RedScylla’s Neighborhood

Nothing like the Virgin Mary giving comfort to a tired soul.

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As promised a few weeks ago, here are some pics from the gas station in Casa Grande I stopped at on the way home from Yuma.

I thought the placement of painted plaster yard art objects for sale was tasteful and tender.

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Today's post is brought to you by Nut and Bee. Now I'm off to get a few pieces of Havarti cheese.

I didn't stick to my guns and stay hunkered down last night. That's what happens when you have super fun friends and little willpower.

I went to yoga, stopping at my neighborhood Italian place a few doors down from the studio. I told Joe that I was going to need a pizza when class was over at 5. I like to plan ahead for dinner.

Class kicked my ass. I hadn't been in a few months. When I picked up my pizza I also asked for cranberry juice in a cup of ice to go - I have vodka at home, after all.

So I was settling in when the email from Desert Jeff came in to meet him and his GF at my usual sports bar to watch his Georgia Tech team lose to Georgia. Sure, that's not how he put it in his invitation, but that's what happened. Perhaps I could have avoided going out but Miss K was also invited and GF had presents for us.

A little arm twisting ensued as I made a feeble attempt to stick to my plan of staying home and read my book club book.

Out we went and a good time was had. Jeff's GF made Miss K and me bracelets using the Czech beads I gave her last week after the wine festival. Last week! That's fast and inspired work! I've only had those beads sitting around my house for almost two years.

Not that I was going to do anything with them myself. They were a fun purchase from Prague always intended to be a gift for someone. And now I get to enjoy them. Bonus!

Right now I'm hanging out with Miss K and waiting for our group number to be called to get our books signed by Garrison Keillor. He did an hour-long monologue just as fun and charming as on his radio show. If I get a photo with him I'll post. As would be fitting, we're being entertained while we wait by a homey folksy bluegrass band.

When I get home, I'll see if I can finally get to that book.

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you don't have to spend too long in teh internets to find tons of accolades for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
John Huston's greatest film!; a triumph; Bogart's finest role; Walter Huston is a revelation;  and so on.

the powers that be agreed: Treasure... won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture.

all that praise misses one thing.  the one thing that makes Treasure... special

Currently looking forward to, or pretending to look forward to:

Sat, Dec 5

• 3p, It's A Wonderful Life on a movie screen at the Seal Beach Theatre
• 6p, Optional: the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade. I probably won't go - parking is a bitch and I don't really know anyone to hang with anymore (it's dull if you're alone and don't live there).
  

Sat, Dec 6

• 3p, Out & About Holiday Progressive Dinner. 3 stops (a home, a restaurant, a home) and lots of gay men!!
• 6p (won't make it unless i'm having a REALLY bad time at the progressive), another screening of IAWL

Mon Dec 7 and Wed Dec 9

• 8p, final screenings of IAWL in Seal Beach (I might be able to get out of work early one night. I might not be in the mood. Dunno.)
• Also, Dec 9 only, 3-6pm = Office holiday "party" in the conference rooms (using the term "party" loosely cause it usually sucks). I'll probably have too much work to attend anyway.
  

Sat, Dec 12

• 9am-noon Holiday Appetizers cooking class in Silverlake (oh, how I will HATE waking up for that!)
• Afternoon: swing by the Los Angeles Tamale Festival (postponed from November)
• 5p, Daisy Lane Christmas Parade. Only 3 blocks from me and the saddest/tackiest Xmas parade ever. I love it
  

Sat, Dec 19

• 3p, first screening of A Christmas Story at the Seal Beach Theatre. I probably won't make it to this one.
  
• 6p (I won't make it but enjoy knowing when it is), the Naples Boat Parade of Lights
• 8pm(ish), Brian Setzer Christmas Extravaganza concert. Had a blast last time! It's also the night of "Merry -X- mas" (as in the band, X), but I already had the pit ticket for Brian Setzer when I heard about X's show.
  

Dec 20 (6p), Dec 21 & 23 (8p)  

• Additional screenings of A Christmas Story in Seal Beach

It's hard for me to believe that it's about to be December. Time flies when you don't celebrate holidays!

Haylo!!!

