There's a booby prize?

This weekend was pretty busy. Friday we went to ZTejas for drinks and appetizers to celebrate Taylor and Carrie's condo purchase. Then we went to said condo for a lovely "look no furniture" party. Melissa has already reserved a spot by the pool. Saturday I spent some time at Jerry's playing GT4 with the steering wheel. With the wheel and the pedals it truly feels like you are driving, especially with the pedals. Jerry spent most of the time in the attic trying to run speaker wire. That night Melissa the Sister had a party at the farmhouse in Manor. It was an interesting clash of her Chad friends and her school friends, but other than a minor Yankee Candle incident, no sparks flew. Sunday Melissa and I finished our Best Picture quest by watching Finding Neverland. More on that later. Sunday night we settled in with friends to watch the big show. Chris Rock was the best host they've had in a while, I had the volume up a little too loud, that bacon dip was way too good, betting makes anything more fun, and Aviator got smacked.

We both greatly enjoyed Finding Neverland. To be fair, any movie that has both Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet will likely elicit that response from the two of us. It's got a sad ending, which honestly you can figure out really early, and so I continued my streak of crying for just about anything. My favorite aspect of the movie was the basic story. I think I am sucker for any movie that presents a backstory for a story I know and this movie did that very well. It also dealt with the children in the story very well, which I mean I guess is the whole point, but anyway, it did it well. I'm just glad we kept our Best Picture streak going, even if we cut it a little close.

Go Lupo Go

Although we did not get to watch Die Hard last night, the Mexican Martinis and Gran Turismo 4 more than made up for it. Booze and games, the recipe for a great man night. The game really is awesome by the way. I mean yeah it takes itself way too seriously as the opera/rock opening shows, but it just looks amazing and there is so much detail there about the cars. And I'm not even a car person. Just think how Jerry feels. We went through the B license training each taking turns and it was actually enjoyable. I thought it might be boring or frustrating, and honestly at times it was, but the moments were brief and overall we had a good time. I expect to spend many nights to come playing that game.

GTA:SA Update - the Desert Eagle is awesome

Zeus

It's always fun to see stuff you worked on in the news.

Louie, Louie

Saddle Thrombus, Feline aortic thromboembolism, or what I would just describe as a blood clot is not something you want your cat to have. Ours does.

A while back the vet mentioned that Louie had a heart murmur. She told Melissa that meant he could go at any moment. We were obviously shocked but as we were told there was nothing we could do about it, we did what any normal people would do, we promptly put it out of our minds. Turns out heart problems like this tend to cause blood clots to form, which lodge in the rear arteries, which causes sudden paralysis in the back legs. Most cats do not survive this. Ours has, so far.

Saturday morning began with our normal routine. Louie woke us up and we let him out. Actually us and we in that last sentence only refer to Melissa. A little while later, Louie wanted back inside, as is his way. Melissa let him in and sat back down on the couch. Everything seemed fine. Then as Louie crossed the living room it was as if his back legs gave out on him. He dragged himself under the bed, then dragged himself up the stairs before we could figure out what was going on. We promptly made a vet appointment and drove over there. Not the best Saturday morning.

The prognosis was not good. We were given three options, take him home and hope for the best, bring him to the emergency vet clinic where they could observe him, and we'll let's not mention the third option. The vet gave him something for the pain and we decided to take him home. Our basic thinking was if we got him home and he seemed uncomfortable or in pain, we could always bring him to the emergency clinic. If however, he was comfortable, and appeared not to be in pain, we wanted whatever was going to happen to happen in surroundings he knew and to give us the chance to be there.

He spent most of Saturday curled up on the couch. Awake but kinda out of it. We left the house only briefly, partly to stop us from hovering over him, and partly to do something other than cry. He eventually made his way to our bed and he slept there with us that night. I figured we would be lucky if he survived the night.

Since that night he seems to be doing much better. He is as aware as he has ever been and judging by his whining to go outside, he certainly thinks he is OK. He's eating and drinking and using the liter box so everything is good there. He has what appears to be full control over his back right leg. His left however is not doing so well. We've talked to the vet a few times since and will be going back in a day or two to check up. It's all about that left leg and of course the fact that something like this is likely to happen again. I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. It's all I know to do.

