I really don't like to hear ... It's A Small World .... sends me screaming from the room, trying to run from the notes and words.

He must be. That is the only reason I can think of for a sane, gentle, smart, educated, charming, witty, loving, lovable man to not only watch Kung Fu Hustle, but to purchase a copy!

I mean, how in the world do you justify blowing good money on a movie that contains such charming characters as:



The Landlady is played by Yuen Qui. Would any of you recognize her as the student who rescues James Bond in Man with the Golden Gun? I know I don’t, so I guess a rewatch of this Bond movie is in order -- if only to get this hustle image out of my brain. ;-)

Of course, no movie is complete without a dance sequence done by men in tuxedos:



Oh yeah ... a four star something ... I’m just not sure what. I really hate discovering these flaws in my hubby after all these years and I’m not sure how to relate to them. Heh!

I'm negotiating with a plant seller now. Theirs are only $9.99, so will be small. Another nursery wanted ... wait for it ... $149.95!!! Freaking nuts!

BTW, if you know what this plant is, I'll give you a cyber cookie. :p

• Fri, 5/9 it was sunny, light breeze, temps in the mid-50’s.
• Sat, 5/10 we had light rain, light breeze, temps in the mid-50’s.
• Sun-Mon-Tues: sunny, light breeze, temps in the mid-50’s.
• Wed, 5/14 it was sunny, light breeze, temps up in the low 60’s. Shirt sleeve weather and it was grand.

This is normal spring weather for us. What follows isn’t normal. Not in any way, shape or cloud formation.

• Thur, 5/15 it was sunny, no breeze and temps in the low 80’s and we broke records. Our nighttime low was 73, and by 7am it was up to 76 and quickly rising.
• Fri, 5/16 it was sunny and HOT, HOT, HOT. Temps in the low 90’s (low 101’s just up the road), records broken everywhere and the coast of Oregon hit 100 before Phoenix, AZ did. Oh grand. Oh joy. Oh stink!
• Folks were melting. No A/C in homes and few businesses. Our house got to 84! We had both ceiling fans running and drank gallons of water and even took a drive to get an iced coffee. Hey, the car has A/C and the ride was grand -- even if it cost a fortune in gas!

Suddenly last night - early evening - we noticed we could hear the chimes on the porch. Opened the door and sure enough we had a little breeze -- and a cool one at that. We watched the outdoor thermometer drop and when it got cooler than the inside of the house we began opening windows -- even opened the doors wide to let the heat out. During the 11pm news, the weather guy gave us the forecast for today and I literally busted out in laughter. I couldn’t help myself. He said we were going to see a 40-degree drop. HAHAHA

Actually, it dropped down to around 60 last night, the breeze is still here and right now it’s a balmy 68 degrees. The sun is shining and I bet we are inundated with tourists.

So what a year: “hurricane” force winds in Dec, snow in Jan, snow in Feb, snow in Mar, snow in April and rain, rain, rain, rain, rain all through those months. Now we have record heat.

It’s clear to me that Ma Nature is going through the change. Maybe we could get her some HRT? HAHAHA

We begin the book with Charles Friedman as he starts his day. A day that turns out to be the last day of his life on this earth when just a few hours later the train he is riding in is blown up and Charles is killed. From this startling beginning the book spins, twists and picks up the already fast pace as people are brought together, lives are twisted, shattered and destroyed, and you begin to wonder if the bad guys always do win.

We follow Karen Friedman and her children as they deal with their loss and put their lives back together. We travel with Lt. Ty Hauck as he investigates one event, only to find that all roads lead to the same place. We are stirred with the emotional entanglement of Karen and Ty, and wonder how this will ever work -- or whether it should.

As a small aside here, there was a point in the story where I was expecting Ty and Karen to become intimate; but it would have been a totally clichéd moment. Gross resisted the urge (pun fully intended) to follow the norm and I’m glad he did. It allowed the lead characters time to grow.

Ty and Karen eventually follow a money trail that soon becomes a slippery slope that leads them into the midst of an international conspiracy. Will they solve it in time, and most importantly, will the good guys win?

Andrew Gross is a new author for me, and I found his writing fresh and compelling. I’ll definitely give him another read. While I really enjoyed this book, there were 3 points that were never fully explained:

        •        Who blew up the train and why? If the answer was in the book, I missed it.
        •        What happens to the money in the safe deposit box?
        •        How about the jewels and other things that Charles had stored?

The end result is that instead of a 4, my rating is 3.5 / 5.

