A Time For Everything

This might be more familiar as "It's hockey night in Canada" or "It's hockey night in Pittsburgh," but as of Monday, I'll be able to watch all the hockey my little heart desires on the TV in my house--not on the iPad and not on the computer. I'll even be able to watch DALLAS STARS hockey, which I didn't get to do very often because of black-out zone restrictions.


With DH's blessing, I upgraded our cable TV package to include ALL sports channels. Of course, we'll get everything else aside from premium movie channels and DH is pleased about that.

So woo hoo and Happy Friday!!!

Hope you're having a great Friday and have a great weekend!

Yeah, like this afternoon! It's ten years or more since I've had access to live TV. When we still attended church and there was a big push to get out of debt, we got rid of cable. I've never missed it much until last year when Sonshine left home and the house was super quiet. I've finally adjusted to that, but I've wanted to get back into watching NASCAR and baseball and to checking out hockey. It's also be nice to be up to date on TV shows I'm watching rather than a week or more behind.

So anyway, DH needed to upgrade our Internet connection at home and was able to secure basic cable for additional $20/$30 (we'll see how it actually shakes out). It's what I was hoping to pay anyway, so having better Internet in the bargain is a boon. Now if we could only get a WIFI device that worked consistently.

In other news, we had a storm blow through this past Monday. Tornado watch, possibly tornado warning, but no TV, so I had no idea what was going on outside except that it was blowing pretty hard and it was keeping me awake. See what my priorities are??

So when I got up Tuesday morning, I was rather surprised to see this:




I heard nothing!

Damage was only to the fence and relatively easy to fix but we gotta cut up the huge length of tree. I think we'll be hiring out!

Anyway...  hope you have a great rest of the week. See you Friday!

I'm a huge fan of NASCAR. It's been a while since I've followed it, but with Sonshine gone, there's a real lack of sports around the house. Although previous sports was of the virtual variety--Hockey and Soccer via an Xbox game.

While I do relish the silence, I also miss the sports, faux though it was. So I need to find a way to watch sports live on the Internet.

Some events are going to be readily available, others not so much. Hockey has a pay service, but NASCAR has been a bit more elusive. If you know of something please let me know!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Stay safe and warm today.

Watching TV can teach you things and take you places.

As I mentioned several posts ago, I finally discovered the BBC's Sherlock--a contemporary remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective.

One of the location shoots took place at 23 & 24 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, London and was referred to as the Lie of Leinster Gardens. I Google-searched this to see if was true and sure enough! (Click the address for a bit more detail.)


So basically it's a facade bridging two sections of five-story terraced housing, but there's no actual home behind the two addresses. The underground train system used random open spaces to keep the tunnels free from smoke and for the old steam engines to vent their steam...

Click here to see more images of the back side of the "house." There's also more info via this link.

I wonder if there are any such anomalys here in the States.

Of course, it's been summer since June 21, but it's been nice. But real summer heat has finally hit Texas. The actual temperature is supposed to hit 106* today. UGH UGH UGH

I didn't take my doggies out for their walk last night because it was just so hot. One missed it, the other didn't seem to care. I promised Sammy that I'd take her tonight. UGH

In other news, I have revised my contest entry. I finished it yesterday, mid-day and then put it away to rest. It's now about a 1/3 of a page longer than the allowable 10 pages, so I have to find a new place to cut it off. Or start the story farther in as one first-round judge suggested, which means I could submit a little more of the story. Decisions, decisions...

It's official, I'm a Batman fan girl. I bought myself a tee-shirt on Saturday. (I was already in the store when I saw it--I didn't go in search of it on purpose.) I'm also considering seeing the third film in the theater again. I rarely go to the movies, but for me to see the same film in the theater more than once: it's serious. :) No fan fiction of the horizon, though.


The writing room is almost finished. The latest addition is a 50" HD television, now hanging on the wall. DH bought it for the fireworks store, and went and got it for me and mounted it. I was just going to buy a small TV for in there along with a new Wii balance board so I can get back to doing Wii Fit aerobics. But, hey, I'm not going to complain.




I haven't watched a movie on the TV yet, but I'm looking forward to that. I just can't decide what to watch first. (It'll probably be Harry Potter.)(Probably 6 or 7.1.)

All we need now is a desk and a pair of comfy chairs and this room is set.

Hope you had a great weekend and here's to a good week.

Again, my blog tour this morning was disappointingly short, which brings me back to mine.

Fall is here in force, even the edges of winter are creeping in. The days are decidedly crisp and the nights are deliciously cold. It's hot tea time all day now. Although that may be because I'm feeling as if I've got a bit of a cold coming on. Usually in the winter I have a hot and a cold beverage by my side.

My muse has come back to work part time and I'm anxious to get a couple of my fanfics-in-progress moving again. One is so close the the end, I can hardly stand it. I'm so ready to be done with it. I'm still stuck on the next chapter, but I've bypassed it for now and skipped to the next bits where I do know what's happening and then I'll go back fill in the blanks. It's been over a year now since I started writing this thing and posting it to Fanfiction.net and a LiveJournal account as I go. It started as an experiment and it's been a very wonderful experience, but as I said, one I'm ready for it to end. So to that end, my goal is to finish it by the end of the year. My goal is three or four more chapters max at 1700 to 2400 words per chapter. That's just under 10,000 (max) words by January 1. Seems a bit daunting, but I already have some of that written. It's just not in order or edited and revised and ready for publication/posting.

