Or the scene where the villain is mean

Last night Melissa and I finished our best picture round up by watching Seabiscuit. Going into the movie I wasn't expecting much. I kinda felt that the studio blitz got in on the ballet and that there were other more deserving films. Well, I take it all back. I was very impressed with the movie and overall they did a good job. Of course I don't think it has any shot of winning, but that just shows you how much I liked Return of the King and Lost in Translation. A few weeks ago we saw one of the other best picture nominees, Mystic River. Along with best picture, this movie is up for a number of acting awards, and I'll join the crowd on this one and say all of the actors nominated for the movie deserve it. Honestly this movie has some of the best acting I have seen this year. However, I don't like it for best picture. To me it just seemed like a slighty better done Law and Order episode. But what do I know.

As I watched Alias this season, I was struck by a desire, one I bet is shared by many, to have Lauren turn out to be evil. When it was shown that she was the sniper I was happy, and relieved since I thought that meant the end of the love triangle. I was caught unaware though during the last new episode when they made her evil. Seriously I was half expecting a shot of her snapping kittens heads or something just so we got the point. We'll see where this goes.

We dropped Smallville. All the episode we haven't seen yet are still on the DVR but that won't be for long. I don't know, it just stopped being interesting. I think the breaking point was when I realized all I really needed was to read the two paragraph summary of what happened and I would be happy. So I will still keep up with it, since I want to know what happens with Lex, but I won't watch it.

Angel has been cancelled. Damn. How odd to have such a down feeling and such a good feeling all at the same time. I am of course referring to the puppet episode. Pure genius. God only knows how Joss in going to end this one, or if its even going to end. Stay tuned.

The Apprentice is the best thing to happen to reality TV, ever. I'm just saying. Every episode seems to have a nice little business lesson if you are willing to look for it. And the idea of having the prize be a job and the criteria for being fired being the ability to handle that job, just make it all the more watchable. One other thing, I have never wanted to hit someone on TV as much as I want to hit Omarosa.

Bablyon will pay for razing Alexandria

So I've been playing Civilization 3 again. Anyone who has played this line of computer games and liked them will probably understand why I have been quiet of late. Sadly a lot of good stuff has been going on that I have made no mention of. I'll provide a recap and fill in the blanks as time permits.

As part of my birthday weekend celebration, Aamir, Taylor, and I played a round of golf at Lions. I shot a 109, not my best but a pretty good round. Later that evening Melissa and I hosted a gin party at our house. It took a little while for the card playing to start and some of the guests headed home early, but once we really started playing and the daquiris started flowing, a good time was had by all. Now all I have to do is plan the next one.

The following weekend for most of the coutry was Super Bowl weekend. For my family, it was Janus weekend. The ball this year was quite a bit different than years past. Friday night the cousins and friends went out on Bourbon and had hurricanes and hand grenades, so the next morning was a little rough. The ball was in a new room this year so that took a little getting used to. Also, my group was smaller than in years past so that was an adjustment as well. I had a wonderful time as member of the krewe and was able to continue two traditions. The first, being in a football skit. The second, impersonating Elvis. But more on that later. Back to the Super Bowl. Not much to say really. I thought it was a great game, even with the uneventful first 20 minutes, in fact in part because of that. As for the halftime show, we luckily had it on tape, so those of us who missed the quick nip were able to rewind and watch it frame by frame. That and the naked guy at the start of the second half. I guess what really bugged me about the while thing was how much we heard about the crappy pubilcity stunt and how little we heard about the game, a game some are calling the best Super Bowl ever. Yeah, pisses me off.

After traveling to New Orleans for the ball, I headed out to Los Angeles on Wednesday for an IBM customer visit. We spent most of our time in Pasadena, which redeemed my view of LA. In my two previous trips there I didn't really like the place. Well I guess I had just seen the highs and the lows, the Beverly Hills and the Comptons if you will. Now I know Pasadena is a rich place to live, but it just seemed more homey than the other parts of LA I had seen, and that was good to say. On the drive back to the airport on Sunday, our host drove us through Hollywood, kind of the driving tour, and what did we see but a hooker dressed like Wonder Woman. That event may inspire code names for years to come.

After the LA trip, played golf with Taylor and Jerry. I had a very bad round shooting a 123 AND I owed Jerry money, which just makes it worse.

This past Friday Melissa and I attended the Austin Ballet. We have been attending for two years now and I have gotten a feel for what I like and what doesn't work for me. I fully expected not to enjoy Friday's performance. I couldn't have been more wrong. The performance was titled 3x3 and features three live bands with three different choreographed numbers. Not only did I greatly enjoy the music, I enjoyed the dancing. I knew it would be more modern dancing and so therefore expected it to be less Nutcracker and more like the other modern performances we have seen, but something about the way these numbers were done just worked for me. It was modern but not jaring. I'm not sure I can explain it well but I liked it. I also think I might go pick up a Shawn Colvin CD.

Valentine's Day morning Melissa and I awoke to find the backyard covered in about an inch of snow. It was as shocking as I thought it would be. The thing that struck me the most was the snow on the trees. It was pretty in that New England countryside Robert Frost kind of way. Never thought I would see that kind of beauty in Austin. We immediately dressed in layers and went outside to play in the snow. Our first activity was a snowball fight with the boy next door and his friend. After that wore off the boys and I rolled snowballs, built a snowman, and took pictures. Once the boys destroyed the snowman, Melissa and I went to the backyard and built our own. Melissa, in her first snowball rolling experience, provided the base. We dressed up the snowman, complete with fur hat, then went inside to call the parents. Only problem was I didn't do a good job balancing the poor boy and he fell over not five minutes later suffering a mortal wound to the head. No matter, we have the pictures to prove we did it, and the main snowball took till today to melt.

Will fill in any blanks later and go into some movie and tv stuff.