It was a slow week in both viewing and reading. Too much election coverage and too much falling asleep on the couch when trying to watch something.

Movies – We watched one movie. Well, my wife watched it while I dozed off and on on the the couch. It was Just Getting Started. Morgan Freeman plays an ex-mob lawyer in witness protection. Tommy Lee Jones is an ex-FBI gent staying at the resort Freeman’s where Freeman’s character works. Rene Russo is the love interest. The mob finds Freeman and sends people to kill him. It sounds promising, but it was not really that good. I was not sad to fall asleep for most of it.

TV – We did watch two new shows this week. First was The Undoing with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. They are a wealthy couple n New York. A mom at the private school their son attends is murdered. Grant’s character disappears at the same time. The police start questioning Kidman a lot about the situation. So far, so good. We also watched B Positive. It is a sitcom starring Thomas Middleditch and Annaleigh Ashford. He finds out he needs a kidney and at the same time runs into an Ashford who he knows from high school. She agrees to donate a kidney but she has to stay clean and sober for three months first. I’m not sure if I will stick with it, but I liked it enough to give it a few more episodes.

Books – I read Providence by Max Barry. It is a sci-fi about a crew of four on a ship mainly run by AI in a war against an alien race. It seemed like it took me forever to read it. It wasn’t bad, but I had trouble caring about the story. I’m not sure if it was the bhttps://ko-fi.com/taterook or my mental state.

On Deck – Movies will be again luck of the draw. Some TV shows start a new season next week. I will have a new Chicago Fire, Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy to watch. I am reading Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith is JK Rowling and there is controversy around her and a plot point in the book. It makes me sad because I love the Strike books.

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I haven’t been in a writing mood this week. At least these weekly posts give me something to write even if no one reads them. Here is my week in reading and viewing.

Movies – We watched two movies this week. The first was M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening with Mark Wahlberg. This is an older movie we had missed when it was released. The general plot – something is making people suddenly freeze, talk nonsense and then kill themselves. Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are a young couple in Philadelphia who flee the city to try to find safety. We both enjoyed it. We like Wahlberg and the story was interesting. The second movie was Playing With Fire. The plot – John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and John Leguizamo play smokejumpers who rescue three kids from a cabin fire and then have to take care of them until their parent arrive. It was a cute family comedy and a good break from action and drama. I’m a fan of all three actors. The kids were good in their roles and Judy Greer was good as a scientist and love interest for Cena.

TV – Nothing groundbreaking here. We watched all of our normal shows. I watched Kentucky lose their football game and look bad doing it. We watched the season premiere of American Housewife. It was weird to have a new kid playing the youngest daughter, especially since the former actor was one of the best parts of the show. It will take a while to get used to it, if we ever do. I still enjoy the show, though. It has a very good cast and is consistently funny. We got back to the Canadian dance show, The Next Step, for the first time in a while.

Books – I finished two books this week

First, Kill the Lawyers by David Housewright – This is the latest in his Holland Taylor series. I had forgotten that he had this series in addition to the McKenzie books. I like McKenzie more, but Housewright is one of my favorite authors and I like all of his stuff. In this one, they investigate who has hacked multiple law firms, stealing notes and files that will be bad for all parties if revealed. It was a decent mystery with a good cast of secondary characters. I probably would have liked it more if I had not just read one of the McKenzie books.

Bye Bye Blue Creek by Andrew Smith – This is a middle grade book. Not my typical thing to read, but I am a big fan of Smith and Sam Abernathy, the main character, was in one of my favorite YA books, so I made and exception. This was the second middle grade book featuring Sam. This one leads up to his departure for the private boarding school from the YA book where he was introduced. It was a quick read, but I am ready for Smith to move on to new characters and back to the older YA material.

On Deck – I have the new episode of Superstore to watch. I want to try the new HBO show with Nicole Kidman, The Undoing. I will watch more of You when I’m alone. There will be a Kentucky and Baltimore football game to watch. We will have new episodes of our regular shows. Any movies will be whatever random one we find if we decide to watch one. I’m currently reading Providence by Max Barry.

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I went back to verify what I wrote about last week because I was sure I talked about the movie we watched this week. I was wrong. I’ve lost all track of time. Here’s my week:

Movies – I can remember one movie we apparently watched this week even though I was sure I wrote about it last week. It was Hubie Halloween with Adam Sandler on Netflix. I was surprised when my wife said she was OK with watching it. She’s not really a Sandler fan. Sandler’s character in this one is a lot like The Waterboy. There are a lot of connections to old Sandler movies. Julie Bowen is back and her character’s name has the same initials has the same initials as her character in Happy Gilmore. There is an O’Doyle kid who is a bully and yells O’Doyles rule. Kevin James, Colin Quinn, Steve Buscemi, and Rob Schneider are all back. Ben Stiller cameos as his Happy Gilmore character. The movie itself was dumb, but fun. If you like Sandler and his friends you will enjoy it.

