birthdays and movies
my friend paul from college invited me to come along with him and a few others to see brüno on friday night. i hemmed and hawed. i really didn't want to see the movie, but i definitely wanted to hang out with paul, since i don't get to see him all the often. marshall said that in the end, sometimes it's not about the movie but the company. i relented and decided to give money to a movie that ended up being not that great. i remember the brüno segments/skits from cohen's ali g show and i really enjoyed it. there was very little of that skit in the movie. the movie's whole premise is to show people being uncomfortable around a guy playing a very flamboyantly gay man. it certainly doesn't take much when he's hunting with 3 men from alabama. it hardly fazed the charity PR blonds in LA (don't get me started on how stupid these two women were, it made me so embarrassed of my sex). because i had heard 2 movie reviews on NPR for this movie, i pretty much knew everything about it going into the movie. yes, i laughed, but it wasn't because it was funny. i laughed at the total ridiculousness of what was going on. there were lots of "omg, wtf?" moments and then i'd laugh. overall, if given the choice again, i'd definitely say "ish don't think so".
+_+_+
saturday morning started early with a 2-mile run before meeting up for the breakfast club. it's odd when we're only a group of 4, but it was nice nonetheless. we tried out a new place this weekend (little amsterdam), which was ultimately turned down for future visits due to the limited choices on their menu (they also don't offer lunch until 11am, which limits the choices even further). despite that, i thought it was a nice little place and my breakfast was standard but good. the coffee was like 100x's better than our usual place, which is definitely a plus for me. personally, if i'm looking for a good standard breakfast that is fresher and more generous than say denny's, i would definitely come back. i wish i had tried their pancakes, as any good breakfast place is judged on the merit of a good pancake.
after breakfast, i hightailed it to long's so i could get my niece and nephew their birthday cards and wrap their gifts. long's pharmacy recently was bought out by CVS, so the long's near my house is currently in the process of turning over and they aren't restocking anything until they can fully restock the entire store. this meant that there was NO gift wrap tissue available. they had some primary color striped, which went well with my nephew's bag, but certainly not with my little mermaid bag for my niece. they didn't even have WHITE! finally i settled on silver and headed out. the cashier apologized for not having anything in stock. oh well, it's not like she could help it. finally i got everything together and wrapped and headed to the birthday party.
my nephew greeted me and expressed his confusion because he thought neither of us were coming. i told him that marshall wasn't coming, but that i was definitely available. he was happy about that and proceeded to show me something of interest, something that i can't remember anymore. after he showed me whatever it was he wanted to show me, i found my niece at the necklace and bracelet making table and eventually stayed put at that table and chatted with my mom and my sister's good friend. i also chatted a bit with the "movement" teacher my sister hired for the party. she seemed like a cool lady and very friendly. the movement activity caught the attention of MOST of the kids at the party. my nephew who was very into it at the library, was distracted by his friends who weren't having any of it and went to play with them instead. i watched and it was pretty cool. i loved the music she had, which was french gypsy music. i noted the group, who were friends of hers, and hope to find it. my nephew was not as impressed and didn't like the music. he exclaimed he didn't like spanish music. i told him it wasn't spanish but rather french. he said he didn't like it. it was also too loud for him. yes, if you're sitting right next to the speakers it WOULD be rather loud, but if he participated in the movement class further away from the speakers, it wouldn't be AS loud. he got bored with my logic and ran off to the backyard.
it looked like everyone had a good time. the kids all enjoyed pizza and fruit, as well as the chocolate zucchini cupcakes my mom made. she has a recipe for zucchini bread which is essentially chocolate cake with shredded zucchini in it. you can't even TELL it's in there. the chocolate buttercream frosting on top certainly made them that much more delicious. my sister has had this rule for the birthdays that the kids don't bring them birthday gifts, but that they bring a wrapped book and they do a book exchange. everyone gets a book and no one feels pressured to buy expensive toys and clothes. no, that part is up to family. :P i got my nephew his batman t-shirt. i asked him if he liked his new shirt and he turned and said "i sure do!" my niece really liked her jingly bracelet. overall they each had a great haul this year. :)
after the party, i headed home. i took care of some chores and confirmed with BFF-sarah when she was coming for dinner. i ran to the store and got some chicken and salad stuff. sarah wasn't planning on coming over until after 8, so i was able to sit and do nothing for a while. i decided to catch up for tuesday night's midnight release for HP6 and started watching all the movies. i was able to fit in HP1 and 2 saturday evening/night. sarah and i watched the second one while we ate dinner. dinner turned out great, even if the corn was slightly undercooked. the chicken was tasty and i didn't burn the house down while trying to grill it! sarah wasn't feeling well and was worried about parking her dad's car on the street, so she ended up not staying the night. no worries, though. i cleaned the kitchen, finished HP2 and headed to bed.
