Category Archives: personal

I Love Vampires on Monstrous Monday

A sentiment often shared.

If I had stuck with retail hours, perhaps Monday would be less heinous.  However, Friday would be less joyous.  We make these trade-offs in life.  This by way of introduction to another Monstrous Monday post.  My life is not so horrible, by the way.  I feel happy to have gotten through Monday. I do not worry about what Tuesday will bring.

“Pull the string! Pull the string!”

This is Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, a tour de force performance in an excellent movie.  I will be watching that movie again soon, as it is one of my favorite Halloween movies.

No Smoking, but he is smoking hot!

This is related in a twisted way.  Martin Landau plays Bela Lugosi,  who is well known for playing a vampire.  Here is a well known vampire, Blackula.  It’s a good flick. I would like to have it in my collection.

“I bid you velcome.”

To cap things off, here is Bela Lugosi himself as Dracula.  That brings things to a nice conclusion, I think.  Maybe not, though.  Maybe I should have closed with Boris Karloff, to hook into the first image.   Oh dear.  Well, we cannot always do the ideal thing.  At least I have made my Monstrous Monday post.

 

For a Sunday Post, It Will Have To Do

 

It is SO Wrist to Forehead Sunday today!  I don’t want to make a post.  I don’t want to do anything!  What a bum!

The only reason I am typing anything at all (as Truman Capote famously said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing”) is that I do not want to be typing at 4 a.m. tomorrow.  I know, I said posting in the morning was going to be a thing, but I don’t want to HAVE to do it. Am I making sense?  Probably not,  but as usual, I ask you to bear with me.

We had a fun time earlier with our friend Kim at the End Zone Pub and Grub.  There is not much else I can say about that, and, alas, I did not take pictures.  Pictures always do pep up a post, don’t they?

Isn’t she pretty?

Just to prove that point, I put in a picture of Kim.  This is at Dikin Durt Distillery in Herkimer, NY.  That lets me include another plug for a local business.  I need to get back to Dikin Durt soon.  I could use another bottle of moonshine for coffee of questionable moral fiber purposes.

So this is my blog post for today.  Two small plugs for local businesses and a little whining about How I Can’t Make a Post.  It will have to do.

Just to also include a picture of the End Zone.

 

To Fall Or Just To Leave?

I guess I’ll have to stop apologizing for making late blog posts; I’m afraid it is just going to happen.  Anyways, I thought I would take this morning’s 200 or so words to dither about the Falling Leaves 14K in Utica two weeks from today.

I have long wanted to run that.  I understand it is a beautiful and challenging course.  I need to challenge myself.  In fact, sometimes I even need to Double Dog Dare myself.  So why the hesitation?

Well, for one reason, the race is only 1K less than the Boilermaker.  That is not a distance to be undertaken lightly.  And I would not be undertaking it lightly.   I have been running all summer, slowly building myself up.  I feel that I am in pretty damn good shape (from some angles my actual shape could stand improvement, but I digress).

Basically what happens is all week I feel tired and discouraged.  I think of keeping up my running three to five days a week while working.  I think about driving to Utica and looking for a parking space after luckily finding where the race starts (I know these considerations do not bother some people, but I seem to be more easily intimidated in some respects), and I say, “I just can’t take the pressure.”

Then I go for a long run on the weekend, get all endorphinned up, and say, “This is AWESOME!   I am SO doing the Falling Leaves 14K!”  Yesterday on my cool down walk, I met a neighbor who runs and asked was he doing the race.  He has not signed up yet but has done it in the past and recommends it.  He is a younger guy in great shape.  I daresay he does not need to constantly consider the calendar and calculate how fast 10 percent per week will add up, as I do.

Right now I am in the discouraged portion of my dithering (although I do feel challenged to refute that parenthetical comment about being easily intimidated.  Me? Intimidated? SAY IT AIN’T SO! ). However, I have not gone on this morning’s run yet.  I expect I will feel differently then.  In any case, I am now over 300 words.  Quite respectable for a late post. I shall now get on with my Sunday.

 

Surely Everybody Loves Halloween

I do not want to get up early tomorrow and make a late post for today.  Surely I can manage a Friday Lame Post (and I will call you Shirley if I want to).

My allergies have been kicking my butt this week. I can’t be too upset about that, though, because it means fall is coming. I love fall!  After all, who needs to breathe?  And the lightheadedness?  I can handle that.  Bring on the colored leaves, pumpkin spice coffee, and HALLOWEEN!

I guess they went on the South Beach Diet.

Here is a shot from Pumpkin Junction in Sauquoit, NY.  I can’t wait to get back there again!

And here’s a friendly guy!

To continue the Halloween theme, here is an awesome decoration sent to me by my friend Marsha.  At least, she sent me the pot.  I added the orange stuff and vampire.

They look suspicious to me!

Here is a picture from a fall murder mystery, with a ghoulish theme.  We are working on a new murder mystery (preview of coming attractions).

I guess all I am going to do today is post pictures and write a sentence or two about them.  I find that appropriate for Lame Post Friday.

“Is this the blog post you wanted me for?”

I have not used a shot of Nosferatu in a while, have I?  I do love to close with my favorite.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

A Peek at the Past with Cindy and Steve

OK, so my post this morning counted for Wednesday,  and this is my Thursday post,  made on Thursday (despite what my WordPress timestamp might say), so I’ve got that going for me.  I thought I would indulge in a Throwback Thursday,  using pictures from my Media Library.  Hey, I’m making the day’s post on the day; let’s not ask for miracles.

This was a while ago.

Here is a shot I go back to again and again.  It is Steve’s and my wedding day in 1990 (1990? Yikes!).   These days we prefer to drink champagne from a flute.  Live and learn, I guess.  I also prefer the drier stuff these days, although I cherish memories of good times with Asti Spumante.

