Weekend Recovery?

Man, I need another couple of days just to recuperate from the weekend.
Friday night was frantic, last minute cleaning for Noelle's family who were to come by Saturday after the bridal shower. Things were in pretty good shape, but there was still a fair bit to be done over the course of the evening and into the next day. I got finished up about -3 minutes before they were supposed to show up. Half an hour later they got here and oohed and ahed for a few minutes before heading back to the airport to catch their plane

Noelle and I then had a couple of hours before we had to head out to Oakland to see Cake and the Lovemakers, so we went over to see Amber (who evidently did a fabulous job organizing the shower, I wasn't there, as I'm, you know, a guy) and then over to the Pruneyard because all I could think to eat was Hobee's (mmm, Hi-hat Ommie). We then rushed off to Oak-town to the newly renovated Fox Theater where the Lovemakers and Cake were playing. OMFG, what a beautiful venue! It's an old movie theater from the twenties with sort of a faux middle eastern motif and the most beautiful ceiling. There's also a restaurant and bar on the ground floor, as it turns out, with a bunch of early 20th century switches and buttons from a telephone switching center or an electrical station or something. It turns out that at least at present they don't seem to have restrictions on photographing there, which makes me really anxious to show up and take a bunch of photos. We're supposed to go back next weekend for Video Games Live, so I will take a camera and some lenses if the opportunity provides. Oh, and Cake and the Lovemakers were both very entertaining. ;-)

Sunday we ended up hosting a surprising number of people for Rachel's all day "Good Star Trek Movie" marathon. That's II, III, IV,VI, and VIII for those of you watching at home. I probably would have added the first one, but it was already 12 hours of viewing as it was. I ate way too much of stuff that made my stomach angry at me. It's still angry. Anyway, it was great fun nerding out all day and hanging with our friends. But now I'm tired and have to go to work. Isn't this why I need a weekend?

Happy Friday the 13th!

(Don't go swimming at Crystal Lake.)

Excitement of the Day

So when Noelle goes off to work yesterday morning, she quickly comes back and tells me that the road is blocked off and that there's a police motorcycle at the other end of the street. She heads off the other way and I get a text saying there's a gas leak. Huh, I think. When _I_ go off to work, I notice that there is not one, but _three_ helicopters flying over the area. So when I get to work I google it and find out that there's a hazmat team just around the corner from my house! WTF? I then read that they've closed down Valley Medical Center's ER because of possible contamination of unknown kind from the site around the corner from my house because they brought a sick kid from there to the ER. WTF?!?!? It turns out that the helicopters are tv helicopters and I am watching surreal video like the one linked here. It was very weird because I could identify the houses in the helicopter shots. Eventually it turns out that the kid was sickened by Hydrogen Sulfide, which while bad, is certainly not the end of the world. The cops are still unsure as to where it came from.

They Also Walk the Line

Until I saw Walk the Line for the first time tonight, I did not realize how crazily Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story stole from it.

Coraline

A bunch of us went out last Friday to see the Premiere of Coraline in 3D at the local theater. I felt like crap, as I appear to be recovering from _another_ frickin' cold. I was tired and cranky and ill prepared to wait in line for 45 minutes, but I did anyway.

It was worth the wait. I hadn't read Neil Gaiman's story of a bored little girl whose disinterested parents move her away from her Michigan home to darkest Oregon. Her neighbors are weird and/or irritating and her life is generally annoying. At one point she travels through the Other World in a dream, which is like the real world, only cooler. She has an Other Father and an Other Mother who are just like the parents she wishes she would have, other than having buttons for eyes. Everything there is odd, but super cool. But then things start going awry...

Anyway, I have not read the story upon which the movie is based, but I was thoroughly entertained for the hour and forty minutes or so it ran. One of the better movies I've seen in a while.