cleaned clothes, mowed front yard

I'm not saying I did both of those things, nosirreebob.

I did the laundry yesterday, including the bed linens.

With my right hip now having joined my right thigh in being aggravating, I just may have to ask for help doing that task next month.

If I can just get someone to get it from the house to the car, then from the car to the house, I can handle it.

Suds Laundromat has a cart I can wheel out to the car to load and offload my basket.

That helps a lot.

As for the front yard, my brother Smitty took care of that early this afternoon.

 

He had to borrow a friend's lawnmower, but he was out there pushing it.

His riding mower is down.

I texted him early this week, so he knew the situation must be bad.

I think he was a little shocked at just how bad it was.

He told me it looked like it hadn't been mowed since he last did it.

I confirmed that was true.

He was mowing my front and back yard while I was returning from the cruise. 

i thank You, God, that he still takes care of that for me. 

tina tuesday to finish up the month!

"Okay, girlie, I've seen you throwing around that 'Tina Tuesday' label a right good bit when it wasn't warranted. You, by yourself, having a movie double header does not a 'Tina 'Tuesday' make. Remember, that came about because you were with a friend, having movie and a meal. So, that's how it should be used."

I hear you loud and clear, I do. And I can assure you that was the case today! My dear g'friend, Carolyn, was with me on this occasion!!! I'd invited her to come see "Daniel And The Fiery Furnace" with me at NCG... and she told she would! So that's what we saw at 5:20 PM. My movie was free, my large popcorn was free, and the regular drink cost me less than $5.

"What? How did that all cost you so little? Oh, wait, I remember. You had not yet received your birthday popcorn, had you?"

You're correct on that point! As for the ticket and drink, those were purchased with 'Dane money' that I'd put onto a credit card. Good dog!

"Good dog, he is! (smile!) He knows how you love movies!"

That's right! This movie was a bit slow in places, and it told a story about Daniel that I never heard. I was expecting the one from the Old Testament about him in the lion's den, right? That wasn't this one at all. Yes, there was a lion, but he killed it and Nebuchadnezzar thought he did it to save him, so he took Daniel and his three men into his group. The king worshipped Baal, so he renamed Daniel as Belteshazzar, meaning the one who tames lions. I heard it as "Balthasar" and wondered if that story from the Bible was the source of the character's name in two Shakespeare plays.

"Oh, nice question. Then again, it may just point to the name going back for thousands of years by the time the Bard decided to use it."

Again, I think it would make for a nice doctoral thesis for somebody.

"Perhaps it already has? We don't know, but I know it could be researched to find out. Was Carolyn familiar with that story in the Bible?"

She was not. I think that's a fault of the Christian church, as many of its sermons arise from the New Testament, i.e., the part of the Bible that follows the birth of Jesus. As i told her, I think I will ask Tony what he knows about all that. Not about the Shakespeare, but about the story of Daniel we watched tonight. He's had so many Bible studies from various groups that he's bound to know something about it.

"I bet he would love to talk about that with you."

I agree. Okay, back to tonight! After the movie, Carolyn suggested we go down to OD's Seafood for dinner, but she was broke, as it is the end of the month. I countered with an invite to Chili's, provided the gift cards were still in my car... and they were! I gave her the $20 I'd received from reward points on my Chase card. I used the $10 one from that same source, as well as $3.28 remaining on the third card. What a feast we had, too! I made sure she knew about the specials on the back of the menu, which she didn't know about. I also introduced her to the good lemonade they have there as the beverage included at no cost in the "3 for me" deal. She loved it! Not only did she drink all of hers, but also al of her to-go lemonade, too! That's why I gave her my to-go lemonade, to accompany her leftovers. We both have meals for tomorrow to relish! 

"Very nice!!!"

