Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving, then and now

Oooh! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and everybody is psyched up about the huge meal, the football, seeing family members, turkey turkey turkey pie pie, and then there are those hitting the stores for the Black Friday Shopping Stampede. I've done all the big family dinners that I ever want to do in my life, so I'm done with that. Something to be thankful for right there!! Yaay!!

Those of you participating in a big dinner prep might appreciate this absolutely classic hilarious and real letter that someone shared with the Awkward Family Photos people. I think I may have posted this before, but I always revisit it this time of year. It's traditional! My graphic is just a thumbnail - go to the site to read it and enjoy the some more real life weirdness - shit that you just can't make up. Awkward Family Photos: The Thanksgiving Letter

One of my new favorite Thanksgiving-dinner-themed things is this series of comics called "Thanksgiving as a kid VS Thanksgiving as an adult" from The Oatmeal. Again, I've provided a teeny thumbnail because you should go over and read it where it lives. Love The Oatmeal.

We do have some Thanksgiving traditions, even though none of them involve getting stuffed with food until we can't walk. We usually go to the Alamo Drafthouse and watch a movie. They have a full dinner and drink menu, always, (including a full turkey dinner and trimmings if you are so inclined - but I am going to stick with pizza), and we are going to see "Lincoln." Seems like this is going to be one of the ones to beat when the Awards are handed out, so looking forward to it. I find it to be ironic that we are going to see a movie about Lincoln on the anniversary of JFK's assassination...

Whatever you do, enjoy your day. Don't get into any fights at the dinner table if you can prevent them. Life's too short for all that bullshit and heartache.

Keep smiling.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Sad, sad people







A bad case of the "Mondays" on a Tuesday night. Have a cheery little party. Maybe the Koch Brothers will buy you a drink, even though they were not able to purchase a President.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Autumn activities here at the Oasis

Seems like I've been away from this blog for a long time. I have gone back to a lower frequency of posting, which I attribute to a burnout of sorts. By the time I've listened to radio news (NPR) for many hours, get my daily dose of Rachel Maddow, (almost daily) Stewart/Colbert, and wade through the endless stream of Facebook friends and Liked-pages news feed, commenting here and there, or not, (this election is INSANE) or issuing a status update maybe, plus scrolling through Twitter... I am too mentally wasted and worn out to put together a posting. It will be time for dinner+couch+TV with the spouse, or just getting out and being in the world in person. Anyway, here's a rundown.

Oct 20 was Tour de Fat, which we attend pretty much every year. It's a touring bike-themed, beer-themed, steampunk-flavored play day and costumed bike parade hosted by New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado. MrB likes to ride in the parade. I sit it out but enjoy the day. I tend to have one beer too many and get too much sunshine. None of that changed this time. A few pics from the day:





On the 24th I went to the book signing of Matthew Inman, a.k.a. The Oatmeal - who creates some of the funniest comics you'll find anywhere. His new book is called "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you," and contains How to Pet a Kitty along with a whole book-full of other cat comedy. I absolutely love The Oatmeal.

On Oct 27 we went to see 18-yr-old guitar phenom Carson Brock. He is the son of Kyle Brock, who goes way back to the 1970s playing bass with Eric Johnson, and gets better every time I see him. Good voice too. Look for him on your geetar radar. Here he is on the Jimi Hendrix song, Red House.


Halloween came and went. We had a solid hour of very cute costumed children coming to the door. The most popular costumes still seem to be Princess and Pirate, not much changed about that since I was little. I was never a Princess though, always a Hobo.

Nov 3rd we went to the Celtic Festival, where we had an enchanting day of wonderful Celtic music, climaxing with Moya Brennan (of Clannad) and band, including Cormac De Barra, two harps, drum, fiddle and guitar. It was really quite a treat. Here's one of her videos from about a year ago. Our venue was not nearly as magical as the setting in this video, but it was really nice, a stage in an intimate setting with the lake behind. It is still very warm here, still a bit warmer than I would like it to be, but the weather is still lovely and it cools down a nicely in the evening.


And there's cat news... mostly we do not go out except on weekends, and look forward to nightly visits from some neighborhood kitties. There's one in particular who has stolen our hearts. She is owned by the people 2 doors down but she is left out what must be most of the time. On Friday night, in the exact middle of the night, we heard a meowing in a place where there should be no meowing. There she was, on the second floor roof (which was very steep) crying at a high bathroom window which isn't any taller than a cat door.
Everybody was pretty freaked out and scared. I went outside and didn't really see any path down that wouldn't be painful. MrB was finally able to pry the screen off and pull her through there. We don't know why she was up there, whether she was escaping some critter or just decided to see if that might be an alternate place to be let in. We think she must have balanced on the plank fence and jumped up. We hope that she was sufficiently terrified by it to not try again. Anyway, couldn't help but think of this song.

The election is on Tuesday, and it can't get here soon enough. I think our heads might just spin right off at the neck. Will be checking in here again soon, I hope.