Can I See Some I.D. Please?

Yesterday afternoon I'm tooling around the web, visiting the Dead Lantern site, which I usually hit a few times each week to see what's new, as I listen to their show regularly. There's a thread in their forums about a proposed Nightmare On Elm Street re-make from the folks over at Platinum Dunes, who gave us the two new Texas Chainsaw films a few years back, as well as several other re-makes with noting but more in the works. The general concensus of the forum thread is that this is a bad idea, and my smart-ass comment was this:

“Maybe they can just modernize the thing all the way around and have Chris Hansen and the Dateline team luring a pre-burning Freddy to a remote house while some kid’s parents are allegedly on vacation.”

A few hours later one of the site's webmasters, Jeff posts this picture, which he'd whipped up in Photoshop, which really cracked me up, so I thought I'd share it with all seven of the folks who read this site.

I think the most offensive thing about the proposed re-make of Elm Street is that there's a lot of talk that Robert Englund may not be playing Freddy, which is just fucking stupid, I mean, the guy originated the character and gave him the personality that eveyone wanted to see more of. It's not as though we're talking about replacing one silent hulking stuntman with another (ala Jason Vorhees), the very voice of the character is instantly recognizable. What next, they make another shitty direct to video Hellraiser, but fuckit, let's get some other bald guy in to play Pinhead...how about that guy from Hitman, he's willing to shave his head, right?

Aside from that rant, let's see what Thursday brought, shall we?

I got a good bit of work done on the graphs, although I had to knock off in the afternoon because the numbers stopped making sense and I was getting pissed off. I think this may have been a subconscious reason I was putting this stuff off as long as I did, because I remember when I first went over things the numbers looked fucked up even at a first glance, so now trying to get them to make sense to the point that I can transfer that information to a graph is a giant pain in the ass. I did however get to listen to a few things on the old iPod, including a new Indie Spinner Rack and Hellbilly Wreckhouse.

The wife and I had lunch around 1:00 in the afternoon, still finding a way to be in a crowded restaurant in spite of the late hour. I think the problem is that the labor shortage locally has everyone second-guessing the lunch crowds, and no one really goes at the traditional noon hour, which leaves all restaurants with weird waiting times as people trickle in whenever.

We did the grocery shopping afterwards, and I had the cashier, a little girl who was probably 19 at most card me for the six pack of Guinness we were buying. "Can I see an I.D.?" she asked cheerfully, and I swear to God I blinked at her for about 15 seconds before realizing that she was serious. For reals ya'll, I'm 33, I have a full beard and I haven't shaved for a couple of days, nor did I shower this morning, I looked like Grizzly Adams after a fucking bender and she's concerned I may not be 21? I own shirts as old as this girl. Weird.

The wife put the groceries away while I ran a load of trash out and replaced about five flood lights outside that had all died on us around the same time. The security lights weren't leaving me feeling very secure since the entire backyard was dark, and half of the front of the house, so I got all that sorted out and then dicked with the graphs until they pissed me off.

This evening the wife and I watched The Girl Next Door, not the romantic comedy from a few years back which was about porn but never got the titular girl nude, but the gruesome adaptation of Jack Ketchum's novel. I've not read the novel, though I do own it and will get to it at some point. The story is based on true events and concerns a young girl who is brutally tortured and abused by her aunt, the aunt's children and some of the other kids from the neighborhood back in the 50's. A wholly depressing film, it was effective in making you hate the aunt and her brood, but the young boy who tries (eventually) to help the girl kind of confused me. He only made a few half hearted attempts to help the girl or tell anyone what was happening, and I kind of get that children can be bullied out of fear, or coerced, but it just seemed that he could have handled things very differently quite easily and just didn't. It was a pretty grueling film, because unlike something like Hostel or Saw, you have something of an attachment to the female lead, and seeing her subjected to such abuse is hard to watch. I'd have to say that I thought the movie was well done, but I don't know that it'd have much re-watch value, as the film itself is nothing extraordinary. It serves its purpose and tells the story, but there's no particular shot or camerawork that I need to see again because it's so visually arresting or anything like that. The wife actually shed tears for the victim, she found the film very sad.

Goodnight everyone, try to keep that gun out of your mouth!

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Dead Lantern Splattercast, Nightmare On Elm Street Remake, To Catch A Predator, Robert Englund, Workday, iPod, Indie Spinner Rack, Hellbilly Wreckhouse, Groceries, Guinness, Movies, The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum, Depressing

Quiet Routine

Hopefully I can keep this post short and sweet, like my member, as I have other rats to kill this evening.

I started the day off by writing a few new things for the Big Suck Loser and sending that off to Skincarver, the hardest working webmaster anyone could ever ask for.

The wife spent her day working on several non-profit projects she's got going, so she was on the computer or making lists most of the day. I paid a few bills and got a bank deposit ready, then ran out to the post office and bank shortly after noon. I watched a guy in the teller line send the little tube thing back and forth no less than five times, so I can only guess that he's never been to a bank before in his fucking life. How he had mastered the operation of a motor vehicle is quite beyond me.

Back at the house I watched a bit of television and ate lunch, then got started on the first project.

The iPod Agador Spartacus had a few new things for me to listen to, so I heard a new Dead Lantern Splattercast while I worked, which covered all things Rambo this time around rather than horror, which has been kind of amusing. A lot of horror sites and shows have been all over this film out of a combination of nostalgia and the gore involved, although I doubt I will muster the strength to see this in a theater, it kind of has DVD or cable written all over it.

I also heard a new Cinemaslave that reviewed There Will Be Blood very positively, I'm very curious to see that as well.

I made us some queso this evening, cooking up some beef while I was coaxing the cheese and spiced tomatoes along towards melting. We ate chips and dip while watching a new Ace Of Cakes that TiVo had for us, as well as the new Ghost Hunters International.

The wife got fished into a long drawn out phone call with the Mother In Law shortly afterwards, so I ended up just flipping around to different shows, never settling on anything to really watch while listening to her end of the conversation. I talked to her afterwards so she could decompress from her Mother's craziness and then we both played fetch with the Yorkie to tire her out for bed and then I headed off to the web to try to get this finished.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Big Suck Loser, Movie Reviews, Errands, Banking, Workday, iPod, Agador Spartacus, Dead Lantern Splattercast, Movies, Rambo, Nostalgia, Cinemaslave, There Will Be Blood, Television, TiVo, Ace Of Cakes, Ghost Hunters International, Yorkie

Workday Punctuated With Asides And Minor Rants And Such...

I actually feel as though I accomplished a few things today, which is a nice change of pace. I got some cleaning done around the house early in the morning, picking up the office a bit and sorting through the bills and junk mail that'd piled up yet again on the kitchen counter.

