Okay, I Got Nuthin

Thanks to a couple of days of computer problems, specifically a suddenly deceased modem…and the fact that the new one, which must have been designed in an asylum for the criminally insane, I’ve spent way too much time on the phone with tech support people.  Very nice and pleasant tech support people, but tech support people who should probably be mopping floors at McDonald’s.

So, rather than make another call today, I postponed it…and went on strike.  Yeah, I still have to call again tomorrow, but I really needed a break…before I broke something.  Therefore, I’m just posting a video about tech support.  The shoe is on the other foot in this video, with a frustrated ‘technician.’   I wish he hadn’t flipped his mic off a couple of times, but other than that, it’s pretty funny.

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I LOVE The Avengers!

And in case I didn’t make myself clear enough, LOVE The Avengers!!!  (Yes, now that I’ve realized there are colors here, I’m going to have to play with them sometimes)

My daughter and I went to the theater tonight and, while she dozed off from time-to-time (and I’m not really sure how she managed to do that given the loud factor), I sat there loving every second of it.  Seriously, we have Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, and the guy with the cool arrows….how could any red-blooded female over the age of twelve not be glued to that screen?  I mean, even the bad guy is adorable.  But it had been a really long day, so I’ll cut her some slack there.  Besides, we’re going back to see it again tomorrow (I’m writing the Saturday night, but won’t be posting it until after midnight for my Monday blog, so I’ll have seen it the second time by then).

Oh, this movie has it all!  Sexy superheroes, a great script…and some of the funniest scenes I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch.  One line in particular has kept me snickering off and on since I got home…’Does Mother know you weareth her drapes?’  Maybe you’d have had to have been there but the entire audience, myself included, roared.

Now, while Robert Downey Jr. is far and away my favorite actor in this movie, the rest are…collectively…a close second.  Including Chris Evans, formerly known (by me) as ‘the fire guy from The Fantastic Four.’  My daughter quickly set me straight.  The character’s name is Johnny Storm.

Anyway, I tend to like movies no one has ever heard of.  For example, Late For Dinner.  A story about a man and his ‘slow’ brother-in-law, frozen for twenty-nine years, is  surprisingly realistic and touching.  The actors and actresses were just superb, playing their parts in such a believable way that you couldn’t help but hope for a happy ending.  It’s just one of those movies where you’re wearing a big smile at the end.

Another favorite of mine stars Chris Evans.  This is a movie most people have never heard of.  It’s called Cellular, and if you have an opportunity to see it, take it!  You won’t be sorry.  At least not if you enjoy action, suspense, great acting, and a terrific script.  It also stars William H. Macy and Kim Basinger.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen it now, but I watch it every few months.

Have you ever loved a movie that cause people to say, “Huh?  Never heard of it,” when you mention it?  What do you suppose draws us to them?

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Septic Tanks and Dental Work

The final stop on Enza’s blog tour is over at JakiCheli’s blog, with an interview and review.  Please stop by and see what she has to say…and remember, it’s the final chance to comment and have your name put in the drawing for the gift cards.

Now…

Septic tanks and dental work?!  In the same sentence???  Yup.  It’s just been that sort of a week, beginning last week when the septic tank issues started…again. 

The dental thing started weeks ago.  Actually sometime in January.  But we’ve already established the fact that when it comes to dentists, I’m a coward.  So, since the pain was only intermittent…usually more off than on…I put this appointment off.  In fact, I’d convinced myself at one point that it was the wisdom tooth I had pulled a month or two ago that was the problem. I’d just had this tooth filled last September, so it must have been something to do with the other.

Only it wasn’t.

Yet I put off making an appointment, sucking down ibuprofen like candy and using Maximum Strength Ambesol like crazy.  Even when hot and cold foods sent the pain through the ceiling, and it was affecting my sleep, which I don’t need any help with, thank you very much.  Four and a half years of insomnia means I don’t get nearly enough…ever.

So anyway, I made an appointment for this morning (well, Thursday morning), woke up after four and a half hours and sat at my desk trying to stay calm.  And then the receptionist called and said they had a cancellation.  Could I get there right away.  You betcha.  Might as well get it over as quickly as possible.

Sure enough, there was a tiny little cavity under the filling.  How a tiny little cavity can cause that much pain is beyond me, but there it was.

Of course me being me, the one shot that would work for the vast majority of other dental patients couldn’t possibly work for me.  So she gave me one in the  back of my mouth…where the upper and lower jaws meet.  The one that numbs the whole half of your face.  And that didn’t work.  So she gave me another one on the other side of my mouth.  Finally.  Only three shots this time.  It sure beat the seven and eight I received at the last two appointments.

There was one little problem though.  With shots on both sides of my mouth, my bottom lip was completely numb.  The whole lip.  The assistant approached  me at the counter when I was paying the bill and asked me to smile (she’d forgotten to write down something).

Smile?  Seriously?  I tried but I’m not sure my lip moved at all.

