Sci. Fi. & Fantasy TV premiere roundup

"Bionic Woman"-yes, a remake, but good and guest starring Katee Sackhoff from the new "Battlestar Galactica" (who doesn't like romance and good hand to hand combat?).

"Dr. Who"-fantastic! (not a season premiere but who cares? Season three is the best of the new version so far, possibly the best overall so far. I can't wait to get it on DVD. I could go on for waaaaaaay too long here about all the good stuff but, suffice it to say, the plots are well thought out, the dialogue is well-written, and the acting is a joy to watch. Oh, and did I mention that the Captain Jack Harkness character is back?).

"Moonlight"-ok, sort of a remake ("Forever Knight" anyone? I still miss that show and I haven't found it cheap on DVD yet, btw.) but good, funny, & co-starring Sophia Myles who portrayed Madame du Pompador in season two of the new "Dr. Who". The line that made me laugh out loud tonight was a question asked of the main character (lonely, 90 year old, vampire with morals, private detective) by his best friend (400 year old, rich, investor, vampire) about the A+ from our hero's stash of blood bags: "What is this? Lowfat, decaf, soy, vegan, blood?".

"House"-love it and, yes, I know it's not Sci. Fi. or Fantasy, and it's premiere wasn't on tonight but I watched a re-run while waiting for "Stargate: Atlantis" to come on and I was laughing throughout the episode.

"Stargate: Atlantis"-still good but I miss Carson's character (on the upside, I'm intrigued by Elizabeth Weir's character becoming a bad guy).

My car passed inspection & Not really retail therapy, part 2.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! I got my car inspected at 8:15am and it passed. Of course, I had to take it back to the dealership this afternoon because one of my brand new tires was flat and I was experiencing shimmying occasionally and vibrations while braking. It turned out that the tire had a defective valve stem, which the dealer replaced, and that my front tires had been balanced incorrectly (they corrected that as well). They didn't charge me for anything and apologized profusely. It turns out their tire balancing machine had been calibrated to the wrong setting.

On the way home, I stopped at Payless to buy new sneakers because my current ones are getting holey. I got new sneaks for $9! On a lark, I wandered into FYE and purchased a used copy of a Patrick Troughton Dr. Who episode called "Tomb of the Cybermen". It was only $10.99! Usually they retail for $25-$35 here in the US depending on the length of the episode. I am especially excited because I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this one. The complete episode tapes went missing from the BBC and weren't found until 1992.

Stuff from today and important change to this blog!

If you look to your right you will notice a new link on the right-hand navigation on this blog. My dream blog! is a link to the first blog I set up. It is over on livejournal and is the place where I record my dreams when I have time. It's a neat glimpse into what goes on in my head when I sleep. Feel free to check it out.

In other news...I've gotten a lot done over the last two days. Yesterday, I mailed off my COBRA election form and my first payment so that I will continue to have health insurance after this month. I also purchased a doubling card for my Tracfone so if any of you would like to purchase Tracfone minutes for me as presents (hint, hint---hee, hee) they will go that much farther when I'm RMing the country. Today I spent three and one quarter hours at the dealer getting my car fixed. $827 later (Serpentine belt & tensioner, EGR valve, solenoid, and four new tires) they tell me that it will pass inspection after I've driven it 200 miles to get the computer to acknowledge the repairs. Since my car needs to be inspected by the end of the month I'll be doing a lot of driving tomorrow! Anyway, I should go now because I'm at the library and only have seven minutes left on my computer session.

I'm not engaging in retail therapy, really!

I just had to share my two, exciting, new acquisitions with all of you. Last night I had dinner with Steve and he told me all about the game he'd attended at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. While he was there he purchased a Johnny Damon t-shirt. When he got it home he discovered it was too small. Bad for him, good for me. I'm now the proud owner of a Yankees t. Yeah! After dinner I stopped at CVS and purchased my first digital camera. It is a mini key chain camera but it holds 240 photos and came with a USB cable and software. All that for only $9.99!!! I can't wait to get started. I will post a picture once it's all set.

I heard back from the producer...

I got an email last night from the producer of the show I worked on last week. He's passing my email on to the guys in charge of production assistants for the show and said they'll call me when the show comes back to this area. Oh, well. That doesn't mean it's over. They are scheduled to be back around here next month and if I work with them again I'll have another shot to ask about touring with them. In the meantime, I'm going to expand my networking with my new realization that touring with a show would really work for me. I also got my hair cut today and it looks really cute!

I got stuff done!

Yeah! The gifts that I purchased in China for my family finally got mailed out to them today. In addition, I just sent off my resume to the producer of the reality tv show I worked on last week to see if I can get a regular job with them. I also stopped at Salvation Army and got a pair of Ralph Lauren jeans for $9.99 and a mid-weight coat, that I can layer under, for $4.99.

My reverse lights are fixed!

Yesterday I spent three hours at the dealership getting my car fixed. They fixed my reverse lights, replaced three bulbs in my brake lights, and diagnosed my "service engine soon" light. My EGR valve and solenoid are bad but I'm not going to fix them since I may be getting rid of my car at the end of the month. Later I purchased "Smallville" season 5. It was only $19.99 at Best Buy! I went running today and I am half finished organizing the mailing of China gifts to my family. I hope to have those out in the mail tomorrow. I'm probably going to Salvation Army tomorrow to buy another pair of jeans. I haven't emailed my resume to the producer yet because I haven't heard back from the Career Development Center. If I don't hear tomorrow I'm going to ask my friend Susan to look at it so I can send it out tomorrow night.

