Cloudy Today

I like my status for yesterday's post this morning - Clouds providing lots of shade today - trying to put a cloudy day in a positive (not so scintillating) light. Yippee!

Watched Philomena last night. I enjoyed it. I kinda thought it was based on a true story before I watched it. Turns out it was. Judi Densch was great. Mom, unfortunately, slept through the whole movie.

Also started watching Daredevil on Netflix. Too absorbing. I think I watched five episodes at least before I forced myself to go to sleep. My eyeballs just about fell out of my head.

My goal for the day is to do nothing Smith related. We shall see if I can manage. I probably ought to pay some bills. And think about what I need to do next week for the Smith and for life in general. I think laundry time is creeping up on me again. Yippee. 

Yay paid a few bills. I feel so virtuous when I pay bills. I do remember a while in my life where paying them was painful beyond compare. Sigh.

Ok, so I am making a list of all the things I need to do for the Smith tomorrow - eeeeeek!

Spotify - One list (Cave)

Movie Playlists - two - Cave and Whiplash

Mail chimp - Tasting Note Send

Mail Chimp - start Mail Blast Movie May! (Even Toeprints is getting into the action)

New website - enter movies for May

Start list of movies for June

Double Check June with Kelly

Double Check May with Kelly

Update Instructions Sheet for Ticket selling

Send Email about training session for Projectionists (re box office and refresher on things)

Send email about cleaning session at the Smith

Send email about RPO on Friday

Check with Mexican Film and contact the guy

Look at Snake movie and contact them

Download Call Security’s music video

Contact Stephen Giamotti and see what is up with Young Adulterated

Contact HBO woman again

Meet with Jocelyn and do conference call

Meet with Jessica and talk about ticket selling - and scanning

Order the internet boosters (2 at least)

See if I can figure out what is wrong with the little computer and its battery

Call Damien and see if he can scrub our two laptops of viruses and such

Call Carl Blewshewke at Finger Lakes Health and see if he is doing the graduation or if somebody else is

Look through email for anything pending

There are probably more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head - oh, wait, I did think of one - check the weather and set up heating/cooling. 

Now mom's toilet innards need replacing again. Yet mine remain fine. What is up with that? I will try to buy innards tomorrow or Tuesday.

So, I finally finished the campaign of Advanced Warfare. I really hate quicktime cut scenes and events. Which is why I like the Bethesda games so much - those only happen when in dialogue and nothing of extreme consequence happens during dialogue. Anyway, I played my first game online and went 17-18 and was second on our team, which makes me pretty happy. Playing on a map with a load out that was less than optimal and totally not understood by me, I am very pleased with that result. Yippee! Tomorrow is another day.

Zip, zoom, zowie

Here we are, almost to mid April. I think the time goes weirdly when the weather is weird. Then again, maybe I am just weird. Weird is a weird word.

I just paid a couple of bills. It is that sort of day. Time to get some stuff accomplished that has been accumulating. Mom gets her STAR exemption, I mail the taxes (I still don't understand how I, who earns so little owe state taxes - seriously it is mind boggling - but then again, I do live in NYS and we are one of the more heavily taxed states), Netflix gets its latest movie back, and my retirement gets another bit of funding (yes, mom's Publisher's Clearing House entries are waiting to be put together). And I am sleepy. I am looking forward to the day when I can sleep and wake when I want to, not with the Mom Clock waking me at hours that make sense to her. Sigh. Snore.

My plan is to crank through the stuff that I have piled on my bed, and then start to think about Smith stuff. I know that I want to go in and work on the copier issues - get scanning and emailing up and working, get the PS (post script) printer drivers up and running on the two office computers and maybe some of the laptops, keep working on Theatre Manager (trying to learn how to design tickets to be scanned and how to scan them to show them as used)(and other stuff).

Honesty is a rare thing, I find. A checker at Wegman's gave me $.75 because she took my bottle return coupons one day six months ago and forgot to take them off my receipt. How great is that?!

So many great lines in The Big Bang Theory. Just saying.

Great Purchase and an Owie

Starting with the bad news, I have a paper cut on my right hand ring finger. Owie. I probably ought to put a bandaid on it so that it doesn't catch on everything it can possibly catch on. Sigh.

My calendar was not up-to-date! I forgot to put in my appointment today with the Elder Care Attorney. She told me that the initial consultation was free - to determine if there was aught she could do for us. Thereafter it will be $250 an hour. Sigh. I haven't looked through my papers yet to see what all I have in my plastic tub. I don't know where the deed to the house is - I think it is in mom's safe deposit box. I wonder how I get access to that. Hmm. I will ask at the bank at some point. I don't think that is a crucial thing for the meeting today. I really do need to call the long term care people and see if the POA (Power of Attorney) I sent them was sufficient to grant me access to the account. We shall, of course, see.

My plan is to get my Smith stuff taken care of this morning. I need to build the two movie playlists, make the two spotify playlists, finish the Mail Chimp Weekly Email Blast and see what I can do about getting the other mail blast for PUSH closer to completion. I ought to be able to do all of that by noon. Hopefully.

