Julia London's Blog, page 54

Diary from the Edge

Saturday, October 29:

Major freak pre-Halloween snowstorm strikes the Northeast. Erwins lose power within the first few hours of the storm (after stocking up on both perishable and non-perishable food at the grocery store, naturally).

Erwin daughter gets stuck on a NJ Transit train on her way into NYC to see Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter!) in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. She misses the play as train is backed up to station. Spends frantic hour trapped in train station calling her mother and wondering how to get back to campus. Mom feels frantic and powerless (literally), but daughter convinces Erwin aunt to brave the snow, pick her up, and deliver her safely back to campus.

All is well. Until night falls, and CT Erwins huddle in candlelit family room listening to the trees break and fall under the weight of the heavy, wet snow and pray that no trees fall on the house.

Sunday, October 30:

Thank goodness, no trees on house. But a tree fell across the driveway, blocking us in. And many more have fallen across our street, meaning we're not going anywhere. Still no power. Erwins whine about missing Patriots-Steelers game, but hey, good thing we thought to buy wine. Neighbors with chainsaws attack fallen trees in street and successfully clear the road (yay neighbors!). Husband feels inspired to tackle the tree in driveway, and wins (but loses his power to move his body freely and without pain).

Trees that blocked street, cut out of road and restacked in neighbor's yard.

Monday October 31:

Huh. It's pretty cold in a house without power or heat. Erwins leave to seek out hotel room. Find most roads blocked by trees but manage to get out of town. Drive 45 minutes before finding a hotel with power that allows dogs. It happens to be across the street from the apartments Sherri grew up in. Who says you can't go home again? You can… but do you want to? (It's a bad area).

NJ daughter reports that her campus has been evacuated (tree danger, no power) and she is staying with a friend. Schools are cancelled throughout New England. Most will remain closed for the entire week.

 

The challenge: drive under fallen trees and dangling power lines to make it to a warm hotel outside of town.

This road is not curved- note yellow median line to far left.

Tuesday November 1:

Still no power. House is cold. Husband still has to go to work (they have power!). Sherri decides to shovel off deck to check on hot tub (no longer hot, but not frozen, no damage). And she cleans out two refrigerators and freezers stocked with food. All of it must go. Attempts to find closer hotel fall flat. Back to the Holyoke Inn.

Wednesday November 2:

Husband manages to buy one of few generators left for sale in the state of CT. But needs help figuring out how to hook it up, so back to hotel for one more night.

Thursday November 3:

Stepdad Bob saves the day! Sherri's mom, sister, and stepdad come to the house to hook up the generator. Mom is shocked- shocked!- at the state of the roads in CT. But Erwins are happy with Bob's success in hooking up the generator. Light! Heat! Heaven! Good news, the daughter gets to move back to her dorm and go to classes on Friday.

Five days post-storm, and roads still look like this!

Friday November 4:

Erwins enjoy a day and night at home with generator-driven heat and power, even though there's no internet, cable.

Saturday November 5:

Still no power. Stepdad Bob returns with his brother, Electrician Ed, to fix the generator for future ease of use, in case this happens again, and discover septic leakage in basement. Erwins call in a clean-up crew and end up in another hotel for the night. The CT hotel has internet! Sherri gets to work on this blog in case she doesn't see the internet again for awhile.

Sunday November 6:

Erwins check out the house, looking good. The clean-up crew did a fantastic job. The house is habitable, thanks to generator and clean-up. But… they decide to stay at hotel for the TV. Are you ready for some football? (Rrg, football, bad idea. Jets win against Steelers and Pats lose to Giants.)

As of November 6, over a week after the storm, over 50 % of CT is still without power at home (including Erwins) and many roads are still blocked by trees. Ten deaths are reported post-storm. The Governor gives a second talk making everyone feel so much better to know there's a website with updates. (Did I mention how many people don't have power?). 

Monday November 7:

Good news! Erwins have power. And lo and behold, the internet/cable/phone all came back, too. It's amazing.

At least, now I know that I can probably handle the zombie apocalypse, if not the actual zombies. Still plenty of peanut butter, crackers, and water in the house, some Halloween chocolate that never got handed out, and a few bottles of wine. Awesome! My thanks to the Manchester CT Marriott Residence Inn for the Wi-Fi that enabled this blog post.

Have you lived through a natural disaster? Longest you've been without power? Would you prefer to be stuck without power in the cold, or hot weather?

