Hey! The Year 2020 has sure been a ride and half so far, hasn’t it? As July warps up my kiddo will be turning 18 months and growing. In just a blink of an eye she’s gone from teenie tiny babe to a walking, talking, spinning in circles, cool cool (sayin’ cool cool), hungry, grubbin’ little toddler. It’s what parents all say, but yeah poof time zips fast and the kiddo is growing like woosh. I’m happy.

It’s kinda awesome right now that I can be with my kid all the time, catch all the milestones and watch her as the growing up adventure unfolds. My Guy Dave (MGD) and I sure are lucky and happy parents. Yup, yup.

COOL COOL KIDDO!

This current life in quarantine is quite the reality check and not always fun. We have not been going out except to buy groceries or pick up food. I realized that’s really been our MO. We go on walks, and walk around the park and let kiddo do some running, that’s nice stuff. We’re lucky that we have a nice place for her to run around, play in the dirt and those kind of things. There’s drives here and there, but their aimless drives (or not so when it’s to the shopping stops) and the germaphobe in me is at the forefront worrying about germs and other germies.

But I’m lucky to have what I have, so I just have to remember that and be thankful each day. It’s not easy watching the rest of the world going through all it’s going through. It makes me mad and sad all at the same time. I don’t bring up politics or deep emotions here often, if ever, but the world has a lot of hurt and it’s being recognized. I try and do my part to help make things better and encourage others to do so. Just taking it a day at a time as I go along. I’ll still be optimistic for the future. As always, Black Lives Matter!

Giving my kiddo my attention is what’s keeping me sane and happy and I love seeing her happy, having fun, learning new things and I’m learning along with her. I say she spoils me as much as I spoil her. Yup. Another bright side is Kiddo has her grandparents around to hang out with and have more fun with. Talk about awesome bonus there. It’s fun seeing the three of them play together. Yup.

This year I’m way behind in my movie watching, and though it may sound like a complaint, it’s really, really not. It’s just frustrating when the only thing I had wanted for my birthday this year was to go to a movie theater and enjoy a movie, I was going to go by myself too. (Something I’ve always loved to do, watch a movie solo.) But then, my birthday being in March, the end of March, it didn’t happen. It never even got close to happening. But so it goes…Life happens. Pandemic life began.

When I do watch movies it’s bits at a time, between kiddo sleeps, or during our meal times. I’ll take what I can get to watch a movie. Yup, Yup.

So far I’ve seen 12 flicks! We did even get to rent a few flick from good old VIDÉOTHÈQUE  in South Pasadena at the start of Stay At Home days…(Help your favorite businesses!)

MOVIES WATCHED!!!

1. TROOP ZERO (2019) – 3/3/20 – Amazon
2. THE SIGN OF ZORRO (1958) – 3/14/20 – DISNEY+
3. HELLBENDERS (1967) – 3/17/20 – DVD
4. KNIVES OUT (2019) – 3/21/208* – BluRay
5. JOJO RABBIT (2019) – 3/21/20* – BluRay
6. COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2018) – 3/26/20 – BluRay
7. A TOWN LIKE ALICE (1981) TV MINI-SERIES – 3/30/20 – DVD
8. ONWARD (2020) – 4/5/20 – DISNEY +
9. FAST COLOR (2018) – 5/13/20 – HULU*
10. NATIONAL TREASURE (2004) – 6/28/20 – DISNEY+
11. THE LOVEBIRDS (2020) – 7/11/20 – Netflix
12. PALM SPRINGS (2020) – 7/15/20 – HULU*

The * movies are my favorites so far and they got a 5 rating, so they’re grrrrrreat! PALM SPRINGS really was perfection in my book. It was so exciting when we got to finish that one all in one day. It’s the kind of movie I really needed right now. I recommend it, yup.

PALM SPRINGS – Perfection!

And yes, I really only saw NATIONAL TREASURE for the first time this year. MGD has long been a fan and now I must admit I enjoyed the heist, treasure hunt adventure. Yup.

Reading and audio books have been my main go to entertainment as of late. I can always relax with books and have gotten through a few more at night listening to audio books.

BOOKS!!!

  1. On What Grounds – Cleo Coyle
  2. The Face In The Frost – John Bellairs
  3. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
  4. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards – Lillian Jackson Braun (audiobook)
  5. The Case of The Velvet Claw – Erle Stanley Gardner (audiobook)
  6. The Ghost and Mrs. Mcclure – Alice Kimberly
  7. The Case of The Sulky Girl – Erle Stanley Gardner (audiobook)
  8. The Case of The Lucky Legs – Erle Stanley Gardner
  9. Sonnets – Shakespeare – read by Sir John Gielgud (audiobook)
  10. Beowulf (audiobook)
  11. The Demu Trilogy – F.M Busby
  12. The Canterville Ghost – Oscar Wilde (audiobook)
  13. Elevation – Stephen King (audiobook)
  14. PET – Akwaeke Emezi (audiobook)
  15. The Case of The Howling Dog – Erle Stanley Gardner (audiobook)
  16. The Poet X – Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)
  17. Miss Fisher Cocaine Blues – Kerry Greenwood (audiobook)

I was really happy I got to finish another Nevil Shute novel since I discovered him last year. A Town Like Alice was a wonderful story and I got to watch the mini-series done in Australia (mentioned on my movie list). There’s another version of the movie out there, but I’ve got to track it down. MGD also got me a copy of Shute’s ON THE BEACH but I’m working my nerve up to read that one. I did watch the movie last year! Woah, so good, so sad, and heavy.

The Perry Mason books by Erle Stanley Gardner are a ton of fun. They’re not all set in a courtroom and Perry is cooler than cool. After listening to those I just didn’t quite feel I could dive into the new Perry show, it’s just not the same vibe, but maybe one day I’ll check it out. After those first books though, I do think that Raymond Burr fit the Perry Mason vibe pretty well when that show got started.

The Demu Trilogy was really out to be a good book when I first dove in, I was really excited by this future/space one man against aliens adventure and was telling my dad all about it along the way. I was hooked, but then…then as I got to the third part, everything and every kind of sink got thrown in, I’m not sure I’m satisfied after all. Ugh.

So rambles, rambling, rambling. I’ve finally got a chance to type type here and just share some things I’ve been enjoying. Maybe next I can sit down and do some crafting junk, but my current favorite crafting hobbies aren’t very kiddo friendly (felting/cross stitch needles!) YIKES! So that stuff stays on the back burner a while longer. Yup.

I just hope all out there are doing as well as they can be! Thanks for reading if you’ve come this far. Please, stay good, stay healthy, and be happy. Yup. Find your happy place and stay a while. Yup.

Hasta la pasta party peeps. I’m going to dive into my latest book while kiddo still sleeps. Yup Yup Yup! 😀