Monday, November 27, 2017

Things That Make Me Happy


I have begun to divide old photos up between my two kids and it was fun to hear them remember fondly vacations, Halloween costumes, grandparents and various other times on Thanksgiving. It was almost always just the four of us in their childhood and it is so nice now to be a bigger group.

Also fun to play games together and not electronic games. We especially enjoyed THE OREGON TRAIL. Although most of us died before reaching the coast, it was fun.

We enjoyed rewatching the Thanksgiving episodes of FRIENDS and hearing Kevin recite every line of them. Clearly he has rewatched. Say what you want about FRIENDS, it was a funny show with great chemistry and great writing. It made some mistakes, yet, but it reflected the era it played in.

Loved LADYBIRD. Perhaps the best evocation of a mother-daughter relationship on film ever. So beautifully done by first-time director Greta Gerwig.Also enjoyed THREE BILLBOARDS IN EBBING MISSOURI. Sam Rockwell especially impressed me.

Kudos to Katee Sackhoff for the acting she is doing on this last season of LONGMIRE. She has always been a great asset to the show, but she gets to show her depth as an actor finally.

Fondly remembering my Dad today who would have been 103. He was a good father and a good husband.

And what about you?




13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes those old photos can really give a family great bonding moments. I'm glad they did yours. And I agree: Friends had some great moments and solid writing.

Charles Gramlich said...

Getting to see my son for a few hours last night. Getting to have nice naps over the break. Good food. many things

Jeff Meyerson said...

Nice one. Glad you had such a happy time.

Thanksgiving is always my favorite and our dinner (three times!) worked as well as ever. Glad to have made it to my birthday one more time, too.

It was a quiet week, with half a dozen movies (THOR RAGNAROK in the theater, the rest on TV) and a few books, but that's OK too.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Happy Birthday, Jeff!
Yes, seeing your kids makes it special for sure.
I have so many more photos; they have no idea. It was one album from one period.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Enjoyed Thanksgiving at my daughters house even though the Lions lost. Haven't seen Lady Bird yet but have seen Three Billboards...twice. Probably my favorite movie this year. Watched the final season of Longmire. Looking forward to Netflix pick up of the German series The Dark which starts Dec 1. Weather here is good with 60 predicted for tuesday.

Jerry House said...

Thanksgiving always makes me happy. This year Jessie and girls prepped the meal, came over and did all the cooking, and then did the clean-up. Kitty and I got to wallow in our laziness.

Christina and her crew were not here this year. They rented a cabin in Tennessee for the holiday and spent most of the time hiking. That left us to take care of their three dogs, two cats, South American tegu, bearded dragon, and the tortoise. (Their ball python sadly passed away a few weeks ago after many years with the family; and their third cat, Willow, who was getting old and cranky, has been moved to our home where there is much less noise and where she appears to be happier.) The tortoise now recognizes me and comes (well, not a-running, but chugging along as fast as he can) when he sees me because he knows he's about to be fed, and Messi, the bearded dragon, have developed a rapport with me. He old and blind and as dumb as a box of rocks and has to be hand-fed; by the end of the week I had the critter literally eating out of my hand. The tegu ignored us, spending most of its time hibernating and shedding its skin. I'm thankful I didn't run into the yard snake that shed its skin outside the side door because I have no idea what kind it is or whether it is poisonous.

Binge-watched the final season of LONGMIRE and also read the latest book in the series. Great stuff. Also binge-watched THE PUNISHER which was overly bloody but I enjoyed it. We dropped our cable service and now have only Netflix and Hulu streaming services so we're not able to get some of the shows we used to watch; I was able to get caught up on this season's THE WALKING DEAD while feeding Christina's pets.

Not happy, but thankful I am suffering the cold from hell. It makes me realize that, no matter how bad I have felt in the past, it's better than I feel now and will make me appreciate getting over this sucker.

Happy I recently signed up for Triple A. Less than a week later I got a flat tire that they quickly took care of.

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As always, I'm keeping the Tipples, Bill, Rick, your family, and others (including Rob Kitchen, who just lost his father) in my thoughts.

J F Norris said...

Love Sam Rockwell in EVERYTHING he's done going all the way back to A BOX OF MOONLIHGT. Determined to see THREE BILLBOARDS... after work tonight. Started on WESTWORLD since it was just released on DVD. Intriguing concept about artificial intelligence. I'm liking the robot characters played by Evan Rachel Wood and James Marsden. So very different from the movie where the robots just sort of go haywire while the techies are at a loss to stop them. Ed Harris is truly terrifying in his role, too.

We went to see the Jimmy Buffett musical ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE in its pre-Broadway engagement. Apparently it's second production after the premiere at La Jolla. It's in need of a major overhaul as it stands. Unless you are a diehard Parrothead I'd say don't bother when it shows up in NYC. The play itself is worse than a mediocre sit com. No surprise since the two book writers both have long lists of TV sit com credits (My Name Is Earl, Shameless, Raising Hope, etc.) in their bios. The Buffett fans, most decked out in Hawaiian shirts, loved it. Loads of people jumped to their feet at the end. Joe and I couldn't believe it. But standing ovations because they now happen as regularly as doors opening at the end of a show don't mean anything anymore.

Rick Robinson said...

I hope this posting means you have a new computer or your old one is fixed and humming along.

Not happy, I'm afraid... sick today, electrician coming, gutters cleaned tomorrow, eye surgery Thursday - a big deal I'm very nervous about - follow-up eye exam Friday, nd all the eye wipes, drops and such (quite a regimen). I'll be dilated for 2-3 days, so won't be able to read or even watch the big football games Saturday. I guess I'll just stare off into space for a few days, with the eye guard and eye patch. And yes, I know about audio books, so no one has to tell me. Then in 3 weeks I repeat the whole thing with the other eye. Then after 3 more weeks I can get new glasses. Maybe by Christmas I'll be reading again with both eyes.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Your place sounds like Dr. Doolittle's, Jerry.
Phil just as his two done, Rick, and he declared it a miracle.
We are seeing AN AMERICAN IN PARIS on Sunday, John. Fingers crossed.
Steve, The Lions ruin every Thanksgiving. And then U of M ruins the Saturday after,

Gerard Saylor said...

First Thanksgiving in years where it was the four of us. Maybe the first Thanksgiving where it was the four of us.

Our past family attempts at board or card games usually ended in fighting. We tried on Friday night and things worked out, except for the Harry Potter Trivia game where Boy #2 and my wife earned almost all the points.

Several of the people from my Son #1's cross country team signed up for a Thanksgiving 5k in Watertown, WI called Run Turkey Run. The last time I ran one of those things was at least 25 years ago. I did not want to start the race in a crowded pack of runners who would need to pass me anyway. I waited until most everyone except the dog walkers left the start line. That wait took about three minutes so later that afternoon I kept telling my family I could shave those three minutes off my final time and would have finished higher in the standings. Then Boy #1 informed me that the time doesn't start until I and my recording chip crossed the line. Dang.

Gerard Saylor said...

As a note: I started running again just a month of so ago. The guy who won the Run Turkey Run race is 29 years old and finished 17 minutes earlier than me. He ran a 5:22 mile a minute pace. Wow.

The third place woman is the high school senior from my son's CC team.

pattinase (abbott) said...

My DIL and grandson both race. She was a high school ALL STATE.

George said...

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. With Patrick and Katie home (a rarity these days) everything was more festive.

We all went to see THREE BILLBOARDS (a review will be up on my blog in a few days).

Tomorrow we're supposed to hit 60 degrees (20 degrees above Normal)! Not a spec of snow anywhere around here! Very unusual for late November in Western NY!