Monday, March 03, 2025

Monday, Monday


 

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely weather, many great meals, great visit with my brother but someone out there could ruin any vacation, any country, any world. Not mentioning any names.My roommates are binging Only Murderers in the Building so I havent seen any TV but did catch The Last Breath and went to the SWFl Reading Festival and saw Alison Gaylin and Reed Farel Coleman. Oh and115 Years of Broadway Music.
How about you?

8:52 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

I hope you're enjoying Florida, Patti. Good to get out of the cold, anyway.

Another quiet week here. It was partly sunny in the 70s mostly. The weather has been very much to our liking since we've been here, though those who like it warm enough to swim might disagree. We didn't see any of the movies this year and had no interest in the Academy Awards, though my sister and brother were texting their critiques of the way people were dressed.

I did finish four books this week, so that was good. We watched BEST INTERESTS ( Acorn, I think), a well acted if depressing 4-part miniseries starring Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen as parents of a 13 year old girl dying of a degenerative neuromuscular disease. Horgan wants to keep her alive at all costs.

When watching THE AGENCY, Jackie discovered that Richard Gere had done a (eight part) British series called MotherFatherSon (written like that) in 2019. He plays an awful Murdoch-like media mogul (he's American, in England) whose word can make the difference between the current Prime Minister and the sort of slick but slimy opposition candidate (played by the ubiquitous Sarah Lancashire). Meanwhile, his 30 year old son, who he has put in charge of one of the newspapers, is way over his head, and has a stroke while drinking and using drugs. His ex-wife is Helen McCrory, who in real life was married to Damien Lewis, and who died a year after the series came out, of breast cancer. I think this might be Acorn too.

I am not very impressed with Robert DeNiro's ZERO DAY on Netflix, a timely but not believable series about a cyber attack that causes many deaths. The President, weak and running for re-election (Angela Bassett), appoints 80 year old former President Bill Clinton, I mean George Mullen, to head the commission investigating, though everyone "knows" Russia is behind it (but they're not). One of the worst things is Lizzy Caplan as Mullen's estranged AOC-like Congresswoman daughter, fingernails on the blackboard every time she appears. She is clearly a useful idiot for the real culprits. Plus, Mullen seems to have some kind of dementia, which nobody notices.

We're enjoying the latest REACHER, spacing them out every four days to keep up and always have one available. We're enjoying the French CASSANDRE (MHz Choice), set in Annecy, the usual cop out of water plot (the second in command's mother always refers to her as "the Parisian").

We watched the first episode(s) of series 12 of SILENT WITNESS, which featured an 18 year old Daniel Kaluuya as a gang member trying to keep his younger brother safe, but coming to a bad end (as does the brother - it was a real downer episode).

SPOOKS (MI-5) continues to be eerily prescient as each episode - series 8 was filmed in 2009 - has at least some elements that could be, as they say, "ripped from today's headlines." And the US (and the CIA in particular) is often the bad guy.

We watched the four episodes of the original 2000 series of REBUS (Britbox), with John Hannah as the Edinburgh cop. He might have been a little too young then - mid-30s - but the 90 to 120 minute running times covered the books fairly well. It wasn't resumed until 2006, with a wholly new cast led by 52 year old Ken Stott as Rebus. These are only about an hour, and the first one (at least) makes a hash out of the book it was adapted from, taking only some bare bones and making up the rest. Frankly, I prefer Hannah in general, and I really didn't like what they did with it, but we won't give up yet. I think Stott did three series before it was canceled. No word on if and when we'll be getting the new 2024 REBUS.

9:18 AM
Jerry House said...

It's been your basic do nothing week here. The weather has been skipping around from warm to cool to cold to rainy to sun shine like a drunk uncle trying to decide on what to order at a restaurant. It was too cool for the beach this weekend, so I took a nap. Christina and Jack went to the zoo where Christina tried to get a selfie with a highland cow. unfortunately, highland cows have very big heads and it was impossible to get a picture of the cow's head and Christina in the frame; she got several great pictures of the cows nostrils next to her, however.

Speaking of zoos, in another one far, far away, Mark had his interview with the Reptile Department. She's been assigned to Birds since she began six months ago and, while she loves Birds, her dream job is working with Reptiles. Now that his probationary six-month period is up, he hopes to get a transfer. For the past few months, he has been working with Reptiles on a volunteer basis one day a week, and they know him and like his work. Mark is a great and dedicated worker by he is very shy and an introvert and does not do well in interviews, so he is more than a bit nervous, especially when he was told that his volunteer work would not be considered in the interview. Nonetheless he thinks he did well. the Reptile people would be fools if they did not hire someone as awesome as Mark.

