Suzy Says

Yes, Virginia, there really is a hell. And it’s right upstairs!

The thing about my upstairs neighbors is that they are just so generous. Even if it’s 9:00 on a Sunday morning – and a Sunday dedicated to God and Moms (does it get any more sacred than that?) – they are delighted to share their egregious taste in music with anyone within earshot (and your ears will be shot, believe me). Given their propensity for equal volume and bass overdrive, those of you in Indonesia and Outer Mongolia are probably having your ears assaulted right now. If there’s a huge avalanche on Mt Everest or somewhere on either Pole, you’ll know who to blame.

Rita & I eventually tired of being univited guests at Hell’s Disco, and decided to get out for a breath of quiet air. While ambling away from Racketville, we discovered the above item in the Upstairs Disco’s recycling.

Suddenly, it was all so clear.

Changing the subject from those mothers, today I hosted a couple of motherless friends for brunch. Makes the day easier for those of us who are Mom-less, and instead of braving the restaurants with their happy, Mom-celebrating parties, I made Eggs Florentine. I used a mixture of baby arugula and baby spinach, and successfully made my own hollandaise sauce. The addition of the arugula really helped to cut the richness of the hollandaise and brought it all into balance. I am pleased to report that it was enjoyed by all, though conversation was difficult since we were temporarily located inside a giant speaker, but I took the pleased expressions and empty plates as a compliment.

To those of you who have mothers or are mothers, hope you had a fabulous Mother’s Day! And wishing everyone peace and quiet. Send some my way if you got it.

If I ran the world, Santa would look just like this.

As I drove to my friend’s house on Christmas Eve, I was filled with anxiety and apprehension. I soon learned that I should have paid more attention to this internal warning system.

After the long, rainy drive (though uneventful, with no mistaken OnStar calls this year), I arrived at my friend’s 120 year old apartment. Here’s where things started to get eventful, as she explained the vagaries of the ancient plumbing to me (“There’s a big stick by the toilet, in case you need to break things up so they’ll flush”), which almost sent Rita and me back to the car in horror.

Friend also is the owner of Dreadful Dog, a yappy, furry bolster of a dog disliked by everyone who knows him. People who can’t agree on any other topic under the sun all agree that Dreadful Dog is, in fact, dreadful. If he isn’t barking his high-pitched bark, he’s whining, which his deluded owner describes as “purring”. Among his other irritating features is his complete refusal to come when he’s called, which can be a problem if, for example, he runs across the road to annoy two stranger dogs. On that occasion, when I approached him with his leash, he kept backing away.

I thought of an alternative use for the big ol’ toilet stick.

You can imagine Rita’s horror at being bracketed with this creature. It’s like when your parents take you to visit friends of theirs and you have to play with their loser kid, who normally has to bribe people with toys to play with him. You can’t believe it, but you’re stuck with it. Also the grown-ups can’t seem to tell that there’s a huge difference between you and him.

Rita and I were mortified at being seen in public with Dreadful Dog, at least twice a day.

Awoke from fitful sleep on Christmas Day to learn that the great James Brown had died earlier that morning. A day that kicks off with James Brown kicking off is not going to be a good one.

Friend’s daughter has Christmas dinner at her elegant house every year. She is a wonderful cook (she even caters occasionally), and her house is always decorated perfectly. On the other hand, she also has an antisocial creep of a boyfriend who now lives with her. He threw a fit that would have embarrassed a four year old after we dared to visit for three hours on Christmas Eve, along with her friends and family. He kept her up all night with his theatrics, and then vanished to the basement on Christmas morning, leaving her to make dinner for ten people, all of whom were well aware of this drama and the many which had preceded it.

Unfortunately, he emerged to eat dinner and open gifts, which led to a complete pall over the proceedings and an almost total lack of conversation, since nothing anyone was thinking could be said out loud. Personally, I was thinking, “Heave ho, heave ho, it’s to the curb you go!”

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I called my brother and sister and learned that Jed the Wonder Dog is sick. Think good thoughts for her. Being without her is unthinkable.

…is already under the tree.

On the other hand, there were a flock of birthdays to celebrate, not just Mine (Megan’s on May 25; Mine on June 4; Erica’s on June 5; Caleb’s on June 3). So Meg threw a big barbecue for us, starring fabulous grilled veggie kabobs, grilled shrimp, turkey burgers, and two works of art disguised as cake, made by the multi-talented Erica.

This is Megan’s cake. Called “Key Lime Trauma”, it features an ambulance going to the rescue of an overturned car. Fortunately, this time the blood is chocolate. The blue-flecked meringue is the ocean. For those of you who don’t know, Meg’s an EMT.

My cake, however, was a glorious chocolate mocha dream, covered with buttercream and roses. The rose in the middle is called Sweet Jessica….

…But this is the real Sweet Jessica, Erica’s daughter and greatest work of art.

And this is as maternal as you’ll ever see Me.