+_+_+
sunday started with breakfast and then a brick. i did pretty much the same thing marshall and i did last weekend. i rode my bike down through willow glen and back up the los gatos creek trail. this time, though, i rode past where we would normally turn to go home and made a loop around the campbell part of the trail before heading home. not sure how much this made a difference compared to last week. marshall needs to recalibrate the little computer for my bike, since it's stopped working. i was planning on originally doing a long bike ride and from willow glen go all the way to vasona park in los gatos. i knew this would be a long ride and i didn't pick up any goo and, if i only had water, i wouldn't be doing very well. so, after i got home, i drank some more water and headed out for a 1-mile run. running was easier than last week, but i didn't think i could squeak out an extra mile. perhaps this weekend i might be able to get in that second mile. it does depend on plans with marshall. he leaves sunday afternoon for romania at 3pm from SFO, which means he'll need to be at the airport 2 hours before his flight and we would need to leave home at noon (at the latest). i'm thinking instead of a brick, we can go out and have a nice breakfast before he has to leave. we'll see.
marshall got home from tahoe early in the afternoon. he was completely beat from all the fun and drinking he had over the weekend. he ended up napping most of the afternoon. he came home right as i was making myself lunch, so while he napped i ate lunch and watched HP3. of the movies so far, HP3 is my favorite, with HP5 in a close second. the thing i HATE about HP3 is all the stupid power-point-like transitions between scenes. the director might as well have used "star wipe". but i love the story and i love lupin and sirius. the book for HP5 is my favorite of all the books. yes, it's the longest (i believe) but it has such a great story. you learn a lot about the history and there's action and adventure. :) once marshall was up and awake again, we went on our normal sunday errands. dinner at pasta pomodoro was delicious and we headed home again. i didn't feel like playing WoW (i actually didn't log in at all this weekend), so i popped in HP4. although the book is great, i'm not the biggest fan of the movie. there is so much more in the book, but a lot of it depends on the stuff that happened in the book for HP3, which wasn't covered in the corresponding movie. i mentioned to marshall that the books taken on a more ensemble cast feeling. even though it's main focus is harry potter, each of the other characters has their own life and story and events. the movies, on the other hand, are very harry-oriented. harry is the main protagonist. i understand why, of course, but it doesn't make the movies as fulfilling as the books. this is certainly noticeable in a line that dumbledore says in HP4 "difficult times lie ahead and we will all have to decide between what's right and what is easy." in the book, dumbledore says this line to EVERYONE during the memorial for cedric diggory, but in the movie dumbledore says it only to harry.
so yeah, it's not monday and i'm anxiously waiting for tuesday to come! i hated the book, but i'm REALLY looking forward to the movie! :D
+_+_+
saturday morning started early with a 2-mile run before meeting up for the breakfast club. it's odd when we're only a group of 4, but it was nice nonetheless. we tried out a new place this weekend (little amsterdam), which was ultimately turned down for future visits due to the limited choices on their menu (they also don't offer lunch until 11am, which limits the choices even further). despite that, i thought it was a nice little place and my breakfast was standard but good. the coffee was like 100x's better than our usual place, which is definitely a plus for me. personally, if i'm looking for a good standard breakfast that is fresher and more generous than say denny's, i would definitely come back. i wish i had tried their pancakes, as any good breakfast place is judged on the merit of a good pancake.
after breakfast, i hightailed it to long's so i could get my niece and nephew their birthday cards and wrap their gifts. long's pharmacy recently was bought out by CVS, so the long's near my house is currently in the process of turning over and they aren't restocking anything until they can fully restock the entire store. this meant that there was NO gift wrap tissue available. they had some primary color striped, which went well with my nephew's bag, but certainly not with my little mermaid bag for my niece. they didn't even have WHITE! finally i settled on silver and headed out. the cashier apologized for not having anything in stock. oh well, it's not like she could help it. finally i got everything together and wrapped and headed to the birthday party.
my nephew greeted me and expressed his confusion because he thought neither of us were coming. i told him that marshall wasn't coming, but that i was definitely available. he was happy about that and proceeded to show me something of interest, something that i can't remember anymore. after he showed me whatever it was he wanted to show me, i found my niece at the necklace and bracelet making table and eventually stayed put at that table and chatted with my mom and my sister's good friend. i also chatted a bit with the "movement" teacher my sister hired for the party. she seemed like a cool lady and very friendly. the movement activity caught the attention of MOST of the kids at the party. my nephew who was very into it at the library, was distracted by his friends who weren't having any of it and went to play with them instead. i watched and it was pretty cool. i loved the music she had, which was french gypsy music. i noted the group, who were friends of hers, and hope to find it. my nephew was not as impressed and didn't like the music. he exclaimed he didn't like spanish music. i told him it wasn't spanish but rather french. he said he didn't like it. it was also too loud for him. yes, if you're sitting right next to the speakers it WOULD be rather loud, but if he participated in the movement class further away from the speakers, it wouldn't be AS loud. he got bored with my logic and ran off to the backyard.
