What is making me happy

1. I’m about to cut two hours of commute out of every workday. I get to wake up when it’s not dark. I’ll have time to WORK OUT before I leave for my job and a whole extra hour after work. I’m giddy with the potential in those two hours.

2. Books. I’m almost done with my 55 books I’m willing to talk about (my best estimate is that I’ve read about 100 books so far this year total) and I’ve found some that I thoroughly enjoyed and have recommended to others.

3. Yoga! I’ve got fun new yoga stuff around the corner.

4. Guitar! My class is almost over and I’ve learned A TON. I also picked up the free tabs app from Amazon the other day so I’ve got guitar notes for some of my all time favorite songs.

5. Google Plus. With the change away from Reader’s share function and the addition of business pages, I’ve got a lot more activity in my stream that is exactly the kind of stuff I want to read.

6. @ellenbarkin on twitter

7. The Walking Dead continues to kick ass, but I’m practically jumping OUT OF MY SKIN about tonight’s Sons of Anarchy.

8. Last night’s Castle was as Castle ever is – cheeky, clever fun. I can’t wait until I start my new job so that I can watch all of prime time TV during, you know, PRIME TIME.

9. Homeland is epic. Not only are Damien Lewis and Claire Danes amazing, the writing is tight and the storytelling is intense. I am loving this show.

10. Fairy tale TV. I was a huge fan of Grimm’s and Hans Christian Andersen growing up so both Grimm and Once Upon a Time are hitting all the right notes, albeit in very different ways. I found myself *looking forward* to OUaT this week. That hasn’t happened with a network show in a while.

Sick day

I woke up feeling like crap more severe than the fending-off -cold kind that I’ve been battling. Since everyone and their cousin at work has strep throat (who gets strep when they’re an ADULT for cripes sake?) I’m going to go to the doctor today.

The lousy thing about sick days is crap tv. I mean, there are other things I’ll do besides crap tv, but then when you stumble across something good – as I just did – you’re halfway through it before you found it and there’s no way you’ll find a repeat precisely because you’re home for the day. I Capture The Castle is on, a lovely and tremendous film with a fantastic story and terrible decisions and brilliant acting. Alas, it’s halfway over already and I don’t own it on DVD. Probably I should read the book but given I’ve 20 books on the Kindle that I’ve actually bought but HAVEN’T read yet, that’s not in the works.It’s kind of surprising, actually, that I haven’t read the book.

When I enjoy a film based on a book and haven’t read it (rarity), I usually pick it up. I think maybe because I enjoy this film so much I don’t want another version of it in my head. Ditto The Princess Bride. Hrm. That’s probably a pretty short list if I put any more thought into it.

I did get to watch last night’s Castle which, as per usual, was great. Funny and sharp, plus a surprise with the actress playing Nikki Heat – not who’s playing her but the direction the episode took. The finale (finale? mid-season finale? when the F is it on regularly now anyhow?) of The Closer was good as well. I’m always impressed by Kyra Sedgwick and Jon Tenney. I was less impressed with Tenney (through no fault of his own) in Legion, which was dreadful.

Yesterday’s drive time was consumed by  The Metropolis Symphony. I love it. It’s simultaneously engaging and comic- in the graphic sense, not humor – and energetic storytelling though music where lyrics are rendered obsolete. Fantastic. That’s another great find thanks to NPR.

Added a tumblr feed to the blog (in the right column) so there may be bits and snatches that appear there and nowhere else (of late, quotes).

For now, I think a nap is necessary before a call to the doc.

Let it Snow

First real snowfall has hit and like most mountain-dwelling Coloradans, I’m happy to see it. I’ve been looking forward to winter – something unique for me and definitely a result of our new locale. While I haven’t missed all the folk who can’t drive well in snow and the Nervous Nellies who make it more dangerous for all of us, during the drive home I got to see the wind shoving clouds over some mountain peaks at close range.  It made it look like the mountains were shaving off bits of cloud with each gust and it was just generally excellent. Immediately I was less annoyed about the painfully slow drivers in front of me and enjoyed the slow cruise home.

The last couple of posts were of the home improvement progress. With any luck this weekend will see us nearing completion on the project.

I’ve got new Kindle skin love rocking right now, too. Since I’m contemplating a NaNoWriMo stab next month I’m trying to wrap up Dreadnaught and not get sucked into any of the ridiculous number of books in my Unread folder.

Random TV notes: I’m still really enjoying The Mentalist, Medium, Castle, Criminal Minds, The Big C, Modern Family, Community and Gray’s Anatomy. I find myself fast-forwarding through Chuck more than I’d like and I’m still utterly on the fence with this season’s Supernatural. To be honest I’m rather wishing they’d actually ended it last season, as this is feeling a bit like Buffy season 7. Related, Lifetime has been replaying old Gray’s eps  (I discovered this as my DVR has its own brain and recorded them) and I had forgotten how much awesome used to be jammed into every episode. This season is feeling like that. I also have to credit the Spouse for making me watch Modern Family. Without fail it is laugh out loud funny in EVERY episode and will invariably leave me chuckling long after. I feel like an idiot for missing it so long.

In film updates, Splice. What a fucked up, creepy and skeevy film. It was engrossing, however, unlike – say – IRON MAN 2. What the hell happened with that? It’s like they decided in lieu of a plot to insert Mickey Rourke and 10x more guns than the first one. Oh, and a whiny nagging Pepper. Ugh. Spouse says: I guess we won’t have to worry about seeing the 3rd one. It’s the second major film disappointment in recent memory (up there with Robin Hood) but made me feel good about not having shelled out cash to see it in the theater. I am, however, still wanting to see RED on the big screen.

TV roundup

House, M.D. I love that the writers always stay true to his cantankerousness. I love that last night’s episode was all about Monster Trucks and, simultaneously, not about Monster Trucks at all. I consistently just enjoy watching this show.

Castle. I thought the premiere was okay. I’m not a fan of crime shows where the lady cop is hot, lonely, and always in four inch heels. For “How to do this right” see The Mentalist. Nathan Fillion is kind of great, though, and I loved the end of the show. We’ll see how long they can draw this out without making the female lead seem like an utter nincompoop.

Heroes continues to be really good at what it does. Spouse missed a couple of episodes and is off of it, but I’m still liking how they put things together.

I was so glad for Medium to get back on the air! I love the way they depict the married couple, as well as the kids. They have some of the only kids on TV I find to be charming. I pretty much just love the show.

BSG continues to kick ass.

Burn Notice had a solid season. I was getting a bit annoyed with the whole ‘who framed me’ storyline but I really like the Michael/Fiona dynamic. I also LOVE Sam (Bruce Campbell). 

Chuck is also continuously awesome. 

Almost everything else is returning from their break next week.

I watched my first episode of Dancing With the Stars last night at work and I’ve got to say, I don’t get it. I don’t get why people love it so much.