State Of The Kzin: Post-XLIII Edition

Herewith, a lil' recap of the past weekend and stuff:


Friday February 6th: When I ended my post on that day, I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner.
I called the Great Spinoleone to get some suggestions, and instead made tentative plans to see "Coraline 3D"
over the weekend. I had heard nothing but good shtuff about it so I was game.
As for dinner, I eventually decided to go to Outlaws Bar And Grill in Playa Del Rey.
Outlaws looks like a saloon and bills itself as "a grubbin' an' guzzlin' establishment". I went there once
and tried a one-pound cheeseburger. They have burgers in sizes ranging from 1/3rd pounder to 2 pounder.
That day however, I had a hankerin' for steak, so I got a 16oz porterhouse with all the trimmings.
I selected ranch potatoes and mexicorn as sides. The ranch taters were interesting; basically pan-fried slices
of baked potato with some garlic/chive butter. Mexicorn was corn with grilled onions and black peppercorn.
I ate the whole damn thing and gnawed on the bone. I skipped dessert. Upon returning home, I stuck a Trader Joe's
lime fruitsicle in mah mouff. It's amazing how well those things cleanse the palate after a meal.
After that, it was relaxing and watching a DVD, hanging out online, and then bed.


Saturday: I had various errands to run, so I got crackin'. First up, some new bath towels to replace the ones
I bought in 1995. Back then, I had gotten a pair of high-quality bath sheets (70" long!) and it's a testament
to their quality that they've lasted this long, only starting to tear about 3 months ago.
You see kids, sometimes you do get what you pay for! :)
The local Bed Bath & Beyond is frakking HY00GE! It takes up two floors! I got lost twice!
I found a pair of very nice towels at reasonable prices. One of them is in this amazing shade of blue with a bit
of green blended in. The color is called "surf" by the manufacturer. Why yes, I am an aquarius. :D
I found out what the "Beyond" part is: CHOCOLATE! And lots of it! I didn't buy any.
And then, there were more errands, some of them in far-flung bits of L.A.
I rang up Irresponsible Captain Spino to enquire as to the "Coraline" situation. He said to call back 2 hours later.
Harrumph, okay. I continued my erranding and timed my return home to coincide with the end of the 2-hour deadline.
I called again and was told that "Coraline" was a go at the AMC Century City, which is not far from west L.A.
I jumped into the F(n)ord (St)Ranger and headed to the Century City Yuppie Center.
I got there first and discovered that the showing, which was the last showing of the day, was sold out.
I immediately called Spino, got Sweetie instead and told them both AMC Century City was no go. We redirected to
the Bridge Cinema Delux. The Bridge had a much later showing that we could make without problems.
I left Yuppie Scum Central and headed for the 405, which I got on on, and zoomed Southbound to the Bridge.
I again beat Captain Spino to the objective, but only by a minute as Spino and Sweetie promptly popped up behind me
at the box office line. We discovered, much to our delight, that the Bridge had just added a 10pm showing of
"Coraline 3D", and since it was 9:40pm, we got tickets to that one. The showing we had come there to see originally
was at 11:50pm, so we were happy to slice off a couple of hours of freezing our buns off (50F is freezing in L.A.!).
Before the movie, we had to suffer through trailers for "G-Force" (which is not about what you would expect from
such a title. It's a stupid secret agent/spy/superhero talking guinea pigs movie.), "Land Of The Lost" (with the
giant doofus I don't like, Will Ferrell), and some other painful and/or stupid films.
Then we put our 3D glasses on and got to see 3D trailers for "Monsters VS Aliens" and "Ice Age 3". W00T!!
And then! The movie started...
By the way, Tim Burton is in no way, shape or form involved in "Coraline".
It's Henry Selick's baby, based on Neil Gaiman's book, and realized by an army of animators in Portland, Oregon.
But, back to the film.
It's very good. It's funny, wonderful and creepy. The good kind of creepy.
If you have young kids and you bring them to see this, be prepared to field their questions. :D
We had a great time!
We meandered back to our vehicles, which were parked a few meters from each other and bid our goodbyes.


Sunday: The Great Cleansing Day!
I had decided to clean the apartment, especially the kitchen and bathroom. To that end, I had purchased a bottle
of my old friend, SoftScrub (with bleach). I remember that stuff being hardcore, so I tied a bandanna around my head
to protect my face and tackled the hardest room first: the bathroom.
HOLY CRAP!! My eyes were watering within 10 minutes! I had to leave the bathroom and get some fresh air!
And then, once more into the breach, dear friends! And the bathroom was cleaned within an inch of its life.
Or my life. My sense of smell took an hour to return. But the bathroom was WHITE and CLEAN!!
I vacuumed the whole apartment and had a blonde moment. I wasn't sure the rotating brush drum was rotating,
so I stuck my hand under the upright vacuum cleaner, but I came at it from the wrong side, the side where the
brush drum is sweeping stuff IN. So my right hand was caught in the rotating brush drum for a quarter of a second.
AND YOU CAN BET YOUR ASS THAT IT HURT LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!
I had to wait for feeling to return to my hand, which took about 10 minutes.
Then the vacuuming was done, and I took a well-deserved break.
The kitchen was next and it didn't put up a fight. The SoftScrub turned my sink whiter than I had ever seen it.
I celebrated the end of the cleansing by making some dinner and watching Disc 2 of "The Invaders" Season 2.
Aaaaah, the days when "architect" was a typical everyday job for a TV character to have.
Or advertising executive.
We were so young and naive... :)


Monday: Back to work and crap, it's RAINING!! Argh!
Went to Trader Joe's to buy lunch supplies for the week and a case of German sparkling water.
I had a delicious meat lasagna from TJ's for lunch.
Kids were brought in to try out our skateboard MMO and I was tasked to do tech support while they were there.
I think they like our game. Yea!
After work, I went home and made dinner and watched "Eagle Eye", the hilarious story of a wacky AI gone rogue
who decides to eliminate the entire United States of America cabinet including the President, but excluding
the Secretary of Defense 'cause she likes him. :D
Okay, maybe not but close! This is today's Hollywood idea of "Colossus: The Forbin Project". :D


Tuesday: Still raining, and hey! My digital camera has arrived! W00T!!
It's even better than I thought it would be. It's two shades of dark grey and easy to use and full of options.
Close-up pictures look awesomely crisp, the zoom works great and connecting to the PC is a snap.
The first thing I did though, after setting time and date, was to turn off the infernal beeping and booping. :)
Photos taken with my new baby are forthcoming.
Lunch with coworkers at Hoagies And Wings. Had a chicken hoagie, which was not bad. No cold hoagies though.
Need to find another place that makes decent cold hoagies/subs/heroes.
After work, didn't feel like cooking, so drivethru-ed at Carl's Jr. and got dueling chicken sammiches.
Finally finished backing up my computer and watched Disc 2 of "The New Avengers" Season 1.
No, not Thor, Hulk or Iron Man, the other "New Avengers": John Steed, Mike Gambit and Purdey. :)


Today: Not raining anymore but man is it ever cold! I had to unpack the extra bedspread last night and use it!
And the forecast calls for mid-50's weather for the rest of the week. Nom de dieu de putain de sa mère!!
So, hmmmmmm, urrrrrr, nothing much going on really. At work, typing this.
I hope y'all are doing good.
I'll catch ya later!