smrou

Ooh, I am so looking forward to seeing pictures of this corgi puppy. Especially interacting with the cats!

I'm hoping it will make for a very green and pretty spring.

Not exactly spring-like here due to the continued presence of large piles of snow after last week's storm, but the last two days have been warm enough when I left work that I felt comfortable outside in a t-shirt. And looking at weather.com the forecast calls for rain on 10 days out of the next two weeks, so...I guess that's pretty spring-like.

Seriously, though.

This morning was so icy and gross. I spent close to 3 hours snowblowing and shoveling yesterday and was too lazy to go out and do the end of the driveway again before bed even though I could see that the plow had been through a few more times and left some big chunks. It wasn't a lot (most of the plowing happened before I started or while I was still out there) so I figured I'd just do it in the morning. That was a bad decision because those chunks were frozen solid by this morning. I chipped and kicked away what I could but ultimately just had to drive my little car over the big chunks and hope for the best.

Oh, another favorite of mine is "I Gave You a UTI".

I'm surprised this is new to you, actually, because I recall it being a fairly popular thing back around the time I was in graduate school, so more than 10 years ago, and I've never been one to be aware of trends before they get big. I've had it, but I'm not really a fan. I don't like solid things in my drinks as a general rule. But also I found something weird about the taste of the drink both times I tried it. I don't think I have a favorite CXG song, but easily the one I sing the most is "I Give Good Parent". It just gets stuck in my head for days at a time.

I love that show. So fun and weird. And today I was listening to the latest episode of the podcast The Sporkful and the person who recorded the sign off (they have listeners do that) introduced himself as "Paul from West Covina, California" and I immediately burst into song.

I hadn't heard that either. I also voted early and really appreciated that (getting to the polling place during its operating hours on election day would have been nearly impossible for me this year) and it was definitely popular. Something like 40% of all registered voters in my town voted early (the town clerk gave updates every day on Facebook). But I wonder if it's less expensive just to allow anyone a mail-in ballot, as they do in many other places. That would accomplish the same result in terms of giving people more flexibility.

I agree completely about all four.

I haven't watched Stranger Things, though it's been recommended to me a few times. Is it scary? I am a super wimp when it comes to scary stuff. Has anyone else checked out the new HBO show Big Little Lies? I watched the first two episodes and really like it.

I've experienced applause at movies a number of times. Most recently at the end of Hidden Figures, in fact. There have been a few times I've felt compelled to applaud a movie, though not in that particular case (much as I enjoyed the movie). When I've applauded it's because I just feel really blown away and need to do something to release that energy, even though I know it's kind of silly.

I would have loved to march, but am in a fairly enormous work crunch right now (term ends next week and I'm going to be out of town all weekend, so all my grading has to be finished this week, PLUS I'm taking a class which finishes up this week, so I had a final project and presentation to do) so I couldn't afford to spend most of the day out. My mother went to the march in Boston as well as one of my sisters as well as...well, basically lots of friends and coworkers. And a handful of my friends also went to the one in DC. Looking at pictures and videos yesterday and this morning felt good for my soul. While recognizing it's just a beginning and that LOTS of action needs to follow, I find it inspiring.

At least where I am, it's pretty cold today but supposed to warm up significantly over the course of the week. I've never heard of this tradition, but it does seem like it would make for an awfully hectic Christmas Eve. However, I don't take the tree down on New Year's Day. I keep it up for at least a week into January.

I've been so on top of things with gifts this year, which is pretty unprecedented to me. We draw names and only give gifts to one person in my immediate family, and I was lucky enough to draw my sister's name because I already had a gift idea for her. So I got that out of the way quickly, and just had to get a couple of things for my girlfriend. Yesterday I did some stocking stuffer shopping, but that's easy and fun (exciting things like candy and chapstick and socks). Saturday was apparently the day that eveyrone I knew had to throw a party, so I was declining invitations left and right because I'd already committed to going to a coworker's annual party, which is always lots of fun. And then yesterday I went over to my parents' house and was surprised when my sister and niece showed up. She just turned 8 months and I don't get to see her nearly often enough. Over the summer I was babysitting her once or twice a week, but since school has started I can go weeks without seeing her. Last time I saw her (at Thanksgiving) she was crawling and pulling herself up on things. Now she walks around (holding onto things) and crawls up stairs. There's just something new every time and it's so exciting and fun to watch.