Oh, the purchase of Greatness. I really like Aaron Sorkin's work. He writes really well and mostly gets good writers to continue his shows. I bought the complete Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip for $10 (including shipping)! Mom and I watched three episodes last night. Ok, mom napped during parts of them, but she was there on the sofa beside me. Yay!

Time for some work. Good morning!

Looks like mom got Shingles after all. Crap. We will head to the doctor's office tomorrow or Thursday.

Movie thoughts

I like to let my creative juices stew. I am thinking that I am going to add mostly sound effects rather than music to the movie. And I need to find a few places where I can slow down the mad rush forward - when I put in large groups of pieces. Yes, this is going to take time. It is all in the editing. Though lots of good footage (which I don't really have) helps a lot. Static camera does not a compelling project make - in my humble opinion...

I was going to get a lot accomplished today - at least that was my plan. Didn't quite work out that way. My friend from Syracuse came and spent the day, mostly hanging out with mom. She did, though, inspire me to take the Christmas tree down. Needles, needles everywhere. Luckily my friend was handy with a vacuum cleaner! And the vacuum cleaner worked (thanks to my tender ministrations a while ago). Yay.

Next step, get the compost out to the composter. Despite the warming trend and the pleasant temperatures, there was still a good amount of snow between me and the device. It took a couple of trips, but all of the stuff is in there now. It is getting really full. I wonder how to actually get dirt out of the thing. Hmm. Maybe I will wait until the weather is really warm to figure it out. Anyone out there have experience with my sort of composter?

Lunch was tuna melts - tuna salad containing mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, celery, chopped green olives, ground pepper and a little bit of garlic. I used some of mom's Jarlsberg cheese. Yum! Dinner was feta, onions, green pepper and mushroom omelettes, bacon, tater tots and frozen waffles. I think we all had too much food. I am still full at this point (it is 9:50 pm as I type this).

Now mom and I are watching PBS - Selfridges was on. I don't know what else will be. We shall see.

Time to make a movie-let

After finishing my little 500 piece puzzle and the capturing the raw video, now I get to try and put together a little movie showing the puzzle process. Hopefully I didn't scratch myself inappropriately too often. Hmm. I will, of course, watch it before I post anything. I hope to have the next couple of days off from doing too much Smith work - so I might be able to knock something out then. Oh, and laundry. I really could do with a trip to the laundromat.

So, the first look at the puzzle movie looks like it is 2 hours long. Um, no. I am thinking the whole thing needs to be about five minutes total. We shall see if I can make that happen. Got it down to 10 minutes so far. I will see if that will do. I want to add some times, maybe some simple transitions, some narration etc. Fun fun fun!

It has been a weird day today. I am not sure why. Mom forgot that she had eaten lunch. And dropped all of her pills - she self recovered a few of them. Yay. I did shower and trim my beard, so there's that. And I did some catch-up in my email.

I went into the Smith to get things ready for the Oscars viewing event. The first problem was that no ABC channels had a strong signal strength. Grrrr. I went to put the antenna outside, but the lid was snowed shut - meaning that we had to climb out to the roof and do some shoveling. Then there was the problem of getting the images right on the screen. Took a little playing around, but we got there. And then, it was time to get mom some dinner. Then back to the Smith - I got the video down in the basement/cabaret working - Terren got the sound working. And there really wasn't anything for me to do anymore, so I came home.

Mom and I watched some Oscars, though I did pop down and watch a little of the baking show. Then we watched Downton Abbey together - lots of drama of course - then back to the Oscars for mom and Grantchester (and the Oscars) for me.

Sunday Night and Tuesday

I forgot to write about Sunday night. It was our tv night together. Starting with the news. Then 60 minutes. I like 60 minutes generally - though who knows how balanced their reporting actually is. Then we put it on PBS for the rest of the night. Starting with the British Baking show. Sadly, my favorite participant got booted. I saw it coming, though. Next we watched the most recent episode of Season 5 of Downton Abbey. Not too much exciting happened except for the middle sister taking control of her child and moving out. Yay! Poor Edith. Somewhere in there, they showed an ad for Grantchester - which is not a great show - but it is enjoyable. I think the lead looks a little like the guy on The Mentalist. It is at least somewhat entertaining. And that was it. Four hours of TV with mom. I think she slept for 3 of it all together. Sigh.

Great progress on the puzzle today! I finally found a piece that connected to the edge. Woohoo! Sadly, I was vindicated in my thought that I had the whole frame backwards. That was joyous, flipping it around. One of the problems with my rolling up mat is that it isn't slippy slidy - which is probably good in most cases - but is causing me a few problems with sliding big chunks of completed puzzle bits around.

Feeling sleepy today and there is a long row to hoe. First ho to roe is more sno-blow (ing). I don't think we got that much snow since yesterday, but the snowplows have done an excellent job of blocking the end of my driveway again. Joy and rapture.

After that, a whole bunch of Smith work - we have three movies playing 7 times this week and a mail blast that needs to go out today. For the movies I need to a) create movie playlists, b) create spotify playlists, c) make sure the heat is timed to go on and off, and d) make sure the pre-film slideshow is current. The email blast, always a bit of a pain, needs to be mildly creative and a little witty and needs to be out by 4 this afternoon.

