At the Symphony on Saturday... and the Movies on Monday

Saturday morning I slept in a good deal, being tired from a busy week in the Navy. I don't remember details, but I know I managed to get my finances in order with the bank, get my laundry done, and I know I watched some Inspector Gadget (1983) from Netflix and heartily enjoyed the theme music and the character Amazon Annie in one of the episodes. (Speaking of those kind of things, I watched Wreck It Ralph for the first time the other day on board... and I loved it! So funny! Made me smile when I walked past the arcades last night at the theater. And Sunday on Duty, I watched Battleship on my laptop as well... and that was silly!)

But the main event Saturday was at Chrysler Hall downtown for a Symphony performance of Beethoven's Fifth... along with a concerto for the oboe by Mozart, and a very mundane piece called Apollon Musagete by Stravinsky. I was so tired, I dozed during Stravinsky... but the rest was so interesting and well done, I was wide awake. I had a lovely seat too... just a few rows back on the right hand side... a front-row seat to watch the cellos! It was solid fog when the concert got out... and since the housing people decided 11pm on a Saturday night was a good time to do maintenance on the power, they took it down again. I spent the night onboard instead of being driven crazy by the fire alarm beeping.

Monday afternoon, I slept for five straight hours once I got home. When I woke, I decided I wanted to finally go see the new Thor movie, so I went to the cinema cafe in Hampton, and enjoyed a late night showing. Got some things for the ship at the grocery store on the way home, then discovered a way to rip my DVDs to a computer format when I settled back in. My hours are all out of whack!

Tonight I went for a quick bike ride between making pies and watching The Mikado (1939) on Netflix.  Also got to talk to lots of my family, and finalize everything I want on the ship for a while.

Jw

And I Ended Up Staying At Home

 A Beautiful Day at the Laudromat, Yesterday

(Although the Weather was About the Same Today)

Had a couple thoughts yesterday about driving up the peninsula, or going to a Cinema Cafe movie... but today all I did was make some awesome omelets for breakfast, bake banana bread for lunch, hang a few pictures upstairs (the ones I put into frames last night)... and suddenly I got the urge to clean up the front porch/entryway. Yesterday I painted the mail slot cover white... and I wanted to continue with touching up the trim around the door. But first I decided I'd clean it all up... including the vinyl siding that looked like it had never been cleaned before (ever). Three buckets of soapy water (and three sponges) later, everything looked brand new. So I got out the paint again and took care of all the trimmings. Then I decided to paint the concrete just below the doors since it was all cracked and discolored. This is something I wanted to fix the first day I saw the place... but I guess never got around to until now.

Church this evening was great! Continued their series leading up to Christmas of events that point to Jesus in the Old Testament. Today the topic was sacrifices... blood sacrifices (life is in the blood... without the shedding of it there is no forgiveness of sin), praise sacrifices, and finally, living sacrifices (and a lot about being able to approach God). Something I hadn't thought about before: the pastor mentioned that without Christ we wouldn't be able to approach God because we (in our sin) would be obliterated (as light obliterates darkness). What a thought!

For the rest of the evening, I am going to have a seafood dinner at home (crab and shrimp), and I'm going to watch To Sir with Love because my Darling made me think of it. :)

Jw

Back on My Own

As I was out that way already to pick up my car from the airport (as Meg and Jason had to drive it there to get off okay) I stopped by a repair shop to get my air conditioner looked at. As I waited, I walked around the corner and found a sports bar called "Winners" for somewhere to eat since I was starved. Had a bowl of chili and a hamburger and both were very good. Some retired Navy guys were hanging out there (it was only about 3 or 4 in the afternoon) and they chatted with me because I was still in uniform. Got home and cleaned things up a little, then talked with Meg for a good while. Even read in a book for a while (I organized all my mounds of books, sorting the ones I want to read next).

