"She thinks I'm pretty"

Rachel came back from physical therapy yesterday with a bit of interesting news.

While at Aspen Valley Hospital, she met the President and First Lady of Iceland, Olafur Grimsson and Dorrit Moussaieff.

Rachel and Dorrit bonded when Dorrit, whose middle name is Rachel, learned that Rachel's first name is Rachel.

Iceland's first lady told Rachel that she thinks she's pretty. She also told her not to worry about how she walks since lots of people "walk funny."

It seems Iceland's first lady broke her leg (skiing?) and Rachel ran into her while they were both at physical therapy.

Iceland's president was with her, exercising while she was having therapy. Rachel felt bad for him because he kept getting interrupted by phone calls. There were secret service type people present too, replete with suits, sunglasses and ear pieces.

Nobody wears suits in Aspen. Well, almost nobody . . .

Steve just called from work to say that the president was going to be skiing today with the Highlands' patrol director, Mac Smith.

I'm guessing that skiing proficiency is a job requirement for the Icelandic secret service. I wonder if they'll be skiing in suits.

The Courtier and the Heretic by Matthew Stewart

This is a book in the vein of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter and Longitude and The Measure of all Things by Ken Alder, but where those books deal with the discoveries of physical science, this book deals more with philosophy and religion's response to those discoveries.

The approach of the modern world was very threatening to religion and the concept of God. Things which had previously been accepted on faith or because the Bible or the Church told us it was so were increasingly coming into question.

It is in this environment which Leibniz, Voltaire's model for Dr. Pangloss in Candide and Spinoza, the moral atheist, formulated their differing, yet intertwined, philosophies.

Stewart's argument is that Leibniz and Spinoza were both ahead of their time in understanding the portent of modernity but that they reacted to it very differently. Spinoza welcomed and embraced the shifting definition of God while Leibniz did all that he could to forestall the impending storm.

As a philosophical dilettante, I found this book hard and yet fascinating. Many a paragraph I had to read and reread, only to still not quite grasp its point. For all that, Stewart presents the conflict between the two men in an engrossing way which kept me reading through the depth.

I came away finding references to these two philosophers recurring around me and am inspired to read more. I've already started to reread Candide which is, in part, Voltaire's critique of Leibniz' theories. I'm also intrigued by Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion which draws on Spinoza and which was featured with an interview of Dawkins on Fresh Air the same night I finished this tome.

Biting the hand that feeds you

Like millions of other people, I read and enjoyed Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.

Like a significant percentage of those millions, I then bought and read Holy Blood Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln almost entirely due to the fact that Brown acknowledged it as one of his resources. (Hey, I like to read fiction.)

Holy Blood Holy Grail experienced quite a healthy sales increase in the wake of The DaVinci Code.

So, I was puzzled when I first heard that two of the authors (that's right, just two, not all three) of Holy Blood Holy Grail were suing Dan Brown's publisher (not Dan Brown) for plagiarism.

If you're plagiarizing something, do you reference it repeatedly?

Apparently Britian's Court of Appeals, which today affirmed the lower court's decision rejected the plagiarism claim, wondered about this also.

According to Danica Kirka of the AP,

Lord Justice Bernard Rix said Brown hadn't disguised his use of the work of Baigent and Leigh.

The character of Leigh Teabing is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent, Rix noted, and at one point Teabing refers to "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" as "perhaps the best-known tome" on the subject.

"That is not the mark of an author who thought that he was making illegitimate use of the fruits of someone else's literary labors, but of one who intended to acknowledge a debt of ideas, which he has gone on to express in his own way and for his own purposes," Rix wrote in his opinion.

However, in terms of motives for the lawsuit, it was found that the publicity of the trial had significantly boosted sales of Holy Blood Holy Grail.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This book is one of my top five favorite books.

Of course, my list of top five favorite books probably contains more than five books at any given time.

We had book club again last night and this was our chosen book. So, even though my list of books to be read is longer than even I know, I had cause to read this one again. Yay!

I'm almost always intrigued by narratives woven around the idea of time travel. The philosophical questions time travel engenders and each creator's way of answering those questions fascinates.

The work in crafting Henry and Clare's love story is wonderful. Niffenegger weaves joy, longing, redemption, pain, grief, and humor into a confusing, riveting, ingenious tale.

