Six Word Wednesday

One zombie reached in for me.

Coffee

I like coffee, and have for a long time. I was 12 and working at my dad’s grocery store when I first tried it. Back then I put in milk and 4 teaspoons of sugar since I found it bitter without them. As I got older my preferences and making of it has changed.

During the late 90’s I was on the Atkins diet, so I removed sugar from the coffee and switched to half and half. I stuck with the diet for about three months but quit because it was upsetting my stomach. By that time I had gotten so used to coffee without sugar that I haven’t used it since.

I’m not sure when or why I stopped using half and half, but I have tried various milks from nuts (almond, coconut, hazelnut) but never could get used to the taste of them. Hazelnut was the exception but it bothered my stomach.

When I started buying my own coffee, I tried the big name brands (Maxwell House, Folgers, Eight o’Clock) and Eight o’Clock was the best of them. During a conversation with a friend, he explained that I should buy whole beans since pre ground is stale.

Grinding my beans was a learning process in itself. First I’ve never used the store grinder because who knows when they cleaned it last and you’re getting bits of other coffee. Decaf will never touch my lips!

When I grind at home I’ll do 3 bursts for 12 seconds each, shaking it a bit between, I find this gives me the best brew and the grounds don’t float up and out of the reservoir and into my coffee pot.

I’ve used percolators in the past but no matter how careful I was, water managed to get into the base and cause damage. So I’ve been using a Mr. Coffee drip which I only had to replace once because I didn’t read the directions on how to clean it and ruined the thermostat. Luckily they’re a lot cheaper.

I like flavored coffee as well and will buy a small bag for my weekend mornings when I have more time to enjoy a cup. It’s been tough finding a store that sells Hazelnut beans but The Black Cow Cafe in Pleasantville has other “flavors” that are just as tasty, their Genetha’s Cabin is personal favorite. It’s been too long since I’ve stopped in for a cup.

Lately Trader Joe’s Breakfast Blend has been my staple coffee, a medium roast blend of mellow and smooth, perfect for any day of the week. I was alternating between that and their Colombia Supremo Coffee but found it too sweet.

At one job there was Green Mountain coffee machine where you could brew a single cup, this was well before Keurig. The ease of which I could have a cup of Hazelnut or French Blend or Italian Roast had me up to 8 cups a day. Then I wondered why I couldn’t get to sleep at night.

Now I have 3 or 4 cups in the morning and I’m good for the day. As much as I’d love a cup in the afternoon, I love getting to sleep at night a bit more.

Six Word Wednesday

My migraine kept me offline yesterday.

Six Word Wednesday

Onto the next, the fence broke.

How To Bring Back Barbara On Stranger Things

I've got a theory, in the final episode of Stranger Things, Will coughs up a slug but doesn't tell his mother or brother about it. What if the Will that is in our world is a copy that will spread more slugs to infect others for an "army" for the monster that was in the egg?

Considering that when we see Will flash to the Upside Down version of his bathroom, he panics, maybe he's still trapped there and has a one way connection to the 'Will Copy'. The copy can access Will's memories to continue it's agenda and hide in plain sight.

So how does this bring Barb back?

When Hopper and Joyce go into the Upside Down, they find Barbara's corpse and a slug coming out of her mouth. Later on they find skulls too. I'm thinking that the Blossom Monster is bringing people into the Upside Down as test subjects for the Egg Monster to copy/inhabit and Will is it's version of 11. Once 'Will Copy' finds out that Barbara is missing as well, the corpse of Barbara is revived/copied by the slugs but it looks like a zombie version of Barbara and the only memory it can go on are the days before her dying. So Zombie Barbara goes after Nancy to find out why and get revenge.

We're Not Using The Zed Word!

I think my love of zombies began when I saw ‘Return of the Living Dead’ on cable in the 1980’s. Frank, played by James Karen, mentioned the film ‘Night of the Living Dead’ when explainging the barrels and how a “real life” event was the inspiration for George Romero to make his zombie movie. This one line planted a seed in my young geek brain. I admit it was Linna Quigley’s nudity that would make me rewatch it but I did enjoy all the horror and finding out why zombies ate people, not people, brains!

The sequel went more for laughs, but it still had great special effects for its time.

Personally I wouldn’t call them zombies since they were capable of talking, reasoning, and using weapons but because Night of the Comet was PG-13 I could and would watch it often. Plus Catherine Mary Stewart was an 80’s crush. I think Zombieland is a close cousin to NotC and who wouldn’t want to drive through a zombie apocalypse with Emma Stone?

I liked Night of the Creeps because it had Russ from European Vacation, the dark humor , and Jill Whitlow, another crush.

I can’t  remember when I first watched the films from the Godfather of The Dead aka George Romero but Dawn of the Dead is my favorite from his repertoire. For my 40th birthday I drove to the Monroeville Mall in Pa. to walk around it. Sadly the store/museum dedicated to the movie was relocating at the time and wasn’t open but they still had displays and models in the front window that paid tribute.

I’ve seena number of bad zombie movies, some enjoyable and some not. The Day of The Dead remake with Ving Rhames and Mena Suvari was laughable since they had a vegetarian zombie. Also people who were bit transformed in seconds to a corpse, had the ability to run and jump, and in some cases heightened strength. I watched it through to the end because I had the disc from Netflix and didn’t want to “waste” my money, and Mena is cute.

Shaun of The Dead introduced me to Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright. A friend lent me Spaced, the BBC series they worked on prior to the movie and it’s chock filled of zombie references. I’d love to see a sequel to SoTD, perhaps a metaphor for middle age.

When it comes to comic books about zombies, I rarely bought them. My brother got me Marvel Zombies as a birthday present and I enjoyed the sick humor within. He also lent me The Walking Dead collections but I stopped reading them because the fact that Rick and his group would find a safe place and something went wrong with it became tedious. I decided to stop watching the television series after season 5 for the aforementioned reason plus what I read about the season 6 ending.

I was enjoying iZombie because of the humor but the following late night thoughts made me question if I’ll continue watching once more seasons are available; How much of the brain does Liv need to eat to get the memories? How does a dead brain still retain memories? Granted we’ve seen her eat small portions but why/how does those parts have the memories she needs to solve the case. I honestly hated thinking these thoughts because it may have taken away my ability to enjoy the show.

Six Word Wednesday

I stabbed one in the head.

Lazy Sunday 2: The Quickening

Here's a picture of a defective pretzel