frenchtoast

I tend to either blank out or roll my eyes or both during Katrina scenes, but I agree @Julia, she's not a great example of a Quaker. Or a person who is supposedly fighting the good fight. If she were supposed to be shady and manipulative, it would work better. Instead, I'm left to wonder why Crane misses her so much.

Watching it again, it really is the very worst time to admit that oh yeah Katrina and I just figured out we love each other and want your blessing. Seriously, Crane? Other than maybe thinking it would get Abraham to stop moping (which, why would that make sense), that was terrible. Not saying he deserves all the hellfire that is actually gunning after him, but still. Crane. Abbie at least had youth and fear as understandable reasons why she didn't stick by her sister. Crane was just asking for trouble. I love John Cho in this episode. The way he makes Andy creepy and sad and pitiable fully rounds out what could have been a very one note character. As much as I hope he manages to salvage his soul and escape his servitude to Moloch, Andy is too weak a person to do it. And Cho plays that so well. On top of that, the gleeful evil is a great thing to watch, too. Too much Andy would be a bad thing, but what we get is terrific. Also, it's a very clever way of showing how evil isn't always mustache twirling, gleeful stomping. Sometimes, evil is just being weak and making bad choices. Which was the idea of the Sin Eater, too. Crane made his dithering a sin by regretting it, but in the end he made the right choice. Sometimes the dithering and the weakness lead in the other direction. It's so easy for anyone to become like Andy. Well, not a servant of Moloch, but allow evil and cruelty to prevail by being weak and doing nothing. I also like Jenny and Irving working together. Seeing the "team" together was satisfying and working their strengths was great. I'm glad they showed Crane failing at the interrogation, it makes him human and not perfect. Even it makes me want to slap him. And I still giggle at the Snowflake and Hessian scene. Whoever likened it to Lassie getting help for Timmy down the well has colored that scene forever.

I'm hitting 40 in February, so I'm not far behind you. My mom is also going through a divorce, though not acrimonious. I also had a Brother Word Processor though my typing was no way good enough to type papers for people. Way I'm not like sacrebleu former known as BeetFarmGirl--I have never been to the US Open. Have a fun! And hope that this cooler weather holds.

I learned typing with Mavis Beacon after graduating college. And no, it does not make sense that I learned how to touch type after I wrote all those college papers, but I never said I made sense. I probably needed to learn keypad, too, and this way I learned touch typing and could indicate what my words per minute were for job applications. I think the writing standard in college was two spaces after a period, and it was reinforced with Mavis Beacon. I was able to unlearn it more easily than I expected. However, I read somewhere that it would make more sense to have the punctuation outside of the quotation marks. It makes complete sense but I haven't been able to adjust to that yet. Some day.

I love this episode. I love Abbie and Ichabod working together, I love how John Cho portrays Andy as uber creepy and yet so pitiable. I will occasionally say to my kids, "Kiddo, you rum beggar". It carried the momentum from The Sin Eater and created some of it's own. And I giggle when Crane is at the museum and gets all huffy. I noticed this time that the minister that is killed at the beginning, during the Midnight Ride, his collar flies off in a different direction than his head. Sleepy Hollow always challenges my squick level. Though after seeing the Desolation of Smaug and the Orcs getting half a dozen arrows through heads and another half a dozen getting decapitated, I'm getting better at it.

For me, this is the episode where things really gained momentum and everything really started to fall into place. Not that everything was revealed, but the idea of a larger picture was made clearer. It cemented the relationship between Abbie and Ichabod, it introduced Henry Parrish, a character I found fascinating. There moments of humor and there are moments of loss. After the pilot, this episode finally seemed like the show was going somewhere. As supernatural as it was, it was also about people, which is what Sleepy Hollow does best, I think.

I took the cutting off of her wings by Stefan to be a rape metaphor. As it should have, it made me supremely uncomfortable as it was an act of violation, betrayal and violence.

I blame the early typing instruction. Because that's what we were taught. And then, it becomes a force of habit, muscle memory or whatever and it takes a lot to not do it.