it looked like everyone had a good time. the kids all enjoyed pizza and fruit, as well as the chocolate zucchini cupcakes my mom made. she has a recipe for zucchini bread which is essentially chocolate cake with shredded zucchini in it. you can't even TELL it's in there. the chocolate buttercream frosting on top certainly made them that much more delicious. my sister has had this rule for the birthdays that the kids don't bring them birthday gifts, but that they bring a wrapped book and they do a book exchange. everyone gets a book and no one feels pressured to buy expensive toys and clothes. no, that part is up to family. :P i got my nephew his batman t-shirt. i asked him if he liked his new shirt and he turned and said "i sure do!" my niece really liked her jingly bracelet. overall they each had a great haul this year. :)
after the party, i headed home. i took care of some chores and confirmed with BFF-sarah when she was coming for dinner. i ran to the store and got some chicken and salad stuff. sarah wasn't planning on coming over until after 8, so i was able to sit and do nothing for a while. i decided to catch up for tuesday night's midnight release for HP6 and started watching all the movies. i was able to fit in HP1 and 2 saturday evening/night. sarah and i watched the second one while we ate dinner. dinner turned out great, even if the corn was slightly undercooked. the chicken was tasty and i didn't burn the house down while trying to grill it! sarah wasn't feeling well and was worried about parking her dad's car on the street, so she ended up not staying the night. no worries, though. i cleaned the kitchen, finished HP2 and headed to bed.
+_+_+
sunday started with breakfast and then a brick. i did pretty much the same thing marshall and i did last weekend. i rode my bike down through willow glen and back up the los gatos creek trail. this time, though, i rode past where we would normally turn to go home and made a loop around the campbell part of the trail before heading home. not sure how much this made a difference compared to last week. marshall needs to recalibrate the little computer for my bike, since it's stopped working. i was planning on originally doing a long bike ride and from willow glen go all the way to vasona park in los gatos. i knew this would be a long ride and i didn't pick up any goo and, if i only had water, i wouldn't be doing very well. so, after i got home, i drank some more water and headed out for a 1-mile run. running was easier than last week, but i didn't think i could squeak out an extra mile. perhaps this weekend i might be able to get in that second mile. it does depend on plans with marshall. he leaves sunday afternoon for romania at 3pm from SFO, which means he'll need to be at the airport 2 hours before his flight and we would need to leave home at noon (at the latest). i'm thinking instead of a brick, we can go out and have a nice breakfast before he has to leave. we'll see.
marshall got home from tahoe early in the afternoon. he was completely beat from all the fun and drinking he had over the weekend. he ended up napping most of the afternoon. he came home right as i was making myself lunch, so while he napped i ate lunch and watched HP3. of the movies so far, HP3 is my favorite, with HP5 in a close second. the thing i HATE about HP3 is all the stupid power-point-like transitions between scenes. the director might as well have used "star wipe". but i love the story and i love lupin and sirius. the book for HP5 is my favorite of all the books. yes, it's the longest (i believe) but it has such a great story. you learn a lot about the history and there's action and adventure. :) once marshall was up and awake again, we went on our normal sunday errands. dinner at pasta pomodoro was delicious and we headed home again. i didn't feel like playing WoW (i actually didn't log in at all this weekend), so i popped in HP4. although the book is great, i'm not the biggest fan of the movie. there is so much more in the book, but a lot of it depends on the stuff that happened in the book for HP3, which wasn't covered in the corresponding movie. i mentioned to marshall that the books taken on a more ensemble cast feeling. even though it's main focus is harry potter, each of the other characters has their own life and story and events. the movies, on the other hand, are very harry-oriented. harry is the main protagonist. i understand why, of course, but it doesn't make the movies as fulfilling as the books. this is certainly noticeable in a line that dumbledore says in HP4 "difficult times lie ahead and we will all have to decide between what's right and what is easy." in the book, dumbledore says this line to EVERYONE during the memorial for cedric diggory, but in the movie dumbledore says it only to harry.
so yeah, it's not monday and i'm anxiously waiting for tuesday to come! i hated the book, but i'm REALLY looking forward to the movie! :D