Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

So as part of our AFI Top 100 movie screening, last night Chris, Holly, Shannon and I watched Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Initially we were kind of critical since it seem just "beat you over the head" USA is good political, but as it moved on it turned into a really good.

I saw a lot of parrells between this movie and the way things happen today. How large corporations control the vast majority of the media, and how things that may be important can be santized or ignored completly because they may be detremental to the company presenting the information. Not that I'm a huge fan of laws and govermental control, but there is something to be said for having a lot of little companies in the media rather then just a few very large ones that are subsets of an even larger company...

Anyways, it was a very good movie and worth a watch when you get a chance.

I forgot to mention this...

But the other day when I was folding laundry, I found a quarter at the bottom of the laundry basket, so I put it in the middle of the coffee table. Apprently, Gracie found the coin fascinating and she came down from her perch on the couch, snuck around the back side of the table, and quick got up and grabbed the money off of the table.

It was very funny...apprently our kitties aren't just greedy with thier food (espically tuna), but are so with money too...(*hides wallet*).

:-)

Things!

So it snowed this morning, I spent about an hour cleaning off the walks and driveway. Not to bad. Then I spent an hour on the phone doing some support...so then I was late for work...but since I spent an hour working at home I don't really consider it late at all.

The kittys have decided that I'm a good place to sleep. Usually they'll sleep on/around Shannon, so it's a new experience for me. I don't much like it. Even though Shannon usually takes the vast majority of the covers, I'm still covered and with that comforter on there...quite warm. Adding the kittys, which is like adding a personal heater, is just to much...several times so far, I've woken up in the middle of the night, got the kittys off and then threw the covers off just to cool down...

This weekend I get to meet Shannon's Co-workers and bosses in a social setting. this should be interesting. DJ Swamp is also playing here in town, so Hopefully I'll be able to see him too...although there will be some overlap between the show and the Christmas Party, I hope not so much that I miss DJ Swamp...the opening acts...although i'd like to see, I'm fine missing...

I feel really good

I dunno....the cable's out at home (my webcam hasn't updated it's picture since 4:30 AM). I got lots of work to do. The music playing is a good mix. But I just feel really good right now....even if I have to do laundry tonight.

Centro and Cats

So we initially were going to go have dinner at La Mie, but apprently they are not open for dinner on Saturday Nights, so instead we headed downtown and went to Centro. We got there, without reservations, and even though there were many many empty tables, they made us wait for about a half an hour. So we sat at the bar. I had a beer, Shannon had a coke, and we chatted while we waited, and I complained about all the empty tables and apprently none for us.

After about 30 minutes, we got to sit down.

We ordered an appitizer of fried calamari and it was pretty good (I've had some better and a lot worse). It was Shannon's first experience with calamari (squid) and she liked it, but she didn't think that she would like it if it weren't lightly breaded and had a dipping sauce to go with it.

Then we got our "Centro" salads, which were: Italian greens, toasted pecans, shaved red onion and Gorgonzola cheese tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. I really enjoyed it. Shannon didn't much like the cheese. The vinaigrette was quite tasty, I thought.

Then came our dinners. Shannon had a Lobster Ravioli and I had a Veal Marsala (mmm baby cow). I had some of Shannon's ravioli, and it was quite good, the insides were very creamy and the taste was very good. My Veal Marsala was good. Not great, but good. The veal was a little tougher then I thought it should be but the sauce was very good. One of my comments to Shannon was that I thought that I could understand why people liked mushrooms so much, although I still don't think I could eat mushrooms by themselves.

During dinner, I had a couple of glasses of wine, a Syrah (good) and a Zinfandel...The Zinfandel was actually quite good, it was called "Seven Deadly Zins", silly name, good taste.

Afterwards, we headed down to the Civic Center to watch Cats. I learned a lot of things about Cats and how it was based on the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Shannon really enjoyed herself, and the musical was pretty good I suppose, for not having a real plot. I don't see why it's so popular. But Shannon had a good time, so that's what matters.

Afterwards, we headed home, I saw that Stam Gellatarie was still open, but Shannon just wanted to go home, so we did.

It's Christmas Time I suppose

So after Shannon got home from work yesterday, we setup the Christmas things that we have. The tree is qiute a bit wider then I think we thought it would be and now takes up a sizable chunk of the living room. It looks pretty good.

The LED lights look good, blue and white as they are. We could've gotten diffrent colors but that is the theme that shannon is going for. We certainly don't have as many ornaments as my parents, but we've got a good start and many years to collect them.

We tried to put the tree in a corner, but my efforts to move the etertainment center proved very fruitless, and so it'll stay in front of the middle window. It allows for the people outside to see it too, when we have the shade raised. This morning we were treated to a very beautiful sunrise out that window (since it hasn't been open since it creates so much glare in the room).

