007

Today is a James Bond marathon on TV Tropolis. I LOVE James Bond movies … although, they were more enjoyable when the extent of the violence was James kicking someone in the shin. I still haven’t seen Skyfall … but with the reality of special effects and the fact that we get to witness first hand so much of the horror in the world, these movies aren’t ‘fun’ anymore.

The one that is on now is Diamonds are Forever.

James Bond has come a long way in 32 years.

Meh. The world has come a long way in 32 years.

I’m not really watching the movie, but just sat down to eat my brunch – a western omelette with homefries. I always enjoy a nice big breakfast once on the weekend. I make a big enough omelette that I’ll have some leftover for my Monday breakfast … and this morning I fried up enough diced bacon to get me through a week of ceasar salads for lunch.

My dad and mom were very different when it came to eating.

Mom had to have something different each meal. That worked okay when she was the one doing the cooking, but it put a real strain on Dad when he was taking care of Mom. He tried so hard to make her happy, but she’d eat a bite or two of his meal, go ‘tsk’ and throw the fork on her plate as she’d declare she wasn’t hungry (this after insisting he make her dinner immediately …)

Dad could make a batch of something and eat it everyday. I’m like my Dad. Since the start of 2013, I’ve been bringing my lunch to work. Each morning, I put the following into my little lunch bag: my salad (I’m going through a Caesar salad phase, so I bring romaine, bacon, shredded parmesan and dressing and then mix it all up at work) … an apple … a piece of cheese … a banana … a yogurt … some hummus and rice crackers.

I noticed that I bought cottage cheese, so need to bring that this week since it’s ‘best before’ date was yesterday. I forgot. I also forgot that I had some ‘fresh’ carrots so will be bringing carrot and celery sticks to go with my hummus this week.

I usually have a stash of gluten free cookies in my desk – I like to have something sweet after lunch. This is a bad habit and I anticipate that I’ll stop storing sweets. I lost quite a bit of weight last spring with the yoga and going gluten free, but when I stopped doing the yoga and discovered gluten free sweets I put some of it back on. Not all of it, but enough so I’m a bit chubbier around the middle than I like to be.

(Diamonds are Forever ended and now we’ve switched to ‘Never Say Never Again’. James just broke someone’s neck … we didn’t see it, but we did hear the ‘crack’. He matured a lot between those two movies (1971 – 1983). OMG … they’re talking about ‘free radicals’. I guess that was cutting edge in the health discipline back then, because as we all know – James Bond is always cutting edge!)

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I brough Moodie to Erin’s yesterday. Her father is in the area so we must keep up the charade that the dog lives with her.

It worked out quite well since Moodie was groomed on Friday evening, so she looked and smelled lovely to go for her visit.

I suggested that Erin ask her dad to cover the cost of the groomer. She laughed at me. “He’ll just tell me not to get her groomed”.

(oops – we’re 15 minutes into this movie and James already has someone in the sack. He’s much less promiscuous these days. More violent … less promiscous. A happy balance I guess.)

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I’m supposed to go to a book exhange with that Meetup group this afternoon. I’ll have to start getting ready soon and look for a couple books that would be suitable for the group.

I don’t really want to go, but will likely force myself. It’s not healthy to always be alone.

(Jeeze … now James kicked some guy in the groin. He really HAS grown up, hasn’t he!)

I signed up for another Meetup group, but have been kicked out for not paying the $10 fee. I had joined it several months ago and went to one event with them. It was a pretty ambitious group – Kelly, one of the members, was planning things at least once a week (just coffee evenings and things – nothing too extreme). She is very active and puts a lot of effort into the group.

The main organizer was pretty invisible and uninvolved. Well, until the beginning of 2013 when she sent her first e-mail to all the members saying that the $10 fee (for 6 months) was due now. The only cost to setting up the group is the $70/6 month fee from Meetup. If everyone who was listed as a member (over 300 people) paid, that meant this woman was pocketing a helluvalot of money … and she wasn’t even doing any of the work!

I was going to send the organizer an e-mail and ask what she did with the proceeds … i.e. was there an event where she covered the expenses for the group … but decided to just let it go.

After I got the e-mail saying I had been removed from the group, I went to see who still belonged. It looks like it’s focusing more on ‘singles’ and ‘dating’ now than it originally did, so I’m glad I didn’t bother. There are quite a few people who belong to the women’s group (the one that is meeting today) who belong to this other one. Obviously I’m the only one who was pissed off at the prospect of supplementing that woman’s income … or I’m the only one who looked at it that way.

I often look at things from a different angle then a lot of people do.

(I just checked and there are 37 people paid up … so, she’s walking away with $300. Not bad considering she doesn’t do ANYTHING!!)

With the group that’s meeting today, the organizer has a ‘you can give me a few bucks if you want, but it isn’t mandatory’ attitude. She covers the cost without demanding we all pay up. I give her an unsolicited donation every now and again. I may do that today since I’m so annoyed at the other woman.

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My sister and her husband should be back from their son’s destination wedding today. I’m anxious to see some pictures. I’m shocked that no one posted anything on facebook (or, if they did, they didn’t tag anyone so I wasn’t able to see them).

I’m sure they will have a lot of stories. They would have had a great time.

On some level I wish I had gone … but, not totally. I’m too anti-social for something like that.

Lara’s friend got married in Cuba last week and I did see some pictures from that wedding … including a few of the food. Honestly – it looked horrible. Really, really awful. Like, crackers with lunchmeat.

That won’t have been the case with my nephew. They went very high end …

The difference in quality between $1,200 per person and $1,700 per person should be substantial.

But what do I know. I’ve never been to an all-inclusive resort.

(OMG – Mr Bean is in this James Bond movie!!)

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Well, gee. I did get carried away. Must go get ready for this book exchange.

* I WISH YOU WELL! *