I laugh at that every single time, because, really, how could one resist? To hear it was essentially ad-libbed makes my day.

Thank you, re-watch--I forgot that this episode had the Yolanda exchange, the sister standoff, some nice quiet moments between Crane and Abby (especially in the foster home) (cocking a gun) Originally, I was a little irked that the Germans/Hessians were made out to be the "bad guys" but there is a larger picture of the nature of evil as the captured Hessian made clear. And creepy. It wasn't my favorite episode, but as usual, the character moments round out and enliven the story.

Happy Birthday, Glory. As for parties--eh. They're a lot of work and money, what you're doing sounds like a lot of fun without the planning. As for the Fourth, it poured rain on Friday, so we postponed the BBQ until Saturday (which is when the city had planned the fireworks anyway, though we didn't go) which had gorgeous weather. A good time was had by all. To be hones, I don't remember it ever raining on the Fourth, either, but it wouldn't surprise me if it had. Heck, I never remember it raining on the first day of school and it's happened to my kids twice.

I lost all respect for Jane when she slapped Thor, twice. And then Loki. And was screechy at Odin. And was whiny. They really did Jane a disservice in the second movie, which is a shame because I liked it when she was intrigued by the medical equipment. I like her excited about the science, and serving a purpose other than being the damsel in distress or (related) love interest. And the worst thing is that she completely blunts Thor--the humor, the bravery, the charm. It's all gone to service this whiny, juvenile pseudo-scientist. *Sigh* I want to like you Jane, I really do, but even without comparing you the other Cinematic Marvel ladies (Potts, Carter, and Romanov) you are so...shrill.

I like that it focused on Abbie so early in the series, even a shortened series. And she wasn't completely wrong or weak. She was just human. I empathized with both sisters. I also appreciate how the crisis was used to further the bond between Ichabod and Abbie. And boy was Sandman creepy. Scorpions in NY? Really? That took me out of the episode a bit. Because...no.

John Cho made this episode enjoyable for me. Otherwise, it was a bit of a letdown after such a whizzbang start with the pilot. But his looks when he pulled the motorist over, when he commented about his neck? Were priceless. I love the creepy-sadness of Andy.

My Fourth will be having some friends over and eating lots of food. And drinking sangria. We're not going to do the fireworks again this year because last years trial of letting the kids splash around in the pool with loads of glo-stick stuff was pretty awesome (save for the mosquitoes). If we get bored, we're going to introduce the kids to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Because...why not?

I remember seeing advertisements for this show and thinking it was downright ridiculous. But I tuned in because I thought that about some other shows that I loved (Chuck being a prime example) so I gave it a try. And, in entirely general terms, this is a hugely successful pilot. Despite having to dump a whole lot of exposition, characters and set up the future stories, it does it with such panache and fun, but with enough seriousness to want me to watch the rest of the series. But what really caught me and made me say, out loud, "Oh, show. That was...oh show." Was when the horse riding sign was sliced and it changed the sign to a headless horseman. I just loved that in such a serious scene they had enough sense to throw in that little visual joke. It was then that I knew I was along for the ride.

Sorry...but I'll pass on the rewatch. I'm doing the Sleepy Hollow re-watch and I might do a solo Agents of SHIELD just because I want to see if I missed any clues. And about the World Cup--my mom is visiting and we were watching passing time until the kids got home from school. (Yes, my kids are still in school. Last day is tomorrow) I went to the powder room and all of a sudden I hear my mom exclaim, "Oh my God, he bit him! Toast, can you rewind this?!" So, Glory, your hubby is not the only one watching, though I only have a passing interest. And since my mom is here, I haven't been exercising. I have been getting zits, though.

I'm looking forward to the rewatch, so it all works for me. I have the episodes on my DVR, and there's nothing on tv right now, so I wouldn't mind starting sooner rather than later.

