These past few weeks I’ve been watching my Monkees DVDs. I’ve been a fan of the show and the group since I was a kid (I probably caught the repeats in ’76 and I know I caught the repeats 10 years later). I’m about halfway through season 2 now and I’ve noticed something interesting: most of my favorite episodes happened during season 2. “Fairytale” (where Mike plays a beautiful princess), “The Christmas Episode” (where they sing “Riu Chiu” at the end), “The Devil and Peter Tork” (my second favorite ep and it features “Salesman,” one of my favorite songs), and “The Frodus Caper” (the last ep and my favorite – damned strange story and it features “Zor & Zam,” another favorite song of mine). Another thing I’ve noticed is that there are some season 2 episodes which I barely remember, but often have expressions that I remember well because my sister and I used them often as kids. (Amy, just saw the “Save the Texas Prairie Chicken” bit…) And a third thing – Monty Landis sure was in a lot of episodes in season 2! And a fourth thing – where on earth did Mike Nesmith go on those eps that he wasn’t in?

BTW, does anyone but me remember when Father Dowling Mysteries did their own version of “The Devil and Daniel Webster“? Always liked that story, too. 🙂

Since the New Doctor Who is going to be so rockingly cool (and hopefully it’ll eventually be broadcast here in the States) I’ve decided to make an icon just to honor the show. It’s taken me ages to do this so that it would be under the requisite 40kb, but I managed to get it out the way I wanted it to. 🙂 Enjoy! You’ll probably see it around.

Haven’t written in a couple of days. Just not been in the writing mood. (Haven’t been in a bad mood or anything, just not in a “writing my LJ update” mood.) Had a weekend sans the folks – they were off in California. I picked ’em up from the airport late last night. And so this evening, they took me out for supper to say “thanks.”

We went to the Outback Steakhouse and I had steak & those lovely grilled shrimp they have. Plus creamy onion soup – that’s a new one for me. It was all yummy. And we followed that up with a quick trip to Meijer where I picked up Columbo Season 2 on DVD. Woohoo! Once I finish watching The Monkees season 2, I’ll watch Columbo. 🙂

Ah, last night was one of my Cat Nap nights. Meanwhile, Leo slept the whole night through, I think. Damn cat…

Anyhoo, I had one very long dream which started out like one of those BadBoy Lawyers style programs (Boston Legal?) only it was a bunch of businessmen on a ship out on the ocean. There were some guys who wanted to get rid of some of their coworkers by pushing them overboard. But our hero (who at this point wasn’t any particular actor) manages to elude them, only to have them attempt to shoot at him, so he jumps…overboard. Um, yeah, brilliant move.

So now our hero, who is slowly developing (middle aged, tall, broad shouldered, gotta be strong, ah hell, might as well make it Sylvester McCoy instead) is out floating on the ocean & thinking of his young wife (Elizabeth Adare, of course) who is expecting their first child… Or something. And so far, he’s not dead. Indeed, he manages to survive for a long time (years? You know how dreams are, they seem to make sense at the time) and maybe he’s actually a Time Lord. Or not. (Once the character is played by Sylv, it often becomes rather Time Lordy.) And he gets rescued by a young couple on a yacht. He’s still got all of his money on him and can pay them lots of money for helping him. And he plots a way to get back at the folks in his company. But most importantly of all, he wants to see his wife. And finally meet his child. And he refuses to ever eat sashimi again for as long as he lives (cuz that’s all he’s eaten since he was trapped at sea).

Well, before I get the chance to see the reunion between this businessman and his loving (younger) wife, I must have woken up & fallen asleep again, because the dream has changed. Now the setting is my old bedroom from when I lived at the folks. But this isn’t the ACTUAL one, it’s the stylized one that always shows up in my dreams. And Amy & Rachel are there. Amy’s making Martian Rockets^* (there’s charred paper towels floating in the air). And Rachel’s making Volcano Cakes. Which, in the dream, apparently are tall cakes with a square base & you ignite them. When they burn up (like when you pour concentrated sulfuric acid on sugar), you get an interesting pattern (Rachel made this cool thing with a large devil or troll leaning against a red chimney). And then I woke up.

Dreams are so much fun! 🙂

^*I was trying to find a website to describe what I’m talking about here. It’s a trick where you roll up a paper towel into a column & lightly tape it. Then you light the top of it on fire. It burns down to just a bit of charred towel, which floats up higher & higher. When I first saw this trick, it was a lady at a B-WISER camp doing this (Amy, correct me if I’m wrong – I’m pretty sure it was Lisa). She called it a Martian Rocket and she told a story about how the Martians did everything backwards – the lit the top of their rocket & yet they were finally able to get off the ground anyways. So I’ve always thought of these as Martian Rockets.

This morning before it was alarm time, I received a phone call. “Two hour delay.” Oooh! Yes! I set the clock’s alarm to an hour later and fell back to snooze some more.

Then, while I was reading e-mail later in the morning, I got a second call. No, not the “School is closed” call, but the call from the ‘rents saying they were nearly ready to head off to the airport. (Another week in Santa Rosa for them, lucky pair!) I decided to get dressed (was still in jammies) and go next door. As I was putting on my school clothes, I had one of the local stations on and was reading the other school delays & closures. And then “Newton Local School: Closed” showed up. Ooooh!

So I called the ‘rents and said I’d drive them to the airport. I already knew they’re getting back LATE on Monday, but I’ve done it before and I can do it again. Shortly after that call, I got my official “school’s closed” call. Then I drove the parents in the icky weather and got them safely to the airport. And got myself safely back to town. I stopped into the school to do a couple of things, then got my mail, then went home.

