Friday was an insanely busy work day with a lot of cake, followed by Old Crow Medicine Show with stentoriansista, prettyprincessb and mareska. Having had very little contact with the band, I must say I had a good time! We went to The Red Derby (otherwise known as the awesomest bar ever) and had really tasty sweet potato fries while kind of watching some weird ass movie. I'm toying with going there to watch at least one of the presidential debates (I'm much less likely to cause property damage while watching them if it's someone else's property).

Saturday, we went out to take advantage of the Old Navy friends sale - y'all, clothes shopping is so painful right now, I can't even describe. I did get a work shirt, sports bra and sleepy shorts for cheap, but ooh, it hurt. Then off to work to work a gala. Had some slight wardrobe malfunctions with my swanky dress and I hadn't brought a wrap, which... OMG NEVER AGAIN. It was so cold inside I spent the entire time shivering. I must say, this swanky party wasn't nearly as much fun as previous swanky parties at my last job, but on the other hand, this wasn't the kind of event where I could hang out and booze it up with the rest of the staff afterwards. Came home, watched Volver, which has been with us from Netflix since probably February and went to bed way too late.

Slept in Sunday, rode Ernest the bike over to City Bikes to get them to fix the joints they loosened when they tuned up the bike (took 5 minutes, was pleasantly surprised), then biked with Girlio over to Meridian Hill Park where we lay out on a blanket and read in the sunlight for a few hours (and got eaten alive by the bugs, BTW). It was seriously wonderful just to lay there in the sun, hear the drum circle and enjoy my book. Biked down to Gallery Place, got a salad from Chopp't (OMG, the new Harvest Cobb is AWESOME - spinach, chicken, apples, beets, walnuts and goat cheese! I could not love that more) and saw one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Debated sneaking into The Women, but it was late, so we headed home. Spent half an hour trying to remember how to fold up my bike but finally got that put away. I love my bike, Ernest. He's good people. The seat is a little wobbly and my patootie is sore today, but I think I'm going to start taking him to work soon. Before it gets too cold, anyway.

So, a good weekend, except that I didn't get any cooking done. stentoriansista made applesauce on Saturday (OMG, SO GOOD) and my immersion blender died trying to blend it (I've been leaving it in the sink and I think some water must have shorted out the motor). It was $5 at Goodwill and lasted me a good 4 months, so I can let it go fairly easily. But I definitely need another. And not covet, the way I've been coveting a breadmaker and a 4 cup cuisinart. If I don't get another one, there may be blood. I may actually stop by Target on the way home from work to see if they have a cheap one. But I think I'll make regular bread and apple bread tonight and prep a stew to crock while I'm at work tomorrow. I really want to make a black bean, sweet potato and chicken soup. I also really want to carmelize some onions in the crock pot. And make more apple sauce. The 6 quart crockpot full of apple sauce still left us with 1/2 a bag of apples from the apple picking over Labor Day. I figure one more batch will get rid of 'em and I'll grab some 1 cup tupperwares and freeze them to sub in for oil in recipes.

So, really, I want to make 5 dishes tonight. And clean. And go to the gym. And watch Heroes. Also, we desperately need to do laundry. Can I get another day off?

(or, stuff from cleolinda that I consider too awesome not to share)

1500 year old city found in Amazon.

Stephanie Meyer (otherwise known as that chick who wrote those books that made my brain hurt) takes her toys and goes home.

Street artist Banksy does New Orleans.

Aaron Sorkin makes a movie about Facebook, everyone else wonders why.

What Michael Jackson would have looked like. (!!!)

Holy crap, that's Haley Joel Osmet? (Puberty has not been kind)

Just when you thought that Rob Lowe & Snow White was the most disturbing Oscar skit you'd seen, I present to you this parade of "up and comers" who were never heard from again. I don't know what's better, Corey Feldman's dance solo, Chad Lowe proclaiming himself a "serious actor" or Ricki Lake kissing Christian Slater. Oh, for serious.

