A Time For Everything

 

Well, here we are, properly into the new year. Christmas decorations put away. Fully back at work. Ready to face to new challenges. Get started on new projects...

But first, some quick thoughts about preparing for Christmas--a short mission de-brief, if you will...

Now, this may come as a surprise to exactly no one, but I keep track of Christmas gifts using a spreadsheet. After forgetting that I'd bought a couple of gifts during the year, I decided I should probably create next year's spreadsheet sooner rather than later so that I can log any gifts bought throughout the year.

Then I thought, after a decade of spreadsheets, that I needed a template. So I set that up.

You know what I added to it?? A budget line item for having lights installed along the roof of my house. I don't want anything fancy, but I can't do the lights myself anymore and I do miss having them. I'm gonna call for a quote come the end of September.

I did find the gifts in time, by the way, and both recipients were pleased with them. :0)

* * * * *

In other news, National Pizza Week started yesterday, January 8th. Sooo...make sure you have some pizza this week. Last year, we covered National Pizza Day in February, but apparently there's a whole week and it's happening now.

According to the site...while pizza's been around since the Greeks and early Egyptians, pizza as we Americans know it didn't really come to fruition until post WWII when soldiers returning from Italy brought the recipe home with them.

It was tweaked from its original version of flat breads topped with olive oil and spices, to the saucy, cheesy variety topped with meats and veggies Americans love today.

* * * * *

Teeth Update

I've been mostly happy with the bottom set of teeth I now have. The serve their primary function of allowing me to talk and smile without feeling self-conscious.

They do have their drawbacks, however, such as being a trap for food while I'm eating. After being such a stickler for keeping my teeth clean for so long, this is a bit annoying. As a result, I tend to take it out when I'm at home.

Also, the "claw" on the right side that holds the device in place tends to pop off when I'm chewing (putting pressure) on the claw on the left side. I don't have molars on the upper right side, so I haven't been able to chew on that side for close to a decade, although...

A couple of weeks after my last post about my teeth, I got the top set of teeth--the aforementioned back molars. Unfortunately, I can't wear them until I revisit the dentist. The faux-gum on the outward-facing side is a few millimeters too high, so when I chew, that hard substance jams into the top of my jaw space where the bone meets the cheek. Not fun.

* * * * *

Jack Ryan, Season 3

DD and I plowed through Season Three of Jack Ryan and WOW. This season had me on the edge of my seat pretty much through all eight episodes. The writers did a super job. We enjoyed season one and I wasn't overly impressed with season two, but they came back and knocked season three out of the park.

I'm looking forward to season four, and I'm half-tempted to seek out some of the original novels in the mean time.

* * * * *

You might be expecting my 2023 fresh start goals... I've usually shared them by now, but I'm still pondering and/or planning some of them. They are coming. >pinky promise<

I read last week that 80% of folks who make resolutions give up by mid-February. I think I've proven over the years that I'm in the 20% even though there are some goals that I may not complete to the fullest extent of expectation. But I didn't give up.

One of the reasons cited right at the beginning of the article as to why people fail is because people don't implement the right habits to achieve said goals.

Funny enough, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear at the tail end of 2022 and have been working on a post about what Clear has to say about developing habits. Look for that in the next month or so.

I hope your new year has gotten off on the right foot. Take care and we'll talk on Thursday.

 

And, surprisingly, I'm not talking about the Stars. :0) Although there is a game tonight and I will be there and I will be wearing green.

But I'm talking about the environment... This past Sunday, I took tote bags with me to the grocery store and used those for toting home my food stuffs. It was a little bit of a challenge to utilize the bags in the sizes I had. I mean, you do your own scanning and bagging for long enough, you develop a system and preference on how to sort and bag the groceries in those store-provided bags. It'll probably take me a week or two to get a new order to things and I might need to dig around the closet to see what other sizes and shapes I have to trade out with and see what happens. :0)

Speaking of the closet, as promised on Wednesday, I did remember to find the next 100 Things Challenge item. Which turned out to be a couple of boxes of DVDs that no one has touched in a couple of years. I also found a box of VHS tapes, but those are going straight into the trash.

I culled carefully through the titles and pulled DH's favorites for him to take down to the fireworks store to keep there. Many of these are not available on Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix Amazon Prime, I finally got around to watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and it was wonderful. From Wiki: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an American period comedy-drama web television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, that premiered on March 17, 2017. The series stars Rachel Brosnahan as the titular Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a housewife in 1958 New York City who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy.


What they don't say in that succinct write-up is that she'd been supporting her husband for years in his attempt to be a standup comedian and one night he completely bombs and when they get home, he walks out. She gets stupidly drunk and ends up at the club in her peignoir (wearing a coat though) and gives a hilarious drunken monologue.

Once DD and I binged through the eight eps of the first season of that, we started on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, another Amazon Prime original. From Wiki: Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, or simply Jack Ryan, is an American action political thriller web television series, based on characters from the fictional "Ryanverse" created by Tom Clancy.


 If you've seen The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, and/or A Clear and Present Danger, then you should be familiar with Jack Ryan. This series serves as a sort of per-cursor to Jack Ryan's roles in those films but set in the present day (cell phones were not a thing in 90, 92, or 94). I've not seen the more recent offerings of The Sum of All Fears (02) or Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (14).

Aside from the premises and plots of the new original series on both Netflix and Amazon Prime that I've watched, one of the things that intrigues (not the right word) me is the format of eight (Mrs. Maisel and Jack Ryan) or thirteen (Grace & Frankie and The Ranch on Netflix) episodes per season.

As a viewer in general, I'd like more of the shows I enjoy. But as a fan of actors, I think it's a great opportunity for them to be able to do other projects rather than being tied to one show for years on end--like Ellen Pompeo in Grey's Anatomy and Mark Harmon from the original NCIS series.

And that's about all I have to ramble on about today. Hope you have a great weekend--