Weekend in a Life

Since hours are down for dealers at the casino I've been giving away my Friday nights to have more "weekend". In other words, the casino business is slow, so they've cut many dealers hours to 3 or 4 nights which means those that depend on dealing for their livelihood are always looking to pick up days which makes it easy when I want to give one away. I've given most of mine away since July. Now that the weather's crappy, I won't be giving as many away.

This past weekend went quite typical to most of mine lately:

Friday night I picked up The Little One from her after school program and after cleaning up the kitchen and living room we got into a game of Monopoly. She wanted to play in front of the TV since some show was on that she wanted to watch but I know she would be all distracted and the game would take forever. She acquiesced. It didn't even take an hour and just as we were finishing up Mrs. Nouveau came in from work. We had plans to shop, eat and see a movie but she was later than expected; as usual. No real biggie.

Anyway, my new truck doesn't have built-in GPS like my Honda did so we went out and purchased a portable one. Turns out, she wanted to buy me one for my birthday, which was the beginning of September. However, she ended up giving me some money and I picked up the balance since the one I wanted cost more than what she planned to spend. Or me, for that matter. Its nice though.

Then I treated them to Friendly's for dinner. I told TLO that their food is "for kids and old people" and she thought it was absolutely hysterical. Really, I don't care much for their food, but the girls were pretty happy with the decision, so I went along with it. And everybody loves Sundae's right?

We skipped the movie because it was already 9:15 by the time we got out of there.

Got home, watched a bit of baseball and hit the hay a bit early - even had some "quality time" the older female in my life *wink*.

Played golf Saturday morning. Even though it was about 39 degrees out, I like playing this time of year. There's few players on the course and its usually just my brother and me and we fly through the round and have a bunch of laughs in a less "competitive" atmosphere. Which was a good thing, because I played crappy.

Once home, the Mrs. went shopping with her mother for the afternoon which I thought was pretty cool. TLO and I had to exchange the GPS because something was wrong with it, so that took awhile and when I got back I tried to nap but the fucking phone would NOT stop ringing. TLO loves to answer it too because I would usually let it ring through to the answering machine. I really hate that thing. After failing to nap, TLO and I played another game of Monopoly. I LOVE playing with her. Its so much fun.

Then it was shower time and dealer time. I was tired Saturday night at work so I wasn't as hyper as usual. I did have one asshole player who I rooted against. He kept buying in for more so as I pushed the chips towards him, as usual, I said "good luck" but each time decreased the volume because he was down over $2000 in less than 30 minutes. He told me "no more good lucks! There not working". Like THAT was why he was losing. Douche Bag! Also, I hated how he talked to his wife. "Go away! I can't concentrate! Can you just leave me alone!" Therefore, in my mind, every time I drew to 21, I chuckled. Fuck him. He didn't seem the type to tip anyway. A guy I had later won over $6000 and he tipped me $200. Now there's a guy I can root for!

Home at 5 am, slept until 11:30 which is pretty late for me on a Sunday. It was rainy and snowy and miserable out so a good day to sit around and veg out. Mrs. N. took TLO to see the movie - Where the Wild Things Are. I really didn't have much interest in seeing it and the reviews I saw kind of killed it, so I begged out. Give the Mrs. and TLO some quality time together. The report I got was the movie wasn't that great anyway (at least from the adult perspective).

What's a guy to do when he has the house to himself? Why, turn up the amplifier and wail on his guitar for a bit. Then watch football and eat greasy Monte Cristo sandwiches. Really, that sums up my day. I dozed off watching baseball around 9:30.

Exciting huh? Typical weekend for me.

Sex and the City

From what little I've seen of the television show; if you bludgeoned me, dragged my corpse to the cineplex, propped me up with a Sprite and some popcorn, I would still figure out some way of not having to sit through the movie, Sex and the City.

Ugh!

Sicko

I watched the Michael Moore documentary Sicko over the weekend. Its basically a send-up of America's health care system done in Moore's sarcastic style. If you haven't seen it give it a look. If, after viewing it, you still think a "for profit" health care system is the best alternative for our great country, then at the very least you should forfeit your rights to complain about "corrupt politicians". Because that, simply, can be the only explanation why our current health care system sucks so bad and why other countries, even Cuba, mock it.

Good health, in the greatest and most prosperous country in the world, should not be a privilege of the wealthy and we should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing a system wherein hospitals dump those who cannot pay onto the sidewalk.

