Televised Curly Fries

So, because this was our last weekend before Tech Week kicks in on Saturday, we decided to take it really east this weekend. Incredibly easy. Friday, we just came home and collapsed on the couch. Nice. Watched some LOST Season 3 on DVD. That's about it, as we was drinkin'.

Saturday, I sat in the backyard and started a new book. Then we walked out to Sarah's Cafe for breakfast, then continued on to Harvard Sq. Grabbed the bus home from there, cleaned up, then went back the HSq to see The Hangover, which was friggin ridiculous. Good movie. After that, we hauled up to Chris' place for stuffed peppers, darts, baseball, and an attempt to start a fire with green wood. No fire.

Sunday, we went over to Davis Sq for pasta, bur Dave's Fresh Pasta is closed on Sundays, so we wandered on to Kickass Cupcakes and picked up a bunch for the Dossins. We drove over to Maynard to see that little boy and my sister. Ewan and I played trains, swung on the swing, where we wrote a song called 'Big Trouble Maker', rode on the fire engine, helped daddy vacuum, and mowed the lawn. We had a great time. The best was when he ran to the playroom, turned to me and beckoned 'Come and Play with me!". My heart melted.

So, a warm weekend, but a good one. Friday night, We had a positive all-employee meeting at work, so I went home in high spirits. Amanda did some food prep for her saturday night visitors while I lounged on the couch with the cats.

Saturday, I got up and headed over to the Newton Community Center to load the truck with set stuff. A good amount of people showed to load, which was great. I like working with all these nice people. We loaded the truck and then met it at MassBay to unload into the theater. Again, tons of people showed up, so the unload and set build went really well, despite the heat. I got to work with the chopsaw cutting the pieces for the sewing machines and then bolted casters onto some platforms. I had a lot of fun and the cast was full of hard workers. The Gustafsons brought their puppy Moxie, who was super-tiny and cute and we all got to play with him. The downside of load-in was that it coincided with my brother and sisters birthday BBQ in Maynard, so I had to miss that, but I don't feel too bad, because they knew I couldn't go, but proceeded with plans anyways. Oh well. I headed home around 4 for a shower, and then Rasta and Amanda returned from wedding dress shopping. Later, Meg and newborn Kathryn came by, and once the girltalk started, I hid upstairs watching movies for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, the three of us went to Jeffrey's for brunch. Rasta took off for Kingston after that, we did some errands, had dinner, and then walked out to Harvard Sq for frozen yogurt! So good, we enjoyed our treats on the church steps before grabbing the bus for home.

So, this was a really fun weekend! Friday night, I joined Amanda over by the BSO for drinks at this dup called Our House East. They advertised a happy hour with free hotdogs and tacos, but provided popcorn and weird pasta. The bathrooms belonged in the movie Saw, and the whiskey was served in plastic (PLASTIC!) "glasses". Amanda was there for like over 4 hours. We chatted with Sabrina and Rumi, Amanda's coworkers. From there, we walked across town to the North End for arrancinis, pizza, bread, and desserts from Bovas. Yes, we walked out with a grocery bag full of good food. Took the train home, ate dinner at 10pm.

Saturday, read for a bit before heading to Grafton to do battle with a great bush that needed uprooting. The bush did everything it could to preserve life by burying it's roots deep into and under the rocks. It was crazy. I went at the stump with an axe and still didn't get the damn thing out of the ground. Afterwards, Amanda, Mum and I went over to Denise the florist to discuss flowers for the wedding. We really like her and the price is pretty good, so that was reassuring. We headed home after that for more arrancinis.

Sunday, slooow start, bits of cleaning and errands. We walked out to Darwin's for breakfast, then into Harvard Sq. where I picked up a collection of the Die Hard movies, all on Blu-Ray. I've seriously been searching for that collection forever, and now, IT IS MINE! Whole Foods, Pet Smart. We tried watching "The Wackness" but it was mega-boring, so we finished off the fourth season of The Wire. Burgers on the grill for dinner!

So, an excellent three-day weekend! Thursday afternoon, Dave came by after work. We hit the sauce and watched Die Hard with a vicious, sarcastic tongue. We basically cracked each other up over bad 80's haircuts. Later that evening, I drove over to Wellsely to pick up Amanda from rehearsal on an incredibly foggy night. That was pretty much the last of the crappy weather from June, for now it's been 70 and sunny all weekend!

Friday morning, we slept and slept. Then we got up. We basically took the day to run a few errands. GameStop, Target, Autozone, PetSmart. We took it easy from there. Not much else to report.

