Category: NaBloPoMo

Average Jane Watches TV
My husband and I both have such hectic schedules that we have to use shared Google Calendars to keep track of each other and figure out when we might be able to hang out together.

Thanks to our lovely TiVo, we can (and often do) save up our favorite TV shows and binge watch them on the rare evenings when we are both home at the same time.

Here is our current list of shows, in order of my desire to watch them:
1. Person of Interest
2. The Walking Dead (always followed by The Talking Dead)
3. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
4. Grimm
5. Sleepy Hollow
6. Revolution
7. Once Upon A Time in Wonderland
8. Once Upon A Time (yes, I like the new one better)
I'm sure you can sense the thematic currents here: fairytales, sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalypse, etc. If it's plausible, I'm not interested.

Person of Interest has been good since the beginning, and even Jim "I Whisper Every Line Like I'm Freakin' Batman" Caviezel proved to have more personality than I would have anticipated. It's also full of interesting female characters and there's even a dog, so why wouldn't I like it?

The Walking Dead has its flaws, but this season seems particularly good in that they're letting some of the characters have a little more personality.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comes in third. I enjoy the Marvel universe, the show is entertaining, and the movie actor cameos keep me coming back for more, but I'm hoping it steps up the wow factor even more.

Next is Grimm, which is equal parts police procedural and fairytale. It's a little cheesy, but I like it anyway.

Sleepy Hollow could eventually make its way higher up the list. Despite a premise that probably has Washington Irving spinning in his grave (unless he's been placated by the fact that there's a character named Captain Irving), I'm digging the show. The fact that it features a hot British guy doesn't hurt.

Revolution makes it into the next spot. Initially I mostly just watched it because my husband liked it, but it grew on me.

Then there are the two Once Upon A Time shows. They share an over-fondness for green screen and uneven acting, but I'm a sucker for anything with a fairytale theme. Plus, the guy who plays the Knave of Hearts in Once Upon A Time in Wonderland was Tom on Being Human (BBC version – seriously, watch it on Netflix), so I liked it automatically just for that.

That's really about all the TV watching we have time for. Is there anything amazing I'm overlooking that I might be able to catch up on over the holidays?
November 4, 2013
Average Jane’s Weekend Beverage Tours

My sister and I spent the past two Sundays taking part in activities that involved going from place to place by bus to sample various drinks.

Last Sunday it was a winery tour. We drove to Atchison, Kansas and enjoyed an afternoon sampling various wines at Riverwood, Jowler Creek and Pirtle wineries. Due probably to the climate and soil qualities, Missouri wines are more limited in scope than, say, California wines. In general, the best wines are the dry and semi-dry whites. The dry reds are usually pretty terrible and the sweet reds are way too sweet for my taste.

I had been to two of the three wineries in the past and I was interested to see how those two had started branching out in ways that sidestepped some of the grape "problems," mainly by making wines from other fruits. Riverwood has recently started making wine from the Asian pears they grow and I bought a bottle after my sister suggested that it would make a very nice white wine spritzer.

Pirtle's apple wine has always been one of their better varieties but they also had a very nice blueberry wine. Their mead was better than I expected as well. It was a long, but fun day and we extended it with dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant on the way home.

This Sunday was Caffeine Crawl. Last year I went by myself (and happened to run into friends), but this year my sister agreed to go with me so I bought two tickets. As the weekend drew nearer, she was ready to bow out due to a cold, but when I couldn't find someone to take the ticket she decided to come anyway.

As we had the previous week, we started off with a hearty breakfast. I could tell my sister didn't feel great, but I brought her a nice megadose of Vitamin C and a packet of tissues for the road.

This year's route was Homer's Coffee House, Parisi Artisan Coffee, Revocup Coffee, Latteland (Kaldi's Coffee), The Roasterie and Black Dog Coffeehouse. As with previous events, there was a big focus on coffee education. Six stops made for a long day (and a lot of caffeine coursing through one's veins), but I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers that I didn't catch my sister's plague. Here's hoping that ignoring the time change and going to bed early will help.

November 3, 2013
Average Jane Goes to the Zoo

Today was the day that they feed pumpkins to the zoo animals at the Kansas City Zoo, so I rounded up someone to go with me and spent the late morning and early afternoon there.

The zoo covers a lot of ground but we managed to see almost everything before our feet got tired and we got too hungry for zoo concessions.

Here are some of the photos I took.

Capybaras are my favorite.

The otters were definitely playing to the crowd and they were very cute. However, I can’t appreciate their cuteness quite as much now that I know about their dark side.

After several years of penguin-themed fundraisers, there’s a big new penguin habitat at the zoo. It was especially fun to watch them swim around underwater.

These birds had a very impressive double nest going. We wondered if they had built it themselves and quickly got our answer when we saw other birds of the same type gathering additional feathers and sticks to add to the pile.

Look at meeeee!

You should be glad there’s a fence here, delicious-looking humans.

Naptime at the meerkat habitat.

Are you sure you don’t have something tasty you might want to accidentally drop down here?

