Bastet

Don't worry; in practice, you'll just be using a handful of Latin phrases.

After spending the afternoon at my parents' house yesterday, cooking up a nice variety of food that can be portioned out over the next several days, I came home and ate popcorn for dinner. What a doof.

My motion sickness kicked in just reading that.

I went to private schools, and at both of them buses were only used for things like field trips and away games, not for daily commuting (logistics, I guess, considering kids were coming from all over). So my impression of taking the bus to school came entirely from television. Needless to say, it was not a good impression.

This is what I just plain do not understand about the way Facebook, Twitter, etc. are commonly used. Whence does the idea come that people should, or will want to, know someone's every mundane move and/or thought? Let's go back just ten years -- only the most bored and narcissistic of people would have routinely sent out a group email saying things like, "I'm drinking a cup of coffee." The ability was there - one could have set up a mailing list with everyone's email addresses, called it "My Peeps," and in one click used that to disseminate information just as quickly as they now do by making a Facebook post - but the mindset that such a thing would be appropriate wasn't. And I'm truly perplexed as to the development of that mentality.

She has several jobs, actually. I didn't take it that way at all; Fox has been saying no to CC for so long, I think everyone involved figured this TV revival talk would go the same way as the movie talk did for years -- nowhere. So when a few short months later they're getting ready to film, I imagine all their heads are spinning a bit that Mulder and Scully really are going to come to life again.

Laurie Metcalf used to take Don Knotts to lunch semi-regularly to pick his brain; the Barney Fife stuff originated with her. As the characterization began to decline in later seasons, when they were writing to just a small handful of each character's traits rather than the full spectrum, that became really pronounced and started to feel cartoonish.

I don't like babies. Or toddlers. Or kids. This doesn't mean I think they're bad or want bad things to happen to them. Quite the opposite; I wish they were all safe, healthy, well fed, and nurtured into fine adults by people who love them. But I don't like them. (And I think that's different than saying I dislike them, which is why I didn't phrase it that way.) I'm not interested in them, I don't find them cute, I don't like being around them. Kind of like snakes, only much more difficult to avoid.

Yeah, I've always assumed the point of those signs was, from jump, simply to be an obnoxious twit, saying, "I'm carrying precious cargo, so don't run into me, cut me off, or otherwise do anything that might endanger The Baby." (Or, possibly, "Excuse my obnoxious driving, but I'm a helicopter parent who must keep my eyes on my baby in the rearview mirror at all times rather than watch the road, so, sorry for making you swerve or slam on your brakes, but, I reproduced and thus have special privileges.") Um, how about I drive safely because you're another human being using this road and that's my responsibility? Even though I like cats approximately 8,793 times more than I like babies, a "Cat on Board" sign would annoy me just as much.

I don't know if you're old enough to have had the opportunity, but did you watch the TV show (Alice)? I saw that first, and liked it, and when I finally saw the source material I realized I'd been missing out. What a terrific cast. Ellen Burstyn is one of those actors I pretty much always enjoy. As a point of useless trivia, my cat's middle name (yes, I give my cats middle names) is Alice, as an homage to White Rabbit ("go ask Alice") and to this.

Last night's dinner was macaroni & cheese. From a box. With the little packet of neon orange chemicals. And I loved every bite. Tonight, I'm going to roast chicken (I just stuff the cavity with lemon, garlic, rosemary and thyme, then put some herbs under the skin of the breast, season the whole thing and shove it in the oven). Roasted cauliflower and broccoli, plus my usual mixed greens salad. No starchy side, since I think that mac & cheese took care of about a week's worth. Tomorrow I'll pretty much spend the whole day at my parents' house cooking up a storm for them. I was supposed to do that today, and then spend tomorrow doing absolutely nothing, but my cat decided to wake up with half her face swollen like a balloon, so - change of plans. (The fluid they drained out contained nothing abnormal other than bacterial cells, so it seems to just be a bacterial infection, possibly from an insect bite; if that's the case, the antibiotic will take care of it. And the swelling has already gone down enough her eye is starting to open, so - yay. Fingers crossed this takes care of it.)

I hope that woman takes the time between when her psycho boyfriend/husband takes off after the neighbor and comes back upstairs planning to beat and kill her to run like hell. And then maybe she and the neighbor can each pick up some sort of Life Skills 101 book and learn how to turn the damn water off.

