butchers of France

I got another wild hair and decided to do a little more genealogical digging, and ended up joining an internet community called JewishGen - an umbrella of sorts for mailing lists, databases, etc. My great great grandfather was a butcher in a small town in Alsace, and his grandson found himself emigrating to the Philippines, marrying a Spanish lady, and converting to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed (after a life moving in that direction, judging from the papal order he received). So I'm a little closer to finding out why Leopold left Europe and found himself in the Philippines, because there's family history about it that doesn't seem to tally with real history.

Took Bemo to Cracker Barrel last night (shaddup, I love that place) and we walked out of there with a box of Moon Pies. Ok, I walked out with a box. But Bemo gladly grabbed one this morning for a snack, so I'm not going to polish the whole box off by myself. Mmm, moon pies. So delicious, so evil. I, uh...also bought a giant jawbreaker. For no reason.

One of my old curators from DC is flying in tomorrow to go to a quilt conference. We're going to get together for dinner and gossip, and I'm very excited. She's a wonderful, fun lady to gab with.

The Mentalist ep. last night was a good example of "I love this show but they really need to work on the mystery bits." They were pretty stinky.

Bemo and I also watched Wanted last night, and agreed that it was a spectacularly fun, completely brainless, all-testicles-all-the-time sort of movie. And seriously, Angelina Jolie was way past "Hollywood thin" and into "scary grasshopper creature." Her arms scared me.

A puzzler

Another person contacted me via my genealogy mailing list, and now I have a puzzle to solve. Namely, Who is the Father? There are two options, and I have to see if I can play with dates and settle on one or the other.

I have just filed my taxes. It did not go welll; there was wailing and gnashing of teeth and much profanity. And I think I took an easy way out for something, but I'm too irritated to care.

What's a fangirl to do?

Let's see. These are the tv shows I watch on a regular (live or DVR'd basis). The ones not likely to continue on are stricken through.

Criminal Minds
Life
Lie to Me (I have no idea how this is doing in the ratings - it could actually be on death's door or about to be given a three season ticket. Dunno.)
Project Runway (coming back in the summer, they just announced)
The Amazing Race
Top Chef
The Mentalist
Castle (although the debate on what the ratings actually mean is currently inconclusive so this may be a trifle pessimistic.)
Dollhouse
Mad Men
Leverage

This doesn't include my recently killed Pushing Daisies, of course. And stuff on HBO that I can't watch until it comes out on DVD, like True Blood or the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, both of which I intend to see when I can.

All my reality shows are safe. But they don't give me the juicy character stuff or interesting stories - they're good for other things, but not that. They're not immersive for me.

I just really, really am bitter about the fact that next week is probably the last we'll see of Life. I couldn't care less about Leno, so that tactic of NBC won't do a thing for me. Castle is hitting a lot of sweet spots for me, and losing it would suck. Dollhouse, which I find very interesting, if not sure-footed, will probably go the way of Firefly now that I'm really beginning to get invested in it.

I'm not sure where this mopey post about television, of all things, is coming from. Probably because I just watched Life, and next week is the season finale. And that makes me angry and sad, because I'm really hooked on these characters. I want their further adventures, more glimpses into their relationships, more Zen, more glares from Dani, more fruit for Charlie, more speedreading from Seever, more earnest dopeyness from Tidwell. I've gotten hooked on a lot of good music thanks to the show.

Feh.