Then, of course, there is all the stuff that I am supposed to be doing at home - making calls about mom's future, paperwork, bill paying, napping...oh, wait, I don't know that there will be a lot of napping going on today...

I am mildly irked because the Daily Challenge videos have stopped working - I have tried a couple of browsers to no avail. I am not irked enough about it to do anything. And Allison was getting pretty boring...

Snowblowing accomplished! Now for some Smith work. Ok, my brain is fried. We have a lot of movies coming up in the next couple of weeks. Still grinding away...

Finally! Gosh that is effortful - creating the Mail chimp email mailing. I also built six or so playlists for upcoming films. All I have left to do are the spottily playlists and making sure the heat will be on when it needs to be on for the upcoming events. Yippee!

Puzzle progress has been made - despite all my other stuff today - more will be made tonight, I am sure.

Yay progress

I might have started the puzzle on the wrong side. Who knew that there was a right side and a wrong side? Now I do!

Laughing and crying. You know it's the same release

We had a family conference call last night to talk about the future and mom. Some tears were shed on my part at least. Yippee! Yay tears! Cheers for tears! Anyway, we also got some thoughts on how to proceed. It is sad there isn't a one stop shop for this - but there isn't apparently - elder lawyer for some information, social worker for other things, nursing home or wherever for other things, etc. And it is all about the benjamins. Sigh.

After the phone call, I watched a couple episodes of Fringe last night. I love Walter! And very happy that JJ Abrams is doing the new Star Wars movie.

Not sure where this thought came from - I typed it at some point last night: I remember when I got a raise - I always thought - "They love me even if they are scared of me! Woohoo!!!"

Who knows how each of our top ten movies gets chosen? I know mostly that The Princess Bride is my number one, most favorite movie. Followed closely by Galaxy Quest and Serenity (despite the ********spoilers*************************************************************** deaths of a couple key characters). Robin and the Seven Hoods is definitely in the top twenty-five.

Got some Chinese food tonight for dinner - not a lot because we still had leftovers from last time - got some Egg Drop soup - in fact the plan was just to get that - but I ended up getting some shrimp toast - yum - and some steamed dumplings - still not my favorite dumplings in Geneva, but they'll do in a pinch!

So, I have started the next puzzle. I have done a little work here and there on it - but the first sort of substantial progress can now be revealed!

Almost got the edge completed, sort of...

Less Owie now

Thank you for all of your kinds words and thoughts and gifts! I especially love the padded ring finger cozy that someone (who shall remain nameless)(particularly since it was an anonymous gift) sent me.  I can almost type without worry again. Yippee and huzzah!

Day three of my juicing experiment. Only 87 more days to go! And I haven't started trying mom on it yet. I want to get a formula working that tastes decent for me before trying to get one that tastes decent for mom. Lemon juice helped a lot. Someone else suggested trying golden beets - I am going to look for them at Wegman's when I go food shopping today. But I digress, which is perfectly normal. No exciting changes that I can tell so far. My hair isn't falling out, or growing faster or anything. At least I have not reached the cousin it resemblance stage yet...

A-Smithing I will go! Today is getting ducks in a row for October movies! Yay! Updating the website and then adding the movies to our pre-event slide show. Fun and exciting times are had by all.

Oh, we found the nature videos again. Mom watched a lot of them back a while ago. The main problem I have with them is that there is no "auto play" feature. So I have to try and check on her after each one is over. Not something I can put on and go about my business with. I hope she continues liking Doc Martin. She is, unfortunately, over the "As Time Goes By" series. Sigh.

Getting Started Again

Hi All! (Or both) It has been a while since I have posted. Mostly because I haven't felt like it. I am sure that there are little things, medium sized and maybe large sized things I could have written about, but I just didn't feel like writing. I didn't want to sit and write. I wanted to sit and do other stuff. Like play bridge on my phone. Or play on my xBox. Or stare off into the distance. Or watch Star Trek or Pan Am. I have also been working a good bit. Actually the next two weeks are going to be busy at The Smith. And I have a bunch of stuff to do to get ready for that. In fact, I am putting that off right now and writing this instead.

Quick catch up since July. Mom - deteriorating pretty well - she has some puffy leg issue that we are trying to fix. The doctor has given her medicine and wants her to go back on the c-pap machine - mom doesn't want to go back on the c-pap machine. Mom isn't doing the other things she is supposed to be doing - like drinking lots of fluids and exercising (ha) - and keeping her feet elevated. One of her new behaviors is to sit on the edge of the bed and read. For hours. So I am not surprised that her ankles are getting puffy. I am hoping to try the ABC miracle juice thing with her - more on that in a bit. She has been on a kick of watching Doc Martin a lot. And I recently got us the existing Downton Abbey DVDs. Those we have been watching together. I don't know yet if she will want to watch them multiple times or not. Yesterday we voted. Could well be her last time voting. She could barely sign her name - even with help from me and from the check-in person (who's daughter - Mary Van something went to school with Juliet apparently). Sigh. We shall see what happens come November. So, the long and the short of mom is - she keeps moving forward slowly and so far we are both managing her being here in the house. Huzzuh. Oh, we went to the dentist too - well, mom got her teeth cleaned.

