January 2016 Chit Chat

The quintessential song to me that defined LA in the 70s:  Hotel California.  And The Eagles truly dominated the 70's era music trends.

LornaDoone wrote:George kinda quiet recently?

I'm going to guess he might be storyboarding for the film he will be directing.

Just a guess though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491175/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

Sooooooooooooo glad to see your post.  Was about to put your picture on a milk carton!!!


  HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN??  IF SO, CONTACT COH

Joanna wrote:I'm very pleased that Matt Damon got an award.
Haven't seen The Martian yet as I'm waiting for the DVD.

What I have been watching on TV, via Amazon Prime,
is Alpha House, a satirical comedy about American politics. The fact that I don't understand some of it 
makes no difference. It's well written, sharp and has some very funny scenes.
John Goodman is excellent and so funny at times.
He makes good use of his large face to pull off some great expressions.
Just wondered if anyone across the pond had seen it and what they thought of it ?

I'm happy too that Matt Damon got an award. He deserves it. 

Joanna do you watch a lot through Amazon prime? Compare to Netflix or Love Film is amazon prime better?

Hi Nicky. Sorry I can't say whether Amazon Prime is better or not.  After paying for Prime annually then many of the TV series are free to watch. Usually 10 or more episodes.
EG... Flesh and Bone was very good, now out on DVD.

I haven't used Netflix or Love Film.

mmhh ok thanks. Maybe I will give it a try.

It's a funny old world....and bizarre where COH will lead you...

Because of recent events..ahem...I decided  to look at something I never ever would have considered, Holidays in Maldives....I too thought it was an uber lux holiday location costing at least £5000....

Glory be, check this out...and this is only the first site I have been on.....

http://www.awayholidays.co.uk/indianocean/maldives/meedhupparu.aspx

£ 835  Seven nights....All Inclusive Four Star including all transfers and travel!

It makes me deliriously happy just to daydream about the beaches.... 

Who knew....

To all COH family in the path of Jonas... be safe, be careful..Weather reports show this storm is going to be quite serious. My thoughts are with you.

However- if you lose power.. fear not- red wine is always served at room temperature, and hagen daz makes a wonderful chilled soup.

PP- Thanks for the advice! Never thought of Hagen Daz as a soup! Any particular flavor you'd recommend? I only ask because I saw a recipe for peanut butter soup (don't ask!) on line and thought that was weird!

Are you sure you're out of the line of fire? It seems like this storm is going to hit he whole east coast. Seems like the worst of it will hit the mid-Atlantic states (DC especially), but we're all going to get some snow and high winds. Should be a lovely weekend. 

 To everyone in the storm's path, stay warm and safe - and don't wait til the power goes out to break out the wine. Even better, curl up by the fire,  pour some Casamigos and watch a George flick or two. That should take your mind off the snow.

Lizzy- does the peanut butter soup stick to the roof of your mouth????   ( you just know someone was going to ask that question!!!!)

It has started here in DC.  About an hour and half ago.  So here we go.  

I've got red and white at the ready!   And if we do lose power I'll chill my white in the snow. Several bottles cause I'll be drinking more.

Lizzy, PigPen, annemarie and any other of our east coast friends -  please stay safe.  Stay inside and keep warm!

Donnamarie - It looks like you're going to get hit harder than we are here in NY. Hunker down and stay safe and warm. I hope you don't have power problems, but if you do, you're right. The snow makes a great refrigerator/freezer!

Good luck to everyone!

Good luck !!! 

I'll be thinking about you. Good luck!

I'm a bit late, but just saw our BBC news about your 
North East Coast Perfect Snow Storm that's approaching or already approached.

I hope you all keep safe over the weekend and 
have no horrible experiences in your bad weather. 

I always get concerned for the homeless in bad weather.
Both human and animal.

I had wanted to get a ticket for tonight's Springsteen concert in Madison Square Garden but couldn't get any. Yesterday I thought about Jonas and how disappointed he (my husband, not Bruce ) had been if he got a ticket but couldn't go there because the airports are closed. And now I read that the concert is postponed due to travel bans...

But that's a minor issue, compared to the problems everybody has who's actually living there...

Joanna - Thanks for the good wishes. Sadly, we're used to this. They start clearing the snow before it even has a chance to look pretty. Now it's just a mess - half shoveled, half piled up at the corners and curbs so you can't get across the street without climbing Mt. Everest! In a day or so it will start to melt and we'll be knee deep in slush - unless it gets colder - then we'll need ice skates until it all melts, and then we'll need boats!

Carolhathaway - You're lucky you didn't have tickets for anything because everything was cancelled. If he had gotten here your husband might have been stranded here til the snow melts.

Hope everyone's keeping warm and safe.  It looks like a massive storm!

