All's Quiet on the Bunny Front

If you've read my previous post about how our yard is bombarded by bunnies, you know that the bunny infestation is getting out of control.  They are digging holes everywhere and have no fear of humans.  Every time I look out a window: bunny sighting.  Not this morning, though.  Not many birds either which seemed strange.  Normally, the yard is a flurry of bird and bunny activity.  Was it the fog keeping them away?  I thought it was the weather.  Silly me ~ it's a giant hawk that is hanging around looking for breakfast.  I would have gotten a picture but it's too fast for me and keeps hanging out in a big maple tree.  Interesting development in suburbia...

Downton and MTV

I just woke up from a spectacularly weird dream.  My college buddy, Cathy, and I were in Brooklyn and trying to board a ferry that would take us to a teeny tiny island owned by MTV.  Honestly, we could have swam to the island it was so close but since when are dreams logical.  The ferry was entirely filled with punks and hoochie mamas who looked like they belonged on Jersey Shore so we didn't board.  We could see the island and the ferry were too crowded and the youngsters (boy, I feel old) were too rowdy and drunk.  It's one thing to party but not with that crowd and it was about 3 in the afternoon in my dream so that was just too early for us classy folk. 

We walked under an overpass and there was a bridge leading to the MTV island that had people in moped-type bikes going across.  It was so loud and filthy that we decided to abandon all hope of getting to the island.  We somehow got "upstairs" and there was a really pretty, semi-abandoned overlook with great views of Manhattan.  Fewer people, great views - it was nice.  The problem was the pavement wasn't level.  I'm talking like '45 degree angle' not level.  We were both hanging on to a railing while laying flat on our stomachs and my railing broke. Cheap construction.  So, I had to use the other railing.  That one started to go.  We carefully made our way to the opposite point of the overlook area and tried to get something to eat and were unsuccessful.  At this point, Cathy and I agreed that there was nothing fun about this adventure.

That's when my 'Brooklyn isn't fun' dream transitioned to me with the cast of Downton Abbey in Oprah's old TV studio.  I know.  Makes complete sense, right?  There they were in modern day clothes with their British accents doing song and dance numbers for no audience.  They were being filmed but there wasn't a live audience and for some reason they were in the chairs and not on the stage.  The head maid who had cancer looked like she had aged quite a bit and had her head shaved.  She had surgery to improve her hearing and cheekbones.  She kept repeating the word 'murder' in very dramatic ways and saying how this was the first time in her life she was able to hear words out of both ears.  I think she was practicing some sort of detective show monologue hoping to get a job other than Downton Abbey.  Some of the main characters were missing but Kate Winslet was there.  I'm NOT a fan of hers at all and I was hoping this didn't mean she was going to show up in an episode.  Ugh.  She started singing and hamming it up too.  Keep away, Kate!

Okay, now I have to go to work.

 

The other James Gandolfini

NY Times photo of Mr. Gandolfini from Google

I was really shocked to hear that James Gandolfini died yesterday.  He was so young!  Only a year older than my sister.  I know that The Sopranos was probably the apex of his career and it would be hard to top his success with some other role but I really think he had years of good work ahead of him.  Add to that the fact that he had a child less than a year old and it's just sad, sad news.

I enjoyed watching The Sopranos but I was always years off of the episodes that were airing because I didn't subscribe to HBO.  Thank goodness for Netflix and re-runs.  There aren't a lot of Italians in SW Virginia but many, many on Long Island so I was always curious about the show.  I loved Gandolfini's portrayal of a man who wanted more and could be base and charming in the same episode.  I'm sure some of that magic from the writing but who could be a better mob boss than Mr. Gandolfini was on camera?  I can't think of anyone who could pull it off as well, really.

Right before I moved to Virginia, I wanted to treat myself to a Broadway play or musical - just to go see by myself as a treat.  A gift to me.  I chose God of Carnage and that was my favorite Broadway performance I have ever seen, hands down.  Luckily, the show I saw had the original B'way cast which included James Gandolfini.  He was the good guy - the one of the four main characters that you were rooting for the most.  Starting out polite and shy and ramping up over the course of the show.  He was FANTASTIC!  I loved that he was the opposite of a mob boss and wasn't typecast at all.  The other James Gandolfini.  What a loss.

What I don't miss ~

A Facebook friend was mentioning how her sister was having a nightmarish commute home from NYC to Long Island due to a train derailment that caused the Long Island Railroad to cancel about two dozen rush hour trains yesterday.  I don't miss those awful days...  LIRR: Near normal commute expected Wednesday

 

Wow! Two posts in one day!!

