You're Doing It Wrong

One thing about my lazy days is that I always really want them to be productive but the rule of what constitutes valid productivity is a secret, even from me, thus I am never satisfied no matter what I do.

I woke at a decent hour and read Temeraire: Throne of Jade for a couple hours. There are about 100 pages in the first 150 which have woefully little Temeraire (a dragon) which is the only reason to show up for the book and was causing me some dismay. But he got more active and I would have liked to read longer but the secret productivity called.

I put on my yoga clothes and then sat in front of the computer (one of my fitness secrets) and caught up on email and RSS feeds. Bob said he wanted to go for a walk so I changed into walking clothes. It was sunny and in my head I was thinking it was nice and warm out there and it was barely over 40 degrees so we kept a brisk pace.

When we got home I put on yardwork clothes and worked out front in the sun (now more than 50 degrees) and raked and whacked rose bushes and pulled weeds and destroyed some prime slug habitat. My arms turned to noodles in a few hours so I didn’t finish but then finishing yardwork tasks is not one of my superpowers.

Now I’m sleepy and looking at the papers on my desk that I not-so-affectionately refer to as “my pile” and I’m wishing I would have dealt with them earlier. I’ll have to shuffle and make sure there isn’t anything time sensitive and they will have to sit for awhile longer.

Tonight on Masterpiece Theatre: Emma. Yay.

I’ve needed to take my car in for an oil change for awhile now but it always seemed like there would be a better day sometime in the future. I finally made a point to get it in this morning and it got an A+ and then as I pulled out of Safeway an hour later, I noticed a strange dash-light I’ve never seen before was on and when I checked in the book it says it’s my rear-light malfunction indicator. (Is it just me or does that sound vaguely pornographic?) I’m going to have to check it again when Bob is home and hope maybe the paper towels were putting too much pressure on something in the trunk causing the light to come on and really it’s all fine. Cross your fingers for me.

I had a hectic week but not horrific. I had a couple of late nights and weird busy days at the office. It wasn’t like I was so stressed with deadlines or something, it was like 10 things all happened at the same time. I’d come back to my desk from sending a fax and there would be a voice message and as I checked that my phone would ring and then while I was on the phone my cell would ring and then someone would come in my office and say that the fax didn’t go through and someone was waiting for me in the lobby and another person needed me to find a file for them. So, for a few hours everything would be out of control. You can probably tell that I would be worthless at a real high pressure job.

Besides my car I had about 10 other errands to run and when I got home I made Keetha’s Sweet Potato Bundt Cake for the writers meeting tomorrow. I’ll take photos of it later but I think I did good. And the glaze (butter, brown sugar, whipping cream, rum) is so delicious I’m going to lick off the pan when I move the cake to a serving plate. I’ve also made a massive cassoulet and I bought a giant hunk of meat so I can make Amy the Mom’s easy pot roast tomorrow. (Where did I get ideas for cooking before blogs?) And then I’ll be done cooking for the weekend and on Sunday I’ll lounge about on my throne screaming orders.

Tomorrow is also a busy day because we have writers meeting from 11-2 and then at 2 we have a birthday party. [Aside: all my blogging friends are welcome to join writers meeting any time you’re in town. You know, I get enough remarks about this I should probably organize a virtual writers meeting. Hm. Will think about that.] On the birthday: Happy 20th birthday today to Roy Brothers. He’s having cake tomorrow to celebrate. In 4 more years we can take him out drinking.

For all you camera smarties who read the previous post and snickered under your breath, “Amateur!” You are right.

According to the nice customer service guy on the phone, for the grownup camera it’s back to the old fashioned way of taking pictures. I press my greasy face against the giant LCD display and look through the tiny viewfinder with one eye to frame my picture, just like in the olden days. Then the display screen shows me the photo I just took.

Do you think that’s true or is the guy just pulling my leg so I won’t try to send it back?

Geez, it’s hard being a moron sometimes.

I just ran around the house and took photos of dinner and the walls and the world’s most awesome garlic press, just like I promised.

I guess it goes without saying that I have more homework to do but at least I know it works. Now I need to rush my spouse through dinner so I can watch the end of Pride and Prejudice. Finally.

My new camera arrived yesterday. I had it delivered to the office and of course I had to rip everything open so I could start playing with it but then I realized there were a bunch of parts and a battery to be charged and I thought I should wait until I got home so nothing would get lost or broken.

I didn’t have time when I got home because we went to Aunt Betty’s to have dinner with Priscilla, Aunt Margaret and Uncle Marvin. When we got home from dinner it was bedtime so I assembled the camera and put the battery on the charger so I could at least take a picture of the wall or something when I woke up this morning.

Argh. The menu will display but not the viewfinder. I cannot take a photo. Wah! Yes, the lens cover is off. I didn’t have time for extensive troubleshooting but I’m pretty bummed about this development and foresee a series of long and frustrating customer service calls in my future. I hope I’m wrong.

