Weekend update
Jun. 16th, 2003 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiWow. Didn't realize that I hadn't updated at all this weekend until that food post.
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shadesong and I had intended to see Finding Nemo. But when we got to the theatre, we noticed that Down With Love was still playing. Going with the theory that DWL was likely to be off of the big screen much sooner, we decided to see that, instead.
Damn, it's a good movie! Seriously, this was one of the most enjoyable little movies I've seen in a while. Just a happy, fun romantic comedy, with a ton of winks to the classic era of romantic comedy (it even featured Tony Randall in a small roll). Whatever marketing moron thought releasing this as counter-programming to Matrix Reloaded should be shot, as they pretty much doomed this movie. See it. You've got maybe a week left before it'll be out of the multiplexes for good.
Saturday started with Operation Gerbil Drop. The gerbils have now been returned from whence they came. On the one hand, I miss them -- they were cute little guys, and never asked to be crammed in a cage with fourteen other gerbils. On the other, they were loud and ate all day long, and destroyed everything they touched. In the end, the store sold us them under false pretenses, so I don't feel bad about making the store deal with them.
Saturday was meant to be cleaning day (after we managed a major shopping trip in the AM), but on their way back from the chiropractor,shadesong, libidoergosum, and blueingenue noticed that our local Whole Foods was having a fourth anniversary fair. They picked me up, and we all headed there. We spent hours trying various samples, and I discovered Annie's Naturals Honey Mustard and Raspberry Mustard! Both are very yummy. Not that there's such a thing as bad mustard, of course.
We also tried other nifty stuff, including the best salsa I've had in ages, some nice guac, grilled tuna, Boca "chicken" wings, etc. Had lots of fun. Shadesong finally found something almost healthy that she likes -- carrot juice (cue up the Moxy Früvous). Then, of course, we had to go inside, for more samples (smoked scallops, mmmm), and shopping. We survived, spending only about $60 or so on stuff we needed.
Afterwards, we headed to Brusters and Blockebuster. Brusters had Dusty Road, my favorite ice cream in the whole world (this week). Malt ice cream with caramel and malt balls. Yum.
We killed a lot of time at Blockbuster (and I almost bought Brotherhood III, just because any movie about Gaming Gone Wrong has to be worth watching). We ended up with Sweet Home Alabama (which we haven't watched yet), and The Guru. The Guru was very cute. Technically, it was just a by-the-numbers romantic comedy, but it was a nifty plot, and the cast was lots of fun. And it is, as far as I know, the only chance to see Christine Baranski wearing a rubber French maid's outfit. Which may or may not be a recommendation, but it does make it unique.
Today, we got some serious cleaning done at the beginning of the day, which was good. Elayna's room is almost clean enough to serve as a guest room (which it's going to do in five days). Then we relaxed, andshadesong went out for coffee while I got to watch the Mets have an awesome game (Trachsel pitched a one-hitter, Burnitz hit two homers, and Reyes got his first major league homer -- a grand slam -- and his first stolen base), followed by a new Futurama, a Good Eats on the Tivo, and a Braves loss. A great day for TV. :-)
And now, with the alarm due to buzz in less than six hours, I should consider bed.
shadesong and I had intended to see Finding Nemo. But when we got to the theatre, we noticed that Down With Love was still playing. Going with the theory that DWL was likely to be off of the big screen much sooner, we decided to see that, instead.Damn, it's a good movie! Seriously, this was one of the most enjoyable little movies I've seen in a while. Just a happy, fun romantic comedy, with a ton of winks to the classic era of romantic comedy (it even featured Tony Randall in a small roll). Whatever marketing moron thought releasing this as counter-programming to Matrix Reloaded should be shot, as they pretty much doomed this movie. See it. You've got maybe a week left before it'll be out of the multiplexes for good.
Saturday started with Operation Gerbil Drop. The gerbils have now been returned from whence they came. On the one hand, I miss them -- they were cute little guys, and never asked to be crammed in a cage with fourteen other gerbils. On the other, they were loud and ate all day long, and destroyed everything they touched. In the end, the store sold us them under false pretenses, so I don't feel bad about making the store deal with them.
Saturday was meant to be cleaning day (after we managed a major shopping trip in the AM), but on their way back from the chiropractor,
shadesong, libidoergosum, and blueingenue noticed that our local Whole Foods was having a fourth anniversary fair. They picked me up, and we all headed there. We spent hours trying various samples, and I discovered Annie's Naturals Honey Mustard and Raspberry Mustard! Both are very yummy. Not that there's such a thing as bad mustard, of course.We also tried other nifty stuff, including the best salsa I've had in ages, some nice guac, grilled tuna, Boca "chicken" wings, etc. Had lots of fun. Shadesong finally found something almost healthy that she likes -- carrot juice (cue up the Moxy Früvous). Then, of course, we had to go inside, for more samples (smoked scallops, mmmm), and shopping. We survived, spending only about $60 or so on stuff we needed.
