We just watched the first season of Only Murders in the Building (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez). We plan to order season 2 soon.

We are food nerds. Chefs Table was our absolute favorite. Also liked Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy and Eva Longoria Searching for Spain. Makes me long to travel (and eat good food!) Aside from those we love most Viking TV shows  particularly Vikings Valhalla.

To summarize... Food and Viking shows, lol.

Thinkthrice wrote:

Sad that Anissa died so young.

Also sad that her younger brother, Paul, died of an overdose several years later.

I didn’t watch very much this year, but I really enjoyed the movie “Sinners”. I think the horror elements were handled very well, and has a lot of other elements, and was skillfully put together.
Also the series “Bad Sisters” is a winner if you like drama , family intrigue and some murder plots thrown in as well!

stepcreaturesonly wrote:

Loooooove Bad Sisters. And not just for the awesome Irish accents. 

Norsemen is badly underwatched. Hysterical.

 
If you like Norsemen (which we did, lol) then might I also suggest "1670". I believe it's on Netflix. It's a similar kind of idea... Old times with modern, silly humour. Set in the 1600s in Poland. We loved it. Season 2 just came out and I found it even funnier than the first season. We binged it.

We thought Norsemen was so funny we still laugh about some of the jokes from it.

We have been intermittently watching Finding Your Roots on PBS.  After an episode about a month ago I did a search (gotta love a voice activated TV remote that will find stuff for you) and stumbled on a now defunct show called Genealogy Road Show.  It is also a PBS show that is formatted much like Antiques Road Show where the team goes to different cities.  During our binge watching of that over a few weekends, I started plinking around in my own family tree.

There were rumors of a Rags on the Mayflower. Nope, there was a couple with a similar last name, but they were elderly and did not survive the first winter.  Then, I found my dad's GM.   As I started plucking at threads I shared stuff with my parents.  Dad never knew his paternal GF's name. I found that.  That confirmed a lot of stuff my dad had heard. The family farm was first acquired during the OK land rush. The house my granddad was born in still exists and is now an AR historical site. I tracked my grandad's paternal line back to 1465 in England tp a village that is the source of the family name.  My grandad's mother is a Snow.  As I tugged at those threads... that is where the Mayflower connection ties in. My 11th GGM was on the Mayflower with her father, SM, and her brother.  She was 14 when the Mayflower landed. So... we started the official paperwork to get out Mayflower Society plaque for dad.    That line we traced back to 1435 in England.  That GGM's half brother was born on the Mayflower mid voyage.  Oceanus Hopkins was his name.  My umpteenth GGM is Constance Hopkins Snow.

The two primary research sites that I found a lot of success with are WikiTree and Find A Grave.  Most of the information is compiled through personal genealogy research efforts but can then be verified through more official channels.

On my mom's side I was able to confirm family stories that my 2X GGF surrendered at Appomattox Court House with General Lee.  His father and brother we in two different POW prisons at the end of the war. They were released and made it back home after the war.  Not a happy part of family history, but interesting.

On both sides of dad's clan, there are a couple of Revolutionary war participants. 

I thought I was done now, except my mom won't let me. I spent about a dozen hours or so over a month plinking through stuff on weekends.  My mom is working to get copies of stuff from her cousins so I can fill in that part of the family tree back more than to my 4th GGF.  On my mom's dad's side, I have only been able to go back to her GF.  She is hell bent on getting me to fill in the tree to as far back as I was able to get dad's side to.

I maxed out my tree on 23&Me. I will get a free Excel tree format and transfer stuff over so as stuff pops up, I can add to it and get it to my brother, his kids, etc...   I have not found much on my bride yet.  As the spirit moves me I will see what I can fill in.

So, maybe I have a hobby?  I have never been much of a hobby person, but this has piqued my interest.

 

Last edited by Rags (1/05/2026 1:35 pm)

Kes wrote:

Cold January afternoon, and DH and I have been watching the feature film "Nuremberg" starring Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek.  About the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of WW2.  It has been much more engaging and watchable than I thought it was going to be. 

 

Thanks for the recommendation on Nuremberg.  I saw it was available on NF but have not watched it yet. I was going to wait until after the holidays so not to crush the Hallmark Christmas Movie vibe leading up to the main holiday events.

I have been on 4 flights in the last two days.  Rather than sleeping as I usually do, I caught up on movies that I had not seen but that had piqued my interest.

First, I watched The Alto Knights. A De Niro based on RL film about the near lifelong relationship and later rivalry between NY mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.  De Niro played both roles.  A notable performance IMHO.  It is well done. A good film.  Not the usual wise guy film with heavy caricatures on the Italian mobster. It focused mainly on the relationships and personalities of those men, their family lives, leadership styles and broader relationships. I recommend it.

Next, I watched, Fly Me to the Moon.  A historical pic about the Apollo moon mission intertwined with a rom-com element. A good story and enjoyable movie.  It stars Scarlett Johansen and Channing Tatum.  The Apollo part piqued my interest as when I was little my dad was seconded to the Apollo mission and worked to train Astronauts for the mission.  I have some very early memories of the "toys" dad, mom, and I got to play with on weekends when dad was assigned to camp at remote training sites to protect the equipment and sites.  I got to ride on the lunar rover, and ride around in the mobile lunar laboratory (that never went to the moon).  Dad had two patents that went to the moon with Apollo 11. One for a slow scan closed circuit TV camera integrated into the space suites, and one for the camera system on the lunar rover.  He also had one what was on the Astronaut jet packs used for space walks on other Apollo missions.

The last movie was surprisingly interesting to me though we landed before I finished it.  I have 15mins left so I don't know how it all wrapped up. Yet. I will stream it when it is available to see the end.  A Big Bold Beautiful Journey starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell.  A romance Sci-Fi-ish movie.  

I recommend all three of them if anyone is plinking around looking for a movie to watch.