This is *NOT* a 1991 Anthony Hopkins | Jodie Foster film!

But it *IS* a scary looking beast sitting at my front door.

For the past four days or so, our house has been smelling real musty. The kind where you vacuum the entire carpeted house with a 25 year old hoover, and you end up smelling dirty rugs at the end of the cleaning. Almost like no amount of aerosol will mask the fact your top of the line sucker ain't doing it's job no more. 

Add insult to injury with the fact the house isn't getting cool. No matter how my mother keeps running to the thermostat to fix the temperature.

So we're eating lunch today and I'm like "the smell is starting to get to me. I haven't said anything all week, but the air in this place isn't feeling so clean". She said she knows, she's been smelling it too, but doesn't know what to do. The air conditioning unit is on and running, but it's taking it's time trying to cool the place down. 

Mind you, we're on a first floor condo unit. We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo with a giant living area as the main section of the house. It's not giant per se, but it's big enough to have a couch and sectional in, plus a wall entertainment center. Which is just a couple of shelves built against the wall, a space for the TV and some bottom cabinets for the movies. It's not a million dollars, but my mother thinks it's pretty. All in all, the square footage for this place is about 1800. 

I asked her if the pipe out front has been cleaned lately. It's been in the past where if the A/C isn't working so great, we have to take a wetvac and suction out / clear the pipe. She said she thinks it's been dripping, but isn't so sure. So I grabbed the shopvac and went outside. 

She followed suit and when she went to shut the front door, she found a visitor on the wall.

This dude is just waiting for the opportune time to fly right into the house, unnoticed. Considering he was close enough to the doorbell, that was probably going to be the next step. Lay on the buzzer, get us to check the door. Open it up, see who's out there. No one? Sure, no one.. because this guy flew right into the house and now we've got to figure out how in the hell to get him out. 

That didn't happen, but out luck, it would. 

Just like when we lived in Brockton and she made me chase after a little brown field mouse for 45 minutes... all through the top floor of our house... with two cans of Raid. Almost an hour of panicking plus depleting both insect repellent bottles, the mouse flopped / seized to death in the kitchen. I then had to run downstairs, get in the garage, get a shovel, run back through the house, upstairs, shovel the mouse and take it to the backyard and toss it in the woods. 

I still have nightmares. 

And I haven't forgiven her for it. 

If you want to know inhumane ways to kill pesky animals, I'm sure I can offer you all kinds of advice. Although I do not... I repeat... I DO NOT condone it. As this was about 8pm on a Friday night, the option of calling someone for help was not the best, as we'd lose sight of the animal before a friend came. So... my mother grabs one can from under the sink and the other from the hall closet, almost throws them at me, and off I go. Chasing after something that could fit in my hands. 

Anyway... yeah. I don't suggest doing any of that... killing in the name of getting it out of the house. I'm sure there would have been other ways to shake it, but at the time, no one thinks.

All photos on this post taken with an iPhone 11. Edited in Photoshop just to put my name on it. I've still not charged the battery for my Canon, and since we were outside trying to fix the air conditioning, I wasn't about to run in and out repeatedly. 

Getting back to the pictures... allegedly it's a moth. I don't know what kind, because there are a lot of different ones that can be found around here. But my mother looked at a picture of one online and said they look a like. I don't even want to go back and try to find the name because I don't want to mislabel it. Too many commonalities with other insects. 

So... as I submit this, the house feels cooler and I haven't ventured out to the living room yet. But I'm sure the smell has dissipated. 

Until the next big adventure in my daily routines...

Cheers;

The opportunity's on

Last night I decided to watch a movie from 1971. A "cult classic", but not in the realm of Rocky Horror "cult classic", but in a more subdued 'not a lot of people know about this', "cult classic".

I decided to watch Harold & Maude, something I've probably talked about before. I keep it in my Amazon Prime Movies watch list (while it's still listed as 'available to watch with Prime') for when I don't feel like digging through my cabinets for the actual DVD. I actually have two DVD copies of this film, as one of them as been watch enough times, the disc is wearing thin. Almost like what we did in the 1980s and 1990s to VHS tapes... watch it enough on the recorder, the magnetic tape tears. 