Today I made the most of my time... woke up after eight and a half beautiful hours sleep, had a simple breakfast, played my instruments, then loaded up the laundry and enjoyed a gorgeous walk on the beach as they dried. Did a little shopping as they washed... I love the location... where else can you do all that when you do your clothes? Upon returning and after putting everything away, I made some fresh spaghetti noodles for my leftover sauce with Italian sausage and mushrooms and watched the current Netfilx film from the mail: Michael Collins (1996) with Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman. After that, I baked another pumpkin pie, took a walk over to our private beach (right at sunset!), then set out for Pembroke Mall upon returning. Picked up some frames at Michael's, and had a little business at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Needed to return something, and pick up a chopper for baking banana nut bread tomorrow. Because I couldn't resist, I picked up a delicious roast turkey salad at Panera, along with a little guac from Chipotle. Was going to watch something else tonight, but I caught up online instead.

Jw

Staying at Home

Well this week has been fun! Right after work on Monday, I came home and assembled the push-mower that had come in the mail last week. Turned out to be an excellent, sturdy model (only $60 including shipping when I bought it), being exactly what I needed. The next day at the NEX, I bought a metal rake to get rid of the clippings and a pair of gardening shears to trim the edges of the patio, and that worked out very well too.

I also started another 1000-piece puzzle that I've had sitting around for years, and finished it on Friday.

This greatly reminds me of camping on Ham lake in Minnesota... so very vivid and nostalgic. See what I mean: 2012 BWCA Photo Contest.

On our special day off from work on Thursday (after our duty day), I invited Kari home for breakfast before driving her to her own place (her car is in the shop). It's always such a pleasure to be off the ship after duty, but having an excellent breakfast to share was the tops. We had scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey sausage, orange juice and wheat toast with jelly. Yum!

On the way back from taking her home, I stopped at the library to pick up the other two Lord Peter Wimsey movies that were waiting for me (they had been in storage). While there I poked around a little, picking up a Lincoln Brewster CD Today is the Day, a book about the Civil War navy, War on the Waters (is someone going to attack Mike and I?), a couple audio books (Mansfield Park and 1776... both too long for me to sit down and read), and three other movies, besides the two Wimseys (Guys and Dolls, Jarhead, and the Adventures of Robin Hood - too look at the extras).

And what extras they had! I loved everything I looked at: the Making-Of film, the film historian-narrated behind the scenes footage, the two Loony Toons R.H. themed cartoons, the blooper reel of films of 1938, and finally, audio of a NBC radio program from 1938, advertising the film by having Basil Rathbone introduce the live orchestra playing the film's score. He would describe the scene fitting each piece and said lots of nice things about Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland. I listened while I worked on my puzzle, and it was so enjoyable. What memorable music! Turns out the composer Korngold came from Vienna on invitation to work on the film, just before the Nazis took over.

I don't think I've gone out to eat this whole week! That's pretty irregular for me, but I don't mind. Made tacos on Monday, strawberry shortcake on Tuesday, and Thursday night, spaghetti and sauce with Italian sausage and mushrooms mixed in. Lots of trips to the commissary and Farm Fresh, though. :) I watched both Wimsey films (1987, BBC), Strong Poison and Gaudy Night. The latter I watched yesterday and was amazed at how the crammed that long novel into merely three episodes. They condensed it pretty well, though. Must read that again soon! I did read a few more chapters of that Christian novel... not too terribly excited about it anymore. Seems like it's trying to be graphic and shocking (it's centered on the Roman gladiator games), but toned down for teenagers at the same time; there's a lot of youthful angst in it.

Anyway, I've been thoroughly enjoying my time off this week!
Jw

Quickie

Well, I didn't take a nap. Mom told me to go run to wake up, and it pretty much worked. Just a half-mile though, because I'm not feeling my very best and it's very wet out.

After getting back inside, I baked all the sugar cookies! And now it's time to go get Zac from the airport! Yay!!!

I don't know when I'll be able to get on IRC tonight... we'll see.

[we ended up watching "Star Trek" together on Zac's projector to string popcorn when we got home - I was pleasantly surprised... but I'm not a "fan".]

Jp