Saturday, more sleeping, more taking it easy. We did a few odd jobs before taking off for Grafton for a BBQ. Steak and burgers, cupcakes and fruit. With Ewan, played on the slide, in the fire truck, danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller on the record player, had a tickle attack and wiped tea on his head (at my suggestion, which cracked me up).

Sunday, we slept and slept, went to the laundromat to wash some sheets and towels, a quick trip to Trader Joe's, then back home for more relaxing and chillaxin. I started reading 'A Civil Action' about a tort lawsuit brought by parents of leukemia children in Woburn (where I lived briefly years ago) against a large chemical company. It's a page-turning read thus far, as I blasted through 70 pages over the weekend. At night, we watched Spring Breakdown, a direct-to-DVD movie that never found a studio to release it, about three 30-something nerds (Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch) who go down to Spring Break to relive there lives or something. It wasn't great, so maybe I'm not really surprised that it didn't find an audience.

So, another good weekend, very relaxing though budy. Friday night, we met with Felix Rust, our soon to be contracted photographer for our wedding. http://www.felixrust.com/, This dude is just our style, right up our alley. Non-traditional, in a sense. It's possible that photography will be our biggest expense, but we really like his style and want to put more into photographic memories than say, the food. We'll have an engagement session and he and his asst. will join us at the wedding to shoot. I want to price some other photogs, but I'm pretty sure he's our man. His work speaks for itself.

Saturday, I rolled over to work for a few hours, took Milo to the vet to have his nose looked at and to follow up on his kidney problems. I love going to the vet! It always costs $60+ other stuff! Hooray! The good news is that the vet said that Milo looked like he's improving on his own, so no medication required, just an adjustment of his diet. After that, we went up to Reading to Chris' BBQ. We saw his parents and some of his Philly friends, who are always a ton of fun.

Sunday, a slow awakening followed by a massive scrub of the house, then a brief trip to Building #19 for cheap Chinese, fuel-stinky, shoes for the show, then a buzz through the thickening crowds at IKEA for a few lamps (none of which we can use that the moment due to lack of extension cords and bulbs.) Amanda made her sauce at home, but it finished too late for dinner, so we'll have some tonight.

We've been watching Arrested Development on DVD. Hilarious!

So, in a bizarre coinkydink, I watched both Rocky Balboa and The Wrestler in the same weekend, two past-their-prime fighters having one last go at it. Rocky Balboa was shockingly better than I expected. Stallone presented a well-rounded character trying to deal with the aftermath of life with Adrian and his ended career. The boxing scenes were a little too now, like Stallone didn't perform all his own boxing stunts as I imagine he did in the original. They didn't have the raw reality of the original filmwork. Pretty good film though, watched in on cable.

The Wrestler was a great film with a sad and almost misplaced ending. It didn't end they way I expected or hoped, but perhaps that was just meant to mirror life more closely. Mickey Rourke was really really good in his role, but I felt that the camera shots and direction shone more. A lot of great shots behind the Ram, intensifying his loneliness and the weight of his lifestyle on his shoulder. The scene where he was pouring his heart out to his daughter on the boardwalk was stunning, simple yet powerful. As a previous wrestling fan, It was a joy to see all the wrestlers backstage before the bouts, friendly and congenial to each other, a real fraternity. There was no real bad guy in the film, only the Ram's decisions could count as the antagonist. Great film.

So, on Friday, we saw And Then There Were None at the Footlight club. In this version, the director really spookified it up by adding the ghosts of the murdered to the stage. It was pretty cool. The ghost dances were pretty silly, but it was very entertaining. Excellent acting on behalf of the cast as well. We really enjoyed it. Afterwards, drinks at Costello's with the cast and crew. Good times.

Saturday, I went into the office to catch up on some items. Then we went over to Scott and Annie's to meet their newborn Pete. So cute, really long limbs and fingers. He's gonna be a marathon runner. It was great to see the gentler side of Scott with his son. Very cool. Chris then came over, stinkin drunk from his beerfest, and I drove him back to Reading.

Sunday, we slept late, went to see my dad for Father's Day. We got him all-purpose mats for his new Subaru and he put them in right away. I also got him a gorilla face apron from the zoo for BBQing, which he really liked too. It was pretty messy out, so we went over to Bradishes and brought it home to eat on the porch "like a picnic', according to my mum. We hung out for a bit before having a lazy evening at home.

