Random Sunday

I lost my cellphone. I don't really miss it, but others do.

Lani and I went out to do Etsy shopping the other day. On the way back, we decided to get milkshakes. "McDonald's or Frisch's?" Lani said. (Our small town's choices are limited.) "Both," I said, so we got three small shakes from each place and took them home to Alastair to taste test. Unanimous decision: McDonald's. Not in the running: Steak N' Shake because it would have been no contest, those SN'S shakes are amazing.

Claire's has the best socks and sunglasses EVER. Plus Halloween jewelry. Great finds: a six pack of unmatched footie socks and clear-and-black checkerboard sunglasses with the sunglass part in a pink-rimmed flip up on the front. The spider earrings were the icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake, or a close facsimile thereoff: Halloween cinnamon rolls.



From Sandwich 365 which also has a terrific BLT costume for the whole family.

I read my horoscope. Evidently the end of the month is going to be really, really bad for me. (If you're a Virgo, start stocking bottled water.) Expect meeping. I know. "How will that be different from the rest of the days?"

Cleaning is much easier now that I'm moving. The question is no longer, "Do I still want this?" Now it's "Do I want to move this to New Jersey to a very small house?" Simples things up considerably.

For those of you wondering, Lyle is still doing fine. Lani's decided that he faked his blood test to get the mush. He's happily chewing up a cardboard box at my feet as I type. He is frumpy, his fur is bright red from the anemia, and Alastair sticks a needle in him every night and fills him full of saline solution, but otherwise he's fat and happy. His life may end at any moment, but in the moment, it's grand.

Alastair, by the way, is still dumbfounded by the weather: in the mid 90s yesterday, 63 today. "Adapt," we tell him, but he's still bitter about that earthquake.

Did anybody else see the Burn Notice episode about the guy who took his son to the survivalist camp? If so, did you have the same WTF? reaction I did to the way they ended that? The writing this season has been sloppy, but that was . . . what's the word I'm looking for? Two words: Truly Abysmal. Reminds me of the Jack Armstrong Tiger Pit story.



Jack Armstrong was a radio serial back in the first part of the 20th C and every episode ended on a cliffhanger. So one night, Jack Armstrong is surrounded by his enemies, outgunned and outmanned, with his back to a pit of tigers. At the end of the episode, Jack leaps into the tiger pit! How will he survive? Next episode begins, "After Jack Armstrong got out of the tiger pit . . ." Burn Notice: Jumping the Shark into the Tiger Pit.

It's a wonderful thing to renovate a cottage. People suggest all this expensive stuff and you say, "It's a cottage." Expensive stuff would look DUMB in a cottage. Which is good because I don't have a lot of expensive stuff. But I may go for Big Chill appliances when I eventually do the kitchen. Since I'm painting the floor and using shelving instead of overhead cabinets, the cost might come out the same. Maybe. Those suckers are expensive.

Speaking of bad seasons, Leverage is breaking my heart. When I started watching the funeral home one with Hardison in the coffin screaming and the screen said, "Two weeks earlier," I just turned it off. I hate those damn flash-forward beginnings; they're lazy, stupid writing. And now Leverage is doing it. Plus they seem to have lost that sense of fun that made the capers so compelling. I'm seriously close to dropping it, even though the first two seasons were stellar.

Lani has decided to make Sugglies for the Etsy store: Seriously Ugly Socks that have magic powers. She needs a tagline but refuses to give me one. The idea is that they're low-rise Mary Jane socks that can't be seen with shoes on, but that give the wearer incredible power with their ugliness. Or something. Lani? Come in here and explain that again.

So tonight we're buying Going Postal from iTunes and watching it while we eat fajitas (not quesadillas, got that wrong) and milk chocolate brownies while we knit (Lani), crochet (me), and discuss how the old Romans did it first (Alastair). Then we all go back to work.

That's what I call a truly random Sunday.