isalicat

I, Claudius Buffy Angel Firefly The Wire True Blood Wonderfalls Monty Python's Flying Circus Babylon 5 The Prisoner (original only - seen the remakes, they don't compare IMO) Secret Agent Man Miami Vice lots more not on DVD, but on a dedicated hard drive including Game of Thrones, The Americans, The Shield...

"FYI here is the trailer for War on Everyone. It is a dark comedy. I don't think I've ever seen Skarsgard do comedy. And to be fair he really doesn't but he is deadpan. And like I said, he and Tessa have great chemistry." I watched this last year and I can't recommend it enough - unless you don't like a bit of the ultraviolence - otherwise it is extremely funny and well written. The ethnic mix is actually one of the best aspects as it is a rare bird: Everyone is just who the character *is* - no preaching or teaching, just showing.

It has been hideously hot even here at the beach since Monday (setting records hot, not just in my imagination hot) and I also have no energy to do more than twist the cap off some Firestone Sauvignon Blanc. So last night was salad with some of that wild salmon that comes in a pouch (surprisingly edible and my cat thinks its great). At least the salad involved mixed herbs and greens, vine ripened tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and homemade ranch dressing. And a yummy tangerine for dessert.

Please do send all your candy corn to me....its one of my fav Halloween treats and I had a ritual in childhood of eating the white part, then the yellow part and then the orange part, and it had to be in *that* particular order. Otherwise I agree on the Necco wafers (like a compressed dust bunny) and especially raisins, which are ruined grapes. Actually I don't eat candy more than once a year at most anymore but a square or two of dark Belgian chocolate (unlikely to be handed out at Halloween!) does temporarily solve many problems. Associated pet peeve: No trick or treating here this year, apparently, which as far as I am concerned is entirely unwarranted. Most Halloween costumes can and should involve wearing masks and the people giving out candy can certainly figure out a way to leave it outside or place it outside and back into their homes while it is being taken so therefore social distancing...Why don't we just lock all children inside for the foreseeable future and see how that goes?

I'm an Aries (with Aries rising too, so entirely insufferable), a Monkey, and supposedly a Willow but Alder fits much better.

As a person with many years of working at food pantries and soup kitchens, as well as someone who has lived in some really rough neighborhoods in big cities, I would advise all of you to *never* give money or anything else (most especially, not a ride in your car!) to a person you don't know who approaches you in a parking lot or on the street. Anyone truly needing assistance can easily get info from the local police or fire department as to a homeless shelter or food bank in their area and all shelters and food banks have lots of referral info to send people on to social assistance programs as appropriate. It is not unkind or uncharitable to be wary and handing out money to people who beg on the streets unfortunately perpetuates their most likely very unhappy life on the street. Shoving a paper in your face to distract you while pickpocketing you is a centuries old ruse. When I was traveling in India and Nepal, the common tactic was to blow a bit of red pepper in face to get you to stop, take off your backpack/put down your suitcase in order to deal with the discomfort and the belongings would vanish within seconds.

If you don't like tart yogurt, try Siggi's Icelandic (I only eat the full fat content one so I don't know what the low fat and non fat varieties taste like). They come in vanilla or mixed berry and I first tried it at the beginning of the pandemic when most everything else had been cleaned off my grocery store shelves. Delicious! and the only brand I will buy now.

(from above): "spent the trip in t-shirts and sneakers. But no pants?" tee hee! definitely pants too...and of course my trusty face shield (which I prefer because I like to smile at people).

#4 and then #1 for me too. I am very much a cold weather person. In fact, I just returned last night from driving up from here in central beachy California up to my previous home town of Mt. Shasta and then up to Portland, Oregon and although I had a truly wonderful time I was so disappointed that it was hot (well, high 70s, low 80s which is hot for me) in Portland. I packed leather boots, a leather jacket and a rain jacket with high hopes...but no! spent the trip in t-shirts and sneakers.

Wow - just tuned into the Lakers/Nuggets game! Yes, I am entertained!

I'm not on any conventional "social networks" but do get emails from one of those "Nextdoor..." networks locally - useful to sell stuff actually. Anyways, everyone locally has been raving about the pod of whales and associated dolphins right off our local beach so I was determined to go see them. Grabbed the binoculars and went down to the beach yesterday afternoon to find it entirely fogged in and quite magical, like a scene from a Tolkien book. It wasn't especially cold so I thought I would go for a hike in any case and proceeded down the beach, occasionally focusing out at the waves to watch the intrepid surfers. It was so densely foggy you could only see out to the third set of waves and I kept wondering if the surfers bobbing out there ever got disoriented; in the meantime I noticed all the shorebirds (pelicans, gulls, etc.) had all landed and were in long groupings along the beach well above the tide mark. Very few people but the usual assortment of extremely happy doggies chasing stuff into the water and adorable toddlers getting their first cold saltwater caress. Would have loved to have seen the whales but the entire experience was so wonderfully detached from anything going on in our human crazyverse right now that I felt quite restored.

Just finished feeding myself and a too hardworking friend (working all the way through the weekend poor soul) a big green salad with lots of avocado, grilled spicy chicken, homemade sweet potato fries with chocolate truffle ice cream for dessert. Super easy, super yum.

My Louis the cat also came from a shelter and the two times I have had to get him into his carrier to go to the vet, its been an incredible struggle. It takes a grown man with giant garden gloves and me shoving from behind to get one medium sized orange tabby into a nice big carrier with comfy clean towels inside. He bites and growls and then cries like mad once inside and both times also immediately peed on the towels. Since the fires started this year I have been thinking about emergency evacuation procedures and I have decided to just throw him in the car (forget the damn carrier - I'll bring it along of course - but its more important to make sure he is out of the house first (he is more important to me than anything else, even pictures and documents) and I don't want to have to chase him around and try to force him into the carrier. Louis was found abandoned in a rural area in the winter and I bet his previous people put him in a carrier and then threw him out into the field when they did not want him anymore (he was already about 12 years old but an excellent mouser, so he survived until someone found him and brought him to the shelter). I'm not usually a violent person but if I ever met whomever abandoned him there would be fisticuffs!

I was able to get some wild caught halibut on sale (halibut is usually way too pricey nowadays for me, though I love it) and was planning on grilling it but the air quality is still just too bad here to stand outside long enough to grill. So risking drying the lovely fish out, I squeezed a bunch of Meyer lemon juice on the filet, liberally doused it with garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper and then put several pats of butter on top. Put it under the broiler and it came out extremely well. Shared some with the ruling feline, who seemed appreciative 🙂 Lovely cantelope for dessert.

No, no - we never told our families we were having a traditional large wedding and kept the money...it was all entirely above board with both families the idea of NOT having an expensive wedding and specifically asking people NOT to give us presents but instead money to fund the time abroad. (I needed to go to London in any case to finish my master's thesis) I think my parents spent $500 on the dinner and everything else we paid for ourselves (including our matching Tibetan white cotton wedding garments - remember: hippies). We got married at the rock quarry (now amphitheater) at UC Santa Cruz for those of you who know it...went back for our 40 wedding anniversary and had a celebratory dinner at the same restaurant as our wedding dinner just to come full circle. (Quoted ineptly from above): "Wow. You have some terrible family members who should only exist in fictional comedies. But I love your wedding cake! "...being hippies, it was a carrot cake with real cream cheese frosting..." Clearly you and your marriage have thrived despite your spiteful relations. " You are entirely and completely correct! But despite them all we were married joyfully for 41 plus years - my husband having preceded me (hopefully) to Heaven last Thanksgiving.