When I got home I discovered that I couldn’t really talk.  Well Icould.  I just sounded like I’d had about forty bottles of whiskey.  I also found that I didn’t dare try to eat…if I wanted to avoid biting my tongue in half.  And when I found myself holding a finger under my lower lip to make sure the water didn’t run out of my mouth as fast as I was trying to drink it, I just gave up and took a nap.

All in all I think I deserve a vacation.  That or a good laugh.

There are some great clips of The Carol Burnette Show on YouTube.  I’ve watched it in reruns, and wish there were live variety shows like this today.  It would be a riot.

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Enza Blog Tour, Day 11

Today’s stop on the tour is…actually two again.  The first one is over at My Devotional Thoughts.  Next is Ramblings of an Amateur Writer.  If you have some time, you might stop by to check things out and to tell Ruth and Reena hello.

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A Reblog from Debra Kristi…and Day 10 on the Enza Blog Tour

I hope you’ll stop by Donna’s blog, My Life.  One Story At A Time.  She’s already posted a very lovely review.

Now, because I’d like to help the MANday cause, and see what kind of abs CJ West will be showing off, I reblogged Debra Kristi’s post.  I hope you’ll help Jillian Dodd help CJ get the 5,000 comments to make this happen.  So swing by CJ’s place and let him know how much you’d like to see his picture.

Yum!

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Marvel Superheroes and MANday Covers? Your Help is Needed

Because I always enjoy looking at sexy, shirtless guys… 🙂

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The Cost of Distracted Driving

Impaired driving needs to be stopped. Whether it’s distractions from cell phones, alcohol, eating or playing with the radio. The consequences are just not worth it.

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Day 9 on the Enza Blog Tour

I hope you have a moment to check out  Booked Up.

It’s hard to believe that it will be over Friday, but it’s certainly been a  lot of fun.  So far Enza has a 4.5 star average rating at Amazon, and a 4.38 at GoodReads.  It’s just very exciting!  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Pretty soon I’ll be back to my normal three posts per week.  🙂

 

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Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Today, on the eighth day of Enza’s blog tour, we’ll be stopping off at Hanging Off The Wire.  I hope you can stop by and say hi.

~~~~~

We’ve all had those moments.  Times when, even before the words have left our mouths, we wish we could call them back.  Or that we could have pinched our lips together quickly enough to keep the entire stupid sentence from escaping.  It happens to me on a fairly regular basis.

Someone catches the corner of the doorway with their little toe as they’re walking past…  How many of us have actually stood there, wincing as we observe, “Ooh, I’ll bet that hurt, didn’t it?”  The poor person staggering around, moaning and groaning…probably turning the air blue with profanity, is obviously in pain.  Yet our brains send the words shooting out of our mouths like they were bullets zooming out of the barrel of a gun.

But it’s not just things like this example that have caught me.  It’s never limited to questions only.  Nope.  I can take it a step further…by offering opinions that would be best kept to myself.  Shopping with a friend, spotting a super ugly dress…and actually saying, “Whoa!  That is so hideous I wouldn’t be caught dead in it!”  An ‘if looks could kill’ expression will quickly clue you into the fact that the friend owns whatever item it is you just insulted.

Hard lessons learned there.  Anyone wants an opinion on anything these days and the first words out of my mouth will be, “Hmm.  What do you think?”  Or, “It’s not really something that would look good on me, but I can see where it would be perfect for someone else.”

Someone gave me an old book called ‘Color Me Beautiful,’ and it’s saved me from a whole lot of grief.  For instance, now I know why I look so bad in browns, yellows and oranges.  I have pink undertones (read the book for a more thorough explanation).  Now I can honestly say, when someone shows me a brown and yellow tie-dyed tee shirt, “Those aren’t my colors,” instead of, “Eww.  That’s just about the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!”  (By the way…pink is one of my colors…yay!)

I know, I know.  There are some who would say I should be completely honest.  Well I won’t do it anymore.  I won’t ever lie, but just because I think something is dumb, unappealing, or stupid doesn’t mean that everyone else on the planet has to think the same way I do.

All of this to tell you something my son said a couple of nights ago…

He doesn’t like it when we have septic tank issues (like I do?), so he tries to come up with ways for me to solve the problem as quickly and painlessly as possible.  Sorry, son, this is going to require an electrician…and  even if a ‘normal’ person could take care of the repair, Mom isn’t touching anything in a septic tank!

While he’s rattling off several ideas and opinions, I’m trying to catch him in a pause long enough to ask my daughter a quick question.  But there was no pause, long, short or anything in between.  By the time he finally wound down, he’d distracted me enough so that I said, “Darn it!  Now I forgot what I wanted to ask your sister.”

He looked at me for a second, then turned around and headed back to his room.  A minute later he came zipping back past the doorway, whipped his sister’s door open and asked…

“Do you remember what Mom wanted to ask you?”

I couldn’t help it.  I burst out laughing.  So did she.  I’m sure it was one of those moments when he wished he could have pinched his lips together in a hurry.  I really do love my son!

Sometimes saying the wrong thing can be really funny.  Pay close attention at 25 seconds in.

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Enza Continues Touring On Day 7

Reviews By Molly is the next stop on Enza’s blog tour.   Please stop by and see what Molly has to say.

 

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