Movie stuff

I watched Dear John the other night. Even though I swore I would never read a Nicholas Sparks novel, or watch a movie based on one, my love for Amanda Seyfried is STRONG. I was so not in the mood for a sappy love story, but I figured, hey, it's Nicholas Sparks, so somebody's probably gonna die, right? And my faith was rewarded! People dying all over the place! \o/ I was, of course, predisposed to cry my eyes out, even though it was INSANELY cliched, but Amanda Seyfried is adorable as usual.

Last night, I saw Emma Caulfield's movie, TiMER, which was really cute. It's got a sort of "sci-fi lite" premise, which it uses to do some interesting things with the concept of soul mates. Love is now in the domain of science thanks to an implanted device (the titular timer) that tells you exactly when you'll meet The One - an idea that assumes, of course, that there's only one true love for everybody. It was supposed to make things easier - and it has apparently cut down on divorce - but it also raises a whole host of difficult questions: How do you deal with the arranged-marriage nature of forming a relationship with a total stranger you'll eventually love? What if you meet your one at 16? Or what if you won't meet your one until far in the future - do you wait around for them or have sex with no strings attached, knowing it won't go anywhere? If you meet someone you really like, but they're not your one, do you risk the digitally doomed romance? In the midst of all that, Emma's character illustrates how frustrating and scary an uncertain future can be. Her one hasn't gotten a timer, which means that hers is blank, leaving her in the dark about when - or if - she'll ever find her soul mate. Tired of obsessively searching for Mr. Right, she takes a risk on a guy whose timer has only four months left. Now she has to decide - trust the technology or follow her heart?

I also watched Seven Pounds, which was... meh. I tend to feel this neighborly affection for Will Smith, since he went to my dad's high school and all, and he does turn in a decent performance. But the movie doesn't really deliver much of anything. It's kinda icky on multiple levels, and yet not really dark enough to be intentionally disturbing. I'm also confused whether it's actually supposed to be a mystery or not. It seems like they sort of wanted a twist at the end, but telegraphed it so blatantly that it's hardly surprising by the time we get to the reveal.

I did a stupid thing...

I was warned.

When I went to Becky's house for 4th of July - Becky, of course, being the one who's been telling me to watch Dead Like Me - I mentioned that I had finally seen it, and I was almost done with season 2, and she said, "There's a movie. Don't watch the movie. You're gonna want to watch it, but don't. It will make you want to gouge out your eyes. It ruins everything."

But I thought, "How bad can it be, really?" So I did it. I watched Dead Like Me: Life After Death.

Holy shit, was I wrong.

It really is that awful. I know you're skeptical, but TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. Think of the worst possible continuation of the show imaginable, and then multiply it by ten, and that's how bad it is. Let's just skip to the hail of bullets, shall we?

Things I hated:

• No Rube. Who in their right mind thought it would be a good idea to do a Dead Like Me movie without Rube? Honestly, I can't blame Mandy Patinkin for wanting to stay far, far away from this dreck, but I want to know who thought it was a good idea to go ahead without him in the first place.


• Daisy. Seriously, what the fuck? I didn't think they could make Daisy MORE awful, but you know what? THEY DID IT. Y'all know I hate Laura Harris, right? The only way they could possibly have made it worse is if they replaced her with Sarah Wynter. So, of course, that's what they did. (Although I did get a tiny bit of amusement out of the fact that they played sisters on 24.) She always looks constipated, she's horribly wooden, and she has NO idea how to play a character like this.


• What was even the point of Cameron? I totally did not understand why he was there. I mean, I realize they had to replace Rube with someone, but generally you'd expect there to be a purpose behind choosing someone else. What exactly was his plan? What was he trying to achieve by leading the Reapers astray? Does he just get a kick out of evil?


• There was a lot of potential in Reggie finding out about George, and they totally wasted it. Not to mention the fact that they blatantly violated the rules - they were VERY CLEAR that George couldn't tell her mother who she was. She was literally rendered speechless when she tried, and later Rube confirms she's lost the memory she tried to share with Joy. And yet, George has absolutely NO problem talking to Reggie. Why couldn't they just have Reggie figure it out without George blurting out a bunch of memories?


• I can accept that they had to get new sets after five years, and although Happy Time was way too posh, I could've lived with it, but THEY BLEW UP DER WAFFLE HAUS! AND DIDN'T TELL US IF KIFFANY WAS OKAY! I am now incredibly worried about her.

