The Pied Piper

Apologies in advance for a somewhat disjointed post. I actually have pictures, including some knitting, but they're still in my camera rather than uploaded, and I'm feeling too lazy tonight to upload them. I worked the last two nights in a row, then slept hard, but not quite enough, when I got home this morning. Then Annie posted brownie pics, which really bummed me out, because we were out of cocoa. Or so I thought.

When I was making dinner tonight (garbanzo chili = nom!), I actually found my cocoa tucked away at the back of the cupboard. Hooray! So I quickly whipped up a batch from scratch using the Joy of Cooking recipe, which turned out slightly undercooked (due to having to guesstimate adjustments for our edge-only brownie pan) but incredibly gooey and delicious.

For our viewing pleasure this evening, we watched a couple episodes from Season Two of Wonder Woman. The first episode of the evening was Knockout, which had guest stars Ted Shackelford, who would later become famous as Gary Ewing on Knots Landing, and beauty-queen-turned-actress-turned-sportscaster Jayne Kennedy, with a forward-thinking, but very poorly fleshed out story about terrorist sleeper cells.

The next episode, The Pied Piper, guest starred the Gorton's Fisherman, Eve Plumb(!), and Martin Mull, doing what is likely the worst fake flute playing ever in a role that probably comes back to haunt him in his nightmares. And because I'm all about the sharing, I went looking online and found the entire episode on dailymotion.com. So without further ado, I give you The Pied Piper:

Wonder Woman: The Pied Piper
Uploaded by Classic_WB_TV

I bet Diana Prince totally danced around in her underwear to that album.

In Your Satin Tights, Fighting for Your Rights

Last week, while picking up a couple items for the workplace at the local wholesale club, I happened to walk through the video section and spied the complete third season of Wonder Woman. Then I saw Season Two, and I got all excited. Might they possibly have Season One? Yes!

I showed great restraint and only bought Season One, and David was every bit as excited when I got home and showed him my purchase. So we have been working our way through the episodes (interspersed with episodes of The L Word - such lesbians we) and having a blast watching them. I think the show was one of those iconic programs that really defined childhood for most of us who grew up in the 70's, and for gay men who grew up then, the campy and drag queenish nature of the show gives it special resonance.

I had forgotten that only the first season took place during World War II. The photo above is from Season One. After that, they moved Wonder Woman up to modern day and gave her a decidedly sexier (and higher budget) look.



We have been loving low budget Season One, though. It took them until the 4th episode to do the flash of light as Wonder Woman spins into costume. Before that it was a double exposure of her in two costumes, and one particular shot was used in two episodes. Then there are all the old stock footage clips spliced in, and especially the mountainous desert landscapes of Maryland and Virginia. And then there's Wonder Woman's feminism-in-tights message - so very 1970's, feminism à la Enjoli. It just doesn't get any better.

Of Mice and Wool

Like KnitNZu, we have been having some rodent issues. They actually moved in last fall and drove the cats nuts all winter long running around in the walls. We thought it was perhaps an infestation of elephants, but it appears that it's just mice. I bought two Havahart traps - one big enough for a rat and one big enough for a mouse - but I only recently set them up in our attic crawlspace where I had found evidence of some tunneling into the insulation.

The first mouse trapped met an unpleasant end, I'm afraid. After not catching anything for a few days, I forgot to check the trap for a couple days. It had not been long dead, as there was no odor, but the crawlspace is not well insulated and is on the south side of the house, so it gets hotter than a half-fucked fox in a forest fire (to use a colorful expression of my grandfather's). Something did die inside the wall on that side of the house a few weeks back, and it was rather unpleasant for a few days.

Since then, we have been much more diligent in checking and have caught two more mice. We have taken them way back on the farm property to release them. They might make their way back, but they may also become food for the fox or for the feral cat who has taken up residence in the barn. Either way, they're at least out of the house for now.

There's been no sign to suggest they've gotten into my stash, most of which is in plastic bins and all of which is kept in areas where the cats have frequent access. I've tried not to think too much about the things stored in the crawlspace and how much mouse poo might be on them. I'll spare you photos of mouse poo, but the next time I catch a mouse, I'll try to remember to snap a pic of it.

Right now, though, there's some swatching to be done.