Kill Your Television

My television watching experience summed up in one perfect graphic:

This isn't funny anymore

Tonight driving back from my parents in CT, I popped a tire on a pothole and possibly did some damage to the front axle of my car (according to the man from AAA, it is leaking oil.)

Fortunately, I was pretty close to home when this happened (Nonantum Road/Soldiers Field Road at Charlesbank Road in Watertown) and was able to get the car home before the tire went completely flat. And also, no one was hurt when this happened. (I am trying to count my blessings here, despite a LOT of frustration. It was VERY scary and upsetting.)

The tire also couldn't be removed from the axle because of the salt from the snow has the wheel sealed onto the axle (it took a lot of WD40 just to get the screws out) so AAA couldn't replace the flat with the spare. So, Monday morning, I am going to try to get my car (affectionately known as "the money pit") towed to the dealer (fun times) to see if they can get the tire off, replace the tire, and fix the leaking axle. I am hoping to be at work no later than noon, but if it turns into drama, I might just take the day. This sucks because it is going to be a quiet week, and it is a WASTE of a personal day.

Not to mention, while waiting for AAA, I MISSED celebrating the last night of Hannukah with JR. I not only suffered frustration and anxiety, but I missed brisket because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts doesn't have their act together to keep Nonantum/Soldiers Field Road/Storrow Drive well-paved. They either need to keep the road in decent shape or light it better. (I totally didn't see the pothole in the dark.) Please note that I only ask for one or the other because I realize that asking for both is a bit of a stretch < / end sarcasm>.

ETA: Thanks to the folks over at Universal Hub for correcting me on the location. I wasn't really sure what the road was called at that particular location and took an incorrect guess at it. In my defense, I was both upset and hungry. :)

Favorites at Christmas

On Saturday night, RECK and I braved the elements and drove down to the South Shore for a holiday party at M & C's. (I am dead serious about the brave part - it took us nearly two hours to get there and nearly two hours to get back - normally it would take 40 minutes each way, tops.)

At the party, someone mentioned that a friend of theirs blogged recently about the best movies that happen to be set at Christmas, but aren't necessarily Christmas movies. Here are some of the ones that we came up with:

Die Hard (1 & 2)

Bridget Jones' Diary

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Love Actually

While You Were Sleeping

Home Alone

The Family Stone (there was some debate about that one - my argument was that it could have been set at any point in time when the family came together)

The Holiday (ditto)

I thought it would be good to list some of the best Christmas movies too:

A Miracle on 34th Street (I dare you not to cry)

It's a Wonderful Life (seriously, I dare you not to cry)

A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out! You'll shoot your eye out!")

Christmas in Connecticut (Barbara Stanwyck can't cook either!)

Elf ("HEY! There's no singin' in the North Pole!")

Meet Me in St. Louis (okay, whether this is a Christmas movie is debatable, but you have to love the "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" scene)

Please feel free to agree, disagree, or add to this list in the comments.

There is a reason that the apple of temptation is the illustration on the book jacket

Since arriving home from work around 2:30pm (we were let out early due to blizzard), I have been reading Twilight, which I borrowed from my fabulous friend Ellen from work. I am about 400 pages in, having stopped for dinner and to make a couple of phone calls to check on family and friends in the snow.

This book is like crack. It is crack for readers. Crack for readers with overactive imaginations. I now understand why internet blogger Cleolinda Jones has a love/hate relationship with this book. It is completely ridiculous, and yet I cannot seem to put it down. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Let Me Show You the Cold in My Eyes

One of my colleagues thought it was amusing when I told her today that I have a "cold in my eyes" so I am blogging about it, in a bit of solidarity with other people who have this tendency.

I started catching "colds in my eyes" within the last 3 years. Instead of catching a cold like people normally do - the coughing, sneezing, achy, stuffy head, fever, sore throat - I get very irritated, watery eyes. They usually start out feeling like sand is trapped in them, and then tears start flowing down my face uncontrollably. I might have some of the other normal cold symptoms, but a lot of the time, I just get irritation in my eyes. The first time this happened, I thought it might be pink eye. I even went to the doctor - something I am normally disinclined to do, and the PA told me that I didn't have pink eye. What I had was a cold, and there was nothing she could give me for it.

I would much rather have the stuffy head/sneezing/sore throat because you can usually take some kind of medicine for those symptoms. For the eyes, not so much; they are too sensitive for drops. Even closing them is uncomfortable. My dad currently has a cold. Unless we both get cured soon, it is going to make for an interesting Christmas.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I finally have all my holiday decorations up. Here is a random sampling...










I got the idea for the ornaments in the round vase from something I saw in the Pottery Barn catalogue. I am really pleased with how those turned out.

Oh, Letters to Cleo, how I have missed you

Driving to work yesterday, I noticed that Letters to Cleo was playing two sold out shows at the Paradise. Oh, how I love that Kay Hanley of LtC. She and Juliana Hatfield were the epitome of cool to 20something year old me. (LtC played in Crossroads at Holy Cross when "Aurora Gory Alice" was released my junior year. For some reason, probably involving boys, I only caught part of the show.) My friends Sauce & Sue made "Mellie's Coming Over" my theme song senior year. Then Sauce and I caught LtC in 10 Things I Hate About You at the movies in the Copley Mall. I have just COMPLETELY dated myself, and I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!! I hope that they are going to put out some new material. I'd buy it.

photo from Letterstocleo.net

It stands to reason...

My aunt just sent me an email offering to loan me her copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns, if I was interested.

My reply: Not for me, thanks. I am trying not to read any books set after 1950 because they are mostly too depressing. Not that the plague, poverty, prostitution, and the workhouse aren’t depressing, it is just that the outside chance of any of that happening to me is slim.

(Well, except the poverty... knock on wood.)