Grandad's Discharge Paper

I came across this thin slice of paper from 1945 with my grandfather's honorary discharge papers from the Army. Made me instantly tear up. 

Leeds

Helen posted this wonderful photo on her IG page and had this to say: Tree with fairy lights, or festive Stranger Things monster? 🤔 rainy days in Leeds followed by cosy evenings with mulled apple cider 🧡

Happy Thanksgiving!

This card was so cute I had to buy it and mail it to myself. I mean they are a family of beavers and they watch American football. Adorable.

Ayoade on Top

I can never tell if the way Richard Ayoade is in interviews is his true self or part of a created persona. Whatever the case, he was on Graham Norton talking about this book so I had to get it when I found out he read the audiobook. Basically it's an intense dissection of the film View from the Top. The only part of the film I actually remembered was when she thought the plane was gonna crash and ran up the aisle of the plane and screamed like she was being chased by werewolves. Oh, and Christina Applegate, who I love, was in it as another flight attendant. That was pretty much it. Luckily, one does not need to like the film in order to enjoy the book. Good thing since I didn't feel like re-watching it.

Untied

I love a good memoir, especially when it's someone that I have known for as long as I can remember. This book, like Martin Short's I Must Say, is a book that should be heard and not read. Meredith Baxter wasn't reading a book to me, she was telling me her life's story. I never for a second felt that she wasn't sitting beside me, confiding in me, making me laugh, making me sad, and making me love and admire her more and more. She's just so damn honest about her life and her reflections on her childhood, marriages, addictions, and her work. A few years back I was going through all my old diaries, and I found the page from when I watched part of Kate's Secret at age ten. I wish I had saved this page or at least taken a photo of it but basically I said that I watched this show about a woman who, and if memory serves, quote, stuffs herself, goes to the bathroom and barfs it all back up end quote. I think the final line of my diary mentioned something like gross but so sad. I am certain the only reason I watched Kate's Secret was because Elyse from Family Ties was in it and I always liked her. I fear that Family Ties may not have held up so well over the years and so I wanna not revisit it and thereby keep my memory of it being the best show on TV. Ms. Baxter is a fine and versatile actor and I'm so glad she's still out there working the hustle. Oh and the best part of the book is the happy ending. Can't beat that.

Tim Tam Slam!

A while back on a compilation DVD of So Graham Norton one of the guests (an Aussie, presumably) talked about cookies from her childhood and showed Graham the trick to eating them. Well, it doesn't take more than the word "cookie" to pique my interest. I did a bit of research, found the Tim Tams and followed the instructions from Graham Norton. It was such a fun experience that I went around telling everyone I knew about this. Anne was the one that, prior to my bringing them to her house to have her try it out, went on You Tube and told me that the game is referred to as Tim Tam Slam. So far I have tried it and introduced it to Xavier, Mary, Zach, Jax, Anne, Mum, Melanie, Ashlee, Sean, and Kay. Here's the video I shot of Xave giving it a go.

October 2019 Books

♥ The Exorcist ¹ by William Peter Blatty 

The Edgar Allan Poe Collection ¹ by Edgar Allan Poe

* The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ¹ by Washington Irving

* It's Halloween, I'm Turning Green! ¹ by Dan Gutman

♥ The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat (it came with stickers!!) by Stan & Jan Berenstain 

♥ Nancy Drew Mystery: Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk by Carolyn Keene - I'm fairly certain that this book was picked up at the Little Free Library at MOM's in Bryn Mawr and it was really, really good! Nancy Drew books are really timeless in a lot of ways. Her intellect is very natural, not like a know-it-all in the least, and she's so likeable.

Araminta Spookie: My Haunted House and The Sword in the Grotto ¹ by Angie Sage

♥ Ghost Buddy: From Zero to Hero ¹ by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

* The Monkey's Paw ¹ by W.W. Jacobs
* The House On Windy Hill by Clyde Robert Bulla - This book was my older brother Dave's from our childhood. I never read it and I'm not sure why I kept it but it was a nice read and I should have read it as a kid as it was spooky but never scary.

