Woolly Mutts

The end of the merry making.

We have come to December 30 once again and begin to wind down the merry making of the month previous.  We still have a few birthdays to celebrate in January (4 to be precise) with special emphasis on baby Callum's big Number ONE, but for the most part I am starting to say goodbye to the holiday season.  Most of the holiday decorations are making their way back to storage and I've begun to contemplate getting back into a more normal swing of things again.  Tom has been off work all of last week and one thing we like to do while he comes up for air after a arduous few months of work is to latch onto a tv series we haven't watched and do a bit of a marathon.  This year we opted for Sons of Anarchy.

Being a long time fan of Ron Perlman (oh Vincent, I miss you so) I had SOA on the outskirts of my radar, but it took a strong recommendation from the lovely who does my hair to make me decide it was time to give it a look.  That picture up there about sums it up.  They are a big, hot mess of love and anger and we are hooked.  There are six seasons on Netflix and we are over half way through the third hoping to finish before the next season begins again. (I don't know when.)

I did not for one minute think I was going to be as addicted to this show as I am, but I've been wrong before.  It's well written with so many different characters and plot twists not to mention a glimpse into a life that is so far removed from mine that I can't help but be fascinated. Tom and I drove into Schaumburg yesterday to do a little anniversary celebrating and SOA just kept coming up in our conversations. I can't really imagine motorcycle club life, but strangely, I've come to respect them. That kind of family support is attractive, as is having someone around to beat up the bad guys.  Which make them bad guys, too, which makes for thought provoking television.  Good stuff.

Another little plus....the music is amazing and the website gives the musical information for each episode.  I love a tv show that leaves little bread crumbs of information for me to follow and a song from a few episodes back has led me back to my love of Patty Griffin. The song that got my attention was "Mary". 

 And now I'm obsessed.  I purchased it on itunes and listen to it over and over.  Something about this song sort of reached in and took hold of me.  I want to take the words to my heart and sing it. I take "Mary" to be every woman, every mother, my mother and the mother of Jesus.  Lyrics:

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ashes
You're covered in rain
You're covered in babies, you're covered in slashes
You're covered in wilderness, you're covered in stains
You cast aside the sheet, you cast aside the shroud
Of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
On some sunny day and always stay, Mary

Jesus says Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

Mary she moves behind me
She leaves her fingerprints everywhere
Everytime the snow drifts, everytime the sand shifts
Even when the night lifts, she's always there

Jesus said Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ruin
you're covered in secrets
Your'e covered in treetops, you're covered in birds
who can sing a million songs without any words
You cast aside the sheets, you cast aside the shroud
of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
on some sunny day and always stay
Mary, Mary, Mary

I love the line about Mary staying behind and cleaning up the place.  As women, we do a lot of that. I've been doing a lot of pondering on the sacred feminine lately, which is mostly likely why this song grabbed me.

So, I hope you all had wonderful holidays filled with lots of moments that will be lovely memories in future.  If you're looking for something to watch, SOA is the direction I'm pointing.

Happy New Year!

Because we knew you we have been changed for good.

I just spent two hours fast forwarding through the goodbye extravaganza for Oprah.  I wasn't going to do it.  First of all, I hate goodbyes, but seeing previews I sort of felt like the performance was going to be more of a vehicle for stars to showcase themselves rather then truly honor Oprah.  Some of that happened, but magic was there, as well.  Oprah has always been good at magic.

Thinking back over the past 25 years I wonder how many conversations I have started with, "Did you see Oprah?".   Many, I'm sure, cuz I have loved me some Oprah.  I have been setting my recorder for the 4:00 pm slot for so many years that it won't know what to do with itself now that she has brought the Oprah show to a close.  She is hardly gone, as we all know.  The woman has her own (get it? own? he he) network, for heavens sake.  Her influence will still be floating around out there in the zone of the "aha" moment, but it won't be the same and I'm going to miss her.  The books, the Favorite Things (Hi Georgia! Can't wait to meet your new Bug!), recipes, movies, cars, decorating, and on and on.  The thing I'm going to miss most is that she made me think.  I didn't always agree, but I considered it.  Whatever "it" was, I thought on it and there are few things I love more than something to think about.  Something to research and turn over and around in my mind.

Oh, and how she inspired.  Lord have mercy she pours inspriation out of every darn pore of her being.    When she looked into the camera and told me that I had value and purpose I believed her.  I still do.    I realize that she has the power of  money and influence, but she uses that money and influence to plant seeds.  Seeds that grow into education and confidence and extraordinary people.  People who will pay if forward.  If you saw the show then you saw all those men who walked in carrying candles.  Men who were aided in education by Oprah and have used their own money to form a scholarship to help educate other young men.  That was one powerful moment.  One of many that I'll carry around in my memory and heart and pull out when I need to be reminded of the power of good.

