Haven’t made a post here in over a week because I’ve spent most of the last week in Halifax. Our daughter graduated from Dalhousie with a Master of Arts degree on Tuesday. We flew up on Saturday, went out to Peggy’s Cove in the rain on Sunday (it wasn’t raining when we started in that direction), did errands and visited with family on Monday, and returned on Wednesday. A busy few days, but I always enjoy going back to the city where I lived for most of the 1980s. It’s a place where I could see myself living again some day.
I don’t usually take the extra insurance when renting a vehicle. We reserved a normal, mid-sized four-door car, but all they had left when we got in late on Saturday night was a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, fully loaded. Backup cameras, GPS, motorized, remote-controlled sliding doors on both sides, etc. We made good use of the extra space, ultimately. However, the wind caught the passenger door one day and blew it against a concrete post, leaving a pretty decent ding and scrape. Turns out my brilliant wife had opted for the zero deductible insurance, so all we had to do was fill out an incident report.
I didn’t want to carry my big paperback copy of The Twelve by Justin Cronin, so I took only e-Books. I enjoyed Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl so much that I went back to her first two books. I read Sharp Objects first and am currently a little over halfway through Dark Places. Such excellent and compelling books. I also picked up a copy of Stuart McLean’s Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe in Toronto airport and started reading it to my wife. More great adventures of Dave and Morley and their kids and neighbours.
Slowly getting caught up on recorded TV shows. This week’s NCIS was great. The whodunit was well constructed and I never once suspected the real culprit, and the emotional after-effects of the bombing are being handled well. The psychologist was actually sufferable. Charming, really.
I don’t have any favorites yet on The Amazing Race. They sure put them through the ringer right out of the gate, testing their ability to withstand heights. Gross food competition. I liked the ping pong contest with the young champ besting them with clipboards and frying pans. There’s a lot of strength in the teams this time out, but they’re going to have to learn not to be so helpful. One team missed a major flight connection with “after you” and another got eliminated because they helped the team they needed to outrace.
I wonder how Survivor has had to adjust to having one of three teams getting slowly whittled away to nothing. Did they have to switch out immunity challenges, for example, because they needed to facilitate a team of four? Russell is a mystery. The guy looks like he has muscles on his muscles, but he’s not good for much in challenges. I shan’t make any comments on my opinion of the reason why Angie couldn’t make it down two feet to release the first puzzle piece. No one on the blue team seems the least bit interested in finding the hidden idol. That Abi girl seems like a borderline psycho. Geez. I’d give her a wide berth.
Good to see Bob Odenkirk (Saul from Breaking Bad) on How I Met Your Mother. Still playing a lawyer, but a slightly less sleazy one. I thought the gag with his cell phone going off with a Psycho-like ring tone was hilarious.
I’ve also finished Season 3 of The Wire. The “Hamsterdam” experiment was interesting. I liked Stringer, but at least we still have Omar and Bubbles. McNulty’s gotcha on Avon was about all he could salvage out of their investigation. Well, his investigation, at least. Got a kick out of seeing Dennis Lehane cameo-ing as the guy in charge of the electronic surveillance depot, barely raising his eyes from the nudie magazine. “McNulty, Major Case.” “Sullivan, minor irritations.”
Still have lots of other shows on the DVR. I also have a box of signature sheets to sign and a set of short story proofs to review by Sunday. No other deadlines pending, though, so it’s a good long weekend to get caught up on recordings.