I'm familiar with the no hands thing from a commercial the Norwegian curling team did a couple years ago that came across my FB feed. I have no hips or ass to speak of, which would be an advantage, but I have a huge belly that I think would present a challenge.

Sanford and Son knocked out in round 1?! Wow. I mean, I do love the Pinky and the Brain theme, but Sanford and Son is just so classic.

I love a good theme song. I'm pretty neutral on the one for OITNB--I like the song and Regina Spektor in general and I do think it sets the mood for the show, but I think if we got a shorter segment of the song it would probably be preferable. Speaking of OITNB, I took my time with the new season but just finished the last few episodes this week and found it awfully hard to watch and very very sad. I took a two-day break after the second-to-last episode and even then the finale hit me hard enough that I had to watch an episode of Veep before going to bed just to get my mind off OITNB. The Buffy theme song is one that I always immediately think of when considering what shows had good themes. That song just got me so pumped up for the episode every time. I watched the show mostly on DVD but never skipped the theme song. Every season I'd start out thinking, "Ugh, this version isn't nearly as good as the last one." And by the end of every season I always changed my mind and loved that version. So basically they're all awesome.

I watched the first episode of Peaky Blinders and was not sucked in. I would likely have watched more than one to see if it drew me in eventually if there weren't so many other shows I haven't watched and want to and so many shows I'm way behind on. Speaking of which, my project for the summer is The Americans.

Definitely. I picked Transparent as a favorite because I love it, and I know that it's officially considered a comedy, but I do not usually find it funny or even very light so it always seems a little weird to me to describe it that way. Whereas Jane the Virgin is very funny a lot of the time, but I don't think I had it categorized in my own head as a comedy. Catastrophe is pretty serious for a comedy, too, though it's definitely very funny.

Apparently I'm more into comedies at the moment than dramas because I had a lot more to pick on that poll than the previous one. And one of the shows I chose was Silicon Valley, which I really love.

possibilities, last year there was a robin that became obsessed with the windows in my kitchen door and would fly into it over and over for sometimes up to an hour at a time. But it went on for a couple of weeks. I tried some things to stop it, like putting lots of tape over the windows to try to disrupt any reflections it might be seeing or its view of something in the house that might be drawing it, but nothing worked. It was very weird.

FWIW, the actual voting process in all the places I've lived is pretty much the same. I walk in, give my address and name, they give me a ballot, I mark the names/items I want to vote for, I slide my ballot into the machine/box, and I leave. And when it comes to elections other than President*, the way voting correlates to a result is simple. People vote, the votes are counted, majority wins. It's the Presidential election that gets all weird with the complicated primary process and the whole electoral college system. Our whole state structure really mucks with things there. *I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I am can point to other positions that have similarly complicated election processes, but I can't think of any. When I first voted it acted like it registered my vote (in that the screen changed and it showed results) but the results didn't show any actual votes. When I voted again later it actually showed results. So yeah, I think it's wonky. FWIW, I voted for grapes mostly because I think it's the only thing on the list that I haven't already had and enjoyed in a salad (unless we're counting fruit salad, which I'm not). Eggs? Well, I like Cobb salad, which has eggs. Broccoli? I love those Broccoli salads that typically have some bacon and I think nuts and stuff. Beets? I *love* beet salads. (I love beets in general. They're like candy! Earthy candy!) Onions, cucumbers, feta, etc. Those are all very standard (and welcome) salad ingredients, as far as I'm concerned.

I have plans to watch it this weekend! I would've watched it Tuesday but I barely have time to watch a TV show during the week, let alone a whole movie. But my girlfriend has never seen it (and doesn't even know the basic plot!) so I put that on the schedule for Saturday. I love Groundhog Day.

Of those 30 "surprising" stars, excluding season 9 (which I've never seen), only one was a surprise to me. I didn't know Michael Bublé was ever on the show (nor would I recognize him).