On my end - I am working a lot at the Smith. I have an owie on my right ring finger. My bankruptcy is all through. I am starting to work on my beer vlog. I went on two dates with a nice person and then she stopped writing back. I am playing too much xBox (well, other people would say that was the case). I am not getting out much. I do hope to get mom and me to Maine in October. Ah, the miracle juice thing. I have read stuff about what drinking beet (ick) apple and carrot juice can do for one's health. They say a minimum of 60 days to see real results. I drank some this morning and felt nauseous for the first four hours afterwards. Sigh. Maybe some lemon juice will help. I'll try that tomorrow.

Burned the Brussels Sprouts

Sigh city. I really do like brussels sprouts. I didn't mean to burn them. I made a batch for dinner and then cooked a second batch to be eaten like popcorn or tossed into other dishes. Sadly, I left them cooking for five hours. That wasn't good for them. No one noticed the smell, I guess. Mom, for one, wouldn't have been able to figure out how to turn the toaster oven off. Then again, I am not really sure that is true. She does seem to be able to figure out how to turn things on and off. Though that is about the limit of her acknowledged cognizance of things technical.

Speaking of mom, I plan to take her to the race track again. I know that she has fun there. It is a pleasant way to spend a nice afternoon. Maybe sometime this month. Still haven't figured out what to do about Kristen's wedding. My guess is that we will just not go. Finding someone to watch mom for a few days is not an easy task. And I haven't gotten my ducks in a row regarding mom. Sigh. I really need to do that too.

Carrot or the stick? I tend to work better with the carrot - or even better with carrot cake. How about you? When you have things you would like to do, do you beat yourself up and take away things? Or do you promise yourself a treat when they are done?

A package I ordered finally arrived. Yay! Mom has been watching a lot of Doc Martin lately - I mean at least 10 times through the whole series. Not that she really remembers it, but I think it is beginning to sink in, that she has seen it before. Oh, that reminds me of a funny - well, not funny, but interesting perhaps - there is a DVD of Victor Borge that she loved to watch, until she found out that it was a recording of a show he had done. Some part of her brain thought that she was watching a live performance of his, right then, right there. Anyway, I bought her a set of DVDs of As Time Goes By - starring one of her favorite performers - Judi Densch. I hope this goes over better than the NCIS series I got for her.

Touch of evil

Is it particularly evil of me to reassure my mom that her assessment of herself in relation to me is accurate? I try to resist the temptation and do the deflecting, disingenuous thing, but many times, the honest answer pops out. Mom says "I am a damn nuisance" and I say "Yes you are." Is there any chance that she will choose to not be needy? Nope. But hope springs eternal. Today it was compresses for her eyes. She ran out of artificial tears and I haven't been to the store to get more. So, to hopefully mitigate some of the comments, I offered to give her a cold compress. "Is there such a thing?" Yes, there is. I put it on. "It's cold." "Yes, it is. Would you prefer a warm compress?" "Is there such a thing.""[Silence as I go down the hall to get a fresh washcloth - warm it up with warm water and return.]""It's not very warm.""It cooled down on the way here." As I walk down the hall, mom says "Why am I sopping wet?" "[In my head "Exaggerate much?!"]"Do you want me to take the compress away?""I guess so. I'm a damn nuisance." "Yes, you are."

Ok, moving on. This blog isn't all about mom - though she is obviously a large part of my life at present. She is not my entire life. Yay! My Saturday - aside from the above incident - was pretty pleasant. I woke up too early and stayed up - with a couple of naps later in the day to tide me over. I wrote a lot of notes - I do love writing. Wish my books had both been bestsellers. Sigh. Maybe another one will be. Anyway, my plan was to do a lot of nothing all day. Except for what I had to do - like cook for lunch and dinner. And that is what I did. I wrote a lot. Played some on the xBox (double XP weekend for some reason on Ghosts). I did go out into the world - got some food at Wegman's - still love to go food shopping - didn't see anyone I knew there, which was surprising - and gas for the car. And that was it. My total foray into the great outdoors.

Thought about the Smith very little. I did take a call from a projectionist who I had forgotten to train on our new power sequencer. Sigh. We muddled through, though, so that was ok too. I did a lot of dishes and got to listen to a lot of my current audio-book - Allegiant - third and last in the primary arc of the Divergent series of books. I made chicken fajitas for dinner. For mom, I mixed most everything together right in the pan - including the salsa. But not the cheese or the sour cream. I really ought to have mixed those in for her - as the first thing she did - wait, I am trying to get away from my blog being totally about her. Moving on. After dinner, I set mom up and went to write and play some more. Eventually, everything wound down and mom went to bed while I watched TNG. I have not reached the point where DS9 comes in. The end, although not quite in sight, is at least acknowledgeable. 

Everyday is another day. I really need to sort through the mail that has been accumulating on my desk. And I do had to go into the Smith to help a projectionist through his first time projecting for us. Other than that, footloose and fancy free! Yay!