All the while CEO's of health insurance providers get 100 million dollar golden parachutes.

Such a shame.

Moore pointed out the terrorist prisoners getting all their health-care provided for free. These are individuals that may go to the electric chair for their heinous crimes yet they get screened for cancer, treated for hyper-tension and high cholesterol and benefit from a wide range of medical services that some of our own law-abiding, tax-paying citizens can't? Actually, those that suffer terribly from their work at ground zero can't get proper medical care and are slowly dying. But the asshole terrorists that at the very least supported it, can? Am I missing something? WHO in their right mind thinks this is all right? Shouldn't we be taking care of our own first and foremost?

We have billions and billions of dollars to kill people in far away lands but we can't scrape up the funds to heal our sick? That to me, my friends, is disgusting.

Then there's the Michael Moore bashers. Seems to me, all he does is point out his view on things and presents it in an entertaining way. I'm sure plenty of his facts can be disputed and the debate is fine. I try to be open to other views. Of course, I was already a proponent of universal health care, so he was preaching to the choir, but I don't see how anyone with any kind of gentle spirit cannot be enlightened by this film. Or his others, for that matter.

Some call Moore "un-American". I'm not sure at what point questioning the way we do things, or disagreeing with our policies or politicians became un-American. Seems to me, the right to question authority, the right the protest, the right to present an alternate view is about as American as it gets. THAT, is democracy at its best.

As long as the masses go along with the company line and label those that don't drink the Kool-Aid as un-American then there is no impetus for change. So there won't be. The rich can keep getting richer as our babies die because some bottom-line driven executive thinks that a particular procedure isn't necessary or the poor mother erred in taking her to an "out of network" hospital and the baby died in transit to the "in network" location.

My wife said yesterday at dinner, "I can't get that movie out of my head." Neither can I. So much of it was very disheartening and eye-opening.

I'm a proud American. But I'm not always proud of how we do things. In fact, I feel rather disgusted. Give the movie a look. I would like to know if its possible to feel otherwise.

The Holiday

Ok, so last night I watched The Holiday. Whilst fully understanding the target audience of this romantic "comedy" I still found it an entertaining enough movie. Long. Oh, God was it long. But entertaining in its own right.

Maybe because I'm not the proper demographic, I am left with one question.....

Where the fuck did the dog come from?

Have you seen it? Anyone? Help. Perhaps the answers are on the cutting room floor?

Iris/Kate Winslet/Rose from Titanic, apparently not over the fact that she should have stayed on the lifeboat in the first place, thereby leaving the floating door for Jack all by himself, decides to trade her house for two weeks with a complete Internet stranger. Good idea. I'm not sure about you, but trading my house for some dude's crusty mattress under an off-ramp bridge sounds awful good.

Having said that, Rose did look good for being, what, 113 years old? Didn't she die at the end? Or was it all just a dream? Shoulda kept the diamond, too, you dumb bitch. Give it to your granddauther after you forced her to hear about how great some guy you screwed for two days was but don't even mention your husband of years and years? Sheesh! It was her grandfather for cryin' out loud!

In any event, she lucks out and trades her Flintstone-like residence with Amanda/Cameron Diaz/Mary/Natalie from Charlie's Angels thereby getting herself an impossibly cool Hollywood Manse. No, Warren wasn't around ("have you stheen my batheball?"). Apparently, Cameron Diaz's career has sufficiently recovered from that Charlie's Angels big budget horror-show to make more drivel. Obviously, Elizabeth Berkley was off with Slater or too busy stuffing her hands down her g-string making Showgirls II to take the part. Shame. This movie coulda used more T&A. But then, most could.

And don't get me started on Charlie's Angels. I'll just get all upset.

So, moving forward, our beautiful female protagonists have impossibly agreed to trade houses in a matter of seconds even going so far as to swap houses the very next day. Uh huh! That must happen all the time. It was all arranged online too! What better place to wheel and deal. If you can't trust a stranger online, who can you trust? Am I right?

But wait. Soon the movie causes one to really, really suspend their disbelief. In a scene a bit later, Amanda is sitting there on the phone while on "holiday" and suddenly there's a dog!!! A cute, tiny, little Benji is staring at her like he's been there the whole time. Again, I fully realize the "awwwww" factor of adorable little brown dogs and their ability to make movie audience's smile. But this mutt is crow barred into the move and I'm not sure why. Perhaps Jimmy fell down a well.