* The Book of Joe ¹ by Vincent Price - Oh how I wish that Vincent Price himself had read this, but his daughter Victoria did it justice, nonetheless. I always felt that Vincent Price was a very serious man and not terribly accessible. He never struck me as avuncular until reading this, where I was given great insight into the man and how warm he was.

* The House That Drac Built by Judy Sierra

* 'Salem's Lot ¹ by Stephen King - This is Pax's favourite Stephen King book and so I decided to buy the audiobook off Audible. I'm not a big vampire fan but this book was excellent. Great characters and I love the slow build up and the solid development of all the players. This, like The Exorcist, is one I can see listening to every October, to get me in the mood for the season.

The Canterville Ghost ¹ by Oscar Wilde

* A Winter Haunting ¹ by Dan Simmons - I was scrolling through Hoopla looking for Halloween themed or scary or mystery books to borrow. I had never heard of Dan Simmons but the premise of this book sounded intriguing: man returns, alone, to his childhood hometown, and moves in to a kind of run down home of his friend who died in an "accident" when they were kids. There are spectres and boarded up sections of the house and a group of young psychopaths/racists in the town. Oh, and Bronson Pinchot did a fabulous job narrating, by the way.

♥ Gus was a Friendly Ghost by Jane Thayer - A classic from childhood! I mean he's looks like a typical ghost but with a cute lil' face and hands. Adorable

* The Fate of Mercy Alban ¹ by Wendy Webb - I liked this story but as I'm writing this I have absolutely no memory of the plot. Isn't that terrible? Christ, I'm old. It's as though my mind only has enough space for certain things and since I'm trying to learn Spanish it will hang on to all these new words but books and movies? They gone, y'all.
* The Amityville Horror ¹ by Jay Anson

♥ Ghost Buddy - Mind If I Read Your Mind? ¹ by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

Gus Goes to School ¹ by Jane Thayer

* The Elementals ¹ by Michael McDowell - Cerpts had mentioned this book on The Land of Cerpts and Honey and when I saw they had an audiobook version I just had to buy it. I don't know how it is on the written page, but R.C. Bray's reading was absolutely absorbing. He gave true life to the characters and had me longing for a happy ending.

(photo kidnapped from amazon)

♥ Ghost Buddy: How to Scare the Pants Off Your Pets ¹ by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver - Winkler just continues to make a lousy day bearable with his nuanced reading of his (and Lin Oliver's) delightful stories. He leaves me wanting more!

* Ghosts Beneath Our Feet by Berry Ren Wright - When I was in grade school and we would have the Scholastic Book Fair (and in younger years the Troll Books Fair which was thee best because they had super-dooper double terrific stickers!!) and I was usually drawn to slightly spooky or supernatural stories with a female lead. I still have so many books from my childhood and decided to re-read this. It was actually still really good and I remembered absolutely nothing. Big surprise, right?

Something Wicked This Way Comes ¹ by Ray Bradbury - This story went from being interesting to confusing to not great to slow to fast to good and then just blah.
Poirot Investigates ¹ by Agatha Christie - All the stories that were read by David Suchet were very well done (Hugh Fraser was okay, but nothing beats Suchet's Poirot) but none of them stood out or held me on the edge of my seat.
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment ¹ by Nathaniel Hawthorne - A short story that never really grabbed my attention.
The Werewolf of Fever Swamp ¹ by R.L. Stine
* Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes ¹ by R.L. Stine - This Goosebumps story was the only one I've liked so far. They just aren't as fun and silly as Winkler's Ghost Buddy books. But, hey, at least I gave them a shot!

