Wow. It’s been 4 weeks. Sometimes it feels more like years, but then everything is so blurred together.

I’d love to stick around and write more, but there’s a new episode of Outlander on tonight, and can’t miss that after the cliffhanger ending from 2 weeks ago. Of course, I read the books, so I know what happens, but still! Don’t worry, no spoilers here. However, I will say that if you haven’t seen Outlander (or read the books), I highly recommend it. I’ve seen season three times at this point, and the other seasons all twice. And I’m sure I’ll watch them all again in the future.

I’m celebrating my birthday quarantine style this year.

I received a lot of GREAT birthday gifts this year. Thank you so much for the extra effort to Robin, Dad & Nanette, Kari, and Flora for these amazing gifts.

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Since I can’t go anywhere, I’ve been celebrating here at home, with one of my most favorite people in the world, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

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After enjoying some sunshine in the hammock (sporting my very cool HHGTTG shirt, because OF COURSE 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything), I made my first “People’s Margarita” with The Rock’s new Teremana Tequila. I have to say, it’s a damn good margarita and I love that he puts pineapple in his margaritas, just like on his pizza.

I haven’t decided what I”m doing with the rest of my evening yet, but since Dwayne can’t actually be here in person, I may have to queue up Gridiron Gang or Fast Five.

For now, I’ll settle for a second margarita!

I started watching The Simpsons, from the beginning, back in 2018. I made it through seasons 1 & 2 and part of season 3 before all this happened.

Now that all episodes are available on Disney+, that makes things a little easier. I’m up to season 5 at this point, and I have close to 600 episodes to go to catch up.

An interesting data point — it wasn’t until S4E20 and S4E21 that I felt like I hadn’t seen the episode before. However, I know there will be many, many episodes in the remaining 600 that are completely new. And sure enough S4E22 was again familiar.

Speaking of S4E21 – Marge in Chains — the opening of the episode features the “Osaka Flu”… reminds me a lot of current times….

I remember thinking, early on, that this show was a great example of social commentary. I tried to get my dad to watch it, but he is very anti anything animated. Once he watched part of the movie Cool World with me and he said something like “now I understand what goes on in your teenage brain” and he vowed to never watch anything animated again. First of all, I think he failed to understand that I was watching the movie primarily for the non-animated parts, and of course, because this is a Brad Pitt movie. However, regarding animated movies/tv, I feel like he is really missing out. There’s this misunderstanding that animated = cartoons = for kids only.

I am a huge fan of animated movies, even, maybe especially, ones for kids, but there’s a wealth of animated stuff out there that’s geared towards adults — The Simpsons, Archer, and so. Maybe Ricky and Morty, although I’ve only seen a few episodes.

Anyone else out there a fan of The Simpsons? What’s your opinion on animated shows and/or movies?

It’s national gin & tonic day!!! I’m a huge fan of gin, and to be honest, my current gin stock is a little less than typical. I’m out of the Botanist, one of my favorites, and Leopold’s, another great gin.

To celebrate, I had a zoom chat with a long time friend from work, who also loves gin. He lamented the fact that he’s drinking St. George Terroir rather than Botanivore. Luckily, I recently purchased G’Vine, which is quickly becoming a new favorite.

When I can go shopping again, I’m looking forward to finding Elephant Gin (made with apples and “rare” African botanicals) and O.R.E. 118 (apparently it’s raw vegan AND made from grapes!).