A Virginia catch-up
Well, then. I think I can finally sit down and share with you the long version of events. Then I'll answer in a separate post whitemartyr's question regarding the on-stage loss of a skirt.
My parents and I left Springfield around 9 am on July 2, and arrived at the new home in Culpeper County around 6:15 pm. We made very few stops, so it was pretty much a straight-through drive: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia. Yes, we did go through West Virginia three times. It's rather amusing in a "hey, weren't we just there" kind of way. My calico cat, Bunqui, rode pretty well for most of the way there. The vet-prescribed sedative did *nothing* for her, so my mom rode with me to keep the cat from climbing on my head while I was driving. Eventually, Bunqui settled down on a box in the back seat and watched the passing scenery. You might be wondering why we didn't take her in a cat carrier. Actually, she doesn't usually need one, and we had no room left in the car for a full-sized carrier.
My dad drove ahead of us. He enjoys trying different routes to places, so I followed him in order that we'd both arrive at the same time. When we came down to Culpeper in May, I rode with my sister-in-law, whose Prius has an on-board computer system. The car gave us very strange directions and cost us money on an unnecessary toll road, so my dad used a route that avoided that highway.
Geo and I have been renting the spare room to a young man who is interning at the Library. HouseGuest seems like a nice guy, and he's been helping Geo unpack some of the boxes. HouseGuest is from Milwaukee and needed a place to stay, and we can certainly use the extra money, so it's worked out well.
There are boxes everywhere. Do you ever walk into a room, intent on cleaning up the clutter, look around at said clutter, then walk back out? Well, I've done that a few times. I've walked through a room wondering, "Where do I start?" and promptly wandered to the next room, only to be faced with more boxes. How on earth do we accumulate so much stuff? Twelve years in one place will do that, I suppose, especially when one of us was a collector to begin with. It's a bit overwhelming. I've definitely got my work cut out for me.
The cats seem to be adjusting well. The black one, Isis, has pretty much taken over the house. Bunqui is exploring, and Franq seems adjusted as well. Stein, the neurotic one, has finally decided that the house is worth exploring. I think a hard ball of concentrated catnip might have had something to do with that.
July 3, Geo and I took my mom and dad out for a belated anniversary celebration. We went to one of my fave restaurants, Thai Culpeper. Very good food, fantastic service, and a nice atmosphere. When the staff heard that it was my folks' anniversary, they surprised us with a dessert, sticky rice and papaya. Yum!
My mom and dad stayed for July 4. We went in to downtown Culpeper and went through some of the shops before coming back. That evening we watched 1776, which has been a tradition since Geo and I worked on the show about 10 years (!?) ago. Mother and Daddy left for home (Ohio) on the morning of July 5 after breakfast.
Last night we had a Dr. Who geek night. One of the GeekGals brought a gift for the kitties--a hard ball of concentrated catnip. It was very, VERY amusing to watch them completely blitz out over the thing.
Lots of food that's really bad for you (I did my crock pot molten chocolate cake over ice cream), and lots of squeeing over the return of The Doctor. Admittedly, I couldn't help but think of my first internet fandom, H:TLJ, during "Runaway Bride." You see, they had a whole episode wherein the villainess was Arachne (who was much prettier than this particular villain). "Web of Desire" was a really cool ep in that it introduced Gina Torres as Nebula into the Herciverse. Anyway, I kept thinking oh, the Dr. Who writers must have been reading their Greek literature or something when they wrote this. Of course, who knows, 'cause I don't know if Arachne is actually from Greek mythology, but I digress.
Donna was an entertaining character in a very abrasive, grating sort of way. Still, she clued in to several things about The Doctor, and I felt bad for him when she turned down his travel offer. All in all, it was a pretty good ep.
"Smith and Jones" was a good one, too, though imho, some of the humor, while admittedly very, very funny, seemed a little . . . fannish? maybe . . . Maybe it's because I've been picking things up from the posts of old school Who fans, or maybe I just need to get used to the new dynamic between The Doctor and Martha . . . I'll need to watch the ep again to see how I really feel about it, but I did find it entertaining enough to want to watch it again. And I do like Martha, so it's not that I don't like the character . . . I just need to suss things out.