And to change the subject completely: I've just seen the Big Short.  What an excellent film!  Has anyone else seen it?  What did you think?

And to change the subject again, do any of you think it's weird when men shave their legs and bits? It seems it's a growing trend - almost half of all men now remove the hair on their legs, not to mention chests and man-bits.

Lizzy....sorry about your SnowFest. 
Did you go out on skis in Time Square as I've seen 
on our BBC news ?  Sorry....Its not funny.

Sorry again....but here in UK we're enjoying an 
unusual January mild spell with south westerly 
air streams.

Between 11* and 13* across the country. 

On the snow storm subject I had tickets to a Broadway show today but we were able to get a refund yesterday after the NY theaters decided to close for the weekend due to the storm.  We got really lucky because the theaters rarely ever close!

On The Big Short I have not seen it but it's on my list so I'm glad you liked it Katiedot.  Hope to see it soon.  After 
I dig my way out of the snow.

I have read that today's metro sexual male is going for the hairless look. Have to say I'm not a fan

Joanna - You're no more sorry than I would be if George turned up on my doorstep! Go ahead, rub it in! You're lounging around in the sun while we're stuffed into snowsuits climbing over mountains of snow. It's ok. We'll laugh when your turn comes - and you know it will!

Actually, we're digging out pretty quickly. There are mountains of snow everywhere and they'll be around for a while, but the main streets are pretty well plowed. The only real problem is getting around on foot - especially trying to cross the street - because everyone piles the snow up along the curb and at the corners when they shovel. Manhattan probably isn't too bad, but here in Brooklyn it's a bit of a mess.

All that said, it's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Besides, it's only a couple of months til Spring. That should take care of any snow that's still around.

Lizzy-glad all is okay.  I do feel your pain, from our fun fest winter last year!  Hang in there. 

Are you responsible for snow removal for your living quarters??

PP. All is well here. How about you? No, thank Heaven, I'm not responsible for snow removal. If I was we'd probably be up to our knees until June! The superintendent of our building seems to have hired a couple of guys to do the heavy work and her 2 sons have been out a couple of times to make sure it stays passable. So far, so good, but it's gonna be a long haul.

Well, things got a bit hairy here. We're all safe, but I could've done without the drama.

We had mostly ice here. A day's worth of frozen precipitation, followed by a day of snow and then another layer of ice.

I'm in a neighborhood with lots of old evergreens and dogwoods. Pretty, but when they're heavy with ice, limbs come down. One of them took out the railing on one side of the porch. It barely missed a window, but the shutter came down. Of course, no one was coming out to cut/move the branch or look at the porch in that weather (and the insurance company said to just leave it unless it was an imminent danger) so it was just there, collecting more ice and getting heavier... And, you guessed it, it weighed down a whole side of the porch. So now there's no using the front entrance.

This was a comparatively mild incident, and I can't imagine what it feels and sounds like when a whole tree topples onto your actual house, but it scared the beejeezus out of me. I couldn't sleep until the ice melted, listening for crashing trees. 

Next up, petitioning the Homeowners Association to cut down several trees...

Way2Old - So sorry to hear about the damage. I hope the insurance covers all of it and it doesn't take too long to get everything fixed.. Even though the street I live on is considered a green belt area (lots of trees) they're not that close to the houses and most of them aren't that big, so they're not a threat. I have friends and family on Staten Island where it is much more suburban and they're having the same kinds of problems you are. Fingers crossed that it warms up and everything melts really soon.

Yeah, it's a double-edged sword. As aesthetic as it is here, it can be treacherous when the trees come down or get uprooted from saturated soil. The power lines come down more often than you'd think. The trees provide welcome shade in the summer, but they keep the snow from melting in the winter.

First World problems. I should be counting my blessings.

Way2Old4Dis wrote:
This was a comparatively mild incident, and I can't imagine what it feels and sounds like when a whole tree topples onto your actual house, but it scared the beejeezus out of me. I couldn't sleep until the ice melted, listening for crashing trees.

I can only imagine!  Used to live underneath a coconut palm, and when a frond comes down, it comes down with one hell of a crash!

Hope everyone's doing ok and that the storm's receding.  Just waiting for it to cross the Atlantic and hit the UK now.  Luckily (?) it'll have warmed up a little so it'll just be rain instead of snow.

Katie - Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll wear itself out on the way across the pond. Some of the weathermen here are saying we could get more snow! That just stinks! The weather fairy must be really pissed at us!

Yet more snow??? Uggghhhhh!

I love snow in theory, but in reality it's a whole different experience. Just misery.

LizzyNY - about the screenplays...

Most of the time, people I know who know other people will pass along a screenplay that's making the rounds. Totally an ethical professional violation, but it happens all the time.

Sometimes, screenwriting bloggers will get a hold of a script for readers to link or download. Around awards season, some of the studios will release downloadable copies of their nominated screenplays.