To a woman, our book club liked the book. Some did find the book a bit hard at the start, a complaint my mom echoed when I gave her the book as a gift.

Among other topics, the book led us into a spirited discussion of morality and the defensibility of shifting the lines of morality in the pursuit of self-preservation.

. . . there is only free will when you are in time, in the present.

Henry DeTamble

Oh dear

Seems that people are upset because when they pick up their rental cars during snowstorms in Chicago and Detroit, the cars have snow on them.

Waaahhh.

Bandwagon jumpa redux

Hoya!! Saxa!!

Wow!!

Let me say it again.

Wow!!

I don't have a TV so I didn't see it.

But, I have a radio and I heard it. The last few minutes of regulation and the 5 minute overtime of yesterday's Georgetown/UNC East Regional Final were phenomenal. I haven't been that jazzed about college basketball in a long time.

When I was in college at American University from 1980-1984, I worked for the AU men's basketball team and I watched the Georgetown team, just down the road, become the powerhouse that it was at that time. Our guys played summer league with the Georgetown guys at Georgetown's old, stuffy, un-air-conditioned McDonough Gym and I hung out a little with David Wingate (who was hot for my girlfriend, later, roommate) at his on-campus apartment which he shared with Patrick Ewing.

I was working the scorers' table at the Capital Centre when AU earned DC bragging rights by beating Georgetown and Patrick Ewing. (It's amazing how the chill from the hockey ice underneath seeps through the wood basketball floor.)

I watched Georgetown win the NCAA tournament in 1984 and watched them lose to Villanova (with its record setting .786 field goal percentage) on my birthday in 1985, the same day that I learned that I had been accepted to Georgetown's law school.

So, although I haven't followed them in years and although I was originally a rival, I am now an alum and I'm taking great personal interest in this year's goings-on, what with Patrick Ewing, Jr. and John Thompson III.

What Rocks!

Redundancy

I've got to hope that this guy's not this stupid. However, his hints of irony and satire, if present, are so subtle as to be invisible . . .

Stop the Melting Madness

Dear Editor,

I am sure that if you have been out on the trails of our wonderful mountains lately you have noticed the snow is disappearing rapidly, and there are rocks and trees poking through at levels seemingly unprecedented in the memory of those of us that pay attention to such things. It is heartbreaking to see their majestic finery slipping away so early.

Ah, the locals say, global warming is to blame! They have seen the movie by Albert Gore and are convinced, and even our own Aspen Skiing Co. is buying it. But the true culprit is right under their noses, on the faces of their watches, foisted upon us by another sainted Democrat - one Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

Yes, my friends, I am speaking of the insidious evil known as daylight-saving time! When we switched our clocks ahead on March 10, we not only lost an hour of sleep for one night, we added an hour of sunlight to every evening until next November. Any fool can tell you that afternoon sun is the hottest sun, as that is the hottest part of the day! Think of the damage an extra hour of solar radiation does to the snow on our mountains. And this year, with a Democrat Congress, daylight saving time was moved up four weeks, adding all that extra melting time. It will be a wonder if there is even a snow bank left to play in when April rolls around.

Now if the time for all right-thinking Americans to call their congressman (sic) to tell them that this madness must stop, before Aspen and its economy melts away.

David K. Gibson
Aspen

Either that or he's a Republican. Oh, right, that's redundant.

This week's favorite

My favorite from this week's PostSecret.