They're making Center Stage 2?! My god why! (I love that it's premiering on Oxygen, though)

The most WTF moments from summer 2008 (Spoiles. Serious spoilers for Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crappy Sequel and The Dark Knight (which is also pretty gross).

In other news, I did not approve of all this rain. WTF, Gustav?

So, my older brother shows up in like 36 hours. I think. He hasn't actually called me to confirm that he's coming and I don't actually know if he's booked tickets or has my street address. So, that's weird. And in theory, Sears is showing up tonight to give an estimate about replacing our HVAC system and fixing the moldy pad. Hopefully, the two will be nearly equivalent in price so our landlord will opt to replace the whole thing and we can get an HVAC system that won't cost us $200 to cool our 600 square foot apartment for a month.

Crap, I put clothes in the washer on Saturday and never moved them.

We also had the MOTHER OF ALL CLEANY FESTS on Saturday. Moved a bunch of shit around, reorganized, cleaned up crazy amounts of dust and debris that had been living on the floor and organized a freecycle and a goodwill pile. Then, of course, as one does when one gets rid of stuff, we immediately went to Ikea for more stuff. (Not a lot more stuff - a couple of organizing boxes, more grundtal hangy things for the craft room, discounted cute fabric and some light bulbs) On the way to Ikea, we decided the best way to celebrate our cleaniness was to have people over to enjoy it, so we texted an invitation out to a few friends and have prettyprincessb and a few others out for wine and board games. It. Was. Awesome. I mean, they drank all our wine (we thought 4 bottles for 6 people would be plenty. They brought two, which we drank and then finished off the remains of our wine cube and one of our nicer bottles), we played Cranium and Wise & Otherwise, our downstairs neighbors probably hate us (more) and we finally kicked everyone out around 2am and collapsed. So, now I have to buy a lot more wine. And y'all know how I hate wine shopping. Next time we do this (because there will totally be a next time) and if the Columbia Heights target ever gets alcohol, I might just get three wine cubes and call it a night. Because the swanky wine in a box is actually quite good. No, I swear!

Yesterday, I emerged from the bedroom around 11:30, hung out reading Ken Follet until 1:30 and then biked my new bike over to City Bikes. It's getting a tune-up and the guy working said that it needed new brakes and brake cables. It's going to take them two and a half weeks to get to fixing it and will cost me probably $120. Which made me a little queasy and regret buying the bike until I remembered that even if I bought a bike new, it'd still need an adjustment and I'm paying less money because I got it used. It's also apparently the proto-type of the Dahon folding bikes, so I've got some serious folding bike street cred, yo. Stopped by CVS and picked up some groceries and hair dye, got subway, dyed my hair, threw on some cute clothes and then we went out with anneball, prettyprincessb and sabekkas and lj-less Mindy to get a burrito and see Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2. They kind of condensed the entire last three books into the movie in a bad way and ended with one of the worst lines ever, but it was still enjoyable and there were several very nice looking shirtless men.

Now, I'm at work. Huzzah. And I have the chance to introduce sabekkas to the joy that is Twilight. Yeah.

Oh, and I totally need me some Apples to Apples.

I forgot to mention... with my tummy being punky on Friday, I ate several Pepto Bismol tablets. I woke up Saturday morning to... a black tongue. It's one of the side effects of Pepto Bismol chewables, but it definitely freaked me out first thing in the moring, like... did I have a lot of grape popsicles?! And all I could think about was that story of the poison on the edge of the Bible where the guy licks his finger to turn the page and then his tongue turns black and he dies and people stick out their tongues as a greeting to make sure that the person they're meeting is honorable. (Which I had been told was a folk legend in elementary school but is apparently in the plot of In the Name of the Rose?!) anneball thought I was a Chow Chow and stentoriansista thought I was a giraffe, so clearly I'm just weird that way.

