Month: May 2008

Juno

Jeff and I watched Juno last night and I loved it.  The script, the acting – a wonderful movie, and Ellen Page and Michael Cera make my Canadian heart explode with pride.  Also, it makes fun of Unitarianism.

Yesterday I prepped my MacBook for working with Windows software by installing a virtual machine.  We’ll see how this plays out… Jeff’s going to help me with an XP install  With any luck I won’t have to turn it into a Vista machine.  The long term point of this is to allow me to work from home, as the contact management and call center software is all Windows and internet based.

My payroll problem has been straightened out.

Gizmo and the downstairs dog, Meadow, are getting to know each other.  Meadow is so anxious for someone to play with that it’s very cute.  Gizmo’s body language says it all.  Scornful, not the slightest bit scared.  Eddie made tracks like his little black tail was on fire as soon as he poked his head through the door and saw the dog.

I have now entirely s-canned my original homily, as well as the two subsequent attempts, and I’m staring at the screen with disbelieving horror… can my normal fluency have deserted me for this most important topic?  Can I restrain my usual desire to turn everything into a gag?  Will I find myself in the pulpit on Sunday next, eyes like dog’s balls, stammering, incoherent and bereft of a single cogent sentence?  Stay tuned.  On the plus side, there will be jazz at the service, most likely.

I would just like to tell the universe, briefly, that I’m tired of getting what I need and would like to get what I want for a change.  Okay, back to the homily.

Shoot ’em Up

When the trailer first hit the internet for Shoot em Up I said to Keith, “You know, I have to see this movie.”  And I watched it last night, and Jeff and I had a blast.  If you want balls to the wall hardcore action with a body count in the stratosphere, have fun. Otherwise, don’t bother.  Paul Giamatti plays one of the best villains ever, and Clive Owen does steely eyed testosterone fueled intensity like nobody else.

Safely home

Jeff and Katie are home from their trek to Victoria; the cats appeared to have survived my tender ministrations, but Gizmo was so intent on keeping Jeff in view that he accompanied him to the landpeer’s house and would have gone inside if not restrained.  Foolish feline!  There be dogs there! Not but Gizmo doesn’t like the occasional scrap with dogs.

Bob Asprin has died.  He is memorialized by Tom Smith, one of the handful of people who make a living in filk, here.

From Patricia I have wonderful news which I cannot repeat, as the explanations would be tedious and lingering; suffice it to say that for once the wheels of justice have ground the ingredients for a tasty loaf instead of hard tack.

I sure hope the weatherpersons are wrong – it’s setting up for another partly rainy weekend.

I am now double booked for June 14th.  I don’t plan anything for weeks and then it starts piling up.

Cryptic

Chipper sent a cryptic – and exciting – email about a very special event which will be happening in her part of the world.  Absolutely no details now but as soon as the official announcement comes through I will be posting it.

It feels very odd to be in the house alone with the cats.  Jeff and Katie are in Victoria.

More banging, screaming, crying and thumping from downstairs last night.  The folks were gone for most of the evening and the first I knew they were back their daughter was crying.  Fortunately, I know the difference between what a four year old girl sounds like when she’s crying with tiredness and annoyance (she was) and when she’s crying from pain or fear. Anyway, the crying seemed to trigger another domestic imbroglio.

Got my hair cut at Azzi’s.  It’s always the same goddamned thing.  I tell them what to do because I don’t DO anything to my hair, and they go “Insufficient challenge” and then they do something tricky to my hair.  And my hair looks like crap until it grows out.  Never, never do I learn.  Never do I grab chickiepoo by the hair and say.  Do  It  My  Way.  Thanks.  So I’m really unhappy with my hair this morning, and I wasn’t yesterday morning, and I had $35 yesterday that I don’t today.  I think she was trying to go all Terry Moore on me, but I got Phyllis Diller instead.

Got totally nuked by a fellow employee yesterday.  Fanboy Joe and I were discussing BSG and Gaeta’s song, which has the interwebs all hopping and antsy, and one of the business analysts came over, eyes a-popping, and said, STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP.  I don’t mind spoilers – they seem to devastate other people – but Joe and I desisted in the face of his obvious distress.

I will NOT be wearing my earphones on the way into work this morning, just in case brother bear is there.  They don’t usually hang around more than a day, but ya never know.

Bears!

There was an adolescent black bear up in the parking lot this morning.  Scared the bejabbers out of the receptionist.  I think maybe I’ll stop walking through the campus with my headphones on for a while…

Keith was here

Oh, yes, there will be gaming.  The menfolks spent a happy couple of hours blasting away at whateverthehell kinda critters there are in Condemned II: Bloodshot and there was also Halo 3.  Keith produced four chocolate croissants, the mac and cheese was reduced in volume, and then we watched The Mummy – which was great fun, there are a couple of really funny scenes in it and the effects were pretty damned good.

It’s thundering and lightning here, which is quite unusual.  What is more unusual is that it is continuining.  Normally we get one big clap and then nothing, but it has been grumbling for about three quarters of an hour now.  Over to the east it’s quite grim and dark.

Whoa!  A huge flash, but it took 18 seconds for the sound to get here, so that was a fair piece away.  I love this kitchen.  I think when I own my own home again, I’m going to have a breakfast nook….