BooksRule

With the Christmas holiday coming up, I hoped to get in the 'baking' mood this year since last year was such a bust as far as baking foods for others. But, it hasn't hit me too much yet, even though I've collected some good recipes I was hoping to try. I did bake an Eggnog Pound Cake this evening. I love baking pound cakes (and I will be making my usual Sour Cream Pound Cake for a luncheon next week and maybe another one for the family at Christmas) but I usually bake them totally from scratch. This one used a pound cake box mix and I added eggnog, freshly grated nutmeg, a couple of eggs, and 1/2 t. of vanilla. It makes one loaf. I tried a piece when it was still warm. Not too bad, and you could taste the eggnog a bit, but I had hoped for a stronger nutmeg flavor. My whole nutmegs might have lost their potency, too. I've had the jar for a while. If I bake another one, I'll make sure I get some fresh nutmeg to grate and maybe put in a little more than the 1/2 t. it called for in the recipe.

This episode was just okay, but it made me woozy. I know that they use the 'dash cam view' and 'body cam view' often, but except for the scenes at the police station, almost every scene was from a 'cam', including the shooter's, the cameras on the ship, etc. I guess they were doing it to make the episode a little different, but it made me a little dizzy.

I did a little forum searching, and it looks like there was some conversation a while back about the Hanes commercial with the guy on the mechanical bull (and other places) who talked about keeping things separated for 'BALL-ance'. Well, it annoyed me, but I noticed that when I've seen the same commercial during the last few days, he now definitely says 'balance', with no emphasis on 'ball'. Maybe there were enough complaints so that they had the audio re-recorded with the change? (I still don't like the commercial, but it's now slightly less annoying.)

Why on earth would Stevie confess to her mother that she was the one who had the van towed? Did she think that just because her mom did a few dishes she would be like 'That's okay. You were just doing it for my own good.' Does she even know her mother at all? I like that Dr. Abrams, although very opinionated and sure about his diagnoses, has been shown to actually be willing to listen to another doctor who has an alternate plan. No screaming or threatening to report them to the chief/board/etc. Speaking of doctors I like, where has Dr. Latham been lately?

Did I miss something? The description said that robbers hold up the 'iconic downtown public library'. Wasn't this just a warehouse space with that woman's father's personal belongings, which included those architectural drawings? I was disappointed, because as a librarian, I was looking forward to see what they got right and what they got wrong about libraries and how they operate in real life.

Okay, I had to laugh at the whole alpaca attack (even though I had heard that they could be mean). I know someone who raises alpacas. I wonder if she watches this show? To add to the whole scene, it sounded a lot like a few bars of the 'Jaws' soundtrack was playing when Hen was trying lead the alpaca away (not the well-known 'Jaws' theme, but background music from the movie) and Hen's 'Clever girl' when the other raptor (excuse me, alpaca) came in from the side. Some good quotes, too. 'You're on animal control.' 'What am I supposed to do?' 'Any animal makes a move, you control it.' and: 'You know a lot about alpacas.' 'Well, we were gonna get one.' 'It bit my ear off!!!' 'I wouldn't.' 'Not gonna.'

I'm watching a movie from 1985 on the FXM Channel and saw Jeffrey DeMunn's name in the opening credits. I'm glad I saw his name, because when he appeared on the screen (he has a pretty prominent role) it would have driven me crazy until either I figured out who it was or looked up the movie's cast online. He had the same voice, but looked a lot different (as he would have--1985, after all!) The movie is 'Warning Sign' and it's about a bio lab way out in the desert that has a lab accident involving a deadly virus. Apparently, it was considered to be a fairly good representation of what would happen (inside the lab and out) in this type of event (1985 tech and protocols, of course). I thought I had caught all of the movies of that genre, but I missed that one. FXM shows it now and then, if you want to see a much younger Dale.

