Anniversary 2008

We sort of already celebrated our two year anniversary last week in a bed and breakfast place in Illinois, but today was our real anniversary. For dinner we drove up the road to Sierra Madre where I went to pre-school. There you’ll find a restaurant called Casa Del Rey that features my favorite restaurant tacos in Los Angeles. I took a picture of Nicolette while she was looking at the menu and I took photos of the food. Afterwards we walked round the corner for ice cream then we went home. That’s when things got out of hand.

I put on my vest and opened a bottle of Mountain Dew while Nicole read some articles that she printed out from the internet. I says to myself “It’s on!” and I pulled down my champagne bucket off of the cabinet. It’s a standing tradition that I enjoy cruel Mountain Dew out of a champagne bucket every year.

The first time was during the honeymoon – nobody bought me the champagne bucket I asked for in our wedding registry, so I had to drink out of the hotel champagne bucket at the casino where we were staying in Las Vegas. Last year, our first anniversary was in the mountains. Nicole got me my own champagne bucket that year and I bought the Mountain Dew in a little town store in the mountains. I didn’t have my vest with me last year, but I did tonight, and let me tell you, it got *Kray-z33!*

"Hmm, I haven't heard from John..."

I have to learn to use this software for work. You use it to make software demonstration files. For example, software often comes with tutorials that you watch to learn how to use the program – you watch a little movie on the computer in which the mouse runs around and clicks by itself and there are captions and usually narration.

Unfortunately, this software I’m learning doesn’t come with any instruction book and its tutorials aren’t real clear to me. Adobe doesn’t have any books available on it so I bought one that I found on Amazon. It cost $35 and it seems like someone just printed it out from a computer and had Kinko’s put a spiral binding on it.

The book is making sense, however. I am finally making progress. The worst part is that I don’t have time to learn the software at work, I’m going to have to learn it at home on my own time. Sigh. Could be worse. The software is interesting, I just wish I could be playing with it at work instead of at home. I’m glad I have a job, I haven’t anything significant to complain about.

Actually I do have something to complain about: here is another reason why I have no free time to communicate with friends and loved ones. Where is all my time going? A chunk of it is being spent on this software. At least I didn’t have to buy the software.

Nicole finds picture of dwarves

Nicole says to me, "Look, I found this picture of dwarves."

How's that? I take a look.

"Yup, those are dwarves," says I, "What do you want that for?"

"I'm looking for pictures to make a YouTube video," says she.

"That's a picture from The Hobbit," I says, "See, there's Bilbo."

"No," she counters, "That's not from The Hobbit."

"Yes, it is," says I, "That's Bilbo and the dwarves. They're from The Hobbit."

"No," she insists, and moves on.

I don't know what to tell her. Doesn't like The Hobbit. Why does she want to make a YouTube video that features a dwarf or dwarves? I'll keep an eye on her.

Psycho

I’ve heard from more than one that I need a new blog post. I remember when I could invent new posts when nothing was happening, but it’s become a challenge now.

Nevetherless, last weekend Nicolette and I were lying around languid like a pair of pet shop skinks. Turns out “Psycho” was on TCM channel and somehow N. had never seen it. In addition, the movie hadn’t already been spoiled for her by much previous knowledge of the plot.

I discovered that it’s still a very entertaining movie for me. Very goofy and wacky.

From the start of the movie, when Janet Leigh is in the hotel room with her boyfriend, her character is basically flesh for wicked fantasy. That’s her purpose, she is supposed to make you want to do bad things with her but keep your exterior respectability like she does. Back at the real estate office, after her nooner, the rich guy keeps trying to insinuate himself with her and he is creepy ahoy. Everybody wants to get at the raw meat! At the Bates Motel, crazy Norman checks her out through the secret peep hole – he thinks he’s looking at the display window at the butcher shop!

Nicolette was surprised that Janet Leigh didn’t make it through the movie. I think that N. supposed the shower scene would be the climax at the end. Pa told me that even now it’s still unnerving to him to see Janet Leigh slain. I forgot that just before her shower she had decided to straighten out, return the stolen money and fly right. O, irony! The movie doesn’t give her a chance to turn over a new leaf. The movie doesn’t even care about the stolen money that sinks into the swamp, it has different priorities than you and I. That’s because the movie is crazy.

I also forgot that at the very end when the last shot of Norman/Mom is fading, there is a skull subliminally superimposed on his face. What more could one ask for from 1960?