Today

Tis the morning, before the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  Is anybody working out there?  Of course, that question is loaded.  My friend Patty said she's going to hit the supermarket this morning... good luck with that.  I zipped down to my local giant yesterday for a few items.  Even at 0900 the store was very busy.  Lots of elderly people were buying necessities since everything closes down tomorrow.  I had no problem parking far from Giant.  And though the aisles were crowded, self-checkout was a breeze.  Most elderly people hate self-checkout.  They want a cashier.  And so, they stand and wait in line of other elderly people.
I went to see the next iteration of "Jumanji" last evening.  Since no one really remembers the minor characters... the kids who were sucked into the game in the first film, they need to be introduced.  That was a tedious twelve minutes.  The only bright spots were the introduction of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover.  Though the film is funny (and it is really funny), much of the humor revolves around their gaming avatars.   Even Kevin Hart was funny, and for me that's saying a lot.

And, since this is the day before Christmas, news is going to be light today.  The Idiot Jerk in the White House is in his Dachau in Mar (something or other).
Oh, and Christianity Today had another op-ed about phony Christians selling their souls to the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Most of them are going to ignore it.  To do otherwise entails looking at the growing evil within their hearts.  They will never do that... accept the fact that they are unclean.

Bits and Pieces

Since it's Saturday, I thought I just throw out some random bits and pieces.
This is the first Saturday in January which means we're going to have our Kids Workshop.  According to Accuweather the temp this morning, during the workshop hours, is going to hover in the very, very low teens (think 13 F), and you can bet there are going to be parents to bring their 3, 4, and 5 year-old children, not because they have a lot of fun, but because they get something for free.
Interestingly enough, even thought the Idiot Jerk and other high ranking Republicans are calling "Fire and Fury" nothing more than a pack of lies, lies, lies, the basso profundo undertones in their song are singing truth, truth, truth.  Remember their idea of Damage Control is to attack anything and everything that laughs at them.... so start laughing!
Here's a sad little puff piece in Bloomberg written by Anousha Sakoui which uses a photo of Jack Black to head the article, but then completely fails to mention him, or give him any credit for Jumanji's success, instead those kudos are given to Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, two comedians who evidently need to have their egos petted by Sony Pictures.
The Golden Globes are this Sunday - a lot of people will be watching them, I most likely will not be one of them.  Not a big award show person here.  Oh, and the Producer's Guild announced their nominees yesterday - 11 films are nominated... including "Wonder Woman."  "Get Out" got a nomination, too.  Many of those titles will get Oscar nods as well.  Last years Oscar winner "Moonlight," was a finger in the eye to Social Conservatives every where, and wouldn't be surprised if the Academy didn't do it again by giving the Best Picture award to the  inter-species love story, adult fairy tale "The Shape of Water."

I stretched my scar tissue doing crunches with a 12 lb medicine ball yesterday and now I'm a bit sore.  Shit.  Time to take an anti-inflammatory.

Snowing on Jumanji

Woke this AM to find that Central PA is getting some snow - the forecast was for 1 - 2 inches, but we have about that much already, so we will probably getting 3 or 4 - which is fine with me.  While not for everyone, shoveling snow is 'free cardio' take advantage of it, unless you're out of shape, than shovel slowly.

The dogs have been out at least 4 times playing in it so the pristine whiteness is now splayed with footprints and pee marks.
I went to see "Jumanji" last evening - some of it was very good, some of it was... well, okay.  A good word to describe it would be... uneven.  For those who don't know, this is the story of 4 very different teens who get sucked into a video game where they need to learn to work as a team in order to survive.  Unfortunately that only happens with two of them.  Dwayne Johnson's size makes him a screen presence, however there's little chemistry between he and Karen Gillan, who seems to have been terribly miscast.  Kevin Hart is funny, but doesn't seem to realize he's not the star.  Jack Black, however, is hysterical as Bethany, the self-absorbed, Miss Popularity, who finds herself in the body of a middle aged chubby man.  In fact, Jack Black and Nick Jonas are the only two characters in this film who develop any kind of chemistry, and are really the only reasons why you might want to see this in the theater.

That's right, you Nick Jonas fans, he turns up almost 2/3 of the way through and keeps it from becoming totally maudlin.

Plans for the day include making butternut squash soup from scratch, shoveling some snow, and putting in some time on the new bike.  Oh, and maybe a nap or two.