I do like Winter

I really do like winter. Not as much as one of my myriad (6) nephews, but I do find it to be, over all, enjoyable. Especially when it is really winter. Not like it has been the past couple of years up here in Geneva. Nor as it was in NC. Here, we are having many days of sub freezing weather in a row. How refreshing. I love the crunch of the snow under my boots. And the top of Seneca lake is decently frozen. I, for one, would love to see the whole lake frozen over. I don't think that has happened since the 1920s. I don't mind shoveling. I don't mind snowdrifts. Or the sound of snow falling. I like icicles. I just like winter. Do I want to live in Winter year-'round? Uh, no. I do like the seasons. So, wherever I end up, I would like it to be a place with seasons.

Mom is making more and more noises about a nursing home. I do wish that we knew what our "must use by" date was. That would make planning so much easier. Our resources are finite, sadly, so I must weight that into the equation. Also, I think she is still compos mentis enough that she is benefiting from being at home. And with the aide coming for a bit every day, I think she is getting a bit more socialization. I am actually meeting with a woman who also wants to help out - unfortunately for pay - so I will see what happens there. Maybe on the weekends for an hour or two? Maybe when I need to get away for a day, she can come in a few hours here and there to keep an eye on mom. Just expanding my support network incrementally.

Finished listening to the second book in the Divergent series. Not surprised to find out (spoiler alert) that they were an experimental society. One more book to go. I read someplace that the main character dies (which is a difficult thing since she is the narrator...). I am, though, going to take a break from those books and listen to a book in the Songs of Fire and Ice Series (better known as the Game of Thrones books).

I am so excited! I bought the first five seasons and the two movies of Doc Martin for mom. I was going to get them on Amazon, but decided to check ebay, just in case. On Amazon, they were being sold for $55. I got them on Ebay for $45! Go me! Saved ten dollars. Woo hoo! (Free shipping on both in case you were wondering) And no tax on Ebay. So I might have saved even more. Double woo hoo!!

Just watched Beautiful Creatures - almost good, very close to good in fact. Lumpy here and there. I didn't really thrill to the lead male character. It comes from a book and I would be that the book is better. Still, I am glad to have seen it. 

Starting to get sketchy

My current secret (ha, I am blogging about it) pleasure has been watching all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. I will follow (and intersperse) these with DS9 and Voyager. Someday will watch Enterprise. Anyway, I am working on Season 4 and already my memories of episodes is getting sketchier. I think this is when I started doing other stuff and didn't have as much time for television. 1991, I was in the Bay Area - either working at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory or the Lawrence Hall of Science. Good but busy times. Maybe good and busy. Hmm.

You know, the "marshmallows" in Lucky Charms don't really taste like marshmallows. Doesn't mean I don't like them or won't eat them...not that I would eat Lucky Charms at my advanced and advancing age (nearly 53, eeek!!).

Speaking of sketchy, my mom freaked out the other morning. I told her I was heading to Rochester - she was still asleep. She is not at her most cogent when she first wakes up. Not until after she has broken her fast and had some coffee is she truly as awake as she will get during a day. So I probably should have told her that I was going to the Smith instead of where I was actually going. Yes, it would have been a lie, but it wouldn't have been as stressful as hearing that I was driving to Rochester and back. Anyway, I was in the middle of my meeting - about which I will write in March - when my phone rang - it was my boss from The Smith. No, no disaster there - instead Asta had called there for some reason. And Asta had been called because for some reason she is still shown as an emergency contact somewhere for my mom. Why aren't these things checked by the companies that provide these services once a year or even every six months? Sigh. Anyway, I called home to find that mom had freaked out and called 911 - complaining that everything was broken (in her body) and she couldn't move. Apparently the handle to the toilet might have broken (it didn't). How she had discovered that from her bedroom (remember, everything was broken, she could not see or move) is a mystery for the ages. I called back a little later and spoke with one of the two Ambulance drivers who said that mom had told them that nothing was really wrong and that she didn't want to go anywhere. I told her than an aide was coming soon and that she would be able to watch my mom until I returned. All ok. But it was a smidge scary and disheartening.

Wee tree dings

Of orient are...

Anyway, I started to watch The West Wing on Netflix last night and I couldn't stop. I watched three episodes and could have watched three more without a hesitation. A glance at the time stopped me, though, since I had to be at the Smith at 9 in the morning to check in with the workers. What a fun show - good writing, good stories. I had forgotten most of what I had seen - if I had ever seen it before. I know I saw the pilot. And some of the rest of the next four seasons (I stopped watching after Aaron Sorkin left) So, if I don't post a blog, I am going to blame it on The West Wing!

For dinner, I got Arby's food last night. I was, yet again, aghast at how much a fast food dinner for two adults of decent appetite costs! Glarg, even! And it was ok. We had two sandwiches, onion rings, curly fries, a soda and two chocolate lave cakes. Honestly, my primary reason for choosing Arby's this time was because of the cakes. Sadly, they were not totally awesomely delicious. They were good, just not great. Curly fries with Horsey Sauce, well, those are another magnitude of yum. Not worth going there all the time for, though.