The wife had a couple of meetings from the late morning into the early afternoon, so I did some dishes and drank a pot of coffee before starting in on the prep work for the second project I've been ignoring for way too long. This one turned out to be a giant pain in the ass, my eyes and hand actually sore from the tedious squinting through the magnifying glass and marking off footages that had very little to denote a change between them. I know I'm basically speaking Greek here if you're not familiar with the job itself, but take my word for it, it's tedious as fuck.

Thankfully I had the iPod to keep me company, and I caught up on a couple of the Mark Kermode podcasts from the BBC, as well as a new (Cool) Shite On The Tube.

I also listened to last week's edition of Indie Spinner Rack, which was specifically about the effects of people who download comics via the web rather than paying for them and purchasing an actual copy of the book, which I found kind of interesting. The obvious comparison is to the MP3 sharing of the mid-90's and the effects it had on the music industry and how they market their merchandise. What I also found interesting was that the anime industry here in the states is apparently suffering a great deal because people would rather download it than actually purchase it, but I have to admit to not really being all that surprised by this fact when you consider that the average anime DVD is priced much higher than any other genre of film out there except possibly the Criterion Collection, who at least make it worth your while with higher quality prints of rare films. The average price on anime seems to be at least $20 or more, where most DVD's seem to hover around $15-$20 depending on their age, so I can actually somewhat understand why they would experience some amounts of piracy if the average fan didn't want to bend over at Best Buy to the tune of $22 a disc for a 12 volume series.

Hell, just by way of specific example, a catalog title that I bought when I first started buying DVD's years ago, Perfect Blue by director Satoshi Kon: I paid $19.95 for this brand new at least 8 or more years ago, it currently retails for $22.99 at Best Buy as I type this. Really? Any other genre usually sees some sort of price drop in catalog material after a certian period, yet anime companies firmly prod the rectum of all new fans like the item was pressed just minutes ago. Obviously I'm not aware of all the intricacies of foreign licensing deals, but at some point the Yakuza have to feel as though they've made at least a portion of their money back and give the poor man a break, y'know?

In the late afternoon I ordered a pizza for a late lunch and went to pick it up, which afforded me a sight I probably could've lived without seeing. The girl who cut the pizza picks up what looks like an aerosol can of hairspray or window cleaner and proceeds to spray the entire circumference of the pizza's outer crust with what turned out to be a garlic spray. It just caught me a little off guard, it was like watching someone spray Pam directly onto the food or something.

It actually reminded me of noticing that Taco Bell applied guacamole to their food with what was actually a caulking gun, except the tube in question had whatever passes for guacamole at their restaurant inside it. I don't know if they still use the guac-ing gun, but Lord it's weird to see something that looks that out of place in a kitchen. It'd be like seeing someone using a shovel in a restuarant kitchen; you just have to do the double-take.

The wife and I watched a couple flicks tonight since nothing is on television anymore, so I finally got to see Saw IV, which was okay, I suppose. I really enjoy the way the series has held to the continuity they established, adding details and fleshing out peripheral characters, but I also think it might be getting into the area of distracting at this stage of things. Speaking of distracting, I hope the next film has the luxury of a fucking tripod on the set, because the near constant spinning of the camera around the actors, presumably to indicate their chaotic state in the film is annoying as fuck. James Wan, director of the original is really fond of that trick in all of his films, and has evidently passed the bug on to Darren Lynn Bousman, because DAMN.

We also watched So Close, a Cory Yuen film starring the divine Shu Qi, Karen Mok (who I remembered seeing again recently in Black Mask with Jet Li), and Wei Zhao, who I knew I'd seen before and was nearly driven mad durng the film trying to place her. Turns out she was in a movie I've not watched in awhile (my Hong Kong cinema phase was several years ago, but I still have the films to prove it), it stars Andy Lau and is called The Duel, which was a period piece with some really over the top martial arts and swordplay.

But I digress.

So Close was about two sisters, assassins who use a near magical satellite tracking system their late father created to their advantage when the commit crimes, as it taps into the security cameras of any building in the world. If you're willing to accept a concept that silly and just go with it, the film is a lot of fun, the girls super-cute and the action fast and over the top. Hell, in the first ten minutes Shu Qi stabs a spiked heel of her shoe into a ceiling and dangles upside down by one leg shooting random henchmen with deadly accuracy. If that sounds like it's worth a laugh to ya, we've found something for you to do this weekend.

I'm off to try and write a few things for the BSL.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Household Chores, Workday, iPod, Podcasts, Mark Kermode, Cool Shite On The Tube, Indie Spinner Rack, DVD Piracy, Anime, Perfect Blue, Lunch, Movies, Saw IV, James Wan, Darren Lynn Bousman, So Close, Corey Yuen, Shu Qi, Karen Mok, Black Mask, Wei Zhao, Big Suck Loser

Who Wants To Come Over For Some Soup? (Or: Family Drama Part 6,034)

So we got home last night and dug through our pile of mail that had accumulated during our trip out of town and I found a padded envelope from our friend's Ellen Aim and her husband Corinthian. I opened it and found a single item inside and laughed my ass off, because it was the last thing I ever expected to get in the mail, and the fact that there was no note or anything else accompanying it. The item speaks for itself and I think would go nicely with some of my Salty Chocolate Balls.
The packet is now proudly pinned to the corkboard in the office with all the other puzzling knick knack type shit that will probably cause the casual visitor pause to wonder what the fuck is wrong with us.

The wife spent most of the day vaguely stressed out, as the Mother In Law is seemingly on one of her weird jags again. The woman has actually said these words in the past 24 hours: "I've been really depressed lately and I've been cutting back on my anti-depressant as a result."

I want to call her up and ask if she'd consider me a fucking idiot if I told her that I'd been diagnosed with heart trouble but have started breaking my pills in half despite the weird numb arm I've been ignoring. Seriously, it's as though she's trying to fuck up her life as some sort of weird experiment or something. She also mentioned "being done with Ambien" which was something we thought she'd stopped taking months ago, so that's kinda fucked up as well. The wife was of course stressed out completely by all of this, which in turn annoyed the shit out of me, as any of the regular readers (all 8 of you) will know, none of this family drama shit gets to me until it starts upsetting the wife.

Add to this the fact that the MIL's divorce, which has been threatening since the wife and I got together about 3 and a half years ago is finally creeping towards a deposition next month. This is great news, except that the MIL has pawned off every detail of the preperation for it on my wife, such as plane reservations, hotel accomodations, all that shit is somehow my wife's responsibility. I keep asking the wife when her divorce will be final so she and I can get back to our fucking lives, since she's such an integral part of her Mother's separation from her husband at long last.

