Downtown Abbey. err....downton.

There was a time when I was seriously addicted to Masterpiece Theater. "I, Claudius." (Which inspired me to read the books, which were equally good.) and the one about Edward VII's mistresses, and....especially.... "Upstairs, Downstairs."

Just started watching "Downton Abbey," and, by golly, it's just another version of "Upstairs, Downstairs" as far as I can see. It's like someone took the basic elements of one of your favorite show, but then didn't copy any of the details.

Enjoying it, in the good old-fashioned soap opera way.

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Saw Mission Impossible on Imax.

Wasn't what I expected. I suppose it was quite a bit 'clearer'; almost had a 3-D feel to it, but not as spectacular as I thought it would be.

The movie was great fun. I didn't even mind Tom Cruise, who is still looking about 35 years old somehow....

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I'm really enjoying that Netflix streaming has so many documentaries available. Started watching Senna, about the Formula One race car driver, and they have a scene where they show a crash, and the driver (not Senna) is in the middle of the roadway looking like a pretzel. Very disturbing image.

Most of me doesn't understand the appeal of race cars -- but there is a small part of me that does.

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Finished off the first season of Downton Abbey. We had 4 episodes left to watch, and we couldn't stop watching until they were done. Totally grabs you.

Mary is a really fascinating character. She drives me nuts.

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Much as I'd like for the Tintin movie to succeed, I just don't care for the motion-capture process they are using. It's fine for non-human aspects, but the "valley of the uncanny" thing still bothers me.

I read a review that said Tintin is only known by "weird europhiles" which was funny and actually kind of accurate.

But I can sell them on that basis, just as I can sell "eurostyle" boardgames.

Apparently, most stores have gone to the smaller sized multiple collections -- but I've stuck with the original oversized color albums, which is more traditional.

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I was bound and determined not to run out of boardgames, but as of 2:00 p.m. yesterday I had sold my last base Settlers of Catan and the last base Carcassonne. Argghhh.

I have more coming in today, and I ordered more to come in on Friday, so I'll only be out for a few hours, but I still can't believe how everyone waited until the last minute!