5am, so that's, like an IMPROVEMENT, right?

Some miscellaneous thoughts, a grab bag if you will.

Saw HP4 yesterday afternoon with Numbah One Son. We sprinted right after school so I was able to get tickets with no problem.

Capsule review: The book was better (duh), but this was pretty good. I liked how they were able to condense a HUGE book into "only" 150 minutes. A lot of elements were summarily dispensed with and it was rather clever how the loose ends were tied up neatly. It was a nicer film to look at than HP3 (with its grainy, washed-out look) but some aspects still bother me. The kids wearing "regular" clothes is gonna look VERY dated when we revisit this film in, say, 2015.

So is Ron/Fred&George looking like they wanted to be in a remake of The Partridge Family. Given the time constraints, they weren't able to explore the Barty Crouch, Jr. thing as much as I would have wished, but whatever. I felt ripped-off at not seeing the Quidditch World Cup and the casting of Krum was WAY off. I'm also not thrilled with Michael Gambon's Dumbledore who looks like a 98 year old bearded lady hippie in her nightgown. It was a bit awkward to explain to my 8 y.o. son what "Piss off" means. But I liked how the Cedric angle was played (Cedric's dad comes off a LOT better than in the book). Not as bloody as I feared but VERY intense for kids. A little girl behind us spent the last 30 minutes in what seemed to be near-total psychological breakdown.

And Hermione Granger looked exactly like the sort of girl who would have shattered my heart when I was 16. (And kinda looks like the one who did.)

I give it 3 outa 4.

Then we came back home scrubbed quickly, decanted the offspring at grandparents and headed off for a lovely dinnah--I'll leave it to you to determine if I had more wine than I ought have--and civilized entertainment.

I can't get the song "Dancing In Berlin" out of my head, which had nothing to do with this evening's civilized entertainment.

Tomorrow I order the turkeys for Thanksgiving (2 12-14 pounders, Bell and Evans) for pickup on Tuesday. I promise the stuffing/dressing recipe. WARNING: If you like your stuffing/dressing with an edge of sweetness, you won't like this one, so save time and start bitching and moaning now, before the crowds do. I like my stuffing/dressing to be relentlessly savory (since others will be bringing that sweet potato thing with the marshmallows and some corn thing with added corn syrup, etc.) and yes, it involves making cornbread (southern-style, not northern-style) from scratch, which I'll probably start doing on Monday.

You will not see anything of me on Thursday, since I will be up starting at 6am and cooking the whole damned day through until dinner, late. (It's an Iberic thing, don't ask.)

Spent a good chunk of the morning on the phone with the lovely and gracious Poppy which is fun of which I avail myself entirely too little. If all works well, we shall get good and sick of seeing each other by mid-January by which point we will (God willing, knock wood, etc.) have loitered together for days on end thrice. Which is pretty impressive since they live something like 87 states away. We don't see childhood pals who live across the county line even remotely as often. Hell, TFBIM doesn't see her very bestest friend nearly as often and she lives 3 miles away. But that's what makes it a cool sort of friendship, never mind that EVERYONE gets along beautifully. And this is not being able to go to WDW together, which would have been even more serious fun. (Our kids' Spring Breaks don't coincide this year, and it looks like our kids will have their Spring Break truncated as a result of all the hurricane fun we have had.)

Poppy and I go off to one section and say the most appallingly obnoxious stuff, which tickles us, while TFBIM and TSMSM go off to another and converse like a teenagers-on-a-first-date Norman Rockwell painting. Poppy insists her husband is a bit shy and not that talkative, but my wife, quite literally, doesn't believe a shred of that. Poppy and I call them "The Adulterers." To top it off, our kids (Numbah One Son is a couple of months younger than Poppy's daughter--er, Poppette?) get along GREAT. To the extent that when Poppy and TSMSM had to attend a wedding in Key West, we babysat for the weekend. Try THAT with just anybody you met on the Internet.

After hanging out with TFBIM's pals, getting to spend not-inconsiderable-time with Poppy et Cie. is like coming in from a sweltering summer afternoon into an cool and refreshing room. So that's good.

Now I wanna see Chicken Little in 3D.

Oh, and for those of you who remember that far back, I am down 12 of the 15 lb. I wanted to drop, without much strain, either. This speaks well of trying to do it gradually and sustainably. And to do it during my busy season is even more encouraging. In fact, I think I may go on past the original 15 planned and see if I can get back to the shape I was in when I first issued offspring. It's been years since I saw my abs, and I miss those guys.

Can someone explain why it only rains on weekends?

From The Lah-dee-dah Dept.: I think I get to go to a Consular Ball in Feb. (Feb.? March?) which means white tie. Got word from a contact at the Spanish Consulate (which is about a mile from my house).

I have to go buy wine for Thanksgiving. Beaujolais Nouveau is seasonally convenient but red Zinfandel (is there any other kind?) is the thing. And Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic beer.
















I think want this watch, but I am not sure if I want it with the tourbillon or plain-faced.

-Joke