He almost married an axe murderess I spoke to Krista, the SIL of the leaky brain and she�s doing rather well. She had her staples removed and her hair�s starting to grow back. She returns to B�ham in a couple of weeks to update with her surgeons on her progress. Her headaches are fairly non-existant, which is a wonderful thing. She even managed to get to church, although that nearly wiped her out. Which is understandable. A Catholic Mass can get fairly aerobic, what with all the kneeling, sitting, standing up in quick succession. Krista will continue to convalesce at home for several weeks and begin to work PT from home via telecommuting. Michael Bubba has gone back to work, and of course, right now is the busiest time of year for him. He is the manager that oversees all the rentals and maintenance of band instruments, and school has just started. He�s working 12 hours a day seven days a week right now until about . . . oh, October. Krista tells me that all the relatives take turns staying with her during the day, and her nephew Ian is even amking a jaunt from Hawaii to visit. Wow. News from the �rents � Dad is �conditionally� out of his cast that he�s had since November of 2004. It seems the wound on his foot is nearly nearly healed so he�s out of the cast at least until Friday, when the corpsman wants to see him again to make sure he�s doing okay out of it. I still think that he needs to remain off his foot as much as possible, and if we do another big trip like the theme parks again, I�m parking his skinny butt in a wheelchair. It�s easier on him, no harder for me, and we get special treatment for getting on the rides. Today is the �rents 38th wedding anniversary. I think the official gift is acoustic ceiling tiles. Next year is rubber wear. What I actually gave them was a gift certificate to one of the fancier restaurants in town, one that they wouldn�t go to of their own volition, because well, it�s swanky. They�ll go now that it�s subsidized. Next week is Dad�s birthday, and he will be 65. His gift is a DVD I found in a dollar store with two old old old John Wayne movies with Gabby Hayes. He likes that stuff. I�ve discovered that Mom REQUIRES tchotchkes for holidays that involve gifts. I�m a money fan, myself, and I�ve managed to convince her that Gary would love nothing more than Home Depot or Lowe�s gift cards for ANY occasion. Gary�s newest project is permanently affixing the porch screens by screwing down strips of aluminum over the spline channel. He�s also replacing the lower screens with sheets of plexiglass to keep the sprinklers from getting the porch all wet. My newest project (soon) will be stripping the wallpaper in the office and refinishing and repainting the walls in there. Of course, this also means I have to sew new curtains (or attempt to dye the ones that are in there, which I may try to do anyway) and lobby for a new filing cabinet which DH seems reticent about but I may just get one anyway, to heck with it. Recently seen from Blockbuster.com: Strait-Jacket. A boilermaker starring Joan Crawford as a woman who murdered her husband and his lover with an axe, all observed by her 3-year-old daughter, Carol. Of course, Joan was all made up to look 29 (which obviously doesn�t work but if you�re familiar with Mommie Dearest, and I mean the BOOK, not the movie, you�ll understand her ways about such things), but then we fast-forward 20 years, during which time Joan was commited to an asylum for her crimes. She is now released into the care of her brother and SIL, who have raised Carol. Carol is now a sculptor, living on her aunt and uncle�s farm, and is engaged-to-be-engaged to the wealthy son of a wealthy dairy farmer down the lane. Joan is now supposed to be 49 (at this time she was actually 69) and apparently �cured� although she�s still suffering from PTSD and other problems that probably modern pharmaceuticals can help, but which they didn�t have at the time. She�s still fairly nervous and paranoid, thinking she hears children�s voices taunting her with �Lucy Harbin took an axe and gave her husband 40 whacks� and thinking she sees her victims� heads in her bed. Her doctor comes by and he is beheaded by a shadowy figure with an axe, along with the farm hand (his beheading must have been a total shocker by 1964 standards, as you see the axe cut off his head and blood spurting out. It�s obvious that the head is a mannequin, but that�s 2005 jaded eyes seeing that). Of course, Carol is defensive of her mother and makes every attempt to integrate her into the local society, but it�s obvious that Carol rather pressures Joan into social events. There�s a great scene with Joan attempting to seduce Carol�s fianc�e and she actually sticks her fingers into his mouth! The movie ultimately turns into a screaming match between Joan and the potential FMIL when it comes to light that Joan has been in an institution these past 20 years for murder. The potential ILs are of course, against any marriage and the FFIL is murdered by a shadowy axe-figure who wears jangly bracelets just like the ones Joan wears. Is it Joan? There�s a fantastic scene with Carol totally flipping out at the end but it�s diminished by a cut-away of Joan, most likely insisted upon BY Joan, who couldn�t stand being upstaged by any other actor. The script was written by Robert Bloch of Psycho screenwriting fame. It�s a good one along the lines of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Who�s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? Also, at this time, Joan Crawford was married to the President of Pepsi-co. Take a shot everytime you see product placement. You can also include any shot with Dr. Anderson, who was played by the VP of Pepsi-co, a condition of Joan Crawford for taking the part in the film. Reading right now: Perfect Victim. When thinking about hostages, a lot of folks think, why would anyone LET themselves go through that? Of course, these are people who have never had such an experience (I haven�t either, thank God, but at least I can be sympathetic). I would recommend any article written by Patty Hearst on the subject. A funny look at a hostage situation is the movie Cecil B Demented by John Waters, and Patty has a role in that film. Selling Mary Kay today? YES!! Candle burning today: �Good Looking Man� by Garden Party, not very strong scented. I can put the candle right under my nose, but I don�t feel like singeing my sinuses. Ta!
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