Not So Sparkly

Things have been a little boring around the Robbins house lately. Lots of reading, binge watching, and Ritz crackers. The good news is that I have some great books to tell you about for next month's Quick Lit! The bad news is that I don't seem to have much to say these days. 

Honestly, this pregnancy thing is kind of rough. But everyone swears it's going to get better soon!  The second trimester is so close, and all I hear is how much more energy I'll have. Fingers crossed. 

Another not fun thing? Trying to get dressed. Thankfully I work from home most days, and yoga pants are fabulous and forgiving. My jeans? Not so much. I've pretty much been living in maxi skirts with elastic waists, but fall is here and I'm going to have to have some other options soon. I've ordered some maternity clothes from thredUP, so we'll see how that goes. 

Final pregnancy note: I promise to provide bump pics in the future, but at this point I just look like I had one too many burritos. Which is funny, because I haven't had too many of anything lately. Except maybe crackers!

Now excuse me, I'm going to continue binge watching the Good Wife. 

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

Farewell AT&T: A TV Edition of Week's Links

Today I did a hard thing: I returned our DVRs to AT&T. Yes, we have officially gotten rid of cable. (Or more specifically, AT&T U-Verse Television). I've bemoaned the service we've had for awhile, but we were under a contract with them. The day the contract was up I called to cancel and purchased some old school rabbit ears.

And that's one of the problems with U-Verse. They lock you in for yearly increments with really great bundle prices, but once that year is up the price for the exact same service doubles. Of course, if that was our only issue with them I would've accepted when they offered to extend our discount for a year. 

No, as I explained to the very nice man on the phone, even with a discount it feels silly to be paying so much for something that drives me crazy so often. While the actual service, the channels and all that, worked fine most of the time, the customer service (or lack thereof) was the real issue. 

But I've talked about all that before. (If you really want to know, you can find that post here.) Today I want to share some TV related links!

In case you missed it, there was a Gilmore Girls reunion! I read several articles about it, but this Mashable post was the best. Mostly because the bonus highlight made me cry. (They left a chair on the stage at the reunion in honor of Edward Herrman.)

And then there's this post about which Friends character you are based on your Myers-Briggs type. I was not happy with my result - apparently I'm a Ross! 

I could link to a lot of articles about the season finale of Outlander. I have so many thoughts on it, but I've particularly liked hearing what the folks over at Story Wonk had to say about it. I've been binge listening to the Scot and the Sassenach podcast, and their insight has been great. 

As a matter of fact, even if our AT&T contract had ended earlier in the month, I still would've waited to cancel until after that finale. There's just something about that story that sticks with me! 

But it's over now, and we are without cable or a DVR. Is it going to suck a little bit? Yes, I'm sure it will. But I lived for several years without cable and survived, and James has as well. Plus we have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime so it isn't like we don't have options to watch television. 

Do you have cable? If you don't, what do you do instead?

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

Life's Too Short for Downton Disappointment

Recently I made myself rewatch Season 1 of Scandal. See, I have about 10 episodes from the current season saved on my DVR, and I just can't make myself watch. I can't remember why I liked the show so much, with all the "Hi, hi, hi" Fitz/Olivia conversations and the B 6-13 drama.

So I rewatched Season 1.

Y'all, Olivia Pope is the best. She dominates every situation, she gets sh*t handled. But what I really miss is the one-off storylines. I miss all the different clients and their drama! I've moved onto the first couple episodes of Season 2, but I don't think I'm going to watch all the way through. I've been reminded of why I love the show, but I haven't been convinced I need to keep watching.

Speaking of shows I've abandoned, I rewatched the first two season of Downton Abbey recently. Season one and two were amazing. All the Mary/Matthew drama, Sybill being her little feminist self, Mr. Carson doing his best Sam the Eagle impersonation - SO GOOD.

And then season 3 begins. And all the deaths come. I made it through the first couple of episodes of season 4 before I gave up. When they did the Anna rape scene, I was done. And I really don't think I want to watch any of the last season. I just want to pretend the show ended with Mary and Matthew getting engaged in the snow. It was perfect. I don't need to know more.

Another show I abandoned years ago  caught my attention last week. Grey's Anatomy killed off a major character. If you still watch and haven't been spoiled yet I won't go into details, but even I was shocked the character was killed!

I shouldn't have been though. Grey's never hesitated to kill off anyone. I gave up on the show the season of the George/Izzi drama. I watched the season opener after that season to find out who lived, and then I never watched again.

It sounds like I give up on shows a lot. I guess I do give up on quite a few! Life is short and if I'm not enjoying something I don't see the point of spending hours watching just to finish it. I do tend to stick with comedies more than dramas, probably because I still get enjoyment from the comedy even when the show starts to suck.

So know I want to know: do you still watch the shows I've mentioned? What has you hanging on? And what shows have you given up on?

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...