She said something once that really stuck with me and I can't quote her accurately, but it was something like "we do the best with what we have.  When we don't know, we can't do anything about it, but when we do know, when we DO know, then it's up to us how to use that knowledge."  I can't tell you how often I think of those words; how often I ask myself  " now that you know, what are you going to do?"  Thanks, Oprah.  We don't always want to tell ourselves the truth, but we need to.  We need to know the truth and act on it.

So this is goodbye, Oprah.  Goodbye to you being a daily part of my life.  I wish you all sorts of well.  Love and light and peace in your life.  Time to do and be what your heart desires.  You've earned it.  I will miss you.  WE will miss you.  Thanks for 25 years of helping me to see what I never could have without you.  For the tears and the cheers and the singular Oprah magic, thank you and Namaste.

"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."  Oprah Winfrey

Lost: The Final Season (no spoilers cuz I'm clueless)

Dear LOST,

      I've missed you.  All your twists, turns, freaky music, and cute red (bad) robots; it was just way too long between visits.  So long, in fact, that when we met again last night I had a hard time remembering who was dead, or alive, of both, or neither.  I guess that's why you offered the recap that I decided I had better things to do and ignored.  Live and learn.

    So, to keep this short, even though it appears you've gone all Shrodinger's Cat on us (this, I must confess, was my amazing husband's observation since I have always been too pissed at Shrodinger for being mean to his cat to really grasp the experiment) I will continue to be faithful, right up to the very bitter end.  Despite a few not-so-fantastic seasons, LOST has been some of the best television to come along in a long, long time.  Don't let me down.

Mahalo,

Holly

P.S. Sayid, hang in there man. 

Embrace your inner Whovian.

Whovian is the term used for those somewhat obsessed with the British sci-fi series, Doctor Who.  It is January 3 and I confess that I am a Whovian.  Big time.  It began, my love of British sci-fi, with Primeval.  From there I found Torchwood, and since I am prone to being late for the party and/or doing things backwards, after Torchwood, rather than before as it should have been, I finally made my way to Doctor Who.  Netflix (many praises for the big N) had them on instant view and I bounced around a bit, hunting for Captain Jack, a character I had come to know and, hmmm, love, cuz really, who would not love Captain Jack?  It took a bit for me to get serious and begin with season 1 of the newer version and Doctor number 9.

I dug season 1 well enough and Doctor 9, Christopher Eccelston, was brilliant, but it took until well into season 2, after D9 regenerated into D10, that I was well and truly under the Tardis spell.  This is sci-fi at it's funny, intelligent best and I am now a Whovian.....oh yes I am. And kids, I am not alone.  I had no clue what a machine Doctor Who was/is.  In the UK it's sacred.  You can take Doctor Who vacation tours (which, I completely plan to do....just watch me.)through Wales.  Who knew?

Just in case you're wondering, Amazing Husband shares my love of the sci-fi and is also hooked on the Doctor, although perhaps not quite to the level I am.  It's ok, he'll get there.  Once we get that Tardis built in the backyard he'll have joined the Whovian ranks.

But I digress.  

This is David Tennant and he is/was the tenth Doctor.  Bit of a cutie pie, isn't he? He played the tenth Doctor for 3 seasons, which is a pretty great run.  There are tee-shirts out there that say "You never forget your first Doctor" and he was my first Doctor....and no, I will never forget him.  He's a bit if a rock star in the UK.  I did a some research and apparently he's the sixth most recognizable name across the pond.  So last night, in the final agonizing, emotional episode of season 4 we bade goodbye to the tenth Doctor  ( I cried like a baby) when he regenerated and became...

......the eleventh Doctor.  Ah, so young, but maybe, just maybe he'll be good.  Heaven knows he's got some big ol' skinny shoes to fill.  Matt Smith is his name and The Doctor is is new game.  I'm still grieving for my old, first Doctor and it will take time, but I think I'm gonna like the new guy.   BUT...

....season 5 doesn't start until sometime in the Spring!   What's up with that?  Get us all going with the new guy and then don't begin the season for three months.  Cruel business, this!  Sigh...we shall persevere.  In the meantime I'll be walking down memory lane and catching up on some of the older versions; it's been around 30 years. 

Whovians unite!  Do you have a favorite Doctor?

Can't stop watching 24.