TV – The NLCS started this week, so most night we have been watching the Braves beat the dodgers. Wednesday night when the Braves were already down 13-0 by the time I had the time to watch I watched TV shows instead. Since my wife was working late, I watched The Masked Singer and The Weakest Link. Some days it’s nice to have shows like this to watch. Entertaining, but not anything you need to really focus on too hard. I’m trying to find another show to watch alone that will hold my interest. I watched the first episode of Veronica Mars yesterday, but my enjoyment of it was marred by constant texts about work when I was supposed to be off work. Have I mentioned how much I hate my job?

Books – I read two books this week.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell – I read this one for my mystery book club at work. It tells the story of an undisclosed murder, alternating between characters advancing the story to the crime interspersed with interviews with suspects and witnesses about the crime. I was wrong in my assumption about who was murdered and why. It’s always nice when a mystery fools me. It was well written and I enjoyed the characters and the story.

From the Grave by David Housewright – The Rushmore McKenzie series is another of my favorites. McKenzie is a former cop who quit so he could collect a large reward for finding stolen money. Now wealthy, he works as an unofficial detective when friends need help. In this one, his friend Shelby is at a psychic medium’s show when she says the dead man she speaks to keeps saying McKenzie’s name. The man is someone McKenzie shot and killed when he was a cop. He had stolen over half a million dollars and was on the run, when it happened. His son was arrested and sent to prison. The money was never found. McKenzie begins the hunt for the money. I enjoyed it. I love all of the characters in the series. They are fun and light. This one had the possibility of ghosts and such. That was new. I recommend the entire series.

On Deck – Any movie will again be a luck of the draw type thing. We will have Braves baseball, Kentucky football and Ravens football to watch. We still have some Fargo episodes, Swamo Thing, Next, Transplant and Coroner recorded. There will be a new SNL, Fear the Walking Dead and Walking Dead: World Beyond. The Conners returns this week. It’s nice to have some real TV again. I am about to start reading Half Moon Bay by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman.

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It was a nice full week on TV. Movies are still suffering from the lack of new DVDs from the library. Reading has slowed a bit. Details below.

Movies – We watched two movies this week. The first we found while browsing various streaming services. It was Precious Cargo starring Mark Paul Gosselaar and Bruce Willis. I like the two actors, so I was willing to watch a brainless action movie. And it was brainless. he best thing I can say about it is that it was short and it was free. That’s it. We also watched Summer School the old Mark Harmon movie. My wife is a big NCIS fan and loves Mark Harmon. She didn’t remember this movie so I got it from the library. Basic plot – Mark Harmon is the PE teacher who gets roped into teaching remedial English summer school. He connects with the kids and gets the attractive new teacher to help him learn to teach them. I still enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking, but a pleasant way to spend an evening.

TV – We watched the new episodes of LA’s Finest, Filthy Rich, Transplant and Coroner. We finally watched the first episode of the new season of Fargo. I liked it. I had trouble keeping track of who was who sometimes, but I’m sure that will get easier as we move along. We watched the first episode of Swamp Thing. I dozed a lot during it. Not because it was boring, but because I was very tired that night. I did like what I saw and will watch more. I’ve watched several episodes of The Weakest Link. I still like the premise of the show and Jane Lynch is good as the host. It’s good to have another quiz show on TV. I also watched the new SNL. All of the hype was about Alec Baldwin, Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph as Trump, Biden and Harris, but I thought the cold open with them was mediocre. The skit that made me laugh the most was the one below about a Covid outbreak at the building where people go for name changes.

Books – I finished one book this week. It was The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. It is a teen book set in LA after the police officers are acquitted in the Rodney King case. Ashley is a black teen living in a wealthy area of LA and attending a private school. Her sister has moved out and is living close to the riots. There is some normal teen romance stuff, but the book mainly deals with Ashley’s feelings about the situation in the city and her relationship with hew lifelong white friends and the other black kids at the school. It took me a bit to get into it, but I did enjoy it.

On Deck – Movie tonight will once again be something random we find on streaming. Or we will skip a movie and watch more Fargo. Football and baseball will take up a good portion of my week. I’m sure we will watch more of the shows mentioned above. Amazing Race comes back next week. Even though I typically watch with my daughter, I have told her I will watch without her and then save it to watch with her later like I do Survivor. Otherwise, I will find out who was eliminated before I watch. I’m reading two books right now. Watching You by Lisa Jewell for work and From the Grave by David Housewright for me.

And now the “begging for donations” portion of the program. Will blog for coffee.