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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Weekend Roundup

Nancy P has been tantalizing us with pictures of the outside of her writing porch, so I thought I’d reciprocate with an interior view. Sprite (Daughter Dearest’s fat cat) is so excited about getting a chance to write, he’s steaming up the porch! Looks like he might have shorted the keyboard too, the way his eyes are all lit up.

Happy birthday to the parental units! Mom and Dad have back-to-back birthdays, Thursday and Friday. I got to chat with both of them for a while.

I broke down and bought Shout Out Out Out Out’s “Not Saying/Just Saying” album off iTunes this week. I prefer to buy albums by the CD, but it’s kind of hard to find outside of Canada and I was too lazy to mail-order it. You gotta love a band that names one of their tracks “Chicken Soup for the F**k You.”

Daughter Dearest came home with a flat tire yesterday — her car doesn’t even have a spare tire, let alone a jack, so I dug the spare out of my Civic and she helped me change the tire. At least she knows what to do now. I got to thinking about stuff we should pack in an emergency kit (junk in her trunk?), besides a spare & a jack: stop-leak for a quick tire repair, a flashlight of some sort, a gallon of water, and essentials like underwear and a shirt in case she has to spend a night somewhere. That got me wondering what other people keep in their vehicles, if anything, for emergencies. Tomorrow, we’re going to the park with my car so she can learn to drive a manual shift… I figure if she can’t get her tire fixed this weekend, she can take my car to school and I can take the motorcycle.

This was the weekend I was going to tackle the trim around the house. Unfortunately, Mrs. Fetched took me to the chicken houses instead. There’s half the day gone. Then we got lunch and groceries: that’s most of the other half. Oh well, maybe I can get started tomorrow.

And now, it’s time for a walk. I might get out on the porch and do some writing afterwards. Assuming I can fend off Sprite.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, I was cleaning off my desk in the bedroom a couple of nights ago and found my “Blue Sky” list. I think Getting Things Done suggested it; it’s things I want to see happen eventually, no matter how improbable (like living on the coast, far away from chicken houses). I was surprised that one of them (getting below 200 pounds) has been achieved, and a second (The Boy getting straightened out) seems to be on the way to happening. Some others aren’t completely impossible, that may have seemed that way when I made the list.

10 comments:

  1. Hey there FAR! Sounds like a busy day down your way, and I wish I could say I got as much accomplished. After another busy week, I was a bum today, so Sunday is going to be manic panic here. At least we had a pleasant night of TV viewing with Dr. Who and Torchwood on BBC ... have to say I was never a fan of the old series, but I'm hooked on the new one, and Torchwood is a nice, remarkable spin-off.

    Not sure what to think about that "steamy" cat, hehe. But we have the 3 dogs keeping us busy around here and Queen Pepa has been on the ornery side lately, so never a dull moment.

    Watched an old Vincent Price movie last night, The Last Man on Earth , which was the first adaptation of Matheson's I Am Legend . Good stuff, and from some IMDB research earlier, found out it's in public domain now, and available (somewhere) on the tubes somewhere for download. You might want to check this out if you haven't seen it... well, that is, if you're in an apocalyptic mood.

    Here's hoping the Manor has an uneventful week ahead! (btw, I'll be collecting seeds for ya soon!)

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  2. Hey IVG, good to see you out & about. Don't get too panicked about today… you know the work will be there waiting for you when you get around to it!

    Thanks for the Last Man on Earth tip. I found it on archive.org easily enough. The notes there says it was remade as The Omega Man (in which Charlatan Heston gets "interracial" — I saw it in the theater as a teen). Interesting discussion in the comments section of the above link; possible spoilers so I'll have to skip for now. Vampires? I'll have to send a link to my bud Carnacki; he loves old vampire movies.

    Looking forward to the seeds. Let me know when you're ready & I'll send a snail-mail along.

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  3. Hi FAR and IVG.

    I used to keep an emergency kit in the car when I lived by myself. All the usual stuff plus a small fire extinguisher. When I moved home, I had an emergency kit in the car and house, but sadly to say no more. My rels when they needed something would take it out of the kits and never replace it. So only when FMom and I are going on a trip do I make up a kit for the car. Since we hardly ever go anyplace, I hardly ever have to make up one.

    I think it's really good you're teaching DD to be able to change a flat and so on. I never saw any sense in the division of chore between men and women. I tried to teach my daughters to cook as well as change a tire. Just wish I knew more about mechanics so I could have taught them that.

    IVG Saturday night is my BBC night on Educational TV. My favorite one is an old one I've been watching for years and have probably seen the entire series 3 or 4 times. It's called "As Time Goes By."

    Hope everyone's weekend is going fine.

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  4. Sounds like it's been busy at Far Manor. I've stopped making lists, I'm just happy to get anything done these days. I managed to get quite a bit doen this weekend, but I'm exhausted.

    As to what I've got in my car, lots of toys and stuffed animals courtesy of the b2 boy.

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  5. Hey FM & Boran!

    FM, the fire extinguisher is a good idea. It might come in handy on a date, too. :-) I hope to show her how to change her oil some time, but every time I've mentioned it, she just rolls her eyes. The Boy knows how to cook… probably better than she does, now that I think of it. Oh well.

    Boran, busy is the usual state here. I actually did get started with the trim, although it got dark before I could get very far. I got a couple of window frames ready for painting & some of the trim above the garage. I also got up on the roof & figured out how much is rotted & needs to just be replaced. As far as B2boy goes… my kids mostly took their toys inside with them. They didn't want to part with any of them….

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  6. Hey there again FAR...
    Yep, The Omega Man with the Heston was the remake, and far inferior (though of note for its cheesiness). I've been on a bit of a Richard Matheson binge lately, so of course that lead me to The Legend of Hell House too ... another 70s legend. Must be Halloween coming up that's got me in that mood. Oh yeah, just pre-ordered the Twin Peaks: Golden Box Edition last night on Amazon. Not cheap but the summum of all things Twin Peaks including the pilot episode. What can I say? I'm a sucker for David Lynch's work.

    I'll let you know when I get those seeds compiled (the list is growing) ... interested in some castors? Looks like our giant in the back yard will manage to make it to mature seeds. With a little work and expert advice, you too could make castor oil laxative. Isn't that in all our dreams? NOT. Lol....

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  7. Demon Cat! Clearly, you've sold your soul to her, which is what allows you to write so well.

    (That porch in "my" photo isn't actually the one where we write, but it looks so much like it that there's hardly a diff.)

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  8. Hey IVG & Nancy!

    IVG, I showed the castors to Mrs. Fetched. She says, "I'd love to have some, I'm just not sure where we could plant them." I have a couple of ideas, maybe.

    Nancy, Sprite is a demon for attention and cuddling, that's about it! I think I remember you saying that porch is actually your friend's in NC, right? I'll bet the view is nice. I have a decent view out my bedroom window (at least by day)....

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  9. I love that photo! Wonderful and mysterious!

    Thanks for your commentsabout plastic bags on my blog. You're entirely right on both counts.

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  10. Hey Crafty, it was a good post.

    (Everyone else: go check this out.)

    ReplyDelete

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