Things I Like Right Now

Photo Source: NPR/Deborah Feingold

I've been a bit of a grouch lately. Okay, a bit more of a grouch than usual. I'm stressed, I'm tired, and I just need it to be December already. Anyways, I wanted to end this week on a less critical note by blogging about the things that make me happy. Inspired by posts that blaurgra writes about the things she likes, I thought I would do the same. So here goes:

1. The interview with Keith Richards on NPR's Fresh Air. I don't know if I actually believe that Keith Richards came up with Satisfaction in a dream but he sure has a charming way of convincing you that he did. 
2.  Zappos.com, or specifically their customer service. They gave me free overnight shipping on a pair of boots I ordered. Better yet? Free return shipping for the exchange when I had to return the boots because I ordered the wrong size. 
3. Cee Lo Green's song F*ck You. He's such a great soul singer and I can't wait for his album to drop.  
4. Slate's running conversation analyzing how the female candidates performed during the elections and what it might mean for the future female political candidates. 
5. Giant Lemonheads. They're the only Halloween candy left in the house that I didn't pawn off of my students. They're like a Fireball but, you know, a Lemonhead. Yum.
6. Not washing my curly hair anymore. I've joined the No Poo revolution. Before you get grossed out, I am cleaning my hair. I'm just not using shampoo any more and my curls look lovely, soft and springy with no frizz. 

Trying New Things Is Good: Web Edition

The first hour of my morning generally consists of being woken up by the Yellow Dog sticking his nose in my face, unleashing him and the Black Dog into the wilds of the backyard, bare-footing it across the family room to get a cup of coffee (coffee makers with timers rawk) and my laptop, promptly crawling back into bed to watch Morning Joe (much to the LSH's snoring, Republican chagrin), deal with the avalanche of work emails, and do my general web surfing.  Here is what I read:

News

• The Washington Post - The Post is my general web new go-to.
• The Daily Beast's Cheat Sheet - a nice news aggregator from all prespectives of the political spectrum and a healthy dose of international sources
• Wonkette - Political nerd blog with a healthy sense of humor
• Politico - Mostly a skim for headlines
• Slate Magazine's The Slatest - another news aggregator and Slate too

Gossip

• Lainey Gossip - for such smart observations about celebrities and astute observations about how the stars manipulate the media.  
• Celebritology - The Morning Mix is not to be missed.     
• Oh No They Didn't - for the comments.  

Lifestyle, etc

• The XX Factor - Slate Magazine's blog for women, by women
• Domestic Sluttery - The shoe porn has me wanting these flats for summer. And basically, I want to be BFFs with all these women
• The Sporkful - by far, the best food podcast.  These guys are so obsessive-compulsive about enjoying food that it makes me smile.
• Gizmodo - For keeping up with the latest gadgets
• Loving True Blood in Dallas - like I have mentioned before, I like me some vampires.  
• The French Skinny Experiment - Two women, one in Paris and the other in California trying to see if the French way of living translates to the SoCal.  
• TV Worth Watching - sometimes the blog hits, sometimes it misses, but the daily Best Bets is worth a check-in
• Neil Gaiman's Journal - well, for Neil Gaiman.  
• Occupation Girl - the blog by Cleolinda Jones.  Cleolinda is basically my blogging idol.  If I can be half as funny as she is, I will die a happy woman.  Her Secret Life of Dolls series is not to be missed.  

And then I muster the energy to haul my ass in the shower and start my day.

Gemma's Sunglasses go on Spring Break

The LSH and I took a much deserved vacation to Key West last week.  It was our first vacation since our honeymoon five years ago.  Five years, you say with surprise?  Yes, five loooooong years.  We usually end up having those horrid things called staycations because we live at the beach but they don't end up being much of a vacation at all.  Anyways, we went to Key West and I took Gemma's sunglasses with me.  Here's what happened: 

We arrived about an hour before check-in and our room wasn't ready because the hotel was upgrading us to a oceanfront room.  Score!  So the LSH and I meandered over to the bar to drink some pina coladas while the hotel elves readied our room.  After 2 hours and plenty of rum, the LSH turned to me and said "Go get 'em Gemma," and off I went.  Now, I don't know if the front desk people could smell the rum on my breath sense the fierceness of the sunglasses but they happily produced two room keys when I said, "Hey, darlin' we've been waiting on our room for too long.  We'd like our room now."  