Saturday night I fell asleep on the couch while watching Degrassi. I don't know which is worse. Crawled into bed to have one of the worst night's sleep I've had in a long time. I probably woke up 6 times between 12:30 and 6:30, at which point the cat realized I was awake and started meowing at me to come feed her (the cat is very sweet and very talkative when she wants something. Like food), so I stumbled out of bed and did and went back to sleep where I slept fitfully... until 8am. When someone nearby started hammering. And then they stopped. And then they started again. And then they stopped. And then they started what I originally thought was a chop saw but then later decided was an electric leaf blower. And then they stopped. And then they started again. And then they stopped. And then they started again. At which point I was seriously considering yelling out the window and telling them to shut the fuck up but I decided that wasn't polite, so I went back to the couch on the other side of the house to sleep (where I could still hear the leaf blower, but it was quieter) and continued to have really fitful sleep until noon. It was the kind of thing where you go to sleep and you have a bunch of dreams that feel really long and you wake up and it's 10 minutes later? Yeah, it sucked. Dragged myself out of bed, got some food in me and headed to the Uptown to see The Dark Knight with anneball and a friend. I got there wicked early and got in line at 2:30 for a 3:30 show... and was not the first person in line. (anneball, I will repay you for the ticket, I just didn't have any cash on me) We got kickin' seats and the movie was very, very good. I agree with the reviews... it's really not Batman's story, it's Harvey Dent's story and it's the Joker's story... both characters were much more interesting and dynamic than Batman's, who just stands around being conflicted.

The movie ended and it was 6:20 and there was a line down the street to Four Fields to get into the 7:05 show. Went to anneball's apartment to steal books and then I left 20 mintues later, the line was to the corner, around it and then up the street. For a 7pm show on a Sunday. Crazy.

Back at the cat-sitting house, the TV wouldn't turn on (...), so I sat and read on of the books I got while I listened to the people next door have a screaming fight for 45 minutes. At first I thought it was their television or people on the street, but I definitely put my ear to the wall like Nosey McNosersons and yep, this woman was full on screaming (at who? I have no idea). Took a bath, went to bed, left the house this morning and the owners should return tonight. All good in the hood.

Schwinn won't pay for labor to fix the crank and I'm sure as hell not going to, so it looks like the bike is going back to Amazon. I was actually really peeved when I went to City Bikes and found that they had two folding bikes after all. I guess when I get my prepaid return label and ship it back to Amazon, I'll have to go give the two folding bikes they have there a try. (That will make me feel better because I'll support my local bike store and get me some free service at the same time!) And if I don't like those, I might actually call Spokes Etc... instead of just checking their website. Hrm... now I have to figure out what to do with my b-day present from pucksraven and co (thanks again y'all!), since that got applied to the bike (which was also a present to stentoriansista since we could have gone on bike rides together... if said bike had actually worked properly. Bitches)

Also... the book I read last night? I am so embarrassed to admit it, but... Twilight. OMFG. OMFG. I just... wow. Y'all? ( Minor Spoilers. )

Saw a preview screening of Ms. Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Really liked it. It was sweet and it had Ciaran Hinds, who, despite being in his middle years and weird looking, I'm strangely drawn to. I'm such a freak. The plot was horrendously predictable and Lee Pace's British accent was just horrendous. (but he can sing, which bodes well for Pushing Daisies) For some reason, Amy Adams sounded terrible when she sang - I think it was a character choice to show that she wasn't an experienced, weathered singer, but her enunciation was bad and her vowels were weird, way too nasal. Frances McDormand was awesome and Moaning Myrtle was in it and also awesome.

So yes, 3.5 out of 5. A solid happy movie.

The aftermath from dying the exercise class from hell yesterday is that everything's sore. The good news is that everything's sore. The bad news is that EVERYTHING IS SORE. One of these days, doing 10 minutes of ab work won't leave my neck hurting. And the weight training stuff he did with my arms left my mid-back really cranky.