Unfortunately, Mr. Perennially Skeptic here couldn't help uttering to himself, "Where the fuck did the dog come from? It obviously lives there. Who's is it?" Some answers just have to remain mysteries I guess.

Surely, I don't recall Benji being on the plane with Amanda. He wasn't stuffed in a crate as she oh-so-comically trudged 20-odd miles to Fred's/Rose's house, through the snow, hauling luggage all while in 6-inch stilettos. So, then, did Iris leave him there? Would she do that? In a barely heated cartoon house in the dead of winter in England? Yet there was never a mention of the house smelling like dog shit when Amanda arrived. Is he a rabid stray? Oh, that'd be great! Little Cujo could have surely created some non-obvious excitement for the movie. I would have loved some hysterical scenes of Amanda getting a 22" needle into her stomach as she foams at the mouth. Alas, the writers didn't see fit to include that.

In any event, he just, like.....appears. A doggy angel perhaps except without the "this is your crappy life" flashbacks.

Anyway, predictably, each party is left to get over current bad romances to begin anew. And Iris finds Jack Black. Just as we all do. In every goddamn movie. Jack Black. Isn't he exactly the same character in every movie? Is what he does acting? Is what he does funny? I think he's just himself every time reading lines. Then again, so is Natalie/Mary/Cameron Diaz.

Well, Iris (I never have a bad word for Kate Winslet - rowr, rowr. Rose, yes, but Kate, no.) eventually falls for him and his Sam Donaldson eyebrows while Amanda falls for Jude Law assuming he doesn't turn around and fall for their babysitter later in life (didn't he do that in real life? Hmmmm.....creepy.). Of course the two were fuck-buddies the first night, but in the movies that seems to be something to get over quickly.

OH MY GOD! I'm just now realizing how many spoilers I've given to this movie. I am sooooo sorry. I fear I've given away way to much. Nobody could possibly foresee the twists and turns of this cinematic masterpiece any more than one would notice the Andrea Doria cruising down Broadway. I can't believe I'm ruining it. Again. Sorry.

Its a cute movie. I almost chuckled out loud a few times. I almost didn't notice the incredibly slow digital readout of time passing on my DVD player ("Christ! Will 2:07 just get here!!). I struggled to pause it nearly every 6 minutes as an excuse to do any kind of frivolous chore ("What honey? You need the dog poop scooped outside? Let me just pause this movie, I'll be right there") I almost fell for the instantaneous "love" the parties felt for each other. Although, it would help explain why their previous relationships were so screwed up. I almost fell for the whole house-swap thing (does that really happen?). Of course I fell for how impossibly successful everyone in the movie is. Its important that movie-goers learn that rich people are unhappy as well. "Yay! Rich people are unhappy! My life doesn't suck afterall."

Yep, I got it all figured out.

If only I could figure out where the hell that damn dog came from.

Into the Wild

I've read very few books twice in my life (which seems weird because I will watch movies over and over again), but I have done so with Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I find it a haunting piece of non-fiction about the life of a young man that ends tragically while he was pursuing his dreams. Its the type of book that makes the reader (ok, me) want to learn more and more about the subject not unlike how I felt after seeing the movie Titanic.

Anyway, Sean Penn has handled the adaptation of the book into a movie (screenplay, directed) and I have every confidence he will do an extraordinary job as he is a special talent. The movie opens tomorrow and while I am past the age waiting on line to see movies when they first come out, I'll be sure to see it as soon I can.

Learn more about this story by checking out this very easy read (and check out Into Thin Air by Krakauer if you like it) or see the movie. I know nothing at all about the movie in terms of reviews but I'm guessing it will be a sleeper hit (if not award winner) in the vein of Brokeback Mountain. Let's see if I'm right.

Movie Review: Kicking and Screaming

Ok, I saw Kicking and Screaming the other night, starring Will Farrel and Robert Duval. Ummmm.....Will Farrel is "chuckle" funny in just about everything as far as I'm concerned. I never find myself really laughing out loud (despite my periodic "lol" comments, lol). It wasn't bad. Just typical youth sports movie along the Bad News Bears vein but not as raunchy.

Official Opinion: I would be Kicking and Screaming if I had to see it again, lol.