Yep! My "3 for me" was the lemonade, a very nice salad, and the Old-Timer cheeseburger with fries. Hers was the lemonade, a cup of potato soup, and the chicken quesadillas. The card I gave her covered the meal and tip! As for my dinner, I only needed to pay about $3 after I used up the other two Chili's gift cards. What a deal!!!

"Fantastic! And what a treat for both of you! So glad you had that largesse to share with your friend!"

Thanks, me, too. It's good to be able to do that! (smile!)

grateful to Andrew on a music bingo monday

"Andrew, the bartender, at Midtown Sports Grill?"

That's the one. Fortunately, he knows how to do math. Hannah, the new waitress, absolutely was flummoxed. We sat at the table for 20 minutes before we were able to get our tabs straightened out. 

"What?! How many of you were there??"

We were five for this Music Bingo session. Marcia was there with her daughter - Amanda - and with her granddaughter -Batsheva. Merritt had come along with them. Plus, I was there. Like I said, five of us. I'm glad we weren't there last week, as the sound system messed up and the games had to be canceled. All the tunes tonight were the ones that were to have played llast Monday. Really good, too! Summer Vibes #2, with Jimmy Buffett, The Monkees, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bon Jovi, Ed Sheeran... good stuff!

"That does sound like a great mix! Quite a few oldies mixed in there, too!"

You bet! "Build Me Up Buttercup" was a new one for the 11-year-old, but she liked it. Russ then segued into 80's Hard Rock Legends #1, which Marcia said was Elissa's music. Mine, too! Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Van Halen, AC/DC, Foreigner - I was definitely jammin' out!

"What about the third game? Any of y'all go for that?"

Not this time, so that gave us a chance to chill out and talk. That was actually nice! Then came Game 4, Pop 'til Ya Drop #1! Pink, Ricky Martin, TLC, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, The Bangles, En Vogue, Spice Girls - I know Scott would have been crushin' on that mix! Maybe I should see if he might want to join us some night. Baseball will soon be coming to a close, so he won't be chasing Braves franchised teams anymore. There will be Georgia Southern football games, but not on Mondays!

"Oh, that's a good idea to invite him! It's been ages since you've seen him. Your ex sees him more often than you do."

That's because the Atlanta Braves play the Detroit Tigers. Scott has yet to see the Braves win in the new Comerica Park stadium. I suspect Scott will cease trips to Michigan when that happens.

"Good point. Okay, so what was the snafu with the checks tonight?"

Amanda won Game 4. Ordinarily, that would be a cause to celebrate, as she would have received a $50 gift card as the prize. Right? But now that there is new ownership, there was a new prize tonight: a fifty-dollar store credit that had to be used all at one time.

"Say what??? You'd have to order three meals at one sitting to use that up! That can't be right..."

Oh, but it is. Amanda was not happy about it. As I told her, at least she had her mom and her daughter there, so they could group their tabs. No, she wanted to have it to use on herself, for multiple evenings out. I totally get that. But then Hannah misunderstood and put all the tabs on one check! Now, all of a sudden, the table owed over 36 dollars!!! No, that would not work. I looked at the check, which was entered in some strange fashion, but I could still see that my part of the bill was correct and Merritt's part was correct. So I asked Hannah to separate out ours from the three others. LOL! That blew her mind! She had to go get Andrew to have him talk to us.

"At least she knew she was lost."

Agreed. Andrew knows I can do math, so he came straight to me. I showed him where my tab was and where Merritt's was, and he understood. He returned with our tabs separate from theirs, which had the $50 credit applied, leaving just $2 to pay.

"My goodness! Just what did they have that totaled that much?"

Amanda had a cocktail, Marcia had a beer. Amanda had the spinach dip as well as he pretzel, plus the huge bowl of macaroni and cheese for Batsheva. Marcia had her usual "pick 3" appetizer platter. All of that is easily fifty bucks, especially when tax is added. Honestly, it really was a snafu, but it was also a misunderstanding.

"So, is the store credit how Quinque Martin's F&B LLC going to handle that Game 4 prize from here on?"

