Last Friday I went and saw the movie Spider and the Lagoon. Afterwards we went to Williamsons Uptown Bar and Peanut Bar and hung out for a while. Don't get the seven-layer dip expecting seven layers or real cheese. It sounds like Matt is going to get a new car this weekend. He's looking at getting a Saturn ION.
On Saturday morning I checked my e-mail and found out that Mark and Sarah had their baby early Friday morning. Sydney Karina Nelson was born on Friday March 28th, 2003 at 1:44 AM (8 pounds 6 ounces). Mark sent the e-mail last Friday night and sounded like he needed to sleep badly.
Having problems with my insurance company. They want me to pay over $150 dollars that I don't owe. After a few phone calls, and email, and a fax they determined that they owe me $6.50. Odd how that works out. My contact at the company even said that she wouldn't blame me if I cancelled my policy.
Also, I saw an almost albino squirrel today. Instead of being white it was an odd yellowish color.
I didn't do so well in my Oscar picks this year. I picked quite a few of the major awards but fell very flat in the lesser categories. The Oscars were kind of a bust anyway. For the most part they were really boring, with long sections in between any of the actual awards.
On Sunday we also did a read through of Matt's script "A VACUUM CLEANER IS HEARD". That's not the real title but rather what I have decided is the working title.
We made out like bandits last night. I'm guessing that we saved about 30% on our groceries. We had coupons, employee discounts, and a few items that it appears the cashier didn't ring up. At some point the register needed her to push some button to continue scanning and she had already scanned several more items before she noticed. She looked at the bagged groceries and said that tonight must be our lucky night. She didn't want to try and figure out what had been missed. I can't blame her either. The line was getting longer and it would have taken quite a while to get it all sorted out.
We decided to wait until after we get the house to buy another bookcase. It's too hard to figure out where it will go in a house that you don't own yet. So, instead we filled two boxes full of books and moved them into storage.
Three pairs of geese has set up residence on the north side of the office building.
Last night we went to New World Market or maybe to Old World Market, I can’t remember. Any way, we were looking for a bookcase to hold the rest of the books that are currently stacked on top of and next to the other bookcase. They didn’t seem to have many bookcases and defiantly none that made sense for the price. We’ll have to find one somewhere else. Ideas anyone?
The spare room is finally looking good. We finally got most of the stuff into boxes or at least onto shelves. I just need to more boxes to finish packing the rest of the items. Then we will need to get a small bookcase, something that will fit under the window.
I had a Barbacoa for lunch today. I had no cash an needed somewhere to go that takes credit cards. They don't even have you sign. I had heard that a few places were putting that into place. Mainly places that handle many small transactions. It's too time consuming for them to manage all of the signatures.
Right now I am taking a break from cleaning our spare room. The parking lot out side our apartment is slowly filling up with water. It appears that the drain is plogged up with leaves. And since all of the snow is melting at the same time we now have a parking lot pool. The ducks seem to like swimming in it.
I had luch with my parents on Friday at Chili's. Mmmm, nice big burger. Then for dinner we met Janice at Khan's Mongolian Barbeque. I'd never been there before. Next time I go I will need to make sure that I'm alot more hungry. Janice had a little time off and was visiting from Indiana where she is attending grad school.
I've got Thin Mint cookies. Most importantly, since I've started the first row I now have to finish them all.
I should probably be careful. I'm eating about two pounds of carrots a week. Can you OD on carrots?
This last Friday we got together at Matt’s to play Axis and Allies. I ended up being the United Kingdom. I also ended up providing the final deathblow to Germany. It’s a lot easier when you have five bombers standing by to take down his resources each turn and U.S. forces to provide you with a good handhold in Western Europe.
Here is how everything is going right now.
When you are driving down the road in Minnesota there are certain day where your windshield gets covered in a thin layer of gunk. Road spray from the other cars on the road. It slowly obscures your vision until you almost can't see the road. Sometimes it happens without you noticing. This is why you always keep your windshield washer reservoir full. When you notice you can pull a lever and suddenly you can see. Just the help you needed. However one other thing that occurs in Minnesota is that sometimes a clump of ice forms on your wiper blades so that when you pull the lever to clear your windshield you instead have this even more obscured windshield. That chunk of ice allows the washer fluid to freeze right in the middle of you windshield. By trying to make it better the one thing that is suppose to make it better actually makes it worse.
Saturday we went to see a few Parade of Homes houses. Mainly just to get ideas. Some of the floor plans looked like they were duplexes that had been pulled apart. For instance one whole side of a home with only one or two windows. A few of the floor plans didn't even seem to make sense, bedrooms with see through glass doors.
More later.
MB and I watched The Adventures of Baron Munchausen last night. It had been a long time since I last had seen the movie. MB had never seen it before. It was referenced so many times in Lost In La Mancha that I had to make sure the MB saw it. It had been so long since I had last seen it that I’m guessing that many of the jokes probably went over my head the last time that I saw it. It’s one of those films where you can’t quite figure out what is going on but you just don’t care.
How is everything running? As smooth as a greased pig.
No hot water this morning. No matter how high you turned the hot it remained the same temperature. It did make for a quick shower though.
I can remember when if it took me more then ten to twenty minutes to leave for work I had a problem. Best case scenario now seems to be at least forty minutes.
I need to remember to stitch the sweater that I wanted to wear today. It's coming apart at the seams in two locations. I also have to stitch my greenish pair of slacks.
Why do you call it a pair of pants? It's not like I'm going to wear just one leg.
All of the brownies are now gone. I need to make spaghetti tonight. Someone near my cube is eating italian with parmesan. It smells really good.
I'm using my Oscar picks to do a trial run with my new fantasy football team name, El Tigre or maybe Los Tigres.
Plus a reminder to self. Have MB put in her picks.
We're getting together for another round of Axis and Allies this Sunday. This time I won't have to be two countries. It's more enjoyable when you have a littel more time to reflect on your moves. Plus hopefully I won't end up with Russia again. I have the hardest time keeping the Germans at bay.
MB made some yummy brownies on Monday. They are almost all gone now.
We're going to see Lost in La Mancha tonight at the Uptown Theater. It's a documentary on a failed film by Terry Gilliam. He was trying to make the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. It would have been interesting. Terry Gilliam would have had an interesting take on Don Quixote. Instead we have an interesting look at what can go wrong. It sounds like this documentary has made it into a few festivals.
We've started to use coupons. It's amazing what you can save when you do a little digging. We saved ten dollars in coupons on Sunday and another ten with MB's discount.
On Saturday I went to see Gods and Generals. The film is three hours and fourty minutes long. It was a little long for my taste but still a good film. I need to make sure that I have actually seen Gettysburg. If not I think my parents have it on VHS. Any time you watch an almost four hour film and still want ot see more you know it wasn't bad.
This Friday we went to Timber Lodge for David's birthday. There is nothing like a nice steak. It had been too long. I can't remember which steak I ordered, The Viking, Edmund Fitzgerald, or the F. Scott Fitzgerald. It doesn't matter.
After that we went to Alary's bar in St. Paul. Alary's is a Police bar and a Chicago Bears bar. First and foremost thought it's a police bar. As a side note they have a Mayor McCheese. Try and find it if you ever go.
Around midnight we went to Treasure Island. It's a long drive. I lost three dollars in quarter and nickel slots and MB won three dollars. Lori actually made out like a bandit and won eighty dollars. I think that David was the only one to play Black Jack. Which is probably a good thing seeing that he lost. The drive home was the longest drive that I have had to do in quite a while. We didn't get home until at least 3:30 in the morning. I slept until noon.