Afterwards, we headed to Brusters and Blockebuster. Brusters had Dusty Road, my favorite ice cream in the whole world (this week). Malt ice cream with caramel and malt balls. Yum.
We killed a lot of time at Blockbuster (and I almost bought Brotherhood III, just because any movie about Gaming Gone Wrong has to be worth watching). We ended up with Sweet Home Alabama (which we haven't watched yet), and The Guru. The Guru was very cute. Technically, it was just a by-the-numbers romantic comedy, but it was a nifty plot, and the cast was lots of fun. And it is, as far as I know, the only chance to see Christine Baranski wearing a rubber French maid's outfit. Which may or may not be a recommendation, but it does make it unique.
Today, we got some serious cleaning done at the beginning of the day, which was good. Elayna's room is almost clean enough to serve as a guest room (which it's going to do in five days). Then we relaxed, and
shadesong went out for coffee while I got to watch the Mets have an awesome game (Trachsel pitched a one-hitter, Burnitz hit two homers, and Reyes got his first major league homer -- a grand slam -- and his first stolen base), followed by a new Futurama, a Good Eats on the Tivo, and a Braves loss. A great day for TV. :-)And now, with the alarm due to buzz in less than six hours, I should consider bed.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-16 06:03 am (UTC)Ichiro was amazing yesterday. Gotta love the M's, even if they swiped my favorite Met (Olerud).
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-16 08:28 am (UTC)It's the stadium, stupid. And I don't mean the design, although Safeco is much better than post-filled Turner in that respect too. I mean that win, lose, or Bud Selig calling the game, Mariners games are fun. The Moose gets out and cuts up before and during the game, the grounds crew does their little dance, they do the dancing hats shell game and the hydroplane races on the Diamondvision between innings, the organist/sound person has fun with the music (for example, if there's a conference between the umps, s/he'll play "The People's Court"... :); there's some really cute animation on the lightbulb scoreboard (after Suzuki-sama's grabs, they'd show this thing of a fielder winding up like Road Runner, tearing down the basepath, going for the slide, vanishing in a cloud of dust, then popping out of the ground UNDER the base with a possum-eatin' grin :) .... and my gods, the food. Not just ARA pablum. Sushi and sake. Barbecue. Papa John's pizza, not this frozen crap. Ivar's seafood. AND traditional ballyard food, and good beer, not Spuds' Piss....
And there is plenty of stuff for kids who are bored with the game on the field to do too; I think there are two playgrounds, a GameCube arcade (set up for baseball :), a batting cage and throwing range, a museum...
In short, going to a Braves game is actually less fun of an experience than simply propping your feet up in front of the boob toob and flipping your sound source to WSB-AM. It's Just A Game. The M's, on the other hand, have the whole idea of the Baseball Experience taken to heart.... and it shows. It wasn't hard to get the crowd fired up, even after Maddux settled down in the fourth and started mowing them down... the town was genuinely upset when Sweet Lou decided to leave. (And you should'a heard'em after Griffey and A-Rod's departures in pursuite of the Big Dime.) The town cares about baseball.... in large part because the M's care about the fans.
And yeah, Ichiro rocked. Both on the basepaths early and a couple of good plays in the field late... the M's take pains to play to their Japanese fan base, what with sushi in the stands, Japanese labelling for a lot of stuff, and even in the scoreboard antimations... like the one I mentioned, if Suzuki-sama was involved in the steal, the word "SAFE!" would be followed by what I can only assume its Japanese counterpart was... I didn't see a large Asian contingent last night, no more than is usual for Seattle, but that doesn't mean they weren't there, especially among the press corps... The Mariners were also playing to their Spanish-speaking fans; the poster last night had the Mariners logo, but instead of saying "Baseball", it said "Beisbol"... since so many MLB players are Latino, the M's have seen fit to play to that potential market...
Oh, and the live Internet audio feed these days is handled by Seattle's own Real Networks, which I believe can be seen from the backside of the stadium, as their building faces Elliot Bay...
It's a baseball town. Much like New York. And it shows.
"Dey always wuz bums, an' dey always will be."
-- said of the Dodgers after their perfidious move to LA...