CV Book Club - The God of Small Things

Good discussion tonight, although wasn't too enthused with the book. Didn't click with me, and wasn't very interested in the subject matter. But glad to have read it nonetheless.

TV - Maigret et Le Corps sans Tête

Mehhhh. Hmmmm.

Really tedious and predictable story, but redeemed somewhat by Cremer's & the woman's performances. Really interesting to watch his fascination for the story and the woman he's trying to unravel, great performance. The woman was one of the few I've liked out of this series so far. Still wasn't enough to stop me napping thru part of it.

Beautiful Day in The City

What a gorgeous day! Out to North Beach, usual cafe with the usual people, then Fort Mason. Hit the MOMA, but new exhibits were disappointing, although the permanent collection is always a delight. LOVE Matta's Chamboles Les Amoureuses, it's just so weird and bizarre.

Wanted to eat at our favorite Thai place 'round the corner, but closed, *sigh*! Anyway, off we go to the Asian, where we grabbed a quick bite, then toured the collection quickly, stopping of course at an absolute favorite - OMG, how GORGEOUS is the Shakyamuni as an ascetic, Nephrite, early 20th. The current exhibit, Drama and Desire is excellent. Sooo wonderful to see some of the ukiyo-e scrolls and paintings, other than the more-studied woodblock prints. Of course, one of my favorite subjects. Bought the exhibit catalogue to get a bit more in-depth review of the works before revisiting. Wonderful, wonderful.

Orchid Pests - Phase II

Crap: the months of insect spray is not working. I repotted 2 of the catts and found significant amounts of scales on the roots still. Phase II - Bayer Flower & Rose Systemic Insecticide. Am repotting all the orchids, dunking them every couple weeks into the solution, and have every hope that they'll be eradicated. From my searchs, seem to be very successful for many others without damaging the orchids. Wonder how long it'll take me to repot 51 orchids, the ones on the rolling shelves. Really need to repot the cyms too, but 1 thing at a time.

Kitchen Project Continued

Well, we've finally got a price for just the cabinets. Remember, small kitchen. Very small kitchen. $8k. Even the guy was surprised. He said typically that size would cost about $5k. (Last quote I had was $5k). So he was trying to figure out why, and it turns out the cabinet style was one of the costliest. But of course. *Sigh*.

Movie - Shutter 2004 (Thai)

So I saw a TV preview of this new movie, got curious, and looked it up. Had enough market horror, bring on the make-believe too, why not. Shades of Ringu, The Grudge, etc. Discovered it was a remake of a Thai movie, and even better, someone was kind enough to put it on Youtube, so I got to watch it...well, on the computer, anyway.

Really liked this movie! I was disappointed because it wasn't very scary, but that could be due to any/all of the following: 1) Not on a bigger screen, 2) Not in a theatre, 3) Ringu, etc. already moved that bar. Didn't matter. Although predictably typical of the genre, the story was great, it was done and told well. I really got into it, watching it unfold at a good pace, so I didn't keep jumping ahead mentally. That ending shot was EXCELLENT. JUST EXCELLENT.

It really explores the Karma theme well, although I don't think those bastards suffered enough...except for Tun. I'm familiar enough with Thai culture to pick up some meanings, like the Buddhist scenes, but I'm sure I missed a lot. So I'm going to rent it if I can find it. Bears a second viewing, this time with some Googled background. Must ask my Thai friends to watch and clue me in to things to pick up on too.

Wonder how the American version'll stand up. They've usually been very disappointing to me. But I'll still rent it when it gets to the shelves, just for curiosity.

ARRGGGHHH Part II - Bear

Holy living crapola!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still shocked I lost it all since I learned about this last night. First ever total stock loss - let's hope this is NOT a trend for this year.

Confession - I knew when I bought it was almost 100% risk. Still, getting exposed for wishful thinking still sucks eggs big-time. Worse - getting caught with my pants down without a short in play. Grrrr.

TV - Spooks Season 3

Good season, good writing! Shocking how they got rid of the big three, though. It was soooo sad to see Tom gone with a whimper instead of a bang, although the entire episode was well done, the parallels between his disillusionment vs. the sleeper's increasing excitement at playing spy. When he's left alone by himself in the lab after everything's over, including his wife yelling at him that she had no idea who he was - perfect.

OTOH Hubby thought Tom's exit was perfect, it was the best outcome of the kind of job they had, where he got to live his life and finally be free (especially seeing how Zoe & Danny leave). He thought Tom would find a new life.

Cool - I LOVE Harry, so glad to see him continuing on. Great actor.

AGGGHHH - Bear

Fer crying out loud! No freaking way. What news to wake up to today. It's soooooo ??!!@# to see that huge red number in the portfolio. I would have liked to hear the conference call live on CNBC, even though I'm just a little nobody. I guess they think it's damage control.

Book - The Stargazey

Ok, much, much better! Good plot, I really enjoyed the villainess - strong, deviously intelligent, ultra-cool woman assassin who drugs (!) and escapes Jury! Shades of Harry in a later novel.