I just checked Harpers Ferry's weather forecast for the weekend and it's supposed to be 80* both days. The 40% chance of rain on Sunday has gone down to 10%. I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED. If this weekend ends up sucking, I may have to choke a bitch. Holy crap, our campground has wireless... again, completely missing the point of CAMPING. We're going to buy some firestarters and wood onsite... here's hoping it's not ridiculously expensive.

Work is mostly good, second job is mostly good. I forgot to blog about it, but stentoriansista and I went down to Virginia Beach for a bridal shower last weekend and had a lovely time hanging out. Saw Stardust and was rather disappointed. The book was lovely, the movie had to tie everything up in a neat little bow... that was painful. After Virginia Beach last week, camping this week and dogsitting next week, I'm going to have slept in my bed at my house for either 3 or 4 nights from the 9th through the 27th. It's wacky.

I suppose I should go get some work done. Especially since I had a talk with Boss about how I'm bored and she's actually given me more work.

**saw Harry Potter 5**
**is ded from awesome**

I went to Giant before work and bought chicken and stuffing to make dinner with and then I got to work and remembered I have 6 packets of frozen chicken breasts in my freezer at home. Undercaffeinated FTW!

Friday, stentoriansista and I grabbed a quick dinner at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza (and I mean quick - we were in and out in half an hour! WTF mate?) and then saw Peter & Wendy at Arena Stage. Loved. Loved loved loved. Even if I had to run into that employee we fired (and then he blogged about it). I, being a giant wimp, didn't actually talk to him and talked to the other chick working that day. But the show was wonderfully done and a joy to watch.

Saturday we slept the day away and then biked to the zoo and wandered around. There were golden tamarinds with babies on their backs, pandas, sea lions, woogy octopi, capybaras, pygmy hippotomi and some incredibly overpriced food. It was also extraordinarily hot and we were kinda dehydrated and cranky. It didn't help that the bike home was almost entirely uphill and we were tired. Then we made salad, watched some Atlantis and went to bed early, where I proceeded to sleep another 12 hours after being up for about 12 hours.

Yesterday, we had some much needed pancakes, went to Target and then saw the last PotC movie. Verdict was mostly squee with unsatisfying ending. Also, if you see if, be sure to wait through the credits for that final scene after the credits thing that's becoming the norm (much to my annoyance - I don't like credits!). Went back to my house where I made stentoriansista hang things for me - now I have curtains! And hooks! And wine racks from last August hung! It was awesome except for when an anchor attacked stentoriansista's eye. That was not so much awesome. And then we ate the last of my calzones and watched the Corpse Bride, which was a lot of fun.

It was, aside from the whole eye thing, a most excellent weekend, which was lovely and charming and reminded me how very much I love this other person and want to attack her with hugs and the like. It's nice having that as a reminder.

If you'll excuse me, I should be the workings now.

Also, stentoriansista and I ate three pounds of cherries in two days. It's cherry season again. This is most excellent.

I left work early today to go to the doctor's office. I had to go to relation to a visit I made in February (I'm fine, quit yer bitching). While I was waiting, I thought I'd ask about the HPV vaccine. Not only am I eligible for it, my insurance covers it... so I got the first of three shots (ow! OW OW OW OW!). Aside from having a physician's assistant who was obviously new at the job (too waay too long to get my blood pressure, my pulse and had a discussion when I was surprised that my weight was lower than I thought it would be), it went without incident. I requested a copy of my bloodwork results from February and aside from my HDL cholesterol being 20 points higher than recommended (the good kind, so not that big a deal), everything was good. Woot! And hopefully, Friday will fix Dumbledore!hand and I'll be good.

Came home, cooked a chicken, made some whole wheat bread, drank wine. Best salad in the world? Roasted pecans & walnuts, spring greens, a handful of rasberries, blue cheese & homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I rule. I watched Love Me If You Dare, which made me cry and I really enjoyed... until the last 5 minutes. Damn French.