Things I... nope, there's actually just hate here. Oh, I suppose the one positive thing about the movie was the return of the "Boom Boom Ba" song, which was totally stuck in my head for all of season 1. I missed it in season 2, so it was nice to hear it come back at the end there. But it was so not worth watching the whole movie when I've already downloaded it and can listen to it without being assaulted with horrible characterization and plot holes.

This is one of those situations where they really should've just left well enough alone. Other than Reggie finding out, I don't see how the movie adds to the show in any way (and it sure detracts a whole hell of a lot). It wasn't for "resolution" or "closure" because it doesn't leave things in any better of a place than the last episode did, and in fact introduces a whole mess (and I do mean mess) of changes that don't relate to the TV show at all.

Yep, another movie post

This batch is better than the last one, but still nothing that wowed me.

The Business of Strangers - Julie (Stockard Channing), a workaholic corporate executive, befriends Paula (Julia Stiles), the young technical assistant she just fired, when they end up at the same hotel for their business trip. There's a definite edge of competition in their relationship, but it's mostly friendly, with a little UST - until things take a dark turn. Julie gets more than she bargained for when they encounter a young man whom Paula claims once raped her best friend, and the two of them decide to get revenge in a gender-reversed take on In the Company of Men. It's a very unsettling story, and I'm not really sure if I liked it, but both actresses turn in fascinating performances.

Crossroads - As a lapsed Catholic, I was intrigued by this story of a Jesuit seminarian struggling with his calling to be a priest. His decision only gets more complicated when he goes to work at a soup kitchen and falls for Jill (Amy Acker), the winsome humanitarian who volunteers there. Although the characters' religion is a major part of who they are, the movie is surprisingly free of preaching or propaganda. It's somewhat predictable and the storytelling is a little clumsy, but it's kinda cute.

Then She Found Me - Helen Hunt plays a schoolteacher in the midst of a midlife crisis. In the space of a few days, her husband (Matthew Broderick) leaves her, her adoptive mother passes away, her biological mother (Bette Midler) comes back into her life, and she starts dating the father (Colin Firth) of one of her students, all while she is desperate to have a baby and is worried it's too late. It wasn't bad, per se, but the story is somewhat weak, and all the big name actors are very stereotypically themselves (Helen Hunt is very neurotic, Bette Midler is very brash, Matthew Broderick is very immature, and Colin Firth is very... British).

More movie reviews

I watched several movies over the weekend - unfortunately, none of them were all that great. I've been on a kind of indie/low-budget kick lately, but even though I keep going for movies with actors I like, I don't seem to have much luck.

Dare - starring Zach Gilford as Johnny, a bad boy loner who ends up in the center of an awkward love triangle. Alexa (Emmy Rossum, who is as bland here as she was in Phantom of the Opera) is using him to gain sexual experience, which she thinks will help her become a better actress, while her best friend, Ben, is using him for his own sexual awakening - and Johnny is so starved for affection that he doesn't realize they're both using him. Unfortunately, the guy playing Ben played him like a total creeper, and he looked like he was molesting Johnny when it was supposed to be consensual, which was just uncomfortable to watch. Really only worth it if you have a vested interest in seeing Zach Gilford play a different kind of kicked puppy.

Up - I really don't understand what all the hype was about. Okay, yes, the first half-hour was cute, and I recall a lot of people saying they wished the whole movie had been about the old couple. Agreed 100%. The second half-hour was pretty dumb, and by the final third, I was like, "WTF is even happening? This is absolutely ridiculous, even for a children's movie." Oh, Pixar. You let me down. Toy Story 3 better be better than this.

Deepwater - Note to filmmakers wanting to do a creepy thriller with a twist: be less obvious! This one is about a young drifter named Nat, recently released from the hospital, who comes across a car accident and saves the life of motel owner Herman Finch. In gratitude, Finch offers Nat a place to stay and a car, in exchange for Nat fixing up the rundown motel. In gratitude, Nat has an affair with his wife. There's something not quite right about everything, and Nat comes to believe that Finch is into some bad shit with the mafia, and possibly a murderer. Except it's pretty frickin' obvious from the way certain scenes are shot that Nat's perception doesn't match reality, and besides it's a RUNDOWN MOTEL. Everyone knows crazy shit happens at rundown motels!! So it's really hardly a surprise when we find out that Nat's a psychopath who escaped from a mental hospital. HE'S the one who murdered all the people, and a good deal of what's happened in the movie was all in his head (including the affair with Finch's wife). Sadly predictable, and Kristen Bell wasn't in it nearly enough.

