New Apartment Tour!

Ok, it only took three months (or so), but here it is. We finally got enough stuff unpacked, put away and cleaned up that I felt OK putting it on video. One of the side effects of having family come to visit is the apartment gets cleaned!

Mom's Birthday

Ok, so I realize that my mom's birthday is in March, and it is now June, but sometimes it just takes a little while for my family to get its shit together. In any case, we got together this weekend for Mom's birthday dinner. My sister Jackie and her husband came down from Boston (had a "fun" trip on AirTran - odd, Chrissy and I have had nothing but good experiences with them), and we picked them up from BWI on Saturday. We got to show them the new place (I think they liked it). My other sister Gail came up with her family from southern MD and met us at Mom's. My aunt Yoko (Mom's sister) flew up from Alabama on Saturday, and her daughter Sandra picked her up. That part was a surprise. We had originally planned on making the whole thing a surprise, but it became too complicated to organize without coming out and asking Mom direct questions, so we just told her what we were doing. In the course of planning, I realized that no one had mentioned Yoko & Sandy (& Sandy's b/f Paul) being there, so we decided to keep that part a secret.

We went to an Annapolis restaurant called Viet-Thai Paradise. It was incredible! The manager, Lyon (pronounced "Leon"), was so helpful getting everything set up with us and planning the menu. Yoko & Sandy showed up about 15 minutes early and brought balloons for Mom's chair. We started with a champagne toast of Chateau Ste Michelle. For the appetizer, they brought out four Combination appetizer trays consisting of Chicken Satay, Lemongrass Beef Skewers, Spring Rolls, Coconut Shrimp and Garden Salad. For entrees, we had Pad Thai (Mom's favorite dish there), Special Fried Rice (with shrimp, pork & crabmeat), Chicken Curry and Bangkok Ka Prow (sautéed pork & veggies). There were a few 33's (a Vietnamese beer), some Toasted Head Viognier and, of course, a few rounds of sake. Kampai! (A Japanese toast - pronounced 'cahm-pie'). Most everyone had dessert there, but a few of us went to Maggie Moo's after! I had a hot fudge sundae (better batter ice cream with Reese's Cups and Kit Kats mixed in) in a waffle bowl. Uuummmmmy!!

If you think life couldn't get any better, think again. On Sunday, we went to Gail & John's place down in St. Mary's. We hung out & chatted. Mom made us gyoza (Japanese pork dumplings). We went out on the water on their little (12' or so) power boat. We had some Grolsch and some Ferrari Carano Merlot. My bro-in-law John, who is a chef, made some ribeye steaks and shrimp stuffed with crab imperial. We finished off the day with cigars from the new shop (Titan Cigar) that opened up across the street from the apartment. Add to all that a loving family and Gail's two adorable puppies (Lady & Penny), and you got a hell of a weekend!

The First Saturday in May

Sunday night, Chrissy and I attended a screening at SilverDocs, a documentary film festival at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. The movie was The First Saturday in May, and it is about the Kentucky Derby (which, coincidentally, takes place the first Saturday of every May). We had seen the movie at the Barbaro gathering at Delaware Park [link] back in April, but much of it we saw on the Jumbotron out in the middle of the track and it wasn't too easy to see it or hear it from that far out. It is a much different experience seeing it in a theater. It is a wonderful movie, even if you're not an avid horse race fan.

The Hennigan Brothers (the filmmakers, whom we met both at DE Park and at AFI) stated that their ideal purpose in making this movie was to make horse racing cool again. Back in the day (sorry Roon), the track was the place to be. Thousands upon thousands of people came out to see Seabiscuit take on War Admiral. Unfortunately, through OTBs, internet gambling sites and Hollywood stereotypes, the track has lost some of its luster. Will you see some interesting and, yes, sad characters if you go to the race track? Naturally. Is it the kind of seedy dump that you see in some movies, like Let It Ride? Of course not. Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, and as they say, comedy isn't funny if there isn't a grain of truth in it. But I am able to distinguish the difference between a character in a movie and a real live person, an ability I'm sad to say many people don't possess.

