Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson


November 28, 2007 - Freaky Friday

Mia on my hoodie (Click to enlarge)

My Dad's cat, Mia, claims my hoodie

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, my parents had to go back to work, and so did I. Fortunately, I can work from anywhere.

The Gryphon and I took the dogs for a morning walk. Once more, The Gryphon took our doggie, Una, while I took my sister's dog, Emma.

This morning, it was bitter cold in the morning, so that we both wished we were wearing extra layers. To make things worse, The Gryphon had brought neither gloves nor scarf. We warmed up a little as we walked.


We had time, then, to get lunch before my afternoon assignment, so we went to our favorite coffee shop in a nearby town, which has a tropical 1920s theme to it, like what Hemingway might have seen in Cuba. I had the vegetarian chili and half a hummus sandwich, filled with lots of veggies. Yum. The Gryphon had soup and a sandwich.

After this respite, we headed back to Dad's so I could do my work. When I was done, I walked to the nearby secondhand clothing store to look through the items. Usually, I don't find much, but this time I found a red knit cowl-neck, practically new, by B. Moss. In addition, I picked up a black Polarfleece scarf for The Gryphon. They didn't, unfortunately, have any gloves.

I asked The Gryphon if he was up for an afternoon dog walk, and he declined, so I took them each for shorter individual walks. We took slightly different paths throughout the downtown, and I took pictures as I went, which was easier while walking Una, as Emma was still trying to prove her dominance of me. From the way she managed to pull me around the block, I think she proved her point.

Una with nativity scene (Click to enlarge)

Una was a little frightened by this nativity scene


Santa in window (Click to enlarge)

An inflatable Santa tries valiantly to escape from a store window


Cold sign (Click to enlarge)

Bad marketing idea on a chilly day


Lamp decoration (Click to enlarge)

Festive Christmas decoration


Una with sled decoration (Click to enlarge)

This is as close as Una would get to the wooden Santa


While we waited for Dad so that we could eat dinner, I read through some submissions to Wild Violet. Then we all heated up Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, natch.

I had a lighter load for my evening work assignments, it being the holidays. So when I finished, Dad was still up. We broke open a bottle of blush wine and watched the first episode of League of Gentlemen, a British series my brother had recommended. It had a lot of off-color humor, which always makes me uncomfortable when I'm watching it with Dad.

What's more, I felt a lot of the sketches went on too long. They never went beyond establishing the platform to build on the action, and when they did, it was frequently predictable. Only one of the sketches, I felt, went in an interesting direction, a scene where a guy pressures a business associate into telling a joke the associate barely remembers, then threatens him with a gun if he doesn't tell it right.

I'll give the rest of the disk a chance, but unless it gets better, I'm unlikely to recommend it to anyone else. I would recommend, though, that you don't watch it in mixed company unless you're unfazed by jokes about, say, masturbation and the intimate details of sex change operations.

Maybe, to Una, life-sized plastic animals and wooden Santas are just as icky.


More Musings on our Thanksgiving visit:

November 27, 2007 - Turkey and Coconut

November 29, 2007 - Family Socializing

Moral:
To dogs, life-sized Christmas decorations are freaky.

Copyright 2007 by Alyce Wilson


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