A Sunday With Purple Zombies And Deceitful Politicians

January 26, 2015February 3, 2015 / Ally Bean / 18 Comments

This morning is the first time this month that it has looked like winter outside. There’s a dusting of white snow but it isn’t deep enough to cover the tops of the green grass blades.

I’m not surprised to see the snow this morning. All day yesterday the TV weather forecasters were babbling about Monday’s SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

You know how they get.

So yesterday, while anticipating this snowy Monday morning, we decided to spend the day at home getting the bounce back in our pounce. Which is to say that we, two adults without children, played a board game and binge-watched a TV show.

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We purchased our game on Saturday while shopping at an outlet mall. We wandered into a toy and game store where I found a board game version of RISK. Subtitled: THE GAME OF SUBURBAN DOMINATION. Further sub-titled: PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES.

How cute is that?

So we bought the game and decided to make it our Sunday goal to learn how to play one of the three games available within the box. We went with the easiest game in the box that I’d describe as a mixture of Chess, Jumanji, You Sunk My Battle Ship, Backgammon and Football. It’s not all that Risk-like, but oh is it entertaining to play!

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In-between learning how to play (or in my case lose) our new game, we watched House of Cards [American version]. I am totally smitten with this show, that I’d ignored until a few weeks ago when Kevin Spacey won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Drama.

Now, having watched 6 episodes of House of Cards, I’m fascinated by Francis and Claire. They are amazing sociopathic characters. I cannot imagine what deceitful, immoral, unethical, sneaky, conniving, manipulative, under-handed thing either of them will do next.

With a unpredictable plot line and a narrative arc like no other, this show is fun to watch; especially, if you happen to have had any experiences, unfortunate or otherwise, with people like Francis and Claire.

Just saying.

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So what did you, my gentle readers, do this past weekend?

Were you productive? Were you healthful? Or, were you homebodies, like us, who played games and watched TV?

Spill the beans in the comments below.

Get Out The Windex, It’s Time To Vote

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014 / Ally Bean / 18 Comments

{ Source: WordPress.com News }

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During the 18 years that we’ve lived in this area we’ve voted at six different locations:

the smoky VFW Hall;
the cavernous golf course/convention center;
the cheerful Methodist church;
the crowded elementary school;
the difficult to get into and out of community church; and now
the Greek Orthodox church.

Of all the locations, this Greek Orthodox church is the best one because it’s slightly off of a busy street, has lots of parking and the actual voting area is a few steps inside the door. The Greeks do voting well.

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But the thing about this voting location, which has absolutely nothing to do with the voting itself but I’ll tell you about it anyhow, is that Z-D comes from a family with a Greek heritage.

And our well-mannered, kind Mr. Bean can do a wicked, dead-on impression of his Great Uncle, who disapproved of everything and everyone. Great Uncle was not a happy person with a generous soul, unlike his nephew.

So as you can imagine, this impression, which Z-D trots out two times a year, gets me laughing. Every time.

And always leads to one of us quoting a movie that is best known for its references to Windex, but also explains Zen-Den’s family so well. A movie in which I am the WASP to his Greekinicity. A movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding which gives us the following wonderful lines.

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Aunt Voula: What do you mean he don’t eat no meat?

[the entire room stops, in shock]

Aunt Voula: Oh, that’s okay. I make lamb.

Then The Rain Gutter Fell Off The Back Of The House

October 28, 2014October 28, 2014 / Ally Bean / 21 Comments

And Zen-Den* said: “It’s all good.”

And K the House Painter** said: “It’s all good.”

And I*** said: “NOOOOOOO!!!”

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* He’s nuts, of course. But he did manage to get the sales guy from the gutter company to come over to the house; talk with the sales guy as he evaluated the damage caused by the heavy rain & high winds that ripped the gutter off of the house; and sign a contract to have this company replace the fallen gutter.

Good job, Z-D.

** He’s wise, of course. First of all he’s already been to the house to cover the damaged gutter with tarps and received cash for his efforts. Secondly, he’ll be the first person I call after the new gutter is in place because the new gutter & new wood will need to be painted the color of the house.

Once more.

*** I’m ticked, of course. Because for the first time in years the exterior of our house is all the same color. Plus, do you realize how much moolah this will cost us? Hint: a 3-day roundtrip luxury resort getaway to Montego Bay, Jamaica, costs less than this will. Hint: a new Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro with the latest operating system, Yosemite, costs less than this will. So what am I telling you here?

Expensive.

A Sunday Morning Walk In What Amounts To The Wilderness For Us Suburban Folk, Part 2 Of 2

October 15, 2014July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 10 Comments

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Having first walked through acres of cheerful wild flowers in a native grassland enhancement area, Zen-Den & I took a different path in the nature preserve that lead us deep into a dark forest under gray skies. Here is some of what we saw…