What’s a girl to do all day when she’s off work? Play City of Heroes, of course! I played from about noon until five something. Managed to get Icy Hot Man up from level 13 to 14. (Since I’m not a power leveler, that’s an accomplishment.) And then spent the rest of the time watching The Monkees.

It was a lovely day for a snow day. 🙂

Today must have been the “Send lots of e-mail,” “Write lots of interesting LJ posts” day cuz I’ve been reading my e-mail, my friend’s list, and then my e-mail again since 6pm. “I’ll play some CoH when I get caught up” I promised myself. Heh, well I think I’m caught up now. Thanks for the fun reads, but now it’s time to go kick some villain ASS. 🙂

No, I haven’t gotten myself a Tandoori oven (for those sisters of mine who wondered…) But I did cook mom & dad Tandoori chicken (of a sort). I have a Tandoori seasoning that I got when I bought some really good curry powders from The Spice House. Last night, I mixed the seasoning, nonfat plain yogurt, red wine vinegar, and water and marinated 10 skinned chicken legs with it. (Do you know how hard it is to skin drumsticks???) Today, I cooked the drumsticks, made some brown Basmati rice (tossed in some of my favorite seasonings for the heck of it), cut up a fresh mango, and grilled some flat bread to be some semblance of naan bread. Mom steamed broccoli to be our veggie, oh, and I grilled (greaseless) some onion slices for decoration & flavor to sit on the chicken. The folks arrived around 6:20 but, as usual, I didn’t quite have everything ready. Oh! Forgot the appetizer – spicy lentil pot (left over from when I made it & froze it in January).

Anyhoo, eventually I got everything together and we watched Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow while we ate. (Yeah, yeah, Bend It Like Beckham would have been more appropriate, but I already showed that to mom). Leo enjoyed the company. He got some pleasant scritching from mom & some chicken to eat & people to look at him while he sat on the coffee table. The folks enjoyed the movie (as did I – still amazed at the visuals of it). And a good time was had by all. 🙂

Earlier today, judiang and I created new heroes for City of Heroes so that we could play together. (There’s no way Icy Hot Man will ever come close to Magyss in level, so we needed a pair for when the two of us want to play together.) I created Dominic Blue, a spines/invulnerable mutant scrapper. Judi created Ambrozia, an empathy/dark blast mutant defender. So basically, we’ve got a healer, blaster, scrapper & tank in just the pair of us. When we started playing together, we discovered we’re a kickass team. Well, OK, so we did get killed once, but that was cuz we were stuck in the Industrial Park in Atlas, surrounded by orange, pinks & reds. (We discovered that going to hospital gets one out of the Industrial Park rather well.)

It’s really cute to see the pair of us. Dom is a huge black man. Amb is an itty bitty woman. I don’t have any screen captures of Judi’s character yet, but here is my character:

There’s a quiz doing the rounds which tries to figure out what Political Party you put your beliefs in. Guess what? I’m an anarchist! (Guess I listen to too much Chumbawamba!)

You scored as Anarchism. <'Imunimaginative's Deviantart Page'> Anarchism 92% Green 67% Communism 58% Democrat 58% Socialist 50% Republican 17% Nazi 0% Fascism 0% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com

I was doing so well. I told myself I wouldn’t buy any more DVDs until I’d either caught up on the ones that I already own or until Columbo season 2 comes out (early March). And I’d not bought any for WEEKS! (That’s impressive for me.) But, unfortunately, Meijer was having a deal – the “new” Miyazaki releases were only $17 apiece, instead of $20. And when I checked online, no one had prices that low. So I got Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Porco Rosso which were written & directed by Hayao Miyazaki (creator of Spirited Away, and my personal favorite, Kiki’s Delivery Service.) They also had The Cat Returns, which is from the same studio and based upon a “concept” by Miyazaki, and since it was about a cat, I had to get it. 🙂

“OK,” you say, “I understand about the sale prices… but why did you buy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow too?” Um, no comment…

For lack of something better to post tonight, I’m going to try to come up with a list of 10 things that I’ve done that you probably haven’t done:

1. Taught kids from ages 9 to 90. (my only claim to fame)
2. Got a teddy bear the week before you were born and still have it 34 years later. (sleep with it, for that matter)
3. Taken your teddy bear to Australia, New Zealand, and London.
4. Built a come-back can which was in first place throughout the entire contest – until the last minute when one person beat it. (Yeah, I’m stretching here…)
5. Flew to Australia & New Zealand to stay with people you’d never met before. (Hmmm, might have some folks who have done this too.)
6. Given friend a free CoH sample only to watch her get more than 5 levels above self within a frickin’ week!
7. Put hundreds of photos of Sylvester McCoy into binders using little photo triangles to keep them in place. (Sad, sad fangurl here.)
8. Dreamt about Colin Baker trying to seduce you (and got all oogied out cuz, geez, the guy is happily married!)
9. Took a team of physics students to the TEAMS competition and watched them come in first place. Twice.
10. Sang at a choir competition and nearly passed out between songs. (really bad flu that day – hope it hasn’t happened to anyone on my flist.)

OK, I was reaching often there. At least I didn’t resort to “watch Leo clean his butt while you typed up this entry.” 😉 (Of course, I didn’t do this, because it didn’t happen. He is, however, sitting on the desk now, looking like he owns all this shit.)