A Lost Weekend Sans the Alcoholism and with a Cat Brush

Three items I ordered from amazon.com came in during the latter part of last week, and I spent most of the weekend watching/utilizing them.

One of the items was The Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection which I only ordered because it was so damn cheap (one of the lunch lightning sales). I wasn't really excited about it. Then I got it in the mail, and it's awesomeness was tangible. My sister came over Friday evening, and we watched The King and I which is my second favorite. (My first being South Pacific, but Jenna didn't want to watch it.) Since I've been reading about Buddhism recently, I realized that at the time they wrote their musical neither Rodgers nor Hammerstein knew anything about it beyond the obligatory grandiose statues. We then watched the first half of Oklahoma!.

Saturday morning we went to help my brother and parents pack up his furniture for his move to Durant. Joel chose an abysmal weekend to move. The temperature was in the low 20s, and the wind was frigid. Carrying things from his apartment to his truck and my parents' trailer, I lost feeling in my hands, nose, and ears. My new piercing started to hurt a bit, and I finally had to forsake dignity and tie my scarf around my head Yente the Matchmaker style.

After lunch at Long John Silver's, Jenna and I went back to Nana and Poppy's and finished Oklahoma!. We then watched the 2004 BBC miniseries North & South, the one movie that we intended to over the weekend. As Jenna promised, it was spectacular, and I greatly enjoyed it. Jenna had decreed we watch it after we watched the newer Cranford in February. Both are based on the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell. After this, we should have stopped. Instead, we watched Rent which seemed more cinematically flawed than usual. I suppose watching lavish musicals in glorious Cinemascope and Technicolor and a meticulous BBC production would make any Chris Columbus film feel a bit lacking. Anyway, Jenna enjoyed it very much, though she spent the entire film certain that Mimi would die.

Also, Lillian's new Furminator brush arrived. Since it looks a bit like something from the Spanish Inquisition, I decided to follow the instructions carefully. These stated that for best results you should use it after washing your animal and drying them completely. While Lillian is always well behaved while being bathed, she doesn't especially enjoy the process so I usually forgo completely drying her; usually, she squirms away after a quick rubdown with a towel, and I let her sulk and dry in a corner. However, the instructions said completely so she had to suffer through the added aggravation of the hairdryer. I'm very pleased with the results of the brush. The fur seems to fall away in clumps. I just did a light brushing because she became fussy and yowled when I touched her. I'm not sure if the brush irritated her skin or if she was just upset about the bath and hairdryer. I'm going to brush her again this weekend without the bath and see if she still fusses.

The other item was Ugly Betty: Season One which is a show that I started watching and then stopped for reasons that are unclear to me. Anyway, I asked Nana if she wanted to watch the pilot with me, and I think she may be a bit addicted. We're on episode nine which is a few episodes before I stopped watching.

Most of Sunday I spent reading, playing The Sims 2 (one of my Sims is now Mayor of SimCity) and watching the Golden Girls marathon on Hallmark Channel. I hadn't realized that I'm seen ever episode of this show. So while I didn't complete several of the tasks that I set for myself, I had a lot of fun.