Q: When is a Bar Mitzvah like a baseball game?

A: When everyone tells you that it will be too long and too boring, yet it turns out to be one of the most amazing days of your life.

It’s interesting that both the prospect of my first baseball game and my first Bar Mitzvah evoked the same general response: I was risking coma or death from depths of unimaginable boredom (my worst fear after death, and who knows, maybe death is in fact boring, making two fears in one!) from attending either event. Yet baseball is our national pastime, and Bar Mitzvahs have been celebrated for hundreds, or possibly thousands of years, so there must be something to them.

As we know, attending the ball game saw the birth of Sporty Suzy, and while attending the Bar Mitzvah didn’t make me convert from confusion to Judaism, it was one of the most moving and beautiful days of my life.

The guest of honor (Bar Mitzvee?), Samuel, lost his father to cancer five years earlier, so he wasn’t there to see his son’s coming of age. But pretty much all the rest of Sam’s family were, having come from near and far and filling the synagogue with more love than I ever felt in one room at one time. At one time or another during the ceremony, every immediate family member participated and was on the stage with Sam, supporting him and sharing the experience.

After the ceremony, there was a lunch of breathtaking lavishness. It was all kosher, all delicious, and all, if you can believe this, prepared by Sam’s mother. For almost 150 people. It was exquisitely presented, too, with cornucopias filled with fruit carved like flowers and swathed with ivy and real flowers. Every dish was labelled, from the bagels and lox to the five different kinds of cake. So yeah, there was cake!

The most moving moment – of so many – was when Sam stood in front of the room and made a little speech about some of the people he is closest to and who helped to get him there. After each little piece about the person, Sam invited him/her to come up and place a flower in a vase beside him. The final flower was placed in the vase by Sam’s mother, who said, “This bouquet is Samuel. He is made up of all these people who love him.”

I have been invited to the first Bar Mitzvah of my life. It is, presumably, the first Bar Mitzvah of the kid in question as well, but he has the advantage over me of having a religious tradition which he must also understand to a reasonable extent. Those of us who have been brought up with no religious tradition are at a notable disadvantage as guests at ceremonies of any religious description, such as this one, or a Catholic funeral Mass. I can?t even fake it convincingly.

Apparently, it’s a very long service, so I’ll have to practice looking serious and/or interested for extended periods of time. It shouldn’t be that hard. I mean, I had to do it for hours at a time back when I had a job. However, I’m not sure what to wear, and whether there’s a traditional gift besides money. Not working and sudden trips to Florida combined with shopping cardio tend to lead to cash flow issues, even temporary ones, and rumor has it that the money you give on these occasions is supposed to be pretty serious. Maybe not Sopranos serious, but of an amount to help towards education and other weighty, grown-up things, since the poor kid, at 13 or whatever, is now supposed to be a grown-up. Which means the fun part of his life is over.

Actually, the entire endeavor seems to be remarkably lacking in fun (though perhaps this is appropriate, given how remarkably lacking in fun it is to be a grown-up most of the time) for the guest of honor. Long before the ceremony, s/he has to learn a lot of Hebrew, a lot of religious stuff, and then have this very long ceremony at which s/he must not only be the center of attention, but give a speech. And after all that, not even any presents, other than money, which your parents immediately put in a college fund.

Maybe there?ll be cake, though.

It’s our 12th anniversary today, which is supposed to be either silk (traditional) or pearls (modern). John would look pretty stupid in either, so I think we’ll just stick to our anniversary tradition: watching Die Hard, my all-time favorite movie, and drinking champagne, my all-time favorite drink, with my all-time favorite guy. Does it get any more romantic than that?

Speaking of movies: in the spirit of the Top Twenty movie lists at ymdb, here is my top 20. I consider each to be perfect in its own way. List is alphabetical, since this is still supposedly a democracy, but Die Hard is still my total favorite. We all know that a democracy does not mean no favoritism.

All of these are filmed beautifully, and have incredible casts. I see that I seem to have a more romantic turn of mind than I suspected. Who knew?

1. American Beauty: It’s no surprise that this gem was written by Alan Ball, who also gave us the groundbreaking HBO series, Six Feet Under. It has the same clear-eyed yet macabre point of view, and rarely has something so dark been filmed with such light. Owes a nod to Sunset Boulevard (see below), with its posthumous Everyguy narrator. Best moment: when Kevin Spacey’s character quits his job. Haven’t we all wanted to give that speech at one time or another? And isn’t it cathartic to watch Spacey do it?

2. Beautiful Girls: Great ensemble cast. Timothy Hutton plays the one who escaped the small town they all grew up in and comes back for a reunion, to find things are exactly the same, but different. Natalie Portman, in one of her first roles, is absolutely luminous, and you wish that somehow she and Hutton could overcome the obstacles between them (chiefly the fact that she is 13, which should be repugnant on every possible level, but isn’t). Best moment: Rosie O’Donnell’s brilliant rant on why skin mags have ruined men’s expectations of real women.