But I digress. The movie follows six hopefuls on their road to the Kentucky Derby. Some of them made it, some of them didn't. What made it interesting was the personalities behind the effort, both the horses and the trainers. One of the horses they followed was the 2006 Derby winner Barbaro. Naturally, they couldn't just ignore what happened after the Derby, but I thought they handled it very well. They didn't show his actual breakdown at the Preakness. They didn't dwell on his death. They did mention his little brother Nicanor, who was born March 15, 2006.

In any case, keep an eye out for this film. It's definitely worth a look. I don't know if they're going to show it anywhere at any other festivals or if it will get picked up for wide release (I doubt it). They are planning on releasing it eventually on DVD. Wake the children, phone the neighbors, tell a friend.

Viking Kittens

Viking Kittens!! God, I love the internet! A few thoughts. 1) Who the hell thinks of these things? Some dude named Joel Veitch, I guess. 2) I wonder if he used pictures of his own kitties. 3) Only the insane, pharmaceutically-fueled genius of Robert Plant & Jimmy Page could come up with a kick-ass rock song about Vikings on the high seas and make it cool. 3a) The same genius is the only way they could work the term "threshing oar" into a rock song. Love it! 4) What made Joel hear this song and think, "Hmmm... Kitties..."? 5) I'm far too easily amused.

The List

Hmmm... I may have to bump Jessica Alba up on my List. In case you never watched Friends, when Ross & Rachel were originally together, it came up that they each had a List of five celebrities. These were people with whom they were allowed to sleep, consequence-free, in the unlikely event that they ever had the opportunity. My List has been fairly stable for quite a while (in no particular order): Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Actually, J-Lo, Salma & Angelina have been pretty steady at the top, Halle & Catherine have sometimes rotated around in & out of the Top 5, depending on what they're doing and who my flavor o' the month is. For instance, when Ashley Judd was in Double Jeopardy, she probably bumped out CZ-J for a time. When Alias was in its final season, Jennifer Garner may have risen to the Top 5. Given this latest development, should it turn out to be true and not just a publicity stunt for FF2:RotSS, she may move up in the world. Ok, so she's far too young (though not 12, like Chrissy thinks) and not a great actress (but not terrible). I'm a guy. Sue me.

Big Love

Season 2 premiere was on last night. Man, I forgot how good this show is. For those not in the know, Big Love is about a Utah businessman Bill Henrickson, played by Bill Paxton, who is a fundamentalist Mormon. As such, he believes that family (and by extension, plural marriage) is the key to heaven. He has three wives, Barbara, Nikki and Margie, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin respectively. Together, they have several children (six? seven?) and live in three houses that share one backyard.

For the most part, the Henricksons are a fairly normal family (apart from the 3 wives/mothers). They worry about money. They wonder if their family can stick together when they're hit with hard times. They worry about what the neighbors think (though perhaps not for the same reasons many others do). Individually, he has fairly normal relationships with his wives. Except for the fact that he rotates nights between houses and between beds. And, of course, the dynamic of the hierarchy between 1st, 2nd and 3rd wives is always interesting.

If you have HBO, enjoy good writing and subtle performances, check it out. It's worth a look.

Hogging Bandwidth

Ok. I did a little more investigating on this bandwidth thing. One of the things that kept being mentioned in this work memo was digital pictures. I was checking my email last night when I got home and noticed two emails I had gotten earlier (Yahoo shows the size of the email files). One was a 4-line response from a comment I had left on a friend's blog. That was 3k. The next email was from Chrissy's cousin Denise, who just got married. It had ten digital pictures from the wedding attached. Ten. That's it. That email was 4,631k. Now, multiply that by all the attorneys, secretaries and other support staff in our firm. Add to that music files, streaming audio, movie clips etc. That's a big difference in bandwidth. I guess I can see their point... Dammit.

Oops...

Well, I got a pop-up on my computer the other day at work. I contacted our Help department and was told that it was a new program being tested. The gist of it was that it looked like they were going to start limiting internet usage on the work computers. Needless to day, I got a little miffed. I got the actual memo from IT today, though, and it's a little more reasonable. Basically, people have been hogging bandwidth by downloading pictures, music and videos or by listening to streaming music and watching videos. So we all have to play nice or no one gets to play at all. That I can live with. Once I read that, I felt bad. I have been listening to streaming radio and do watch the occasional movie trailer. Eeee.