I sure hope not. If so, I guess I will be leaving after the third game. I don't want to get stuck with a prize I can't use. I guess we'll see how it goes next time. Maybe Andrew will tell his dad that he needs to stay with it being a $50 gift card, like it's always been.

"Change..." 

Yeah. But guess what happened on "Name That Tune" tonight? A drama teacher won the Golden Medley!!! Caleb said he's going to book a cruise that docks on all seven continents. Good for him!!! Jane literally had to pick herself up off the floor when he won that $100,000 - seriously!!! I'm so glad to end the night on that happy note!

goody bags and treats galore!

Getting ready for the BYOP, part 2!

 

The Koz had Omar out helping him this afternoon, so that was good.

 

Omar's wife, Michanne, was in the House of Dawn with the rest of us women!

 

That's her on the left, putting the finishing touch on a ghost pop, while Margaret admires her art on the pudding cups. 

 

That was toward the end of our session this afternoon.

 

Yvette was at the other end of that time spectrum, having arrived at 11 AM, a full hour before this hen party was to begin.

 

She wanted to be sure to help out, but she had other plans that needed her on this sunny Saturday.

 

When I arrived, she was helping to cut out the printed labels for the treat bags.

 

I was commandeered for that task, too, as treat bags could not be made without them.

 

Then Margaret arrived and she was put to work with scissors to cut labels!

 

Fortunately, Dawn ran out of scissors, so Susan was put to work with tissue paper to start building goody bags.

 

That consisted of placing several goodies onto the open sheet and then stuffing in into a clear plastic bag! 

 

By that time, enough labels had been cut that I was set to work on a different task: building bags of ghost poop!

 

In short time, Debbie was right there with me, but she was building bags of rat tails! 

 

We found those tasks became exhausting unless we did them like an assembly line: fill a few bags with the food first until the right arm tired, then close the bags and staple on the labels, before starting afresh on the next batch.

 

Susan and Margaret followed our approach when they became treat bag assemblers.

  

Susan was in charge of witches' warts, while Margaret handled monster scabs - LOL!

 

All that food - marshmallows, licorice, chocolate chips, and Toast Crunch cereal - required that we wear gloves.

 

Gotta be extra clean for the kids who are going to be grabbing these treats!

 

Still, it was a good thing that handling those sweet things came after our luncheon! 

 

This time, Dawn had bought a Chinese banquet for the nine of us - that would be 7 women, 2 men.

 

Beef with broccoli, chicken with broccoli, vegetable stir-fry, chicken nuggets, edamame, spring rolls, gyoza, eggrolls - and those are just the items I chose!

 

"You will never need to worry about a steady income," read my fortune cookie.

Laura did ask me last week about my Periodic Table, so maybe there's good news to come about that!

 

Meanwhile, I had Jack O'Lantern teeth to bag while Dawn and Debbie worked on dressing up the goody bags with curling ribbon.

 

Those were the last tasks before we could consider our work here to be done - and we completed them!

 

Good friends, good company!

time to play like doc frankenstein!

"Ooohhhh, science!!!"

You got it! The time has come for a bit of AA and AAA down in Georgetown, and I was once again allowed to bring the inanimate to life! BWAH HA HA!!

"Well, happy 5th anniversary of doing that, you mad scientist!"

Thank you, thank you very much, dearie! I was there at noon30 to start popping batteries into the backs, feet, and heads of Dawn's indoor ghouls. I even brought my own tweakers from my days as a CTM in the Navy! 

"Well, look at you, being all prepared to throw down with the best of them!"

Let's just say that after nearly two decades of having their battery compartment lids removed and replaced, some of those screws have become a bit more cantankerous than the bodies they power. I know my tools have pointed tips that can still pile drive when needed.

"And where those particular little goblins and clowns waiting for life to begin again, or were they already ready to track their prey and clang cymbals and laugh maniacally?"

