Weekend Recap: Human Sponge Edition
Aside from my Debbie Downer post earlier, I do want to mention my wonderful funderful friends and the awesome weekend I had with same.
Saturday, when it was clear I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Nathan graciously decided to take me Out To The Pictures just to get me out of the house. We met up with mightywombat and onceupon and saw Coraline. I have to say it was magnificent. Henry Selick needs to get on adapting like, EVERYTHING else that Neil Gaiman has done--the level of depth and complexity attained in a visually beautiful movie was really something to see. I can't recommend it highly enough. I was surprised to see a lot of really little kids, like three and under--obviously I'm not a parent but my knee-jerk reaction was that it was aimed at an older audience, say 7 and up. Some kids left the theater crying and during an intense scene I could hear a lot of the littler ones whimpering, and onceupon said she heard some smaller kids declare 'I hated it.'
That night, we retired home, drank ourselves silly and watched Back to the Future Pt 2, which I'd never seen. I can't say I thought it was that great--it didn't age well.
Sunday, the aforementioned awesome friends took me to LUSH at the Florida Mall for my birthday/Xmas gifts, and I got some more Sweet Japanese Girl, Figs and Leaves soap, some bath bombs that I've already forgotten, and for Nathan his Soak And Float anti-dandruff shampoo bar. We also had lunch--I had a mediocre quesadilla and some awesome onion rings. Seriously, they were good.
After the mall I came home to find Nathan out and about, so I farmed Pinatas, then did a kettlebell workout. After dinner, we headed down to Citywalk with maelstromsl to sing karaoke. The place was temporarily closed for a private event until 11, so we killed time in Pat O'Brien's bar and then wandered around Citywalk. I hadn't been there in a while--imagine my surprise when I saw some kind of high-end tattoo parlor. Incredible, no?
Karaoke was awesome although the place had a crummy selection (we guessed it had something to do with which corporation owned the rights to certain songs; they had NO Bowie or Nine Inch Nails) and we got started late. maelstromsl paid our cover and bought us drinks, and all in all it was a great, relaxing night out with friends. It was damn near deserted down there since it was a Sunday and kind of a down time in the tourist season, so that was also nice.
In more positive news, I painted a pear today. It came out pretty well--the color's a little weird and the background needs work, but I'm otherwise pleased with how it came out. I actually used Nathan's circular saw ALL BY MYSELF to cut up the paint-board, and then re-gessoed it. Once I get a few more done I'll have a little mini LJ-show, with a bunch of stuff so you can see my progress.
Saturday, when it was clear I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Nathan graciously decided to take me Out To The Pictures just to get me out of the house. We met up with mightywombat and onceupon and saw Coraline. I have to say it was magnificent. Henry Selick needs to get on adapting like, EVERYTHING else that Neil Gaiman has done--the level of depth and complexity attained in a visually beautiful movie was really something to see. I can't recommend it highly enough. I was surprised to see a lot of really little kids, like three and under--obviously I'm not a parent but my knee-jerk reaction was that it was aimed at an older audience, say 7 and up. Some kids left the theater crying and during an intense scene I could hear a lot of the littler ones whimpering, and onceupon said she heard some smaller kids declare 'I hated it.'
That night, we retired home, drank ourselves silly and watched Back to the Future Pt 2, which I'd never seen. I can't say I thought it was that great--it didn't age well.
Sunday, the aforementioned awesome friends took me to LUSH at the Florida Mall for my birthday/Xmas gifts, and I got some more Sweet Japanese Girl, Figs and Leaves soap, some bath bombs that I've already forgotten, and for Nathan his Soak And Float anti-dandruff shampoo bar. We also had lunch--I had a mediocre quesadilla and some awesome onion rings. Seriously, they were good.
After the mall I came home to find Nathan out and about, so I farmed Pinatas, then did a kettlebell workout. After dinner, we headed down to Citywalk with maelstromsl to sing karaoke. The place was temporarily closed for a private event until 11, so we killed time in Pat O'Brien's bar and then wandered around Citywalk. I hadn't been there in a while--imagine my surprise when I saw some kind of high-end tattoo parlor. Incredible, no?
Karaoke was awesome although the place had a crummy selection (we guessed it had something to do with which corporation owned the rights to certain songs; they had NO Bowie or Nine Inch Nails) and we got started late. maelstromsl paid our cover and bought us drinks, and all in all it was a great, relaxing night out with friends. It was damn near deserted down there since it was a Sunday and kind of a down time in the tourist season, so that was also nice.
In more positive news, I painted a pear today. It came out pretty well--the color's a little weird and the background needs work, but I'm otherwise pleased with how it came out. I actually used Nathan's circular saw ALL BY MYSELF to cut up the paint-board, and then re-gessoed it. Once I get a few more done I'll have a little mini LJ-show, with a bunch of stuff so you can see my progress.