I like this movie. Partly due to the Cat Stevens music, partly due to the story. It's unapologetic with trying to show two different ways of choosing how you live life and how they can come together and make friends with each other. Harold is obsessed with death and Maude is obsessed with living. They happen to keep finding each other at funerals (because, everyone loves a funeral, right?).

(....... Right???)

So Harold makes friends with Maude over the course of a week (#spoileralert. This movie takes place over the course of a week. It feels like it's longer, but then again, it's a 91 minute film). I don't want to completely put everything on the table for what it's about, but be forewarned: there are great ear worm songs from Yusef Islam (before his conversion) and it does have some drug use, (mild) sexual content, and (mild) violence. I put "mild" in parenthesis because I don't know everyone's level of comfort for a PG movie. Given this movie's context (Harold's infatuation with death and suicide), it can be a trigger movie for those with sensitivities. Also, people might not like it because Harold is 20 years old while Maude is 79 and the age gap is huge for two people to become besties. So people might get a bit squeamish at the relationship. 

If you can manage all of this, then I totally recommend seeing the film. If you can't, well, just chock it up to this: The movie came out in 1971, under different generational / societal norms that we are in today, in 2021. If you can't accept the movie for what it is (face value or not), then you don't need to take any more of my movie reviews and suggestions. If you don't like it, that's fine. If you do like it, awesome. I'll tell you a few more to watch. 

Until the next round of randomness hits, don't be throwing rice at a movie screen too quickly. 

Cheers; 

"It's only forever..."

 "... but not long at all..."

Usually my phone wakes me up during the week. 

Since getting a smartphone, I've used the thing as my morning alarm clock, even though it took me a solid year to forgo the standard radio alarm clock I've been using for over 2 decades. I would set my radio's alarm a minute after the phone, in case my phone failed. It honestly took over a year to stop doing that. 

Even now, I often catch myself questioning whether or not I should set it. 

But, the challenge is, the radio doesn't get a lot of stations in clearly. When it does, it's not a station I want (clear stations seem to be religious, country or Spanish. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those stations, it just not one of those I'd like to wake up to).

So I rely solely on the phone. 

With my current job, I've got an alarm set for 6am, and since 2016, I've been using the same song to wake me up.  I've edited a song (Angelo) by Francesco Renga to play a specific verse:

Parole vane al vento

Ti accorgi in un momento:

Siamo soli, è questa la realtà

Ed è una paura che non passa mai

Yes, I listen to random Italian singers. Although I'm not a fan of the more popular musicians (Bocelli, etc), I do like some of the pop + rockers. Ones not mainstream in the US. 

These are songs, in part, allow me to learn Italian when I'm not listening to a specific conversational learning podcast about speaking the language. I'm not fluent nor do I have the skill set yet to have a very basic conversation, but I am understanding enough to be able to answer in English. 

It's all in how I utilize my time during the week at work. Luckily I can plug in and listen to podcasts while doing setups. Although I'm still trying to catch up with Into The Fray, so all other subscriptions are on hold. 

Anyway, this morning, instead of waking up at 6, I woke up at 5:30. 

To a song in my head.

What was it? 

A couple lines from Underground, off the Labyrinth Soundtrack. I haven't listened to that soundtrack in months, nor have I seen the movie lately. It just happened to be the thing that woke me up this morning because it started playing in my head for some strange reason. 

I can't explain it. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, with a random 1950s or 1960s song in my head. This morning I wake up half an hour earlier than I want, to a soundtrack song from 1986. 

It makes me wonder what my day is going to be like, if this happened. 

Guess I'll find out soon, because I need to get ready for work now.

Until I figure this out... stay hydrated and cool.

Cheers;

Nature excursions with a cup of coffee

This week was an interesting week to find animals out and about at work.

It is another lost (and missed) opportunity for my Canon DSLR camera. Unfortunately, I had to take everything on the iPhone 11, where I would have preferred my T7i. 

Thursday started the adventures with a cat. 

A feral, hungry, lost cast. 

I got to work, parked my car, and heard meowing. I look in the direction the sound was coming from, and I see an orangey beige cat laying on the sidewalk, waiting for someone to bring it some food. Knowing one of the girls in the cafe inside has previously fed this animal, I went inside to find the person. I saw one of her co-workers and said "[person's name]'s cat is crying outside". The co-worker went to find the woman and said "your cat is hungry. It's crying outside". So the person grabbed a bag of kitty food and off we went - I showed the woman where I found the cat, but it had walked into the bushes and was hiding. 

