songbird's crazy world

OK, now that I have your attention, I'll tone down the drama a bit.... We had a little bit of excitement at lunchtime yesterday. Though it could have evolved into something more serious, the fire at my place of employment turned out to be very minor. I work in a typical suburban office building; The building is 2 stories tall, with a variety of offices on both floors and a small sandwich shop in the basement. It is surrounded by a parking lot. The landscaping includes flowers and shrubs and etc. adjacent to the building walls. The fire was not inside the building. Some of the shrubbery caught fire, presumably from a carelessly tossed cigarette, and scorched the exterior wall. However, smoke from the fire made its way inside. We never heard a fire alarm. Rather, one of my coworkers saw smoke billowing past his window, and told us to. leave the building.  We could smell smoke in the hallway. The custodial staff was able to put the fire out even before the...

Yes, we like chains. You know exactly what to expect when you walk through the door. And wIth the demise of the Denny's location in Levittown, we now must travel to the Carle Place location to get our "slams". We stopped by for a very late dinner one night. First issue -- the shared parking lot is a bit too small, even at that late hour the lot was fairly full, there were a lot of patrons at the bar next door. This location is somewhat small -- a long, narrow room with tables and booths, and a lunch counter in the center of the room. The food was ... Well, you know what you're getting at Denny's. A decent meal at a decent price. The real issues here involve service. There was no hostess on duty at that hour, the sign tells patrons to proceed to the counter to be seated. Despite many empty booths and tables, the young man who greeted us left us standing by the counter while he bussed and cleaned a nearby booth. Our waitress was friendly and accom...

It's not even summer yet, but we already have the first summer blockbuster. Another Avengers movie. This time, the Avengers must do battle with Ultron, an artificial life form, ironically created by Tony Stark. That's what I like about the Marvel Comics universe. The heroes aren't perfect. They're men and women with character flaws, who just happen to have super powers. Relationships are complicated, the good guys don't always like each other. And they certainly don't agree on how to approach a problem. But at the end of the day, they work as a team against a common enemy. But the big draw with comic book movies -- the action sequences. This movie is very heavy on action, the story opens with the team doing battle at a Hydra facility. There are moments of humor, of course. I loved the scene where the rest of the Avengers tried to pick up Thor's Hammer. The inevitable Stan Lee cameo comes early, and was greeted with applause by the audien...

Most of my professional life was spent in lower Manhattan or Jersey City, NJ. I now work in a suburban office park.  For the most part, my current job is wonderful.   The work is interesting.   My colleagues are wonderful. I'm 10 minutes from home, I no longer have to contend with the Long Island Railroad or the NYC subway.  But... Working in lower Manhattan is fascinating.  You go out at lunchtime and within a short walking distance you find interesting food choices, shopping opportunities, large and small parks where you can sit and eat your lunch, plenty of opportunity to people watch. Jersey City doesn't have the excitement of Manhattan, but it does have the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway.  Truly scenic, you can see the NYC skyline, the Statue of Liberty, the boats in the harbor.  You can walk, or you can find a place to sit and watch others.  This little corner of suburbia is not pedestrian friendly.  Anything I...

Yes, it's Star Wars Day,  a holiday based on a truly awful pun ("May the Fourth be with you"). I may have mentioned that I am a fan.  The original movie came out in 1977.  I was in high school at the time.  My boyfriend and I saw the movie together at one of the (then-new) multiplexes.  And we saw it again.  And again.  And again.  (In that pre-cable TV world, you couldn't wait for it to be on HBO, and owning a copy of it was out of the question for most people.) I loved the original movie and its two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi .  Such memorable characters -- Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi-wan Kenobi, Yoda.  Such a perfect villain in Darth Vadar.  The gadgets, the space ships, the droids.  It was amazing.  It was epic.  It was fun. And the phrases that entered our vocabulary: "May the Force be with you." "Do or do not, there is no 'try'." "These are not the droi...

I really liked the first two Night at the Museum movies. But some reason we never saw the third installment in the movie theater. Finally got a chance to watch it on DVD last weekend. The plot is very simple. The tablet that brings the museum exhibits to life is beginning to corrode, and Larry must travel to the British Museum to find a way to fix the tablet. By now we know the characters well, the jokes seem old and familiar. The best joke of the movie -- Lancelot leaves the museum and somehow finds himself in a theater that is presenting the Lerner and Lowe musical Camelot , starring Hugh Jackman.  Jackman appears as himself, even does the Wolverine thing. . And the most poignant moment? When Robin Williams, as Teddy Roosevelt, says his goodbyes. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We have several azaleas in the front yard.  There's always one that blooms a week or two before the rest.  As I was leaving for work the other morning, I noticed that the early azalea was in bloom, and I stopped to take a picture.  (I just love having a camera in my phone.)  During the short drive to the office, I noticed a lot of other things in bloom as well.  In keeping with this month's NaBloPoMo theme, here are my photos: The azalea Some wildflowers Trees Love the forsythia   Pretty little garden It's definitely pretty around here this time of year.