Darn tootin' they were ready to rumble! Dawn was still working, so I was digging the monsters out of the bin under the table and sticking it to them. The monkey took a bit of finagling, but I finally succeeded in getting his arms aligned so the cymbals would be able to touch. Those four, plus two more stage left, took about 25 minutes.

"Really? That long? And how many did she have that needed batteries?"

Oh, the entire dining room table top gets covered in them! She did a few this time, but mostly it was my hands doing the slap and tickle with the beasties. They get new ones every year, too, so that means a bit more time involved, but at least the newer ones get up to speed a bit faster. Even so, I reckon it took almost three hours to get them ready for the BYOP coming on October 24th.

"That's almost exactly a month away! Why so early?"

As Dawn says, it's all dependent on the Koz. Whenever he decides to fetch all the bins out of storage determines what timeline she needs to be on. This year, her new boss has had her out of town a lot, so he went ahead and emptied out the storage earlier this week. Then he occupied his time at night reworking the wire harnesses for his outside ghouls - long story, suffice it to say he'll not be accepting help in the future with taking them down. So, as he says, since he was having to have his hands on all of them anyway, he went ahead and powered them up. In other words, that task is done. He was already in the process of hanging them when I arrived.

"So I see. Does that mean you won't be needed anymore to help set up for the big shindig later?"

Oh, no, I'll be back tomorrow, along with some of the other women. Dawn has recruited us to fill the goody bags with witches' warts, rat tails, monster scabs, ghost poop, and pumpkin teeth. Should be lots of fun! I am usually enlisted to help Chris on battery detail for the second outing, so it'll be a nice change to do this craft work. 

"Poop and scabs and what???"

BWAH HA HA!!! Don't be so literal, g'friend! Chocolate chips, licorice, Toast Crunch cereal, mini-marshmallows, and candy corn - treats, not tricks!

"That looks like a definite treat right there!"

Oh, yes, it was! Luncheon on the back porch, overlooking the canal and enjoying the slight breeze with Dawn and the Koz! She made Reuben sandwiches on marble rye and they were absolutely divine!!! In fact, I've come home with the halves of both of their Reubens, so I'll have another meal to enjoy them. Thanks, y'all!!!

"What a lovely break that must have been from handling monsters!"

It certainly was, but then it was back to the "AA Meeting", so to speak. One of my fb friends posted this t-shirt and I thought it was cute and saved it for today. "Hello, my name is Todd and I'm a battery." HAHAHAHA!!! Totally appropriate!!!

"Nice pun for sure!"

Okay, just came home to drop off the Reubens. Off to Sandfly I go!

4 weeks of a*lists, but not 16 movies

Remember, AMC now allows me to have up to four movies per weeks as my A*List allowance.

I don't hit that maximum very often, for one reason or another.

Honestly, I think it's due to a habit of having three as the max for five years, so I don't think about adding that extra one.

That's okay, I'm still getting a great deal for my $28 monthly dues!

 

For my first week of September, I had a double feature of "The Dog Stars" and "Idiots", which gave me one beautiful movie and one not so good.

"The Dog Stars" was a post-apocalyptic scifi with stunning cinematography, as much of it consisted of a guy (Jake Elordi) and his dog flying in the mountains - seriously gorgeous!

It had a solid story, too, with a strong cast that included Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce.

Given the chance, I'll gladly see this again.

Not so for the poorly executed "Idiots", which was a shame. 

I kept watching, hoping for better from this road trip movie in which Dave Franco and O'Shea Jackson, Jr., have to get Mason Thames to a halfway house.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that never happened.

Such a waste of time and talent.

That's why I chose "Coyote Vs. Acme", as I'd already seen it and knew it was a solid hit out of the park. 

Week 2 found me with only 2 movies under my belt after 7 days.

Those were a double header, with both being intense with lots of fighting.