Shades of Ray - Zachary Levi stars as a half-white, half-Pakistani actor named Ray who is torn between his white girlfriend of two years, to whom he's just proposed, and another half-Pakistani girl whom he's just met. I think it was supposed to be about racial identity and accepting who you are, but it kind of ends up seeming anti-interracial marriage. Ray's father feels he ruined his life by marrying a white woman, and is trying to prevent Ray from making the same mistake, so he introduces him to Sana (Sarah Shahi) - and somehow, after exactly four conversations with her, Ray is breaking his engagement to be with Sana because she "gets him," by which he means "is also biracial." Not that I don't understand the value in being with someone who comes from the same cultural background, but we don't actually see them connecting in any meaningful way. Presumably, he had a good relationship with his girlfriend, if he wanted to marry her, and he throws it away on a whim (which is a trope I LOATHE that comes up often in romantic comedies), and we're given no real basis for it except race. It could've been a decent story if their relationship weren't so poorly developed. Also, y'all know I love Zachary Levi to itty bitty bits, but Pakistani he is not. I especially found it impossible to buy the scenes of him auditioning for roles and being stereotyped as an ethnic actor. Seriously? They couldn't find an actual South Asian actor?

Movie reviews

Taking a break from the all Dexter, all the time that I've been doing lately, I watched a few movies. I tried Southland Tales, because I'll watch pretty much anything with SMG, but I definitely felt like I missed something... like, the point? I ended up turning it off after an hour and switching to Company, which is a Stephen Sondheim musical. It's surprising, because Into the Woods is my favorite musical ever, but I really haven't seen many Sondheim shows, so I'm attempting to fix that. This one was okay, but not going on the favorites list or anything.

I also watched a movie called Women in Trouble, because it starred Connie Britton and Adrianne Palicki and Sarah Clarke. I thought it was cool to find a movie whose cast is 90% women, especially with someone as awesome as Connie Britton, right? I should've known better. Lots of female characters does not a feminist movie make. Aside from the fact that pretty much every character is reduced to her sexual drives, it's kind of lacking direction and painfully cliche-laden at times. Bah. I think this review says it all.

Movies

I've started watching Dexter so expect reaction posts forthcoming, but for now, I'll mention a couple movies I watched last week - The Hurt Locker, which is about as amazing as everyone said it was, and Carolina, which pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting a typical romantic comedy - it stars Julia Stiles and involves her best friend who secretly pines for her while she's oblivious - but it turned out that the relationship drama was rather perfunctory, and what sucked me in was the family drama (yes, I am predictable). Julia's the oldest of three sisters who were raised by their wacky grandmother (Shirley MacLaine), and is a bastion of normalcy in her eccentric family. It's really sweet. I love families!

Also, this is random but Cleolinda blew my mind a little bit, so I want her to blow yours, too. As it happens, I parted my hair on the other side the other day, just to see if there was a difference. No one else noticed, but I found it rather annoying to have to keep forcing my hair to go against its natural instincts. Oh, well.

Lazybones

I have been doing nothing but watch TV and movies lately. I've made a nice dent in my Netflix queue, but I've still got 286 things left. Thus far, I've seen I'm Reed Fish, Spiral, Open House, See Jane Date, Series 2-5 of Red Dwarf, Heathers, Secondhand Lions, District 9, and Seasons 1 and 2 of Party Down.

So, I've been doing a rewatch of Red Dwarf, and sadly, it didn't cheer me up as much as I'd have liked it to, though I did have the amusing realization that my professor from last semester is exactly like Rimmer when he's had his anger removed by a polymorph. :) This, however, will never stop being funny. I'm on Series 5 now, aka the series with my two favoritest episodes ever, "Quarantine" and "Back to Reality." *bounces* Except I haven't seen it since I watched Buffy, and it's doing strange things to me. I was watching "Demons and Angels" and I couldn't stop thinking of "The Replacement," and I now want to see BtVS versions of "The Inquisitor" and "Terrorform." Also, it occurs to me that "Back to Reality" = "Normal Again," but funnier.

