Well, dear readers, these here notes are now the Notes of Christmas Past, due to the fact that it is the day after Christmas. I had a nice Christmas with one exception, but it was a minor exception rather than a major one. I did get eight hours of Christmas sleep, so that was nice. I did a quick run to the ATM – well, not a run – I drove – and then came right home and got ready for the arrival of the Darling Daughter. The arrival happened when she arrived at noon o’clock. She gave me a boatload of baked goodies, personally baked goodies by her very own self, and I gave her her favorite gift – Christmas Cash. I also gave her two old, framed prints that I knew she’d love, which she did. We then decided that instead of eating here, we’d go out for a bite. I chose Daily Grill out by the Burbank Airport in the Marriott. Hadn’t been there in years. I’d once had the meatloaf in the Studio City Daily Grill and really liked it, so I ordered that, the Darling Daughter ordered a chicken Caesar salad, and for an appetizer we had popcorn shrimp, which was always a favorite at that jernt. She enjoyed her chicken Caesar, but the popcorn shrimp was kind of yuckily yucky – not terrible, just a little mushy – and my meatloaf was a complete travesty, like it had been sitting around for a few weeks – it tasted like old shoe leather, not that I’ve actually tasted old shoe leather, but it would have been preferable to the meatloaf. I ate about half of one of the two pieces and left the rest – I have never left what was basically almost the entirety of a main dish. My two sides were good, at least – creamed spinach and green beans almondine. Still, we had a lot of fun gabbing away, she liked the new motor car, and I regaled her with tales of all the recent doctor appointments and dental appointments. By the time we got out of there it was two-thirty. We drove by a few old places just to see what was what, including my house on St. Clair, which has now been painted a lovely vomit green, and the house on Shadyglade, which looks exactly the same except the front yard looks dead and awful. Whoever is living there is certainly not keeping things pretty nor is whoever the gardener is. And the current rent there? $6,700. When I moved in in 2004 it was $3,500. It stayed at $3,500 for twelve years and then went up to 4K for the remaining two years I was there. They did do a lot of work after I left – one of the reasons I left was because they were so lax about fixing huge problems. They couldn’t rent it the way it was. So, an entire new floor in the kitchen, both bathrooms completely redone. They call it a three-bedroom, but no one would use the huge den as a bedroom so, no, it’s a two-bedroom. Looks like the pool and yard have been a bit beautified. But basically, it’s what it was. I enjoyed living there save for the endless issues with pipes that took a year to fix, wood rot that took a year to fix, blah, blah, blah.
Then we came back here, and I gave her a huge thing of sauce and an equal amount of pasta to share with her friend, and she had to get on her way to see her friend and then go back to her mom’s.
I was kind of nauseous from the lingering awful taste of the meatloaf, so I had just a bit of tuna pasta salad to try and wipe it out. I had a chocolate donut, too, and that was it for food. I did all the remaining dishes – basically, just the pots and pans, took the bag o’ trash out, and then sat on my couch like so much fish and began watching Brainstorm, which I hadn’t seen in years. It really hasn’t aged very well, but it’s interesting. However, I dozed off and slept for about twenty minutes. Then I began watching Joker: Folie a Deux and folly is right. I didn’t care for the first one – just so dour and dank and while I know people think Mr. Phoenix is a great actor, I cannot stand him. So, that’s a big problem for me. I watched an hour and will finish it, but it’s just so weird with the songs and Lady Gaga is okay but for me it’s all a big who cares. And on Wikipedia, we get to read all the pretentious acting stuff – I remember a time when actors didn’t blab on about their “process” or living the character, or any of that BS – they just showed up and did their job and that was that. I can’t imagine it getting any better. The film was a colossal bomb but still the studio feels they must inflate the overseas grosses – I mean, c’mon. The film grossed 58 million in the United States and supposedly 140 million overseas. Please. I suspect it’s a huge loss for the studio. It got pretty much pans from most critics, and yet there were a handful who thought it was great and now people are saying it will age well and be a cult film. That may be, but it’s just not good, at least the first hour of it.
Then I did a few things on the computer, and here we are.
Today, my intention is to be up by nine and to mosey on over to the bank and transfer the second payment into my main account. Once that’s done, I’ll come home and just have me an old-fashioned ME day. I have a lot of tuna pasta salad left, so that’s my food for today and tomorrow – I always lose weight eating tuna pasta salad. I’ll make more research notes for the new book, I’ll see if I can book my open MRI appointment, and then just watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and the weekend is more of the same, and then we’re counting down to the New Year, including watching our various and sundried balls drop at our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right here at haineshisway.com. And the DAY of the bash I’ll be at the dentist getting my new permanent crown and then I will be King – the King of my own mouth.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine and to the bank soon thereafter, transfer funds, come home, have a ME day, make research notes, eat, try and book my open MRI appointment, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who have been your least favorite movie actors – male and female. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we wind up these Notes of Christmas Past.