So the woman was meowing for the cat to come out.. meow... meow... next thing we know, the cat comes out of its secure spot in the parking lot, because it's answering the call. 

The woman puts some food on a corner of the sidewalk and tries to get the cat to come over. It wanted nothing to do with the both of us - it was probably worried we'd do something to it. So a handful of treats on the sidewalk and we start walking away. We watched it to make sure it ate, and sure enough, it gobbled the food down like it was going out of style. 

We walked back into the building and left the cat alone.

That afternoon, while putting some items back in the (outside) storage, I found a gecko. He was just hanging out on a wire pegboard. 

I quite literally stumbled on the lizard as I had been in the corner of the space, putting some chairs back. It was big enough to catch my eye, but small enough that you have to do a double take. It stayed on the pegboard for most of the time I had my phone out.

Friday, I had to pick some chairs up in one of the outdoor bocce courts, and as I was moving around in my golf cart, what do I see? An osprey. 

This is the second time I've seen this guy in the past couple months. I really wish I had a better camera, as I ended up having to use the zoom on my phone "to get a look at it". 

I didn't want to get too close because I didn't want to scare the guy and I didn't want to get attacked. But it was interesting to watch him watch me for a second.

Today, my mom decided to use her Bodum Bean Sustainable French Press Coffee Maker. She's been using it for about a week now, and is thoroughly enjoying it. 

She used to have a French Press but something happened to it over the years, so she wanted a new one. I heard stories on how there were places she would go, and the restaurant offered table side coffee at the end of the meal. You'd get your own little carafe set in front of you, and the waitstaff would do the pressing and such. It was a big to-do. Almost like how you go to a Mexican restaurant, order table side guacamole, and they whip it up right next to you. 

So, twenty bucks well spent on this coffee contraption, as she's making enough coffee a day, that she has a hot brew immediately (well, 4 minutes later) and saves the rest for ice coffee for another moment of the day. 

Again, all photos taken on an iPhone 11. Only editing I have done was to put my name on each picture and sharpen up the bird pictures. 

Until I figure out how to carry my Canon with me at work...

Cheers;

Age of advertisements

Well... since I did a such a great job yesterday showing my age, the fat kid in me is going to one up the mumble rap game today. 

At lunch, I did something different. 

Where I normally have some sort of canned (carbonated / flavored) water, I decided to have a can of (regular) Sprite with my Cup Noodles soup. 

What's wrong with this, you ask? 

Besides knowing I was about to have enough sodium in two cups at lunch, I spent my entire walk from my office to the room I eat in, "singing" a Sprite TV advertisement from 1993.

It was the year that Daddy Mac and Mac Daddy... with their backwards clothes and love for making youth wanna jump... decided to make another name for themselves outside of the hit singles that dropped a year earlier.

Yup. A can of regular cola made me reminisce about Kris Kross and their cashing in on a thirty second hip hop jingle while they popped themselves out of a rounded piece of aluminum and then a bouncing car.

Google the video. I'll wait. It'll take you 30 seconds to find the video and then another 30 to watch it.

Okay.. wanna share a crazy crazy twist of unexpectedness?

Word - so drink up drink up. It's what you gotta do. 

Cheers;

What's my age again?

I'm not looking for Blink-182 to run down Los Angeles streets with nothing on but tattoos, tube socks and low top sneakers. But I did have a bit of a 1990's moment yesterday. 

All of a sudden, my head went to 1993 and I (internally) started singing two lines... "Informer! Badahahdhahahddh baaaaaa. A licky boom boom down!" 

Okay. Not the lyrics. But we've all been there with that song. Everyone knows bits and pieces and is probably ashamed to admit it's an ear worm after a while. Those who don't know it.. well... I'm sure you're about 10-15 years younger than me, if not more, so I'll forgive you this time. Those who know the Jim Carrey spoof, spot on for you. Thems were the days for proper video parodies. Haha. 

