This is Wednesday

Why is it always a Wednesday, when I have almost nothing to say?  I just don't get it. Mondays are usually pretty good.  There's trivia on Tuesdays, and fun things to start the weekend with, but Wednesdays are that day of the week that even the brain can't manage to process.  I just don't get it.  But it's a thing.  A thing that deserves a name, I think. Wednesday brain?  Writer's Block Wednesday?  See Wednesdays are days that the brain can't even come up with clever nicknames for.  Ugh!

Of course it doesn't help that it's raining, and not everyone is quite in the Christmas season yet.  I mean I am, but other people are less than enthused - of course I work with these other people so it makes my days super thrilling, let me tell you.  Wednesdays are just one of those days.  

There was one thing today, however, that did make me smile.  (I smiled more than once, just in case you were wondering, but this made me smile a lot)  Have you seen This is Us?  If you haven't, you need to get on it immediately.  I'm sure everyone around you has told you to watch it at some point, because it's just that good. But in case they haven't I'm going to tell you to do so now.  Here's my ringing endorsement - I know at some point in the near future, it's going to make me cry, AND I'm still watching!  

Normally I would have turned it off by now, but I just can't quit this time around. It's sweet and funny and chock full of really amazing actors.  There's a not a weak link in the pack. Speaking of not being weak, that brings us to what made me smile today.  These goofy set videos of the boys doing push ups.  I mean, seriously?  Not only are they stellar actors, but they're super athletic to boot?  And pretty dreamy too - it needs to be said.  How can you not love them? What makes the videos even better are the tweets that go along with them. 

If you haven't seen the show yet, avoid the hashtags until you've seen the pilot at least. Then you can bask in their awesomeness - spoiler free!  Hope these brighten your bland Wednesday, like they surely brightened mine!

Trivia Tuesday

~ Survey says "Top Gun" is  infinitely better than "Ghost."  (I agree with this completely, even though both movies have made me cry.)

~ Finally, Finally (Finally!) a Shakespeare question and I knew the answer.  Wahoo!  Titus Andronicus is the deadliest play and portrays someone being baked into a pie.  Apparently, Sweeney Todd wasn't so ahead of its time.

~ Tiger Woods' actual first name is Eldrick.  This is completely new information, that I'm still not sure wasn't made up for tonight's trivia.  I've never heard his name was anything besides Tiger - ever.  But I gotta say, if my name was Eldrick, I'd probably change it to Tiger too.

~ The Green Party candidate received 1.2 million votes and Bob Barker started hosting The Price is Right in 1972.  Also, the question having to do with TV Cars was on the Dukes of Hazard.  All of these things were pulled out of thin air tonight, by me.  So - I really should be playing the lottery, right?

~ There are apparently 2 time zones in Florida.  Who knew?  I sure didn't.  I'm still trying to do the geographical math on that one.

~ Even a shot that tastes like Pineapple Upsidedown cake, and looks like a sunset, will taste terrible.  I just don't understand you people that drink these things.  Wouldn't you rather drink something refreshing that won't give you a headache - like Iced Tea?

~ The Jarls are the aristocratic class of vikings.  Do you want to know how we got that answer?  Jarslberg cheese is a fairly pricey cheese so it must be upper class...I'm not saying there's a method to our madness.  I'm just saying we got 8 points from it.

~ Some crazy lady ate 222 canned peas in 3 minutes using a toothpick to spear them.  Setting aside the random amount of time and the random eating instrument, why in god's name would anyone want to break a record by eating peas?  I would like to break a record by NEVER eating peas.  Those things are awful!

~ As good as my streak was this evening, it would seem I do have kryptonite.  The opposite of oxidization is not anti-oxidization (get it?  anti-oxidants? : )  Apparently it's galvanization.  
~ It's a given when "You've lost that loving feeling" comes on in a bar, everyone is going to sing and everyone who isn't singing is most likely quoting Top Gun.

November Reads in Review

Yet another slow month for reading, but I have an excuse - loads of Christmas crafting! However, I did finish my 3 allotted for the month - so yay for that!  

"The Day the World Came to Town": A friend on Facebook saw that I had posted about the musical "Come From Away" and asked if this was the story of Gander on 9/11/2001.  When I told her it was, she said she had read a book all about that, and that she'd send it to me.  I was super excited because if I haven't said it enough - "Come from Away" is the best show I saw this year.  The book wasn't as fabulous as the musical - afterall, there was no music - but it was really good.  The book is basically all of the stories of the people that landed in Gander and the people that lived in Gander at the time.  It jumps back and forth a lot and gives you an idea of just how stressful and remarkable those 6 days in 2001 were. It's just a happy story and one that so deserves to be told.