The wife and I picked up some lunch today and had a nice quiet meal back at the house. She spent a good amount of time with household chores, laundry and whatnot, while I gathered trash and cleaned out the fridge, puttering around the house.

The wife took a nap away from the phone and whatever new annoyance or complication it might bring, and I popped in the iPod and listened to the last CHUD Show and last week's Night Of The Living Podcast while I started prepping the two projects I've been ignoring so that I can work on them later in the week. Both podcasts spoke favorably of Cloverfield, which is something I'd like to try and catch in the theater, since I don't think I've seen anything theatrically since the Halloween re-make last year.

The evening creeping up on us, I was envisioning a little dinner and watching the copy of Saw IV that'd come in the mail from those rental throttling pricks at Netfux. The MIL decides that she's gonna drop by because she wants to see us, which is distracting enough, but she of course has her two fucking dogs in tow, as with last Monday, as well as (for no apparent reason) the youngest Grandchild, who had spent the day out of school with a nanny. Where the fuck his PARENTS are is still a mystery to me as I type this, I was actually so annoyed that I didn't bother to ask.

This random pop-in routine is obviously beginning to piss me off, and it leaves the wife in a tough spot, because she's not necessarily chomping at the bit to see the MIL either, since she's been acting so squirelly and erratic lately, but doesn't feel that she can tell her "No, I'd rather you not come by", but she doesn't want me to be all pissy about things either.

I said fuckit and went to help the MIL get out of her car when she arrived (why this is such a major operation I have no idea, but she'll honk and wait in the car for what feels like 5 minutes before she even attempts to open her door), and when she asked about my dour expression I said flatly "Well, you are kinda cocking up the evening plans with the drop-in, y'know? I had planned a quiet night on the couch with a movie and some take-out and now I've got dogs and someone else's kid underfoot for no apparent reason." She asked if I was serious, and I assured her I was.

She tells me something about this being how families are, to which I replied that they don't have to be, and therein lies my annoyance.

It's not the fact that I don't want to socialize, it's the forced socialization that gets to me, people just showing up unannounced, usually to talk about the same shit, in her case the Goddamned failed marriage that she's known was a piece of shit from about 30 years ago but stuck it out for, and is now carrying on incessantly about what a rotten husband he was, even comparing herself to a POW in the treatment she's gotten from him. I'm sure the man was a big giant asshole, all accounts point to it, but seriously? A POW? I'm just saying there's probably a shitload of Vietnam Vets in the world who would challenge her notion of mistreatment, that's all.

The MIL and Grandchild ate, she explained briefly that she'd picked him up because the nanny had somehow been watching after him all day and she doesn't like when the Middle Sister does that. This ignoring the fact of all of her own complications and stresses that she's pawning off on my wife, such as plane tickets and hotel reservations. The Middle Sister is having more of her own depression issues, which always seem to pop up around every three months, which is a whole other source of frustration. If it didn't function as an excuse for her to pawn her child off on others every so often I wouldn't question it as much as I do, but it's hard not to find the behavior suspect when it's almost like clockwork.

I sometimes feel like I'm the only person on the face of the planet who's not on some sort of anti-depressant, I certianly am in this family, and when I'm supposedly the most even person involved in a situation, you're in a sad fucking state of affairs.

My life's work is most likely going to amount to a bunch of shitty writing published online under the general banner of Dear Bastards, and I end up being what passes for the voice of reason in a lot of cases with these people? Jesus Balls On Toast, we're in deep shit....

Long story finally dragging itself to a fucking end, they ate, we talked a little bit, the MIL gathered her brood and split, I hugged her and told her I love her, which I do, I just don't have the strength to deal with this shit sometimes. The wife said that maybe me being blunt with her is the best way to go, as everyone in the family (herself included) tends to sugarcoat things for her or step in when she starts acting helpless, whereas I'm too much of an asshole to let it slide.

Okay, that last bit was my words, not hers.

The wife and I blew off the movie because it was getting late in the evening and just watched a few TiVo'd items, including last week's episode of Ghost Hunters International and The Soup before calling it a night.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Cock Soup, Family Drama, Annoyance, Frustration, Divorce, Workday, iPod, CHUD Show, Night Of The Living Podcast, Movies, Cloverfield, Halloween, Saw IV, Netflix, TiVo, Television, Ghost Hunters International, The Soup

San Antonio Day Four (Or: Cinematic Sunday Twenty-Three, Since We Spent Very Little Time In San Antonio Today...)

The wife had an early day again today, and I was in the process of trying to sleep in while she showered and got ready for her day when the housekeeping folks started knocking insistantly at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. I had forgotten to replace the 'do not disturb' on the door the night before. Jesus.

The wife went off to do her bit and I went back to sleep, trying to ignore my aching legs, apparently my three hours or so of walking around yesterday has returned to bite me on the ass...or legs, as it were. I got up around 11:00, checked e-mail and then started gathering my stuff up since I knew the wife had a departure time of noon-ish in mind. She returned, we packed up our stuff, called down for the car and headed downstairs. I'm kinda fighting the valet to load our stuff into the trunk because I'm not particularly used to people doing shit for me when I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself. The wife suddenly remembers that she's forgotten her stupid pillow that she'd brought with her. Why its it that every woman I've ever known travels with their own pillows?

Actually, my neck is still fucked up from the hotel pillows, so forget I asked.

She ran back upstairs to get her pillow and then we headed out shortly after we had planned, closer to 1:00, the combination of one way streets and construction making our attempted reversal of Mapquest directions a bit of a pain in the ass. Once we got properly turned around we were flying along. I really had to watch myself, there's an area along there that the speed limit jumps up to 80 MPH, so I kept finding myself doing about 95 and not even realizing it. The most fucked up part of it is that I generally drive us to and from whatever big city we're visiting, because my lead-footed wife always, ALWAYS gets a ticket when she drives on the highway. I've really been pushing my luck on the highway lately, but I've avoided her curse thus far.

We stopped in Kerrville to re-fill the car and drive through Jack In The Box, which is my favored junk food that we don't have in this area (Yet, that is: there's one under construction locally, I may not be long for this world, Dear Reader Bastard...), which ended up being about a 20 minute wait in the drive-thru.

I thought my opening order was fairly direct, and I quote it here: "Hi there, I need two orders of the 3 count egg-rolls."

The girl replies: "You want a What?" in much the same manner I'd expect to be spoken to had I asked to see her tits pressed against the window; y'know, confused, shocked and more than a little put out by the request.