This must be a record for me.  Two posts in one day ~ amazing.  Of course, my earlier post was an epic fail so that explains some of it.

So, what are your weekend plans?  I'm looking forward to going out to dinner downtown with my man tonight.  We have reservations at The Cedars which is a really tasty and cozy Lebanese restaurant in the heart of the Roanoke.

I have a soft spot for hot, meaty, stuffed grape leaves.  Not the cold clammy ones ~ oh no.  [I think the picture I put above is of the vegetarian cold ones but they really all look alike]  Unfortunately, you can only order the hot, yummy grape leaves at The Cedars on Thursdays.  I'm guessing because they are high maintenance to make from scratch.  The only other time I ate at The Cedars was on a Thursday night and I was soooooooooooo thrilled with their food and I got my fix of my fav Lebanese dish.  The good thing about it being Friday is that I'm forced to try something different off of their menu.  Shwarma, perhaps?

Normally, if I find something I like I order it again and again off the menu and don't get an opportunity to try something different.  Except with the Carraba's saga.  I used to go out to Carraba's with my friends Cindy & Nancy occasionally when I lived in NY because Cindy loved that place and it was next door to my apartment complex.  I have never eaten anything I like there.  Everytime we went I ordered something new and was disappointed.  This began to make Cindy nervous.  I'd be looking at the menu and she'd hope upon hope that I'd like what I ordered.  Never happened.  Well, once I got a vege lasagna that wasn't bad but it was a seasonal dish and never showed up on the menu again.  I now beg Cindy to go someplace else when I'm visiting NY and she has no problem with that.

I hope everyone enjoys their Father's Day weekend!  If you have a dad, give him a hug.  If not, I hope you have good dad memories and I'll give my dad an extra hug for you.  If you are a dad, enjoy it!!   :-)

What is this?

For some reason, no matter how hard I try, I cannot get this picture right side up.  It's upside down even though it was originally sideways and I saved it right side up three different times.  I give up.  This was supposed to be a post about how I glanced out my bedroom window last Saturday and saw a hot air balloon gliding by and could see the flames igniting the helium, etc and how cool it was.  Instead, this is a post all about how annoying technology can be.  LOL

A Good Book Club

Trust me, it's great!

Many years ago when my parents and I first moved to Virginia, the Winchester Welcome Wagon Club came to our front door and invited my mom to join their organization.  I really didn't expect my mom to join up because she hadn't been a part of any clubs while I was a child but she happily joined in.  It turns out that my mom had been very active in a lot of organizations before I came into this world and once I was in college she started to branch out again and have more of a social life.  Yay mom!!

The Winchester Welcome Wagon Club led to my mom meeting some really wonderful neighbors and locals who became good friends.  She also joined a local Christian Women's Club thanks to a lovely neighbor asking her to join that group as well.  All of this because some really nice, normal ladies took the time to canvas the neighborhood for newbies and invite them out.  We need more of this in our lives, I swear!

The lunches and breakfast meetings and outings and discussions my mom took part in were really awesome and she loved every minute of it.  Winchester became more of a home because of her friends and her active life outside of her four walls.  The best activity, in my opinion, were the book club meetings she went to almost every month.  I liked how the members would rotate homes each month and get to pick which book everyone would read if they were to be the hostess.  Their husbands and kids couldn't be home - it was for members only.  It was a neat monthly event that my mom always looked forward to and I secretly wanted to join.  Actually, it wasn't secret.  I whined to my mom every time that I wanted to come and it was pathetic of me.  LOL

My employer has been sponsoring a book club for some time but today was my first foray into it.  We read The Dog Stars and I had no desire to read it after I saw a synopsis.  Another dystopian novel about what it's like to live after a pandemic wipes out most of the population?  No thanks.  Depressing!  My desperation to finally join a book club led me to read the first few pages of the book and I was hooked.  It wasn't depressing at all and was an amazing, amazing book.  Read it if you can!

Anyway, the pleasure of reading the book was enhanced when I got to sit and eat cake and listen to six women and one (former Navy) man talk about the book and a bunch of things that had absolutely nothing to do with the novel like the Mycenaean culture's extinction, chicken pox, tornadoes, rabbits, and bomb shelters.  I listened to a lovely lady from Alabama talk about how she didn't believe her husband's warnings that a tornado was coming until she saw her bedroom curtains being sucked out of her window.  You get the idea...  It was awesome.  :-)