Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
me

day off

It was my birthday yesterday so I had the day off (sometimes it’s good to be the policy-maker, but mostly it’s not). I had the house to myself as Brian was at work and while it was Jake’s last day of school, he spent his off time at his friend’s house.

I feel like I got a lot out of the day. I had some fun (reading, knitting, napping) but also did some work around the house (not too much, though). As if the universe knew it was my birthday, I received the newest Stephen King book, Finders Keepers (courtesy of the Stephen King Library) in the mail. I’m looking forward to starting that one this weekend.

After everyone returned home, we went out for supper at Asiago’s, which was great as always, opened presents, and then watched a movie later in the evening. All in all, a good day.

movies

taken 3

Like the previous movie in the series, this one had a crappy editing, but it was surprisingly not bad for being the 3rd installment. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re into this genre. The critics had nothing good to say about this movie, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

My rating: 3/5

tv

cutting the cord

So, I cancelled our cable last week. It’s supposed to be disconnected today. I’ve been wanting to do this for years, but wasn’t willing to give up The Walking Dead (not to mention HGTV and Food Network), but then I read about an amazing thing called Sling TV and once they added AMC to their channel lineup, I figured it was worth a shot. With the exception of the aforementioned channels, we really don’t watch much television (most of our viewing is through Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video). I’m down to two network shows (The Middle and Modern Family) and don’t plan on expanding my repertoire. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about those next season (Hulu Plus, maybe), but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.

I received one of those over the air antennas for my birthday, so we get a couple of channels through it, most notably, WJAC. I was hoping to get Fox and ABC since they are out of Richland, but no luck with that. I guess the major disappointment is that we won’t be able to watch any football games unless they are on ESPN, but we hardly watch football anymore, anyway. Plus, we can always listen to the Steeler games on the radio, which is what we typically do, anyway.

We’ll see how this goes, but I think it will be a success. Our cable bill is going to drop about $75/month and Sling TV only costs $20/month, so that’s quite a net savings for something we were barely using.

live entertainment

polkafest 2015

We went to the Polkafest both Saturday and Sunday to catch Alex Meixner (and some food). We were having such a good time on Saturday night that we didn’t want to leave. Apparently Polkafest was the place to be on Saturday because we ran into a bunch of people we knew. Jake had other plans that evening, so it was just me and Brian, though we did drag him down there against his will on Sunday. I think next year, we’ll just go the one time and stay longer. Bonus: Alex Meixner is playing at Thunder in the Valley later this month.

health & wellness

the agony and the ecstasy

Jake had an ortho appointment yesterday. We’ve been expecting his braces to come off since January, so we were really hoping that this would be it (not that they would be taking them off yesterday, but that he’d be fitted for a retainer and the removal appointment would be scheduled). Typically, his check-up appointments are pretty quick, so I got hopeful because the appointment lasted longer than normal. Jake and the tech eventually emerged and the tech informed me that Jake was fitted for a retainer and would be getting his braces off at the next appointment. Woo!

So, we went to the counter to schedule his next appointment and was told that they could remove the braces in August. August! I blurted out something to the effect that we were expecting the appointment to be sooner (Jake’s cousin recently went through the same thing, at the same place, but it was a two week wait for her), but I was met with a blank look. So, he’s getting them off in August.

I guess the good news is that the date is set and they are coming off for sure (no more “maybes”).