Sometimes I leap to the most negative conclusion I can imagine. Case in point. Last night, I went to fill a Brita pitcher. The sink was, sadly, a tad full, so I tried to cram the inflexible pitcher under the spigot  in several different ways to no avail. Finally, I removed some of the dishes in the sink and put the pitcher in - only to find that no water came out of the tap! Eeek! The water in the house is broken! Maybe a water main is being repaired. Maybe a pipe in the house is broken and water is gushing into the basement! How much will that cost to fix? Who is going to come fix it at 1 in the morning? Where is the water turn off? Where would I look for a leak? What will mom do for water for washing up and flushing and things? Listen for sounds of running water, nothing...Upstairs, the water worked fine. Hmm. Back downstairs, kitchen sink faucet still not producing water. Now wait a sec, there is a filter thingamabob on the faucet - that hasn't been used as an active filter since 1984 and there is a little slidy switch thing that just might...yup, that did it. Flowing water. I hope no one was looking or listening to my thoughts. Phew, even.

Finished TOS

Recently, I watched the last episode of Star Trek (The Original Series). I am glad I sat through them all. Good stuff, and so ahead of its time. I still love Spock best. Watching them all again, uncut and cleaned up, was good fun! And it certainly was revealing. Now, though, I don't know what to do. Start Next Generation? Or should I watch something else for a while. West Wing sort of appeals. Any advice or suggestions will be entertained. I am watching on Netflix, so please suggest things from there.

Still puttering at the Smith.  Mostly I spent an hour setting the space up for a film - rolling out speakers, bringing in the screen, making sure the borders and the legs masked the screen well. I also did some neatening of the area in front of the stage. And worked on the slide show. Sadly, the slide show was not the right shape. I tried to adjust the size using the proprietary software that we use - to no avail. The tech support people suggested I resize the document in Powerpoint instead of using their scaling tool. Which I have done. Yay!

Yesterday we also had a great Smith Buildings and Grounds meeting. I am very excited about the work that is being done there. Yay! I also got to show Blue Jasmine for the first time. One down, three to go. I didn't watch the whole thing - I got too antsy. I will probably watch the whole thing on Sunday at 2 when mom is in the audience.

Michael J. Fox is my age

Just sayin'! Anyway, I watched his new sitcom on TV last night and it made me sad for some reason. He was fine, the characters and set-up are fine. It just made me sad. And I don't think I will watch it again. Partly because it made me sad. Largely because it is on network tv and I can't stand sitting through the commercials. I mean they really make my skin crawl. I must admit, having an iPad handy does make them a bit more palatable. But still, I would rather not be inundated with them if I don''t have to be.

I went to the Farmer's market yesterday. The pickings were kinda slim. It looked like a third of the vendors weren't there. I think next week is the last week for this particular market. Eeek! Anyway, I looked at several booths and then decided to spend all of my hard earned, hmm, not so hard earned coupon dollars at one. I bought: small seedless grapes - yum city!! - leeks - haven't figured out what to do with them - a cool sweet red/orange banana pepper - some beets - for dinner on Saturday night - some kale - out of which I made baked kale chips that were ok - I need to make them into smaller pieces for mom next time - and five ears of corn which I steamed last night - mom ate two of them! Go her! I am glad, in some ways, that she still has her appetite. And sometimes a sense of humor. Yippee!

We also watched a collection of short Pixar films. I thought they were enjoyable overall - even though I had seen most of them before. I am not sure whether or not mom liked them. I think she did. Mom used to own Pixar stock which became Disney stock which she sold. She used to be a big fan of Pixar but has forgotten all of that. Sigh. 

I didn't spend much time at the Smith yesterday. Yippee! And the fire curtain installation is proceeding on the schedule that was last presented to us. Two crews helps a lot! Speaking of the Smith - I get to show Blue Jasmine a few times this weekend. Huzzuh!

I looked into getting tickets to Matilda. There were $50+ of service charges for buying two tickets! Oh my god, no! I have to figure out some other way to get tickets. Maybe Erich would buy them for us and then we could pay him back. Or something. $50 is parking in NY or a lot of other things. Service charges my butt! $2 a ticket - maybe. Even that is stupid. Why are there service charges? What services are they providing? Glarg!

What to write when there's nothing to write?

Just writing total nonsense is an option of course. Not that I would ever do that without warning. But I am not in a nonsensical sort of mood. I could write about the loads of nothing I did yesterday. Sigh. But that gets a bit tedious, even for me. I could write about Mom and her wild gadding about town - except that didn't happen, which brings us back to the nonsense option in any case. I could write about Star Trek (TOS)(The Original Series) episodes I watched last night - one of my favorites amongst them - A Piece of the Action. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Yesterday was a "Jenny the Aide" day. Mom got washed, her bedsheets got changed. Life is clean and happy and good. I also re-taped mom's self inflicted, scratched, wounded forehead. Later in the day, she trimmed all of her fingernails, all by herself! I am so grateful that mom is so self-capable. I keep reading horror stories about later stages of this disease and quail at the thought of going through some of that stuff. Thankfully, we are not there yet. May the powers that be (if there are any powers that be) grant that mom not suffer through that.

Dinner was fairly typical and mom seemed to enjoy it - cheese stuffed hamburgers, corn on the cob, green salad and tater tots. Mom didn't ask me if I made the tater tots myself or if I bought them. Is this a bad sign?

