TV

1. Avoid these movies like the bubonic plague:

• Hemingway and Gelhorn (awkward and flat)
• Pitch Perfect (obnoxious and flat)
• Broken City (horrible and flat)
• The Hatfields and the McCoys (depressing and flat)

2. I'm still on a Mindy Project kick.  Jeff never saw this invasion of Mindy Kaling coming.  I can't help it, I love it.  Jeff surprised me with her book and it made me chuckle out loud, I related to some of the things she had to say, and despite a few bad words it was a great, quick little thing.

3. See below for more details, but after nixing Thomas the Train from our house, Jude's riding the Bob the Builder wave.  When the theme song comes on he gives me his "OH MY GOSH!" face, and then shakes his booty.  It is perfect for him.  Construction cars and heavy machinery galore.  Plus, it showcases a couple (Bob and Wendy) that work well together, and they get into specifics of Bob's contract jobs.  "I was up all night laying linoleum in City Hall!" or "We still have to install the pergola and fence!" Jude thinks all those projects are awesome.  We turn it on as we do diapers/get dressed/breakfast in the morning, and if there's time before bed where we're waiting for Jeff to get home.

4. Thomas the Train -- what the heck??  As a teen, when I babysat children who watched that show, (then narrated by Ringo Starr) it just seemed creepy.  Then when Jude wanted to watch it, and I started paying attention to the dialogue, it was all sorts of horrible. Forget the fact that it uses really cheesy phrases endlessly. It is, in every episode, all about a bunch of insecure, scene-stealing, jealous, passive-aggressive, gutless anthropomorphic trains.  And I hear myself say these things and know I must be crazy, to be so wound up over a kids' show, but who is writing this stuff???  And for kids?? The characters are constantly being rude and condescending to each other, and then ruining things by trying to sneakily get ahead of the other trains, and when they are caught and chastised, they say "Oh dear, I am not a very useful engine."  THE END.  And next episode, start it all over again, because no one in this show can do anything else besides be lame-o.  It's been banned at our house, because it's so obnoxious, and I can't think of a single thing I want Jude to take away from this show about idiot locomotives.

5. Downton Abbey.  Sigh.  I am just now able to write about this.  First season = gold.  Second season = gold.  I waited impatiently for Season 3, which turned out to be the season that saw a parting of the ways.  For Lady Sybill, Matthew, reportedly Lady Violet, and (sniff sniff) me.  I don't think I can bear to watch Season 4.  

But actually, this deserves its own entire blog post, for there is much to say.  And right now I'm sleepy.

6. I'm also on an on-again, off-again Gilmore Girls stretch.  How many times have I seen each season now?  I don't know, but it's a lot.

7. The Office.  It's been horrible for the last 2-3 seasons.  They had to start trying much too hard, stretching things much too far, and I only hung on this season because it was the last.  But I will say that when Steve Carrell made his cameo in the finale, I was suddenly tearing up!  I know, I know, I surprised even myself.  Oh wait, I cry at the drop of a hat ever since having a baby back in 2011.  I think I cried because I love the idea I have in my head of who Steve Carrell is.  One of my favorite movies is Dan in Real Life, a movie in which he is a totally hilarious sweetheart.  And in Mindy Kaling's book she goes on and on about how kind and warm he is, and how patiently and graciously he works.  I think I've started to think of him as a version of an uncle.  My family and I used to religiously watch Seasons 1 and 2 the summer before my mission, and that's made it sentimental.  Anyway, there you have it, it got to me all over again.  The show wrapped up nice and tidy, and even though I winced through a few seasons, the finale resonated with my tear ducts.  

The End