Happy Planet Index

Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 36, which is similar to that of countries such as Solomon Islands, Armenia or South Africa. Sorry to say that this is below the world average of 46. For those living in the UK, you’ll also be disappointed to hear your score is below the national average. Your score is above that of your country, 28.8. Below is a breakdown of the various components that make up your HPI score.
You:	36
Average:	43.4 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Life Expectancy Hurray! Your life expectancy is well above average for your gender and country. Probably, you're doing all the major things right - eating well, not smoking, getting regular exercise, and you're lucky enough to have the right genes. Are there any more ways you could make a difference? Some factors that improve your life expectancy are more surprising than others. For example, giving up your car, avoiding living alone, moving out of the city and shrugging off stress.
You:	88
Average:	80.8 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Ecological Footprint Your ecological footprint is 7.4 global hectares, or 4.11 planets. Your ecological footprint is below average for the country you live in. Oh dear! You are using between three and five times your share of the planet's resources, even assuming no resources are set aside for other species. That's well above the world average, and even above the average for most industrialised countries. Perhaps it's time to start taking action. Here are some of the most effective steps that everyone can make to reduce their footprint: Leave your car in the garage. Car use has a huge impact on ecological footprint. Obviously it's more difficult for people in certain circumstances, but where possible, try to use public transport more. Or, even better, get on a bike! It's obvious, but we have to say it. Conserve energy. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, buy energy-efficient bulbs and appliances, turn off your TV completely, rather than leave it on standby. Reduce your waste. If there are ways to recycle where you live, try and do so. If you have a garden, start a compost heap. Re-use plastic bags. Give away clothes you don't use, rather than throwing them away. There are hundreds of little things you can do. You don't have to become vegetarian, but cutting down on meat, particularly beef, and particularly from animals fed by imported soya feed, is an effective step to reducing your footprint. It has to be said that air travel is one of the biggest contributors to many people's footprints. For example, flying direct from London to Sydney and back would add 5.44 g ha to your footprint - that's the average Briton's footprint for an entire year. Flights with a connection add even more polluting air miles.
You:	7.4
Average:	5.38 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Life Satisfaction You reported a life satisfaction of 7, which is about average for many Western countries, including the UK, Spain and Italy. Worldwide, 58% of respondents in the World Values Survey reported a life satisfaction of 7 or lower.
You:	7
Average:	6.76 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Well-being The new economics foundation (nef) recognises that there's more to life than feeling good, which is why our model for well-being is based on four domains – personal feelings, personal functionings, social feelings and social functionings. 'Feelings' refers to your attitude to the way you, your future and society are. 'Functionings' looks at whether you have the opportunities to do the things that bring you well-being. Like with life satisfaction, a score of 5 is theoretically the middle score, but, given the way most people respond to surveys, is below average.
Personal Feelings In this online questionnaire, personal feelings are assessed with two questions – one testing your optimism and one testing your self-esteem. You have some anxieties about the future or yourself which are affecting your overall well-being. These are not too severe though...
You:	4.5
Average:	6.04 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Personal Functionings In this online questionnaire personal functionings are assessed with five questions – two evaluating your subjective opinion on your health and how activity you are, the other three testing you for feelings of autonomy, purpose and worth. You are healthy and overall feel autonomous, purposeful and able to demonstrate your abilities to others.
You:	7.06
Average:	6.15 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Social Feelings In this online questionnaire social feelings are assessed with four questions – three assessing your opinion of your community, whilst the last looks at personal relationships. You have a strong sense of trust and belonging in your community and a happy personal life.
You:	5.48
Average:	5.68 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Social Functionings In this online questionnaire social functionings are assessed with four questions – two assessing your job / studies, one your free time, and one your community participation. If you did not respond to the work / study questions, your score is judged purely on the other two aspects. You are satisfied with your job / course - it is interesting, and only occasionally stressful. Further it normally leaves you enough time to do the things you want to do.
You:	6.49
Average:	5.6 [Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Calculations for the Footprint are based on, and are copyright of, Best Foot Forward Limited. Please note that calculations for the Footprint and life expectancy are based on UK statistics. Conversion factors are used for other countries, but these are conservative and may underestimate differences.

Karma?

Weird things are going my way, wholly unexpectedly.

I bought a Bluetooth from eBay. It was counterfeit. (I know, surprise!)

I reported it to Motorola and filed a protest with Paypal. Motorola replaced it for me and Paypal refunded my money.

Today, I am the owner of a free, genuine Bluetooth.

I ordered a dozen loaves of raisin bread. The bread I received wasn't what I ordered.

I tried to return it for a refund or exchange. The store doesn't have what I ordered (well then, why did they advertise it?) so they're refunding my money. But they don't want their bread back.

Today I am the owner of 12 free loaves of raisin bread.

I really wasn't trying to manipulate my way into any of this.

I wonder what number 3 is going to be . . .

