Ultranormal

  • My ribs are killing me.

    My ribs are killing me. I spent all weekend coughing and in a general cold-fueled funk. I’m feeling better today, but the congestion is still here, and coughing hurts like hell.

    I did see Heist this weekend. If you like David Mamet, you’ll like this movie. It’s slow-paced for a thriller, but as a whodunit, it’s good. It’s not my favorite Mamet movie. I liked The Spanish Prisoner more, and even State and Main was better, even though it was completely different. Heist had something missing. I’m not sure what it was, but it was missing something important.

  • My lovely wife now has

    My lovely wife now has her own blog!! I’ve been trying to sell her on the idea for a while now and she finally took my up on the offer. Please be kind and wipe your feet before going in.

  • Love has urinated in my

    Love has urinated in my front yard and walked away. (it’s a comic, really… Fred Milton is definitely number one toilet)

  • Tardy is Terrific Greg the

    Tardy is Terrific

    Greg the Bunny was hilarious tonight. What a great show that’s getting no promotion at all. It was off for sweeps, and then tonight’s episode got nothing. I didn’t see an ad at all. Tardy had a bunch of lines, and yes, they were all great. The show is pretty much perfect, and well, it’s on the list of summer shows that should keep me entertained during the heat and reruns.

  • She Speaks Again!! Kev has

    She Speaks Again!!

    Kev has offered to set up a website of my very own. Nice of him, huh? Personally though, I think it is because he doesn’t want to share his groovy ‘fighting spacemen” with me. And what if nobody goes to my site? Kev already gets tons of traffic, so I would have a ready-made audience for my Max stories (like how he can spell zebra and book, among others) and for my life-as-a-housewife commentary. Ahh well, Kev said he would show me to my own site tonight… So, this is Jen signing off.

    Editor’s Note: I’m under the weather, so it may be a couple days till Jen’s site gets set up. But, it will happen shortly!!! And I don’t get “tons” of traffic. 50 unique visitors a day does not mean a “ton”.

  • This one’s from Jen: Kevin

    This one’s from Jen:

    Kevin has been too busy to blog, so I am going to try to take up the slack. Some info about me: I am 28 (gasp!), graduate of U of Arizona, mom to super Max, and a Taurus. My hobbies include reading, lunching with the ladies, and decorating my house. Here is a list of things I love and hate:

    Love:

    • Being married to Kev
    • This picture of Max
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • March Madness
    • The Olive Garden
    • Jason Biggs’ character in American Pie 2 said, “One time, at band camp…”

    Hate:

    • Laundry
    • Oz
    • Macaroni Grill
    • PT Cruisers

    Here is a list about Max

    Love:

    • Blue’s Clues
    • Lambie, his stuffed lamb
    • Aunt Heather and Uncle Steve, his favorite playmates
    • numbers and letters, he draws them constantly

    Hate:

    • Barney (ok, well, Max doesn’t really hate barney. I hate him for the both if us and he is strictly forbidden in the house)
    • Aunt Heather’s hair when straight (Max actually said, “I don’t like it… I don’t like it” when he first saw Aunt Heather’s hair straight from the salon)
    • Being pantless

  • Three’s Company A post in

    Three’s Company

    A post in three parts… First, the world’s most perfect guacamole recipe:

    Ingredients

    • 2 ripe avacados
    • a dash of chili powder
    • a pinch of cumin (if you don’t have cumin, curry will work)
    • a splash of salsa
    • 1 small tomato

    Peel and pit the avacados, dice into small, dice sized bits and put in small mixing bowl. Dice tomato and add to bowl. Add salsa and spices, mix lightly with potato masher. Leave small chunks of avacados and tomato. There you go, it should be perfect!

    We’re watching the end of the Lakers/Kings games, and I’m having a ball watching Jen react to every little thing. She’s much better and more entertaining (and cuter too) than anyone NBC could have calling the game. She’s hilarious. The game just ended and Sacramento won. Two fat white guys in Hawaiiian shirts high-fived Chris Webber, and Jen, being extremely excited that the Kings won, squeeled, “I love those two fat guys! They’re my favorite two new guys!!!” She’s now exulting over all the replays. My wife could not be cooler, cuter or more attractive to me right now. She’s the best.