I just finished reading the 'Crazy Rich Asians' trilogy (by Kevin Kwan). 'Crazy Rich Asians', 'China Rich Girlfriend', and 'Rich People Problems'. I loved all three books and wish there were more in the series, but he seemed to have wrapped up most of the stories, so I guess that will be all of them. It was really interesting to read about a culture that I don't know much about and I found myself googling a lot of phrases and locations to see images. (Kwan has excellent footnotes explaining things, but sometimes I just had to see a photo of what he was talking about. And his footnotes were sometimes hysterical to read.) I really wanted to try every food that was described in the book. They were so delicious-sounding! Also, a thank you to the person who mentioned Hayley Mills' autobiography. I'll definitely have to give it a read.

One of my favs as well. I have to get out the DVD once in a while and re-watch. (Mary Clancy: 'I've got a scathingly brilliant idea!)

I haven't watched this show in a long time, so I thought I would let today's marathon (on DLife, or whatever the channel is called) run in the background while I cleaned house. I just saw the episode from 2010 with the woman who has OCD and had problems throwing anything away because she had to examine everything (read all the labels) and also clean anything that she was actually throwing away (such as the empty cat food cans). I had lots of sympathy for her because I know that she wasn't being lazy. When OCD thoughts take hold, it's hard to overcome them (and I'm speaking from a person who gets 'stuck' sometimes due to my compulsion to make lists before I do anything and to do certain things a certain way or I can't do them at all). Her husband seemed understanding and was really trying to help. I would love to know how she's doing now. Jeff, on the other hand, was a real jerk. Him and his newspaper, magazine, and book hoarding. He was sarcastic, rude, and I wanted to smack that smirk off of his face more than once. I also know that he was so resistant to cleaning out his house that when they showed that perfectly clean (except for the overflowing bookcases) downstairs at the end, you just know that he had just moved the paper hoard upstairs (or into a storage unit). We saw him go ballistic when the organizer started to fold one newspaper clipping. There was no way that he could have gotten rid of that hoard all by himself in two months. I think that they should have just left him to his hoard. He wasn't hurting anyone but himself.

Today was the first day of the fall semester. The library was fairly busy, which is a good thing (it's been so slow all summer). We do have a 'masks required' policy for all campus buildings, which is good, but they've relaxed all other mandates, including the social distancing rules (everyone is just being told to be sensible and stay at a distance from others). It would have been a good day, except that the A/C wasn't working well and although the first floor was pretty cool, the 2nd (and I'm guessing 3rd, but I didn't go up there) was warmer than it should have been. And my office was hot (mainly because I needed to keep my door closed so I wouldn't disturb any students studying in the public area when I was on the phone or had the occasional visitor who wanted to talk). I had a fan blowing on me all day but it got up to 85 degrees by lunch. Hopefully, it'll be better tomorrow. I didn't realize it was raining until I left the building--in fact it was raining really hard--but I just walked on to the car, happy to be pelted with nice cool raindrops. (Funny, I live about 2 miles from work and it hadn't rained at all at my house, but now it's really dark outside, thundering, and very windy.)

I just saw on Facebook that American humorist (and public speaker) Jeanne Robertson has passed (that's how you have to say it, according to her. Not died, not passed away, but 'passed' -- while you bow your head). I loved her videos and hate that I was never able to go see her in person. And her husband Jerry (aka 'Left brain') passed just this past June. I'll miss watching new videos, but I'll be re-watching my favorites online, including 'Don't bunjee jump naked' and the very first one I ever saw 'Don't sent a man to the grocery store'.

Bailey: 'No one is taking home a kidney in a jar! Diseased kidneys are not tchotchkes for your coffee tables!' ('There's no I in team', Season 5, Episode 5)

Have any of you noticed TCM advertising a certain movie, but then when the time comes for it a totally different movie is aired? Way back in May I set my DVR to record 'Earth girls are easy' (I had never seen it and am a Jeff Goldblum fan). It was one of those late-night segments (Up All Night, TCM Underground, etc.). Well, I finally go around to watching it yesterday and was very surprised that even though it was still labeled 'Earth Girls are Easy' on the DVR recording, the movie that actually aired was Blake Edwards' 'S.O.B.' :( (Now I do like that movie, too, but I already own it on DVD.) I was a little bummed. I can understand changing the schedule due to the death of a big star and they decide to air some of their movies or something, but this seemed to be a little random. Oh well, maybe they'll show it again sometime (although I don't remember ever seeing it on the schedule before). I had noticed that on occasion TCM would start a movie much earlier than I expected and I would miss some of it. I remember one time going to the channel to watch 'A Raisin in the Sun' and even though I was several minutes early for it (according to the online guide and the onscreen guide) the movie was obviously well underway when I changed the channel.