Yep, Gristedes mostly sucks

As previously explained, I emailed Gristedes' customer service on Friday evening. To my pleasant surprise, I received the following reply on Sunday:

In a message dated 3/18/2007 2:36:21 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, CustomerService@Gristedes.com writes:

Dear Ms. B:

Thank you for your e-mail and thank you for ordering from Gristedes Online Supermarkets of New York. In response to your e-mail, I will submit a request to have UPS pick this up from the address you provided upon placing your order. Once we have confirmation that this is back in transit to us here in New York, we will re-ship the correct product back out to you. Thank you in advance for your patience.

In the meantime, if there is anything else we can help you with, feel free to contact us at this e-mail address. Thank you for your business and we look forward to your next order with us. Have a great day!

Best,

Carolina Urena
Customer Service
Gristedes Online Supermarkets of New York
(e) customerservice@gristedes.com
(ph) 866-239-9806
(FX) 212-243-7932

So far so good. Monday and Tuesday go by and UPS is a no show. Now we're talking perishable goods here (with sell by dates of 3/15/07 and 3/17/07) so yesterday evening I email again, informing that UPS has not stopped by and inquiring if a call tag was in fact issued.

To my dismay, here is the response to my inquiry:

In a message dated 3/21/2007 10:10:06 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, CustomerService@Gristedes.com writes:

Dear Ms. B:

Thank you for your e-mail and thank you for ordering from Gristedes Online Supermarkets of New York. In response to your e-mail, I do apologize for the delay in having this order picked up. I have inquired about the pick up and have been informed that the product you received is the actual Arnold Raisin Cinnamon Bread however the package has changed to reflect the type of raisins used in the bread. I have contacted the manufacturer in order to verify this information and they have confirmed that the Sun maid is indeed the Arnolds Raisin Cinnamon Bread. Please inform us if you still wish to have this product picked up. If you wish to verify this information you can view on the back of the package in small letters that the manufacturer is Arnolds Foods Company Inc.

In the meantime, if you have any further questions, feel free to contact me at this e-mail address. Thank you for your patronage and we look forward to your next order with us. Have a great day!

Best,

Carolina Urena
Customer Service
Gristedes Online Supermarkets of New York
(e) customerservice@gristedes.com
(ph) 866-239-9806
(FX) 212-243-7932

To which I reply (after doing about 30 seconds of online research):

Dear Ms. Urena,

Per our telephone conversation, I will expect an email confirming that a call tag has been issued to UPS for pick-up of this order. As I mentioned, I can buy Sun-Maid Cinnamon Swirl Raisin bread in my local supermarket and not have to pay shipping.

According to the Arnold's website, http://arnold.gwbakeries.com/subcat.cfm/subcatId/58, the Sun-Maid Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread is a different product from the Arnold Raisin Cinnamon bread. The UPC for the Arnold bread is 7341005205 and the UPC for the Sun-Maid bread is 7341005240.

If the Arnold bread is available, I would love return the Sun-Maid bread for an exchange. However, if Gristedes is unable to provide the Arnold bread, I will expect a full refund.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

I am offended by the fact that someone at Gristedes actually thought I would buy their lame explanation.

I am taking an inordinate amount of satisfaction from the fact that I was able to blow their argument out of the water.

Whatever

I'm over it.

The Company Bitch has gone private again. It probably happened a couple of days ago.

I just thought she was being lame and not posting anything since her feed wasn't changing.

Nope, she's just being all secretive again.

Oh well, screw it.

With 55 million choices, it shouldn't be too hard to replace her.

Futile Care

I am so pessimistic for so many reasons about the likelihood of any meaningful healthcare reform being accomplished in this country.

Somebody's paying for this and it's not the Gonzales family.

Dying Tot Brings Futile Care Bill to Forefront

By PAUL J. WEBER

AP

AUSTIN (March 21) - A dying toddler facing removal of his life support system received a reprieve Tuesday when hospital officials agreed to keep his breathing device running until at least April 10.

The decision came hours after attorneys for Emilio Gonzales, a 16-month-old who doctors believe has Leigh's disease, filed a temporary restraining order request to prevent removal of his life support. Gonzales, who has been at Children's Hospital in Austin since December, was scheduled to be taken off life support Friday.