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Tis the Season

[image error]I realize that clearly I'm in the minority but I saw this cartoon on Facebook and felt the turkey's pain.  What the heck is the hurry?  Christmas is a beautiful season.  My favorite actually.  But as Elmo found out (what can I say we had to watch it a lot once upon a time) Christmas all the time means losing the magic.  And in my humble opinion in our endless quest for all things good all the time we've pushed it too far.   I saw Christmas before Halloween in one unnamed large box store.   Seriously, it wasn't even cold outside.

So I say we wait.  Enjoy the build-up.   And take a little time to smell the cranberry sauce and cornbread stuffing.   Thanksgiving is coming.  A time for the three f's—family, food and football.  And as for the fat guy…well, for now let's keep him to the Macy's Day Parade.  His time will come.

Besides, Linus was right—Christmas isn't about shopping and decorating and aluminum Christmas trees.   That's for Black Friday—hey, I heard there's a sale… [image error]

So what about you?  Do you like Christmas year round?

 

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The Bully Pulpit

Last week, Dorothy Rodham, the mother of Hillary Clinton passed away. I never knew much about Hillary's mom, but the story of her life and Hillary's upbringing caught my eye. Dorothy was sent away from her parents, and raised by her grandparents, who treated her miserably. At the age of 14, Dorothy left home, and went to work as a domestic. She attended school while working, and received her high school diploma.

Eventually she married and raised Hillary and two other children. There was one day that young Hillary came home from school in tears because another girl had bullied her. Dorothy Rodham sent her back to the school the next day, giving Hillary permission to punch the bully. "You have to face things and show them you're not afraid," was what she told her daughter. Hillary stood up to the bully (not sure if she actually punched her or not), and lesson learned, Hillary never ran from a fight again.

It's a hard line for a parent, protecting your kids, and teaching your kids how to stand up for themselves. At our school, we have a bullying program, but it doesn't really teach the kids how to stand up for themselves, other than telling a teacher and a parent. Sometimes I think that's the right solution, but sometimes a kids needs to go through the battles, because life is full of battles.

Out of hardship comes real, spine-stiffening strength, but we parents work so hard to take away all the hardship and I'm not so sure that we haven't done too good a job of it. These past few weeks, I've been home with my mother, who had broken her hip. Mom is no spring chicken, but she's tough. Tougher than most, because she was raised on a farm, and my grandparents were right out of American Gothic.

My Grandparents

She went through her physical therapy and is back at home, alternating between a walker, a cane, and driving my dad crazy. I look at my Mom and think, "I only hope that I have that much strength." And then I look at my kids, and I worry that the strength-gene-pool is getting a little watery. I think I need to be tough, and teach my kids about hardship and hard work, and facing adversity. That's it! Today they clean the toilets.

What about you? Do you think people are losing their backbone? Do you think we're being too soft? Do you have a bullying program at your schools?

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HOW COOL IS THAT?

I have a weakness for cool kitchen gadgets.  I have an entire shelf in my basement devoted to off-beat kitchen stuff that I don't use very often, but when I pull them out, they provide lots of fun. 

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  For instance, there's my tabletop s'mores maker.  So much fun!  Just light the flame and you can sit around the table and make gooey marshmallow/chocolate/graham cracker treats.  YUM!

There's also my new Whoopie Pie maker.  This little baby bakes 8 mini Whoopie Pies that you can fill with a variety of fillings.  Instant dessert classic!     [image error]

Then there's the stovetop smoker.  My DH actually discovered this device when he helped out during our neighborhood's annual Men Cook the Ladies Dinner party.  He was on the appetizer committee which met at a neighbor's house where those industrious dudes actually smoked their own salmon and whitefish on an indoor smoker.  DH came home and announced, "We need an indoor smoker."  To which I replied, "No way.  No smokers in the house."  He said, "Not that type of smoker."  He fired up Amazon on his computer and showed me this stovetop device—just add a spoonful of wood chips, put your fish (or whatever) on the grate, cover it up, set it on the stove and let it smoke.  I was dubious, figuring it would start a fire.  But no—we had absolutely delish smoked salmon.  Only downside is that the house smelled like Girl Scout camp for four days.

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My latest discovery that I plan to order is the Corkcicle. It's this icicle-looking doo-dad attached to a wine cork that you freeze, then put into your opened, chilled bottle of wine to keep it cold without having to use an ice bucket!  Cool! (literally—LOL!).  Gotta get me one of those babies.

