Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
movies

walk the line

All I ask for is a good movie. I watch a fair amount of stuff and more often than not, I’m disappointed with what I see. But, not this time. What a great story this was! I’ve always been a fan of Johnny Cash (he is the Man in Black, after all), but I think I would’ve liked this movie even if that was not the case. Besides the interesting story line, the performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were outstanding. Who knew they could sing? I’m not familiar with June Carter Cash’s work, but Phoenix did a great job emulating Johnny Cash’s style.

While I don’t really have a favorite genre of films (I probably like thrillers the most, but I’ll watch anything if it’s supposed to be good), biopics are pretty low on my list (maybe it’s because there are less of them than other types of films). But, it just goes to show–if you make a good movie, you make a good movie–it doesn’t matter what it’s about.

Definitely worth watching.

live entertainment

signs that you might be getting old

This evening, the three of us went to catch a set of music from one of Brian’s former co-workers, Jenny Drummey. The show was at the Bottle Works. Jenny has been a Johnstown staple for quite a number of years now. The music was all original and Brian described it as folk-rock. Jenny sang and played guitar (she’s an incredible singer); there was another guitarist who switched between acoustic and electric guitar; and a drummer.

OK. Now for the old part. The ironic thing is that the Bottle Work’s parking lot is adjacent to The Ace’s Lounge, which we used to frequent in our younger days. So, this is how you can tell you are getting old…you go to a show at 7:30pm on a Friday night, with your 6-year-old kid, the show’s an hour and 15 minutes long, and they’re serving cookies and coffee as the food and drink. And you’re home by 9:30 so you can play a game of Yahtzee and a few games of Boggle before you retire for the evening. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying…

out and about

city view

We hit City View for supper tonight and were joined by Judy. As always, it was great to see her.

We first went to City View right after it opened. The decor of the place is fantastic, but their menu didn’t impress me. The food is good, but I wouldn’t call it great (of course, rarely do I call a restaurant’s food ‘great’ so no offense to them). Anyway, I saw an ad in the paper saying that their menu had been changed so I thought now would be a good time to check them out again (we don’t eat out much in case you haven’t noticed). This time around, I thought the menu looked pretty appetizing.

I have a new menu challenge these days–I always order whatever kind of wine I’m thirsty for and then have to plan my dinner around it. Tonight I had a red zinfandel, which I really enjoyed. It has been years since I’ve had a glass of that. I ordered chicken for my dinner, which technically does not go with red zinfandel, but it actually all tasted pretty good together.

jake, pets

the itch parade

Lizzy was scratching herself like a mad dog last night. I thought she might have contracted a bad case of fleas, though I did not see any on her. After she scratched herself raw in a couple of spots, I gave her some Benadryl and hoped for the best. I figured I’d pick up some flea killer today and that would be the end of it. But by this morning, she was covered in hives–one of her eyes was practically swollen shut. I gave her another Benadryl and called the vets. They had me bring her in immediately. She ended up getting a shot of steroids and is now on steroid medication for the next week or so. The cause of the problem is unknown. She could have been bitten by some sort of insect or ingested something that caused the reaction. We may never know, but the vet didn’t think it was flea-related. So much for that idea. Of course, since the cause is unknown, the problem could occur again. And I thought Lizzy was going to be our healthy dog…

In other news, Jake made his public Cub Scout debut this evening in the Johnstown Columbus Day parade. Didn’t know that there was a Columbus Day parade? Join the club. It was over in about 10 minutes, but he had a great time and so did Brian (who marched with the kids in his Republican regalia. no, he’s not a Republican, but he hopes some day to make enough money to be one).

gardening & landscaping

law arbor day 2006

We’ve been filling in the front area with hedges for what seems like forever. We were supposed to finish up last fall, but never got around to it due to our bathroom remodel. Today was a beautiful day and seemed suited to working outside, so we went to Ray’s Nurseries and picked up our final 8 hedge plants. Poor Brian got stuck with all of the grunt work, but I did what I could to help. Since we haven’t planted anything in two years, the new plants look tiny compared to the ones we planted previously, but they’ll fill in eventually.

This just about concludes the landscaping in the front yard. The only thing that is left is a small enclosure in front of our picture window. I used to have herbs in there but I expanded my herb garden last year so I removed everything and have unsuccessfully tried to plant some shade flowers from seed in there the past two seasons. So, I’m either going to find some kind of shade-loving bulb plant or remove the mint from my herb garden and put it there (at least it will be contained if I do that).