Here and There Blog

300 was chosen for the first movie night of the year by process of elimination. Choose the movie with the least bad reviews and go from there. 300 has a lot going for it - nearly naked men, good fight scenes, and a warped sci-fi element to it that makes you wonder if it's really Middle Earth Spartans instead of Greek Spartans. And that's about it. This was a war movie without a focus. 300 has the basics of a 2 hour visual. There are beginning credits, a bunch of fighting, and then ending credits. For a movie with so much blood, fighting, and loud noises, I found myself slowly falling asleep. The theater was unusually quiet and it was not because the audience was rapt with attention. Underdog good-looking Spartans have to fight for freedom from the ugly and powerful Persians. That's it. If you go see 300, look for the stylized visual elements of film-making, the costumes, the background, the slow motion blood, the intergration of a graphic novel into live action. It's...

One of the differences between the work week at home and on the road is that TGIF means something at home. Friday night there is usually a Firkin, or a movie, or dinner. Saturday and Sunday if not filled with activities are two days without work. Overseas, it's always work. Even on a day off it's used either as a travel day or an office day. There is not a lot to do in the places where I spend the most time. This is my first true weekend off in something like 8 weeks. Today will be a long one. There has been a lot of new work and unfinished work that poppped up this week. But at the end of the day that's it. Time to relax and have fun! What a great concept!

I have often been told that I fail to observe what's in front of me. It's not that I fail to observe but rather I choose to filter out what I don't need to know at the exact moment. Sometimes, it can be something drastic such as a new paint job on a house or a complete revamp of a garden. Other times, it's offerings from the Easter Bunny that I found a few days late. Case in point - When I returned home, I saw that there was paper on top of the microwave. A quick glance showed that that there was a picture of a coffee maker so that made sense to me given that there were new coffee makers on the counter. This morning I had to microwave something and I noticed that the other papers didn't say coffee. They read Pancake Flipper and Spoon Spatula. Huh. Those are things that don't normally enter my kitchen. I pulled open a couple of drawers and sure enough, Pancake Flipper and Spoon Spatula were there all shiny and new! I also found a new plunger and swiffer neatly st...

Official at last!

Monday always comes so quickly when the weekend is short. I scheduled myself an offsite meeting for today in an attempt to get myself up and moving and readjusted to the time zone. It's a good thing too, otherwise I would probably be napping all day and then it would take weeks to adapt instead of a couple of days. I'm looking forward to staying in the US for a while. The next overseas trip is a ways off and I'll be sticking to travel within the west/mid-west for the next 6 weeks.

OB's trilogy is now complete. Here's the latest installment in the classic mustang restoration line.

As I mentioned, the Easter Bunny stopped at my house and changed the season from Christmas to Easter for me. Easter bunnies bring chocolate eggs and this one did. Bunnies also bring gifts and this one surprised me with not one new coffee maker but two! It looks like there were adventures in coffee going on. Now I understand the remark about the filters. As I wandered about and unpacked I found several other bunny offerings but the best one was in the fridge! Avocados and lots of them! It was like finding the gold mine! I had been craving guacamole for the last week and now there was a whole supply of avocado waiting for me! Thank-you Craig and all the H's for assisting the Easter Bunny! Out back, the weeds have taken over. One stop today has to be for Round-Up. I found the big gopher or squirrel hole and stuffed a large mothball down it and covered it with dirt. There was no revenge from the wildlife this morning but I expect a response soon. I meant to come home, unpack, t...