AJAX BELL

Author of the Queen City Boys books

Tag Archives: tv


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I say tomato

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Had a lovely, lovely weekend.  Went to the Tomato Festival with Queen Mab (Queen of the fairies, who is not so tiny anymore) and her parents henceforth known as the Queen Mother and Haiku King because her mother looks like a fairy queen as well and her father–formerly Chef Daddy–is no longer a chef and won the Tomato haiku contest.  Grand champion, best in show of over 400 hundred entries, so that was pretty exciting.  I managed to only miss one little spot with the sunscreen and didn’t really get burned.  We had surprisingly delicious tomatillo and basil ice cream and ran into lots of neighborhood folks.

I confess that I never got dressed on Sunday.  As evidenced from yesterday’s post I spent the while day watching the first season of True Blood.  I did laundry, cooked, polished some boots, worked on some sewing projects, sorted out jewelry supplies and tidied up a bit (before I messed it all up again).  So the day wasn’t a complete loss.

Today I ran lots of errands, built myself a macro photo studio.  I need to get different lights as the ones I’d planned to use aren’t bright enough.  Kind of sucks because I probably could have found something at Target today, but alas I didn’t know until I’d already gotten home.  I paid bills, made a healthy dinner and went to yoga with the Queen Mother.  Now as a reward for my virtuous living I will spend the night on the couch watching more True Blood and eating chocolate covered dried cherries.

I’d feel bad about “undoing” all my good work, except that on Saturday I put on skirt I haven’t worn in quite a while and it was HUGE.  This is skirt that I let the waist out on by 2 inches before I went to Spain a few years ago.  Now it doesn’t even stay up.  So my choices clearly are to take the skirt back in a couple inches or eat chocolate cherries until it fits. Hmmmm.

Picture taken at the 2003 Chelsea Flower Show.


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too many things. and vampires.

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Libelle is still out of town and I am being kind of lazy on this Sunday.  Ha!  Of course even if Libelle was here, chances are I’d still be sitting around in my pajamas.  But since she is out of town, I am waiting and waiting to watch the last two episodes of Being Human.  Even though I am dying to find out what happens.

Because I needed something to watch I am watching True Blood. I am only on episode 2 of season 1.  I have clearly not at all been paying attention to mainstream media since I had no idea that this was based on the Sookie Stackhouse books. I read the first three books when they came out and in general I like vampire things (which seem really, really popular lately, is that Twilight fall out or something else?) so it seems like someone would have told me I should be watching this show.

As with any adaption it has it’s problems.  And of course the original stories themselves require a lot of suspension of disbelief (and I don’t mean just believing in vampires, but more the weird secrecy about part of it and how the rest of the world would respond to the existence of vampires).  Still it is well enough made TV to be cracky cracktastic crack.  I just wish the guy who played Bill was hotter.  Alas, they don’t yet let me cast all the TV I watch to my own specifications.  I do actually really like Sam.  And Tara.  And oddly enough, Jason.  Sookie is the epitome of a Mary-Sue, which is oddly likeable in this instance.   But maybe the thing I like best about the show so far is the credits.  They are subtly creepy and promise great things for the show.  The images are disturbing but somehow home-like as well.

Huh.  That’s a lot of words about TV.

So as I watch I have been slowly and carefully continuing to strip down my possessions.  I’ve talked about this a little here before.  I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.  Some of it is a Zen thing, some of it is just feeling sort of burdened by everything I own.  It’s not like I need to pack up and go at any moment.  No, it’s more like a few years ago I started looking at some of my stuff and feeling like I didn’t know who it belonged too.  And then, it feels weird to say, but there is such thing as too many shoes and too much clothing.  And then there’s the stuff that’s just stuff.  I have spent a good part of my weekend sorting through the tons of stuff I have just in case I need it.  And you know, some of this stuff I have literally been packing up and moving around for YEARS and still haven’t ever used any of it.  And so it goes away.  Hopefully to someone who will use it.

Of course some of the things I have way too many of are because I can’t find the right one.  Hand bags for instance, I buy one that seems good, use it for a bit and then shelve it in favor of one that might be better.  I did once find the perfect bag, but alas, when I got mugged last year it was one of the things I lost and I have not been able to find another one like it.  When my sister was here about a month ago I saw this bag and swooned over it.  It perfectly fits all my criteria.  I didn’t buy it though.  And I’ve been kind of obsessing it over it ever since.  So I guess I’ll smartly save my pennies for a few weeks and buy it. In purple.  Which is less practical, I guess than brown or black, but more me, non?  And hopefully this one wil prove to be a great as the one that got away.  Otherwise I’ll have to keep acquiring handbags.

Heh, the fact that I am sitting around in my pajamas contemplating vampires and handbags is probably a sign that I need to get out more.  Maybe I’ll go make dinner.  And then watch some more vampires…

The picture on this post is a conversation between my mom and one of my cousins.  It just cracks me up so much I had to share it with everyone.


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My name is George and I’m a werewolf

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I just spent an inordinate amount of time completely deconstructing the sleeves on a jacket, entirely remaking them, then taking it all apart (again) and putting it back to the way it was. Sometimes sewing is way more frustrating than it is relaxing.  I think I’m done sewing for the day.

Now I have to decide if I should go to bed or stay up and watch the last two episodes of Being Human.  I am completely obsessed with this show.  I’m only episode four but it’s utterly absorbing. I have teenage-like crush on the werewolf character.  Overall I like how all the characters play off each other, although I think Annie and Mitchell are kind of annoying on their own (he makes bad bad choices continuously and she can’t see the forest for the trees).  Is anyone watching this but me?  It’s running on BBC America right now and you can get it on On Demand if you have Comcast.  C’mon, people, join me!

I guess I kind of like the idea behind this new Nashville paper.  I am kind of confused about the choice to make it a print publication.  I mean I guess you get a wider audience, but given the state of news papers today it seems weird to start a new one.  Especially one that doesn’t actually have any news in it… Okay well, none of them have timely news anymore thanks to the internet, so maybe this is best use of a print paper.  I’m just not sure who their audience is after the novelty wears off.  The concept it self just seem much better suited to online.  I haven’t seen a copy yet but is it filled with ads or what?


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rainy days and Tuesdays

If is wasn't raining, I'd like to walking here right now.

The picture of the day yesterday on Bing.com was of Spain.  Anthony Bourdain’s episode yesterday was in Spain.  When I went to the library to pick up my holds, besides Victoria & Albert I also got When the Moors Ruled in Europe and Moorish Spain.   Obviously some of this I chose, but some just happened.  I’m sure the universe is trying to tell me to continue my studies and get my butt to Spain.

While watching TV yesterday I saw a lot of commercials for reality shows.  Most of these shows hold no interest for me whatsoever, but now I’m even more offended after seeing little bits of them.  I deal with enough assholes in every day life (one is too many really), why would I want to watch people on TV being horrible to other people?

Most of my sewing today isn’t turning out quite as I’d hoped.  I think I’m going to go ahead and iron and cut out mynext couple projects and then just leave off for a bit.

Tomorrow is a big dentist day (getting fitted for the bridge–which involves grinding some teeth down) and I’m trying not to think about it, but I”m pretty sure it’s the source of my anxiety and dissatisfaction today.  Ugh.