Just a few more days ...

Prescott Evening Courier - July 22, 1925

On Sunday, May 1st, Detective Goren will return to the small screen. This makes my wife very happy.

What I've Been Watching

The Middle

The Defenders

Modern Family

Detroit 1-8-7

White Collar

We're So Proud

Recent events from east Tennessee caught on video...

Turkeys Away

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving TV shows

I've been waiting years for this episode of Cheers to show up.

Thanksgiving Orphans

This is the one where the cast all get together at Carla's place and a food fight breaks out. I saw part of it in 1986, but not all of it. WGN is showing it.

Other favorite Thanksgiving themed TV episodes are the ones from Everybody Loves Raymond. The tofurkey and the fish episodes. The Bob Newhart Show where Emily goes off and leaves Bob and the boys with some liquor and football.

On Thanksgiving day, I enjoy a smattering of parades and football.

Keep the turkey moist and the remote close by.

Catch up

It seems that I've been neglecting this blog. I have, I guess.

To make up for it, I give you an image that I found over at FreakingNews.com...

I also share a wonderful episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour...



While I was sick this last week I had a chance to watch this. I'm a big Bob Newhart fan, and an Alfred Hitchcock fan. When these two worlds collided, I'm a double winner. Take 50 minutes from your day and watch this.

I was able to read some more of A Colossal Hoax by Scott Tribble. It is a very well researched book.

We celebrated Edison's 15th birthday on Saturday and Sunday. Ah, boys will be boys. Angie has a much better description of the weekend's events over at her blog.

I worked on a few PCs for some friends. Mostly updates and cleaning out cruft. I fought with a Vista laptop that did not want to give up the administrative password. I was finally able to use a tool that cleared the password. Bingo. Now to finish cleaning and tweaking.

There. I'm caught up. Probably not, but that's what you're getting for now.

What I've been up to lately

Last weekend the family and I went to Michigan (via Chicagoland). Here are some of the things we saw...

A pair of very dedicated NASCAR fans. I guess they like Mark Martin. Or something. I would have picked another driver, I think. This is at a cemetery just southeast of Indianapolis.

Another gravestone just down the way. I'm not up on my chemistry. A little help?

We stopped in Homewood, IL, for Aurelio's Pizza with some of Angie's High School classmates. No, I don't remember all of their names.

Later that night we drove to Battle Creek, MI, for a few hours sleep before heading out to Owosso, MI. Our nephew, Daniel, graduated from High School. Daniel is on the right.

Coming back, somewhere in Ohio, we stopped for gas. This American Iron Horse was on the other side of the pump. I talked to the rider and he was kind enough to let me take a few photos.

We arrived home very early on Monday morning. Just enough time to unpack and catch some shuteye before attending Caroline's end of pre-school program. She'll attend a few weeks of summer school and then she'll be attending kindergarten.

Angie and I spent part of Monday crafting a to-do list of around the house projects. I've cleaned the gutters and tonight I put up the new light in the kitchen...

Before

After

We're still catching up on our sleep and a few TV programs that we missed. Okay, one. In Plain Sight. Good writing.

So, I'm off to bed with dreams of another item crossed off of the to-do list.

Life On Mars

Normally I don't shill for TV shows. But this one has captured me so much that I'm willing to do that.

A policeman, Sam Tyler, is involved in an auto accident in 2008. When he wakes up he is in 1973.

The beginning of last night's episode was some of the best television production that I've seen in a long time. No, I can't describe it. Well, I could, but if you haven't seen it, my description would take away from the actual show. I don't want to ruin it at all.

Next Wednesday night is the series finale. I'm not one of those who will sign a petition to keep it on the air. I think that ABC and the producers did a the right thing in keeping it to a single season.

I like period pieces. I like time-travel quandaries. I like good acting and smart writing. I like this show.

A Thrilling Christmas

A few weeks ago were were in Sevierville for a wedding rehearsal. Angie was at the church and I took the kids down to the rehearsal dinner. We got there when we were supposed to, but got a call from Angie that things were taking a bit longer than planned. No problem, I tell myself. Sevierville is town full of fun things to do on a Friday night when both kids are hungry. So we went to the "As Seen on TV" store.

They've got a bunch of crap that you actually have seen on TV. And more. They had racks and bins of 99 cent DVDs. Being a sucker for them (as is my brother), I perused the racks and found 3 Christmas DVDs. One of them, A Thrilling Christmas, isn't so thrilling.

It had three episodes of TV shows from the '50s.

• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Annie Oakley
• Crossroads

Over the next week I watched them, even forcing Angie to join me on one. We watched the Crossroads episode (The Wreath) first. Not very thrilling. I fell asleep.

Then I watched the Robin Hood episode (The Christmas Goose). Whiny kid is collecting holly on the new lord's land. His pet goose attacks the lord. The lord has the goose arrested and brought to trial. The kid whines so much you want Robin to put him out of your misery. A priest takes the goose's side and every one is happy by the end of the show.

The Annie Oakley episode (Santa Claus Wears a Gun) was much more thrilling. Shootouts and guns. And Santa Claus. A robbery and con job.

The transfer was very clean. The sound was good. Menu was, well, a menu. No great features.

Not very thrilling.