The deadline extension also came hours after Catarina Gonzales, Emilio's mother, appeared at the Capitol with lawmakers who support a bill that would prohibit hospitals from stopping life-sustaining treatment while a family pursues a transfer or other care.

Under the current law, doctors are obligated to give only 10 days notice before withdrawing treatment when further care is deemed medically futile, even over the wishes of the patient and family.

"It's very good news because it give us more time," said Jerri Ward, the Gonzales family attorney.

A spokeswoman for Seton Family of Hospitals confirmed the extension and said the two sides agreed to keep each other apprised of efforts to find a facility for Emilio.

Doctors believe he is suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder causing his brain tissue to die.

The fight between the Gonzales family and the hospital underscores legislation filed in the House and Senate that would prevent hospitals from stopping treatment while a transfer to a new facility or doctor is pending.

"I know my son is going to die," Catarina Gonzales at the Capitol before the extension was granted. "I just want him to go as natural as he can. Not by someone telling me that we're going to take him off the ventilator because there's no use."

Michael Regier, general counsel for the Seton Family of Hospitals, said the toddler is in seizures half the time and has no purposeful movement. Catarina Gonzales said Emilio reacts to speech and is not brain dead.

State Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said that while he is respectful of doctors' opinions and hospital resources, no one but the family or patient should decide when to pull the plug.

"Ten days is not long enough for a patient in these circumstances," said Hughes, who is trying to pass the House bill.

The current 1999 law is increasingly under fire from patient advocates, disability rights groups and Texas Right to Life, best known for its anti-abortion efforts.

Texas is one of the few states with a timetable for cutting off a patient's life-sustaining treatment, according to studies cited by activist groups.

Under the current law, a doctor's decision to refuse a family's wishes to continue life-sustaining treatment is subject to review by a hospital ethics or medical committee. The patient and family get 48 hours' notice of the meeting.

Hughes' bill remains in committee awaiting an unscheduled hearing.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Music and Lyrics

Silly. Lighthearted. Cute. "Cheesy and proud of it"

A washed up singer (Grant) is given a couple days to compose a chart-topping hit for an aspiring teen sensation. Though he's never written lyrics in his life, he sparks with an offbeat younger woman (Barrymore) with a flair for words.

The main gag of the movie is that Grant's band, Pop!, is basically a bad (and I guess straight) Wham! and it's pretty amusing to anyone who remembers Wham! (me) and even to those young enough not to (my 15 year old daughter).

Grant's character is shades of George Wade in Two Weeks Notice while Barrymore's reminded me of Lucy Whitmore in Fifty First Dates.

If you like Grant and Barrymore playing to type, this movie's for you.

It has a sweet, slightly unexpected climax and the denouement with its VH1 pop-up bubbles is quite entertaining.

The soundtrack is incredibly bad 80s pop music so, of course, immediately after we saw the movie, Rachel bought it from iTunes and has been looping it endlessly ever since. They're the type of songs which are almost impossible to get out of your head. Ugh.

Thank you for Smoking

I learned in 1982, when I saw and read The World According to Garp, that, as a rule, if I saw the movie before I read the book, I liked them both but if I reversed the order, I was invariably disappointed by the movie.

So far the only exception that comes to mind is Brokeback Mountain but that was a short story. The key seems to be that whichever version has more detail should be experienced after that which has less detail.

The rule certainly held true with Thank You for Smoking. After reading the book, the movie was quite disappointing in its omissions. Rather than enjoying the movie for itself, I was left puzzling over the process of deciding what to include and what to omit.

That being said, in an effort to focus solely on the movie, let me point out that it was nominated for 15 awards, including two Golden Globes, and that it won six of those 15 (altho neither of the GG's). For those who place stock in such awards, this is an indication that while the movie suffers in comparison to the novel, when considered on its own, it merits a viewing.

The plot outline from IMDB:

Tobacco industry lobbyist Nick Naylor has a seemingly impossible task: promoting cigarette smoking in a time when the health hazards of the activity have become too plain to ignore. Nick, however, revels in his job, using argument and twisted logic to place, as often as not, his clients in the positions of either altruistic do-gooders or victims. Nick's son Joey needs to understand and respect his dad's philosophy, and Nick works hard to respond to that need without compromising his lack of values. When a beautiful news reporter betrays Nick's sexually-achieved trust, his world seems in danger of collapsing. But there's always one more coffin nail in Nick's pack. Written by Jim Beaver {jumblejim@prodigy.net}

This week's favorite

My favorite from this week's PostSecret.

