I am attempting to keep myself awake. Unlike my lovely hubby who has lots of leave saved up, I do not. Which means that in about 2 hours I have to start getting ready for work. Arg. But my sleep deprivation is worth it.
Continuous cups of tea are helping too.
Upon our arrival at the movie theater for the midnight screening of the Half Blood Prince, Damian and I were confronted with a wall of teenagers the line. It was only 8:45 pm.
We looked at each other, went to the ticket kiosk, picked up our tickets, and then promptly turned around and went into the nearby Barnes and Noble. We had our tickets; I was not worried about getting in to see the film. And the thought of standing next to squealing teenage girls made my head pound. (I was NEVER like that, I swear to god I was never like that!!! Dammit I wasn’t, okay!)
We returned at 9:30 pm, when the mall closed. That’s right we picked Tyson’s Corner. The teenagers (and tweens) had quadrupled since we first arrived. And when AMC let the first batch into the movie theater there was much screaming. [Note-to-self: If attempting to see the seventh and eighth films at midnight, bring copious amounts of earplugs.]
What was such a shock to me was the average age and gender of those in line with us. It was overwhelmingly female; and the only other adults that I saw were parents chaperoning their kids. At least there were not any discernable groups of adults. My powers of observation were slightly hampered by it being WAY past my bedtime. Ahem. Where was I?
The wait outside the theater was actually significantly more bearable then the wait inside. Once we were seated (in the second row mind you, because said tweens and teens were douches and saved whole freaking rows) AMC started their horrid cycle of trivia. Followed then by the “pre-show” which consisted of 1 minute of actual information and about 25 minutes of commercials. If I saw the one commercial about the guy drooling over the corvette I was going to scream.
The film was supposed to start at 12:01 am. However, the opening sequence didn’t roll until about 12:35 am. This was due to the AMC folks ensuring that everyone had a seat (I give them kudos for that); and the projector breaking.
That’s right. The fucking projector broke during the previews. I had to physically restrain Damian, as the picture cut out not once but three times. It was becoming ominous, and I had a sinking suspicion that AMC would stop the screening and tell us to come back another day. Thankfully, my suspicion was dead wrong. We finally made it through the previews, and the film started.
Almost 3 hours later we exited the theater, somewhat dazed because of the closeness of the screen, and definitely tired. Just like the book it was an emotional roller coaster.
I’ll post my thoughts on the film separately, so as not to spoil it for those who have yet to see the film.
I was a very bad girl yesterday evening.
N and I enjoyed a tasty dinner at Me Jana, a lovely Lebanese restaurant that opened recently in Arlington. We shared meze style tabbouleh, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, and spinach pies (a lovely pastry filled with spinach, onions, sumac, lemon juice, olive oil, and pine nuts). It was wonderful to be sitting outside on a July evening, with the weather absolutely amazing eating such good food.
After dinner, however, both N and I walked over to the Apple store. This would be where I was bad. My little MacBook Pro’s (it was one of the original versions) warranty expired a while ago, and of course the DVD/CD super-drive decided to wait until the warranty expired to die. Not to mention there are some other little issues that it’s been having. My very old PowerBook, the old silver gal as I like to call her, well she no longer holds a charge without being plugged in; even with a new battery. She is starting to drag her “feet” when I push the power button. Not a good sign.
So I instead of spending lots of $$$ to fix my old laptops, I bought a new iMac. A beautiful 24 inch 4GB iMac. It is a thing of wonder. Indeed I believe I heard the opening theme music to 2001 A Space Odyssey when I turned the computer on for the first time.
It has the power for both Hubby and I need when we are working (haha); and it will be able to support Photoshop so that I can actually start editing and working on my digital photography.
In the end “bad” is such a relative term…RIGHT!?!
Is there some rule out there for spam that requires the people (robots) to not use complete sentences or grammar? Don’t get me wrong I’m glad they are terrible writers, it makes reading through my spam filter all the more hilarious. But sometimes I wonder…
The one word that I would use to describe this episode: SQUEE! The chefs in tonight’s episode are: Douglas Rodriguez, Anita Lo, John Besh, and Mark Peel.
Ah the one handed egg quickfire. This was one probably one of the most difficult challenges, I think, from Top Chef. I screw eggs up with two hands, I can’t imagine trying to cook them with one hand. Yay for Anita, those eggs look really good, and that was quite the presentation, good thing that she had that extra hand al la Besh.
The elimination challenge is to create a meal based on their magical words: Peel-Mystery, Besh-Surprise, Rodriguez-Spectacle, and Anita-Illusion. Let the games begin!
Have I mentioned how much I love this series. No drama, clearly they love what they do and they are having fun doing it. Yeah some might think that is boring, but honestly it’s really refreshing. Besides when these chefs screw up they do it rather spectacularly. Also I love that the money goes to a charity of their choice.
First up: Mystery
A pouch of mystery fish, which seems to have been a hit; with a side of sake. Sake…sooo good. And sooo deceptively evil.
Second: Surprise
Besh has decided to use the liquid nitrogen, to make a horseradish sorbet. Presented with flourish and a little participation by NPH.
Third: Illusion
Braised daikon with steak tartar inside and caviar; all made to look like a scallop. Now I’m a huge fan of steak tartar so, this one is my favorite, but then I’m biased.
Fourth: Spectacle
Oooh FLAMING COCONUTS! Now that is a spectacle, even more so if he manages to set one of the judges on fire….
I think that this has been the most interesting elimination challenge and one where the chefs seemed to have all had positive comments across the board. And one where I was the closest to licking my television.
My one complaint: is that I can’t actually smell and taste these dishes.
Woot! Hell yeah, Asian women ROCK! Anita swept the floor with her fellow competitors. Now I want to try her steak tartar!