Now I'm watching Lost, even though we broke up, and I can't find the remote control. I hung a picture on my bathroom wall improperly, but I'd rather have it where it is than have the hole in the walll where it's gone. Oh well.

Seriously, though, the remote has been missing since 5pm. Would someone please give it back?

I saw Pan's Labyrinth on Thursday with stentoriansista. It was fabulous. It's very much an old school fairy tale, completely, utterly and horribly brutal, but the same time beautiful and sad. It really shook me up, to the point where I thought I might break down sobbing on the way out. I didn't. It's achingly beautiful and extremely well shot, but my goodness, it was hard. This is a movie that I love but not one that I will own in the near future.

We ran to get the bus, only to realize it was the wrong one. Funnily enough, one of the folks on the bus was a college alumna. We chatted for a good long while and exchanged emails - I need to email her and set up some time to come knit with her and some other alums who live in Mount Pleasant.

Opening was tonight - it's a fucking awesome play. Tuesday will tell if I can get lots of comps for lots of folks, but even if I can't, I highly recommend everyone spend the $10 on rush tickets, because my goodness, the fucking awesome. Had a couple of beers at the after party, but didn't really stick around because I just wasn't feeling like it - maybe it was the booze last night? Ran into three old coworkers from the internship, one of whom was all "we should totally go for coffee!" I'll believe it when it happens, but she's a lovely person.

Now I've had a glass of wine and some ice cream and I'm going to spin for a while and then go to bed.

Ah yes, another bored Sunday.

But it's been a week. I've been negotiating the time difference, insomnia, getting back to work, tummy woes and getting stentoriansista out to California with me. Not to mention yesterday, stentoriansista, mel21clc and I went a-shopping. We took mel21clc to David's Bridal to get her a bridesmaid dress where she dealt with a whole bunch of rude associates and had to call Pennsylvania to get her dress. Pennsylvania was far more pleasant than Springfield, thank goodness.

Then we went off to Costco where I got a sewing machine!!! I got this Brother machine and it looks like Amazon has it for $30 less than it was onsale at Costco with free shipping. Huh. I'm going to doublecheck model when I get home, but seriously, we are not amused, even if I'm not actually paying for it. I also got my usual 6 pounds of pork, giant bag of craisins, shampoo & conditioner, etc... I did refrain from getting my giant wheel o' brie. Ran to Pentagon City to Gap, Sephora and Williams-Sonoma where I got some nifty cooling racks and a roasting cookbook. One of these days I'm going to buy myself a roasting pan with a rack. Until then, I'll continue my precarious pan w/ chicken on a cookie rack arrangement. Hasn't given me problems so far.

Friday, I attempted three recipes from Simpler the Better... and only one was really successful. I tried grilled steak fajitas, which gave a salsa recipe that had waaay too much tomato and not enough avacado seasoning. Plus the tortillas weren't as hot as they should have been and the steak was too chewy and not in small enough chunks. I also make a garlic parmesan corn side dish, which had way too much cream - I don't think I boiled it long enough. The winner of the night was the white chocolate mousse, which was great except that I forgot I don't like white chocolate mousse that much. I'd put them in wine glasses for pretty presentation, but the best fit were my ginormous glasses, which had 4 servings of mousse in two containers. Too much. But I really like this cookbook, as it's not a lot of ingredients and looks like good, easy food.

Then ran out and saw Dreamgirls which was seriously fantastic. I enjoyed all of it and for Buffy fans, the demon in "Once More With Feeling" is in this. He doesn't sing and dance, but he's definitely in it.

I have to figure out where and what to spend my borders card on. I'm definitely going to get my hypnosis book and maybe I'll grab a DVD or something with the rest. Trying to figure out if I should splurge on a couple of books I know I want or wait until they're in paperback. Anyway, now I'm just hanging out at work, listending to Pandora and waiting for it to be 6 so I can go home and do laundry and get ready for tomorrow's clothes swap. Swapping! Of the clothing! So I can get wearable things!