Amazing Husband and I have been watching 24 for months now.  As per our usual MO we came to the 24 party late and have been working our way through all 7 seasons whenever we have some spare time. We lay blurry eyed in bed at 11:30 at night saying "one more", way too many nights. It's taken awhile, but we are 1 disk shy of being caught up to begin season 8 with the rest of the world.  Amazing Husband went to school with the gentleman that plays Tony Almeda so it's kind of fun to have a little personal connection.  (At this time Tony is being a very bad man and I hope he's got a darn good excuse.)  What follows are a few observations on 24:

*None of these people eat, pee, or sleep.  I realize that it is just one 24 hour period, but I'm beginning to wonder if they are all some sort of super race and their origin will be revealed in season 24.

*It is always a bomb, biological weapon, assassination or all of the above.  Usually, all of the above.

*You can make anyone say anything if you hurt them enough.  Watching this show has made be think and rethink my stand on torture.

*Jack will shoot his own mother in the head if it will save the country.  This will be followed by several minutes of close up shots of him being deeply tortured in his soul, and then he will go forth and save the day.  I told this little theory to AH and he said that he didn't think Jack could shot his own mother, but he could certainly shoot mine.  True enough.

*Jack can be mostly dead all day and still solider on to save the day.  More evidence of my super race/alien species theory.  Bullets, electricity and lack of oxygen are no match for the man of steel.

*Chloe is definitely not of this planet.  No one can be that smart and so desperately low on people skills and still be so beloved.  I, for one, am a big Chloe fan.

*And while we are on the topic of fans.... oh, Bill Buchanan, I will miss you.  You rocked and had great hair. You must turn up on another show soon. Seriously.

*All vice presidents are tools.

*Just when you think it's over, it is far from over.

*If you carefully put your arm around someones neck and squeeze while saying the words, "don't fight it" you can put them to sleep with no harm.  Well, Jack Bauer can.  I'm sure I would leave a trail of bodies behind me during training.

*I have now integrated small phrases into my everyday language, "copy that", "10-4", "set a perimeter", "damn it, you have to listen to me"," you have to trust me", and "I can do this", are all handy and useful when you say them with the correct amount of desperation in your voice.

*It it possible to sleep through a majority of several episodes and still catch up during previews.

I could go on like this for much longer, which is a testament to how easily entertained I can be. I hope Jack Bauer has many more fine and exciting seasons left in him. 

Now back to your regularly schedule program.

Now that I am over being all like the-sky-is-falling and pity-party-pathetic, could we talk for a minute about the wonderfulness that is QVC? (I've got no connections whatsoever. Period. Nothing. Just one great experience after another.) I resisted the siren song of the QVC for many a year.  I was working or busy or thought it was a hassle.  I ooohhhed and aaahhhed at what others discovered by watching channel 27 (in our neck of the woods) or online, but I stayed strong and did not go there.  Ok, I'll grant you that it was probably better for my budget if I had left better-off alone, but I would also have missed out on the coolness, cause QVC is cool, baby.

First the basics; ordering is quick and easy.  I've only ordered online, but I have a friend who has the phone number memorized and insisted that ordering by phone is a breeze also.  What you order comes in a couple of days and returns could not be easier with return label provided.  All those things don't seem like to much to ask for, but we all know what can of worms can be opened by the dreaded return don't we?  Yes we do.

Now the fun! QVC sells almost everything.  Food, make-up, clothing, furniture, electronics, garden stuff, shoes, handbags, bedding. You can get a football themed bikini so that in the heat of summer you can remember the good times bundled up and cheering for your team. (You will notice that the suits for teams in colder climes are tankinis.  Not sure why.) How about some frizz control for your hair, or orchid earrings, or a cute gauzy tunic? They sell all this amazingness by giving you information.  Being an information junkie, this makes me ever so happy. They tell you measurements for each garment and they show you the garment on several different body types.  The sales people (or maybe they prefer "hosts") tell you when it might hit you near the "bad place".  (Seriously, they do.)  If you miss the item you want when it aired on TV you can go online and see the video.  It's like your own personal fashion show.  "Here's Susan wearing the black tunic with the white slacks and cute strappy sandals.  Brenda is in the white with skinny jeans". SO much shopping fun.  If you hit the website in the morning they will tell what is new today or yesterday and there are bargain lunch offers from 11-2 (I think). 

*Quick tip for other curvy girls out there; I've found that the Susan Graver brand fits my body type really well.  She seems to understand the concept of the....uh....womanly body.

The only thing that could make QVC any better is if they sold yarn.  Oh man, that would be awesome.

Dammit, he put my stapler in jello again.

