Friday, November 12, 2021

7 Quick Takes about Mandatory Movie Binges, Considering Giving Up on Foodmaking, and the Perils of Getting Old and Farsighted

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


Over the weekend, my 10-year-old and I were in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID a few days later, so you know what that means...

Quarantine.

We don't have any symptoms, but my daughter can't go to school until next week and she is not happy about it. I keep asking her if she feels okay and she keeps answering, "I feel the same except for really annoyed!"

Our test results should be back today or tomorrow, but until then I guess we'll pass the time watching Hocus Pocus in our pajamas at 11AM while eating cake on the couch (ordinarily not allowed.) We've really got no other choice.

2


Monday was a rough day. We hadn't yet learned about the COVID exposure (that was part of a separate stress-induced breakdown the next day) but the kitchen was all ripped apart so the service guys could come install new counters.

Dealing with these guys up to this point had been a nightmare, and one of the miscommunications along the way was that we didn't know we'd be responsible for removing the old sink and counters ourselves before they arrived!

So Phillip and I were scrambling to do it on Monday morning between his work meetings, which of course took twice as long as we thought it would and had all sorts of problems.

And then I waited for the counter guys to come. Have you ever tried to work in an office that was actively under construction? That's what it felt like trying to function in a kitchen with no sink or counter with the contents of the lower cabinets relocated all over the house. 

Which is probably why I was so distracted I accidentally used regular flour instead of gluten-free flour to make Phillip's birthday cake for that night so he couldn't even eat it. 

I felt SO BAD when I realized what I'd done (which was not until after we'd already brought out the cake and sung "Happy Birthday," by the way.)

3


The next day was about the same, but with different details. It started with trying to make some hard-boiled eggs and forgetting them on the stove until all the water boiled out and I ruined the pot:


Between that and the cake, I think the universe is trying to tell me to stop cooking, baking, or really doing anything that involves heating food in any manner.

4


The good news is, we have our new kitchen counters! Sort of.

They installed the countertops, but have to come back to do the backsplash in a few weeks. So we have like 85% of a new kitchen counter.

But they're absolutely beautiful. They brighten up the kitchen, hide dirtiness like it's a superpower, and even give us more counter space because they hang further over the edge of the cabinets than the old ones did.

Also, I've been alive for 39 years, but I never really lived until I cleared off a counter with a flush-mount sink.

Pictures are forthcoming once we get a backsplash.

5


We also had a visit from a pest control service. Try not to stop reading this and throw your phone/computer into a burning bucket of bleach and run away screaming, but they were treating for mice. Our house is in the woods and that's just the way it is, sorry.

I had a laugh when checking out the pest control company's website. Under "Services" one of the bullet points was "unmarked vehicle upon request."

I didn't select the unmarked vehicle option because I'm not particularly embarrassed to have pest control here, but I was a little embarrassed when the guy was asking safety questions about what kids and pets were in the house and I had to answer that we had two pet rats. 

But please, by all means go kill the ones in the garage, and do it quickly.

6


When your teenager comes up to you with her phone and says, "I found a video that reminded me of you," you never know what you're going to get.

If you were me this week, it would have been this:


I was slightly offended, but the fact I actually did this when she handed me the phone sort of proved her point.

7


I've never seen the movie Jaws. It's kind of iconic, so I mentioned one day that I wanted to see it and maybe we should get it at the library sometime.

My 15-year-old looked up and "I don't get scary movies. Something happens, and either the characters die or they don't. So?"

That's big talk for someone who's never watched a horror movie before (I'm not counting A Quiet Place, which I think of as suspense more than horror.) I think it might be my duty as a parent to introduce her. The trick is that we don't watch R-rated movies, so does anyone have some scary PG-13 movies to recommend? 

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5 comments:

Amelia J said...

The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)

Diana Dye said...

Ah man scary movies were my jam until I had babies and can't handle the anxiety anymore. Here are my pre-parenting favorites.

The Others with Nicole Kidman (ghost story, mostly suspenseful)
Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder. Pretty much anything Hitchcock
The Sixth Sense and Signs
The Ring (prolly my fave)
For some classics--Wait Until Dark, Charade, and The Uninvited (1944)

I just got an undermount sink this summer too. Life changing!

Jenny Evans (sister, not author) said...

Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliffe is my go-to scary movie for a first timer. It’s creepy and has a good story line with a few jump scares but doesn’t keep you up at night after. The Ring if you REALLY want to creep her out. Darkness Falls is the first scary movie I ever saw as a teenager and it freaked me out but now just makes me laugh.

Chaun said...

I also recommend The Others!

Handsfullmom said...

Old classics: Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn
Rear Window

And for a funny and suspenseful one: Arsenic and Old Lace.