I ended up watching mid90s last night because it was on Showtime, and to keep with the theme of the day. Jonah Hill's directorial debut, it summed up the 90s skater generation to a point, but failed on other aspects. Honestly, it was kind of crap because it didn't have a real solid push to keep the movie going. I kept getting tempted to turn it off. I mean, the acting and the skating were there, but it felt dead inside as well. I don't know how to explain it, but the trailer and synopsis made it look and sound better. Hill needs to stick to comedy, I think, although some of his funny movies don't make it either. I'd probably give this movie 3 out of 5 for nostalgia but 2 out of 5 as a whole. 

Cheers;

Just keep swimming…

 … Just keep swimming.

A couple years ago, my mom decided to up her game at the pool and buy a pair of hand paddles. 

I don’t remember the exact brand she got, but she scoured both physical stores and internet retailers. She ended up on Amazon and bought a pair that looked not only comfortable, but stylish (she purchased a fancy bright color, if I recall). She also didn’t splurge over $20 because she knew she’d not use them every single day, but did want them to last all season. 

So far, some years later, she still uses them and actually has told her friends about them. Seeing how it’s been 100 degrees due to the humidity, in the beginning of May, everyone has been jumping in the cemented body of water to cool off. 

They’ve also been asking her about her webbed digits. She’s been letting her friends take a closer inspection of what she’s been wearing and people are amazed how light they are and how they seem so easy to use. 

I’ve gathered, by way of talk, people are contemplating their own workouts and wanting to add this extra concept to their regime, given the fact everyone is starting to go out more and more, they want to do something en masse. They probably figure “better start by deleting some of the added pounds from this past year!”.  

So ma, here… I’m helping you out by helping your friends. I’m telling my friends to step their game up and get swimming. Buy a pair of paddles and strengthen your arms, your core and your whatever’s. 

The heat has been turned up. Get your swimmy on and don’t forget the floaties.

Cheers;’

Bad lighting

So apparently, when I looked into the tub of the Purely Inspired Organic Protein Powder the other day, I didn't see the color of the powder correctly. Whatever shadow was hanging over me in the corner of the kitchen, I thought the drinks would turn out green. 

When I started scooping the powder out on Monday, it actually is a beige color. Kind of threw me for a loop because I was expecting a grass looking drink, when instead, I made a cream looking drink. 

However, this thing is far from grassy as well as far from creamy. 

It doesn't taste like what I thought it would. When I originally smelled it, I thought of the other types of (fresher) plant based green drinks and how it would be a liquefied lawn. Nope. Doesn't taste like fresh cut front yardage. Doesn't even taste like vanilla, as advertised on the bottle. 

It tastes gritty. Like, no matter if I put 3 ice cubes in the blender with it (plus the coconut water) or 30 ice cubes in the blender, it's got some weird texture that is also prohibiting the ice to fully crush. Which makes it worse... the ice usually gets smoothed out enough when I blend it on certain speeds and types that I don't notice any bumps or spots or anything else. 

Not with this powder. The ice crushes to a snow cone kind of chunking. But as the ice melts and leaves more liquid, it still tastes sandy. It's also leaving grit in the cup as I drink it. I'll stir it as I drink, but the closer I get to the bottom, the more it looks like I didn't fully mix this drink. There's powder residue along the sides of the glass (I use Ball Regular Mouth Mason Jars with Lids and Bands, 16-Ounces for my drinks). I've not noticed that before with other powders. 

There's just a hint of vanilla in this thing, and the rest of it is a sweet stevia taste. I've had stevia in other drinks before, including hot coffee and that Vega Protein & Energy, Plant Based Coffee Protein Powder, Cold Brew Coffee I was drinking for a couple months. Yet, sometimes, in the hot coffee it tastes slightly chemical but the Vega powder didn't. This Purely Inspired does taste chemically induced in every sip and I think it's the stevia. It's slight enough that it can be a bit over powering under the circumstances. It's not creating a horrendous after taste, but it does seem to linger for a few seconds after each sip. Even having added some yogurt to it, it still tastes weird. I don't know what else to put in it, to tone it down without counteracting the whole idea of having this drink.

All in all, I don't think I'm getting this powder again. I'm going to make the attempt to finish it, but lesson learned with this one. I'm beginning to think I should stick to the ones I've had better luck with, and not try anything else.

Especially since the last couple days, by 10:30 in the morning, I've been like Rolly.

And I've not even been running around enough to warrant being hungry to the point I feel like I've not eaten in two days. I can't even explain it, but I'm used to not eating until noon. Yet the last couple days, I'm looking for a snack before 11am. It's weird.