I said "Jesus Christ" aloud and the wife started laughing for about five minutes straight, she was so amused by the girls' delivery. "GawdDAMN, what the hell is her problem?" she gasped between peals of laughter.

I tried again, speaking slower and a lot louder to ensure that bitchwad the window-cunt would get every single detail of what I expected to see in the bag when I made it around the corner, she gave me a total and I told her thank you very much.

Holy shit, it took forever, but the food was every bit as disgusting/tasty as I expected, and we were finally back on the road. The wife napped after we ate and I cranked up the comedy CD's I'd loaded the changer with for the trip to let Dave Attell, David Cross and Patton Oswalt keep me company for most of the journey.

We got home around 5:30, which meant that I was speeding even worse on the second leg of the journey, but again, the lonesome highway out there between Ozona and Big Lake is so deserted, it's hard not to lead foot it along.

We watched the Fox animation stuff, Simpsons, etc. and a new Girls Next Door before I decided to call it a night and hop online to start this post.

The trailers this evening are getting into the neighborhood of slim pickings, but here we go:

The Bank Job is directed by Roger Donaldson and stars Jason Statham running a crew of thieves lured into pulling a bank heist that uses them as a cover to steal some embarrassing pics snapped of one of the Royals. Based on true events, it releases in March of this year.



Next, Adam Green, director of Hatchet has a new film coming out, it stars Joel David Moore (who I'll forever think of as that weird fucking computer nerd from Grandma's Boy) and Amber Tamblyn. Moore is a quiet loner artist type who becomes obsessed with the evidently equally lonely Tamblyn, and if you watch this trailer you have to wonder if there's anything else to the film that we need to know, because this looks like it kinda telegraphs most of the major reveals. Who knows, maybe there's a bunch of twists in the final reel we're not seeing here. Give it a look, see what you think, it's in theaters February 8th.



Finally, I'm closing with a movie that I'm pretty sure I mentioned in one of these several months back, but since it's not even going to be out until May I figure I can afford to bump it up the list again. Midnight Meat Train is based on the Clive Barker story of the same name, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. It stars Bradley Cooper as a photographer who finds himself following a serial killer played by Vinnie Jones who butchers late night commuters on the subway. The original story was really good as I recall, though I haven't read it in ten years or more.



I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Travel, San Antonio, Jack In The Box, Television, Simpsons, Girls Next Door, Movies, Trailers, The Bank Job, Roger Donaldson, Jason Statham, Spiral, Adam Green, Joel David Moore, Amber Tamblyn, Clive Barker, Midnight Meat Train, Ryuhei Kitamura, Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones

San Antonio Day Three

The wife was up at the crack of dawn for her first meeting, and came back to the room on a break around 10:30 and woke me up knocking since she was having issues with her key card.

I groggily/bitterly suggested that an industrious person in her position might cruise by the front desk and simply get a new card, then threw myself back into bed. We visited for a time as I fought off slumber and then she left for her next scheduled meeting.

I dressed and took the do not disturb off the door so that the housekeeping folks would work their magic while I was out. I headed out from the hotel in the exact opposite direction of which I should've, but of course this only became apparent later, and who am I to ask for simple directions, right? I wandered around a bit before running across signs directing me to the Riverwalk, as well as the Alamo, which I'd actually seen with the wife on a previous trip here.

Funny story, that: we drove by the Alamo at about 3:00 in the morning, which was fine by me and it wasn't covered over by tourists, so I could actually get an idea of the size of the rather small, modest building that's such a large part of this state's history.

Anyway, I followed a few signs and took the steps down to the Riverwalk around Navarro, following it along for a good long while, puzzled that the area down there wasn't as shop and restuarant-filled as I remembered from the one trip we've taken here before. Determined to find the area we were in before, I went up to the surface streets again, this time circling back to the area of the hotel and heading off in a different direction, which led me to tourist-ville USA, right beside the Alamo.

The last thing I expected to do today? Step in horseshit.

What did I do amidst the hubbub of the tourists? Step directly in horseshit. Bah. Fuckin' tourist trap pony ride bullshit, excuse me, horseshit.

I headed off down Houston Street and found another Riverwalk access that looked more promising, so I went down there again, finding nothing of the shops and eateries that I remembered, but there was more to look at as far as plantlife and apartments overhanging the area, so I made my way down there for a time, taking notice of the odd details here and there.

The squirrel perched in a palm trees' lower fronds,watching me as he nervously guarded his precious nut.

The ducks, always in couples, bobbing along in the water and seemingly nodding their heads in quiet agreement to some unspoken pact.

I had dressed in my WWJasonD t-shirt and a jacket, but the jacket soon had to come off as it got warmer, so I got no conversation from passersby whatsoever, although a few people seemed to check out the shirt, some smiled, and I swear one older gentleman said aloud "Kill someone.", but maybe that was just his own 'things to do' list. It kept the general public at bay and served its' purpose, so I was content.

I finally made my way back to the Houston Street area, re-tracing my steps somewhat, and the roundabout route I took eventually led me past the area we'd visited before, which typically turned out to be in the hotel's backyard, so I made my way over to check out the Rivercenter Mall, which I'd passed before and ignored in favor of further exploration.

I found a Suncoast which had a used copy of Freaked for $5.00, so I bought that just for the hell of it, and then made my way back towards the hotel, deciding in mid-walk that I should probably grab something to eat. Durty Nelly's Pub is situated on the Riverwalk and is just a walk around the corner from the hotel entrance, so I figured I'd have a few beers and chill with some food, since I didn't have very far to go even if I got a buzz.

I went inside the bar instead of watching the tourist stream offered oudoors, taking a seat at the bar and eventually chatting a bit with the bartender and a guy who turned out to be the piano player. He eventually went off break and started in with rousing singalong versions of bawdy material like My Ding-A-Ling as well as Ring Of Fire, Chantilly Lace and Great Balls Of Fire, it was an amusing show and thankfully my bar seating had me hidden from view, so I wasn't called upon to help sing or anything like the people sitting in the restuarant portion closer to the piano. I had several Guinness and ordered some fish and chips on the recommendation of the bartender.

I eventually struck up a conversation with a woman a stool over from me from who turned out to be from Michigan. I had overheard her say that she was in town for the same series of seminars as the wife is, but had skipped one and came down for a drink, I asked her how she was able to play hookey and I hadn't seen my wife since basically 8:00 AM yesterday morning? We chatted for about 30 minutes about their organization as well as her Canadian husband, children and hockey, she was fun to waste some time with and then I realized it was around 3:30, so I headed up to the room to since the wife had a short break between meetings to visit with me. We got caught up and then she headed to her final thing of the day, and we have plans to go to some mall she's interested in visiting this evening, so I decided to start this turkey early while everything was fresh in my memory. I also told her about the Sanrio store over at the Rivercenter Mall, since she's a Hello Kitty fan, we may end up going there before we leave.


