7ToF: the small screen, the fox, and the always looming pot luck disaster

1. The TV is frequently on at our house, but I would still say we are not big TV watchers. (And fwiw, when no one's watching it, it's off. There are few things that irritate me more than having the TV on in the background when no one is watching it.) About half the time, we watch sports, or one of MadMax's outdoors shows. (You would not believe the obscure outdoors skills that have entire series devoted to them.) Also, there are two shows set to record on the DVR (Modern Family and Big Bang Theory). But we're not really addicted to those-- if we miss them, or don't watch for several weeks, I don't even think about them. Also, there were brief periods early on when we were addicted to Downton Abbey and Arrested Development, but I lost interest after a season or two. And that's about it.

2. I'm not opposed to TV by any means. We have in the distant past been absolutely devoted to various shows-- a couple of iterations of Star Trek, Moonlighting, Northern Exposure, Lois and Clark, and there was some obscure detective show that came to its end when one of the stars shot himself with a prop gun and died-- I can't even remember the name of it. (see I told you, a really long time ago. the most recent one of those was mid-90s.)

3. But for some reason we haven't been immersed in a TV show in a long time. There are so many shows I've heard are good that I've never ever seen: Scandal, The Good Wife, Parenthood,The Gilmore Girls, Friday Night Lights, West Wing, Alien, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... (After finding this list, I could go on and on.) I actually like the idea of binge watching seven seasons of a show in a weekend, but on the rare occasion when there is a weekend we could do it, for some reason we never do.

4. So it occurred to me recently, the last time I was really addicted to a show was for the most part before we had kids. So.... maybe this is something that will return when we are empty nesters. Maybe we will spend every weekend binge watching TV shows until we are all caught up. It could happen. Let me know if you have any likely candidates.

Now that we've exhausted that topic.... moving on.....

5. We have seven chickens, and we have a fox. Seriously. Dean saw him/her waltzing across the driveway as he was leaving for work recently, and MadMax and I watched her/him make her way across our neighbor's yard last week. Our neighbors who live in full view of the field-next-door can see the fox family in their den. How can this be? Why aren't our chickens disappearing to feed little foxlets? We do shut our ladies in at night, but they wander around all day. My favorite theory: I think Ms. Fox tried one time (we do have one chicken that mysteriously developed a permanent limp), and our little flock ganged up on her and fought her off. You go, girls.

6. Just so you know I did it, here is the First Folio. I have to confess it's a little underwhelming in person. You enter a darkened room, with several spotlighted poster boards of information about Shakespeare and the folio, and in the dark at the far end of the room is a glass case with a 400-year-old book in it. It can't be exposed to light. It's cool to see it, but to be entirely honest, the workshops I attended on teaching Shakespeare were much more interesting.

7. I took an enormous pan of chili mac to the band banquet/potluck this week. Every time I carry a big dish of food into a potluck, I go right back to a bad moment from college. Sophomore year, my friend Angela (named changed to protect the innocent) was taking an upper level Spanish class. Her final project for the class was to cook an authentic meal from (some-spanish-speaking-region I can no longer remember). She cooked all day. There were several dishes, so she asked me to help her carry them from the kitchen to the classroom (I wasn't in the class, she just needed help transporting the food). I grabbed the main dish, I think it was in a crock pot, and off we went. About halfway there, I dropped the entire thing. Yes, I did. Her final project, which was to be graded, and which could absolutely not be reproduced with a magic wand, dumped right there on the linoleum. *buries face in hands*

Ever resourceful, Angela saw that the food was mounded up on the floor, so she scooped up the part that wasn't touching the floor, dumped it back in the pot, and off we went. I was so utterly ashamed and embarrassed that I have no memory of what happened next. Did I go back and clean up the mess? Did anyone get food poisoning? Did she pass the class? I have no memory, except I remember it ever single freaking time I carry a heavy dish of food.

Surprisingly, she still speaks to me, and in fact, it's possible she will tell her side of the story in the comments. :-)

There you go. Have a great holiday weekend, and for God's sake, if you're going to a potluck, carry the food carefully.

P.S. As several of you who read here will remember, our wedding was Memorial Day weekend thirty-two years ago. Happy anniversary to us!