Well, that greeting was the most energetic thing I have done all day.
We had a perfect weekend. Today I am determined to do nothing and so far am succeeding amazingly!

In fact, I am so lazy that I am going to take a nap now. So, I'll post some pics later....probably! :)

Considering the month it has been, I really wasn't sure if it would happen this year, so I'm pretty happy.

Now I need to go soak my hands to cool them down after three straight days of non-stop writing....

If I ever have another wedding, I'm totally getting one of these:

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

I first discovered the Star Trek Universe in 5th grade in the form of The Next Generation.  I had obviously heard of the The Original Series, but had no interest in it whatsoever at that age.  I was one of those pre-teens with a massive crush on a young Wesley Crusher.  Of course, watching it as an adult I can see why most people at the time were not a fan of Crusher, clearly he was a device to lure in the kiddies, and, well, it worked!  My long-running crush on Wesley Crusher extended into high school where my friend Danielle and I used to giggle about him and Star Trek during choir.  I liked Danielle, we weren't exactly close friends, but Star Trek and our crush on Mr. Crusher were awesome things we could share with each other and not feel quite as nerdy as we truly were.

As a kid, I loved the holodecks, the transporters, the replicators and the muted mauve color scheme that was popular in the late 80's and early 90's but still seemed futuristic on the set.  I watched as much of the show as I could and remembered seeing the names Rick Berman and Brannon Braga in the credits and thinking what awesome guys they must be...  For all of you Trekkies out there who know me, I'll give you a second to digest that.  Give me a break, I was a kid and didn't understand the concept of quality yet.

As a growed up Valerae I have watched the full run of TNG, beginning to end, twice on vhs (thank you Columbia House and ebay!) and once on DVD.  It saddens me to say this, but after this last viewing I can honestly say that I could still live a fulfilling life and never watch all of TNG again.  That's not to say that I'd never like to revisit particular episodes at some point in time, but it seems like it would almost be torture to have to watch ALL of it ever again.  Hey, at least it will save me money on not having to buy those blu-rays!

It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I feel this way, but I'm sure I could come up with a couple of reasons as to why I'd never want to watch all of TNG again.  Let's give this a go:

• Rick Berman
• Brannon Braga
• Technobabble saving the day
• A dude in a garbage bag killing Tasha (although, that did at least get her and her terrible acting off of the show).

• Tasha sleeping with Data (slaps forehead), oy.
• Tasha's sister (are you seeing a trend with all things Tasha yet?)
  
• Camel toe

• Technobabble saving the day

• Where all the women at? (No, TWO women in an ensemble cast is not exactly representative of 51% of the population...and yes, I am aware that Tasha was really another woman in the cast, but does she really have to count?  I'd count Ro Laren before counting Tasha, but they never did do enough with her.)
• Deanna's useless sensations

• Bad Ferengi
• Q (I know, everyone loves Q and I used to as well, but I found him rather tiresome upon repeated encounters - much like the crew of the Enterprise)
• Wesley saving the day (absolutely loved it as a kid but it feels forced from an adult's perspective)
  
• Did I mention Technobabble saving the day?
• Scrubbing down the holodeck after Riker's been in there all day.

Here are the things that will keep me coming back to revisit a few specific episodes at the very least:

• Worf (do I even need a reason?  Worf is badass)
  
• The Inner Light (sob)

• Picard (in general)
• Riker's trombone (I'll let you decide if that's a euphemism or not)
• Michael Piller
• Ron Moore
• Alexander
• Lwaxana Troi

• Guinan
• Suzie Plakson 

Here we are about two decades out from my initial discovery of Trek and instead of having a crush on Wesley Crusher (because that would just be wrong), I have a crush on Wil Wheaton, the actor, writer, funnyman and all-around geek who played him.  I've been reading Wil's blog for a long damn time now and have most recently been enjoying his recaps of season 1 of TNG.  A few years ago he was commissioned to do write-ups of some episodes which were posted over at TV Squad.  He has recently turned this into a book which you can buy, it's called Memories of the Future, Volume I ...and even better than that, he's been doing a podcast on each episode called Memories of the Futurecast.  If you really want an insider's look into early TNG, this is a very fun and funny way to revisit the series.