November 2, 2013
Average Jane’s Halloween

I've finally reached the age where my desire to participate in Halloween activities has certain limits. For example, I'm fine with parties but I don't want to wear a costume at work or anywhere else in public. I'll buy candy for trick or treaters at my office and in my neighborhood, but I don't want to cook anything with a Halloween theme.

This year with Halloween falling on Thursday, Saturday was the big party day. My band had a gig at a bar that was having a costume party, so we all dressed in costumes as well.

I'm kind of glad I chose the outfit I did because otherwise everyone would have been dressed completely in black. Come to think of it, that's pretty much the case for most gigs.

Big thanks to Hip Suburban White Guy for the loan of the phaser and tricorder. He also let me borrow a communicator, but it was hard to stand around holding all of the accessories at once.

Our keyboard player had the best costume, in my opinion. I know it wasn't very comfortable, but it paid off.

For actual Halloween night I bought a couple of small bags of Twix and Kit-Kat bars knowing that we wouldn't have more than a handful of trick-or-treaters. We ended up having exactly a handful: five. That's actually pretty typical for our neighborhood, although I expected more because our neighborhood party last summer gave me the impression that we had more kids in the area than we used to.

I'm not mean enough to put Toby in a costume, but I did have him wear his sweater to watch the door.

We gave up a little before eight o'clock and went out to dinner leaving the candy in a basket on the front porch. No one took any while we were gone.

So that's my 2013 Halloween. I didn't do much, but it was just enough.

November 1, 2013
Average Jane Is So Glad November Is Over

As you might be able to guess from the last couple of posts, I was really running out of steam on NaBloPoMo. As much as I like the idea of posting daily, I simply do not have enough to talk about to justify that much verbiage.

So this is it for November 2011 and I’m sure I’ll do the 30 days in a row again in 2012, but for the time being I’m going to back off until I have something of reasonable substance to say.

Thanks for your patience!

Photo credit: Alban Gonzalez

November 30, 2011
Bromance at Average Jane’s House

Despite the fact that Dr. Jones was the most hostile of our cats when Toby arrived, the two of them have become good buddies. I've seen them snuggled together sleeping and they even run around and play together sometimes.

Yesterday Toby jumped up on the bed with Jones and was trying to get him to play. Jones cuffed him on the head several times, which either meant that he was playing along or he wasn't in the mood to play just then. I think Toby took it as play.

I'm glad that Toby has found a special pal among the cats.

November 29, 2011
Average Jane Is Cold

There was frost on the grass this morning. I was not happy about that. Toby was even less happy about it.

I spent my whole day sitting at my desk wrapped in a thick blanket.

Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of winter?

November 28, 2011
Lazy Sunday at Average Jane’s House

It's cold and gloomy outside, so my plan is to remain in my pajamas and robe as late as possible today and hang out with the critters. I have Thanksgiving leftovers to sustain me, plenty to read, and I'll almost certainly take a nap later on because I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. after going out to see a Bon Jovi tribute band play last night.

I had thought about putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations but I've decided there's no hurry. I have another four-day weekend coming up the week after next, and it makes more sense to do it then.

Enjoy your Sunday!

November 27, 2011
NoMoNaBloPoMo for Average Jane

For the first time in all the years I've been doing NaBloPoMo, I missed writing a post. Yesterday was just that kind of day.

The good news is that it was a very enjoyable day otherwise. I slept in, made soup, worked for my dad a bit, bought a few groceries, made dinner and a pumpkin pie, watched a movie and basically just enjoyed the heck out of the time I was awake.

Of course, this was probably the year when I was finally going to win something for my perfect NaBloPoMo participation. Nah, probably not.

Despite that little hiccup, I'm going to continue posting daily as much as I can in the foreseeable future. I like my blog better when it's this active and I feel that I managed to write two above-average posts this month already. (I'll let you figure out which ones I think those are.)

Anyone else still in the game?

November 26, 2011
Average Jane’s Thanksgiving

I paced my day just perfectly so that I had time to go for a walk, clean up the house, cook everything that needed to be cooked and have dinner on the table by 4:00 p.m.

By 6:30 p.m. I was exhausted and it felt like midnight to me.

There were eight of us for dinner and I still have plenty of leftovers. Turkey pot pie is on tomorrow night's menu for sure.

I've since digested some of the excess food and rallied a bit so I wanted to stop by and write today's post while I have my second wind. I still have a few pots and pans to wash as well, so this will be brief.

One of the highlights of my day was receiving this from my sister:

You may recall the time I camped out in my back yard with my nephew. That was in 2009 when he was four. He'll turn seven in February and he apparently still remembers it so well that he decided to retell the story for a school assignment. How cute is that?

If you can't read it, it says "My Aunt Slest camps awt side. Ian." (Translation: My Aunt Celeste camps outside.")

We don't have to tell him that I haven't done any camping since then. However, it's a good sign that we're due for a canoe trip next year.

My sister and her family spend Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, so I hosted a collection of other relatives and friends. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I'm looking forward to having three more days free. I don't have much planned, but I'd like to spend at least one of those days lying around the house a lot.

How was your day?

November 24, 2011