Skip to main content

Of Mice And Men

Very eventful weekend. Can't translate what my dad would say in this instance, but the word "leasure" would be stretched to such an extreme that it mostly conveys the meaning of, "With kind of rest and relaxation who needs work!"

On saturday we took a lunch cruise of the Spirit of Chicago. The weather was beautiful, the downtown view from the ship was awesome, and the experience, supplemented by a Bloody Mary, was thoroughly enjoyable.

After that, we hit off to one of the munchkin-birthdays we have scheduled for the next two weeks. Again, with the parents already a bit under, our little one was able to find enjoyment in that party, even with a very small afternoon nap.

On sunday we have decided to finally go to the beach, not the pool mind you, but the actual beach in Highland Park. I am not much of a beach goer plus I don't swim really well (I consider myself an extreme land dweller), but I enjoyed playing in the sand and just relaxing in the nicest of seetings.

After that, we went to friend's Summer Farewell party. Drinks flowed easily supplemented by a great bbq. The conversation floated anywhere from computers and NFL to politics. Uncharactersticaly for me, I have taken up and defended a political position; must have been all that conqac I consumed.

Ah! To Mice. We got a little mouse in the house, and he got really obnoxious recently. On Sunday morning the thing actually ran down my arm. We've been trying to catch the bugger for couple of days now, much hindered or helped by our dog. At one point, he just stood there in his best pointer position, with the mouse calmly washing his face. On sunday I finally cornered the little bugger, and put him in the box. I can't bring myself to killing an animal, unless it's a fly or a mosquito. This furry gentlemen, was too cute to kill. So he spend about 2 hours in the shoe box, with holes drilled for air.

In the words of Homer Simpson, "Once again, man triumphs over small furry animal!"

In the evening we went to a forest preserve and released him into the wild. I actually felt a little sad, I entertained an idea of keeping him for a while.

To cap off the weekend I have seen THREE movies. This is highly unusual for me.

Charlie Wilson's War. Great movie, very entertaining, with a great cast. I don't know how much of it is based on the real story of American help to mujihadeen, but it takes itself seriously enough, with great humor. Two things that irked me in the movie. The whole kill Russians sentiment in the movie, just a buit unsettling for me. In the montage of RPG's being fired, the director ran out of shots to use, I guess. One clip clearly showed an F-16 Falcon being shot down. The other clip showed an F-4 Phantom being shot down. That's a bit dumb.

Juno. One of the movies I claimed in the recent posts I don't get. Well, i got this one. I actually understood the reason it recieved great reviews, and was generally liked by everybody. I enjoyed it, the same way I enjoyed low budget films like Fargo.

Enchanted. This one we took to enjoy with the 4 year old. Pricesses, love, toons, unpretentiously sappy story, and music with singing and dancing. Great formula for family entertainment, and its not a let down. Enjoyed that one too.

Short week! Yumm!

Comments

Jason said…
I haven't seen Charlie Wilson's War so I can't comment directly on the "kill Russians sentiment" you reference, but I do recall that this sentiment was pretty common in American culture during the 1980s, which is, I believe when the movie is set, so I suppose you could see it as an exercise in verisimilitude.

I was always uncomfortable with that sort of thing myself -- ever seen the flick Red Dawn? Even as a teenager I thought that was jingoistic crap -- but a whole lot of people bought into it, egged on (I believe) by the constant red-baiting during President Reagan's first term. He mellowed when Gorbachev came into power in Reagan's second term, but in the early 80s... wowsers.
I think i saw Red Dawn some time ago. Don't remember if I liked it or not.

Now, Red Heat is a whole different story!!!

I actually perfectly understand the sentiment of those times, and I understand the type of personalities that are being shown. These people would say "kill russians" the same way we would say "kill mosquitoes". I don't even think that there was any sort of hate behind those words. There were what they were.

I think my irk with the words has caused by a long time forgotten fear of Americans we had ourselves those days.

Popular posts from this blog

Things you never cared to know about Mayonnaise

I have decided to start a new Rubric. Once a week I will write a post about a random subject. Having the subject coming out of MY head, it can be about anything. I constantly have a lot of random "Why?" and "How does?" questions floating around in my head. I will try to explain how I arrived to the subject at hand and promise to do diligent research on Wikipedia and provide you, the unfortunate reader, with either the interesting or unusual bits of info. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! In addition to that I have a slight fetish for trivia. The rubric will be called: Things you never cared to know about Today's topic is Mayonnaise . How did I arrive to that? As I was making breakfast in the morning, I decided that I wanted to take a pita pocket and stuff it with something. The pitas are usually fairly dry, and you have to toast them. I did not have Hummus or Babaganoush (GOD! I just love saying BA-BA-GA-NOUSHHHHHHHHH!) I put a little Mayo inside to soften it up. So, ther...

Crazy ideas - UPDATED

Here's a crazy survey I thought off. If you had a time machine where would you travel first? Assuming the fact of course of universal invincibility. ----UPDATE---- As my brother mentioned, with time travel universally available getting rich schemes would be less than doable. My aim is more towards investigating great mysteries of history. Therefore: a. To the Big Bang b. To see an asteroid killing dinosaurs c. To see the exodus of Jews as it really happened d. Try to see if Jesus hubbub really happened e. Forget the past, I'd go to the year 2020 to see who winds World Series and place a bet accordingly. f. Suggested by Ilya . Back a day or to to purchase winning lottery ticket. e. Try to see if Atlantis existed. f. Travel to the future to see the explosion of our Sun. I am torn between the dinosaurs and the World Series. Please suggest the choices. Should I add Buddha and Muhammed to the list as well? From the curiousity stand-point. I still rather see the dinosaurs.

Weekend update

Finally some beautiful weather here in Chicago. We have decided to go to our regular hunting grounds at Lincoln Park Zoo. We slept well into the morning, picked up our good friends and in the company of four adults and three children went to see the animals. The photographer in me was screaming bloody murder to go out and make pictures. Thankfully my wife was very tolerant this time around with me running around like a madman taking picture of anything that moved. Lincoln Park Zoo is a great little place. It's free (if you don't consider $17 parking) they have all the animals kids love to see, and none of the animals where you stand scratching your head wondering how do you explain platipus to a 5-year-old. One bad thing that happened today, is I think i forgot to close the car, and somebody got in and stolen my Magellan GPS. Luckily nothing else was in the car, so other then that the car remained untouched. Unpleasant, but I have only myself to blame, and I think I'll live...