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check out this nifty device at corkcicle.com

Are you a sucker for gadgets, kitchen or otherwise?  What cool thing have you discovered?  Any device you think needs to be invented?  Have you tried something that you absolutely love–or one that was a total dud?

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Touch Me

Pleasing a man is something former mistress Genevieve Ralston does very well. But after her lover callously dumps her, she's definitely off men…until she meets Simon! He's brooding. Sexy. And she can't keep her hands off him…

But Simon Cooperstone, Viscount Kilburn, is a spy. His mission: retrieve a mysterious letter in Genevieve's possession. Intent on seducing her secrets from her, he forgets to guard one thing: his heart.

Each stroke of Genevieve's talented fingers unleashes his deepest desires. Too late, he realizes that while he may be a master of the art of seduction, he's no match for a sensual mistress…

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The Christmas Secret: A Novella

I am very happy to announce that the ebook exclusive novella, The Christmas Secret, part of the Secrets of Hadley Green series, is now available for download.

If you read the first book in the series, The Year of Living Scandalously, you met  Declan, the Earl of Donnelly, Keira Hannigan, and Declan's sister Eireanne, who was packed off to a school in Switzerland in the hopes of making connections that would lead to a match.  In The Christmas Secret, Eireanne comes home for the holidays and finds the Hannigan clan has practically taken up roost in her brother's home, and that her family his pinned all their hopes on her making connections that might lead to a proper and scandal-stabilizing match.

But Henry Bristol, a handsome American, is also at Ballynaheath, and he is the one who captures Eireanne's imagination.  However,  a series of mysterious love letters have capture the family's attention, and quickly it becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems.

I hope you enjoy this reasonably priced novella and that it will tide you over until the last two books of the series, The Revenge of Lord Eberlin, and the Seduction of Lady X, are available in paper, ebook, and audio form in February and March of next year.

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WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

I've never been particularly athletic.  I wasn't one of those kids in school who was good at sports.  No, I was more like one of those kids who always got picked last in gym.  I sucked at volleyball, field hockey, dodge ball and all that assorted crap we had to play.  Yet I've always enjoyed watching sports and attending sporting events–which I guess makes me an athletic supporter rather than an athlete .

But then I discovered pickleball.  What is pickleball?  Well, it's sort of like half-court tennis, played with a paddle rather than a racket, and with a whiffle ball.  It's great fun, terrific exercise, and since the court is smaller than a tennis court, it's much easier on the aging joints than tennis. 

Every October my neighborhood has a pickleball doubles tournament and I decided to give it a go this year.  The players were seeded so that the top players were matched up with the lower seeded players.  Being the lowest seed entered in the draw, I was matched up with the top seeded player who'd signed up for the tournament, a lovely woman named Brenda.

Now, I went into this tournament feeling pretty darn sorry for Brenda for getting stuck with me.  She's a great player, and me?  Not so much.  Yet, I was also glad we were teamed up together because we were the only two women in the entire tournament.  The tournament lasted a week.  Brenda and I started out with some pretty impressive wins, then we just kept on going—beating male team after male team, all the way to the championship!  Yes, we are the champions, Brenda and I!  Here we are after winning the championship match.  Whoda thunk it??

Do you play sports?  Watch sports?  Any sport you wished you were good at?  Hope you have a great weekend!

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The changing face of entertainment

I'm late to the party, and if you are, too, go read Sherri's post from yesterday. I just did, and it prompted me to write this rambling post.

Because I think the whole famewhore thing is just gross. Which may be a bit hypocritical, b/c I do watch the Real Housewives (but in my defense, we started b/c we used almost bought a house a stone's throw from the Orange County neighborhood, and we used to live in LA, and I've always wanted to live in NYC. The real estate came first, LOL!).

So what's the point of this post? Honestly, I'm not sure. But I have a friend who's shopping a television show right now, and the last time I talked to him, he said they were waiting to hear back from Netflix. Netflix? I didn't even know Netflix was in the production game, but apparently they are.

The thing I find so interesting is that right now, there are a lot of cool things happening on television (assuming you ignore all the reality crap). For a while there, nothing on TV was genre. Now we've got zombies and vampires and all sorts of cool stuff. Nobody would do a period piece. Then Mad Men came along with its exceptionally written scripts and no-holds-barred take on the 60s (the trash episode anyone? drinking and smoking while preggers?). Films are more dialed-in, which makes sense I suppose because of the relatively higher cost (though some low-budget films certainly break out). But I think it's fair to say there's a new Renaissance in television and part of that is because of these new, alternative producers like Netflix or even Microsoft (The Guild, anyone?).