On Quoting Shakespeare

Saw this poster in the library at Grand Junction High School last week when we were there for the monthly People to People meeting.

On Quoting Shakespeare

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Bernard Levin

Gristedes Sucks! (maybe . . .)

I ordered this:




















I received this:

This does not make me happy.

I could buy Sun-maid here in my own grocery store and not have to pay $2.50 per loaf for shipping.

Since I didn't find out until late yesterday afternoon and since I live two time zones away, Gristedes' online customer service was already closed when I emailed and called.

And, of course, it was Friday afternoon so they won't be getting back to me until Monday. While I've got a dozen loaves of perishable bread that I didn't order and I don't want waiting to be returned.

This was all very disappointing.

That's what I get for being excited about something . . .

She's Baaaaack!

CB's back!

Or more accurately, since she never went anywhere, she's letting the masses in again.

Maybe it was all just a dream, a la Bobby & Pam.

Maybe she just needed to feel the love.

Whatever.

I'm just looking forward to reading The Company Bitch again.

Ghost Rider

I'm a sucker for Nicolas Cage in tough guy hero roles.

I also tend to enjoy movies based on comic books.

If it weren't for that, Ghost Rider doesn't have much to recommend it.

But, since those two things are what they are, I liked Ghost Rider.

There's honor, evil, love, greed, tragedy and triumph.

Due to a deal with the devil that he made years ago, Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt rider, has been indestructible. Now, it's time for the devil to collect, only Johnny's not going to go along willingly.

Sam Elliott and Peter Fonda played to type which to my mind is a good thing.

In an effort to appeal to the teenage boy element, it was a bit too graphic for me so I spent a fair amount of time covering my eyes.

Wild Hogs

This movie was stupid.

But I liked it.

The critics didn't and all of their criticisms are accurate.

But I still liked it. (and I don't usually like stupid.)

Since it was No. 1 at the box office the weekend it opened, I guess I wasn't alone.

A group of us at work were talking about seeing it and another co-worker said, "I heard it sucked." We thought she was kidding at first but when I googled it, I discovered that, yep, the critics were saying it sucked.

So we went anyhow.

And most likely because we had lowered expectations, we all enjoyed it.

Now, like I said, it was stupid. It was borderline homophobic, predictable and painful at times.

But it was fun. John Travolta's characterization of the uber-successful, model-marrying, now it's all falling apart, Woody Stevens cracked me up. William H. Macy's clueless nerd, Dudley Frank, was endearing. The road trip portions of the movie made Steve and me want to go on a motorcycle trip. There was an amusing cameo at the climax of the movie and a cute bit involving Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at the end of the movie.

It was filmed on location in Madrid (mad-rid), New Mexico, one of the towns on the Turquoise Trail which Steve and I passed through on our honeymoon.

So, in the world of thumbs up, thumbs down, it gets a thumbs up. In the world of number of stars, I'm at a loss.

So sad

Blogger: Permission denied.

This blog is open to invited readers only

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

This is the message I get when I try to access The Company Bitch, one of a handful of blogs which I read regularly. This is a bummer.

I'm going to miss CB and her witty, wry observations about her work, Re-Boyfriend and her family.

And it appears that I'm not the only one:

Give Me My Blue Blanket.

Stephanie Land

yrun(two)dp?

Untitled In My Head

Life on the Couch

CB, will you let us back in?

At least AtomicTumor is still going strong . . .

Happy Birthday to Me

I just bought myself a dozen loaves of bread.

From a grocery store in New York.

I hope they fit in the freezer.

Wow.

Rachel starts Driver's Ed on Tuesday.

Bobby Yang Returns!

Sweet!!

Bobby's coming back to play at Highlands again on Saturday, March 31. If it's anything like his last show there, wow!

I have tickets to see Felicity Huffman in aspen soap that night too.

It's also the Red Onion's closing night.

And to top it all off, it's my birthday eve.

Party on.

Moving to Lagos, Nigeria

Bob & Lisa, my brother and his girlfriend, are moving to Lagos, Nigeria at the beginning of April for 3 years.