I also watched See Jane Date, starring Charisma Carpenter - who, btw, has enormous post-pregnancy boobs and fantabulous short hair that is not at all like the awful things they did to it on Angel. (Zachary Levi is also in this movie, but I'd already seen pretty much his entire scene on YouTube.) It was cute, although it kind of got my feminist hopes up, only to disappoint me. It starts out with a typical romantic comedy situation: Jane, tired of all the criticism and relentless nagging from her family and friends because she's single, lies and says she has a boyfriend - who, of course, is now expected to be her date at her cousin's wedding. So now Jane has two months to meet and fall in love with a guy, so she can bring him to the wedding and avoid getting caught in an embarrassing lie. After a string of horrible dates and her cousin's snide (albeit true) accusation that this supposed boyfriend doesn't really exist, Jane flips out, delivering an awesome and empowering rant about how trivializing it is to be judged on whether or not she has a boyfriend. She's a great person, and has a great career, and she's really satisfied with her life, and how dare they determine her self-worth based on her dating status. So Jane proudly ends up going to the wedding alone... where, of course, she meets the man of her dreams, and the movie completely undermines its message by being unable to deliver a happy ending unless its heroine is in a relationship. *sigh* I should stop expecting things from romantic comedies.

Clever Title

Witty recommendation for this youtube video.

Not dead yet

Though I'm starting to think it might be preferable to the alternative.

I am, as should come as no surprise, still f'ing sick. Worse, even, if the pukefest yesterday is any indication. Back on the toast-only diet. Am now reaching the point where losing more weight would no longer be seen as "the bright side."

I went to the doctor last week, and we're changing my medicine yet again. The new drug will require me to go in every few weeks for 2 hours to get medicine via IV rather than taking pills. If it works, I should see results in 1-2 weeks, which would be lovely, but I have to wait for pre-approval from my insurance before I can start treatments.

In other news, I went to my parents' house for Christmas, and we had our entire family over for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day we went to my cousin's fiance's parents' house for dinner, which was slightly weird. Also, my grandmother spent 3 days at our house, and still has no idea that I'm sick. It's not like we're even trying hard to keep it a secret at this point; she's just completely oblivious.

I came home on Monday, and my mom came with me, since she has the week off between Christmas and New Year's. We had a lot more planned than we actually accomplished (mostly due to my not feeling well), but we did manage to get to the Botanic Garden to see their Christmas display, and the Renwick Gallery, both of which were very cool.

My dad came down for New Year's Eve, and we went out for what turned out to be a really horrible dinner at Bistro Bistro in Shirlington. Never going there again. Ah, well, we all agreed it was an appropriate end to a pretty crappy year. We did manage to make up for it with a nice dinner on Saturday, after going to see the movie "Up in the Air," which I highly recommend.

Still kicking

I'm not actually healthy yet, but I am better than I was before I started taking the bad medicine, so that's good. I'm back in work, in any case.

So, entertainment news. Sarah Michelle Gellar had her baby, Damages has added some cool cast members, and they're making a Sweet Valley High movie. Did anyone else love those books as a kid?

Pop culturey things

First, there's a Monsters Inc. sequel in the works. Megan, clear your calendar for 2013, you're my Pixar-movie watching buddy.

BSG's Katee Sackhoff will be on the next season of 24. My fangirl head might explode.

And Kal Penn still hasn't started his job at the White House. You know, if he doesn't want it, I'm sure I could find someone to take it (like me).

More links

Coverage of the Dr. Horrible panel at the Paley Festival (wow, that got like NO coverage this year... last year, I remember linking to about 12 different TV show panels), and Kristen Bell (who just earned her own tag on my blog) starring in another wedding movie.

Update on Arrested Development movie

Michael Cera's kind of a dick.

Very cranky

I've been quite cranky since yesterday, but here's the headlines.

In case you were dead on Tuesday, you can read about Obama's inauguration, as well as an analysis of his speech line by line that is interesting probably only to me. Curious about Obama's flubbed oath of office? Turns out, Chief Justice Roberts is a grammar pedant.

In Kennedy news, Ted had a health scare at the inaugural luncheon, and Caroline withdrew her name from consideration for Hillary's Senate seat.

And on a completely unrelated note, Bradley Whitford is in negotiations to star in Joss' new movie. Whee!

I also watch TV

So, while the election is certainly the most important thing happening today, there's also lots of other stuff to mention. (Also, there's nothing to do in work and I'm bored. This is what happens when ever single legislator and their staffers leave town to campaign.)

Let's start with interviews. The showrunners of Bones and How I Met Your Mother both have interviews on where the shows are headed this season. There's also the first part of Christian Kane's interview about his new TV show, Leverage. And someone finally tracked down Jimmy Smits to see how he feels about the whole Obama/Santos comparison.

