BooksRule

Once again, Strand saves the day. If Rob Lowe ever leaves the show, I would be content with Jud being captain. He can really take charge and get everyone focused (an example being that although he spotted Owen's truck at the bombed bar, he didn't immediately run in to see if Owen was okay. He was worried, but got his crew to do what they were there to do). I think he's my favorite character. Well, our good guy/bad guy yo-yo O'Brien turned out to be a good guy, even if his family's ending wasn't too happy. I wonder if we'll see him on future episodes as a guest? Finally, I was surprised that they killed off the female FBI agent (Rose). I thought she would make it and she and Owen would get together (occasionally clashing over Fire Department/FBI business overlapping, of course).

I was hoping for better news, but it looks like Tom Sizemore's family is having to make some hard decisions: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/entertainment/tom-sizemore-end-of-life-decision/index.html

I can't stand wearing shoes in the house. When I come in, the first thing I do is kick off my shoes at the kitchen door. I go barefoot most of the year, but wear slipper socks in the winter (I have hardwood floors and they can get cold, even with the heat on...and I tend to keep my heat turned down kind of low as well so the house stays cool). I also have two cats that have decided in their geriatric years that they must stay underfoot as much as possible. It's much easier to avoid stepping on a paw or a tail when you can 'feel' it before you put much weight down. Pet peeve of the day: Unseasonable weather! I know that some parts of the country are too cold, but here in the south it's gotten way too warm. I actually had to turn on the A/C just now. In flippin' February! (I can usually put off turning on the central air until at least late March or even April some years). The house wasn't really that hot, but it felt humid, so I set it for 77 just to get some of the moisture out. We do have a 'cold' front coming through late next week (50s at night, 60s during the day), and I don't expect the air to kick on much during the next few days, but it still ticks me off. It's not even spring yet, dagnabit!

Linc: 'This bakery's across town!' Jo: 'It's for Meredith.' Linc (puzzled): 'Does she like faraway cake?' ('I'll follow the sun', S19, E7)

I know! I thought that she was describing the book to Tristan, but the ruby slippers would mean the 1939 movie (since the slippers were silver in the original book). Or, she was talking about the book and the writers goofed. I agree that she is a little bit annoying, but I liked her okay enough. The rest of the episode was good (I love Christmas episodes of period dramas). If only those darn onion ninjas hadn't shown up at the train station!

I had some big plans to make some heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink, white, or red frosting to take to work for Valentine's Day, but other stuff got in the way. I did want to take something to work, so I put a pan of Chocolate Cherry Cream Cheese Brownies in the oven (brownie mix, and a filling of cream cheese, sugar, egg white, little flour, and some chopped maraschino cherries and juice). I've made them before and didn't think they had enough cherry flavor, so I added a few more cherries this time. Hopefully, they'll turn out good enough to offer to others.

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the commercials that irritate, outrage, etc., the local commercials thread or this one. So, I decided on this one. I hate it when local companies put their children (or grandchildren) in their commercials. If the kids could act even a little bit, it wouldn't be so bad, but I guess it's supposed to be part of the 'charm' to have the kids be natural. But, they are either extra-hyper, or they are so young that you can't understand a word of their lines, or they speak in a monotone. Maybe the kids are having fun with it, but it's really painful to watch.

When they said that no one had been seen leaving the house where Iris had been, I wondered about a basement, crawlspace, or attic. I'm sad that O'Brien is apparently a bad guy. As soon as Carlos got hit by the shovel (?), my immediate thought was 'okay, now it's Carlos' turn to be in a coma for a while'.

Unless I'm mixing up my shows, I thought I saw a farewell to Cindy Williams, which seemed odd to me since I don't think she ever guest-starred on this show. I didn't see anything for Annie. I'm with Tim. 'Time After Time' is a pretty good movie, and David Warner is excellent in it as Jack the Ripper. :)

Best line of the night: 'How many comas have you been in?'

I also bought the 'Emergency!' series recently at WalMart, but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I never missed an episode when they were first airing in the '70s (as a young teen, I had a crush on Randy Mantooth!). Around Christmas, I treated myself the the complete series 'The Librarians', and hope to give it a binge-watch soon. I really liked the series, it reminded me a little of 'Eureka', 'Warehouse 13', and the like.

I've never seen any of them (or any of the Dr. Gillespie movies, which are being aired as well), so I have my DVR set up to record all of them. I love medical movies and TV shows, especially the old ones (it's always interesting to see the old uniforms, instruments, and the cases they tackle).

According to imdb, she was married to actor Stephen Full (since 2009). I looked him up. He doesn't look familiar, but I noticed that he has guested on some shows that I've watched.

I just saw that Annie Wersching, who played Rosalind, has passed away. Now I'm wondering if Rosalind's storyline was really supposed to end like it did or if they finished it up because the actress was ill. When she got shot I thought it seemed kind of abrupt (since this show tends to drag out their villain stories for a long time). Very sad.