I don't watch a lot of television, but I've been impressed with my selections. Vampire Diaries (though thank goodness last season set this season up for a shake-up. I was getting tired of Stephan–and don't tell me what's happening; we haven't started this season yet!), Mad Men, and Breaking Bad are hold overs for previous seasons. This season we've started The Ringer and what's interesting there is the cool set-up, gobzillion story questions, and above-average actors (Love SMG and Horatio Hornblower dude) make it work even though the it's very obviously shot on a budget.

So, listen producer types: instead of doing the 17yo 'ho and her perv husband as reality TV, how about doing something well-written that has a story? It's definitely doable and lacks the icky trainwreck factor!

Do you watch anything that would be considered alternative TV? Any web-based shows? Personally, I love The Guild, but I'm not probably two seasons behind. Need to find a free hour and catch up!

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Yes, They're Real

Have you heard of this? I won't even say their names because I don't think they deserve one bit of press or attention, but I wanted to bring them up anyway because the curiosity factor– like with roadkill, don't want to look but you can't look away– is too great. Not great enough to name them or even speak of them again, but worthy of a mention.[image error]

This 17 year old girl who shall not be named married a 51 year old has-been actor (he was in The Green Mile and Lost, not a well known guy). For love? So they claim. Of course, he's beaming. He just married a nubile young thing. Perv. But she? Hey, who doesn't want to wear stripper heels down the aisle? Every girl's dream.[image error]

She wants to be an actress and a country singer, and this seems to be all in her quest for attention. She wants a reality show. Of course. And yes, she is 17– even though she looks like a 42 year old hooker who has been rode hard and put away wet, as they say. She claims she's all real, "like, rilly rill." no surgical enhancements. What do you think? E! was good enough to find us some before and after. [image error]

They were recently thrown out of a pumpkin patch for lewd behavior, which probably happens now and then with other couples, too. I mean, pumpkins, come on. They're round, orange, sexy. Who doesn't want to get busy around a bunch of pumpkins, and families, with kids, am I right? Yuck. So of course, it becomes a news item. This poor girl thinks we're just jealous because we're not her. Oh, honey, no. The truth is we pity you, because we know what it's like to be married to 51 year old men. (hahaha). But we're older, too.

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I'm so tired of people getting famous for being gross, oversexed idiots! What is wrong with our gossip papers? It's not enough to keep up with fallen starlets and celebrity Scientologists? [image error]

We have to make regular creepy people famous (and rich) now, too? File under K for well, you know…[image error]

What do you think of age differences in a relationship? How old is too old? Are you fed up with famewhores? Or do you think it's good harmless fun to watch people willing to do anything for fame (the Real Housewives series comes to mind)? Would you watch a reality show with the teen bride and her actor husband? Do you Keep Up with the Kardashians? I know at least one of us watches the Real Housewives.

 

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Collinsport Maine is back!

[image error]So we've already established that I am a Tim Burton fan.  Even went to see the MoMa exhibit last year of his work, which was twistedly lovely.  And two of his movies rank at the top of my all-time favorites list.   Alice In Wonderland and Big Fish (which interestingly is coming to Broadway as a musical—hmmmm????) 

What I seem to be particularly fond of is the Johnny Depp-Tim Burton combo. Consider Sweeney Todd, Alice, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as an example.  Oh and Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Corpse Bride.   (And just for the record, I'm equally in love with Helena Bonham Carter, Tim's long-time love and frequent cast member in his movies – Big Fish, Corpse Bride and Alice notably.)

And now, Burton is picking up on my childhood nightmares with his newest movie—Dark Shadows.   And of course, Depp is part of the project—playing Barnabas Collins, and Helena is in it, too, as doctor Julia Hoffman.  Michelle Pfeiffer is Elizabeth Collins.  And rumor has it that original cast members David Selby and Jonathan Frid are in it as well.

Seriously, the show scared me silly when I was a kid.  So much so that my mother wouldn't let me watch it and I had to sneak off to a friend's house.  Of course then my poor mom had to deal with the nightmares anyway.  So you can just imagine that I can't wait for this newest version.  The elements of story, director and actors are impossible to resist.

So how about you?  Did you watch the original Dark Shadows?  The later version?  Are you a Tim Burton Fan?

And Happy Birthday to my little brother!

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