Friday Night Bachelorhood - Day #1

So I got comped a half day of free time by my director today - he actually told me to take the whole day off, but I had some "fun" things to do at work, so I logged some time creating a proof of concept and helped one of the guys on my primary project with some things he had on his plate. But half a day was more than enough to log some quality time with myself while Pooteewheet and Eryn are in Chicago. I...

Went to Sin City - I liked it, I actually liked it a lot, even thought it was a bit of the old hyper violent. It was a combination of Kill Bill and the comic book-type movie I expected Hellboy to be (but which it wasn't, at all, not even a little bit – although in a side note, Pooteewheet and I watched Storytelling during the week, which also stars Selma Blair, but a very naked Selma Blair – regardless, it sucked). Elijah Wood was downright creepy – definitely not Spiderman. The Bruce Willis/Jessica Alba portion of the movie that they seem to be pushing in all the promos was actually the least interesting bit – I assume it’s getting play because it’s Jessica Alba in a cowboy outfit – or most of a cowboy outfit (it’s sort of missing the buttocks area – you’ll see what I mean if you go to the movie instead of the trailers). I can see why some critics didn't like it, but I still did. There was also a trailer for the new Star Wars movie (Revenge of the Sith). Now I will admit what Mean Mr. Mustard already suspects - I am a die hard, woad in the wool, sci fi geek when it comes right down to it. I don’t generally publicize the fact to anyone but my wife, daughter and closest friends, but I'll watch anything sci fi- related with the hope that there's something, anything, redeeming about it - hence my argument with Ming about the sheer quantity of snake-related movies I've watched in my lifetime. That said, I really had absolutely no preconceptions about whether I'd be interested in the third Star Wars movie, after all, I thought the first two were incredibly boring. But after the trailer, I’m excited. Explosions. Space ships. Fights. Just big happenings overall. I found myself mesmerized by the trailer and excited that it looked so much better than the new Battlestar Galactica (which I don’t watch – for instance, here I am typing while it’s on in the other room, unwatched). Ming, I know I ditched you for my own selfish, I-got-time-off-and-no-family reasons today, but when Star Wars comes out, we should arrange a movie day.

After the movie, I had some quality time with Sandy (the dog, not my project lead), and then went on a 5.6 mile bike ride. It took me a while to get all geared up – inflate the tires, find my tools and spare and water bottle, long winter underwear, head band, gloves, sweats, shorts and t-shirt, only to discover it was too damn warm for all that stuff and much of it had to come immediately off of my body. Now 5.6 miles doesn’t seem like very far (especially given that my odometer says my last ride was 40.6 miles) – pretty much just to work for me – and I realize that and I knew when I started that I wasn’t going to be able to do much more than that, so I took it upon myself to inflict some brutal self-flagellation by actually biking the hills on Diffley. I’ve lived in Eagan two (2) years and never taken those hills. Hills leading to those hills – sure, but not those particular, seemingly-endless hills. And, if you count the incredibly steep hill that actually caused me to lift my front tire off the ground going up it (it was a little trail in the middle of the second hill that went behind a bunch of houses and ended in a dead end at the bottom of a steep hill), I rolled up five large hills on my ride. Yeah, most of it was in 1x3 or 1x1, but I climbed them, and without walking. There’s no hope I’ll do 100 at the Iron Man (third week of April), but at least I won’t bonk on a 30.

I went to dinner at Chang Mai Tai (Khap, Khun, Khrap! as they say – but don’t take Steve’s and Renee’s review to heart – the food is delicious, the prices are reasonable for anything in Uptown/Downtown and the wait staff is great, albeit eclectic, and if it’s important to you that your wait staff is attractive, I’m pretty sure even Pooteewheet is attracted to the Asian waitress that is always working whenever I’m there) in Uptown. The plan was actually to hit a movie at the Landmark – but the only thing I was interested in was Born Into Brothels, and it wasn’t until 9:30, so I just called it dinner. That also put sushi at Sushi Tango out of the picture, because after a meal of Muslim Thai Curry (two potatoes, two chicken breasts, a bowl of rice and sauce so spicey it has to make my stomach ache a little or it’s not worth it [a three on their scale] – oof), I couldn’t move immediately to anything else. But not to worry – sushi places are generally open until 1 a.m., so I should be able to talk someone into going tomorrow (or just go by myself). I also read 32 pages of Out while I was at dinner – it’s not the best book I’ve ever read, at least so far, but then I’m only 10% into it and it’s a translation from Japanese.

Then, back home to spend more quality time with the dog and watch The Rules of Attraction, courtesy of Netflix and James Van Der Beek. I didn’t like it. There was some good acting and some good production – but it was mostly pretentious (bunch of backwards film, split film, cut short scenes, etc.) and depressing (and oversexed, but then I guess that might be true-to-life for most college students). It centered on what basically amounted to bacchanalia at an “end of the world” party and three characters who f-ed up finding love leading up to that party. Primarily, it was disturbing because James Van Der Beek engages in 1.) imagined man love (he’s the target of a masturbatory fantasy), 2.) several sad attempts at suicide that culminate in him doing nothing more than wetting himself and 3.) extended masturbation to “Afternoon Delight”.

Of course everything culminated in a beer tasting and blog writing festival. Go figure.