There's also a new Joss Whedon interview, in which the interviewer seems to be really, really defensive of Buffy and really, really hates the new vampire series True Blood. I'm not entirely sure why, other than "It's not Buffy." Joss, however, is happy to talk about both the Buffy comics and Dollhouse.

And finally, Jenna Fischer's got a new movie.

Happy Monday!

I seriously considered calling in sick to work today, but I'm a honest sort of girl, so here I am. My weekend mostly consisted of cleaning the apartment and writing myself recommendation letters, but I did (finally) watch "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." And OMG, guys. Why did no one tell me about the puppets?? Everything about that movie was all "Jason Segel's penis" blah blah blah... PUPPETS, guys. Dracula puppet musical. There are no words for how much I love Jason Segel right now... it cracks me up that he actually wrote that as a for serious musical.

I was also blown away by the Mad Men season finale last night. Holy wow, this is the best show on television right now (thank goodness this and Battlestar Galactica aren't on at the same time, or my head might explode).

Joss Whedon posted to explain the situation with Dollhouse, since rumors of shutdowns and tossing out episodes have caused fans to freak out. Seriously, Whedon fans get waaaay too worked up about this shit. Calm down, crazies. I know you've all been burned with Firefly, but seriously? The show's not even airing for another two months. And it's going to get terrible ratings if you've all had heart attacks from freaking out for six months straight. Trust me, all this panicking can't be good for your blood pressure.

Also from the Whedonverse, Alexis Denisof got a job, possibly prompted by a need to provide for the impending baby.

Life is getting its third new timeslot of the season, which I guess is good because this one's better than Friday nights at 10 when no one watches TV. Also, it nicely plugs the hole in my Wednesday night schedule, between Bones and Dirty Sexy Money.

And finally, you may have heard that Barack Obama purchased 30 minutes of airtime this week on the major networks, back before he had a humungous lead in the polls and this whole exercise seemed unnecessary. Various people give tips on what he should do with his airtime.

Break out the Sudafed

I'm very, very tired today, and if the number of tissues I've gone through today is any indication, I think I'm getting a cold. But I persevere to bring you these important links: the movie "Once" is headed to Broadway and Zeljko Ivanek (from 24 and Damages) is headed to Heroes. (But I won't be watching him because I'm DONE with Heroes!! I almost reconsidered when Chuck ended last night... I was like, "Eh, too lazy to find the remote." And then they killed Adam off in the first 7 minutes, and I was like, Click. That was just the thing I needed. No more Adam means no more reason to watch.)

Now, for a show I DO watch: a review of The Bro Code, written of course by HIMYM's Barney Stinson.

Further proof that my cat is retarded...

We discovered a new activity the other day. Staring at the wall. Oh, but not just the wall, see, 'cause that would be silly. No, Chelsea stares at the little spots of light that get reflected off my computer or whatever, or even just patches of sunlight on the wall. (I tormented her for a good ten minutes by holding my hand up to make a shadow and wiggling my fingers.)

Also, she's still opening the kitchen cabinet and walking around under the sink. I'm kind of afraid to keep cleaning stuff under there now, for fear she'll get into it. Do I need to buy those baby-proof locks or something?

Anyway, I've been giving my Blockbuster online a bit of a workout the past couple days, and rented Sweeney Todd and The Last Kiss. Sweeney Todd, I thought I would enjoy a lot more. I mean, Sondheim and Johnny Depp? How could I resist? The music was good, and Johnny was excellent, but gah! Too much blood. Definitely not a musical I need to see over and over (unlike Into the Woods, which I've seen an estimated 6,000 times). It was kind of cool to watch just after Dr. Horrible, though, because I could totally see the influence.

And The Last Kiss... you know, I keep thinking I should like Zach Braff, but his movies are just... blah.

In TV stuff, I've caught up on My Boys, which is a fun, if predictable, summer comedy, in the absence of HIMYM and The Office. But I'm calling it now - Bobby's gonna find out about PJ and Jack, and he's gonna call off the wedding, and then he's going to spend the rest of the season in love with PJ but they're not gonna get together until the season finale. It's all very Ted and Robin.

I also watched The Mole last night. I'm going with Craig as the mole, which will be my, er, 3rd guess. I clearly suck at this game. But I was sure Paul wasn't the mole, and I'm sure Nicole isn't the mole, which only leaves Mark and Craig, and I still maintain that Mark is too psychotic to be the mole. It's funny, now that we're down to three, I really want Nicole to win... and she was the bitch everyone hated in the first episode.