Here I am, writing about Star Trek, TOS. I don't know why I enjoy A Piece of the Action so much, but I do. Maybe it is Shatner's over acting (as usual) that just fits somehow. Or Spock in his suit and hat. Or the little kid who wants a piece of the action. I just think it is a great, fun episode. It seems that the latter half of the second TOS season is filled with the crew exploring planets with Earth reflections - this one, a roman one, the Nazi one and one about the Yangs versus the Kohms. Interesting. Or as Spock says quite a bit - Fascinating!

I don't know why I wrote my post and forgot to publish it for so long yesterday. It's not like it was an exceptionally full day. Oh well, life is just like that sometimes!

Smith Day, mostly

When David asked me to work the Geneva High School graduation, I thought it would be a couple hours of work. Little did I know that I would have to be getting up really early and working really late. Luckily, there was time in the middle for me to get some stuff accomplished and to take a nap. Yay, naps!

I set two alarms on my phone - one for 7:05 and one for 7:35. I love that I can set an alarm on my phone - and it has so far worked to have me awake at the proper time. I rarely wake up to the alarm, though. My body wakes me up before the alarm goes off. Sometimes, sadly, much earlier than the alarm. Like yesterday. I woke up at 6:15. In the morning! Eeeek! Being a lad of the night, I really prefer the late night hours to the early day hours. Oh well. This time I got the early hours. My body knew what it was doing (sometimes we just have to give it a little listen). I woke up, worked on my blog, took a shower and finished my blog - all in time to get me to the church, er theatre, on time.

Upon arrival, I was greeted with organized chaos with no one seemingly in charge. Sigh. But everything got done - we got the video tested and helped with setting up for the graduation. I knew some of the kids from working on the musical earlier in the year. Some of them actually seemed to remember me, while others seemed to not see me at all. Whatever. Big class!

After the morning stint of work, it was back to the house for some lunch. Mom was still asleep, so I don't think she missed me too much. She was having a bad day, though. Repeating the same question about a zillion times. A very nice person purchased both of my books and I spent a few minutes getting a couple signed, personalized, packaged and mailed. Mom spent the whole time asking me who was buying the books, how did they find out about them, and saying that I was a productive person and she was impressed because she had never written a book, had she? I tried to answer all the questions as often as she asked them, and to try to bolster her self-esteem - a never ending task that doesn't seem to be successful - by telling her about all the papers she had written and the people's books she had edited. Fun stuff, here at Chez Schoen-René. After I got it together, I took it on the road and walked the three minutes to the Hobart Post Office. The postal worker added a yard of packing tape to the package. I think I should have sent it first class. Not because there was any personal correspondence in there, but because the last time I sent my books by media mail, they never got to their intended recipient. Hopefully that won't be the case this time.

Post lunch nap was great!

Eventually, I fed mom some dinner - all leftovers - continuing my efforts to remove perishables from the fridge before we leave for a week - she got salmon, broccoli and corn on the cob. As I was leaving, I pointed again at the big poster I created to help her figure out what channel she should turn to for what. Unfortunately, she paid it no heed and just sat and watched whatever PBS threw at her. Sigh. That is one of the problems I have with leaving so early (right at dinner time) is that mom is technically incapable of figuring things out on her own. She sometimes manages to change the channel on the tv. And she has been pretty good at figuring out how to turn the TV off. But I fear the time is coming where she won't even be able to manage those things on her own. Eeep. Tonight, I have movie offerings for her that might appeal. Not that I will be out and about tonight - I have to pack for us both for the trip to Maine.

The Graduation started with a hiccough. (What? When did it stop being spelled that way?) Well, before it started, I was amazed to see the mass of humanity waiting to get into the Smith. I managed to find parking and to squeeze myself through the throngs and into the theatre. I checked to make sure that everything was where I had left it and waited to start the slideshow. That is where the hiccup, if I must, happened. The video had no sound and froze half way through. Sigh. I tried everything I could to get sound back - David tried, Greg tried. Finally we just popped the disc, started it again, fast forwarded (very slowly) up to the point it froze, and it worked fine after that. Sigh. I hate windows machines (laptops and desktops, both, equally). I really, really do.

The rest of the graduation seemed to go smoothly. As did the striking of the sound equipment. The whole process, though, lasted a long time. I think we got out of there at 11:30 pm. I got home and was ready for sleep, though I did watch an episode of Warehouse 13 before resting my weary head. Love that show!

Funny how things turn out

It is funny how things turn out. Yesterday, I was supposed to meet a friend in Victor, NY. We had been trying to figured out a time to meet and had landed on Sunday. Then, another friend, this one from Seattle, and her husband came to Rochester for a wedding (or two as it turns out). So we arranged to get together. Which put a kink in my plans with the first person - who, as matter of fact, was going to have a busy Sunday and would have rather rescheduled anyway. So we postponed - maybe till Saturday or sometime in July, whichever works out. So, yesterday morning, I got a call from my Seattle friends saying that they had a surprise second wedding to attend so that logistically it would be difficult to get together. From getting together with 3 friends to getting together with no friends. Oh well. Life is that way sometimes.