Think Ice Hunt or Deep Fathom from the pen of James Rollins. Think Dirk Pitt® novels from the pen of Clive Cussler. Think Deep Storm from ... No! Wait! Continuing in this train of thought requires a favorable comparison. There can’t be one. Not for me at least. This book is nowhere near the class of these 2 gentlemen.

I’m aware that Clive Cussler glowingly endorsed this book with catch phrases like: a “harrowing and brilliantly conceived” story told with “style and fascination” -- but as much as I admire his writing, he’s oh-so-wrong with this endorsement. ;-D

To read this book and find any enjoyment in it whatsoever, you should lower your expectations and think formulaic. Think predictable. Think over-written. Think boring details that bog down the action and adventure. Then think Deep Storm from Lincoln Child. Heh!

The story started as many action-thriller-adventures do: A few guys doing a job, they are kinda bored because the job is so routine; then SUDDENLY ... end of chapter. Next chapter meet hero and discover most everyone resents him and he’s been lied to, or at least not told the whole truth. The book then moves on to follow the typical action-thriller-adventure -- only this book doesn’t have enough action-thriller-adventure in it. It does have lots of scientific/medical/research type details in -- so much so, that I started skim reading that stuff. *yawn* Worse, the characters were flat, so the lines they delivered when explaining dull things were ... well, worse than flat and dull. You decide what that might be to you.

In the end, the “bad guy” was who I pegged early on, the result was as I pegged early on, and we only briefly revisited the 3 guys from the beginning to find out what happened to them. No, that’s not correct -- we find out about 1 of them. I guess the other 2 are off working another boring, routine job. ;)

I know lots of folks like Lincoln Child, folks who have good taste in books -- so I’ll probably try one more of his books; but for Deep Storm I give him a rating of 2.5 out of 5.

I recently read 2 great books: Very Good, Jeeves! by PG Wodehouse (5/5 stars) and Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (4.5/5 stars).

I struck me that they have some similarities:
• The main character (Bertie and Izzy respectively) is always in trouble of their own making. Silly trouble at that.
• A secondary main character is always bailing the main character out of their own hot water.
• The writing style is crisp, unusual (okay so the British humor is unusual to me as an American), and tongue-in-cheek.
• The stories always have happy endings.
• Plus, Lutz writes in quick chapters that often tell a story in themselves, and Wodehouse wrote short stories .. that tell a story in themselves.

There is one big difference: potty mouth words. HAHAHA

All in all, I like them both. Since I have to wait for the next Spellman book to be written/published, I started scouting around to find out about more of the Jeeves books. I lucked out. Found the publishers web site with loads of details on all the titles, made copious notes and then went to Amazon. Hit the Buy Me button several times and then closed the browser.

At this point I had to perform a delicate maneuver. I mean, Mr. Moldy hasn't been feeling well and we'll be looking at some expenses once our HMO finishes paying the hospital bills and all ... and so spending $100 on books kinda made me ginch. So at supper I casually told Mr. Moldy about my Jeeves research and how nice the book was bound (it is too -- "each volume [is] edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth"). I babbled about how many books in toto Mr. Wodehouse wrote (more than 90!) and how many of those were Jeeves and Wooster books. We laughed over the Jeeves and Wooster TV series that we'd watched courtesy of Netflix. By the time supper was over, I felt confident in springing my money trap -- only to have my bubble POP. Seems Mr. Moldy had secretly been reading my Jeeves book and as I cleaned up the dishes he said, "You should really see if Amazon has the rest of the set and pick them up. We'd both enjoy them."

Well, my bubble did pop -- I mean I'd plotted and planned and practiced my lines ... and didn't get to use my ploy at all. ;-D So, at Mr. Moldy's bidding (yeah, let him think it's all his idea and I'm obedient ... hehehe) I went in and played a game on my computer (had to pass enough time so he wouldn't know those books were already in my cart - whistles innocently) and then went to Amazon and checked out. The books arrived over the next few days and we now have this lovely set of books. I borrowed Mr. Moldy's marble book ends and put the books on my dresser (no I don't have book shelves). They look nice and the books are handy for either of us to grab.

Now there's lots of giggles in our house as we both read the Jeeves and Wooster stories.

Lisa Lutz needs to get busy so she can catch up with Wodehouse. HAHAHA

All Through the Night at IMDB

Netflix Synopsis:
Talk about your weird coincidences: When grinning gambler Gloves Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) pays a call on a bakery to find out what's holding up his cheesecake delivery, he stumbles on a Nazi spy ring. Now, Donahue must use both brains and brawn to thwart the baddies in this Vincent Sherman-directed spy spoof featuring Peter Lorre as a low-level Nazi operative and William Demarest, Frank McHugh, Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason as Bogie's pals.