"Onslaught" may have been my favorite of the two, though, as it featured two military veterans (Adria Arjona and Reginald VelJohnson) saving the day when Dan Stevens' psycho borgs escape and threaten their trailer park.

Nice to see the "Die Hard" cop in this new scifi!

"By Any Means" was actually based on real events in Mississippi, back in 1966, when, for that second time that decade, a mobster hitman (Mark Wahlberg) gets sent in to force Klansmen to reveal the assassins in a case involving vote tampering.

On to week 3, when I thought I might go for 4 slots filled on my AMC A*List dance card, but ended up with only three, of which only one was new.

That would be "Practical Magic 2", seen after rewatching "Practical Magic", though it turned out the new one stands on its own merits.

Great to see Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing again on a Tina Tuesday!

They're 78 and 82 years old, respectively.

Given that it's been 28 years since the first movie, it's marvelous they were still alive to reprise their roles as the elderly aunts!

It's a shame that Aidan Quinn wasn't carried over as Sandra Bullock's husband, but then again, those Owens women's husbands die from the curse.

That's okay, Lee Pace is the new heart throb, and he has incredible smoky eyes, like those of Nicolas Cage, so he was a welcome addition - RAWR!!!

I didn't recognize him from "Guardians Of The Galaxy", but that's due to the makeup used to transform him into 'Ronan', which disguised those eyes. 

Glad I was able to see this before the "Movies With Grownups" event!

The other two movies - "Coyote Vs. Acme" and "The Odyssey" - were seen the next day as a double feature, as both were on their way out of town.

I just wanted to make sure AMC knew I liked those!!

 

That brings me to this past week, with me again seeing three movies.

The new Ethan Hawke movie, "The Weight", was set in the 1930's during the Great Depression, with him as a man imprisoned for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, losing his daughter in the process.

He joins a road crew run by Russell Crowe, who figures he's found the man to lead his gold-stealing group.

Really good thriller!

Then, today, I finished with a double header, catching "Heart Of The Beast" and "The Stunt Driver" before their time was up at AMC.

Surprisingly, "The Stunt Driver", a new based on real life film about Canadian daredevil Ken Carter, seemed very familiar to me, especially the parts dealing with the 90-foot ramp that was going to let him jump the Saint-Laurent River.

I have to wonder if maybe I had the pleasure of seeing "The Devil At Your Heels", the 1981 documentary about that daring stunt, at one of Jim Reed's Psychotronic Film nights.

This new one was billed as a 'historical comedy', but it was pretty serious. 

"Heart Of The Beast" would have been lovely to have paired with "The Dog Stars", as it again featured a lot of screen time between a man and his dog, though this one starred Brad Pitt as the retired combat veteran with his bomb-sniffing buddy.

Both of those were set in mountains, too.

Maybe I'll have the chance to pair them in the future, when Peacock or some other streaming service makes them available to me.

(smile!)

fall equinox already?

I am not ready for temperatures in the 50's at night.

Last Monday, the week ahead read pretty normally for this latitude.

To whit, the highs ranged from the upper 80's to mid-90's, while the lower temperatures were in the low to mid-70's.

Like I said, pretty normal.

This week is a different kettle of fish that will no doubt spawn a batch of June babies  around here from folks cuddling up.

Just look at that weather song tra-la-la-ing into low 70's for its highs and dropping a decade into the low 60's at night...

it's even to land in the upper 50's mid-week!!!

That's what we get for the fall equinox this year?  

Not kosher, not kosher at all, especially with this being Yom Kippur.

That's why there's no Music Bingo tonight, as my friends are down for holiday, as they are all Jewish.

There's also not a Two First Posts meeting, even though it was supposedly moved two weeks ago to this night.

Arrrggghhh!!!

That's all a moot point, though, as I have no wheels still.

As I told Michelle at Rincon Transmission when she called, I'm waiting on a delivery of meds, so I'm hanging at my house.

Good thing I have movies galore to entertain me. 

Thanks, Comcast.