Like Johnny Carson, there's always more to come....

Oh, and it's 4:00 as I type this and the pigeons are already home from a hard day at the office, all four of them. It's like having a few extra couples along for the trip, hanging out on the balcony.

**********************************************************

I napped for about an hour and then the wife came in, wondering what I wanted to do for the evening. I told her I was up for her mall trip, and requested a side trip to a Half Price Books if it wasn't too much trouble, so we headed out. I actually found a few things at Half Price, nothing I was really looking for specifically but just a few items that were cheap enough to say what the hell about, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Companion by Stefan Jaworzyn which looks to cover the original film and sequels, though not the two recent re-makes.

We hit the Northstar Mall, which was a complete waste of time. The wife was kind of interested in shoes, she found nothing at all, the Mother In Law had requested that she look for a Chanel purse that's similar to the one my wife has been carrying, but has what looked like a plastic strap rather than leather in the catalog she saw it in. Armed with a description like that, we of course found nothing that we thought fit that bill. The mall itself is kinda cheesy to me, I think the problem may be that they have literally dozens of kiosks in the middle of the mall, selling all manner of cheap crap, similar to our small town mall, and I think I expect better consumerism from a larger city that should know better. It just looks kind of junky, I think I prefer the snooty upscale qualities of the mall in Dallas to this environment.

We headed back to the hotel, I took a soak in the tub while the wife ordered dinner and we chilled on the corner of the bed and ate watching a bunch of stuff on HGTV since it's the only channel the hotel gets that interests me that much. HBO hasn't had anything interesting on this weekend and Adult Swim has their anime crap on this evening that I can't be bothered to keep up with.

We head home tomorrow, though I'm not sure when we're planning on leaving. I made a point to say goodbye to our pigeons on the balcony, since they'll be long gone in the morning when I get up, since they start their day early.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Travel, San Antonio, Riverwalk, Alamo, Rivercenter Mall, Suncoast, Movies, Freaked, Durty Nelly's Pub, Guiness, Half Price Books, Northstar Mall, Television, HGTV, Pigeons

San Antonio Day Two

Okay, first things first, I forgot to mention the one true beef I've had with the hotel since we've been here. It happened last night and I forgot to work it into the post, so here goes:

We ordered some supper up to the room, and I requested a pitcher of tea, since I knew that they wanted like $5.00 for a freaking soda via room service and I couldn't be bothered to wander the floor looking for a soda machine. The tea tasted as though they made it with some water from a stagnant puddle in the alley near the backdoor of the kitchen. I don't know what the deal was, but it seriously had a strange mossy aftertaste that conjured visions of the duck pond back home. I tried to choke it down, adding an extra sweetener, which only made it a sickeningly sweet mossy flavor. I gave up and tried some TAP WATER from the bathroom that tasted normal, so I can only guess that the tea they use here is some strange brand produced by the Swamp Thing, because it almost gagged me from the first sip.

The hotel pillows did a number on my neck, so I had a somewhat fitful night's sleep. The wife's alarm got her up shortly before 8:00 for the first of several seminars, although I understand that she skipped the breakfast that started at 6:30 or 7:00 (!) this morning so she could sleep in a little longer. My own alarm went off at 9:00 and I got up mulling over my ideas about taking a walk around the neighborhood. The weather outside was very overcast, and I hopped online and checked the weather forecast, which called for a high of only 45 and possible rain. I looked back outside about an hour later and it was indeed pissing down rain, so I nixed the idea of wandering around in the inclement weather just for the hell of it. Tomorrow promises a high in the mid-60's and no rain, which is much more appealing.

I ordered a pizza from room service and watched several episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker via those video streaming pricks at Netfux. I'd never seen the show before and it was amusingly quaint and dated. I also puttered around the web a bit, looking at this or that since I knew that the hotel's television offerings were pretty average.

The wife came by around 3:30 on a break from her meetings upstairs, dropped off a soda for me and then went back for the last thing of the day.

The pigeons came home to roost around this time as well, which amused me, since it was pretty early in the afternoon. I have to wonder when they begin their day. Oh, and they did eat the French fries we threw them last night, maybe they had a midnight snack or something.

I actually caught a nap while watching some HGTV until the wife came back around 5:30. We visited and caught up on what she'd been learning today, she checked e-mail and we had the pizza leftovers for supper while flipping through some television.

I decided to start this early just because there's not a lot to talk about today, tomorrow I may actually dress and leave the room.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Travel, San Antonio, Rain, Netflix, Kolchak The Night Stalker, Television, HGTV

San Antonio Day One

I'm starting this early, since I know we're going to be leaving later than I'd like to and thus will be arriving in San Antonio in the evening rather than the afternoon. I don't know what the trip or this evening holds, so I figure I'll hedge my blogging bets and open the blog portal so that it'll post on the correct day even if I find myself writing it late in to the night.

I'm off to do some laundry for the trip.

**************************************************************

Okay, so now it's eleven at night and I'm writing this turkey and listening to a Family Guy re-run while the wife reads over her material for tomorrow. Here's what happened since this morning:

I did my laundry, packed and then loaded the luggage and everything else up for the trip. The wife had made plans for the Yorkie to spend the weekend with her girlfriend Scrawny McTall, so we dropped the dog off and then had to stop at the courthouse on the way out of town so that the wife could sign something grand jury related because she's a good citizen like that.

We headed out around 2:00, made our way towards Big Lake, then crossed over towards Ozona, stopping for gas and to get some coffee. The drive was really, really boring, there's nothing out on those empty highways and I found myself doing 90 without even realizing it because there was no other traffic to judge my speed by until I glanced down and freaked out a little. The weather was a weird rainy mix, and I thought the stupid windshield wipers were starting to crap out on me until I did the math on the 32 degree weather outside and the windchill of us barreling along, so I cranked the defrost and suddenly I could actually see where we were going again.

Ozona actually had some pretty houses along the main thoroughfare we passed through, I know I've been through there before but didn't recall it looking so pretty.

We hit interstate 10 going East outside of Ozona and that took us all the way into San Antonio, diligently following the Mapquest directions. We missed the first turn once we exited the interstate, because why would anything ever go smoothly, right? I was able to backtrack at the next street and then we found our bearings and made our way to the hotel, a Hilton near the Riverwalk. I was kinda taking in the sidestreets as we came in, if I decide to wander around tomorrow. There's some oddball shopping within easy walking distance, I may go for a stroll, unless the weather is shitty, it's about 40-something here as I type this, and I'm not sure what the high is supposed to be tomorrow.

