Tuesday TShirt Tales: Doing The Best I Can

T-shirt tales—Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Tell me more. or Read all t-shirt tales

SUMMARY: And sometimes just hanging out.

This is one of my two (so far) pandemic-specific shirts. Summarizes a world in which you're more or less isolated from everyone and everything.  And everything you do must be done with caution. 

My sister and her husb don't go out much*, either, and when they do, they also wear masks. Even though the restrictions were removed in California back in June. Because, at the same time, concern was growing about the rapidly increasing number of cases of the Delta Variant--much more contagious.  And since then, holyyyy moleyyy, getting worse. 

So caution is still critical. Wear masks. Keep distanced. Wash hands. Avoid crowds (particularly if filled with Unvaccinated idiots ... oops,sorry..).

And, in fact, this caution is multipurpose! Sister noted that, although she usually gets colds a few times a  year, she hasn't had any since March of last year.

This is at their house two weeks back. We agreed to be in the same place (that is, their place or mine) without masks, after months upon months of masked and outdoor-only caution, assuming it's low risk.  And glaring at each other suspiciously each time. Just to let each other know that we've got an eye on 'em.

Lounging on their Comfy Couch. Watching their television! How weird is that?!** Only because: Marvel Cinematic Universe. Loki, 6 episodes. Wanda Vision, 9 episodes. Specifically, Disney+ channel.

Enjoyed the series. Liked visiting. Enjoyed snuggling with their dog Abby. Took turns providing dinner. Still mostly staying home except for occasional errands or walks or hikes (short ones). And doing the best I can.***

-----

Footnotes:

* He and I both work from home. She is practicing being retired.

** I don't watch things on television. Normally maybe once or twice a year. But, not even movies mostly on my TV. So UnAmerican!

*** T-shirt from the Holderness Family. I particularly like Finn's (the husband's) music video parodies. But their other skits and activities can be rousingly funny, too. And you'll often see them wearing their various t-shirts, which you, too, could buy from their site!  

[I don't know them; no reward will come my way. But I have had so much pleasure from their videos over the last nearly 1 1/2 years that I'm happy to point them out to you.]

T-Shirt Tuesday Tales: Apparently Movies Aren't My Big Thing

T-shirt tales—Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Tell me more. or Read all t-shirt tales

SUMMARY: Not a guilty pleasure. But then, once, I gave in.

Remember my unduly long post from a month ago,  T-Shirt Tuesday Tales: My Guilty Reading Pleasure...? The first-ever guilty pleasure t-shirt that I can recall buying about a book--or about anything, for that matter?

So, abandoning all hope at a good segue, here I am to discuss 50 Shades of Gray. Which, back in 2011, I had hoped would be a guilty pleasure. But the book--erk. Couldn't stand another word after about the 3rd chapter. Ever. My curiosity completely extinguished. And I didn't even feel guilty about it (see what I did there?).

But then they made a movie. And you know how I am about movies.

Screen Rant Pitch Meetings, three years ago, showed how the Pitch Meeting for the three Gray movies probably went. I loved the post back then, and I just stumbled across it again. So I watched it again and said:

I might have commented 3 years ago, but since these movies are some of my "favorites" and Pitch Meeting definitely highlighted some of their highlights, I'm commenting again.  

(1) I tried to read the book but my brain imploded by about chapter 3 and I never wanted to try again. 

(2) I figured the movie couldn't possibly be as bad as the book, so on a dull weekend when I had seen all other movies that were playing, some of them more than once, I went to this one.  Turns out I was wrong. So so so so horrifically wrong.  

(3) When the 2nd movie came out, a couple of critics said that both actors had improved since the first one, and for some inexplicable reason, probably brain damage from the 1st one I decided, I went to see it, too. I'm so so so so sorry, everyone, for tossing my money their way for content that would be lucky to ever be elevated to even "pure junk" and I regret every penny even though it was a discount matinee. So-- 

(4) --you nailed it again. Thank you, Pitch Meeting!

Therefore, Gray never became a guilty pleasure and I never (duh!) bought a t-shirt for either the book or the movie. (I'm glad, because my Captive Prince guilty pleasure is so so so so much better. IMHO.)  

In fact--to use another poor excuse of a segue--to the best of my recollection, I had never bought a t-shirt for a movie or movie characters at all, ever.  Until last year when, apparently, I started buying "first-ever" t-shirts.

 And it's because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Loved. Those. Movies. Saw most more than once. And yet, couldn't find a shirt that rang my bell until I found this one. It particularly appealed because I've often commented about how, maybe, if some of those female characters had been prominent when I was a kid, maybe I'd have grown up not quite wishing I were Batman so much. And about how lucky girls are now, to have these movie characters.

... And I strongly recommend that no girls use the heroine in 50 Shades as a role model. What a milquetoast, idiotic, poor excuse of a character. 

IMHO.

All are characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Black Widow.
Captain Marvel. Valkyrie.
The Wasp. Pepper Potts. Mantis. Gamora.
Scarlet Witch. Nebula. Okoye. Shuri.

Appendix: 

Me hangin' with my favorite buds... because my real guilty pleasure here is that I have crushes on most of the male characters (Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston (not included here), Chris Pratt (ditto), Benedict Cumberbatch (ditto))... I mean, who wouldn't?

Randomness Again

SUMMARY: Birthdays, superheroes, agility practice...

New Year's Day--a perfect California day for a trip to the beach with twenty or thirty of your closest dog friends.

We were very happy about it.

We got a lot of good exercise.

Strategized about our plans--keep going or turn back? (The beach goes on for miles.)

Made a giant peace sign in the sand and lined it with dogs. It was a little challenging, even with our highly trained, super obedient (cough cough) agility dogs, but we did it.

Some of us LOVE LOVE LOVE going in the water.

Some of us think that moving water is an Evil Thing but LOVE LOVE LOVE all the action going on with all the dogs, in particular all those other fascinating border collies, or anyone running after a ball, even if they are chasing it into the Evil Thing.

From our agility club's holiday gift exchange, Spiderman, The Hulk, and Captain America came home with us.

Boost loves Spidey.

But apparently is not so keen on The Incredible Hulk. Maybe it's the hair.

Most recently, it's birthday season in our family. Boost's and my birthday one day; four days later, my niece's birthday; ten days later my sister's and Tika's birthday.

Even at work, there shall be cake.

And a family dinner out.

Oh, am I supposed to be talking about agility? Class Thursday night felt great in some ways and not in others. I felt like Boost and I were both doing some awesome things on the courses. The only ones we got through without a bar down, however, were two short 10-obstacle courses (this demonstrating why we have so many Pairs Qs and not so much other things). Plus Boost still is having trouble making that bear-left entry into the weaves.

Our instructor asked us all what the biggest reason is for us to not Q in Standard and to not Q in Jumpers. I had actually just recently counted--as if I needed to. For Boost, it's about evenly split between bars and refusals/runouts (if I count only the first fault in each run). For both classes. Very rarely an off course, only occasionally a weave fault, never a contact fault.

Tika is still more or less officially retired. We have our first trial since November coming up this weekend. We'll see how she and I manage it.  Still feels very weird, anticipating running only one dog all weekend.

Last night I dreamed that I sent out an email to the club asking whether anyone knew of a dog who was available for re-homing who already had some agility training. You can see where my subconscious sits on the subject of getting a new dog and training it.

Generally, things are just flowing along swimmingly.