Ian and I watched "The Shining" on Netflix the other night. He'd never seen it, can you believe that? (He has read the book, however.) The book was inspired by a hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which I'm told is not a long drive from us. That hotel does this big Halloween whole weekend thing with a masquerade ball, and haunted hayrides, and ghost ( Read more... )

Went to see Pt. 7 of the Harry Potter saga last night at the local AMC IMAX. Before I dive into spoiler comments behind the following cut, I'd like to comment on the quality of the IMAX. It was pretty, and it was clean, and it was large, and the sound was decent -- but for $15.50 each? Eh. I wasn't impressed, to be honest. I went to see "Phantom ( Read more... )

"Red" is completely amazing! Great writing, great characters, great acting, big explosions. As Ian said -- it wasn't so much when the first thing blew up that the movie really got going, but when the first person exploded that this movie really hooked up. Alas, poor Ian -- Karl Urban has made the list of those for whom I would dump my life partner ( Read more... )

Went to bed shortly after 10:00 last night like a good little girl old lady. Unfortunately, those pesky whippersnappers in the apartment above my head were whooping until after midnight. I got out of bed, and after exhausting any potential resource of an after-hours noise complaint number for my apartment complex, I walked upstairs for a, "Hey, you ( Read more... )

Life in Colorado continues to be awesome. I made my first trip downtown today for a job interview. Although I'd been to downtown Denver once before on business in 2003, today I looked at the city with new eyes. Its architecture, neatness, and even the traffic pleased me! (Of course I'm cognizant that I'm currently predisposed to like everything ( Read more... )

Saturday began like its predecessors here in Broomfield, with crazy errands and metaphors about headless chickens. By mid-afternoon, my eyelids just wouldn't stay propped open. I went down for a nap, and I got the happiest wake up call! Ian had loaded the software to play DVDs on the laptop. He came in and brought me a cold Coke, and a laptop full ( Read more... )

In this hobbit household, the term "mixed media" usually refers to having more than one type of deli meat in a sandwich. Ah, hobbits!

Further thoughts on the new SyFy show "Caprica"In last Friday's episode, we get further detail about a "video game" which has been mentioned previously in passing, "New Cap City." This game is basically an MMO like ( Read more... )

Ian's studio has closed for the last two weeks of the year, and so he's on unpaid vacation for 10 days. The past two days therefore have been enormously slothful. We played Champions Online together all weekend, and not a whole lot else. I just don't have Ian's stamina for leisure, and I have to get up and do something productive every so often or ( Read more... )

The Great Butter Meltdown of '09
The other day I did eventually overcome the difficulties of butter melted into my oven to bake five dozen and change chocolate chip cookies. I ended up unscrewing the bottom pan of the (cold) oven, pulling out the broiler tray beneath that so I could get to the actual innards of the thing to find the mystery pools ( Read more... )

( Detailed review of 'The Box,' trying not to spoil mysteries. )