In the meantime, we got some photos Mark took of his friends the venomous snakes. Too each their own, I say. In the meantime Mark put on his bird manicurist's hat and sent some photos of Orion, the Great Horned Owl, whose talons he had to clip during nail day, and of Lincoln, the Gentoo Penguin, during nail and beak trim day. No matter what animal he works with, Mark has a fantastic job and I'm jealous.

Thing are very here on the animal front. Wonky Cat, Amy's neurologically damaged kitten is doing worse. She's now blind and her hypoplasia is getting worse, she's not eating , and is in pain. She will probably have to be out down this week.. Amy is devastated; she loves that cat, but when you have an animal and love that animal, there eventually comes a time when you have to be the grown-up and make the hard decisions. We've all been there and my heart goes out to Amy and to Wonky Cat (whose real name is Creme Brulee).

This week Erin and Trey began house hunting in earnest. He graduated last month with an engineering degree and it's time for them to move on with their lives together. I'm happy for them but I will miss Erin being around the house giving Jack dagger-eyes for his antics. And I will miss Duncan, Newcat, and the hedgehogs. They will be staying in the Gulf Breeze-Pensacola region, so we'll get to see a lot of them.

I've been trying for two weeks to get an appointment with my podiatrist to no avail. Either he's been blown away in the recent tornado that hit his street or he's in jail or dead. So I've booked an appointment with a new podiatrist for later this month. Fingers crossed I like him, something that's always a concern with a new doctor.

Despite the best of intentions, I still have not done my taxes.

To be continued.

9:19 AM
Diane Kelley said...

Unlike Jerry, I did do our taxes. We own a bit to the Feds and a bit more to NY State. Glad that chore is done!

The weather remains frigid. But the weather guessers are predicting 55 degrees on Wednesday...and then cooler temps. Diane and I watched more of the Oscars than we thought we would. I liked the James Bond tribute. Now AMAZON owns it.

And, like Jackie and Jeff, I'm watching REACHER and enjoying it. Stay safe!

9:52 AM
Jerry House said...

Back again.

Count me in as one of those who did not watch the Academy Awards. Too much hype, too much flash, too little interest, and an honor as meaningful as the Golden Globe.

Somewhat to my regret, I did actually go to the movies this week. Christina, Jack, and I went to see CARTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. It was as long and rambling as other Marvel movies, and weak on plot with a so-so villain in the form of Tim Blake Nelson, a baddie as bland as some of the more boring James Bond villains. No surprises; everything predictable. The action sequences did CGI proud, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I did like Giancarlo Esposito though. Harrison Ford was wasted. Sebastian Stan made a brief appearance, probably to get mouths watering for the upcoming THUNDERBOLTS movie. Not a bad flick, but definitely not a good one. I think they did Anthony Mackie a disservice.

On the brighter side of things, I finished streaming DCI BANKS, and enjoyed it, despite the occasional over-emoting. The first season of BERGERAC was light and enjoyable. I like the Jersey setting and appreciate watching a young Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) in a more action-oriented role. The latest episode of FATHER BROWN continues a disappointing season, trying to show off the various talents of the cast. Ho-hum. The third episode of DEATH IN PARADISE is picking up steam and I'm looking forward to the eventual resolution of this season's overarching mystery. The late night comics have got a lot of fodder this week, and I expect the Trump/Vance/Zelenskyy debacle will provide plenty of meat for the coming week.

What did I read this week? Virtually nada. James Patterson's SECRET LIVES OF BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS was my FFB. Beyond that, I did not finish a single book. It goes that way, sometimes.

Stay warm. Stay safe. Continue to enjoy Florida, Patti, even though the state's inept and paranoid Surgeon General is now trying to stop all fluoridation in Florida's drinking water because it is a Deep State plot, or something. **sigh**

9:52 AM
TracyK said...

It seems like we are getting into a habit of going out to get groceries and breakfast on Monday mornings. Today it was windy, thus colder than usual. I am not looking forward to the time change on March 9.

Glen is now reading NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER by Jeanette Richardson. It is a collection of ghost stories along with some essays about her experiences with the supernatural. He is enjoying reading it, likes the stories a lot.

I am reading DIVING INTO THE WRECK BY Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It is a science fiction novel (or maybe three novellas published together, all about the same character). The heroine of the book explores derelict space vehicles, sometimes for salvage, sometimes as a historian. I am about 2/3 through the book and enjoying it a lot.

This week we are watching our normal shows: THE MENTALIST, THE ORVILLE, MURDER SHE WROTE, CSI, ELEMENTARY, NUMB3RS, and finally watched two shows from the new season of DEATH IN PARADISE. We did not watch the Oscars.

2:20 PM

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