The overall rating on Rotten Tomatoes was lower than what I would have given the movie.

I thought the acting was really good, the setting was beautiful, and the message meaningful. Was the movie "sweet?" Was it a "feel good" movie? Yes! And what's wrong with that?

Multiple wagons actually...

The injury to my foot - which is doing much better, but still gives me an occasional twinge - was instrumental in my falling off of the exercise wagon. I don't remember for sure, but I think I was teetering if not falling prior to hurting my foot, but that was the straw...

I don't have as clear a picture of when I fell off the weight loss / weight maintenance wagon, but my 12 pound heavier butt is firmly on the ground as that wagon rolls on without me.

So, I am trying to recapture that elusive iron will that sometimes comes just within my grasp and hop back on both of those wagons.

Yesterday was a start - I walked for a little over a half hour, and while not "good," my eating was thinking about trending in the right direction.

In other updates... my torso is now peeling like a melaleuca tree. I thought I was going to get a few days off awaiting word on whether we've "made the cut" to go to the next round of the deal I'm on, but, the powers that be seem keen to help me avoid any chance of getting bored or getting any of the honey-do's knocked off my list. And my mother is still being a royal pain.

But... I'm still humming Rent tunes in my head, and trying to maintain perspective on what's really important, and I'm really looking forward to Jeanie getting back home this afternoon, and, if the weather clears up, maybe I'll even go for another walk today.

My other flick for last night's double feature was Sin City.

I don't know if I wasn't really in a movie mood, or just happened to end up with two misses on the same night, but I wasn't wowed by Sin City either.

I found it interesting artistically/stylistically/technically, but overall, it was only moderately engaging. I've had no experience with graphic novels, so part of it could just be that I don't understand the genre. Even without that frame of reference, my guess is that the film did a brilliant job of capturing the essence of the graphic novel in a film format. I did think the movie was well casted, acted, directed, lighted, etc. The predominance of the use of black and white, with the very selective addition of color for just certain items in the frame was pretty cool. I liked the way the mini-stories wove into each other. It just seemed that the whole was less than the sum of the parts.

"Cabin Pressure: Designing The Aalta E-474"

The movie was just dull. The acting was fine, but the story never pulled me in.

This movie affected me more deeply than I would have expected. I don't know how much of the impact was related to my overall emotional state at the moment, but affect me it did.

Jeanie had rented it a while ago while I was out of town, so I figured last night would be a good time to check it out risk-free so to speak, since we are still "renting" movies under Blockbuster's movie pass program which allows us to have two movies out at a time for one fixed monthly fee.

The music was absolutely amazing. I had heard a few of the songs before, but to hear them in the context of the play/movie added so much to them.

I find it so interesting that as a youth, for the most part, musicals drove me crazy. I just couldn't understand why in the middle of a perfectly good scene, the actors would break out into song. Now, I absolutely love them. No matter how good the acting, a strong song stirs emotion at a level way deeper than words / intellect.

The documentary on Disc 2 was really great, and the depiction of Jonathan Larson's life, struggles, determination, and ultimate tragic death on the eve of his breakthrough just added to the poignancy of the experience.

The fact that Jonathan and his peers were about the same age as me, and the setting in lower Manhattan made me feel that much more connected to the story.

I think the timing of watching this was good. I am truly going to try to embrace the messages of this movie - especially those embodied in the opening and closing songs and in particular:

There is no future
There is no past
Thank God this moment's not the last
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regrets
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today

Since Jeanie is away, one of the small consolations I find is getting to watch movies that I know she wouldn't really enjoy. Typically, these tend to be science fiction movies, although sometimes I'll throw in a fantasy or thriller.

Last night's indulgence was Serenity, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was a big fan of the TV show Firefly, so it was a pretty good bet that I'd enjoy the movie. In an interesting surprise, the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were overwhelmingly positive. I say surprising, given that the movie didn't seem to fare well in theaters. Maybe there were lots of geeks like me who meant to see the movie in a theater but never quite got around to it, but then eagerly watched it when it came out of DVD. The Firefly TV show seemed to have a similar fate - it didn't get much buzz in its original media presentation (broadcast TV) but gained significant popularity after being released on DVD.

