currently in BlizzardLand

I really do feel like I should not complain about the weather, since we have had the mildest winter in recent memory. Compared to the last two endless hellish non-stop-snowfall ones, this winter has been a breeze. So I won’t complain about the current howling winds and the fact that it’s 9 degrees out there right now and we’ve only been out of the house to dash to the store mid-day because we were — horrors!!— out of wine. A weekend stuck inside isn’t so bad, especially since that was pretty much EVERY weekend the last couple of winters. Even when it means I’ve gotten progressively lazier with every passing second and keep making trips into the kitchen to nibble on, oh, EVERYTHING. 

I’m too lazy to think, so I’ll do one of my random occasional Current surveys. 

Current Disappointment: That I was intending to go to Asheville today for a writing workshop. Amusingly I had, prior to Thursday, been trying to think of every way on earth to get OUT of going to Asheville this weekend. I really need to go see my dad. I haven’t been in ages. But next weekend we are leaving town for Baker B’s brother and SIL’s FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY and I wanted a weekend to hang out and do nothing. Which– hahahahaha! – I got. Yippie. 

So I’d been trying to think of good excuses to not go see my poor dad, and feeling all guilty about not wanting to go down there. Then Wednesday I just happened upon a notice about a writing workshop that was being held in Asheville, by a group I’d never heard of – The Flatiron Writers. Years and years ago I worked for a non-profit called The Writers’ Workshop, that had an office in the Flatiron Building downtown, so I’m sure these guys have some past connection although they are apparently completely separate now. ANYHOW, the workshop was called Creating A Writing Life and it’s all about "making consistent and sustainable room in your life for writing". Since I seem to be having problems making myself work on my Wonderful Amazing Novel That Will Make Me Rich and Famous But Which Annoyingly Just Isn’t Writing Itself, the Damned Uncooperative Thing, that sounded perfect. It was 10-5, extremely reasonably priced, and very conveniently located not far from my dad’s house and very near Starbucks so I could meet Kim at the lunch break. Afterwards Daddy and I could have our usual Cracker Barrel Dinner and I could spend the night and do his bills and come back up here Sunday. 

And I was really looking forward to it. So naturally the snow flurries predicted for last night turned into howling blizzard winds, temperatures in the teens, whiteout conditions, and snow for us, for Asheville, and for points between. We didn’t get much snow – maybe two inches, and most of that later in the day – but it just seemed like a very bad idea. And although they don’t give refunds, I do get priority seating for the next workshop. As yet unscheduled, and probably not the same one, but perhaps even more useful.

You really can’t plan ANYTHING in this place during the winter. I’m half-expecting to not make it to the Big Anniversary Shindig next weekend. 

Current addiction: Pinterest. Need I say more? Not if you’ve ever been there. Can’t.Stop.Pinning.

Yeah. 

If you want an invitation, let me know. Everyone needs to come to the Dark Side. Now.

Current TV: I have dueling Current TVs. Baker B and I always have some TV show we are watching via DVD. We never watch anything as it airs, even when it’s on a rare station that we actually get, i.e. a network. The last show we watched as it aired was Lost. We could watch Desperate Housewives as it airs, but would rather wait for the DVD and avoid the maddening commercials. Desperate Housewives isn’t something you HAVE to see IMMEDIATELY, like Lost was. 

ANYHOW, my point being that our tradition is a nightly viewing of whatever series we are currently on. Currently it’s "A Bit of Fry and Laurie." Well, tonight we (SOB) watched the very last episode, so I am inconsolable. Next up is the third season of  United States of Tara, though, so that helps me get over my sadness at Fry and Laurie being finished. (Damnation – I see by that Wikipedia article that there will be no fourth season of Tara, which is VERY disappointing). 

I don’t know how on earth we have managed to NOT watch A Bit of Fry and Laurie for all these years, since we’re both such long-time fans of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (pre-House! I still think it’s really weird that Hugh Laurie, of all people, is HOUSE) that I can’t even remember when we first discovered them. Unless it was via Blackadder. But it seems like I already knew who Stephen Fry was even then. Anyhow, whatever the case, we have FINALLY watched all four seasons of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and everyone else needs to also. 

It’s mostly sketch comedy, generally just the two of them. I think Tony and Control, the very very nice British Secret Service Agents, may be my favorite. 

The other show, the dueling show, is something that I’m watching myself via Amazon Prime and my (currently still not completely dead and at the moment perfectly fine) laptop- Downton Abby. I’ve actually only seen the first three episodes but, OMG! I love it!!!! I can see what the fuss is about! And it’s kind of fun watching something that I’m not years behind on. They’re still showing the second season — I may even catch up! And if I do, I could actually watch it as it airs, since it’s on PBS. Baker B would like it too, but we’ve got so much other stuff in our TV Series Viewing Queue that it will be ages before we get to that, so I said, Fine, whatever, I’ll watch it and if you ever want to see it, I’ll watch it again! Because I don’t want to wait. And I’m glad I didn’t. In fact, I’m going to watch an episode when I’m done with this. I may watch two as consolation for missing the writing workshop. 

Current food: Whatever I find to nibble on as I wander into the kitchen YET AGAIN. I blame my dinner, which was soup. Soup that I made in the crockpot. By throwing two bags of frozen mixed veggies into it along with a carton of chicken broth and a some cayenne pepper and garlic salt. It actually wasn’t bad but it was very heavy on the broccoli and I really don’t care for cooked broccoli. I love it raw, I love it lightly stirfried, but I don’t love it if it’s cookedmuch at all. And, hellllloooo, hours in the crockpot=pretty heavily cooked broccoli. So why did I put two bags of frozen veggies with broccoli as the main star into the crockpot? Who knows! Whatever the case, it was not very satisfying. 

I have decided that I really don’t like soup. Unless someone else has made it for me. I LOVE nice fancy restaurant soup. I love plain old vegetable soup from a restaurant. I love other people’s soup. I just never like soup that I make. Probably because I do things like throw a couple of bags of mixed veggies into a pot and expect it to be stunning. And in the rare event that I DO make a tasty pot of soup, it’s always about 10,000 times as much soup as I care to eat and it sits around forEVER and I end up throwing most of it away. Because I don’t think about freezing it until I’m already afraid it’s turned to poison. And although Baker B will eat a lot of it, it’s always more than even he can eat. And I am sad to report that I am not a fan of the leftover, at least not after it’s been a leftover for more than one meal. I wish I could appreciate leftovers- but two meals of the same thing and I’m done. 

So obviously I need a chef. Or cooking lessons. 

Well, I think that’s enough yammering on. It’s about time for another episode of Downton Abbey.