Yes, I am giving him The Look. 

Maybe I will make this a Steve and Cindy Day.  For one reason,  I love this picture of Steve and me in Harvey at Ilion Little Theatre in 2012.  I’m Veda Louise Simmons; Steven is Dr. Chumley. A great theatre memory.

I should have found a better wig.

I include this one, because it is one I haven’t shared as often.  I am portraying the ghost of Roxalana Druse at the 1834 Jail in Herkimer, NY.  It was a fundraiser for the Herkimer County Historical Society.  I shamefully forget what year.

Steven and I have had some fun times together.  But we will have to take a few more pictures, for blogging purposes, if nothing else.  In the meantime,  I hope you have enjoyed my Throwback Thursday post.

 

 

What Have I Been Writing?

OK, it’s a thing:  apparently I post in the morning now.  Only sometimes I oversleep and don’t have the time I’m used to.  I know, excuses, excuses.  Never mind.  What I have today is the overview of the murder mystery I have been working on to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society.  They asked for a blurb for their newsletter, so I wrote this yesterday (so I have been writing, I try to comfort myself).  I thought it would work as a blog post as well.

A glamourous group called The Drama Queens is planning to put on a show for the Herkimer County Historical Society.  Unfortunately, they cannot agree on exactly what to perform, and tonight’s event is to pick a project.  Roxanne Rolls wants to do a musical version of the Roxalanna Druse case (although she is a little confused as to the actual facts thereof).  Fran Kleemydear wants to dramatize the murder of Jack Sherman by Frangelica Inferno (more recent history, but still…).  Helen Damnation prefers the idea of a quiz show a la “Who Knows Herkimer County History?”  (sadly cancelled as the result of recent events).  The Queens are led by Princess Dragamiroff, who claims to be an A-One fundraiser (although rumor has it her methods do not bear close scrutiny).  She says she has a wad of cash to finance the show (after all, you have to spend money to make money).  The Princess is late.  No doubt she wants to make an entrance.  We do hope nothing has happened to her.

I will write more later today.

 

Musings on Mood

Yes, it is another late post.  I was too sad to write one last night.  I know, I know, that is no excuse. “One must be pitiless in the matter of mood.”  That is a quote, but I cannot remember who said it. In my defense, I am not saying, “I wasn’t in the MOOD to write.”  Hmm… What, then, was I saying? I guess I don’t know.

I feel I should go on to tell why I was (full disclosure: and still am) so sad. I am disinclined to do so, however.  For one reason, it isn’t my own stuff I am sad about, it is other people’s tragedies.  I do not want to usurp someone else’s story for my own petty purposes.

Come to think about it,  I have said too much already, just by telling you I am sad.  What is that but a whiny bid for sympathy?  I ought to feel ashamed.  I do feel ashamed.

On the other hand, there is little point in judging myself.  I was only trying to make one of my stream of consciousness late posts.  Being honest about one’s feelings is not necessarily asking for sympathy, despite appearances to those looking for the least flattering interpretation.

Under the heading Cutting Myself a Break, I am going to call this a Mid-Week Middle-Aged Musings and drive on.

Just Writing Another Late Post

Yes, I did it again.  I failed to make my blog post on the day intended.  That’s two days in a row I did that,  although I suppose regular readers noticed that. I am going through a really rotten writing period (oh how I wished I could think of a word with an “r” sound to be alliterative!).

The answer, of course,  is to Write, Just Write. If I can’t write one thing, I can try something else, as long as I am getting words on paper or screen. So here I am, getting words on screen.  Good words?  Entertaining words?  I don’t ask for miracles.  I just write.

I scrolled through my Media Library twice looking for these pictures

We had a very nice Sunday with deck sitting before it rained followed by a few good movies.  We had a mini Judith Anderson film festival, with And Then There Were None and Laura. Then we continued the murder theme with Columbo.  We only have one season of on DVD.  I would like to have the entire series.

I don’t remember this shot from the movie, but it is a good picture of Anderson.

 

This one is from Laura..

I always say this is the real love story in the picture, and I don’t think I spoil anything by saying that, in case you never saw the movie. By the way, if you never saw the movie, I highly recommend it.

Sorry, no pictures of Columbo,  although I thought I had one.  Anyways, this will have to do for my Sunday post.  On the brighter side, for me at any rate, this is a three day weekend.  Will I get anything useful done?  Will I have a Mohawk Valley adventure?  Will I make my Monday post on Monday?  For the answers to these and other questions,  stay tuned to Mohawk Valley Girl.

 

Scatterbrained on Scattered Saturday

I completely forgot to make my blog post yesterday.  I have no excuse, or at least none I am going to offer. Instead, I sit here Sunday morning, typing away (one letter at a time with the stylus, because it is just so much more comfortable on the couch), and hoping, as usual, for the best.

I went for a long run yesterday morning, almost an hour.  I do love a long run, because I have a better chance of getting a dose of those endorphins I hear so much about.  I did not seem to get any yesterday, but at least I felt pleased with myself for running so long.  I was thinking about running the Falling Leaves 14K in Utica later on in September.  Right now I am re-thinking it, but we’ll see how I feel after today’s run.

After the run I did a load of laundry, which I hung out on the line.  That and the run were my only accomplishments of the day. However, as my husband Steven and I lounged on the deck, as we did for a considerable amount of time,  it was nice to watch the clothes flap in the breeze.

Eventually we went to Salvatore’s, one of our favorites,  for something to eat.  Back home, we watched a couple of movies.

Hmm… I guess we did not do enough to qualify for a true Scattered Saturday. Oh well, you’ll have that, especially when it’s me we’re talking about.  I must get this published, late as it is, and get on with my Sunday.