Gonzai Gallery

At least, off from the internet, for the most part. I had today off of work (Happy Rosh Hashanah, as applicable) so I took Mom to a Senior Day Center to see what she thought. We were greeted by a dog named Buttercup. I consider that a good sign. Mom thinks it's too expensive, but my brother doesn't, so I'll let him convince her she can afford it. Then lunch at a new sandwich shop, Potbelly's. I think it's a chain. Decent sandwich though, and Mom was happy with hers.

Rest of the day was TV and computer games, as I caught up with nearly everything on the DVR and finally watched last year's 'Whitechapel'. I put that off because series 2 did nothing for me; turns out series 3 was much, much better. I'm taking '2001: A Space Odyssey' a chunk at a time, because I've tried and failed to watch it a few times already. I liked the 'trio' episode of Leverage much more than the rest of this season, and Mom actually liked it, first time in years she's liked the show. Maybe we have our new direction - just let Elliott, Hardison and Parker be the show. Fine with me. I enjoyed Doctor Who, esp. the conversations with the horse. Big surprise, right? We also watched Bill Maher, who I think properly summed up recent events thusly: "Some crazy Christians pretending to be crazy Jews riled up a bunch of crazy Muslims, so Mitt Romney could prove Mormons are even crazier."

Sunday, I was a party host. Can't remember the last time I tried that. But 4 of my gaming friends came over for the 'game', that being Ravens/Eagles, of course. We had an Eagles fan. I seated him near the door and we took turns reminding him we could easily toss him out of it. But he had the last laugh, dammit. But we had a grand time other than the final score, and a couple people stayed after and we played board games until late. I had to let CJ out eventually, but she was nice to the strangers! Total relief, that. The whole thing must have gone well, because the last folks out said we should do this again. My back isn't so sure about that, I'm a hurting pup today (presumably from moving around the furniture) but otherwise, yeah, gamers at the game, why not?

Going back to yesterday's Q of the Day about languages...

I took advantage of Borders' demise and picked up some Spanish dictionaries and grammar guides today. (Also got an atlas, some art & design books and a Kane CD, but mostly, things I are still over my price limits.) I'm hoping to start the veterinary assistant program at the local community college in September, they just released the schedule for fall. The plan is to have a professional certificate in progress and the Spanish up to conversational this fall, so if the job goes ker-plooey I have extra skills available.

Off work today, just doing the voice mail thing from time to time. We're supposed to be dug out sometime this afternoon, so I can work tomorrow, pick up terri_osborne at the train station and then it's Farpoint time! Watching 'Sophie's Choice' right now, first time I ever have. Started with Leverage -( Minor Leverage spoiler ). It's rather weird today, though, because the ice and snow is coming off the house in huge chunks. Huge noisy chunks. Freaks out the dogs.

After watching last night's ep - and specifically Nate's attire - I can only paraphrase Xander Harris and beg, 'Can I be color-blind too?'

Found a 'Leverage' game on Yahoo, it seems to be a ripoff of Jewelquest (not that I've ever played that) but it's free and you get to look at nice pics of the cast while you play. Addictive stuff too!

( Leverage - The Con Game )

"Never before has a performance of 'The Sound of Music' made me root for the Nazis."

Oh yeah, it's back. Snerk.

For the first time in ages, I won a contested Ebay auction. My prize? The DVD set of 'The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.' Looking forward to viewing!

Part of why I bought Brisco was its unbearably slow downloading. Also superslow was 'Ashes to Ashes', but it finally finished yesterday and hopefully I can start watching it next week. I also downloaded 'soundtracks' for both A2A and the UK Life on Mars. Now I just need a 'soundtrack' for the US version, if the computer will allow. I'm having a devil of a time trying to find my music - over half of it no longer appears in my Itunes library (something that happened when I put in the newest version of Itunes) and a lot of it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player either. I have to use the search function to find anything. Annoying.

Goal for this weekend is to finish watching 'Leverage'. We watched 5 eps in the last 2 days. I'm really enjoying it - very fun and amiable, just don't think about it too hard. (Besides it not making much sense, it's too hard trying to figure out how they did what they did.) Still in love with Hardison.

Speaking of fun and amiable, 'Castle' was entertaining, but nothing remotely resembling art. I'll watch it if the VCR works (I have trouble staying awake past 10), but if the VCR decides not to tape, I'll live. Nathan Fillion is just adorable but it's debatable whether the premise will hold up for more than a few episodes.

No plans or intents to see 'Watchmen'. Graphic violence is not my thing and it's my understanding Watchmen has a LOT. Also, 'Sin City' made me sick, so I have no need for more of similar/same material.

Due to much squeeing and praise from my flist and other internet groups, I gave 'Leverage' a try during its marathon last night. (Not sure of the exact titles of the ones I saw, but I'd guess at 'The Bank Job' and 'The Plane Job'.) All right, all right, you guys win. The show's a lot of fun. I'd like to have my very own Hardison. Downloading the eps as we speak. Will watch all as soon as I finish what I'm already on. That is all.