Ugh, this week is going to be busy busy busy.

So, had a lazy couple of days. Got my stitch taken out on Monday and y'all, it pains me that I had to have a $10 copay to get it taken out. I could have taken a pair of nail scissors, snipped the excess and pulled it out myself. OK, yes, I don't know what it would have done if it had started bleeding again or whatever. And according to the doc, the thread could have not come out completely. And it's best that a doctor did it. But whatever.

After that, came home, cleaned, watched half of House of Sand and Fog and then stentoriansista came over. We went grocery shopping and on the way back, I managed to drop and break the bottle of wine I bought to bring over to sabekkas'. Alas. Then we ran off to anneball's farewell at Chef Geoff's, where it took us an hour to get a table at the happy hour section so we could get our $5 burgers. I'm going to miss that anneball - she manages to bring the crazy work stories that top mel21clc's. Or mine. And then, of course, Heroes (SPOILERS) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (MORE SPOILERS) which were predictable. I have to agree with TWoP, Studio 60 is somewhat disappointing and weirdly about religion.

Today, I slept until the crack of noon and stentoriansista and I did some thrifting, cleaned out a closet, repossessed a ladder and hung a light. I got a turkey baster (no jokes), a T-shirt to operate on and a nifty new telephone for my landline, so we don't have to use the wireless thing that is constantly falling apart in the kitchen. We went to Leading Ladies at the National, which was badly written and hokey enough that we left during intermission and headed home. Which is where I am. Freezing my butt off.

Watching the last half of House of Sand and Fog, which OH THE HUMANITY. OK, yes, fine, it's a good movie about how good people can do bad acts. BUT OH MY GOD THE HUMANITY AND THE ANGST AND THE FOG MAKE IT STOP.

Anyway, bed now. 12 hour day tomorrow, then I'm making pies, then I'm getting drunk and eating turkey.

Linkspam:
Krispy Kreme + Science = Awesome

SFW Roleplay - Political AND Funny!

Christmas trees are Pagan - which is fodder for a whole entry I have in my head about "the war on Christmas"

FYI for Pagans in the military - The Order of the Phoenix Pentacle - Basically compiling a list of pagan vets, spouses of vets, etc... as a way to show the VA that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. I don't know any pagan vets, but I know some of y'all do.

Put Xes in the ones you've seen, more than 85 means you have no life.
( Movie Meme )

I don't understand what's wrong with me. I'm about to pass out from tired, despite having slept nine hours last night, taken a 3 hour nap the day before and gotten 8 hours before that (granted, there was a lot of drinking Friday night, but still). And I can't sleep straight through the night lately - I keep pulling a sentry act, waking every hour or hour and a half. It's getting frustrating and I'm getting some chest congestion which is leading me to think chest cold is coming. During opening week, well... you might as well just shoot me now. I really hope that this is just allergies and I'm being silly, but if this ends up being a cold, i may end up having another nervous breakdown.

Fun weekend, though. Beef Stew with Curry and Lemongrass was a success, despite the lemongrass being a little chewy. I saw The Future of Food which was ZOMG scary, especially if you watch it right before making dinner. Long story short, genetically modified foods may be in everything we eat, but since it's not labeled, we have no way of knowing. Oh, and they modify the plant's DNA using E. Coli and other bacteria. Yeah. I'm officially scared now.

Anyway, hopefully this quasi-nausea will go way and I can get some sleep.

( The Interests Meme )

By the way, I saw the new Wickerman last night. Too obvious, too manhating, bad ending. The point is that these are supposed to be fairly normal people, not creepy blonde twins that speak in unison. The first one is so much better, and not just because of Christopher Lee.

Does everyone want to know what I did last night? I'm telling you anyway. I saw Snakes on a Plane.

SNAKES ON A PLANE, MUTHAFUCKA!