Wow. The ultimate for me still remains a friend who got hooked on Moonlighting via the truly awful fourth season, but I must say this comes in a solid second.

I'm drawing a complete blank here: When did Bobby Flay appear as a guest judge on Top Chef? (Or was it something else entirely?)

I don't want CC being the one to explore their relationship, because I don't think he knows how to write one. At all. "Dearest Dana," anyone? And, whoever's writing it, I prefer it just sort of there in the background, a comforting constant with scattered moments, rather than a storyline. But, on the other hand, there are a few of the franchise's writers who might be able to pull it off, and heaven knows GA and DD can take what's on the page and run with it like the wind, so ...

Disney employees are prone to calling the place "Mousewitz." I don't know anyone who has worked for the parks (which is where I believe the term originated), but it was adopted by those I know who work/worked for the studio and various affiliate companies. Corporations generally treat employees like cogs in a wheel, yes, but Disney is just on its own level.

Ha - such people on TV (or in life) make me want to gag (because I'd just about slap the hand off someone who tried to be touching me all the time). It's one of my main triggers to remember "different strokes for different folks."

And then treat them like interchangeable pieces of rubbish.

I don't remember if you were on the Roseanne forum on TWoP, but once or twice we laid out each and every tidbit from the Jackie/Fisher arc that signified the potential for abuse. It is really one of the most masterful things I've seen play out on television. I don't see the show get much media attention for that, then or now. I've done a good bit of domestic violence policy work - and done direct representation for a time, running the legal clinic of a DV shelter - and we talk about it a lot amongst ourselves. But even in the "everyone has a blog, so -- grassroots journalism" era, I don't think it ever got the attention it deserved. Maybe it was too subtle? But I think it was brilliant.

Leftover Chinese because, again, with the just home from the hospital thing. (My mom is not doing nearly as well as she was last year when she had the other knee done, but she was a medical marvel then; this time around is not cause for concern, it's just what normally happens. She'll be released tomorrow, and in time this will all be a faded memory and she'll finally have two fully-functioning knees for the first time in many, many years.) I'll be a cooking fiend by next week -- when she first gets home, she doesn't have much of an appetite (because she's not doing much), so my dad (who is not much of a cook) can pull together things for them to eat. After that, it's me making up a bunch of stuff to take to them that he can just heat and serve. So, I may have interesting things to report ... or I may say "Made huge casserole and took half to my parents and kept half here; will eat it daily for a week."

I suspect "selfies" would be on my last nerve if I used social media; since I don't, I am rarely subjected to them. I confess I find all of it rather silly -- that people seem to spend more time documenting the moments of their life than actually experiencing them. Watching life through a viewfinder is not my idea of fulfilling.

Me again, but this was my morning. Aware that customer service reps – and even much-loathed telemarketers – are just people trying to earn a living, I always start off polite, no matter how frustrated I am (because I also know they personally have nothing to do with the problem I’m having, have no control over their company's policies or product quality, etc.). And I know they have a script to work off of, and their job requires them to try and sell additional services while they have me on the phone. So I just politely decline. I'm not even annoyed; it is what it is and maybe once in a blue moon they have a promotion that actually makes financial sense. But when I’ve already done that twice (and with more than one person), I’m resolving the little problem that I have no dial tone on my phones (and am thus making this call from a cell phone that is going to die if this takes too long), and the rep still keeps trying to sell me “bundles,” I’m through being polite; I’ve told you what I want done, so either do that and only that or transfer me to someone who can. I have U-Verse for my internet. That’s all I want. I do not want it for my phone. I do not want it for my TV. I do not like green eggs and ham! Thank you, I feel better now.

It was only 8:30 my time, but most of my local places (Chinese, Thai, Italian, etc.) take delivery orders until just before 10:00 Sunday thru Thursday and until just before 11:00 Friday and Saturday nights. One pizza place and a Japanese restaurant that's open late will deliver until 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., respectively, on weekends.

It is a long-standing annoyance for me that few of the competitors - amateur or professional - make what I consider appetizers for the appetizer round. So, right out of the gate, I was rooting for the doll maker when she was the only one who offered what was, to me, the only actual appetizer. Drew's looked like something out of an Olive Garden commercial for never-ending pasta bowls.

A is for Arnie, Rose's first sexual partner after a very long post-Charlie dry spell.