Beat Box Boy

Well... as much as I like Blake, I don't think he's going to be able to win. People are just so enamored of Jordin that I don't think he can beat her. I think he's a better performer and he's got a very good voice, but ultimately, I think her voice is better and that's where people will put their votes. It's a shame. Neither one really should win. Melinda should be the winner. But, alas, it was not meant to be. In any case, Blake will be fine. I'm guessing, much like Chris Daughtry last year, Blake will outsell Jordin on their first albums.

Season Finales

Smallville - Good, but the whole Bizarro Clark felt a little bit forced. I had no problem with the phantom wraith stealing Clark's DNA and making an evil twin, but the "bizarre" reference and subsequent rock-face change felt odd. Someone brought up a good point - why is it every meteor freak, stranded Kryptonian and Clark doppelganger can figure out how to fly in about 2.5 seconds, but Clark (who, by the way, was introduced in Season 1, episode 1 hovering above his sheets accidentally flying in his sleep) can't? But I digress. Does anyone really think Lana is dead? No. Lionel is possible, but I seriously doubt it. Same for Chloe. I really hope Chloe isn't, because I really like her. I'd rather seen Lana bite it before her. But in any case, Erica Durance (Lois) has already stated in an interview that Chloe's not really dead.

Supernatural - Can't really comment on it, since we haven't watched the 2-part finale yet. Chrissy never wants to watch Supernatural during dinner because of the unexpected carnage that can happen at any moment on that show. Then, once dinner's over, we're usually in to whatever is on that night. I'm sure it kicked ass. It always does. I'm jacked that I just got the first season off of eBay, too. Can't wait to watch that, too.

Heroes - I was a little let down. But really, as good as the rest of the season was, how could I not be? It didn't really feel like the end of a chapter, as they promised. It felt closer to just another episode cliffhanger. I'm sure Peter's not dead, since he has Claire's power. Matt & DL probably aren't dead, since they showed both of them alive. Sylar certainly doesn't appear dead, since there was the blood trail leading in to the sewer. Not a very big battle royale. My biggest problem, though, was that the entire final scene didn't match what Peter had foreseen. It was at night, on the plaza in front of the building and Claire was in plain clothes. Every time Peter had a vision or there was any reference to the events all season, it was daytime in the middle of the street (deserted) and Claire was in her cheerleader uniform. I'm sure there were many other discrepancies, too. Maybe the writers did it intentionally to show that "the future isn't written in stone" or something, but it just felt a bit rushed. Almost like they filmed the first half of the season thinking that they wouldn't last and the event they were building up to was irrelevant, because they would only have time for half a season before they were cancelled. Then, oops. The show was a hit. So they wrote the second half of the season on the fly and tried to make it decent. Except it was far more than decent right up until last night. Then it kind of... deflated. Another continuity error - when Nikki knocks out Candice (who was casting the illusion that she looked like Jessica), Candice reverts back to her regular appearance. In the previous episode, though, Candice admitted to Micah that she didn't look like that and implied (through what she said and the fact that she was eating french fries and potato chips the entire episode) that she was at least somewhat overweight. I know, I'm a geek. Anyhow, I still enjoyed the majority of the episode more than 90% of television out there, but it was just a bit of a letdown. Oh, and am I the only one who thinks Hiro is Kensai, the legend about whom he grew up reading?

24 - Kicked ass, as usual. I was glad no one else died. I was sure when Bill Buchanan went to help Jack out that he would get killed. Chrissy and I both knew right away when Chloe passed out that she was pregnant. I'm glad she & Morris made up. They're good together. Let's just hope he can stay off the sauce. Nadia is so hot. I was also glad that Bill & Karen aren't going to wind up in the slammer. They did what was right. Josh is so totally Jack's kid. He looks nothing like his "dad" and Jack obviously had something with Marilyn (another hottie!) before she married Graem. Jack's dad is still alive, too, I'm sure. It goes back to the old comic book axiom - if you don't actually see them die in front of your eyes, they're not dead. One problem, though - all the loose ends! What happened to Palmer? What about Charles Logan? What about Martha Logan and Aaron Pierce? It's all good, though.

We'll see what happens on the finale of Idol tonight & tomorrow night. Go Blake!! Oh, and Lost tomorrow night.