"My Ideal Bookshelf": The setup is that authors, designers, artists, actors, etc. all write about the books that make up their "ideal" bookshelf, then a painter paints that bookshelf.  It was a cute look at what people thought of as ideal when it came to books.  Though, I do admit to feeling terribly bad about what I read.  My books are nowhere near as intelligent as the books painted in this book.

"El Deafo": I've been hearing about this graphic novel for months, and when the bestie told me she had it, I jumped at the chance to read it.  I blew through it in about 2 hours and LOVED it.  The main character is a little girl - who's some sort of animal - who goes deaf when she's about 4. She makes herself into her very own superhero - El Deafo - to get her through rough patches.  She goes through  lots of different hearing devices and learns sign language and lip reading, as she grows.  It's a great intro to disabilities for kids but it's also fun.  The main character is snarky and adorable, and I just loved the way the author wrote it.  

Six Months In

I'm officially 2 episodes - or 6 months - into Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.  I've been wanting to binge them all weekend, but I just haven't had the time, so 2 down, 2 to go.  I have a range of emotions about this.  Let me start with saying - I love it.  I really do.  I've been super excited since it was announced, and the fact that are 4 to watch, is just too good to be true.

That's not to say it's perfect.  All the reviews I've read have basically said - Perfection!  I'm not sure I agree.  It's really, really good.  I love seeing all the characters back.  I love seeing Stars Hollow again - I so want to live there!  I love the super fast talking.  I'm just not sure I like where the story is going.  Rory and Logan together still even though (Spoiler Alert!) he's engaged?  It just doesn't sound like something she would do.  And all of Luke and Lorelei's problems should have been discussed years ago.  They've now been together for 9 years and they're just now bringing up the baby talk?  It's a bit odd.

I think my major problem is the timeline.  It's a bit hard to follow.  In the first episode, I think Rory went back and forth from London to Stars Hollow 4 times in a week, which seems rather confusing - also, expensive.  But I'm choosing to let that part slide.  If the timeline were just a little clearer, I'd be much happier with it.

But aside from that small quibble.  I'm LOVING it.  It's fun and sweet and the perfect program for a long holiday weekend.  I am currently dying to see the 3rd episode because that one includes a musical sung by Christian Borle and Sutton Foster.  Seriously?  How fabulous is that going to be!?  I can't wait!

After 6 months - I'd say my current rating is 4 out of 5 stars (and I suspect that will be going up to 5 after the musical episode - how can you resist a good musical?!)

Festival of Trees

One of my most favorite Christmasy events in Maryland is the Kennedy Krieger Festival of Trees that's held at Timonium Fairgrounds each year on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Loads of businesses, companies, individuals, families and schools get together, design a tree and then the trees are shown off at the big event.  Attendees can buy the trees or just wander around and ogle at the creativity.  I'm much more an ogler than a spender, but thank goodness lots of other people are spenders because the event makes thousands each year for Kennedy Krieger's schools and treatment centers.  

 I don't remember what tree this guy hung on, but he's the cutest Rainbow Fish ever!

 We were standing in front of an emoji tree.  I was being an emoji.  No one else was joining in...

My favorite was this cactus tree that was decorated with calaveras and other fun things with the theme of Feliz Navidad.

 This one of the Grinch and Max stealing the toys rounded out my top 3 favorites.  The Grinch was popular this year since it's the 50th anniversary in 2016, but this one was by far the cutest of all the various Grinches.

 The ornaments on this tree were all made of book pages.  It was pretty and creative but I was slightly distressed by the destruction of books...

 This was my other favorite.  It was entitled Who's Stealing Christmas? and it was covered in case reports of bad guys from Christmas movies, like the Grinch, or Jack Skellington.  What was even cuter was the "evidence bags" full of evidence of their crimes, like green fur left over at the crime scene.  So creative and just the cutest!

Thankful Five

1. I'm most thankful in my life for these 2 and this amazing dinner we shared yesterday for Thanksgiving.  Really, I have no idea what I'd do without them - love them to pieces!

2. I'm thankful for a black Friday spent with the same family and a great friend finding all sorts of super awesome deals and fighting the ridiculous crowds together. I gotta say I didn't get many Christmas gifts, but my wardrobe is looking much better after today!

3. I'm thankful for the words Spoiler Alert. These 2 simple words have helped me to successfully avoid all spoilers from the Gilmore Girls which I've been dying to watch since it as dropped at 3 am this morning.  However, Black Friday fun was calling instead.  That doesn't mean that I won't be finding myself in front of Netflix at the very first opportunity tomorrow!  Can't wait!!

4. I'm thankful for the leftovers of yesterday's amazing meal that provided an absolutely fabulous turkey and dressing sandwich at the outlets today.  One of my most favorite meals of the year - leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches on Black Friday.  Dressing is by far the best food part of this week!  So delicious!

5. I'm thankful for nice warm jammies and a nice warm, comfy bed.  Because seriously dude, I shopped til I dropped... : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your holiday was full of fun, family, friends and food!