Wednesday

Not sure how it got to be January 7th already with such a paltry effort here on the blog.  That trip up to Harvest Path took up the weekend days, and I've just been a sloth since then.

My book-on-tape for the Minnesota trip was a Clive Cussler fantasy adventure that was way over-the-top.  But that's what you get with Cussler.  Actually, as is my habit, I picked out four books at the library so that I wouldn't be stuck.  And as is my wont, the first two that I started were both novels that I had listened to previously.  How can that happen?  Anyway, I gotta hand it to the Cussler authors.  They have a standard presentation that rarely varies.  They give a historical event from maybe a hundred or more years ago in the Prelude, and then they bring the reader to present day for the guts of the story.  But at the climax, a piece from that historical element in the Prelude comes to the fore.  Its mindless literature.  The Good Guys always find a way to win.  McGyver lives!

The new Buick managed over 30 miles to the gallon on the one tank that I measured on the trip.  It was a noticeable improvement over the older model.  And the ride was fine.  Very Hertz-esque.

The new Total Wine in Woodbury was something less than awe-inspiring.  I was on a short leash time-wise as I had made a wrong assumption getting into town as to which Target shopping center it was located by, and I went to the wrong one...of course.  If I had more time, I may have been able to consider the inventory better, but I didn't, so I stuck to bottles that I knew.

Subsequently, when I stopped at 2's on my way home on Sunday, she suggested that we spend some time getting to know Bordeaux wines this year.  Good thought.  We need to know what we want to drink in advance of that September venture to one of the most well-respected wine regions in the world.  Actually, 3, 4 and I had a taste of Bordeaux on the Friday after Christmas.  It looks like it was a Malbec blend of some sort.  Not that expensive.

So the cold front came in last night and we have the same below-zero wind chills that 4 has up North.  Let's hear it for January.  Actually, I'm thinking that this year has been no where near as bad as last year.  We even had the coffee shops opening up late then.  It was just too cold to go over to the Augie game tonight.

I have the Substitute RCL (SRCL) for now.  (I think the RCL is back in Russia to see family.)  The SRCL missed a few things in terms of placement and storage.  Unusual.  I'm thinking that Irina has loosened the whip a bit.  But its still good to come home after the weekly cleaning.

I had the TV on while I was finishing this entry up.  I had never seen the move Taken 2 before and it was being shown on FX, I think as an advertisement for Taken 3 which must hit the screens soon.  Regardless, I have always thought that Famke Janssen who plays Liam Neeson's ex-wife in these flicks, was a pretty girl.  She played a really good bad-girl secondary villian role in one of Pierce Brosnan's 007 movies. I was a little surprised to see on Wiki that she's now fifty years old...and looking darn good!

The other thing apparent in Taken 2 is that Liam Neeson is a modern-day silver-screen killing machine that does Clint Eastwood proud.  Clint set the standard, of course, for bodies-per-movie-minute (BPMM).  Anyone remember his incredible body count of German soldiers in the WW II classic (?) Where Eagle Dare (with Richard Burton)?  But Neeson disposes of almost every male extra that catches any screen-time in the Taken 2.   If it were a drinking game for every dead bad guy, no one would be left standing in the bar before the plot was even sorted out.  (OK.  Not much of a comparison since the suggestion that there is a plot to the movie is a flawed premise.)

All for tonight.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT...and Bundle Up!!!