The valets were in a tizzy when we parked the car out front, as random fuckers kept sidling up to them while they tried to work in the order of who had driven up. I was unloading our bags from the trunk myself while some middle aged douche-nozzle is sitting in his minivan honking at them to try to get their attention becuase he's so important or something. I've never seen a celeb in a minivan, but there he was. Fuck him and his haus frau. I finally got a valet stub and we got out of the cold and got checked in. As we walked to the elevators I noticed that the Maxima had moved on, so presumably the valets finally parked it or someone saw the keys in the ignition and stole that fucker, either way, it was gone.

We got up to the room and the wife immediately called downstairs to request a room without two full-size beds, since we actually like to sleep together rather than Dick Van Dyking it in the seperate ones. They sent a kid up with new room keys and we headed down a few floors to check out the new digs. A king-size bed, less extraneous furniture and we're in business. I got the webservice set up and we checked out the patio area, which is home to no less than four pigeons puffed up and sleeping against the cold. I snapped a pic with the cell, which turned out pretty decent, if you look closely you can see the French fry I tried to feed him that he's studiously ignoring. Damned bird. It is pretty amusing though, when you walk onto the balcony they simply creep back into the shrubs and look inconspicuous instead of actually showing any real fear of you.

I'm out, there's more Adult Swim to watch and the Lucy: Daughter Of The Devil is actually one I've not seen.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Travel, San Antonio, Television, Family Guy, Lucy Daughter Of The Devil, Adult Swim, Pigeons

Errands, Shopping And An Impromptu Guy's Night Out

I'd planned tentatively to have lunch with Robbb today, so I made that call, catching him working on his day off and we set a time of 1:00 in the afternoon.

The wife was called for grand jury selection and of course was picked because she looks so innocent and trustworthy, so she asked me to run a grocery errand for her, as she had plans to host a meeting at the house this evening. I got her list together along with a few things we needed just for the house and then left her eating some leftovers before heading back to the courthouse for the afternoon. I headed out to grab Robbb for some lunch.

We ended up eating with his boss as well and I made some noise to Robbb about having dinner tonight as well, since the wife would be tied up and have a bunch of random women in my house this evening. He seemed into the idea and I dropped them back at the store, then hit Barnes & Noble to re-new the stupid discount membership thing that I'd let lapse because they said I could re-new it online and then wouldn't allow it for some unknown reason, saying that I needed to go into the store to do so. A few days later I get a postcard in the mail saying that they had tried to re-new automatically online and were unable to do so, but that I could call the number on the card or go into the store and do so. I call the number and the woman on the other end tells me that she can't re-new the membership online, I counter with the fact that I have a postcard in my hand from her company instructing me to call her to do just that, she tells me again that she can't help me over the phone, I say a curse word and hang up on her.

I may have already told that story on here before, if so please feel free to ignore the previous paragraph.

I did the grocery run, which was pretty hassle free until I got to the checkout, which was a complete clusterfuck, with buggies full of crap and their disgruntled owners stretching back into the store's aisles. I don't know what was taking each and every cashier so long to ring everyone out, but all of the lines were backed up and it felt like I was shopping for a turkey on Thansgiving Eve or something rather than normal marketing on a random Wednesday afternoon. Weird.

On the way back to the house I got the wild hair to finally go to Odessa and try to find the missing Girls Next Door bobbleheads for the wife, so I could know once and for all if I was going to jack with returning the incorrect stuff they'd sent me and fight with them about the missing Hef. I unloaded the groceries and put everything away, tried to call the wife and found her phone message box full. I left a detailed note about my whereabouts and then called Macguffin to see if he wanted to run around with me while I was in town. He agreed, I dug out a Beastie Boys CD to listen to on the drive over and headed out.

I grabbed him from his house and we went to the store I was hoping would have the silly dolls I was trying to find. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they did indeed have the two I was missing and in one fell swoop the collection was complete. I muttered a Christ-like "It is finished." and yay, go me, let us never speak of it again.

Mac and I hung out at his house for awhile, I called and confirmed the plans with Robbb, and also got a call from the wife, catching up with her and letting her know what was goung on for the evening. She had been tied up all afternoon with the grand jury stuff, so she was running a bit late getting her stuff set up for the evening and let me go fairly quickly. Mac and I spoke briefly with his wife Blancodeviosa and then headed back to town to pick up Robbb.

We had dinner and then hit Barnes & Noble for Robbb to pick up a few things, then we chilled for a bit at his apartment before I ran Mac back over to Odessa and then came home.

Tomorrow we leave for San Antonio, for a seminar that the wife has to attend for one of her charities that she's going to be in charge of next year. The actual seminar stuff is scheduled for Friday and Saturday during the day, which leaves us the evenings to play around if we want, although I'll obviously have more free time than the wife will. Faced with the options of exploring the city on my own or just reading a book in the hotel room and ordering in some food, my boring ass will probably be getting a lot of reading done this weekend. God, I'm lame.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Lunch, Errands, Shopping, Groceries, Girls Next Door, Travel, San Antonio

Celebrities, Reality Television And Breaking News

Okay, so a week to the day after indie-film regular Brad Renfro was found dead, complete with a new tattoo that read 'Fuck All Y'all' across his back, the wife gets a call this afternoon from a friend saying that Heath Ledger is dead as well? Ledger was found dead with sleeping pills nearby, according to E! online and leaves a two year old daughter behind. It's very sad to me, and you have to wonder if we're talking about a suicide here, and if so, what in God's name for?

I think the last celebrity news like this that actually kinda depressed me was the news about Kurt Cobain way back when, but for some reason these last two things have sruck me as particularly pointless. I suppose the age of the men involved is the main factor, but it's hard to put into words other than to say it's just a weird feeling to hear about things like this when you figure these people will always be knocking around, putting out a new movie and being spotted by paparazzi. It also doesn't help matters that both of these guys were younger than me by at least a few years, what a short life.

The wife and I dabbled this evening in several reality television shows, since that seems to be the only thing really turning up new on most stations. The Real Housewives Of New York City could prove to be the final straw that will put me in a car with a stolen gun in the passenger seat, driving North to murder a whole bunch of people. Seriously, we watched the preview show that aired the other night that TiVo was kind enough to grab for us and I think there was maybe one woman on the show that I didn't want to see pushed down an elevator shaft the moment she opened her mouth. The wife was hoping for something at least remotely classy considering the setting amongst the affluent in one of the cultural meccas of the world. Instead, what we got was a bunch of self-involved spoiled idiots that brought bile to the tip of my tongue with their every action. One of these trashy whores has a 12 or 13 year old daughter who's mortified by her asinine party slut behavior, which I think should speak volumes to anyone, but this bitch thinks it's cute that her daughter 'acts like her mom'. This is why Jesus is never coming back, shit like this show and whoever greenlit it and thought these people should be filmed doing anything but being shot against a stark brick wall or sterilized for the good of humanity.