It was awesome, in that it would only be awesome if you see it opening weekend with a bunch of semi-sober friends with a bunch of people who agree that this is the campiest, silliest thing ever. Not something to watch by yourself because a) snakes and b) sheer levels of stupidity.

Still, Snakes on a Plane. See it, or else Samuel L. Jackson will come for you in the night.

Snakes on a Plane voicemail - 6 different kinds of awesome.

I'm grouchy and tired. I may go to bed before The Daily Show. Gotta prep, first. Stupid research.

I'm watching I Heart Huckabees and I can't tell if it's brilliant or terrible. I'm learning towards gawdawful.

And fuckall if I don't have to write something else by Friday.

I went to the midnight show of Dead Man' Chest. Unimpressed. Some good moments, but ultimately left me not that excited. I'm feeling like these last two Pirates may be like the last two Matrix movies.

Akeelah and the Bee was adorable. I almost cried.

Brother leaves while I'm at work tomorrow. Sad. We've had fun.

I have a ton of food in my house but nothing to eat.

Yep.

So, The Little Brother is visiting, and let me tell you, we get along so much better than the Older Brother. We actually talk. It's nice. He's apparently seeing a girl (!) who lives in Conencticut when not schooling in LA. We roasted a chicken last night and it was delightful. Like, the fantasticist thing ever. We were wandering around Old Town and walking past Whole Foods and I asked him if there was anything he wanted and he'd never been to a Whole Foods, so we wandered through and got a chicken. Being Whole Foods, a 4 pounder was $9, and it was organic and everything. But the chicken came out juicy and delightful and tasted a lot better than the one from Giant, even if the Giant chicken was $5 for a 5 pounder. Stephen Colbert gives organic chicken and my improved carving skills a thumbs up.

I took him to his first bar (the Big Hunt in DuPont) on Friday and yesterday we went up to Adam's Morgan and sat at the Columbia Lounge, listened to a nice jazz band, played count the bachelorette parties (7) and got Maggie Moo's before visiting Kramer Books at 12:30. We've also seen Thank You For Smoking (3 out of 4 stars) and X-Men III (2.5 out of 4 stars simply because of too many character deaths). Strangely, both featured Cameron Bright, who seems to be getting himself quite the child acting career. Someone's going to end up on VH1 if they're not careful.

We've also done the Smithsonian crawl a bit - Natural Science, American History & American Indian (Brother did more when I worked on Thursday). Sadly, the muppet exhibit at the American History Smithsonian is two display cases - one with Dark Crystal puppets, one some otters. Maybe it's under construction, but I was really hoping for a multi-room puppet exhibit, like they had for the polio one. Muppets > polio, except that muppets probably won't kill you. Probably.

On Friday, we got to the movie theater at 5:45 and found that the next show was at 6:45. So, we had time to kill and wandered about. There's an Urban Outfitters up the street, so I made him wander through. And OMG all my money farewell. First, they have the Papasan chairs on sale for $80, which a few frames in the sale section stickered at $50 with a "Take an Additional 50% off!" sign. Which means I could get a NEW papasan chair for $50 or less. (cuidado_llamas, before you disapprove, I sat in it for a while and found that it was good for my back and I could conceivably curl up and knit in it) We're ignoring the logic that says that there's no good way to get a chair & gigantoriffic cushion from Northwest DC to Alexandria without a car. I suppose I could rig something up with my pushcart-donkey, but it'd be a stretch. I mean, I suppose I could carry the cushion under one arm and the box under another and then take a cab from the metro or something. But still, it'd be a stretch. They also have great throw rugs and some cool 3 frame hangy things that look spiffy. I've been wanting to put stuff on my empty, empty walls. It just means I'd actually have to find 3 3x5 pictures. And spend another $100 total. Who needs food when you can have a stylish pad, baby?

Ooh! Ooh! I totally have a plan now! If I buy it today, the little brother can carry one home and I'll take the other! I'm a genius!

