Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

This idea came from a Facebook meme:

Over 10 days, post your 10 all time favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order my favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Thunderheart (1992) Val Kilmer, Graham Greene

If you haven't seen this movie, it's available for rent on YouTube.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1.  A big thank you to the Amazon Delivery Person who placed the packages inside the front porch.

2. On Halloween we watched Stephen King's Cell, a horror movie. 20 min. from the end Himself accidently clicked buttons on the Roku. When we went back to the movie, it was no longer available so we didn't know the ending! Thanks to Anne for telling me the ending.

3. The Young One and I played hairdresser and cut each other's hair.

4. I saw the female cardinal checking out the honeysuckle vine. Was she looking for a place to Winter over or planning her Spring nest? And then it occurred to me that today (11/5) would have been my grandmother's  125th birthday. Maybe the cardinal was a message from Grandma. 😊

5. Verizon cut our television and phone bundle and we bought a new router for the Internet access.

How was your week?

Inktober

 

10/29 Challenge prompt: shoes

"You had the power all along, my dear."

Sharpie pen, watercolor pencils.

10/30 Challenge prompt: ominous

Sharpie pen

10/31 Challenge prompt: crawl

"Never laugh as a hearse goes by

Or you may be the next to die.

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,

The worms play pinochle on your snout,

And one worm who isn't shy, crawls in your ear

And out your eye."

Sharpie pen, watercolor pencils.

And from Instagram the top three Inktobers:

Tied for 3rd place with 12 likes

2nd place with 13 likes

1st place with 15 likes

Wordy Wednesday

T Stands for Caulking the Shower

 

We remodeled the bathroom in 2009. The shower caulk was in bad need of a makeover. We have well water which is high in iron and manganese. The manganese leaves black marks which look like horrible mold and mildew. I'm sure the caulk had been redone between then and now, but it needed to be done again. 

Himself gave me some tools to use to remove the caulk, a putty knife and a utility knife which was just a razor blade in a carbineer handle. He ran to the hardware store to buy a couple of tubes of caulk. While I sipped a cup of tea,

I watched a This Old House video on how to remove old caulk and caulking a tub. Easy. A half hour job. Tops.

Are you laughing yet? In the video, the caulk came away in nice, long spaghetti strands. When I removed the caulk it came away in bits and crumbs. I also had way more that 3 edges to caulk. What idiot decided that built in shelves and a safety seat were necessary? Oh, that would be moi.

There was a lot of 🤬 as I complained how the video made things look deceptively easy. I'm pretty sure This Old House staged the job so the caulk could be removed in nice, long strands. 

Himself said what happens is Tom of This Old House lets the homeowner do a little bit of the job. Then he turns to his Hey, Dude! and has him finish.

(We learned Hey, Dude! from when the bathroom was remodeled. The plumber had an apprentice and when he needed a tool or to crawl into a tight space, he would yell, "Hey, Dude! Do this.." I wanted a Hey, Dude, too.

The job took me all afternoon with frequent breaks to stretch my back, but I got 'er done. I was glad I had taken a dose of ibuprofen before I began.

Maybe not the best job, but at least it's a lot cleaner.

Afterwards, I declared I wasn't cooking dinner. Himself and the Young One put an order in at Tony's, the local pizza and sub shop. I ordered a meatball sub with green peppers and provolone cheese. Himself  and the Young One each ordered a Stromboli. His was probably the meat lovers. Hers was grilled chicken, cheese, no sauce and black olives. Himself also picked up a bottle of Coke and a large bag of chips (crisps). They didn't have a large bag so they gave us 3 small bags.

Since there was enough food left over for the following day, and I knew my back would be sore, I also declared a Fend For Yourself Day.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Cutting the Cable

 

I mentioned in Friday's blogpost, we had gotten a Roku device and signed up for YouTube TV in the first step for cutting cable. This is my experience so maybe your mileage will vary..

Sandra had asked:  I would love to get away from cable or at least just have the basics. Any tips would be appreciated.

The basic way to cut cable is to go with an HDMI antenna. The major networks have to offer a free access to their transmission. The antenna will search for television stations in your area for free. The only output is the cost for the antenna. $20 and up depending on the model you get.