But, for a fairly good (though not plentiful) source of contemporary and popular scripts, go to dailyactor.com and check the screenplay menu.

Way2Old - Thanks! I never knew a site like that existed. I'm going to definitely check it out. 

Post Snow info....
Having lived through last year's 9ft of snow- here are a couple of tips
1.  if at all possible, get snow off your roof-esp if it's a flat roof.  Wet snow/ rain/ice increase the ton wt and roof collapse was really a major problem for us.
2.  keep a check for new cracks on ceilings and walls- may indicate added roof wt.

LizzyNY wrote:PP. All is well here. How about you? No, thank Heaven, I'm not responsible for snow removal. If I was we'd probably be up to our knees until June! The superintendent of our building seems to have hired a couple of guys to do the heavy work and her 2 sons have been out a couple of times to make sure it stays passable. So far, so good, but it's gonna be a long haul.

about 8 inches.  which is a good size for pretty much anything!!!

No comment!

Katie I don't know about guys shaving legs but waxing chests and backs has been normal around Hollywierd for years.

What's bugging the hell out of me is this trend toward "man buns" and beards. Geezus, more hair up top than I care to see.

I wouldn't mind a beard if it were trimmed but most guys are walking about with these large, bushy, unkempt beards and it's NOT attractive!


PigPen as to not being around - I've been busy at work - first right before the holidays dealing with a big event for which I did all the planning and now this month (and beginning of next) is my busiest time at work so haven't been here in a while.

I'm so wiped by the time I get home the best I can muster is a couple of snarky remarks on Twitter, cause really, Donald Trump is just too much of an idiot NOT to want to comment and going to bed early so I can get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for work.

So just a lot of stuff going on right now.

LorneDoone, I'm glad you're still checking in on us.  Good to hear from you.  Come back when the dust settles at work please.

PP....hope you are enjoying your 8 inches.



Hope it's taking your mind off the snow fest too.



We are still quite mild here even though it's 
"baby weather."

Joanna - "Baby weather"? I've never heard that before.

HA! Baby weather. Will be interesting to see how much the birth rate spikes in 9 months!

Happens every time there's a blizzard!!  And in the ninth month, if there's a full moon, pity the maternity ward staff!!!!!!!!!

THAT I understand. Joanna confused me when she said it was "still quite mild" even though it's "baby weather". - I associate baby booms with snowstorms and blackouts.

Everyone all dug out?

I think baby weather may mean 'wet and windy' - the way a baby usually is . . .

Hunker down fellow Brits. Jonas hits our shores today and the met office already have amber alerts out for some areas. Gale force winds of 95 mph in some places. Thankfully not much snow, but plenty of rain.

Marvellous.

Be careful, ladies.   Want you all back here, posting away, come Monday.

Katie - Sorry to hear Jonas hasn't blown himself out yet. I was going to say that at least you won't be getting snow, but rain can be even worse what with flooding and mud. Stay dry if you can and try to think  happy thoughts of Spring (it's only a few weeks away.)

I keep envisioning George in his wellies with a bucket, trying to bail out his back garden! I guess that's what you get for living in the middle of a river.

We still have mounds of snow .

There is nowhere left to put our plowed snow.  Yes, mounds of snow just getting bigger and taller.

To our Brit friends take care please.  Nothing worse than a bad hair day and this sure sounds like one!

We did have lots of snow about ten days ago. Then it suddenly became very warm, and it's all gone. In December it was so warm that the trees started to blossom, and the cranes didn't leave for the winter. Really strange...

Carolhathaway - We're having the same kind of weird weather. I think the scientists are right about climate change. Maybe we haven't caused it all. Maybe it's part of the earth's natural cycle, but whatever is causing it the climate does seem to be changing.

It's scary. If they're right we're in for a lot of problems in the future unless we make some big changes in the way we do things and that doesn't seem too likely.

Lizzy,
it worries me that there are still people denying that the climate is changing. Or others who say 'Yes, it's happening, but we can't do anything to avoid that'. 

Last summer the temperatures constantly changed between about  50 °F and 100 °F, you never knew what to wear and what to plan. We do have a wintersport region just a few miles away, but we only had enough snow to go skiing for about a week. Now nearly all of it is gone. And a whole tourist business is struggling because you have to find alternatives for tourists.

And we also had some heavy floodings during the last years, and I'm sure this will continue. But that's nothing compared to other regions in the world...

Carolhathaway - The people who say we can't do anything could change their minds if someone offers them a solution. The people who won't do anything because it might cost them money are the ones who bother me.

On a funnier note: NY has a "snow day" when Central Park is sprayed with man-made snow and people come to sled and ski and build snow men. All the fun things to do in the snow. This year it was cancelled because Jonas hit town and it was snowing!