And after that things went so swimmingly that I was mellow as all get out.  Like I couldn't snark to save my life.  With or without the sunglasses.  Didn't matter.  I was oddly nice and pleasant to be around.  I blame it all on the view from my beach hammock:

      
On our second night in town, we ventured out for a swanky dinner. It was lucky that we had just been to the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square and I had Gemma's sunglasses on the top of my head because things got dicey.  There was a very, very drunk Brit sitting on the lower deck who was shouting "There is no God."  Which is all well and good -- to each their own --whatevs.  But then every time a patron would leave he'd shout, "Go on, get out of here. We didn't like you anyways."  Oh, then he bagged on Americans.  And women.  And just about everything else under the sun.  And of course every other word was fuck.  


Dear reader, you know me.  You know that fuck is my favorite word.  But when you are in the $40+ per entree place for dinner, it just doesn't fit.  So when Loudy Drunky came back from the bathroom, I politely said, "Keep your voice down, darlin." I'd loooove to say that it worked but it didn't --in fact he kind of threatened me.  Then he went yammering on blah blah blah. Our ever-helpful waiter had him thrown out before we could even raise the issue.   Bliss!  


And last but not least, Gemma's sunglasses, the LSH and I rented a motorbikes to tour the island in style.  Isn't she pretty?  All red and shiny.

    

After a quick lesson from a hot tattooed guy, we were off!  I never went faster than 35 mph but I loooooved it.  The wind whipping though my hair, the freedom, and a completely different perspective on the road.  I did have some minor problems with controlling the throttle and break while turning -- or worse, turning a corner from a full stop.  That was difficult.  Like jumping/halting/nearly wrecking difficult.  But in spite of all of that, Gemma's sunglasses and I had great fun tooling around on our motorbike in Key West.  So much fun that I asked the LSH to get me one for my birthday.  Which I have been informed is totally not going to happen.  Like ever.  Oh well....  here's to a great vacation.    

Back to regular blogging this week and I've got Juice in the works for the Questionnaire series.  

Trying New Things Might Be Good: Justified?

I'm kind of excited about Justified which premiers next month on FX -- March 16 to be exact.  And is it just me or is FX becoming the go-to network for reliably high-quality programming?  It's like the HBO of 2002 without the f-bombs.  From the official website, the premise of the show is:

Justified is the story of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a true-blue hero and something of a throwback, given to wearing a Stetson and cowboy boots, carrying his sidearm in a hip holster – a weapon he only draws when he has to, and when he does, he shoots to kill, because, as he sees it, that’s the purpose of a gun.  Raylan was born and reared in the hill country of eastern Kentucky.   It was in Harlan where he played ball, chased girls and dug coal.  And it was from Harlan, at age 19, that he ran, determined to become a U.S. Marshal.  Now, years later, after shooting a gun thug in a Miami hotel and thereby incurring the wrath of his Marshals Service superiors, Raylan has been sent in punishment (and by fate?) to the one place to which he vowed he would never return – Kentucky.      

Anyways... there are several reasons to be excited about Justified.  It's got some serious crime fiction roots.  Justified is based on Elmore Leonard's character Raylan Givens who appears in short stories, notably "Fire in the Hole."  Living under a rock?  Haven't read any of Leonard's books or short stories?  Well then certainly you must have seen 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty, or Out of Sight.      

Still not excited?  Take a look at a clip

It's also got one helluva promising cast.  Specifically, Timothy Olyphant who plays Givens. You might recognize him from Damages, Deadwood, or one of my most favorite movies of all time... Go.  (Go lives on in the Dee household pop culture references.  When reading the Sunday paper, either the LSH or I will say "And it's always there, in the lower right hand corner, just waiting to suck," referring to the Family Circus.  It's a direct line from the film and Olyphant's character was the one who said it.)  Plus the characters that Olyphant tends to play have a wry, tough, wicked, sexiness about them that I just kind of dig.  


Also-also!  It's set in the South, ya'll.  Harlan County, Kentucky to be exact.  Ever hear of Harlan County, USA?  You know, the documentary where coal miners went on strike against Duke Power in the 1970s and it nearly resulted in a war.  It's an interesting real-life setting with lots of grit.  I have a feeling it might evoke the Southern Gothic in a very interesting way.          


Yeah, I'm in.  Will you be watching?