Lights, Camera, Netflix!

PM here, still bruised up and recuperating and starting to drown in the paperwork involved with a major auto accident. I already have a folder filled with letters and copies of forms, a day-by-day listing of the calls I've made and received. And oh yeah, my car's license tag. Once I get confirmation (and $$$$$) from the other driver's insurance company, I'll be buying a new vehicle. I've already been doing my research online about cars and different models and the various features of each. I know what I want; it'll boil down to who makes me the best offer.

But I can't do that all day, and I'm on doctor-ordered bed rest for my poor foot. I have been reading but after a while my eyes cross. So last week I borrowed some DVDs and fired up my DVD player to discover, oh no! It was broken!

More online research and some discussion with Smarty Pants led me to buy a blu ray player. And I decided to go ahead and spring for one with a wireless connection. I got a 30 day free trial of Netflix and joined the streaming video generation. I'm sometimes slow, but I catch up with technology eventually.

And so far I'm loving this! I look through the available programming, click to put it in my Instant Queue and then watch while I'm propped on the sofa with an ice pack on my foot.

And what have I been watching?

First, I watched the movie "Secretariat." This is a wonderful movie about the great race horse of the early 70's who won the Triple Crown. And even though I knew the horse won all three races, I still found myself on the edge of my seat, cheering him on and feeling excited (and vindicated) for his owner. She was the daughter of a horse farm owner who was thrust into a bad position upon her father's death. A coin toss put Secretariat (or Big Red as she called him) in her barn. Everyone told her it couldn't be done, but she refused to give up and her belief paid off. Watch this if you haven't already.

Then I watched a great documentary on the Amish people in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Having visited the Amish settlement in Ethridge, Tennessee last summer, I was able to appreciate this documentary more, though the Lancaster folks look absolutely modern next to the Tennessee group because they are member of different sects. Still, a good show with good insight into these plain folks.

Next up was "Spirit of the Marathon," which follows six runners on their marathon journey. My sister ran her first marathon last February, and I remember the impact it had on her. She basically said what the film poster states: When you cross the finish line it will change your life forever.

After that, my queue had "The Eyes of Tammy Faye." It's a combination documentary and parody about Tammy Faye Bakker whose husband Jim Bakker ran the PTL Ministry in North Carolina. I grew up very close to where they were and followed the rise and fall of Jim and Tammy in the newspapers. I learned a lot about the duo, like the fact they started the 700 Club only to have Pat Robertson overthrow them and take over. Then they started the Trinity Broadcasting Network and had that pulled out from underneath them too. PTL followed those and eventually Jerry Falwell voted them off that island too. I'll go on record to state that I own a t-shirt that was shown on the video.

Still in my queue is "Ancient Aliens" from the History Channel. This show attempts to answer this question: "Is it possible that extraterrestrials with superior knowledge of science and engineering landed on Earth thousands of years ago, sharing their expertise with early civilizations?"

And what is entertaining me now?



Don't recognize him? Try this photo.







If a stranger looked at my instant queue, I'd be rushed to the nearest mental facility for therapy because my genres are all over the place. And right now I am watching a show called "RuPaul's Drag Race." It's a combination of America's Top Model, Celebrity Apprentice, Survivor and American Idol with 12 drag queens competing in different challenges each week to be named America's Next Drag Superstar. I am positively amazed at the effort to which these men go to look like women. And talk about cat fights and dissing! Oooooooh girl!!!! They can fling the insults and barbs. And then they help each other with eye shadow and hair and cry when one of the group gets voted off each week. It's wild and crazy and has fabulous guest judges like Debbie Reynolds, Cloris Leachman, Jackie Collins and Kathy Najimy. Netflix streaming only has seasons 2 and 3 and I'm going through a couple episodes a day.

It's been fun, but once I'm through with it, I'll move onto the possiblity of spacemen building the Pyramids or maybe watch an old episode of Saturday Night Live when Gilda Radner was still on the show. I sure did love her.

So now I'll sashay away to my recliner and heating pad. Got Netflix? What's in your queue?

New Toys (Sort of)

Last week Instigator told us about her new toy. Little did I know I'd be getting a new one too. Well, it's a hand-me-down, but it's new to me. And along with any new toy comes a new way of doing things. So if you get a strange phone call or text message from me in the next week or so, just ignore it and chalk it up to my slightly out of whack learning curve.

The reason I got a new hand-me-down toy is because the DH got a brand new toy. This is the Dare, an iPhone clone. iPhones are only available from a certain wireless provider and since we have to use a different provider so that everyone can hear us now, the iPhone isn't a possibility for him. But the Dare is pretty impressive.

And here's my new-to-me phone -- the Samsung Alias. It has all sorts of features, most of which I'll never use. But I can call someone or take a picture of a friend's book on the shelf at Walmart and then send it to her. And because it has a dual-hinge design so that when opened in landscape mode it displays a QWERTY keyboard, I can text a little faster than with a standard numerical dialing pad. Look out! PM has entered the twenty-first century. Sort of. Right now I'm trying to transfer photos of BabyGrand from a mini SD card to the phone. If you get a picture of her by mistake, just admire how cute she is and then hit the "Delete" key.

I'd ask you what new toys you have, but Instigator already did that last week and it's doubtful any of you stumbled into toyland like I did.

So instead, I'll ask what you're reading now? Do you have a good recommendation for us?

I'm reading NOW YOU DIE by Roxanne St. Claire. If you came to our RWA chapter's luncheon in May, she was the guest speaker. NOW YOU DIE is the third book in a trilogy about three sisters adopted on the black market and one man's search to clear their birth mother of a murder charge.