trimmed back the branch that had been leaning. His diagnosis is that it's just an unusually heavy year for pecans; he said he saw a lot of other broken branches on pecan trees recently. They did clean everything up very meticulously, so if I want to mow tomorrow it will be easier to.
Hopefully Tuesday the meeting with the CPA is equally smooth, but I also am reminding myself if he seems unable to help I still have the option of just caving and sending the check in to the IRS; I got a little bit of a raise this year so it won't be as much of a worry.
* I went over to school today and managed to get pretty much as caught up as I could. I finished the last four samples from July and I wrote an exam for the end of next week. Monday I have off so my plan is to go and grab the next set of soil and maybe, if I have the energy, read the two remaining chapters of that book so I can claim my £175 worth of Cambridge University Press books. (There is a fairly new one on soil fauna that I definitely want, I'll see what else is there).
Sometimes working hard on a weekend is preferable if it means it buys you more time during the week to come. Having that exam written for Friday will be a good thing.
* I also baked two dozen blueberry muffins (well, from a Krusteaz mix, which, despite the odd name - my mom and I always used to make Krusty the Klown jokes about it - is really very good and is probably every bit as good as what I could do from scratch). We are having a late breakfast at church tomorrow (well, late for me: 10 am) and a short devotional service; this is typical of Sundays before Monday holidays that tend to be big "lake" holidays, because attendance will usually be down.
I think I will eat something light when I get up - maybe a yogurt - and just consider the food at church my Gabelfrühstück for the day. (That word means "fork breakfast," literally, and it was a German and rural Austrian thing: I think you had coffee and maybe a piece of bread very early, went out and fed the cattle and did the chores, then came back and had your eggs-meat-whatever else German people ate at a big breakfast). Very similar to the idea of "second breakfast" and I confess it's a lovely custom but my metabolism won't tolerate it - maybe if I were working on an oldstyle farm where I was burning twice the calories in a day that I do now.
Actually, my grandma used to do something like that, and she had grown up a farm girl: small light breakfast, maybe a small bowl of cereal, early in the day, then around 10 am when people came to visit, she'd put out the pie and the toast and maybe if there was leftover cold chicken or something - kind of like an early lunch. Visiting was a big big thing there; a great many of her relatives lived right in the same town and many of them were already retired by the time I remembered them (My mother was a "caboose baby;" she was born 18 years after her oldest sister - she was an aunt at the age of 4). And there wasn't a lot to DO in town, so friends and family would walk around the small residential area and just drop by for visits. Sometimes they'd call first, sometimes not. It was probably a good thing, especially for people like my grandma - widowed, not in the greatest of health (she was nearly blind by 80) and it was good to have people checking in on her, and doing things like "if you need me to run to the Red Owl for you, I was going to go later today."
* I am still really enjoying having Neko Atsume on my phone. It is just simple and sweet and nice and the only remotely-bad thing that happens in it is that Tubbs shows up and eats all the food you put out, but then....he leaves behind a lot of fish (the currency in the game) so if you're lucky, you can buy twice as much food as he ate....
I recently earned enough "gold fish" (the super-currency in the game) to expand my "yard" to include a living room, and I bought a "soft bed" to put in there.
You can also rename the cats. I renamed a few - so I have one called Stripey Boy and I forget what its original name was, and the first cat who visited me (Snowball) got re-dubbed "Li'l Sweetheart."
(And Tubbs, I will confess, got the name of an infamous Austin Powers character. You can guess which one)
But there's also a couple Siamese in there, and the first one who showed up, I couldn't resist renaming him "Sam," after the favorite old cat of my childhood.
And Sam apparently likes the soft bed:
It's like a Tamagotchi but it won't die if you have to ignore it for a while - presumably the cats just go and eat and play at someone else's house if you don't have food out for them....
* I also tried Monster High dresses on Elsa and Anna. The commercially-made ones are too tight but the ones I knitted work:
And yes, I also confess: I bought a single-packed Belle at wal-mart (on a good sale). I was disappointed GREATLY to learn that the single-pack ones don't have bending knees!
and so....I ordered Belle and Merida off Amazon (they had them at wal-mart too, but the Amazon price was the same, and I don't feel like going back to wal-mart) and I'm going to take the cute clothes off the Belle with the non-bending knees and swap them to the Belle that has them..... Yes, I know some doll collectors know how to swap out heads or legs or even install knee joints in legs that don't have them, but I'm not that skillful (and don't have the right tools; apparently you need a Dremel to do the adding-knee-joints to a doll). But yes, I am spoiled by having properly-articulated dolls now and I admit I disdain the ones that don't have knee or elbow joints. (Ideally they would also have wrist and ankle joints, and a waist that turns, but knee and elbows - as well as hip and shoulder - are kind of the bare minimum for me now)
But they are just fun and cute and it's nice to have fun cute things around you, to seat Elsa on the piano music holder while I play (yes, I have a few little figurines there even at lesson time - I move the biggest stuff but my teacher tolerates the little Daisy Duck figure and the couple of tiny Ponies and the tiny statue of Mt. Fuji)
I admit that "clutterwitch" is very much my decorating philosophy and I suppose it might bug some people but having all that stuff around does bring me comfort. (And yes, yes, I know: some day my niece or whoever it is winds up dealing with my place after I'm gone will be all "What was she THINKING" but I guess I have to be happy for me rather than worrying about 40-50 years in the future....)
* I tried watching a tiny bit of news but just had to bail on it, it's too much. So I sat down at the piano, did a bit more practice, then pulled out one of my books of Keveren arrangements of hymn tunes.
To my surprise, after several months away from either one, I could still play "Softly and Tenderly" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" pretty well...normally that has not been the case in the past, that there's a big re-learning curve when I pick up something I had played in the past again.
"Softly and Tenderly" is from the 1880s; it's what is sometimes known as an 'altar call' hymn (or, in our slightly-higher-church denomination, an "Invitational" - basically, the idea is, if you have decided to throw your lot in with the congregation and wish to join, you come forward during the Invitational. Sometimes, especially if there's a Pastor's Class of teenagers, then there are baptisms afterward, but that's more planned-in-advance. Well, in general, a lot of it is planned in advance - most people visit a church for a while and it's usually practice to tell the minister ahead of time that you'll be coming forward)
"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (The tune familiar to me is called Nettleton, but others are used - I think in the UK they use a totally different tune to that one). It was written in the mid 1700s, and a lot of the language is nicely archaic (though some denominations or hymnals change some of the words from the original, and it can be jarring if you know one set of words and another is used). I love the tune; it's graceful and pleasing. And the words are nice; it's mostly about being given grace, and I think that's something we all need. Also, one set of the lyrics does state
"Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;"
Some denominations change this. I guess they don't like to even admit the possibility that people might "wander away" but I do think the original lyrics do....refer to a very human tendency, sometjing that happens. (And like a lot of things: pretending the bad things can't happen doesn't do anything to prevent them, I think)
It made me feel a little better to play them. I may not be able to make the world a better place, but at least I can guard my own heart.
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