So, Amanda and I had a great time visiting friends and old haunts in Southern California! Last Tuesday morning, we took the T to the airport for our Jet Blue flight to Long Beach. There was more leg room and the TVs on every seatback were great, really helped pass the time. I bit into a new series called Emperor by Conn Iggulden, the dude who recently authored the Dangerous Book for Boys. Cool series about the Roman Empire. Good plane reading. We landed in Long Beach's tiny airport around Noon, jumped into our massive Nissan Altima rental car and immediately got lost in Long Beach. We drove down to San Diego, all the way to the bay where we stayed at the Marriot. Huge towers, beautiful room on the 24th floor with a balcony overlooking the city. Oddly enough, I bumped into friend Tim in the hotel as he was there for a conference. So cool.

Our friend Meredith's friend Dante got us rooms for a friends deal. They normally cost $260 a night, but only cost us $60 a night. Beautiful. After we settled into our rooms, we met up with Tim and wandered over to the new FIDM campus, where Amanda used to work (at the old campus, not the new one). Tim's wife Denise runs the place now, so she gave us a huge tour of the super-mega awesome campus. The place is unbelievable. And right next to Petco Park. We sat on the balcony overlooking the field for a bit before making our way over to a bar for drinks with old friends. Meredith came by, and we eventually made our way over to her friends place before calling it a night.

Wednesday, we slept in a bit, made our way over to Jamba Juice and Donut Haven for breakfast, then went to the zoo! So awesome, so nostalgic. We waltzed through Fern Canyon and ate breakfast, the pandas, the cats, the elephants. A whole mess of stuff. Later, we met up with Meredith and went over to Tom and Baron's for Game Night with the gang. Good times, Amanda spilled her cosmo all over herself. Ha!

Thursday, we got up even earlier and returned to the zoo for one last hurrah and goodbye. Damn, we hadn't been there in two years! Then we went back to FIDM to say hi to a bunch more people and get lunch with Amanda's old coworkers, which was really nice. Then we walked around Balboa Park (the damn botanical building was closed! closed on Thursdays! Aamnda was pissed!), then met up with Meredith one more time to say goodbye. From there, we bid the Diego Adieu and drove up to Costa Mesa to spend time with our great friends Tricia and Dave. Seriously, it's like we've all known each other from infancy. We grabbed some more In and Out Burger, then back home for chillaxin. They have a fab little bungalow on a cute little street. We even had our own bathroom!

Friday, Dave and Tricia had to work, so Amanda and I went for bagels and then to see Up in 3D. Great movie, and the 3Dness was very cool. Old Navy had a half off all Mens stuff, so I had to pick up some clothes. For dinner, we all went to this sushi place.

Saturday, we had planned to go to the La Brea Tarpits (not my idea), but luckily, Amanda and Tricia went shopping instead. Dave and I watched a Russian bootlegged copy of the new Star Trek movie, which was good and also fun, because of the pirates. We walked to Borders and bought zombie books. After dinner, they drove us to the airport for our return overnight flight. I didn't sleep, we got home to Cambridge at 6AM, and slept on and off for the day.

So, Friday was kind of a bummer because I wasn't feeling too good the whole day. I stayed home from work and slept off and on, and then I missed Amanda's coworker's birthday dinner and drinks. :(

Saturday, read for a bit from Bush's War by Bob Woodward. Not exactly poolside reading, but interesting stuff. I have an intense dislike for the Bush Admin, so it's good to get this perspective. Huge blunders were made by misguided people, but intentions were good. Does it matter?

We went to my parents' for a birthday BBQ. It was super fun, chicken, burgers, hotdogs, a big cake. With Ewan, we raced around in his fire truck, played with his train and new quilt for his big boy bed, played with the hose, and played on the exercise gazelle thingy in the basement. Back home, we did some quick birthday laundry, then hit the couch for birthday napping.

Sunday, Amanda went off to Hello, Dolly auditions (she's in the ensemble!) and I cleaned up and packed for our CA trip. I picked up Amanda after auditions, but it was a mess downtown. I had to drive down Boylston right as the Red Sox game ended and the crowds and cars hit the streets. We had to take Commonwealth Ave through Allston to get home due to Fenway traffic and the BU Bridge was closed off and packed with traffic.

We watched a bit of the Tony's. A whole lotta crap musicals based on TV shows and stuff you already knows. Bret Michaels of Poison, consumate douchbag, performed. This was a tighly knit opening number with no time to screw around. Bret, after performing, was bowing to the audience as everyone else hussled upstage. Micheals hit his stupid face right on the dropping scenery and his stupid hat came off and was left on stage. It was brilliant.

So, last night, after I'd gotten home from rehearsal, Amanda got a call from the PJ Game producer Jean. Amanda's in the ensemble! Hooray! I think she felt kinda bad about not getting cast, but I think they may have been taking longer than expected casting the show. So, good news!