Colonial times

I love all Pottery Barn furniture but I can't justify the cost. Anyone else have that problem? Actually you can see exactly what I am talking about. Check out the Bedford Lateral File Cabinet, click view in room, and then imagine the two items with the Antique Honey Stain. I love it, but do I $848 love it? I want to walk into other stores with that picture and ask, "Do you have anything that looks exactly like that?" And then I wonder how much time it's worth searching for the just like Pottery Barn item and if I would have been better off just getting the darn thing from Pottery Barn in the first place. I think I have way too high of a value on my time.

GTA:SA Update - completed ambulance missions, completed trucking missions, completed quarry missions, trying to take over a territory with just a pistol is hard

Often he who does too much does too little

A while back I read an interesting article at the Motley Fool that was about paying attention to companies that diversify for seemingly no good reason. I took it a different way. Here's an excerpt.

Drucker believes that most people and, by extension, most companies, are terribly unfocused. They have too many loves to satisfy and too few commitments. They dabble here, dally there, and fail to master anything. ... Drucker (names) it a primary driver of sustained mediocrity.

Reading those lines hit me like a ton of bricks. I saw myself in that description. I seem to be interested in everything and yet don't follow anything through. You should see my to-do list. There are mountains of things to do every night and yet usually I look at the list, realize there's way too much to do in one night, and then don't do any of it. So now I'm in the process of simplifying my life. First step is cutting back on the to-do list. I still need a list, trust me on that one, I just need to plan less for each day. That way I can actually get the things on the list done. The second part is focusing on a couple of hobbies and dropping the rest. That part I'm having a harder time with.

Who am I

A driver's license, as the name would imply, proves you are authorized to drive a car. But it's also used as our main form of identification. Does that even really make sense? Do all driver's license offices check to make sure that you really are who you say you are or are they more concerned with your ability to operate a motor vehicle? Should they be in the ID business? It's an interesting question and one I never really thought of until I read an article about Congress thinking about standardizing some of the information on driver's licenses. Maybe we should all have to use passports even to fly in the country? But even that is using a document created for one purpose and using it for another. Should there be a new document, an actual ID card? I'm certainly a little frightened by the privacy concerns and how such an ID would be used, but wouldn't it make sense to have an actual item designed for the purpose of identification?

Al and Beth

Melissa went out and bought the Ray soundtrack today and the Genius album. I've always enjoyed a Ray Charles tune or two, "Georgia on my Mind" in particular, but I never really knew his body of work. For instance, I had no idea "What I Say" was his song. No Jerry, I did not think the Funky Beans just came up with it. Anyway the soundtrack CD is filling a void I didn't even think was there. Haven't cracked open the new CD yet. I'll let you know.

While listening to All Things Considered on the way home from work I heard an interesting piece on Valentine's Day. The guy basically said that the holiday pretends to be about love when really it's about new love. Kinda like most movies that are promoted as love stories are all about the couple falling in love and not usually so much about what happens later. The man has a point and says it in a better way than I ever could. Check it out. It's not too long.

Homemade Creme Brule is an excellent dessert. Watching you wife torch it is even better.

Four Down

In our quest to watch all the best picture nominees, we watched Ray this afternoon. Wow. The movie certainly deserves it's spot in the best picture nominees. Don't think it will win though, mostly due to the last fifteen minutes. It's just hard to wrap up a movie like that and tie it off neatly. It's a shame since I think the rest of the movie is very tight. Jamie Foxx however, just might win. It's almost eerie to watch him in the movie. Thought I knew it was him, I didn't really realize it was him till this one scene where he had his eyes open. Very strange. A year ago did anyone think of Jamie Foxx as a great actor?

Continuing the Ray Charles theme, Melissa watched the Grammys tonight and I poked my head in for the musical numbers. Those performances in HD really are something else. I guess we have to go get the Genius album now.

Picked up American Idiot in the store the other day. Melissa hadn't bought it yet and didn't seem about to anytime soon and for some reason I just thought we should have it. Now, I'm not a great judge of music, and am no real fan of Green Day, but I think I love this album. I like the story aspect of it, the punk opera I've heard it called. And I just love the music. Again, really happy with my recent speaker purchase.

GTA:SA Update - I love driving around the tank.