Bailey: 'Nobody holds a scalpel till I'm so happy I'm Mary Freakin' Poppins!' ('The first cut is the deepest', Season 1, Episode 2)

Derek (to Alex): 'You might wanna leave before I change my mind and let her beat you to a pulp with her tiny ineffectual fists.' ('Winning the battle, losing the war', Season 1, Episode 3)

Izzie: 'If you wait a few minutes you can have a piece of cake. Baked it chock-full of luv. Actually, chock-full of unrelenting rage and hostility. But, still tasty.' ('The self-destruct button', Season 1, episode 7)

Lifetime started over this morning with season one, episode one, so I'm going to record them to watch in the evenings. Today they had the first eight episodes, and I think they will be showing three episodes each weekday with a few more on Fridays. I'm looking forward to seeing the ones that I haven't seen in years. (I catch part of episodes here and there in the morning before I leave for work or when I have a morning off, but haven't seen entire episodes in a long time.) Picked up dinner on the way home (Pizza! Pizza!) and am settling down to continue my nice quiet evening by watching some more.

Yang: 'Katie competes in beauty pageants.' Derek: 'I know that, but we have to save her life anyway.' ('A hard day's night', Season 1, episode 1)

Oops, that's what I meant. :)

I missed most of the 'juvenile delinquency' films, but I did record 'High School Hellcats' for later viewing and just watched 'The Young Stranger' (with James Macarthur--in his first role! and James Daly and Kim Hunter as his parents). I can't believe I've never watched this one before, being a big Macarthur fan (even as a young'un back in the days of original 'Hawaii Five-o' I recognized his cuteness). It was okay but a little bland. He wasn't really a bad kid, just a teen who mouthed off a little and no one believed him when he told the truth. Funny, when I saw that Kim Hunter was in it, for some reason I thought she would be his girlfriend, but was surprised to see her as his mother. I guess I thought she was younger (imdb shows that she was 15 years younger than Macarthur). Which reminds me, I need to get out my DVD of 'Spencer's Mountain' to re-watch. (and I wish 'The Truth About Spring' was in the TCM rotation. I always had a soft spot for that movie (I'm a Hayley Mills fan as well).

I picked up a pork butt at the store yesterday so I could make some pulled pork. It tasted good, but I've come to the realization that I'm terrible at the last step of the process. I have a very simple recipe: I put the meat in the slow cooker with a little water and chopped onion. When it's cooked tender, I remove it from the pot and place into a pan. This is where I have problems. I have no talent for the shredding of the pork. I know I've seen people on TV shows just taking two forks and working quickly to shred up the meat into nice bite-sized pieces, I'm so clumsy with the forks, getting them tangled, completely missing the piece with one fork, etc. Sometimes it makes me made when I'm struggling with it, other times it makes me laugh. I just don't know how some people do it. Lots of practice, I guess? Anyway, I finally got it all shredded nicely and mixed in some BBQ sauce. The resulting sandwiches were good, and I have plenty left over for a few more meals.

That's the part I missed. Thanks!

Can someone fill me in on a bit of the wedding that I missed? The power went out for just a few seconds, but it was enough to kick the DVR off so that it didn't record for a minute or two. It cut out during a commercial break and picked up again just as Maya was getting upset about not remembering to write vows. I'm sure I didn't miss much, but I did see Maya's mother. Did she just pop up in the background and Maya acknowledged that she was there, or was there some kind of explanation?

When Dr. Charles suggested contacting an old doctor friend who could consult and also translate, I immediately wondered if they had cast the 'HITG' actor that always seems to be hired whenever someone who speaks Russian is needed for a show/movie. And, in comes the 'HITG' himself, Elya Baskin. Are there any other Russian-born actors who are working in the U.S.? I'm kidding, because I like Baskin. He is good in any role he plays. It just seems funny that it's usually him that shows up when the role calls for a Russian character. :)