It's a move that has me and my siblings intrigued and has all of our parents concerned.

They went last month to scope it all out and Lisa's blogging their move.

I think that's cool and am looking forward to keeping up with them on their adventure.

Steve and I are wondering if they'll be allowed to have visitors.

Chinese Snow Removal

Hmmmm.

Oops, wrong ski

This is the ski I demo'd but in pink.

This one is the K2 Nancy; the one pictured in my last post was the K2 Phat Love.

What's the difference I asked? "Well, it's a whole different ski" was the helpful response.

This just after I was told that, no, I couldn't demo the Nancy today since it was already out. Of course, if he had let me take it last night like I wanted to . . .

Sorta took the wind out of my sails. At the very least, it cost the ski shop a sale unless the manager wants to beat the $499 price with free shipping and no tax that I found online.

Of course now there are more complications in that I just bought plane tickets to go to Sayulita in May so maybe I shouldn't spend the money on the skis. As much as I'd like to pretend like I can do both, probably not wise. Highlands does close four weeks from today and then it's one income for two months.

But we're not going to San Francisco for Spring Break . . .

But we still have to pay for Rachel's European Odyssey . . .

Went skiing today even though I couldn't demo the cool skis and it's amazing what a difference a sunny day makes to the conditions. Thick, yogurty stuff that was especially tough on my thin waisted Atomic Balanzes.

If I don't buy the powder skis, we'll probably have a good dump again before the end of the season . . .

So tired

Steve made (?) me demo some powder skis on Thursday and I was really wishing I was on them today. So much so that I'm going to demo them again tomorrow and am seriously considering treating myself to them for my upcoming "big" (ends in a 5!) birthday.

Today dawned clear and cold (say 0 degrees). Steve rode his bike to work for an early morning with a 6:45 am clock in so that the patrol could do the control work necessary to keep the mountain safe and get the Highland Bowl open.

With 29 inches of snow in the last week (most of it Wednesday - Friday), there was plenty of snow to control.

After debating whether I wanted to get out of my warm bed to go out skiing in the single degree temps I was seeing during the 8 am hour, I put an extra layer on and caught the bus to Highlands. Today was the last Women's College so I decided to take advantage of the stellar conditions and get a little learning in too.

Hooked up with a class taught by one of my neighbors and as I told her at lunch, it was a perfect clinic. We started slow, going over some basics on some easier terrain but then it got fun when we dropped into Steeplechase and Temerity doing laps on the Deep Temerity lift.

Highlands was packed (for Highlands). At 1 pm, we skied up to the DT lift, only to find approximately 150-200 people in line down there. It was quite the scene but even so, we waited in line for 6 minutes.

6 minutes! How can you complain about that?

I was a bit sorry that I had put the extra layer on while we were skiing Temerity (hard work there) but was thankful for it again after lunch when we moved to the Oly Bowl side where the wind was quite fierce.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

I first heard of this work when a friend blogged about it. Shortly thereafter I was in a book buying frenzy at our local bookstore (which was recently saved from the developers but that's another story) so I went looking for and bought it.

Since this is nonfiction, it can't rightly be called a graphic novel. I'm not sure what the correct term is. Graphic book?

Anyhow, either way, it's an interesting concept. It's very efficient. As I started it, I thought about all of the narrative with which the author didn't need to bother. Not being much of a comic book reader, I found at first that I was ignoring the artwork, focusing on the verbiage instead. After a short period of consciously forcing myself to both read and look, it became more habitual.

The books were very effective at conveying the slow yet inexorable march towards the Final Solution. The troubled father-son relationship and the comparisons between Vladek and other survivors provided a perspective on the post-war repercussions and fall-0ut.

I would have liked a more satisfying resolution of Vladek and Art's relationship but then it wouldn't have been nonfiction, would it?

Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley

What fun!

Filled with larger than life characters and escapades, this novel successfully portrays a "merchant of death," a lobbyist for the tobacco industry, in a sympathetic light.

While I've been aware of this work since the movie was being promoted, I was caught unawares by the whole cloak and dagger aspect.

This novel is more about corporate infighting set in a lobbying firm which provides much fodder for juicy ironies.

Looking forward to seeing the movie.