Fuck this show and everyone who watches it.

On the other hand, we also watched a show called Top This Party, which featured a party planner who looks like Robert Plant fucked Sammy Hagar. He was preparing a party for a retired Doctor and his spoiled female companion in this episode. I hated everything about his clients, but the most entertaining part of the show is that the guy and his chef are both brutally honest in private, or sometimes even during consultations with their clients about how fucking crazy they think they are, which is actually a selling point for the show to me. I have definitely been up against a crazy woman with a huge budget who wanted weird shit for a party when I worked as a florist, so I can appreciate the looks this guy is giving the clients when they start in with whatever asinine ideas they have. There's apparently another host who works out of Las Vegas, though we have yet to see his show. The people tonight were sort of a lame version of Hef and his Girls Next Door, he even had the creepy Crypt Keeper laugh, but I got the vibe that this 20-something he was throwing so much money at wasn't very into him except when her Visa bill comes due, which is just so weird and creepy it's not even funny.

We ended the evening with a film by Johnny To that TiVo had suggested when it ran on the Sundance Channel last week. Breaking News follows the events after a gun battle between some crooks and a group of police, which are unfortunately caught on live television by a news crew who are in the neighborhood filming a traffic accident. The police are seen in a terrible light as they lose the criminals and have several casualties of their own, so a concerted effort is made to coordinate with the media to renew the public's faith in their law enforcement agencies. What follows is a standoff in an apartment building in which the criminals begin to broadcast their own messages to the public via the interweb, which directly contradicts the 'everything is under control' message that the police have been spinning to the media. The constantly roving camera actually draws you in, giving the long gun battles a particularly claustrophobic feel, similar to that of several scenes in Children Of Men that had me actually holding my breath. This film didn't have quite that effect, but was successful in keeping me engaged with the film even when there's not a lot going on, as you feel like you're in the film with these people. It's worth a look, check it out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Celebs, Death, Brad Renfro, Heath Ledger, Reality Television, Real Housewives Of New York City, Idiots, Top This Party, Movies, Johnny To, Breaking News

It's Kinda Laid A Mindfuck On Me

It's nothing original (and why would you come here for that anyway?), but the title/quote from the film Inland Empire speaks volumes about the film.

I had one errand to run today, which involved picking up some lunch for the wife and I after I dropped some stuff off at the post office. There I am, barrelling along behind this pick-up, which has what I at first thought was a refrigeration unit of some kind in the bed, y'know, one large item that couldn't really move around easily. Once I got closer to this idiot, I realized what I was actually looking at was a washer and a refrigerator, neither of which were even tied down as this guy is doing 60 on the Loop that goes around the North edge of town. The fridge is leaning back towards the tailgate, resting upon the washer, and the freezer door is open and blowing in the fucking breeze, flapping open and shut like a frozen flag. Noting this with only minor panic, I signal and blow past this guy before his worldy possessions start shelling out the ass-end of the truck and onto the hood of the cars behind him because he can't be bothered to own a rope.

What a moron.

This afternoon I wandered through Inland Empire and while I liked portions of it a great deal, I am sad to report that I did indeed feel every single minute of the three hour running time. I also noted with dismay that there's at least another hour and change on the second disc that's labeled 'Other stuff that happened' that evidently didn't make the cut for the film itself. I just wasn't up for braving that at this point in time, perhaps at a later date when I re-watch the film itself to see what else can be gleaned from the experience. I love Lynch and his crazy dream logic that makes some amount of sense in the context of the strange worlds he creates, but I also get a little worn out when he walks straight up his own ass and disappears with some of the "weirdness for weirdness' sake" stuff that just seems to go on forever at times.

The sound design is actually pretty amazing. The droning ambient noise periodically punctuated with loud reveals would rival the spookshow nature of most horror films and is rather effective, but as with horror, ends up being a lot of smoke and mirrors most of the time. I did enjoy the movie, but would only recommend it to those who are already fans of his work, any newcomers would probably just be completely put off with what's basically a giant fuck-you to conventional narrative cinema.

The wife had been planning a roasted chicken and trimmings for dinner, which was all well and good, but she somehow got the wild hair up her ass to invite both Brian and the Mother In Law over while she was cooking, which annoyed me to no end. I think the weekend of near constant socialization had me needing a quiet couple of days at home, and then here comes some people for no good reason. The MIL of course had to drag her fucking dogs along for the ride, which just adds to the chaos and bullshit. Thankfully they both split pretty soon after the meal, but it took the rest of the evening for the wife and I to kinda get back on the same page. I'm just not a fan of the drop-by, which is what this evening amounted to in my head, regardless of the wife inviting people, it just threw me off to have my projected evening shot to hell in one fell swoop for no real reason. I'm accustomed to evenings like this having a bit more planning behind them, not just an "Oh, by the way..." thrown at me as someone's pulling into the driveway.

Fuckit, it's over now and tomorrow is a busy day, so I'm out.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Movies, Inland Empire, David Lynch, Dinner, Annoyance

Cinematic Sunday Twenty-Two

The Yorkie had managed to get into a bag of cookies that Anastasia Beaverhouszen had in her room yesterday afternoon, so when she woke me scratching at our door around 5:00 AM this morning, I hoped she was interested in getting a drink of water from the kitchen. She of course made a bee-line down the hall to see if Anastasia was accepting visitors, which annoyed me to no end. I directed her to her water dish in the kitchen and then locked her ass back in the room with us, determined that we'd get back to sleep.

We slept in a bit today, which was especially nice after the early mornings of the past few days. I made some coffee and our houseguests slowly woke up themselves and flipped through the paper with us.

Brian was scheduled to meet us at the place we always go for brunch downtown that J from Little Rock had specifically requested that we eat at before she left. We all dressed and headed out, we were seated pretty quickly after a brief wait and the server had the food on the table in record time. We were able to avoid the hectic after-church crowd and went back to our house to relax for a bit before we had to take JFLR to the airport shortly after 1:00. We sent Anastasia on her way, as well as Brian and then loaded up JFLR and started the trek out to the airport, delivering her in a very timely manner for her 2:30 departure time. She text messaged the wife later to tell her that she got on the plane with her stash of cookies with no issue, which actually surprised me considering how weird flying has become recently, but I'm glad she squeaked through with her sweets.