We hung the stockings, including the kitty paws stockings.

All the new things and movement and boxes made the kittys curious and George extra curious. So we had to keep chasing him out of the room.

Christmas is still a ways away...but we're getting prepared.

Chicken Soup for Thanksgiving...

Well last night, Shannon came down with the flu that I had on Monday. It seems to be following the same path that mine did. Where first comes the puking, then the chills, then out the other end...So she's past the chills now. I think...

But it sort of killed our plans for Thanksgiving and our parents meeting for the first time too.

I feel bad, cause when I called my mom to tell her we're not coming, apprently Emily's family isn't going either, so...instead of having a small army, they're probably gonna 7 people or so...I was looking forward to seeing my family and nieces and nephews....and the food of course.

So Since we're not going, Shannons' parents felt that it would be a little awkward without us, so they're not going either (even though my mom specifically said that they were more then welcome).

All I really wanna do is take care of my girl though...I don't think it'd really feel like thanksgiving without her...even though this is our first thanksgiving together.

This weekend will be busy even if we didn't go home, Shannon works tomarrow and Saturday, tomarrow she already stated that she wants to get the christmas stuff up...(since I specifically banned any of it going up before thanksgiving). Saturday, we're going to Cats (if shannon feels better), so that should be fun (at least I hope so). If not, we're gonna have to find someone to get the tickets too...

So we've got chicken soup for dinner.

Hopefully next year will be better. Maybe we'll have to plan some other time to get the familys together...

Oh yeah

Today I was supposed to help Nathan move an air hockey table that he was buying into his mini-van. I feel bad that I didn't help him, cause I said I would, but he understood. Which is good, cause I got sick one more time after he called...

The busy weekend

I'm feeling a bit better and haven't gotten sick for about 2.5 hours and have kept down the water and apple juice that I've had. So here goes...

Thursday night we headed over to Chris and Pat's to watch The Twilight Samurai.

Over there was Chris and Holly, Pat, Jen, Dusty and some other people...my memory is being fuzzy right now...

Anyways, it was a pretty good movie, Shannon said that she was getting into it. There were a couple of times that I wanted to go MST3K on it, but I didn't really do it.

Friday night, I apprently can't read, so, we went to Fire in the Sky, but in doing so, we only caught the tail end of the parade. We wandered around the East Villiage and went into a few shops and looked at things. Somethings were quite reasonable, others were a bit insane, although I suppose for the quality of the work and the hand labor, it's to be expected... I think my favorite store of the night was Kitchen Collage, which was basically a kitchen store with upper end stuff. So many things. I ended up buying a all metal cheese slicer (wire still, I'd still like one that is not a wire one) and a magazine. I think I was the only one to actually buy something. I did, however, find out that one of my credit cards was missing, and apprently wasn't returned when we bought some presents at Valley West Mall. This made me annoyed.

The fireworks which I though would end several times (This has got to be the finale, oh...nope...). It was fun to watch and we were all looking up in the sky, being cold.

Afterwards, we headed to Chris's car and on the way ran into Dusty's Parents (I've never met them before, I think), we then loaded (Chris, Holly, Pat, Shannon and myself) into Chris' car and we headed back to my house. They were going to grab some wood from my wood pile, but apprently their fireplace is much smaller then the wood in my wood pile, so they headed over to Chris's and I sat down and called to cancel my card.

15 minutes on Hold, 2 minutes to cancel....yippie...anyways after checking online, I didn't see any fraudulent charges, so it made it pretty easy.

We headed over to Chri's and Pat's. We watched Four Rooms, since Shannon hadn't seen it, and then we played Scene It. Shannon's really good at this game. I got one or two that she didn't know, but for the most part it was all her. I usually knew them, but through the dusty fog that is my brain, I can't pull them up...It's like names...only names are worse...far far worse...

After the race for second was over, we played a couple of just questions for fun, and then Shannon and I headed home.

Sunday, we were lazy most of the day, and finally got out to CostCo to buy some things that we needed (paper towels, etc) and some things that we wanted (a take and bake pizza).

The Pizza was...well...not that good, I've certainly had much much better. But it was also huge and square. No matter how we turned it, it would not fit in the oven. It would hang out but 2 or 3 inches. So I cut it in half and cooked it...I dunno what kind of oven will fit it, but, certainly not mine.

After watching Fox on Sunday night, we headed towards bed and that's where I woke up and got sick (after excersizing and eating breakfast).

you know something is wrong...

you know something is wrong, when even after I puked up my entire breakfast, I still think about going to work, cause there is too much stuff to do.

Only the second time (10 minutes before I would've left), is what actually deterred me.