Friday, November 9, 2012

Just a Minute: October Edition

Last month's Just a Minute is a bit late because it is practically impossible to do a whole post from my phone. Plus, I was busy stuffing my face with as much pasta as I could stand, so I really didn't feel much like trying anyway.

reading…I took exactly two physical books on this trip (one to cover take-off and landing for both flights), but accidentally left one of them unread on the first plane. Luckily, I was not too heartbroken, and luckily I had loaded up my iPad with free classics to read on the Kindle app. I AM NOT A CONVERT, but I did want to have plenty of room to bring back lots of goodies. Nathan did not entirely cooperate with that plan, but I did bring back 25 Lion Bars, so it was not an entire loss. On the Kindle app, I read Chronicles of Avonlea, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Love Among the Chickens and Right Ho, Jeeves (Man, do I love me some Wodehouse). But then we downloaded the new Ticket to Ride: Europe game and got a little obsessed.

watching…on the plane to Italy, I watched Brave (awesome), Moonrise Kingdom (excellent), and Dark Shadows (not bad). On the way home again, I watched Ted (relatively funny), The Odd Life of Timothy Green (pretty good), To Rome with Love (enjoyed it more than most Woody Allen movies, I guess), and The Dark Knight Rises (fabulous). I'm a little ashamed that I passed up Beast of the Southern Wild for some of these, because it looks great and much more artistic than some of them, but I suppose I'd rather pay money to rent that one than to rent Ted.

listening…to the Scissor Sisters, Baby Come Home, which played every five minutes on MTV, the only channel in English on Italian TV. Do you know how devastating it is to find the one and only channel you can understand only to come to the realization that it is in the middle of a Jersey Shore's marathon? Seems like Italians may take their native Dante a little too seriously by ensuring that American tourists are subjected to this tenth circle of hell.



loving…As mentioned above, the Ticket to Ride: Europe game (I bought the iPhone version so we could use it on both) is fully and completely worth the $1.99 price. It's a little more challenging than regular Ticket to Ride, so it has definitely kept my attention for the 25 or so games I've played so far. It has options to play with someone else both virtually and sitting right next to you and you can play with computer generated characters too. Plus, unlike the actual board game, which can take ages to play, you can knock out a game against the computer in 15 minutes or less.

making...I've started on some fun stocking stuffers! Can't post anything about them yet as really most of the recipients are among my only readers.

baking…After eating so much delicious focaccia in Italy, I am going through withdrawal. I definitely plan on making it more often, probably starting this weekend.

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