Meanwhile: tiredd1 – I know who you are! Congratulations on your recent marriage. Hope to see you soon.

Clarification for angelawd – I cook the rice by itself and put the chicken in the skillet with the vegetables.

Action cat moves in for the kill.

Last night Bob and I did something we hardly ever do, we went on a date. We didn’t plan it on purpose. He said he was going to see There Will Be Blood and I haven’t seen anything at the theater except for Juno which was way back at my birthday so I said I’d go with him.

We went to the 4:30pm matinee which was almost full and we remembered immediately why we never go to the movies on Saturdays. It’s full and everybody talks. The movie is intense and everyone settled pretty quickly and/or I was so involved that I stopped noticing but there were a few moments when we first sat down when I thought we’d made a mistake.

I think this is a movie more for people who admire film making and less for people who like entertainment if you can get my distinction. I think it belongs in what I call the “brilliant failure” category.

The performances are amazing. Daniel Day-Lewis is completely genius and the actor who plays his kid and Paul Dano, the Little Miss Sunshine guy, all really good. The first half hour or so, has stunning visuals but there’s this moment where the movie turns a corner. Bob and talked about it afterward and agreed on this same moment and at that point you’re invested in people that you cannot like or root for in any capacity. The story and the way people behave are grounded in reality, there’s quite a journey going on, but as a viewer, sometimes you want to see a glimmer of goodness before the credits roll.

Afterward we went to Burgerville so I could use my coupon for a free chocolate-hazelnut milkshake and eat my third fast-food hamburger since October. What’s happening to me? Maybe I’m learning to enjoy delicious food. The shake was great.

After dinner we went to the mall to use Bob’s Macy’s giftcards and coupons. I helped Bob for awhile and then wandered off. One current style that I don’t get are the bags or purses or whatever the kids are calling them these days. The bag department took up about 20% of the real estate on the ground floor and I looked through the displays fascinated by the bright ugly colors, unappealing shapes and big shiny buckles and fasteners. I pretended that the store wanted to give me one and which one would I choose? None. Not even for free. And these aren’t even the thousand dollar bags that you see in the ads.

Bob is looking forward to the Oscars tonight. I used to like awards shows, especially the Oscars, but now it feels like my life draining out of me. I can spend 5 minutes the next day reading the results in the paper and have to sit through all the b.s. Then I found something in the paper that, at least partially, changed my mind. One of my favorite movies last year was Once and I especially loved the soundtrack. The NYT has an article, Life Imitating Film about the stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova playing their song at the show tonight. I will tune in for that moment alone. And I hope they win because they are not b.s.

From the morning walk.

Last night I started Sense and Sensibility way too late but I thought I’d just watch the first hour and then go to bed. Once I got into it I couldn’t possibly go to bed without seeing my heroines find true love so I ended up staggering off to bed hours past my bedtime.

It’s still really good. I think it’s tragic that a whole generation of kids are growing up to think of Alan Rickman as Snape and will never truly appreciate him in this romantic role as the wounded Colonel Brandon who looks out for Miss Marianne. Rickman was in another movie that I haven’t seen in years but liked a great deal, Truly Madly Deeply (1990). Rickman plays a recently-departed ghost hanging out with his grief stricken girlfriend played by Juliet Stevenson who was the Mom in Bend it Like Beckham and said one of the funniest lines in that movie: “Get your lesbian feet out of my shoes.” And if that’s not enough, there’s a photo of her on imbd with Colin Firth who plays Mr. Darcy.

I know. I’m a little dizzy myself.

Back to Alan Rickman, he has played some fine baddies (Die Hard) in his day, but I like to think of him as Miss Marianne’s champion.

I can’t wait to get my new camera next week and hopefully when I take photos of moving targets, they won’t come out looking like this.

On our walk last week the very friendly and high energy cat pictured above flew out of his yard and ran over to meet us. I was squatting down to say hello when the string for the hood on my sweatshirt caught his beady cat eyes and he climbed me in one giant leap and began playing with it with his sharp kitty claws catching me in the face. We stopped that game.

We saw his owner and said, “Hey, you got a cat,” and he leaned against the car and looked skyward and let out a mighty sigh and said, “Yeah. Somehow we got two cats.”

This morning the cat ran out to see us again and since I wasn’t wearing that sweatshirt, I thought I was safe. I squatted down to take a photo and he launched onto me, purring like crazy, and tried to play with the strap on the camera. Crazy cat.

One more item. Last night Bob brought a DVD upstairs at dinner and said he had something he wanted me to watch. He said it was from him for Valentine’s Day. It’s called The Danish Poet and it’s a short animated film that won an Academy Award a couple of years ago. It is so sweet and heart-twisting. As far as I know you can’t find it online so you’ll have to ask at the library or something. Worth trying to find.