If you were ever interested in the TV show, but haven't seen the movie, it is worth renting if for no other reason than the movie finally provides insight into reavers, although spending another hour and a half in Josh Whedon's wonderful world of Firefly is more than adequate to justify the price of admission. That, or you can read the Reavers entry on Wikipedia (is there any worthwhile information that can't be found on Wikipedia?).

Nothing new horrible, just sorta one of those days...

I got home late last night after having spent the majority of the week in Austin Texas attending a conference for work. Some aspects of the conference were interesting, but much of it isn't really anything I can use to make me more effective in my job. Unfortunately, the days started at 7:15 AM and didn't end until at least 8:00 PM, so I didn't get a chance to do anything else in Austin but work.

Jeanie and the dogs are away - Jeanie in NC and the dogs at their Georgia resort - otherwise know as their grandparents - Jeanie's parents are dog sitting since we were both away last week. So, coming in to an empty house was a bit of a bummer. The new letter from Mom's attorney, while a little better than the last, was still not what I had hoped for. I had hoped that she would have come to her senses and dropped the issue, but she's still being difficult - just a few degrees less so than last week.

Today, I got up earlier than I would have preferred because I had volunteered to help the Civil Air Patrol with the first ever ACAP Extreme Airshow Challenge.

The aircraft and flying were absolutely amazing. While on one level, I just love watching the skill of these pilots, on another level it makes me a bit wistful, as I know I'll never be a fraction of the pilot these guys are.

Of all of the performers, my favorite might have been Greg Koontz, because of a combination of his incredible skill, and the fact that he flies low and slow. Also on the program was our own local Keoki Gray, who flew a great program.

The volunteering was a bit boring - I think there were more volunteers than were really needed, and we were asked to arrive much earlier than needed.

In the middle of the competition, I got a call from my uncle to discuss the situation with my mother. It was difficult to carry on a conversation because of the aircraft noise, and it was generally upsetting, and I missed the best routine of the day.

The weather forecast last night had not been encouraging, but while it stayed mostly cloudy, the weather held off until around 3:00 PM. Then the bottom fell out, and the rest of today's airshow was cancelled.

I got back home to the empty house around 4:30, and was treated to two upsetting telephone messages from mommy dearest, capped off by a telephone call from her majesty.

I thought that my sunburn was finally getting better - it had stopped hurting and the redness was starting to lessen, but when I took off my shirt this evening, I saw that my torso is now covered in watery blisters. And they itch like all get out!

Yes, I know, all things considered, my life is pretty darn good. It sure could be a lot worse. But, if it could be just a little better, it could be so good.

I don't know that it's really going to get any better, so I guess I'd better work on my attitude...

Quite a few years ago, I purchased a Soyo motherboard with all sorts of neat bells and whistles (at least for those days) - onboard RAID, onboard 5.1 audio, external USB connections, blah, blah, blah.

One day, the hard drives just stopped working. Not only that, but I couldn't even get them to be recognized by using a PCI IDE controller rather than the controller on the MB.

I eventually just threw the MB back in its box and replaced the PC.

I don't know what gave me the idea the other day to take the MB out of the box and inspect the capacitors to see if any had "blown." Sure enough, 18 were in fact popped!

Seems like many of today's electronic devices are using capacitors that are either flawed, or have such tight tolerances (probably to save space and/or cost) that they can't handle the power spikes that seem to be increasingly typical in residences, with the result being the overall (or selective) failure of the device.

well, I fall into the "don't" portion of the population.

My whole life, I have been slow. It just seems to take so long for me to do just about anything. I have been told that it is because I am a bit of a perfectionist, but I think there's more to it than just that.

I have been slow - physically - as long as I can remember. I never was a fast runner, or cycler, or parachute packer for that matter - never was able to beat Paul Fayard in a packing contest, no matter how hard I tried. I've always had relatively slow reflexes - I was always the one with the painfully red backs of my hands when playing "slap."