Think I've had enough of these lighter books, can start on an George or P.D. book maybe. Still been really stressful with the family crap. Have to read God of Small Things before end of mth. Nope, not started Don Quijote yet, *sigh*. Not to worry, it's not going anywhere, LOL.

TV - Spooks Season 4

Gaahhhh, Adam Carter. Yummy. Uneven season.

Book - The Case Has Altered

DISLIKED THIS INTENSELY. Pile of crap.

TV - Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel 2007

Read a bunch of Amazon reviews that just skewered this episode, and most of the points were valid. Still, I enjoyed this episode immensely. It was entertaining, the convolutions were ok by me, and so was deviating from the novel. The typical melodrama ending.

The entire cast was great, so talented. I really like this Miss Marple, and Jane (so pretty) and Bird were so sweet. The Bess character just so beautiful in "Enchanted April", and that voice! Amazing. Malinowski, mmm. I hope there'll be a new episode starring Jane and Larry.

I just loved imagining myself in this grand hotel back then.

TV - Maigret et Les Témoins Récalcitrants

This was a pretty good episode, although it was so obvious who killed the guy. Guess the redhead was supposed to be really pretty, obviously kinda ignorant of French standards of beauty. But definitely worth watching, for a good commentary on class snobbery.

Today's Catnip - Mozart the Centurion

Mozart dashing between downstairs patio door and upstairs window keeping vigil against some unseen critter (cat?) outside. Up and down, up and down. 6 or 7 times. A chirp and a very serious vigilant look. Awww, our little soldier.

Kitchen Project

Well, slowly mosy-ing along with the project. Think I'll just go ahead and order cabinets from HD even if I can get them cheaper a half-hour away at the Chinese place, since I'm a little leery with their customer service. At least if we have problems with the cabinets, I'm assured that HD will respond.

The contractor and HD salesman came to take a look at the kitchen, and they'll get a price for me soon. Pretty much confirmed what I thought - it's a small redo, simple rip and replace. No plumbing, or appliance relocation. Hubby and I should be able to handle it all on our own, except for the rewiring and the countertops. So that's what we'll do. Very exciting.

Today's Catnip - Ginza Fakeout

Couldn't believe this one! Sometimes I take Ginza to the box to encourage him to pee there. Anyway, this time I take him there, and he knows what I want him to do, but he won't. So after a little gentle nudging and "encouraging", he squats in the box and pretends to pee. Then he looks at me after he's "done" with a ''are you happy Mommy?" look as if that fooled me. OMG!! First time he's done this one! Of course, an hour later he happily strolled in himself and did a good strong pee.

No, I know the difference between him having a FLUTD or faking. I keep a hawk eye on him since he's most prone to them. Which is why sometimes I take him to pee to check that he's not straining if I wasn't able to catch him peeing.

Book - Death and Judgment

A very good read, although it tries too hard to bring a hard current edge with the snuff films and the human trafficking while portraying Guido as still a bit naive, untouched all these years by his job. Yeah, right. How would he *really* think that "they" weren't going to take out the chick even in jail?

As always, I loved the Venetian setting, can't wait to visit. The writing is clear and pleasurable to read, the plot is mostly clean, only couple notable moralizing by Paola.

Book Club - Rebecca

Fun discussion as usual, although went off at tangents occasionally. Ok book, really disliked the gothic novel, all that overwrought language really grated on my nerves. Hated the "heroine". But the plot twists were rewarding enough to slog thru that muck. Saw the Hitchcock movie version several years ago, that was ok too.

Book - The Old Contemptibles

Book's not bad at all - fun characters. The Lady Cray character's a real hoot. Predictable, a little unbelievable, but still pleasant read. Must be the low tolerance for kids post-Disneyland, but Millie was just annoying, although Alex was a very sympathetic character.

Survived Disneyland

OMG I don't ever want to go back to this place. Ever. Don't care how many other future nieces and nephews there are, no one will pay me enough to come back here. The noise, the crowds, and the rugrats.

Never mind that it's acceptable to stand in a ride line for an additional 70-90 minutes after having shelled out $66 bucks for a ticket already. We did this 15 years ago at this place and didn't think twice back then. Obviously we value our time much more these days. It was really ridiculous that nothing's really changed at this amusement (?!) park. They've recently implemented an optional "FastPass" at a few rides, which gives you a ticket for a pre-set ride time. Why don't they have this at most of their rides, maybe mandatory? That way no-one's standing around waiting, they know when they can ride. Or anything else, any kind of wait-elimination improvements?

Also, a kid got separated from his family. After talking to him and able to alert staff immediately, I then watched them for a half hour yapping into their radios, but it was obvious they were just standing there guarding the kid hoping the family would come back. A woman also joined them crying obviously having lost her kid. Same thing. Disturbing that they didn't seem to have any real kind of system to handle what must happen frequently.

The food was ok for what it was. $9 cheeseburger meals with drinks and fries at Tomorrowland Terrace. $12(?) potpies at Carnation Cafe at night, had to sit outside, and no heaters for a very cold night.

Everyone was very friendly, though, which made the whole experience more pleasant.