I was looking for some DVDs on Amazon last night, some of the Disney classics that aren't available anymore, but that can be found used. In one of the descriptions for one of them -- NEW! No shrink-wrap, blue background instead of white, PERFECT CONDITION! -- it ended with this sure fire selling point: SMOKE FREE HOME!Honestly, people. Are you so f--ing paranoid that you think you can catch smoking by touching something that a smoker has touched? Cigarettes are not cooties! They are not contagious! What is it with the anti-smoking Gestapo, anyway? The least tolerant people anywhere, if you ask me. They'd rather kiss an AIDS-infected bird from Turkey than be within hailing distance of a smoker, let alone a lit cigarette. Sheesh.
My new favorite appliance is the DVR, which, as I've said, is like a Tivo, but it comes through the cable box. If you live for TV, then this is for you. I just looked at the list of what I've got set to record, and even I didn't know that I watched that much TV. (Although, to tell you the truth, when I didn't fall asleep last night, I watched three episodes of Law and Order:SVU that I'd recorded for just such a time. Three in a row. I went to bed around 1:00 am, which is when I was finally sleepy enough to go. Alarm at 6:00. But I digress.)
It looks like spring outside, and is starting to feel like spring. It's still chilly in the morning, but it's so light and sunny out! Love. It. Are we changing the clocks this weekend? I think so. So, what now, that makes it light earlier in the morning, but it gets darker earlier in the evening? It's one of those things that just doesn't stick with me. I've been known at various times to reset all the clocks in the house, but the wrong way. I know, I know, Spring forward, fall back, but somehow I just didn't get it right. I guess it means something different in my head than it's supposed to. Things like cable boxes and computers that just show the right time automatically were made for dunderheads like me. The big clock in the living room gets a signal from the atomic clock in Washington, so I'm good with that one, too. (It's twice a year that I reconsider my decision to use clocks as a decorative motif throughout the house.)
(Speaking of changing the time, here's a funny thing. My father never could figure out how to change the clock in his car, so I would do it when I happened to be in there. Sometimes it was in June or July, and he would have just worked around the clock being an hour off; he knew it was, so he was okay with it. After he died, the car went to my Niece, who put a new radio and clock in it, but lost the directions. The car is now driven by the Hubs, who has no idea how to change the clock, either, so it's set to whatever time it was when we got it from the Niece. Different clock, different driver, but the same thing. He knows it's an hour off half the year, so it doesn't matter to him.)
I finished reading The Misfits today. Through most of it, I kept thinking, Yes, well, it's good, but what's the big deal? And then at the end, I was getting all misty and moved. It was an excellent read. The target age is probably sixth or seventh graders, so that's 11 - 12, or thereabouts, and it's just very well done. I understand that the author, James Howe, draws primarily on his own experience, growing up gay in rural upstate New York, but that aspect of it is not at all heavy-handed, not even the main character. The book is about how it feels to be called names, and what it can do to you. I think the best thing GSA could do for middle schoolers is make sure they all read this book. I wonder how that would go over, a high school club making a curriculum suggestion.
K sent me her rough draft and I proofread it today; I thought it was quite good. For someone who says she doesn't know anything about punctuation, there were very few errors for me to point out, certainly fewer than there were in my nephew's master's thesis. Now that was tough reading. This was much more pleasant, although I'm sure the subject matter had something to do with it. I'm not saying it was a page-turner, no Da Vinci Code here, but all in all, a good job.
The SCM just watched last week's Lost last night, and once again, he asked me questions about it as if I know. Why is it that I can discuss this show in a civil manner with a wide variety of people, but not him? He doesn't ask things in a speculative, let's-talk-about-it manner, but rather in a demanding way, asking specific questions that seem to warrant detailed answers. Mostly, I just say, "Uh ... I dunno," which satisfies him, but still. Yet another facet of his continuing weirdness.