I didn't recognize Annie Wersching's name, but her face was familiar. I looked her up on imdb and I had seen her in several TV shows. Most recently, she was the 'big bad' for a few episodes on 'The Rookie'.

I was just getting ready to post about this movie! I had read about it years ago in 'The Golden Turkey Awards' book, but had never seen it. Other than the cast all being little people, it's basically a fairly bad formulaic western (feuding families, rustlers, stagecoach robbery, posses chasing the bad guys, star-crossed lovers re-unite at the end, a few songs thrown in here and there, etc.). The actors all ride ponies (instead of big horses), but everything else seems to be sized for non-little people.. This results in some scenes that I assume were supposed to be knee-slapping hilarious, such as struggling to step up on the wooden sidewalk in town, walking under the saloon doors instead of through them, the cook climbing into a cabinet to retrieve a pot, etc. Oh well, I know that parts for little people were few and far between, so I guess this was a good thing (and I read that almost the entire cast was hired the next year for 'The Wizard of Oz'). I'll probably never watch this movie again, but I'm glad I did finally give it a watch. The only question I have is why was there a brief shot of a penguin sitting on a stool in the barber shop scene?

I made a pot of chicken gumbo for dinner (I had a bowlful over rice), so I'll have plenty to have some tomorrow and will probably freeze the rest for future meals. I'll just have to cook some rice to go with it.

I've been watching the marathon, too. I've just had it on in the background while I did some chores around the house (and had to skip a few episodes when I went out to do a couple of errands), but I did catch bits and pieces here and there (including '18th and Potomac' first thing this morning. Mrs. Landingham! :( I know that HLN had started showing the series before the holidays but I hadn't had a chance to watch any of it. I'm hoping they'll keep showing them after the marathon, even if it's just a couple of episodes a day. I haven't seen this show since it originally aired and would like to watch all of them. One complaint I have is that the closed-captioning sucks. When I'm watching a show that has a lot of conversation, fast dialogue back and forth, accents (such as British), or lots of jargon (like in medical dramas) I like to have the closed captioning on so that I don't miss anything important. You would think that someone was trying to caption a live news broadcast. Sometimes there isn't any captioning at all, and when it's there it's always delayed and by the time the words show up on on screen the characters have moved on (or walked down the hall a ways, hee!) and the words don't match what they are saying. Or whole phrases get left out.

I got a late start in baking a sour cream pound cake for a campus luncheon tomorrow. It still has about a half hour to go in the oven and I'll still have to let it cool before I can put it in the cake carrier and go to bed. And I get to do it all over again tomorrow evening for another luncheon on Thursday. I don't mind, though. Even though the cake ingredients have gotten more expensive every year (over $5 for a dozen eggs, yikes!) it's a go-to dish to take anywhere when I want to take a dessert. You can make it a day ahead if you want, you don't have to assemble the cake or frost it. It doesn't have to be refrigerated and it transports easily. (And, it's very tasty, if I say so myself.)

Watching the White Elephant exchange reminded me that I need to pick up a gift for our work 'Dirty Santa' exchange this week. "Ooh, a copy of Matthew McConaughey's Vampire novel, 'I'll bite, I'll bite, I'll bite'."

I've already deleted the episode from my DVR so I can't check, but they found the guy with hand blown off, and then the guy with the finger missing. But the digit that was found was a thumb, right? So they said that there was another victim somewhere. Did they find the third person? My mind has totally gone blank on that plotline.

Here's a new one (for me, at least). A couple of days ago, I was opening a can of cat food for the furbabies (as you do) and had trouble getting the pop-top to come off. It finally came loose with a jerk. First, it splattered cat food juice on my shirt. Then, it slipped out of my juice-covered fingers and rolled--on its side--across the bar. I grabbed for it, but missed, so it went over the edge on the far side into the den (the only room with carpet, wouldn't you know). I went into the den, hindered by two cats who were under my feet wondering why they could smell their dinner but it hadn't been served yet, and found the can upside down on the floor. Luckily, it was pate and hadn't spilled. I carefully scraped off the top layer of food and the girls finally got their meal. They didn't seem to find any difference in the quality.

The scene in the gift shop where the interns were checking their phones and rushing out after saying 'Oh, Schmitt!' made me laugh. They made it sound like a curse.

I haven't seen 'Gidget goes Hawaiian' in many, many years. I have 'Cat Ballou' on DVD and watch it occasionally. I did recently re-watch 'Mysterious Island' (my favorite Verne adaptation, second place is 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' with James Mason). Callan was good in the Verne movie.

I have my DVR set to record a whole bunch of stuff on TCM this month. Horror movies ('The Howling', 'The Brood', 'It's Alive!', 'Carnival of Souls', and many others) and some cheesy sci-fi ('Wild Wild Planet', 'War of the Planets', 'The Green Slime') I noticed that one of my favorites is being aired this month. I have it on DVD, but I recommend 'Two on a Guillotine' if you've never seen it. Scary movie with some humor.