Still it was a very entertaining evening.
Now I'll go post about my costume malfunction when I was in Harvey.
My parents and I left Springfield around 9 am on July 2, and arrived at the new home in Culpeper County around 6:15 pm. We made very few stops, so it was pretty much a straight-through drive: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia. Yes, we did go through West Virginia three times. It's rather amusing in a "hey, weren't we just there" kind of way. My calico cat, Bunqui, rode pretty well for most of the way there. The vet-prescribed sedative did *nothing* for her, so my mom rode with me to keep the cat from climbing on my head while I was driving. Eventually, Bunqui settled down on a box in the back seat and watched the passing scenery. You might be wondering why we didn't take her in a cat carrier. Actually, she doesn't usually need one, and we had no room left in the car for a full-sized carrier.
My dad drove ahead of us. He enjoys trying different routes to places, so I followed him in order that we'd both arrive at the same time. When we came down to Culpeper in May, I rode with my sister-in-law, whose Prius has an on-board computer system. The car gave us very strange directions and cost us money on an unnecessary toll road, so my dad used a route that avoided that highway.
Geo and I have been renting the spare room to a young man who is interning at the Library. HouseGuest seems like a nice guy, and he's been helping Geo unpack some of the boxes. HouseGuest is from Milwaukee and needed a place to stay, and we can certainly use the extra money, so it's worked out well.
There are boxes everywhere. Do you ever walk into a room, intent on cleaning up the clutter, look around at said clutter, then walk back out? Well, I've done that a few times. I've walked through a room wondering, "Where do I start?" and promptly wandered to the next room, only to be faced with more boxes. How on earth do we accumulate so much stuff? Twelve years in one place will do that, I suppose, especially when one of us was a collector to begin with. It's a bit overwhelming. I've definitely got my work cut out for me.
The cats seem to be adjusting well. The black one, Isis, has pretty much taken over the house. Bunqui is exploring, and Franq seems adjusted as well. Stein, the neurotic one, has finally decided that the house is worth exploring. I think a hard ball of concentrated catnip might have had something to do with that.
July 3, Geo and I took my mom and dad out for a belated anniversary celebration. We went to one of my fave restaurants, Thai Culpeper. Very good food, fantastic service, and a nice atmosphere. When the staff heard that it was my folks' anniversary, they surprised us with a dessert, sticky rice and papaya. Yum!
My mom and dad stayed for July 4. We went in to downtown Culpeper and went through some of the shops before coming back. That evening we watched 1776, which has been a tradition since Geo and I worked on the show about 10 years (!?) ago. Mother and Daddy left for home (Ohio) on the morning of July 5 after breakfast.
Last night we had a Dr. Who geek night. One of the GeekGals brought a gift for the kitties--a hard ball of concentrated catnip. It was very, VERY amusing to watch them completely blitz out over the thing.
Lots of food that's really bad for you (I did my crock pot molten chocolate cake over ice cream), and lots of squeeing over the return of The Doctor. Admittedly, I couldn't help but think of my first internet fandom, H:TLJ, during "Runaway Bride." You see, they had a whole episode wherein the villainess was Arachne (who was much prettier than this particular villain). "Web of Desire" was a really cool ep in that it introduced Gina Torres as Nebula into the Herciverse. Anyway, I kept thinking oh, the Dr. Who writers must have been reading their Greek literature or something when they wrote this. Of course, who knows, 'cause I don't know if Arachne is actually from Greek mythology, but I digress.
Donna was an entertaining character in a very abrasive, grating sort of way. Still, she clued in to several things about The Doctor, and I felt bad for him when she turned down his travel offer. All in all, it was a pretty good ep.
"Smith and Jones" was a good one, too, though imho, some of the humor, while admittedly very, very funny, seemed a little . . . fannish? maybe . . . Maybe it's because I've been picking things up from the posts of old school Who fans, or maybe I just need to get used to the new dynamic between The Doctor and Martha . . . I'll need to watch the ep again to see how I really feel about it, but I did find it entertaining enough to want to watch it again. And I do like Martha, so it's not that I don't like the character . . . I just need to suss things out.
Still it was a very entertaining evening.
Now I'll go post about my costume malfunction when I was in Harvey.