Career day

I spent much of today at the MHC Career Development Center. I met with the Alumnae counselor and we reworked my resume and follow-up letter to the producer who got me the job with the reality tv show. I just need one more proofread and I'll send it off. Hopefully it will get me a permanent job traveling with the show.

I just finished cooking some corn I bought at the local farmstand (I ate some yummy tomatoes earlier) and I'm going to watch Dr. Who on tv at 8pm. I can't wait!

I'm back home.

I had a good time working on the show and arrived home this afternoon. The last night that I worked I went up the the actual set (I'd been doing more administrative stuff the rest of the time) and helped the other overnight production assistant. I got to drive a golf cart and the gator! I'm pretty tired but I did sleep for about 12 hours on and off last night. I'm back at Susan's but I'm going to email the line producer of the show (who was my original contact) and follow up about a more permanent job.

How it's going.

This is awesome! I just got back from my second overnight shift. I feel really good about the work I'm doing. It's really nice to be working with a great team of people. I also took my first ride on a "Gator" today. (That is one of those green John Deere combination golf cart & pickup truck vehicles.) I got to stand up in the back while being driven to my car. I'm going to bed now because I'm exhausted.

I have a job!

I am going to be a Production Assistant for a reality tv show for the next week while they are on location in a neighboring state. I got the job today and there is a chance I can turn it into a traveling gig with them. I'm really excited. They're paying me, putting me up in a hotel, and feeding me. Yeah! I am working nights so I'm staying up all night tonight, sleeping most of the day tomorrow, and driving back up there to go to work at 6pm.

As soon as I get off work on Monday I need to find a nearby repair shop to get my car fixed. My reverse lights are stuck on (I hit a really big bump today) and I got a warning from a state trooper tonight on my way home from work. Oh well, I had a really good day and the trooper was really nice about it.

Yum, yum!

I made Mushroom Vol-au-vaunt tonight for dinner to use up the leftover mushrooms and heavy cream from last night's dinner. (The mushrooms and cream were part of the pasta dish that I put the mussels on top of.)

***Recipe: I melted some soy butter in a pan and sauteed some chopped, left-over, onion in it. Then I added more butter and lots of chopped white and baby bella mushrooms. I stirred them around in the butter and let them cook for a minute or two. Then I dumped in a third of a small bottle of Marsala cooking wine and let them simmer for 20-30 minutes while the liquid was absorbed. When the wine was almost all absorbed I dumped in quite a bit of heavy cream and let the mushrooms soak that up while simmering for about 10-15 minutes. I stirred it occasionally and turned off the heat when the liquid was pretty much gone from the pan. Then I spooned the mixture into the (no longer frozen) Pepperidge Farm puff pastry shells that I had baked according to the package directions. I put the tops back onto the, now filled, pastry shells and baked them for 15 minutes.***

Susan raved about them and my mouth was pretty happy each time I bit into one. I kind of had three of them for dinner. :) To keep myself occupied while the liquid reduced I continued watching Charmed Season 7 on Susan's laptop. Later I'm going to join some friends at the midnight showing of "Clue" at a nearby movie theatre.

Good news times two!

The mussels I made last night were delicious! It was the first time that Susan had eaten mussels and she liked them. I poured the last of the white zinfandel I had (about 2/3 of a bottle) into a pot and heated it almost to a boil. Then I dumped in the mussels, turning them so the wine entered their shells, and let them simmer (covered) for 20 minutes or so. They tasted just like ones I would get at a restaurant. Yummy!

Last night I also heard from the producer that I've been playing email tag with. The good news is that there may be some work for me (not sure yet if paid or volunteer, but I'm okay with either) in VT for the next two weeks but the bad news is that now we're playing phone tag. Oh, well. It will work out the way it's supposed to.

Not much going on...

We had a nice barbeque at Steve's mom's this weekend (I found the Morningstar Farms veggie dogs at a local grocery store, yeah! They look and taste like regular ones.) On Monday I got taken out for Sushi and then sat in town peoplewatching. Tuesday I went to a local farm and purchased tomatoes, green beans, corn, and nectarines. Unfortunately, they didn't have any white flesh nectarines left. Last night I got some things organized on the laptop. I'm still waiting to hear back from the producer who's in VT for the next two weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to finish updating my resume and follow-up on the suggestions I received from the other producer. Oh, I am going to attempt to make a white wine sauce tonight to go with some mussels I bought yesterday. Hopefully that will go well.

Keeping myself busy

****IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT****For those of you who were having trouble posting comments on here, I have fixed my settings. You should now be able to post with no problems. Yeah! :)

I've spent a lot of this week running errands and going to the library to check my email. Yesterday, I stopped at a farmstand and purchased some amazing white flesh nectarines. They are incredibly sweet! Today, I'm heading out to Steve's mom's to help celebrate her partner's birthday.

Career Stuff: I recieved contact info. for a second LA producer yesterday (thanks Deborah!) and sent her an email while I'm waiting to hear back from the first one. Also, on Friday I finally got a regular (more formal) email address. It's one that shouldn't get bounced by spam filters and that is okay to put on my resume.

That's about it.