Fall's here

After a really long, warm "Fall", we finally got a cold snap, and the leaves turned almost overnight. 

Then, boom, almost overnight - they all fell off.

Shortest Fall ever.

And now, Winter, such as it is in Texas.

Trusty HeatDish at my feet (often blocked by a greedy dog), stockings hanging from the mantle, and a few weeks of wearing a coat on the walk to school.  The cold weather's a novelty around here.

It'll probably be 80 this weekend, knowing this nutty place.

Yeah, I know, I'm getting old. Today, weather talk.  Tomorrow, all ailments, all the time. Brace yourself.

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Apple: Beautiful, functional, outrageously expensive products that break.

I would love to hate Apple. There are so many things I dislike about them: crappy iPods that break, components that are ridiculously expensive, often snotty customer service.

But oh how I love my MacBook Pro. I've had it for 2 years, and now that I've stopped being silly by running Windows on it, it's even better. It runs like a dream and handles my many open applications without so much as a whimper. I did have to replace a power cord ($100!) but other than that, it's been a good track record until now.

A couple of days ago, my keyboard and mouse started acting completely crazy. When I'd try to type an email, my typing would skip to lines above and below where I was typing, the cursor would randomly highlight and then delete text, and my mouse refused to let go and insisted on dragging things all over my desktop. I even watched the cursor move while I wasn't touching the computer at all. I rebooted. Same thing.

Then, it dawned on me that the computer was slightly wobbling, as if something tiny were underneath it and keeping it off balance.  Welllll.....not quite.

Turns out, it was my battery. It was bulging, warping, and melting. 

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Just kidding: I heart Apple.

So.....I went to my appointment at the Genius Bar, and Apple replaced my battery at no charge, once again cleverly thwarting my attempts to hate them.

Well played, Apple.

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Twilight

So, I finished the Twilight books the other day and thought I'd revise my review (Frank's reading the first one now so you'll have to wait a bit longer for his $.02).

I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, but they did get better. Meyer did a better job of drawing the characters (most of them) as the book went on, and the plot line itself was pretty good. I found myself looking forward to reading them, which is a pretty good sign. Overall, I'd say I liked the books just fine.

There is a ton of discusssion online about these books, so I won't go on too long about them here.

I will just say that one thing that irritated me from time to time was the main character, Bella. Specifically, I rolled my eyes a lot that she seemed to be a helpless girl who required help from other people to do anything or to make decisions on her own. Sure, the playing field wasn't level because, as a mere human, she really *wasn't* as capable as some of the other characters, but I got really tired of it. Also, having your main character mope around for a whole novel because her beloved had gone away and flirt with death because of it doesn't seem like the best message for the target market of these novels, teenage girls.

Despite the irritation, I did get drawn into Meyer's world, and would probably recommend them if you're looking for some light reading with an interesting plot line.

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Inadvertently funny

Christopher is in Religious Education classes this year in preparation for his First Communion next year. He grumbles and complains about going, but more often than not he comes home having learned something fun / important.  Last month, they talked a lot about poverty, and he came home with a Ziploc bag full of essentials to give to the next homeless person we saw.**

This weekend we passed a homeless man, but I would have caused an accident if I'd stopped to give him the bag (and as we drove by, Aly and I noticed that the man was cursing the whole line of cars, including us, for not giving him anything, so I didn't feel too badly) so we promised to give it to him on the way home. We didn't see him on the way home, but we did see a guy like this:

Except our guy's sign said $26.99.

Actually, I didn't notice him until Christopher said this:

"That man is really greedy. He is demanding $26.99 RIGHT NOW. I don't know why he needs it RIGHT THIS INSTANT but that is REALLY RUDE AND GREEDY."

I was confused for a minute until I realized that, of course, Christopher thought he was seeing a man on the side of the road holding a sign and asking for money, NOT a man soliciting business for Jiffy Lube. Then, I laughed and laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Until Aly, who'd been done laughing for a while, started giving me strange looks. Which made me laugh.

Luckily, Christopher was in a good mood and didn't holler at me for laughing. He just laughed along, too, and we had a great time.

** Side funny story: Before the Jiffy Libe funniness, when I explained to Aly what items were in the bag, Christopher seemed to realize that it was pretty good stuff and asked me if perhaps we could sell the bag to the next homeless person we saw. Quite the little entrepeneur...wonder where he got that from.

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Sure the movie's crappy, but it's in high def!

How do you choose your Netflix movies?

Do you:

Request new Releases?

Order Oscar-winners?

Dive into Dramas?

Inspect the Indies?

Crave Comedies?

Adore Action flicks?

Grab Gangster flicks?

Try TV series?

Mull Member ratings?

Select Spoofs?

Long for Low-brow?

Dote on Documentaries?

Reach for Recommendations?

Not us.

We, apparently, Hoard High Def.

It can be any old crappy movie, but if it's in High Definition, we evidently must have it.

For example: A couple of weeks ago we watched Meet the Spartans.

This cinematic masterpiece, which spoofs "300" and some random pop culture events, racked up (so to speak) an impressive 2% score on rottentomatoes.com, who also said this:

"Consensus: A tired, unfunny, offensive waste of time, Meet the Spartans scrapes the bottom of the cinematic barrel."

There was a total of maybe 30 seconds of us snickering in the entire 85 long minutes. The rest was a combination of farting, making fun of gay people*, jokes that went on too long, and the fat guy from Borat. In all its high-definition splendor.

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

Please send help.

 * though I have to admit that watching the Spartans skip, lockstep, off to battle, induced a few giggles, against my will.

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