Sunday, April 26, 2009

Stormy Sunday

Sunday afternoon. All week I've been looking forward to tonight, for the fifth and final installment of Little Dorrit on Masterpiece Classic. On Wednesday I was thinking, "Only four days till the end of Little Dorrit!" Yesterday morning on the way to Ryan's (early!) baseball game, I said, "Less than 36 hours till the end of Little Dorrit!" And now it's only about seven hours away, and part of me is SO HAPPY, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

But, for the next SIX hours, northeast Kansas is in a tornado watch. We've had some rain and storms today, a bit of hail, but are sort of in a lull until the next round. Jeff and Grandma just went out to the store with the boys, and I'm going to clean the second bathroom so that will be DONE. Before they left, Jeff said, "Don't spend the whole time watching the weather." We're very lucky to have a TV station in town that has a live online chat, and sometimes live streaming video, during outbreaks of severe weather. They're at http://www.wibw.com/weather. I just heard them say that Topeka will probably get its next round of storms after 4pm -- more than 2 1/2 hours away, a good sized break for us. Storms after 4pm, Masterpiece at 8pm -- if the weather is clear and we have power! But now I must close and get back to cleaning. Crossing my fingers we don't get totally clobbered with wild weather. Hope where you are is safe. :-)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

You've got to hear this ...

... if you haven't already, as the different versions on YouTube have been viewed several million times. Take seven or eight minutes to just watch and listen to this, it will make your day!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

What I'm watching

As many of you know, I am a BIG fan of television. For many years, I've always had a few "Oh-My-God-This-Show-is-So-GREAT!!!" shows at any given time, along with shows I enjoyed and followed as time allowed. In the spring of 1995, I began taping every new episode of Party of Five, and have always had a couple shows each season to which I was devoted. That devotion might shift back and forth between shows, but always there was something to deeply touch my heart, or in some cases to take me as far away as possible from the stresses of my daily life (thank you, 24 and Alias).

This spring, there are three shows making me giddy:

Lost - Wednesday nights are for watching Lost. I think that colleges and universities with strong film/media departments will be adding this show to their curriculum after it's over. It is that great, and that rich; it's a live-action epic novel. Only an hour and a half till the next episode!

Friday Night Lights - I don't know much about football, and have never had a desire to learn more about it. But, after hearing critics praise it and hearing how devoted its fans were, I started watching late in season one, and was a nearly-instant convert. I just love these characters, and the casting is perfect, and the actors embody the characters so completely. Every time I watch, I'm amazed, amused, touched, and entertained. One of the best and most realistic character-driven dramas I've ever seen. The season finale is THIS FRIDAY on NBC, and wonderful news, it's been renewed for two more 13-episode seasons, same way they did this year: on DirecTV in the fall, and on NBC starting in January.

Masterpiece Classic - They've been doing the tales of Charles Dickens, and while Oliver Twist was much better than I expected, and the encore of David Copperfield (with Daniel Radcliffe in his first role) very good, I have been blown away by the first two parts of Little Dorrit. I'm so excited to find out what happens, but also glad that there are five episodes to enjoy - still three to go, psych! After falling in love with Bleak House a couple years back, clearly I need to read a lot more Dickens novels!

What I'll be watching this summer: all the episodes of The Office I've recorded this year, in big gleeful gulps of guffaws. It premiered the week after Papa died, and comedy just didn't feel right for a long time. But I've been saving up, and how I've missed you, Dunder-Mifflin. It's not over; we've just been on a break. ;-)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The outsider

As I've noted before, I'm the only one in my family who loves to read. Maybe that will change someday (I hope I hope I hope), but in the near future, not likely. But I was thinking about this the other day: my parents and my brother weren't readers, either, except my dad with his magazines. So, where did I come from? And, how did I get here? How did I get this way? How did I become myself?