Thursday, June 30, 2005

I guess it didn't hurt


Apparently it hasn't hurt the movie (War of the Worlds made like 21 Million dollars in day 1 - and it was a week day). But I think Tom has gone, if I may quote myself, bat-shit crazy.

Don't get me wrong. He is still pretty (in that pysco you can't get rid of way), but with the Katie Holmes and the Scientology and the lack of a sense of humor .. well he kind of put me off.

That, and Dakota Fanning. I mean how many times can we watch bug-eyes before we want to scream at the screen. Yes, da' a-lee-anz is awful scary. I mean couldn't she just have been eaten or smushed or what ever the aliens do to little girls with big saucer eyes.

Well, it won't be on the top of my list. But my list still includes Mr. and Mrs. Smith - so I am a little behind the times.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Well, LA looks horrible

It was a wet winter and a BEAUTIFUL spring.

And now it is July, and every hill is covered in brown yucky weeds and kindeling. It isn't pretty.

The hills on my way to work still have the plastic rain wrap on them. It is now faded and tearing. The temporary fences are still there, but kind of tilted. It is really depressing.

And Eddie is leaving for a month on Friday - that may be effecting my mood a little.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

ARGGGG!

Big companies put so many little roadblocks in your path it is amazing that anything gets done. But I will not dwell on this. Nay, I will turn from this and move forward.

Let me trash Batman Begins (which in some macbre way I REALLY enjoyed) instead.

1) Why does one build a Fireworks Factory at the top of a mountain training camp for Ninjas?

2) It's "The Dark Knight" not the invisible Knight. I paid good money to see the movie - for goodness sake, turn on klieg light somewhere.

3) Liam Nieseen apparently wandered in from a 1968 Kung Fu Movie - with his old Star Wars script (not a good combo).

4) One minute, Gotahm City - turn corner, go down one level (Lower Wacker for the Chicago-ans) and you are in the 6th circle of hell.

5) Take the laundry in. It's not going to dry in the RAIN.

6) How does Wayne Manor sit over a giant cave full of bats, just outside Gotham City, on the Underground Railroad (right - "You're old Great Great Grandadday help free the slaves") AND somehow in the middle of the English countryside. That is one big estate.

7) Poor poor Katie Holmes. She just can't choose between Dawson, Pacey or Bruce Wanye.

8) Pretty wossie villian (although cute in a way-too-gay way).

9) Okay - if you are going to have fight scenes - show them. If you are going to make the point that Batman appears out of nowhere to win - okay. Then it is a quick fight scene. You can't do both. You can't have a fight scene that last 15 minutes of screen time with 12 "Batman drops from roof and overpowers killer" clips.

10) Okay - if we let you have that stupid fight scene once, please do not have have 4 of them intersperses thorugh-out the film.

11) And, maybe this is just me, why did they have the Line dancing Ninja fight scene in the Fireworks factory at all?

All in all, Lynn and I walked out making fun of it, and Eddie liked it. On the other hand - I enjoyed the movie - but it wasn't great.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Sports (sorry Lisa)


Well, San Antonio beat Detroit for the NBA Title. For those of you who don't know - let me explain.... no it takes too long... let me sum up - we don't have to watch steriodal homicidal jerks with too many tatoos fight with fans in the stands for another 6 months.

So, on to sports with cute men. Tennis. Rafi lost in Wimbolden. That is fine. It was his first time there and one of his few times on grass. No worries. He'll be back. So that leaves us with only Roddrick to vote for. A nice American guy.

Wait... what's that I hear. our little Llyeton has recovered from his injury and is playing again? And just won his 3rd round in straight sets. Yeah!

Go Bruins.

Cynical -

I know it isn't me. Really, I know it.

In the 1960's our government (Democratic with LBJ and Republican with Nixon) so lied to us, that a generation of American's grew up not believing a word they say.

Since then - the assumed epitome of political lying bastards - we have grown cautiously more believing in our pulbic officials - until the last 10 years.

Republican's belief that all politicians were liars (or at least all Democrats) was burned into their brains with the "I did not have sex with that woman". It hit those of us on the left hard as well.

This administration, with it's weapons of mass destruction, Mission Accomplished, Gitmo is like living in the Tropics (really - see the quote from yesterday from Dick "Smiling/Lying" Cheney on CNN). Has clubbed any belief that politicians tell the truth right out of me.

This was driven like a knife into my head yesterday when the news showed two stories back to back.

In the first Donald Rumsfield told Congress that the administration had never been optomistic in it's run up to the war.

In the second the Chinese government said that if it did take over Unocal (America's 9th largest oil company - based in California) that is would not cut the 3,200 jobs in California.

I believed the Chinese more than my Secretary of Defense. And, you know what, I KNOW the Chinese weren't being fully truthful.