And if I could stop being distracted by TV and movies, I might make better progress. :) But sometimes the well needs to be refilled and so I allow myself to be distracted. Not only that but I also need to spend time with hubby and son...

...can see Jupiter. Yes, really. There's been a very bright dot up in my night sky for the last several nights, maybe weeks, and using my GoSkyWatch app on the iPad, I can't see any major constellations with stars bright enough to match that of this particular celestial body. Not only that, but the app shows Jupiter to be in that spot. Uranus is there also, just beyond it, but you can't see it without a telescope.

After some research (not conclusive by any means, but good enough for me), I have determined that, yes, Jupiter can be seen with naked eye and this body is probably it. Not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because apparently stars provide their own light (the little hazy halo you see around them) and planets do not. So this bright spot in my night sky has a clearly defined edge and no halo. I say it's Jupiter!

On to the sort of promised reviews...

TV

The Tudors ~ a Showtime series based on the life and wives of King Henry the VIII of England. Four seasons of fast paced, rich settings and costumes, gratuitous sex scenes, and some historical facts. The show doesn't claim to be completely historically accurate and one official site states plainly certain things that were modified to provide the maximum entertainment--that's what TV's all about after all.

I finished season two this past weekend and Anne Boleyn has just lost her head. I did learn that she was, of a sort, the mother of the Reformation. This period of history isn't one of my strong suits, but now I am reading and learning. That's always a good thing. :)

Movies

Bright Star ~ another documentary in movie format of the love affair, such as it was, between the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I found the pace to be too slow for my taste, although I suffered through most of it before I got fed up and quit watching a mere twenty minute from the end. Not recommended unless you just really really love the poetry of John Keats.

Coach Carter ~ a sports film based on the life of Ken Carter, high school & college basketball player. The film was a bit more feel-good than actual events according to the bit of Googling I just did, but that's not such a bad thing. Coach Carter's (the film) main point is that academics are just as, if not more, important than sports. Sure, talent will get you to college, but if you're going to fail all your classes once you get there, what's the point? Over all, I enjoyed it.

Hoosiers ~ another sports film loosely based on the Milan High School team that won the 1954 Indiana State Championship. This film, set in 1951/52 very rural Indiana, is another feel good movie. No big message to impart, however, only that hard work and sometimes a little luck can go a long long way. If you like sports movies, this one is worth the time investment, too.

All right, that's it for now. I'll be back in a day or two, I hope.

Have a good day.

Oh, and though she doesn't read my blog, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister Kristen who turns 28 today. Wow, is she really that old now??? Not that 28 is old, I just wonder how time passed so quickly. :(

The weekend was everything it should have been. Relaxed and productive. I had hoped to get more writing done, but I'm content with what I was able to bang out. I even gained an hour of time. I wish that could happen every weekend. :)

Not only did I get a bit of writing done, and most of the laundry (including the important stuff like socks & undies for everyone), and most of my hallway walls (*must finish tonight*), but I also spent a great deal of time outside.

Where else can you rake leaves in November in a tank top and shorts and get a sunburn but Texas! Most of our leaves haven't changed yet and are still on the trees, but I filled a couple of yard waste bags with mostly acorns and dirt. We also had a fire in the pit going while my son burned most of my business trash with sensitive info on it I'd been hauling home for a good six months now.

And since last Wednesday evening, I have watched three movies and a season of The Tudors. Reviews maybe tomorrow.

I hope you all had as enjoyable a weekend.

Well, as you all should know, Mother's Day was this past Sunday. On Saturday, we trekked out to my sister-in-law's house for dinner--turkey dinner with all the trimmings. De-lish. My mother-in-law was there, and my other sister-in-law flew up from Houston, and we had a grand ol' time visiting and eating and playing games.

On Sunday, my little family stayed home--mostly. Hubby and the kids disappeared mid-morning to buy my gifts. Which was really a two-fer--I got a couple of hours of peace and quiet *and* gifts!

So what did I get you ask... Well, I got a new pair of ear buds for my iPod, a new hard plastic case for my iPod, a couple of movies, a bouquet of tulips, and a new iPod.

I'd asked for one. One with much more storage than my old. Four times as much, I might add, for the same price as my old one two years ago. Gotta love technology. I love my iPod. I have quite a bit of music, but mostly I love to convert my favorite TV shows/movies from DVD and put them on my iPod.

And really I don't ask for much. My husband sometimes complains that I'm too low maintenance. He's the one who tends to spend money in large quantities...

My kids are all asking what I'm planning to do with my old iPod. I haven't told them yet, but I will probably give it to my youngest daughter as part of her graduation present. My older daughter won't be very pleased about that. My son was never in the running. He's not responsible/trustworthy enough yet.

As for the rest of my daughter's graduation gift, we're getting her a Kindle 2 - an e-reader. I want one, too...maybe for my birthday. But they're not cheap, so one may be all we go for--at least in June. My anniversary's in July... ;)

I never imagined I'd be a gadget person, but there you go!

Do you have a favorite gadget?