Picture Sunday

Well, hello, bloggers, blogees, and the blogless altogether, and you know who you are. And what a weekend it's been.

I started the weekend on Friday night, aka Chill Night in Betland. It consisted of doing absolutely nothing save for watching two Alan F movies, one of which was a TV movie so I can't record it on the Movie List. That would be "...And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself," a really fun movie. One of the few examples of a Paper Movie that actually worked! And Mr Arkin (that's Mr F Arkin to you) played a crusty old mercenary with a "Mother" tattoo who not only loses his arm (the tattooed one), but his eye as well.

Then it was on to Saturday, a very big day indeed here in Betland. Up early, packed for B'burg, then it was off to drop Temporary Podmobile at the rental company and say a fond farewell. He did me well in the podmobile interim, and it was with a twinge of sadness that I said goodbye to him. (We did decide he was a boy, didn't we?)

From A Major Car Rental Company it was to the Betty Bet Bet Inspirational Highway, past B'burg, and to C'burg to Original Dealership, where I was faced with the daunting task ahead - a new podmobile.

I'd narrowed down my choices, in my mind, to either blue, white, or a goldish color. When I got there and started looking and driving, I made a move so bold and surprising, well, it's still hard to believe. See, the blue was too dark (almost black), the white was too white (you know when people have their teeth whitened and they're just too white? think that), and the gold wasn't on the lot. And one little car kept calling to me, just like that puppy in the litter you know you're going to take home because it keeps tugging at your leg and being overly cute.

And so I chose that little puppy. My new podmobile is - gray!

This is an astonishing choice for me because not only was it not one of my choices, but I hate gray/silver cars. I'm always telling people that - a silver car is the same as having a car with no paint at all. In fact, had someone asked me before yesterday, "OK, you crum, we know what you're considering, what color do you know you won't get?" my answer would have been an unequivocal, "Silver or gray." But there you go. I liked it best of all. And so I got it.

And so, ladies and gentlemen (and you know who you are), may I proudly introduce to you the brand new podmobile2.



So there he sits. My new friend. It makes sense, you know. My house is gray, my car is gray, and as Mr M said, normally my mood is gray. There's just a lot of grayness here in Betland now.

Speaking of the Poderosa, here's a picture of my new gray car at my not-so-new gray house.




You know, it's been approximately 7 years since I bought a car, and I really don't remember it taking as long as it did yesterday. Somewhere around 3 hours or so. I guess my last car purchase doesn't count because it did go very quickly indeed - in fact, I went to the lot having no intentions whatsoever of buying a car, then bingbangboom I came home with original podmobile. This time there was a lot of paperwork and discussion, possibly due to the fact that I was trading in a car that was lying dead in another city. I still have to take him to Original Dealership when he's fixed, along with the check from TheCompanyIWorkFor Bank. So I kind of feel like I've been given this car for nothing at the moment.

In fact, when Mr M asked me if he could drive podmobile2, and I said no, and he then said he wouldn't light his pipe once inside, my response was, "Until I can get my old car back there and give them the check, I'm not even blowing my nose in this car." And I haven't yet.

And so that's a capsule (though a very long capsule) story of my new podmobile. Long may we travel.

(Oh, and things took so long at the dealership that I actually missed out on playing a band concert Saturday evening. Without a warning to any of the clarinets that I wouldn't be there. Sorry, guys!)

Hey, here's something I'll bet you didn't know. July 4th was the birthday not only of our great nation, but of my favorite little boy as well, Sherman. He's 10 this year, and I thought I'd give you a photo of my birthday present to him.

See, Mr M and I for years have been toying (hahaha, "toying," get it? I kill me) with the idea of the latest film for the Comfy Chair Cinema - "Sherman of Arabia." We even bought a camel a long while back. Well, truth be told, we bought two, but DeepFatFriar fell for one of them and we gave it to him. But there was one thing Sherman didn't have for his starring role - a costume.

Well, as of his birthday, he's got one!



Hope you can see the sandals there on his little tennied foot. The sandals were an afterthought, but one that I thought worked very very well.

And now let's wrap things up with a particularly interesting recipe du jour. Sometimes I'm glad these things are labeled, for if they weren't, I'd have no friggin' idea what the hell they are. This week is one of those times. And here it is, the very mysterious-looking Chicken Goulash.

Now I'm no expert, but I always think of something called "goulash" as being served all mixed up in a bowl. That doesn't seem to quite be the case here.

This is more what I'd call Chicken Parts Covered With Some Kind of Reddish Paste and Laid Out Upon Some Stuff. With A Garnish.

Anyway, it is indeed chicken parts, and the paste seems to be a flour/tomato sauce/paprika type thing, and the bed is apparently cooked noodles. Nice serving fork. Every time I see one of those I think of the second night of the Manson Murders, and I'll say no more about that at this time.

Anyway, nice fruit bowl there, and the peas are just this side of beautiful.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:

* My clarinet playing this week, well, sucked. My tone reeked, and my embouchure had no idea what it wanted to do. Maybe it's a good thing I missed that concert after all.

* Acro will be making his return tomorrow, he's informed me he's ready to work again.