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Anyway, Halloween was nice. Apparently the neighborhood does manage to observe the “no lights, no candy” custom, so no one knocked on the door. This left us free to watch the movies that y’all chose for us! :D

First up was Plan 9 from Outer Space. It tied for second on the poll along with Pan’s Labryinth and Great Pumpkin. We went with that one because after watching Johnny Depp in Ed Wood I had to see it. Also, Pan’s Labryinth was too long if we wanted to see more than one movie.

Hooboy what a delightfully bad movie! I was loving the “effects” and some of the hilarious dialog:

“Atmospheric conditions in outer space often interfere with transmitting”

“…all you of Earth are idiots.”

Next was the movie in first place – Beetlejuice. Love this movie! It’s a lot of fun. Michael Keaton is awesome, and I love Geena Davis. Earth Girls Are Easy is one of my favorite movies. (OK, Jeff Goldblum has a lot to do with that…)

Today, I slept in some while sqlrob was playing Fallout 3. Later this afternoon, we headed out to lunch and Half Price Books. OMG but Dog Almighty is good. Maybe not good for you, but sooo tasty.

When all was said and done, we hit 3 bookstores (2 used and Borders), GameStop, and stopped for ice cream at Amy’s. Yum!

Now just kickin’ back and enjoying a Saturday night. Tomorrow I’ll need to do laundry and a bunch of reading for class.

Originally published at Jen’s Corner. You can comment here or there.

It’s Halloween and sqlrob and I are planning on turning off the porch light, barricading ourselves in the house and watching scary/halloweenish movies. But, we can’t decide what we want to watch!

Help us decide! I’ve made it a checkbox so you can check more than one, but remember, we will have to sleep sometime…

I joined a photo group called Project 365+1 – the idea is you take (and post) a photo every day. Other than that, there’s no rules – it can be slice of life, “artistic”, whatever. Mine will probably be heavy on the cat side. :)

My cameras are:

• Nikon D50 (love this camera)

• Canon Powershot SD1000 (new!)
• HP Photosmart 320 (old, and probably retired soon)

Anyhow, so far I haven’t missed a day, although I’ve been posting in batches rather than every day. I also haven’t managed to post them on my ‘blog, either. I really need to work on that. Hm. Think I’ll turn twitter posting back on too.

I’m going to “catch up” with photo posting, so expect a slew of picture posts soon. Gonna cheat and back date them, too.

Here’s my flickr page and my Project 365+1 set.

Books

I updated my 2007 book list – I apparently read at least 87 books last year. I think I missed a few, but no more than 3 or 4 I imagine. Maybe this year I’ll actually manage a few “reviews”.

Skool

Semester II! Back for English Composition II and U.S. History II (after 1865). I decided to drop Spanish II for now. I could probably do it, might even manage to pass (seeing as how I somehow got an A in Spanish I) but it would put the other classes at risk. History kinda got the short shrift last term and I really would rather do better this term. So, the plan is to re-take Spanish I for summer term, and take Spanish II next fall. Seriously, I don’t feel that I grasped Spanish I at all; certainly not well enough to dive into Spanish II.

Gaming

Man, I haven’t touched a console in months! I’ve been solely playing DS games. Currently I’m playing Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker – it’s DragonQuest meets Pokemon, and it’s a lot of fun.

Movies

Movies we’ve seen! The moratorium on regular movie theaters is still on – the only place we’ll go is the Alamo Drafthouse; specifically, the one on South Lamar. We’ll do the downtown one, but it’s gotta be for something special. We’ve got a backlog of movies though, so there’s always something to watch when we feel like it.

• Cars – Fun movie, we were cheering! (Yet another reason to watch at home.) Pixar is just fantastic, although they may be losing it: Ratatouille wasn’t very good, in fact, we didn’t finish it.

• Finding Neverland – I adore Johnny Depp, and this was a fun and bittersweet story.
• The Libertine – Damn, I adore Johnny Depp! I liked this movie quite a bit, though Rob didn’t.
• Sweeney Todd – Oh wow but this movie was fantastic. I’ve always loved the story of Sweeney Todd, and this was a superb version. I cringed at every throat slash and winced at every body drop. This was Sweeney Todd!. And yeah – Johnny Depp. And Alan Rickman! Man, it just doesn’t get better than that!
• Beowulf – Wow this was cool. Rob kept muttering something about crossing the uncanny valley; I dunno, but I thought it was great.
• The Dark Side of the Rainbow – Alamo Drafthouse showed this Oz/Floyd combination – a lot of fun, and surprisingly eerie in places. Still, I think I should have had more to drink before going. :D

Cats

Cats are all fine. We’ve gotten through (knock wood) a horrendous parasite infection, but it looks like it’s pretty much over with. The kittens are apparently acting “normally” now, which means they’re alternating being destructive little demons on crack with being cuddlebugs. The latter is the only thing saving them now. That and the fact that they are adorably cute.

All done!

That’s about it for now. I’m sure there’s more, but it’s long past and out of my head. I’m lucky I remembered this much. Now to have some lunch, then start posting and backdating my photos! Hasta!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was great! And speaking of Harry Potter, since there’s some spoiler hints even on CNN, it’s time for me to pull the plug.

From /. – “Salon reports that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been leaked four days before it hits bookstores. It turns out that someone with access to the American edition of the book has taken a photograph of every one of the pages and made them available via bittorrent. Publishers may well be quaking in their boots, but in some places the quality is barely legible. On many pages the pirateer’s hands are in the pictures with other pages needing a bit of Photoshopping just to make out the words. It appears many of the sites have been removing the content, naturally enough.”

