Happy Birthday to my Mom! If she hadn’t been born, I wouldn’t have either, so it is a good day. Give her a call if you know her.

Another indicator that I am a FINE person to travel with: I made sure to tell my dining companions all about the cases of Legionnaire’s disease that people had caught from a water wall in a hospital in Wisconsin. While, of course, we were eating lunch in the atrium with a water wall. I am delightful company. And some of them didn’t know what Legionnaire’s disease was, doesn’t everyone enjoy reading about disasters?

I really don’t watch that much TV. I generally don’t have time, and if I do sit down to watch TV, I am usually knitting so I have something to do with my hands. My mother was a firm believer in having something to do with your hands. (I spent a lot of time as a kid churning butter and reading a book at the same time. Let me tell you, that is doing one too many things at once, and spilled cream is no fun to clean up.) Sometimes I wish there was better stuff on TV some nights because then I would get more knitting done.

I could always watch the Lord of the Rings movies over and over while listening to the cast/directors/designers commentaries, but the other interested party in the house objects to that, and he usually caves when I object to his watching endless Seinfeld re-runs, so we do compromise on that.

When I do watch TV, I default to the Food Channel, preferably Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. I can watch that show regardless or how many times I have seen the episode before. My fantasy for when I win the lottery is that we will travel around and visit all of those restaurants. After we go travel the entirety of the old Route 66 and stay at a motel where the rooms are shaped like tee pees. I have simple needs.

I do not like reality shows on the Food Channel or any channel because they are all about personal drama and really I have had enough of that in my own life, I don’t need any more annoying real people on TV. Well, Iron Chef might be considered reality TV but it is still about the cooking. I watched a few episodes of Chopped but then got irritated with it and quit. Too contrived.

I also like zombies (or enjoy reading books about them, watching movies about them, etc., I do not know if I like zombies personally because I haven’t had the opportunity to meet one. Yet.) but I quickly got fed up with the show Walking Dead because there was too much interpersonal drama. Hello, you are having sex in the woods while the zombies are taking over? You should be out looting grocery stores for canned goods! Finding guns and ammo! Looking for a cave to move into!

I will watch America’s Funniest Home Videos at about any opportunity, because it is on some channel, somewhere, at any given time, and it usually has some entertaining video with cats in it at least once per half hour. Plus, it doesn’t really have a plot you have to pay attention to. I will turn the channel on anything involving snot, barf, or anything going up the nose that does not belong in the nose, which includes almost everything.

Ken and I can both agree on Storage Wars, because the amount of personal drama is outweighed by the inherent human desire to go through other people’s stuff. I think that is why that show is so popular, we all want to rummage through someone else’s stuff with no recriminations. Most of us are pretty snoopy at heart. (You ALL want to ask me to come over now, I just know it. I do manage to restrain these impulses in my daily life. Mostly.) That is why I like going to auctions,  estate sales, and antique stores, it is a type of voyeurism. (Lord knows what kind of google searches “voyeurism” is going to lead here.)

Speaking of google searches, I was going through my pictures last night looking for something to post and I noted that I had named one of the pancake machine pictures “Miracle Pancake” – I am just WAITING for the miracle pancake search. But that sounds like something only I would search for, so maybe not.

I guess this is on my mind tonight because I am still on travel and I was questing for something to write about (so there is a daily story for my faithful readers, all 8 of you : )) and what I really want to do is take a bath and then go watch TV in bed. We do not have a TV in the bedroom at home, and so the ultimate indulgence for me when I am on travel is to watch TV in bed instead of read. And to especially watch sciencey/National Geographic programs that Ken would argue with me about watching if he was with me. I AM really interested in learning about the history of the dodo bird whereas he is not.

And so, adieu, I am off to bed, to see what is on Nat’l Geographic tonight.