Our 65" is not wall mounted--we kept the base from the old television and used that and the base that it came with. Also, the 40" in the living room came with a base, too, in case you don't want to mount to the wall. Wall mounting is nice because it frees up flat surfaces, but it is not required. They are kind of expensive, but I love our Samsung televisions. They're hooked up to the internet, so the "app" for our digital movie collection (VUDU) is right there. (It mangages those ultraviolet digital copy codes and for some DVDs we can pay to rip them. For Disney/Marvel movies, we have to go to a different site, but VUDU is a choice to redeem to, as it were. Considering our Blu-ray player doesn't always play nice, it's a good thing to have something that doesn't require another component.) As is Netflix and some other network apps. Other television makers do the same thing, but it is a great convenience.

We have a 40" in the (somewhat large) living room. And downstairs is a 65" 3D television, but we were replacing a 65". The big one was intended to be for a home theater--watch movies and tv together as a family. Sometimes we do, but most times I just flop on the upstairs living room couch and watch movies or tv there. Mostly because it's closer to bathroom and kitchen and internet. And the living room couch is a little more comfortable. I exercise with the 65" tv, and the Xbox is hooked up to it so it gets plenty of use. I would say because televisions are so thin now, the larger size doesn't seem as big. We went up from a 27" in the living room to the 40" and it didn't seem that much bigger which I think is because the 27" was a flat screen, too. There are times I want a bigger television in the living room because I've had difficulty reading text from a cell phone or a note in a show and clearly a bigger tv will help with that ;) So, I think you'll get used to a larger size fairly quickly.

Million Ways to Die in the West seems like one of those movies that I would laugh at because it is silly and absurd but not one that I'd spend all that much money on. In other words, I'll wait till it's on sale digitally and do that instead. Also, Liam Neeson is awesome. On the other hand, my 11 year old son is so excited about the Transformers movie coming out in August because DINOBOTS! Mr. Toast and I? Not so much. Hopefully, a family friend, who seems equally excited, will take him.

I'll weigh myself before and after a workout and I almost always weigh more after the workout. So, scales are not my best friend. Strangley, I've found the lower number at night before taking my shower, which makes no sense. But whatever as long as the long term trend is downward. On a program I did a few years ago they only had you weigh in once a week, but I want to see progress now, dammit, so I'm too fond of hopping on. I did not exercise as much today as I have the past two because I have a school even to attend and I didn't want to get sweaty. I did get some in, so there's that. I'm hoping to see Maleficent this weekend, but SB is saying he doesn't want to go. So, he might be left at home.

I held firm and did not snack last night mainly because I didn't have any regular milk to go with the chocolate chip cookies. And my legs were rather achy. Also, I have not lost any weight. Well, I was 146 before I exercised yesterday and then I was 147 when I put on my pjs. So...yeah, weight fluctuates. Today is a new day, and you can only move forward. You can't change what you ate last night and no good comes in feeling bad about it. Speaking of chips and dip, I've been wanting a dip so I'm making bean nachos tonight except I drain and rinse the beans and add half a cup or more of water. It's a pretty good dip, easy to make, cheap, and good for you. I don't have any avocado or tomato right now, so it's going to be very simple. I've made this chicken and salsa recipe; sometimes, I just make the salsa because it's so good on it's own in Tostitos scoops. SB was talking about Slenderman a few years ago, but never really got into it. I showed him the article on CNN and he was a little incredulous: "Slenderman's not real and it's just a joke anyway." Right now he's on a Simpson LEGO kick and Minecraft, but I explained it's why we like to know what he's watching on the Internet. He also got his first orthodontic appliance to fix his over bite by pushing his lower jaw forward. He's drooling a lot, has difficulty speaking and eating. He'll get used to it, but he is not happy. I was thinking it would be good because you can't see it, really, but all the slurping and sibilant sounds really give it away. ETA: I had to a not in there. SB is not happy with is appliance. Not happy at all.

That is so cool, Glory.

High five, LL. And it's true that knowing that other people are supporting you and encouraging helps. It got me off the couch today.