I have more Comic-Con reports to post, but I'll get to that in a bit. Have to make a phone call.

Everyone's a hero in their own way...

You, and you, and... mostly me, and you!

Seriously, people. Not. Getting. Old. (Well, not for me, anyway...)

I swear, last Dr. Horrible article. I promise. Until the next one.

Also, more HIMYM scoop. I think Dr. Horrible has made me even more excited for this to come back, because, as I've mentioned before, NPH rocks my world.

Oh, so did I mention I went to see Mamma Mia on Friday night? Christi and I went out for clichéd Mexican food and clichéd movie night, where I regaled her with my most recent adventures in dodging creepy guys. :)

So, I saw Mamma Mia years ago, when it first opened on Broadway, and it's a manic, cheesy, makes-you-feel-like-you-just-did-a-lot-of-drugs kind of show. And OMG, that feeling is, like, magnified by 10 watching the movie. It was fun as a play, but it might be a little too out there to work well on screen. In any case, I was again impressed by the singing voices of famous people (apparently, Meryl Streep has had opera training?), and awesome, Amanda Seyfried from VM was the daughter! I didn't even know she was in it until I was looking up show times and saw her in the ad. Holy crap, Pierce Brosnan got old, but Meryl Streep did a good job acting like she was 20 years younger than she actually is.

You wanna know what's super disturbing, though? The chorus. Seriously. I don't know, maybe it works better on stage, but these random Greek people would pop up in the most inappropriate places to sing the chorus parts, and I kept looking at Christi and going, "OMG, that's creepy!"

*cough*

Okay, so I completely just hacked up a lung while on the phone with a Senator's office. Note to self: bring cough drops to work. I've had this itchy scratchy hairball-in-my-throat thing for about a week now, and it's rather starting to bother me.

I did have an interesting weekend, though. I went home (again... why is it that whenever I go home, it seems to be two weeks in a row. Can't we plan better than this?) for my cousin's college graduation party. Always entertaining, given that my family is completely batshit crazy. The Craziest Quote of the Night award goes to my grandmother for this gem:

My mom was explaining to my grandmother, my great aunt, and my second cousin why Elaine's husband Bill wasn't at the party - because he met some woman on the internet and ran away with her to Arizona. They are more appalled by the fact that he met her online than that he cheated on his wife. My grandmother says: "How could you meet someone online? You don't even know who they are! They could be Chinese!"

Yes, of all the things that could possibly go wrong with someone you met online, the worst she could think of was that they could be Chinese. Not an ax murderer, not a serial rapist, not a child molester. Chinese.

I also got to endure the usual disapproving "you need to get yourself a boyfriend" from Aunt Rose, because apparently, at 24, I should be married and popping out babies by now.

ANYway, Saturday I went to a Philadelphia Soul game with my dad (and no, we did not see Bon Jovi). Indoor football is so cute! The field's so tiny! And the fans are so close to the field that "ball intercepted by a spectator" is an actual referee call that stops the play. Aww! (As it turns out, if a fan catches the ball and then throws it back to a player, it doesn't count.) I think half the fans went home with a football. The scores are ridiculous, though. I mean, the field's only 50 yards long, so it's not that hard to score, and the Soul won 62-61 (it was a nail-biter at the end there).

We missed the beginning of the game, though, because there was a Jimmy Buffett concert at Citizens Bank Park, and so the entire sports complex was PACKED. I've never seen so many tents and RVs in one place in my life. Apparently, people come just to tailgate. It was ridiculous - aside from the obligatory Hawaiian shirts, leis, grass skirts (some worn by men), and parrot hats, people brought SAND. Actual sand from the beach. And inflatable pools! I mean, seriously, people! It was the most insane thing I've ever seen. And you should've seen the parking lot when we came out. It had rained, of course, washing the mounds of sand all over the place, and the entire parking lot was a vast wasteland of trash and the remnants of tents and portable grills. It seriously looked like a hurricane had come through.

We also watched The Other Boleyn Girl this weekend, which was good (although not my dad's first choice for a Father's Day activity).

It's been a busy day in work today, as we are minus one secretary. Our temp, who has been here since Charlene left, had her last day on Friday, but the new girl doesn't start until next week, so we're on our own. Consequently, I haven't had much time to catch up on my usual sites and blogs. I should, however, mention the very sad news that Tim Russert died. I still can't believe it. He's been such a fixture in news and in politics that it's hard to imagine it without him.