* The Hound of the Baskervilles ¹ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The narrator was excellent but I found this story hard to follow and my mind wandered. It got to the point where I had to go to Wikipedia to read the synopsis in order to understand what was going on. I think I need to listen to it again to fully appreciate it.
* Lullaby ¹ by Jonathan Maberry - A short story read by Scott Brick, one of the best audio book narrators of all time. It's a sad, spooky tale but worth a listen.
Casper the Friendly Ghost in Ghostland - Another book from my childhood. It was the last day of the month and I was trying to read a book a day that could maybe fit with the season and so this was the only one left. It wasn't terribly memorable and I've no idea why I held on to it.

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.

Selfie Saturday in Pitman!

Mama Rose is a fan of Sal Valentinetti (from America's Got Talent) and so when she saw a few months back that he would be performing at a theatre in South Joisey tonight, she snapped up tickets for her, myself, and Terri. Valentinetti has a very nice voice and the crowd loved him, but I thought some of his jokes were in poor taste. He kind of trash talked Californians, made light of the MeToo movement, claimed that Italians "discovered" America and said something lame like "they (the Native Americans) said How and we told them Here's how" (ugh, eye roll!), then he went and praised Geno's Steaks and about how he, like Geno's, speaks English. How embarrassing that the crowd cheered. (No surprise that they were all white.) Mama and I just looked at eachother with our mouths open in shock. I thought "did this clown seriously say that?" Yup. He did. I guess he's your typical knucklehead boy who doesn't realise that racism is so one hundred and fifty-four years ago. For me, the best part of the night was hanging out with these lovely gals and taking silly selfies. Oh, and up the street from the theatre was a fab pizza place (Attilio's) that offered gluten free pizza crust, vegan cheese (!!), and was being run by a crew of teenagers and early twenty-somethings that were genuinely kind and helpful. I wanted to adopt all of them.

Tubbie Time!

November 7th 2016 I was working from my Mum's house and decided to FaceTime with Xavier. He was "giving" Jackson a bath, which meant that he was sitting on the floor outside the bathroom and making sure the kid didn't drown himself or splash water all over. At the precise moment that Jax popped his head over the rim of the tub, Xave spun the camera around and gave me a glimpse of Jackson's cheeky lil' grin. Oh he was so stinkin' cute!

In the Rear View

Kristin took this spectacular shot of Philly as she was leaving the office last week. I had to kidnap it from her Insta account because it's just so good.

Meet Gertie

Ashlee got herself a dwarf mouse and named her Gertrude. Thankfully everyone, even Farley, loves her like crazy. I mean, look at that face!!

Arrested Development Pins!

Two of the best lines from the series!

One More Moment with Joy

If I had one moment with each of the people I've lost, here's what I'd want to happen.

I would want to hug her, hug her, hug her and we would laugh like hell. Joy would have that huge smile and her eyes would scrunch almost completely shut with her glee. I'd tell her that I love her and I miss hearing her voice and the fun we used to have together. I would tell her how Rose and Xavier and Matthew are and then we would play Go Fish while listening to Kool and the Gang, The Monkees, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and every version of I Heard it Through the Grapevine we can find on Apple music. Oh, and there'd be loads of selfies.

David Suchet

In September I was chatting via Instagram direct messaging with Helen and we got on the topic of television shows after she received my Downton Abbey postcard. She recommended Poirot and called it "proper Mam TV." I had seen the documentary David Suchet on The Orient Express when I was in The Dubs one year and was instantly kind of in love with Suchet and his warmth. He is the perfect book end to Martin Clunes in regards to my adoration of them both and their ability to bring a sense of serenity to my jumbled and upset life. They are a balm for my mental aches and pains. I have seen as many episodes of the series as the library has to lend but I think I'm gonna have to buy the box set of the series. I just love, love, love the show!!

(photo kidnapped from sfgate)

Gettin' the Jump on Decorating

Ashlee and Sean's home is going through some minor construction and so things are out of place. Just last week Ash said "Eff it" and starting putting out the Christmas decorations. Look at what she did to the photo wall - it's brilliant!