I refuse to worry my pretty little blond head about it anymore. As Mary Carey (the Triple EEE cup porn star) recently said after attending a Republican fundraise with her "producer" and the President of the USofA- "If you hang out with criples long enough you begin to limp. I want to hang out with Republicans and get rich. "

A girl, a party of pimps and a dream.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Hi! I'm the Bat-shit Crazy representative from Texas!

Do people still say bat-shit crazy - or was that all so very 1969. In any case, today's example of bat-shit crazy is Tom "I am not a crook" Delay.


First the disclaimers. 1) I supported going into Iraq (yes I was lied to - but too late to turn back time). 2) I don't think we should leave the Iraqis in the lurch by just storming for the exits like JIm Carrey fans at a surprise sneak of a Ron Howard film. But 3) I don't think we should blame the media.



Tom "IANAC" Delay believes that the Iraq is really no worse that Houston. Swear to gawd.



DeLay offered this response: "These things take time and they take a long time, and some people get weary of the constant barrage that we see in the media.


"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said.


"And if you took that as the image of what is a great city that has an incredible quality of life and an incredible economy, it's amazing to me. Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening there.


"Everybody that comes from Iraq is amazed at the difference of what they see on the ground and what they see on the television set."

Of course if you follow his adivce Go to Iraq. You might want to first visit the State Department page on Travel Warnings for Iraq. It notes " The Department of State continues to strongly warn U.S. citizens against travel to Iraq, which remains very dangerous. Remnants of the former Baath regime, transnational terrorists, and criminal elements remain active. Attacks against military and civilian targets throughout Iraq continue. Targets include hotels, restaurants, police stations, checkpoints, foreign diplomatic missions, and international organizations and other locations with expatriate personnel. These attacks have resulted in deaths and injuries of American citizens, including those doing humanitarian work. In addition, there have been planned and random killings, as well as extortions and kidnappings. U.S. citizens have been kidnapped and several were subsequently murdered by terrorists in Iraq. U.S. citizens and other foreigners continue to be targeted by insurgent groups for kidnapping and murder. "

Just like Houston.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Jane Drives ont eh wrong side of the road

Jane, our good friend from England, has a house in Florida, so she is used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Well to us it is the right side of the road (even though you drive from the left side of the car - but let's move on).

Well, she and Lisa went to Italy for a Wedding. So Jane rented a car.

Unfortunately the car was a stick shift. So know she is in the wrong side of the car, and has to shift to drive. Ed and I love this. It is so Mario Andretti circa 1979, but Jane doesn't really enjoy it. She is a little nervious.

But she does well. She gets the hang of it. Then she must stop at the top of a steep hill and wait. She does what many of us to in this situation when we can't use the clutch, the brake and the gas all at once. She grabs the parking brake and pulls up.

And promptly calls completely bad in her seat. Turns out, the parking brake is also on the other side of the car. She pulled the seat recliner. She recovered, but I can only imangine that it was a rather frigthening moment.

In other news: Don (Ed's step dad) is in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer. He should be okay, but he collapsed in the middle of no-where (100 miles from Duluth - I thought Duluth was - lieterally - the middle of no-where, but I was wrong). Anyway, he is in the hospital now and he is doing good. Everyone wait until he is out of the hospital to yell at him.

Grampa Don

Monday, June 20, 2005

And now for something completely diffferent

Not really, but I don't have a title for this post and the title "Waiting for my dasmn e-mail to transfer from New York to my hard drive" makes it seem that I don't love you all. And I do, all you lovely lovely people - out there in the dark (best Norma Desmond impression).

So, we are back from the UK. We had a wonderful time. We went down to Dorset, we went to Bewley (Beauli - I think is how it is spelt, but Bewley is how it is pronounced (and yes, spelt is a word missy)). It was fun. It is a manor house and all that.

We saw Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGreggor and Jan Krokowski. Totally rocked! And we saw Billy Elliot, which almost totally rocked. It missed the fifth star because no one screamed "Dance Billy! Dance!" as they clearly needed to.

We had dinners with Jane, Gill and Tony, Lisa, Laura, Dan, Gareth and Barbara and the kids (Rebecca, David and Gary).

All in all it was fabulous. I will give more info later.

Scooter

Sunday, June 12, 2005

No Jinx

Well, we are here in Merry Olde England. So far it has been great weather (Jinx - as I said that, a cloud passes by). We ate great Indian last nght - as you do. today we are going down to Dorset with Jane to hike a little and hang out. We are going to a couple of shows in town this week - and generally having fun.

Stevie is suppose to land in London Thursday, so we'll have a bite and a pint with him I think on Thursday night.

It's nice to be out of town and away from work for a while - so probably few updates. Happy Spring.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Oh - no!

Before we get to the big "oh no!", the pyschie-scaring "oh no!", I will say that I wasn't at work today. I haven't been feeling good, and I am trying to get over of it before England. So if you sent a note, I will respond tomorrow.

Okay --- onward.
I don't know if you remember, but the 1972 Slymar earthquake was horrible. It dropped an overpass (which fell in the 94 Northridge quake too), knocked down an old folks home and almost broke the Chatsworth damn. I was in 7th grade, but was home sick that day.