We tried this route several years ago as we were mostly watching Netflix at that time $9.99. We're at a fairly high elevation so you think we would be able to pick up tons of signals, but we didn't. One of the Boston news stations would come in sporadically so sometimes someone would have to dance around with the antenna to see if the signal would come in stronger. Himself was a good sport and lost his sports network, but was able to listen to games on the radio or over his computer.

The Eldest then got a job with Charter (now Spectrum) as a customer service rep in their call center. As part of her employee perc, she got Phone, Cable (the uber premium package!), and Internet all for free. Since she was still living here, everything went in her name. 

We still had Netflix, added Amazon Prime Video. While she worked at Spectrum, we got HBO for Game of Thrones and Starz for Outlander. Himself got to have New England Sports Network. I was able to watch Doctor Who on BBC America. Color us very happy. 

 The two cable providers in our area are Spectrum and Verizon FIOS. When we first moved here, we had Charter (Spectrum). Then Verizon came in with FIOS and Himself wanted to switch so we did.(Though the installation was a nightmare as sales oversold the area so there were few technicians to do the install. Ours happened over 3 or 4 nights from 6 PM until 9 PM)  Now that the Eldest was leaving, Himself wanted to go back to FIOS. Since all the wiring had already been done first time around, the install was a breeze. He got the Sports Package, but the channel line up was very limited.

During the Summer months, we move the television from the bedroom to the sun room where there is a cable box. Now that it's too cold to be out in the sun room, the television got moved back to our bedroom. There is no cable box in the bedroom. Hence, getting the Roku so we could watch television without a lot of dancing around with an antenna.

There are lots of free options on Roku with a one time investment for the Roku device, but you still need Internet access.

There's also Tubi TV. Pluto TV (though we weren't impressed), Crackle, Haystack, Filmrise which we haven't checked out. We can also get CW so we can watch Supernatural as we have invested 15 seasons of the show and there are only 3 episodes left for the series finale.

There are paid services to get other channels and movies. Hulu, YouTube TV. Himself decided he wanted YouTube TV as he would be able to get the New England Sports Network.  And the day after we started with YouTube he got a notice that YouTube and NESN weren't able to negotiate a contract so no more NESN. Felt a little bit of bait and switch to me. I'm not sure if Himself will decide to keep or scrap YouTubeTV for something else.

So YouTube TV gives us a better channel line up than Verizon FIOS did., but by the time we finish adding in the other premium channels we are paying for, we're probably not saving money.

Pros to having YouTube TV is being able to watch programs on all our devices besides the television. So I can tune into the news or a movie on the iPad while I clean up in the kitchen or work in the studio without having to use the news station's crappy app. I can watch it live. We'll also be able to watch when we travel provided we have Wi-Fi access. YouTubeTV also allows up to 5 others in the household to have their own account so the girlies can watch, too.

So pay attention to your television viewing. Do you need the premium channels? If you can get by without local news access and premium channels, you could save yourself some $$$.

Since we're new to Roku, if any of you have cut cable and have some $$$ saving tips, they would be greatly appreciated.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories

The lawn guy came and cleared all the leaves

And then it snowed. At least it looks like the mailbox will survive the plow.

Poor Dido, hidden by an avalanche under the dead hydrangea

Oh, the Morning Glority! At least I got to see them bloom for a week

Halloween and the Hunter's Blue Moon

Squirrels and bunnies running around the birdfeeder

Heavy, wet snow. So heavy it weighed the brush by the trees down that we thought a branch had come down.

No more petunias and mums

The forecast went from a dusting to two inches, then two to four inches, and then four to seven inches. We got close to 6 inches of very early snow. At least it wasn't as bad as the 2011 Halloween storm where we got over a foot of snow. 

NOAA forecasted a mild Winter for my area because of La Nina. One of the weather dudes said that when we get an early storm in October, we don't get much for the rest of the Winter. I'm hoping his right and that this isn't another version of a dusting to two inches of snow.

The November garden flag.

How does your garden grow?