Back at the house, the wife and I wasted no time in getting into the lounge wear and chilling on the couch. I had a few things from those rental throttling pricks at Netfux to watch, which was fortuitous considering that there was none of our regular television programming on this evening.

I watched Resident Evil: Extinction at long last, which I'd of course heard many mixed reviews about, but honestly was about as entertaining as the rest of the series, because how seriously can you really take anything based on a video game. Alice (the Milla Jovovich character) has developed telekinesis this time around, there's more skinned dogs and the characters employ a magical helicopter that they expect to somehow fly them from Las Vegas to Alaska, presumably on a single tank of fuel. Milla is hot even with the rotten haircut she sports and the zombies have a generic CGI feel but are still fun to watch get waxed with gun, blade and hand to hand.

I next popped in Zu Warriors, a 2001 film from Tsui Hark, which was either way more convoluted plot-wise that I was prepared for, or I glanced away at the wrong time during the subtitling of crucial early scenes of the film. I spent the duration just watching the pretty visuals and not really bothering with trying to follow any logic to what was happening. The basic bare-bones is that a group called the Omei are threatened by an immortal evil that invades the Zu Mountian range, and they must band together and fight it. This includes reawakening sleeping spirits and reincarnation of several characters who must rise above their current form to tap into mystical powers. Or something. This is all very interesting to watch, the CGI is convincing for the most part, and even when it isn't, it's forgivable because the film looks like a live action cartoon with people flying around crying out shit like "Thunder Sword!" as they harness day-glo mystic powers against one another. Fun stuff.

We paused to grab some snacky type stuff for supper, fed the Yorkie and then settled back down to watch Yo-Yo Girl Cop. A kinetically shot little film, it features a troubled young girl sent undercover in a school to investigate several recent bomb threats that they've had and their connection to a mysterious website. It's a Japanese film, so the connection to a website of some kind is almost obligatory, isn't it? Using a yo-yo as a weapon popping people in the face left and right, it's a fun little flick, though the plotting takes a weird left turn towards the final act, but as with Resident Evil, it's hard to quibble with a film using a yo-yo as a deadly weapon.

I got the wife settled into bed with the restless Yorkie and then started looking around for my trailers for the evening.

First up, since I've been on this Asian film kick recently we have a trailer for a film by Peter Chan called The Warlords. A period piece that stars Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro as blood brothers caught up amidst war and political machinations, it looks to be quite epic and sweeping. Give the trailer a look.



I've been waiting for a trailer for the new Neil Marshall film for some time now, and I finally turned this up earlier in the week. Doomsday stars the super hot Rhona Mitra and her razor sharp lips in a shameless lift from other genre material such as Mad Max and Escape From New York. I like the look of the post-apocalyptic setting and the lead is obviously easy on the eyes, so check it out, this looks like fun.


Twitch Film featured a trailer last week for a new film by Prachya Pinkaew (Ong-Bak, Tom Yum Goong) called Chocolate. It appears to be about a young girl learning martial arts via her television viewing, and she looks amazing going through her paces. I've read comparisons to Tony Jaa as far as the action sequences go, here's the trailer, I'll let you be the judge.



Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Brunch, Houseguest, Movies, DVD, Netfix, Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich, Zu Warriors, Tsui Hark, Yo Yo Girl Cop, Trailers, Peter Chan, The Warlords,, Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Neil Marshall, Doomsday, Rhona Mitra, Prachya Pinkaew, Chocolate

Just One Of The Girls

Late to bed and early to rise make me just kinda vaguely dazed as I write this in the wee hours of Saturday night/early Sunday morning.

The day, briefly:

I woke at 8:00, got up and took my pills, fed the Yorkie some more of her special food, since I knew she'd be hungry, and started some coffee after giving up in the idea of being able to go back to sleep. The wife got up as well and picked up the house a little while I started doing some of the dishes from yesterday.

Our guests got up shortly thereafter and we heated up some of the breakfast treats from the Mexican bakery we'd hit yesterday afternoon. We visited for about two hours before breaking to dress and get ready for the day.

We went back to the bakery for some more stuff for J from Little Rock to take back with her tomorrow, as she'd promised her husband and a few friends some cookies and the like when she comes home. We had lunch at the Thai place we usually go to, and then I gassed up the car in anticipation of chauffeuring the women around for the rest of the day. We popped into another random store that specializes in shabby chic recovered object type shit, old signs, desks, things like that, and JFLR found a little retro memo board that she liked, so she was happy.

We visited the Mother In Law at her house, and were surprised to find her up and dressed, ready to shop like she meant it. She and Anastasia Beaverhouszen rode together to the mall while I drove the other ladies, as the MIL would have to leave us to go to a hair appointment at some point. The women wandered Dillard's for about an hour and a half, the MIL excusing herself eventually to go to her thing and I trailed the women around the entire length of the store. I eventually started noticing myself checking out the rack and cleavage on the woman working the bra section, so I told the broads we needed to leave since I was running out of things to amuse myself with.

We hit Robbb's place of employment again, so that JFLR could return an item the MIL bought her and her husband last night as a late wedding gift. It's a sweet idea and very generous of her, but the item in question is a damned Margaritaville mixer, which is never going to go back on a plane, so we returned it, got the giftcard in exchange for the same amount, and now she and her hubby can just buy it at a store in Little Rock when she gets home.

We drove-thru another margarita for ourselves and then headed back to the house. Anastasia and I went out and took down the stuff on our client's door, but since she's apparently changed her garage code we didn't have a ladder available to do the top of things with. I improvised by grabbing the alarm company's sign that was posted in the flowerbed and using the stake portion of it to slap the poinsettas down from the garland. We collected the old flowers and headed back to the house.

The four of us watched HGTV for awhile and enjoyed our tasty frozen drinks while waiting for Brian to come by, then we called in a food order, which Brian was cool enough to go and pick up for us, Anastasia going for a ridealong on the deal to keep him company. At almost 7:30 sharp, the food arrived, along with Macguffin, Blancodeviosa, the Hairdressers and Robbb, so we dug into some pizza and made a few drinks, visited for the rest of the evening. The Hairdressers left a little early because a girlfriend of theirs had pay per viewed the fight and they wanted to get over there and check out the main bout. We visited some more and our stragglers eventually split around 11:ish, we chilled with our houseguests for awhile and then retired to our various rooms.

I banged this mother out as quickly as possible, just to get some rest in before I wake up earlier than I want to tomorrow.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Breakfast, Lunch, Shopping, Dillards, Returns, Margaritaville, Decorating, Party