Monday, June 11, 2007

Another pretty good weekend.

Friday night Jamie and I stayed in, are buffalo wings and watched "The Life Aquatic", which I'd never seen. It's definitely a Wes Anderson movie, and its certainly charming, but its a bit of a mess. At some point Anderson is going to need to move beyond the trick of having his characters deliver dialog in a flat and practiced manner, including non-sequiters regarding the unfortunate fate of various pets. What worked very well in his faux-Glass household somehow didn't work quite as well on the high seas.

Also, watched the first half of Superman III, which, if it did not feature Annette O'Toole, would be somewhere near the same level of unwatchability as Superman IV. Director Richard Lester clearly believes Superman can't be taken seriously as even an action film, and so heaps on slapschtick, beginning with the credits. Superman can be fun, but poor Richard Pryor is asked to play to the kiddies instead of his built in audience, and its just a poor, poor decision. You kind of feel bad for the guy.

Saturday we continued with Car Hunt 2007. The whole thing wound up with me picking out a Honda Element and taking on a car payment. Yes, the Honda Element is the boxy SUV/ mini-van. But it matches my needs, it fits my bulky frame, I can get the dogs into it with no problem, and it sort of looks like a Transformer.

Yes, it is blue. I pick it up Tuesday night.

Saturday night we headed to Pat's for his birthday party. Chatted with Amy C. and Billy Jo quite a bit. Billy made a great cake with peanut butter frosting, which sounds gross, but is actually really good. Also met Pat's mysterious brother. Jamie was droopy, so we headed home a bit early. And then i stayed up until 3:00 AM watching the 1994 film "Richie Rich" starring MacCaulay(sp?) Culkin. It wasn't a good movie, and it sadly lacked the robot maid, Irona, from the cartoon, but Butler Cadbury totally hooked up with Gloria's mom. So that was weird.

Sunday we returned to Threadgill's for breakfast and to meet cousin Sue, mom and Uncle Donald. Always good to see Uncle Donald, but I think I committed to visiting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with him next summer. That's fine. It's been 13 years since I've been up there.

Sunday night we met up with Carla Beth and her husband, David. They moved into a house down near Riverside and Congress, and its one heck of a place. I think if they keep the house as is, David could go totally Miami Vice villain, but he's going to need some Chinese jackets and a lot more swords on the walls. And henchmen.

Carla made some amazingly good pizzas from scratch and we sort of hung out in the kitchen. It's sort of remarkable, because I haven't seen much of Carla after she moved briefly to Kentucky and we relocated to Arizona, but some folks you've known so long you just sort of pick up where you left off.

Anyhow, Xander made no appearance as he'd already been put to bed for the night when we showed up. We'll catch up with that dude later.

A grand weekend, all in all.

Sometimes I reflect upon how much more full our weeks are here than in Arizona and I'm a bit stunned.

11 comments:

Steven said...

Congratulations on having picked out a new vehicle. I hear from other owners that one of the perks of the element is that you can literally hose it out. Knowing your dogs I believe this is a wise investment indeed.

But it's funny you should mention "da UP". I've recently been having detailed fantasies about going up there and finding a cabin and not coming back to civilization for a few weeks. I have a huge collections of books I'd like to read and some code I'd like to write and I think all that clean air and quiet might help.

Lemme know if you go UP ( ho ho ho ) !

The League said...

we'd be going up next summer, but if you're looking for a place to stay, let me know. I can ask my Mom (a UP native) if she can recommend any good places to crash. She's from the thriving metropolis of Negaunee, so that's the area I know best up there.

Jill said...

I'm always surprised at how much room is in those cars--you'll love it.
Also, if you are in Michigan and don't come visit, I will be quite sad.

The League said...

Oh, I'll come to K-Zoo. I have all sorts of plans to ruin all the work you're trying to do raising your kid right. I'm even going to get him a little flask and his own tin of dip.

Jill said...

Sweet. Y'all can kick it with your booze by the pool.

J.S. said...

Yeah. The desert's no place to live.

The League said...

Nobody lives in the desert. Jilly is in Kalamazoo. Where she dresses like an eskimo.

J.S. said...

I was referring to the fact that you said your weekends are more full in Austin than in Phoenix (although I'm not surprised to hear that Jill dresses like an eskimo up there in Michigan-crazy hippies).

Michael Corley said...

It's true Supes III is a icky movie. But as a child, that evil robot cyborg chick scared the pants off off me.

Anonymous said...

Tell Steven we have the perfect place to read and write in the U.P. Beautiful trees, nothing else except mosquitoes. Free lodging. No electricity or running water. Ryan loved it when little. Karebear

The League said...

Sadly, Karebear, Steven requires electricity to power his computer. But I am sure he would enjoy a day or two hanging out at camp.