Actually, speaking of parachutes, I was a fast faller - but that was a bad thing. I have always been a fast eater, but again, not a good thing...

I take a long time to make decisions. Now, that is impacted by the perfectionism thing, compounded by the lack of self-confidence thing, exacerbated by the fear of failure thing.

Anyway, part of the reason I don't post more regularly, is that I am also an extremely slow writer. Yesterday's post took the better part of an hour. Again, I think that it is partly that perfectionism thing, but also, I think that it's in good measure just that I'm slow.

Friday morning appeared to start well - I woke up on the right side of the dirt, but it all went down hill from there...

I was sitting in my home office working on the computer when the power went off. No biggie, right? I mean, it was light out, and all of the computers are on UPS. Even though they all have UPS signaling enabled so they can shut down automatically, I figured I'd shut them down manually just to be safe. Only one problem... even though the monitor is also on a UPS, apparently, the UPS does not have enough "juice" to power the monitor. I guess that's why those UPS units had such good rebates... Okay, I thought, well, I'll just plug the monitor into one of the larger UPS units in the office. Okay, minor problem: the power cord isn't long enough to reach. No biggie, I'll just run out to the garage and get an extension cord.

Did I mention that the power had failed? Yes, that meant it was dark in the garage. But, there was enough light to allow me to navigate (barely) in the garage, and I knew exactly where the extension cords were any way. Of course, I also knew that the UPS units are all small, so they only have a few minutes of power, so I was in a bit of a rush.

Oh, did I mention that I was barefoot?

Oh, and did I mention that there is a four inch concrete step up from the garage floor to the house?

I think you get the picture, but in case not...

Dark, barefoot, in a hurry, concrete step...

Yes, that's right, I forgot the step was there and didn't see it, and kicked the step full force with my left foot. Next thing I know, I am flat on my face on the floor, writhing in nauseating agony. When I could finally recover my wits, I saw that I had pulled up about 1/2 the nail on my big toe, and that my computer glasses (which I had been holding in my hand) had assumed a new interesting (though thoroughly unusable) shape.

When I tried to stand up, the pain in my left foot was searing.

Unfortunately, Jeanie had left the day before to help her parents prepare for a big family reunion. So, there I was, alone, in pain, and not very mobile. The thought of just laying back down on the garage floor held some level of appeal, but...

I hopped into the kitchen, grabbed an ice pack from the refrigerator, and hopped into the bedroom where I laid down on the bed, still feeling nauseated, and elevated and iced my foot. I figured that after ten or fifteen minutes, I would be okay, and could resume finishing our tax return so I could head off to Jeanie's family reunion.

After fifteen minutes or so, the pain had subsided somewhat - as long as I didn't try to move my foot at all, much less put any weight on it. It was at that point that the thought occurred to me that I might have broken my foot.

I decided to call our doctor. The good news? Our doctor's practice is really good about working patients in. The bad news? Our doctor left the practice. Fortunately, the practice had automatically moved all of his patients to the "other" doctor in the practice, and while he couldn't see me, one of the PAs was available to see me.

So, I drove myself over to the office, which fortunately is fairly close to the house, and I was seen pretty quickly.

Thankfully, x-rays indicated that nothing was broken.

The PA gave me a prescription for Toradol and a Toradol injection to "get me started." I guess I was somewhat out of it, as I caught the anti-inflammatory and non-drowsy part of the Toradol explanation, but missed the pain killer part. That led to a humorous scene with my nephew later that day, but, I am getting ahead of myself.

Just after I got home, there was a knock on the door. I managed to hobble to the door before the mail person had gotten back to her car, so she came back to the door to hand me a certified letter.

I don't know about you, but I have yet to ever receive a "good" certified letter. This proved no exception to the rule. The letter turned out to be from an attorney that my mother had retained questioning how I had been managing her finances for the past six years.

The amazing thing is that I had had dinner with my mother the night before, and she had given no indication that this was coming. To say the least, I was floored for the second time that morning.