The Moldy Review:
A totally fun movie. Especially if you like Bogie, or remember Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, Peter Lorre or Conrad Veidt (Major Strasser in Casablanca). It was great to see how well Bogie can do comedy -- timing was right on and hysterical. I'm only sorry they don't still have out-takes. Bet they'd be a riot.

Moldy Rating: 5 out of 5

Today is Monday, April 21st. I awoke to blue skies, no snow and a very cold house. Why was the house cold? Well, the heat was off.

Now why would we have the heat off during a record cold April, you ask?

Because the windows were open and it’s silly to heat the outdoors.

Okay, that explains it. Yes, it does. So why were your windows open?

Ahhh ... you’re wondering why our windows were open during a record cold spell in April. That’s a good wonder. The windows were open to let fresh air in the house. Yes, I know, it’s cold outside. Cold enough to freeze the rain, but we had the windows open -- and the heat off. So the house was cold.

Please, Miss Moldy, explain to me what in all that’s sane would possess you and Mr. Moldy to open the windows (and turn off the heat) in the middle of a record setting cold spell -- complete with snow in April.

Sane? *snort* Now there’s an oxymoron if ever I read one: sane and Moldy. Hah! Now, I’m not INsane or insync or in anything -- other than in love -- but sane? I don’t think so. Sane means dull, normal, boring, stodgy, sad. Not me. I’m sharp as a broken tack, weird, happy, and as normal as any other person around here. Oh wait -- that might not be a good recommendation. Heh!

Uh-huh. Okay. So you’re not sane or insane, let’s just say that you are interesting in a different sort of way. How’s that? Good .. now please explain why your windows were open in the middle of a record setting cold spell -- complete with snow in April.

Okay, I’ll explain about our open windows. Never mind that it was 32 degrees when we went to bed. The windows were open. The fresh air was flowing in. Why, we even had the one ceiling fan on to circulate this crisp fresh air. But there was a reason and a good one at that: to rid the house of the smell of smoke.

Yes smoke. Not from cigarettes or the fireplace or burning papers -- smoke from scorched dinner. ☹ Yesterday I’d put together a batch of Green Chili Stew. Once it had started to simmer, I turned the burner down to the middle simmer stage and went about my business. I checked on it on and off over the next few hours and it was gently, ever so gently, simmering. Then I ignored it for 35 minutes. During that time the burner on the stove apparently went nuts and cranked itself up high and burned away all the liquid and scorched the meat and beans to the bottom of my nice 5 qt. pot. ☹ By the time I smelled it, it was too late. Of course, like a dope I took the lid off the pot. All that lovely burned dinner smoke poured out into the room, and because it’s all one room -- the whole place reeked of burned dinner. Of course the smoke wafted into the rest of the house -- and so we opened windows, turned off the heat and ran the fans. In the living room we turned on the fire place for a touch of warmth and bundled under stinky blankets.

Strangely, none of the smoke alarms went off. Not sure if that’s good or bad. Well, when we went to bed we left one window open a crack for good measure. I mean, who wants to wake up to the smell of burned meat?

So that’s why the house was colder than the fridge. I closed the windows and turned up the heaters and turned on the fireplace and everything was soon toasty warm and sort-of sweet smelling. Guess it’ll take a few days for the stink to dissipate.

I really am disappointed in this stove, btw. We did our homework before we bought our appliances and went for slightly pricey items that had excellent ratings. The dishwasher is in need of repair -- actually has been for several months now. It’s LOUD (used to be whisper soft) and now doing this grinding noise thing. It’s not even 2 years old. The stove/oven? This isn’t my first disaster. I could tell you about the 12 lb. Thanksgiving turkey that took 12 hours to roast! :mad: Or the casseroles that take 1-1 1/2 hours to “bake”. Or the things that won’t cook on the stovetop because it usually runs cold. All I can say is ... I wish we’d bought Sears appliances! I’ll never own another Kitchenaid appliance in my lifetime. Never!

Well ... enough complaints. Sunday really was a good day. We took sandwiches and had a picnic in the car (too cold to sit on the benches) and then went to a political forum. Most interesting. The 2 candidates running for DA obviously hate each other. One is really sleazy, the other is decent. I’m voting for the decent one. I’ll be glad when the local election is over. Honestly, I’ll be glad when all the elections are over here in the US. I’m sick to death of it all.