    And I finally finished Metropolis. I stand by my comments from earlier. It’s good. It has some of those corny Anime moments, but overall, it was great. It was beautifully done, with some seamless CGI integrated with the traditional cell. Excellent. If you liked Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and liked the idea of A.I., but thought the execution sucked, this is the movie for you.

    There you go, food, fun and film. Does it get better than that?

  • The Weekend Roundup Max was

    The Weekend Roundup

    • Max was sick so we spent most of the weekend pummelling popsicles and baby Tylenol Cold into him. He was not a happy camper.

    • Him being sick gave us a chance to watch a bunch of movies, which I’ll go into more detail on below and some surprisingly good NBA basketball.

    • Now for the movies:

      • Bandits: It had its moments, but overall, it was a disappointment. I’m not sure what I expected because I missed all buzz about it when it came through the theaters, but I expect more from Barry Levinson and Billy Bob. Speaking of Billy Bob…

      • The Man Who Wasn’t There: So, this is what happens when the Coen’s make a film noir. This movie is beautiful, and I completely agree with the Coen’s decision to shoot it in black and white. The smoke, the shadows, everything about this movie had amazing texture and depth. Billy Bob gave a great performance, as did Tony Shalhoub (who should have received an Oscar nomination for his greasy lawyer… amazing). But, for some reason, it was still a disappointment. While it was beautiful, I wasn’t into it the whole time. I found myself looking at my watch, which I’ve never done in another Coen brothers movie. I can’t quite put my finger on it. On one hand, they’ve created a classic film noir, one that automatically ranks in the top 5 all time, yet it was still missing something. Can you make a great film noir and just make a decent movie?

      • The Others: This was the real winner of the weekend. What an amazing film. Forgetting all the hype, it felt like the first time I watched The Sixth Sense. The director did an excellent job of setting the mood from the very beginning, and, while there weren’t a lot of real scary scenes, I was on edge throughout. The ending was perfect, and Nicole Kidman’s performance deserved the Oscar. What a great piece of work. The lighting, atmospherics, acting, everything were spot on. This could not have been done better.

      • Metropolis: Not the old silent movie with Jocasta the lovely robot. This is an Anime film but some guy who’s name I can’t remember that the guys in the video store were watching. I haven’t finished it yet, but so far, it’s beautiful. It’s one of those complexly drawn animated movies I’ve ever seen. The characters and sets are a beautiful mix of cell and digital animation with hand-painted backgrounds. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s basically what A.I. should have been and wasn’t.

    • Summer TV sucks. Almost all the season finale’s are done, and none of the guilty pleasure summer series have started yet (yes, I’m looking at you Big Brother). Thankfully, the NBA Conference Finals have been excellent and worth staying up for.

  • I’ve been listening to a

    I’ve been listening to a lot of The Police lately. Man in a Suitcase is my new favorite song. The live version from their boxed set is one of the greatest happy depressing songs ever. Before Sting went all new age hippy, they were one of the world’s greatest ska bands. Sting, what happened to you?

  • I don’t know what the

    I don’t know what the fuss is all about: Random Notes

    • Bandits is a crappy movie

    • The Powerbook G4 is the most well-designed laptop I’ve ever see or used.

    • Heluva Good French Onion dip rules

    • Why does it take the NBA until the conference finals to get interesting? Ok, the Dallas/Sacramento series was interestiing, but over too soon. I think the conference finals will be great. The first games have been amazing.

    • Work is crazy. It’s frightening working with people I’ve known for a few years now, but never really worked with. I feel like I’m on the edge of my knowledge, and that’s scary. My old job was comfortable. I knew where I was and that they’d always need what I could do because no one else could really do it. Now, I don’t feel as indispenable, and that makes me nervous.

    • I wish everyone spoke English. Not because other languages aren’t pretty, but programming for other character sets sucks. It really does. And when it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, it sucks even more.

    • You can do crazy things with Java and they’ll work.

    • You can do crazy things with Tcl and AOLserver and they’ll probably work but you run a very good chance of not doing things the way you should because documentation sucks and it’s a fickle beast.

    • Bandits will just not end. Billy Bob is kind of entertaining, but the rest of it is just dragging. Is it bed time yet?