The weekend started out well, our daughter was invited to a friend’s home to stay overnight so the missus and I settled down to watch a couple of flicks, Bourne Supremacy and Happy Accidents. Looks like the wait will be another year at least before Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne in the third installment of this series. I think the two Bourne movies are my favorite Damon movies. Happy Accidents is a wonderful, quirky independent film with Vincent D’Onofrio and Marisa Tomei. It was recommended to me a few years back by my brother-in-law and Mary and I love it. If you like D’Onofrio in Law and Order: Criminal Intent you’ll enjoy him in this…he has the same bizarre mannerisms just slightly more so. And how can you go wrong with Marisa Tomei! Happy Accidents is an off-beat romantic comedy in which D’Onofrio’s character is either slightly crazy…or from the future!
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Saturday found me cleaning up the house before the guys came over to watch the playoffs. It has obviously been awhile since I performed spring cleaning on the computer room…a place I believe I once referred to on the blog as “the place where the magic happens”. It looked more like Shelob’s Lair as I found cobwebs everywhere that had seemingly defied discovery on other occasions. I am surprised I was not carried off in the night by a mob of angry arachnids as an act of vegeance for my wanton destruction of their work.
The playoffs Saturday night were every bit as sickening as we all thought they would be. Denver was handed the game by an inept Patriots team and now they only have one more game to win to make it to the Super Bowl. Thankfully there was good food (Zarda BBQ and homemade brownies) and good company (James and Jeff) to dull the pain.
Sundays’ games were no much better. I jokingly predicted that the Bears/Panthers game would end up being the best game of the weekend and am sad to report that it actually was. I really hope next weekends’ games redeem what has been a sad playoff season so far.
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I have been wanting to redecorate the bathroom for some time (it is on the Uberlist!). Mary has a color in mind that she wants and I have been wanting to add a slight classic science fiction element in there somewhere so I was excited to win the following 2 small prints from Ebay on Saturday.
They are 1976 prints of two 1950’s Famous Funnies Buck Rogers comic covers drawn by Frank Frazetta. Being almost 30 years old the prints have an ever so slight amount of wear which is just the look I was going for because I don’t want something that looks like it is brand new off the press. I cannot wait to get these and get started on the bathroom…looks like I might get that done ahead of my target date on the Uberlist.
I also won a hardback copy of a John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs double volume featuring two stories from the series with a wrap-around dust jacket featuring John Carter, Dejah Thoris and a large lion-like creature(scroll down for image) by Frank Frazetta. The copy I won looks to be in amazing shape.
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Today is the day we honor the birth of one of the greatest leaders of the last century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So much has already been said in his honor over the years that I will just add that he is indeed an inspiration…his spiritual and social convictions were quite admirable and the world is a better place for having him in it.
Mary and I are off of work today due to the holiday and Tori is out of school. I plan on doing some more work in the basement and then we will relax, read, play games and watch movies. I love these three day weekends, especially coming so soon after Christmas vacation. The next will be in February for President’s Day!!!
I hope you all have a marvelous Monday!
One of the things I miss most about working on an air force base is the celebration they’d arrange each year for Martin Luther King’s birthday. It was a big deal, as it should be. At our company, it’s not spoken of or acknowledged in any way. Another nail in the coffin as far as I’m concerned.
Janet, I am glad that Carl and my work are closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day. I remember reading about him when I was in 4th grade and really admiring him. When I was in college, a lady who had marched in Mississippi spoke to my class. She was able to convey to us how inspiring Dr. King had been, and how he made the protesters understand how important a non-agressive march was to the safety of the individuals who had to live in the area. It was truly humbling to hear her speak.
I am getting over a head cold this weekend, but I am enjoying watching movies, reading, and spending time with my family. I do like the Bourne character/movies. I cry each time he goes to tell the Russian girl about killing her parents. I know it seems silly to cry during an action film. 🙂 I like the Happy Accidents movie; although, it made so much more sense when I watched it the second time.
I am excited about the bathroom getting repainted! We are going to get new towels too (thanks to my mom and dad).