Anyway, time to go to work.

Cheers;

Flashbacks of coffee shops

I had an awkward incident in a local CVS yesterday.

 
Thinking it through when I got home, as well as telling some of my friends, it brought back a random memory of summer 2011...  when I was in a Dunkies and was part of a conversation (not my doing) about God, jobs and astrological signs. 

Yesterday's weirdness happened to be in the health and wellness section of the store. I happened to be 2 scoops away from finishing a container of Complete Protein & Vitamin Shake Mix Nature’s Bounty Optimal Solutions, with Collagen & Fiber and didn't have anything else in the cabinets. So I needed something to be able to continue using the coconut water with (and have a breakfast replacement). 

I'm standing in the aisle (with my mother), hands full because I didn't grab a cart (these tubs are weird to have to hold and browse the shelves), and I'm knee deep in comparing ingredients of other products. 

Which I ended up getting the vanilla Purely Inspired Organic Protein Powder. Just something else to try, and I actually opened it today. I haven't started it yet, as I needed to finish up the Nature's Bounty first. My first thoughts of this new powder is it's on the matted green side. But light matted green. I wonder what it's going to shake up as, when adding a liquid. It's not a bad color, by any means. It's super light green, so I'm thinking it's all the plant materials as first sniff smells like grass (lol... not pot "grass" but the grass you mow). A wee bit on the plant side, smelly. Like I can almost taste the dirt on the leaves. I don't know why I'm saying this; it sounds like I'm already bringing up negativity to a product I've not tried yet. But "first impressions" are easy to manipulate and remember, right?

Which brings me back to my challenge. 

I'm reading ingredients and some guy comes almost rushing into the aisle. He looks about mid 50s, average build (not fit fit but not totally fat either. Average for his age*). Has two bottles of Alberto VO5 shampoo in his hand. He sees me and my mom, and notices the containers in my hands. Relieved to see someone, he starts asking questions. 

He asks what brands of powder do I take, what brands do I suggest? What do I think about the various ingredients in each bottle and is there really a difference? He goes on, and I'm standing there like "oh wtf". 

I said to him that I use the Nature's Bounty lately as a meal replacement in the morning. I don't eat breakfast, so this is it. I was looking at others to add to the rotation. 

He says his brother gave him some drink the other day and he now wants to try these protein things, but he doesn't want to make it. He wants a grab and go situation and be done with it.... doesn't want to worry about creating a big process. He doesn't plan on replacing a meal every day, that's why he wants a pre-made drink that he can just open up and drink. It'll be like an addition to his day. 

I said that I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist. He really needs to speak to someone else. My mom even piped in and said that these are a meal replacement for me. 

He kept going on about my thoughts over what's on the market and what's good, and I'm still like "#notmyjob". I wanted to say "dude, I'm a fat kid taking supplements I probably shouldn't, but am due to not getting 3 ('square') meals in a day". But I just kept saying to him I don't know much about them. I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. I just look at the labels. 

He kept asking about the differences. The calories, the protein, everything. He was looking at a couple products (the various bottles of protein shakes) and really wanted me to go over them with him in detail. I said "I really don't know. I just use the powder plus coconut water as the base and off I go. You should talk to someone else. Like a nutritionist or a doctor". 

I started walking away. He laughed and said "guess I'm not getting a definitive answer then?". I shook my head and kept walking.

My mom and I get up to the register area and I'm like "that was awkward AF". Her first response was "He was probably trying to hit on you". Gross, mom. Thanks a lot of the confidence and help. Then she said it was weird. But she reiterated the whole "hitting on you" thing. 

Uhm... not interested, thanks!! Way to make me feel even more awkward.

We get to the cashier, I pay, and off we go. 

Needless to say, I had an interesting encounter with a stranger in a store that I just wanted to run in, get what I need, and leave. Never meant to have to have a conversation with someone about nutrition supplements. Again, I'm a fat kid using these powders as a meal replacement in the morning. Don't be looking to me for proper, legit advice. Everyone is different and I'm trying to find what works for me. Yes, I write about them here, because I try them and remark how good/bad/indifferent they are and what I'm finding when I make them. 

Good luck in your health adventures.

Cheers;

*Yes, I profiled him. BAU here I come.