Since all that happened, and I was planning on having an adventure, I decided I would head out into the world and try a new-to-me brewery and perhaps a winery. I invited mom to go several times (several in this case being five) to each of which she responded with some variation of "you don't really want me to come." To which I responded basically "of course I would like you to come." Which resulted in her saying that she just wanted to stay at home. Which I interpreted to mean that she would rather that I stay at home as well. But that wasn't happening. So after I gave her lunch and saw that she had eaten most of it (except for a slice or two of apple), I headed out. Alone. Mixed blessing. Being alone means that I move at my pace and do what I will. Traveling with mom means traveling at mom's pace and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible - but then I don't have to worry about being back at any particular time.

One man's weed...

As I headed out the door, I saw this plant - which I am pretty sure is a weed - but the flower is pretty! Any one know what it is?

Out and about - my first stop was Finger Lakes Beer Company, located near Hammondsport (in Hammondsport?) NY. I am not going to blog about them in my brewpubs and such blog because they don't serve food. I did, though, have a nice time and if it were closer, I would probably visit there at least once more. There were a couple of beers coming that I would like to taste. Don't know if I will make the trek out there again, though. We shall see. A Watermelon beer and a yummy sounding scotch ale. The beers I did have, in a teeny, weeny tasting glass, were decent but not very inspired or exciting. The man serving the tastings was personable - an assistant brewer - which means he generally mostly does the scutwork - is going for an interview at another brewery in Ohio! Which is where one group of tasters was from. Another pair were from PA. At the FLBC, I picked up a flyer that listed all of the beer-centric places around NYS (not including NYC an environs). I think I have been to quite a few of them already. No surprise there, really.

They are growing some hops

$3 for a tasting of seven beers - or 8 or 9...

Next stop was the Arbor Hill Grapery which got its own post. The main reason I went there was the Beer and Brats part of the establishment (which also got its own blog post). Nice places, and probably worth another visit. Someday. And suddenly, it was late in the day. So I zipped home.

Originally I had planned for dinner to be at Friendly's. But that would have entailed a period of getting mom ready for an outing. So I opted to make a dinner from leftovers again - pizza for everyone, as well as corn on the cob and a big salad. Tasty and easy, just the way I like it most days!

Mom and I ate dinner and watched a new episode of Inspector Lewis on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. Yay! Don't know if mom followed the somewhat convoluted plot (it was a mystery, after all), though I figured out who had done it as soon as s/he was introduced. (See how I did that?!)

Lastly, after a long enjoyable day, I unwound with a movie. ParaNorman caught my eye on Netflix. Fun stuff - a little predictable, but it was a kids movie. Glad I stayed up to watch it!

There you are, a day that started off with one plan and ended up with a completely other plan. And what fun was had?!

More Media

I have been working through as much media as my brain and eyes can manage. I recently watched all of Lost and was not overwhelmed. I enjoyed it, just not wowed. Currently I am watching the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which, over all, I am also enjoying. I think I am about to finish season three. Next up, maybe Farscape. The piece of one episode I watched once didn't impress me all that much - but it gets a lot of raves, so I am pushing it up my list a bit.

I also am always trying to keep mom entertained. Most recently, I made mom watch Inglorious Basterds. It was surprisingly good. I hadn't realized it was a Quentin Tarantino movie when I requested it from NetFlix. A little on the violent, bloody side - but I think that mom enjoyed it overall as well. She has problems with movies the plots of which are too complicated. We might have to watch more sitcoms and kids movies - though I don't enjoy explaining humor to her. Sigh.

We watched Emma together - which I had seen before - not sure if she had or not. And I let her watch Remains of the Day on her own - I had seen it before and wasn't too interested in seeing it again. I keep offering to put on one of the Madagascar movies for her, but she hasn't taken me up on it yet. (Thank you Jeff!)

On the xBox front, I have finished with Fallout, New Vegas for the time being. Though I do sort of hate going back to games once I finish them...The great thing about that game, was that there was lots of time spent waiting for things to load - which gave me a lot of time to sort. Ok, sort of a mixed blessing, but I don't like to just sort. It gets a bit boring - though I do enjoy the satisfaction of emptying boxes and recycling lots of paper! Right now I am playing an RPG called Risen, which is ok, not great.

Audio books. I haven't been able to bring myself to read a real book in a long time. I was miffed to see the other day, that the last book in the WOT series has been postponed again. It was supposed to be out in March - then in November and now it is January, 2013. Eeek. Anyway, I have been listening to some classics and then some of whatever pops into my hand at the library. Speaking of which, I need to head to the library soon and replenish my supply!

Netflix versus Hulu vs Cable - I don't like commercials - well, that isn't strictly true - I do like some commercials sometimes. I would, as I have mentioned before I believe, watch a network that just had commercials on it. Not all the time, but occasionally for a while. I don't enjoy bad commercials. And I don't enjoy commercials breaking up a show I am watching. I like continuity, not choppiness. So, I don't enjoy commercial television if I can avoid it. I don't pay for Hulu Plus, so it gives me commercials. Poop. That leaves Netflix which is my friend, currently.

Speaking of commercial Television - I try not to get sucked into new shows if I can avoid them. I love Sherlock Holmes, so I thought I would try the new Sherlock show - Elementary. I was not thrilled. I don't think I will go out of my way to watch it again.

And look, my eyeballs (and eardrums) haven't rotted away to nothing. Yet.