I’d rather be reading books. Like Deep Storm from Lincoln Child. Mr. Moldy is reading If a Pirate I Must Be... by Richard Sanders. Both of us are reading through the Jeeves and Wooster books -- but more on those later.

Time now to go out and enjoy the day!

Today is Saturday, April 19th and at 6:45am I woke up to snow on the ground.



Our avg. temps for this time of year: 48-58 with sun or light rain.

But - over the past 3 days we've seen:

• Flocks of Canadian Geese flying north.
• Whales migrating north.
• Rhoddies starting to bloom.
• Osprey working on their nests.
• Eagles in the stag up the road.
• Snow and hail.

So spring really is on it's way.

Surrrrrrre it is. :-D

We tend to watch a lot of movies. I don't always keep track, and sometimes don't remember (there's too many things running amuck in my brain); besides they aren’t always “review worthy” movies. Anyhow, here are the recent movies that I remember, with ratings (that may or may not conflict with other ratings I've shared). With no more babble ... in alphabetical order:

A Fish Called Wanda: 3.75/5 (Hey, I've lost my stutter. It's gone. I can speak. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?) HAHAHAHAHA

All of Me: 4.75/5 (makes me happy)

'Burbs, The: 3.75/5 (wasn't as good as I remembered)

Doctor Detroit: 1.5/5 (Mr. Moldy thought it was great)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: 4/5 (better than I remembered, but not her best)

Last Starfighter: 4.5/5 (sci-fi stretch, but fun and makes me happy)

Out of Sight: *yawn* 1/5 (I have no idea why Clooney thinks this is his best movie.)

Petrified Forest: *yawn* 0/5 (We watched 15-20 min and turned it off since we both remembered it and the memories weren't great. ;-D )

Pulp Fiction: 5/5 (Just because you are a character doesn't mean that you have character.)

Top Secret!: 1/5 (The only good part is Val Kilmer singing and dancing. Good voice, actually.)

Total Recall: 3.75/5 (Not sure why we own this, but maybe because it's a campy type movie.)

World's Fastest Indian: 10/5 (Think Seabiscuit on wheels)

This past Wednesday evening (or was it Thursday morning?) I finished BLOWBACK by Brad Thor (review coming later). That left me in a quandary -- what to read? I knew I would pick up CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS at the library on Friday, so I really didn't want to start another book. I figured I'd just go 24 hours or so without a book. I mean, what could happen?

What happened was I began reading the junk mail that came in the house. Seriously. Not skim reading either -- I was reading it word for word. Of course I was snickering over the come-on's; but I began to worry. What if I got hooked on reading junk mail? What if I succumbed to one or more of those wild ideas that are wrapped in those fancy envelopes, and spent money like I really had some to spend? I was really wondering if I might need therapy before this dry spell was over -- and then the wonderful Fed-Ex man knocked on the door. He brought me a package from Amazon. I was saved from junk mail torture and therapy. I now had 2 new books to read -- cookbooks, but still books -- and new besides. :D

So I began reading them. I finished BONKERS FOR BUNDT CAKES in quick order. After all, it's only around 60 pages, with 26 recipes and tips: 1 hour reading tops. Sadly, I think most of the recipes in this book are either in the CAKE MIX DOCTOR cookbook, or in the second book I bought: BUNDT CAKE BLISS.

When I bit into BUNDT CAKE BLISS, I found it more satisfying. It has a bit of history about the BUNDT pan, and some stories from the Nordic Ware family -- and these things alone make the cookbook worth the money. :) The recipes are decent as well; but again, I found recipes that I have in CAKE MIX DOCTOR. All these authors claim to either have created the recipe, or gotten the recipes from their friend who created it. Ahhhh ... the whole flaming copyright issue hasn't really dug it's heels into recipes and cookbooks -- YET. It will. Count on it. And we'll all be the worse for it, too. :( At least the recipes they all lay claim to are GOOD recipes. So they have that in common. hehehe

Anyhow I've now got cake recipes buzzing through my head, and even have variations running around in there as well. I'd better write them down or they'll be lost. Guess my friends and neighbors are going to be enjoying treats from my kitchen over the next several weeks.

However, all the cakes must wait while I settle in for a chapter or 6 of CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS. hehehe


"Bundt Cake Bliss: Delicious Desserts from Midwest Kitchens"--Susanna Short
"Bonkers for Bundt Cakes"--C., S. Pothitt
"The Cake Mix Doctor"--Anne Byrn
"Curse of the Spellmans"--Lisa Lutz


And so ... I've gone live.