Here I was thinking I was the queen of the over fifty cool.  I mean, come on, I've got a Blackberry and a Nintendo DS (I was a good girl this Christmas and birthday).  I try to keep up on the latest world events, try to enjoy the latest music (I fail at this one, but I try and that's what counts, right?).  I'm hip.  Sort of.  So where the heck have I been these past...what?....5 years when The Office has been on?  To have missed such divine entertainment for this long is incredibly uncool.

All is not lost, however, for the discovery has been made and I will forever more be a fan of this hilarious show.  AH and I have been watching them.....hours of them...each night after we have painted ourselves to exhaustion.  Netflix has all seasons, in their entirety on it's Watch Instantly feature.  We are almost to the end of the 2nd season.  Jim and Pam do get together, right?  WAIT....don't tell me. 

So maybe I can regain some cool points here....my ringtone on my new Crackberry (and kids, I cannot put the darn thing down) is the Office theme song.  I may be slow, but better late then never. Or, in the immortal words of Michael Scott "I'm a early bird and a night owl.  I'm wise and I have worms."  So fabulous.  So darn fabulous.

Here a commercial, there a commercial.

Here in Muttville we are BIG fans of the DVR.  DVR, Tivo, whatever you've got to record what you can't watch on television.  For example, Monday night is a HUGE night for quality tv viewing.  Big Bang Theory, Heros, etc.  Monday night is also the night that we have a standing date with the BFF and her honey buney.  So we fire up the DVR and watch later and in doing so we can hit that magic fast-forward button and say goodbye to commercials. I know that if any employees of marketing firms are reading this they are less than happy, but I am completely aware that McDonald's has some sort of new mochachinos, Macy's is apparently a national treasure, my local yarn store runs it's commercials back to back (for some odd reason), and Captain Morgan requires a strenuous knee-up posture.  Don't even get me going on the gadzillion prescription medication commercials.  There is one commercial, however, that I will even rewind to watch and until I decided to write this post I didn't even know who the advertiser was.  It's E-trade and I have zero affiliation. 

YouTube had several E-trade baby commercial choices and I decided the following is my favorite, although the clown version is a close second.  Enjoy. 
If you decide to head over to YouTube and watch the rest, be aware that there are many fakes and some are offensive. Just a little heads up.

I like big brains and I cannot lie.....

Ok, I admit it.  I have always been attracted to the smart guys.  In school my girl friends were all about the football heros or the metro-sexual preppie dudes, but not me.  I went weak in the knees for the geeks.  Still do and I am married to the finest of the fine.  Intelligence is so-dern-sexy. I'll take brains over braun every time!

So a few weeks ago my daughters significant other suggested a television show to AH and I; The Big Bang Theory.  At the time it was airing at a time conflicting with some other fav show....probably Heros, so we didn't tune in, although I did record.  Now, with the writers strike, we have had to search for quality tv viewing and as I scanned through some old recordings.....there it was!  Yesterday we watched the pilot and I have NEVER laughed so hard at a television show in.my.ife.  There is a strong beauty-and-the-geek factor going on and I have to admit that the blonde girl is very poorly typecasted as being....ummm...ok, dumb, but the geeks are just hilarious.  Most of the smart humor references were about things that I vaguely understood, but AH kept up (surprise) and enjoyed it as well.  I have no idea if the rest of the season is any where near as funny as the pilot, but I have high hopes. 

A quick tip here girlfriends, just between us; if you're at the gym oggling the muscle heads and not having much luck getting that fun date, get thee to the library.  Seriously.

Craft in America

Has anyone else seen Craft in America?  It's a PBS series, so I can't give you the particulars on what channel and when, but I can tell you to watch.  I've been recording it and have only seen about a half hour of it, but I am still completely won over by the concept and the execution.  Immediately I felt the kinship to other people who feel the draw of creation in all forms of art.  Truly worth a look. I do love my PBS. 

Something else I've been having some fun with lately is StumbleUpon.  It's a search engine that customizes to your preferences.  I haven't had the chance to discover all the ins and outs, but I think it has promise.

For my fiber friends, have you seen Ravelry yet?  It's still in Beta testing and isn't open to the public, but it the homepage makes me think it will be very cool.  There is a place where you can put in your contact info to be "invited" when they do open.  Looks to be a pretty amazing fiber resource. 

A quick plug for Morehouse Merinos.  I came across their book in the library and was impressed by the patterns so I checked the website.  After much looking I decided on a kit for a head kerchief.  The kit arrived at my door very quickly and I LOVE the finished product.  It was a fast knit and I've worn it often.  The yarn is so soft, and yet really durable.  I'll be ordering from them again!

And finally, my father-in-law has ventured into the cyber world with his new blog.  He's just learning how to get around, so there isn't much there yet, but if you have a second, go over and say hi.