Warning – the /. link is almost certainly infested with spoilers in the comments, and I don’t know how deep the Salon article goes into it – I’m not reading it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah – we know there’s going to be death galore. Fine, but I don’t need to know details and page numbers, thanks.

Anyway, I’m out until Sunday!

In other news, U.S. medical researchers have discovered use of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Ritalin by young children might affect their brains. Um, duh?

Transformers is a totally awesome move. If you’ve got a theater like Alamo Drafthouse, you’ve got to go see it. Heck, even if you’re stuck with an inferior theater, go see it.

Was it true to the comic and/or cartoon? Hellifiknow. But it was very good.

Tuesday we’re going to the Harry Potter feast, then Thursday we’re going to see some bats!

Hope it doesn’t rain…

A new Spec’s opened near us, so we decided to check it out today. Man, it’s a lush’s paradise! It’s huge – for you Austinites, it’s where Acadamy Sports used to be down on Lamar and 290.

Anyway, wow. Acres of beer, booze, and wine, plus lots of cheese, chocolate, and other fancy junk food. My kinda place. I’ve figured out that yes, I really do like beer, and so I’ve been picking up all sorts of different interesting beers. For example, right now I’m drinking an Arrogant Bastard Ale. It’s quite yummy. And I don’t care what it says, I am too worthy. :)

One extremely odd thing about the store, however was the cognitive dissonance I experienced when we walked in the door. On the door was a very official looking notice that stated clearly that no one under 21 was to enter. Period. As we walked through that door, our ears were assaulted by several shrieklings, which isn’t unusual anywhere of course. The part that was bizarre was the availability of several “car” shopping carts. Oh well, whatever.

Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

Oh! I truly adore the Alamo Drafthouse. Next Wednesday, we’re going to see the Princess Bride – a Quote-Along Princess Bride. If you’re in Austin, you should go!

That’s all I’ve got tonight. My pizza, beer, and pokemons are calling me.

The only way to see a movie in the theater is to see it at Alamo Drafthouse. Period. End of story.

My wonderful husband, who actually reads email newsletters he’s subscribed to, and who tolerates my Johnny Depp obsession, discovered that the Alamo Drafthouse was having a movie/feast combo that he knew I’d want to see: Chocolat. What’s funny is the last time we went to the Drafthouse, it was also for a Johnny Depp movie about chocolate – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That time, however, we didn’t do the Feast.

Chocolat was great – funny and sweet (pun not necessarily intended) and of course, it has Johnny Depp. The feast, however, was fantastic. The menu was driven by the movie, with the courses coming out pretty much in time with the food on screen.

The menu:

Amuse
A taste of how chocolate is affected – Organic Chocolate paired with Australian River Salt, Roast Pumpkin and Pickled Ginger

Second Course
Duck Cocoa Confit with Raspberry Shallot Jam in a Choclate Baguette Crisp, topped with Chocolate Covered Brandy Roast Bacon

Chocolate covered… bacon?? Fabulous, really. This course I think was my favorite. The duck with the raspberry tasted fantastic.

Third Course
Provencal Tomato soup with Prawn and shaved dark chocolate

The prawns were wonderful, and the soup was quite tasty, though the texture was kind of gritty. I guess that happens if you use actual fresh herbs.

Fourth Course
Cornish Game Hen with Cherries draped in Chocolate Sauce with Fenneled Northern Beans and Roasted Asparagus

Very good, after I gave up on knife and fork and just pulled the bird apart with my fingers. The one drawback to an actual meal during the movie is that you can miss parts of the movie while concentrating on your meal, and, well, it’s dark, which can be hazardous while eating. ;)

Dessert
Roux’s Favorite – Hot Chocolate with Clover Honey and Irish Cream

Hot chocolate like whoa – very rich, very good.

In between each course we were brought many pieces of handmade gourmet chocolates that were simply incredible.

Each course was also served with it’s own wine – unfortunately, neither of us are wine drinkers so that part was wasted on us. It’s too bad – I’m sure the wine was quite good, but I didn’t care for it. I did try each one, and while I did like a couple of them more than any other wine I’ve had, I still just don’t care for wine.

With so much really good chocolate I was seriously buzzing when the movie was over. What a wonderful evening! Maybe this year we’ll do the Lord of the Rings feast.

Today we watched From Hell, a movie based on Jack the Ripper. That was a good movie. It wasn’t as gory as I’d feared, and the mystery draws you in. Fascinating flick, with a very good cast. I guess you can’t go wrong with Captain Jack Sparrow, Bilbo, and Hagrid, eh?

In other news, today marks my third LJ anniversary. When I started this silly thing, I had no idea I’d actually use it at all, let alone fairly regularly. I’ve never been able to keep a “real” journal – I’d write a day or two, then not again for months and months. In fact, yesterday I typed up four years worth of paper journal entries. It’s not nearly as monumental as it sounds – it was only 18 entries. I did it so that I’d have a record along with this journal – the entries are locked for now. Frankly, they’re pathetic. It’s interesting to see how I’ve changed – and how I haven’t.

All in all, being online and posting my thoughts and (some) feelings to my website, Usenet, and now LiveJournal has been a positive thing. I’ve grown, I’ve changed, and I like to think that I’ve made some good friends. Finding my husband wasn’t half bad either!

What’s next?