I got Maggie's DNA test results back and was ( surprised! )

Now that the water ballet is over, I am looking forward to some quality downtime of knitting and sloth and teevee. What should I watch? I feel like I've seen everything on Netflix streaming ... I need recommendations!

Shows I've already watched every episode of and really enjoyed (within the past year):
House of Cards (US version)
Orange is the New Black
Hell on Wheels (both seasons)
Call the Midwife (the season already on Netflix, plus the second season which just somehow magically appeared on my hard drive one day)
Ripper Street
Bob's Burgers
Oddities
The IT Crowd
The Vikings (also not sure how that one appeared on my hard drive, but lo and behold there it was!)
Torchwood (even though the last season SUCKED)
Friday Night Lights
Sherlock

Shows I made myself plod through to the bitter end, though I didn't think much of:
Copper
World Without End
The Crimson Petal and the White
Nurse Jackie
Weeds (actually didn't get through the fifth season, but by then I'd seen enough)

Shows I liked at first but eventually got so bad I gave up on them:
Misfits
Heroes
Spartacus
Weeds
Being Human (UK version)
Lie to Me
The Walking Dead

Shows I started but could not get into:
Luther
Pretty Little Liars (sorry, Miriam, it was just too stupid)
Snuffbox
The West Wing
Hemlock Grove
Archer
House of Cards (UK version)
Bones
House
Six Feet Under

Ongoing shows I'm all caught up with:
Madmen
Game of Thrones
Vampire Diaries
Hannibal
The Killing (up through last season)
True Blood (up through last season)
Dexter (up through last season)
Downton Abbey
Justified
American Horror Story (first season)
Lost Girl

(BTW, I don't have cable, just Netflix, and now that I get my internet through Xfinity, no more bit-torrenting shows magically appearing on my hard drive anymore)

Also, did you know BGE will pay you $50 for your working refrigerator, plus another $25 if you have an air conditioner you want them to collect at the same time?

https://www.bgesmartenergy.com/residential/lighting-appliances/refrigerator-and-freezer-recycling

Also, every now and then I overhear a snippet of the conversation going on among the developers in the office next door and feel as if I should be sitting around a bong in a dorm room. It's all I can do not to stick my head in the doorway and yell, "What if the blue I'm seeing isn't the same blue you're seeing? Huh? What then?"

Christ. Now he's going to explain quantum physics. Take this cup away from me for I don't want to taste its poison.*



*Happy Good Friday, everyone

My hand to God, I am moving the last of my shit out of the house this weekend. This is getting ridiculous.

If you offered to help me at any time during the past few months, I could really use it right about now!

There's a new thing in town called http://compostcab.com/, which is basically a trash collection service for composting. They supply the bins (and ostensibly the worms), you fill it with your food scraps, and once a week they come pick it up right off your porch. No muss, no fuss ... all for the low price of $32 a month. And this is where it gets dodgy.

Yeah, I know trash collection and recycling ain't free. But I've been paying property tax for ten years, income tax for twenty-five years, and sales tax my whole life, so I figure I finance at least my share of those services ... I pay a water bill, which goes up every quarter even though my consumption remains minimal (honestly, the city uses its taxpayers like ATM machines) and a gas and electric bill, which we won't even get into ... I have no problems paying for these services because it's something I use. But! Compost is something else entirely. Compost is valuable. Compost makes the fruits and veggies and flowers grow. So while I would be very happy to give it away for free (or, even better, trade it for a share in a local CSA), I really take umbrage at the idea that someone would charge me to take away my compost, then turn around and sell it to farmers. They're totally double-dipping.

Apparently this service is already wildly popular in DC. Maybe people there don't realize they're being taken for a ride, or maybe they don't want to have to deal with the mess and the smell, or maybe there's no easy way to get it to a CSA on the Metro ... but this is Baltimore, where we have no public transportation, farmers markets every day of the week, and rats the size of small dogs. Besides, it looks like they offer a weekly drop-off service at the Dupont Circle farmer's market, but no indication of how much you might have to pay for that privilege.

What do you think? Is a weekly composting pick-up service something you would pay $32 for?

This morning my bathroom door fell off its hinges.

This fucking house. I honestly believe it will end up imploding like the one at the end of Poltergeist. I just hope I manage to escape in time!

Seventeen pairs of shoes, y'all, including the Robert Clergeries pictured in my icon. All still wearable, although a few need a trip to the cobbler to replace the elastic on the buckle.

Man, I used to rock some drop dead sexy kicks. My 30's were a mixed bag as far as life experiences went, but my feet never had it so good.

I do not have high hopes for this season of Spartacus. With Lucy Lawless, John Hannah, Peter Mensah, and Nick Tarabay's characters killed off, all the fun is sucked out of it and it's just bad CGI and video-game soundtracks. Also Ilythia was nowhere to be seen; not sure if the blonde lady in the Roman scenes was supposed to be her, but if it is she is played by a different actress, which wouldn't surprise me because this show does that (when the actor playing the main character dies, I guess you have no choice, but otherwise it's just Darrin Stevens all over again--dumb).

The first season was AWESOME, but the mini-season was depressing, and the second season was tedious ... now I wonder if the third season is even worth the time. I mean, it's one thing to have gratuitous sex and violence in the service of a great show (a la Game of Thrones), but when you take away the compelling plot lines, the shocking plot twists, and the considerable acting chops, all you have is bouncing boobies and gushing blood. Which is kind of what I thought Spartacus was going to be about before I started watching it in the first place.