I had been home sick for a while. I was coughing, not feeling good and - as my mother and Eddie can atest - whining. I tend to whine whent I am sick.

I slept through the Slymar quake because my father, having tried every kind of cough surup on the market was at wit's end. He needed a night's rest and could not get it. So he gave my half a sleeping pill. I forget the name of them. I mean the real name. My dad's friends referred to them as red devils - but there was some legal name too.

I tell this to people, and they are always amazed how horrible my dad was. Well, he was - but not due to this. It was the first good night of sleep I had in weeks.

This story pops to my mind today because, today, I am the bad father.

Today we got the dog's hair cut. They look great and all, but Hastings has a nick or something. He is obsessed - as only animals and Ed (when Matthew McCounehy is on the back lot) can. So he was scratching himself silly (Hastings, not Ed). He wouldn't stop. Sometimes when we "worries" like this he can scratch and bite all the way down to blood.

So Ed suggested half a Xanex - with is for anxity attacks. I thought it was a great idea. But I was a little foggy, I stayed home from work because I haven't been feeling good (see it wraps in a nice bow). So when he said half a Xanex, I got one.

Well, he ment a 1/4 of a Xanex, as when I occiasionally take them for anxity I only take a half - so he meant 1/2 of a 1/2. But my head is foggy. So I gave my poor pup 5mg of Xanex.

He's not scratching now. He is sleeping with a little smile on his face. And he wouldn't feel an earthquake either.

.
.
.
You know, in thinking about this now, my mom once gave a little yappie poodle (Toots' dog - we really shoulda given it to Toots, but that's around story) 1/2 a librium wrapped in ground beef because he wouldn't stop whining. The little dog was fine after that - and it was a better visit.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Week-end

It was a fun week-end. Bradley came down on a cheap flight at the last minute, so we got to play with him for a while.

We all went to a party on Canyon, that Todd-AO's boyfriend through. Amazing yard and house. Mike has redone the whole house and it was very cool. Lots of people I haven't seen in a long time. One is Chris, and she has twins. Who are 8! Wow. I guess it has been a while since I have seen her.

Eddie and I watched the finals of Tennis on Sunday. I know tennis can be dull, but the finals were amazing. It was really really fun.

We played a lot of cards, went to the Virgin Megastore, and generallyhad fun. It is a short-ish week for me. Eddie and I are going to England this week-end for a short break. It will be nice to see everyone. And, apparently, it is birthday week in the UK!

Friday, June 03, 2005

Go Rafi - Updated

Rafael Nadal is playing Federer today for a spot in the French Open finals. In equal parts, I like Rafi andI dislike Federer (a pompous Swiss-y, who has a silly name "-erer"). And Rafael is the only guy who plays him close. It should be / was a good game. Go Rafi.



ESPN Story

Updated at 12:55. AND HE WINS. I saw part of it at the gym. Good for him. He's not pretty. And I do hate his capri shorts, but he plays a mean game of tennis.


Thursday, June 02, 2005

LIAR!

So Eddie and I watched this horrible ABC show yesterday, Dancing with the Stars. It was tacky and funny - but then they really blew it. If you have show on Tivo, you should check.

So they train six "stars" (apparently Trista from the Bachelorette is a star, along with JJ Peterman from Sienfield, but that's not the piont) to dance ball room dancing. Okay. They practice for 5 weeks, then they compete.

After next week one star gets donked weekly.

Well they talk to all the stars in little interviews, and there is this General Hospital actress, who CLEARLY does not want to be part of this. I think somebody bailed on them right before the show. Here's the rub, during the dance, she was great. Great. She got the worst score.

One more guilable than I, might chalk this up to differences in scoring.

Well, the final dancers go. Trista is fine. Then the announcer (the America's Funniest Video guy), totally screws up. He says, "So it's tied with 3 teams at 20 points, 2 teams with 18 points and one team with just 13." Interesting, since at that moment the final team's score hadn't been delivered yet.

This was a live show (they kept promoting that) which told you the final standings before the scores were enterred. After the break, scores were given.

AMAZINGLY, Trist and her partner got 18. Which put them in a tie for second. With 3 teams in first.

As Charles Laughton said to Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution, LIAR!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Mascot for June

Yes, we have a new mascot, King Julian. It is side-kick month. Eddie, Lynn and I saw Madagasgar and it was okay. But the whole movie came to life with the Penquins and the Lemurs. And King Julian, with his big wave, his fans and his bigger than life personna - well he just reminds you of Eddie after a couple three beers.


Go see it and you will see what I mean.

And, I know, there was no May Mascot. It could be that Matthew McC was cute enough for two months. Or I was lazy. Ot that the planned mascot got married right before the month start and I was in no mood to reward his bad judgement.

And, just so you all know, we have not slid down any hills. Laguna Beach is way far away.