So what color have you chose, Mary?
I am jealous of all the time you guys get off together.
Can’t believe you have ANOTHER day off!!
If you need an idea for a movie to go to today, see The Family Stone. Mike and I went to this on Sat. and it was great. Some may say that is was too drawn out and slow but I think this is what made it a good movie. I wanted it to keep going. It actually made me cry and laugh out loud. Great movie!
(p.s. There were a couple lines I didn’t agree with but if you overlook these, it was great!)
I am glad to have the day off. Got a couple hours of good work down in the basement…its coming together.
I think we’ll wait to reveal the colors until its done and we see what it looks like…if it goes wrong we may have to pretend the whole thing didn’t happen and wipe everyone’s memories!!!
Thanks for the recommendation Abby. Janet, sorry….
Happy Accidents sounds great, I just went to add it to my DVD rental list but unfortunately it looks like the film hasn’t made it to the UK! Typical!
Hope you’ve had a great day off of work…I could have done with one of those!
Here from Michele’s! Hi!
I saw a link to a reasonably priced region-free DVD player on Neil Gaiman’s blog the other day. I’m half tempted to pick it up as there are several movies I’ve seen on UK movie sites that aren’t available in Region 1 format that I’d love to see. Sorry you’re going through that from the other end. Region specific DVD’s are ridiculous!
Thanks for the visit!
Really enjoyed the first of the Bourne films, Matt Damon was really great. Haven’t managed to see the second yet. If I miss something in the cinema I often don’t see it for ages as I rarely rent.
Region-free is the way to go. You should google your curent dvd player to see if it has a region-free hack. Mine did and never gave any problems
i had the day off yesterday too. my mom drove down, & we went shopping. and we couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day in january! didn’t even need a coat! now, it’s nasty, rainy out today; so i don’t mind being stuck inside.
i can’t believe someone actually like The Family Stone.. but i guess there are movies for everyone’s tastes!
Thanks Fence, I’ll check that out.
Glad you enjoyed your day off Angela! I’m not thrilled about going back to work this morning.
I only caught the last two quarters of the Steelers Colts game, but that down-to-the-wire finish certainly had me on the egde of my seat.
But then again, my NFL knowledge rivals that of my obscure Slavish concertos knowledge, so I just might be talking out of my ass.
yo, i have a multi-region player that you can “long-term borrow” if you reimburse me for the shipping. i bought it a few years ago but don’t really use it anymore. let me know.
Is the “yo” for me or someone else? Just kidding. I will probably take you up on that though you don’t need to hurry with it at this point.
The thing with the Steelers v. Colts game is that it really wasn’t that exciting if you watched the whole game. By and large the Colts were lifeless and the Steelers were rolling early and then decided to quit passing and just run to kill time. They should’ve never let the Colts back in it. And then there was a ridiculous call where Pittsburg obviously intercepted the Colts but they gave the ball back to Indy thus giving them a chance to come from behind. And to top it off the Steelers tried to give the game back to them by fumbling just before the endzone. It really wasn’t as good as those last 15 minutes or so indicated.
See? Talking out of my ass.
That’s quite a trick Machine! You were on the money though for only watching that half….I wish I had only watched the second half and then it would’ve felt like more of an exciting game than it did after watching how ineffective and inept the Colts looked in the first half.
we always get to the playoffs & choke.
not that i even bother to watch..
yo yo yo. yeah..i won’t get to send it for awhile anyway… but don’t buy one cause mine’s just in the cabinet. netflix keeps all my dvd time locked up now anyway.
Angela, I knew that was going to happen…I’ve never agreed with the idea of pulling the starters out of the game at the end of the season. They get rusty and it really showed with Indy this past weekend.
Thanks yo-yo, I’ll remember that.
I love D’Onofrio! Thanks for the heads up. I had no idea about this film.
Anytime, there’s a D’Onofrio mention in the comments of the Robert E. Howard post as well…he started as the author in a movie version of the later years of his life called The Whole Wide World.