Continuing the trend of ooh! shiny!, we wandered around Old Town yesterday, in the ridiculously humid heat. (And it wasn't even that bad people! July? That'll be TERRIBLE) And I managed to find a (neon pink) gym bag at a thrift store for $5, a copy of Summer 2006 Interweave Knits, and a pair of sunglasses that actually fits my face. How the brother felt about being dragged into a thrift store, Knit Happens & Ross? Not thrilled. But if Mom was there, we'd've visited every antique store on King Street. And that's a lot. Also found the world's narrowest house. 11' across. (They're called spite houses and were made to fill alleys to spite people driving through there) Took an afternoon off to recuperate from the heat exhaustion and make food, saw some improv (awesome as always) and things have been good.

My hips and my back have been killing me super dead lately. Maybe it's because I've been walking for several hours a day. Perhaps.

Anyway, I think it's time to start on the paper.

Just saw Hard Candy. Really liked it. Very well shot. Posed some interesting questions. I highly recommend it.

Now that I've visited the Alexandria Masonic Temple I can safely say that I never need to visit it again. Both the brother and I were freaked out by the Jesusness and the disembodied voice commentary.

Last night, the brother and I saw Ultraviolet. I'd poorly remembered this entry and thought it would be better than any of the other crap currently out there. Wow. Was I wrong. So, so very wrong. I wish we'd seen Failure to Launch, instead. Also, why is this guy in every movie ever made? Why? Not that he's a bad actor or anything. Oy.

Anyway, we meandered down King and through the torpedo factory and now he's doing laundry and I'm going to watch some of my scrubs DVD before we go out for meat, meat and more meat and then WIT. This weekend is going to be hard on my wallet.

Still not sure what to do tomorrow. I mean, we can walk through Georgetown and then through Dupont and then to Adams Morgan for pizza and standup at the DCAC, but I don't know if there's a day's worth of activities there. He's Smithsonianed out and I can't figure out where else to go, aside from seeing the cherry blossoms, maybe. Thoughts?

So, I saw V for Vendetta this afternoon. OMG love. Love love love. It restored my faith in the Wachowski maybe-brothers (isn't one of them becoming a woman?). Anyway, loved. Definitely worth seeing.

And then PNO was delightful. As was the after PNO. And the drinking. Much of the drinking. It was an expensive day, but I do these rarely, so it's ok.

Anyway, I'm to bed. Tomorrow, I'm cooking the chicken I was going to cook today (totally missed the part in the recipe where it said to marinate for 6 hours. 24 is better than 6, yes?), and then Target and then sew at goingdriftless if she's not still deathly ill. And then probably go home and have a netflix fest. Unless I decide to go to midnight. But since Mr. Mr. called me today, I probably won't. Because I am a coward.

So, I was planning on going to the gym after work, but it was cold out and I was grumpy because I had a tech support issue pop up at 5:55. As always happens in these cases, the tech guy who took my call couldn't find his ass with a flashlight, a map and a how-to manual, so I left work at 6:30. So I got home, made myself a sandwich, made some rice and watched Mystic River. I love how I'm watching all of last year's Oscar picks right now.

Speaking of, I need to call Mr. Mr. and let him know that I'm probably not going to be calling him in the future. I have avoided doing so because I am a big wimp.

Saturday, I made beans and rice. Black beans and rice usually lasts me 6-8 servings. On Saturday, for some reason, I decided not to cover the beans as they simmered. They've lasted maybe 4 servings. Part of me wants to go in and change all my stupid WW points, but I know the rest of me just doesn't care enough.

I need to cut my nails. I need to actually go to the gym tomorrow, because I keep skipping it. I need to go to bed more.

I think I'm going to start tracking my reading. Not because I want to brag (I go through a 200 page book in 5-7 days), but because I can never actually remember what I read after I read it. I could restart ripping things... or I could just do it here. I think I'm more likely to do it here.