The good news is that I've had to deal with this kind of crap from my mother many times in the past, so at least I have some experience with it and I know that eventually "it" passes. The bad news is that I've had to deal with this kind of crap from my mother many times in the past, and it still hurts like hell - in fact, I believe that the pain it causes is cumulative.

Anyway, even though I was still in considerable pain, I didn't want to disappoint Jeanie or her parents, so I dragged myself to the car and made the three hour drive.

Have I ever mentioned that my nephew is a dentist? Well, we were chatting, and he related this humorous story about one patient he had that had recently had a root canal. Jay had prescribed pain killers to manage the patient's pain and had given the patient his first dose at the office. The next day, (which happened to be a holiday) the patient calls Jay's office complaining of significant pain. Jay calls the patient back and starts talking to the patient about the nature of his pain, and asks if he's taking his pain medication regularly, to which the patient responds "oh..." Being the razor sharp diagnostician and healer that he is, Jay suggests that the patient has to actually take the pain pills in order for them to be effective.

So, later that night, Jay's wife asks if my foot is getting worse, as she noticed that I was starting to limp more. I respond, "why yes, now that you mention it, my foot is hurting more." She then asks if I need to take another pain pill, to which I respond "well, I haven't been taking anything for the pain, but I am a little behind in taking my anti-inflammatory." So, I hobble out to the car to get my pills, and decide that since I didn't really know much about these pills, maybe I should read the patient information sheet the pharmacist so nicely included in the bag. Short story long, I found it very amusing when I learned that Toradol is an NSAID - i.e. a pain killer!

The one highlight in the whole saga (no, it's not over yet) was the reunion weekend. I really enjoyed my time with Jeanie's parents and her nephew and his family, as well as getting to see many other members of Jeanie's family. I also really enjoyed the food, although the scale was unforgiving of my excesses.

Because I had not finished our taxes, I left Jeanie at her parents and headed back home Saturday late afternoon. I ended up being really tired when I got home, so I decided the best thing would be to go to sleep, and get an early start on the Taxes on Sunday.

I have used TaxCut for a number of years, along with its companion product, DeductionPro, and have never had any problems. Oh yeah, but this was this weekend...

Since we had moved during the 2005 tax year, we had made lots of donations to Goodwill. Not only was the volume of donations larger than usual, but the types of items we donated were more varied - not just the typical pants, shirts, jackets, handbags, ... of years past. Now we had receipts for things like a recumbent exercise bike, a sewing machine, a TV, kitchen ware, ... DeductionPro's ability to deal with these items was severely lacking as was its ability to speed me through the entry process for the large number of typical items.

As if that wasn't enough, there turned out to be a bug in TaxCut which caused me hours of frustration. The bug was due to a problem with the way TaxCut handled the W2 state withholding entries for our old state vs. our new/current address. Even though I had entered our address with the proper state (FL) early in the interview process, apparently, after I had entered the W2 state information as listed on the actual W2 (NC), TaxCut automatically changed the state for our home address to NC! When I went to run the check for errors, the program flagged the mismatch between the state in our address and our zip code. So, I went back and changed the state for the address to FL. This caused the program to automatically change the state on the W2 to FL! Of course, this created other problems. I finally figured out a work-around - I changed the entry for my W2 information so that the first line had FL in the state code, a blank employer ID, and zeros for the amounts, then entered the NC information on the second line - but the whole process caused me a fair amount of stress and frustration.

I managed to finish the taxes by mid-afternoon on Sunday, and decided that I deserved a treat. So, I limped out to the back porch (oh yes, my foot was still hurting) grabbed the hammock, and put it up on the stand in the back yard. Since I knew I was only going to be out for an hour or so, and since I never "get sun" on my chest or legs, I only applied sunscreen to my face and neck.

Memo to self: by April, the sun, even in northern Florida, is VERY strong. One should ALWAYS apply sunscreen, no matter how briefly they expect to be out in the sun.

Well, hindsight is 20/20, and I now have the whopper of a sunburn on my chest, belly and lower legs to serve as a painful lesson.

Unfortunately, the prescription for the Toradol was only for five days, which meant that I ran out yesterday. It's tough to sleep when every little movement of the sheet causes discomfort...