3. Boogie Nights: Given the subject matter, it should be a whole lot more vulgar. An amazing d&eacutebut for Paul Thomas Anderson. He has the 1970’s down perfectly, hair, make-up and clothes – check out the scene where Mark Wahlberg’s character goes shopping – and the sensibilities, too. The film follows its cast through a decade or so, and while, yes, they are all in the porn industry, it’s really about friendships, dreams, and even love, just like The People vs. Larry Flynt*. Best moment: There are plenty, including the beyond Freudian reversal of words in the scene where William H. Macy’s character says, “That’s my wife with an ass in her cock”. Did Anderson leave it in on purpose?

4. Braveheart: It took a lot of convincing to get me to watch this one (it’s really long! All those battle scenes! What’s with the blue face paint?), but I was immediately swept away by the inspiring, true story of the great Scottish patriot, William Wallace, and his fight for freedom. Granted, the bits with the French princess are silly, and it’s not entirely historically accurate, but who cares? It’s glorious. Interestingly enough, the English are still all messed up by him 700 years later. Just ask at the Tower of London where Wallace was executed and watch them squirm. It’s not marked anywhere, but they still can’t erase him. Factoid: Wallace was tried in Westminster Hall, as was Charles I with similar results. More recently, the Queen Mother lay in state there.

5. Casablanca: What can I say that hasn’t been said a million times and better? Brilliant dialogue (those Epstein twins were something), flawless cast (is anyone cooler than Bogie?), a great villain (the inimitable Claude Rains). Black and white film has never looked more beautiful or conveyed more emotion. Best moment: You already know. Fun factoid: Bogie never says, “Play it again, Sam”.

6. The Commitments: Written by Roddy Doyle and starring a cast of Irish unknowns, tells the story of a band composed of working class Dubliners with not much else to live for. The film shows you the bleakness of their lives and environment without comment, and it forms an effective background for the band’s struggles, their kaleidoscopic relationships with each other, the beauty of their voices and the joy of their performances. Both funny and heart-breaking. Best moment: pretty much all of them, but I’d have to say the outraged Colm Meaney screaming, “Elvis wasn’t a Cajun!” Fun factoid: Andrew Strong, the lead singer of the band, was 16 when the movie was filmed. Jaizus.

7. Die Hard: Still the one to beat, it changed the action movie genre forever. Many have tried, but none have been able to match, let alone surpass it. Alan Rickman is a fabulous villain, a worthy successor to Claude Rains and James Mason with his suave, European elegance and menace. There’s no dead space in this screenplay. The action zips along non-stop, peppered with witty, clever dialogue. May have the most great one-liners of any movie ever. Best moment: The classic is “Yippeekayay” (or however you spell that), but I’d have to go with Bonnie Bedelia’s line, “Only John can make someone that crazy.”

8. Fallen: People bitch about the ending, but in my opinion, it follows its own logic perfectly, from beginning to end, and it’s full of surprises. It does a great job of weaving together horror, mythology, and real life. Maybe demons really do walk among us unrecognized. Look for pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini and Aida Turturro. Best moment: watching Denzel’s character watch the evil nemesis being transferred from person to person on a busy street.

9. Fight Club: One of the best DVD’s, and the first one we ever bought. Love the packaging, love the movie. It’s brilliantly conceived and executed, and Brad Pitt and Edward Norton make a compelling pair. Still fun, even after you know the secret. Best moment: again, that’s a toughie. Given my fear of flying, I’ll say the replacement airline safety cards, showing little cartoon people freaking out in terror. Which is how it really would be. Close second is the kid bursting into tears after witnessing the split-second amendment of the kiddie movie she’s watching.

10. Gone with the Wind: Technicolor all the way, from the look of the film to its melodramatic story. The greatest of the sweeping epics from the Hollywood of the past, when stars were stars. Vivien Leigh never looked as beautiful as she did as Scarlett O’Hara. The furor caused by the English Leigh playing the quintessential American heroine was not unlike that caused by American Ren&eacutee Zellweger playing the quintessential English heroine Bridget Jones. Best moment: once again, you already know. Fun factoid: Selznick started filming before the role of Scarlett was cast. And although Gable & Leigh light up the screen together, they didn’t like each other at all in real life. Leigh was reported to be completely repelled by Gable’s denture breath, and he in turn thought her an uptight priss.

11. Howard’s End: Best of the Merchant-Ivory/E.M. Forster ventures, and so beautifully filmed. Exquisite locations, especially the house of the title, and costumes. The story is essentially that of two well-meaning upper class sisters who get involved in a lower class clerk’s life with disastrous results, but it’s so much more than that. The entire cast is wonderful, including Vanessa Redgrave, who is lit from within despite (or because of) her illness; Anthony Hopkins, who is stuffy but not unlovable; and Helena Bonham Carter, about as different from her Fight Club role as humanly possible. Best moment: Anthony Hopkins saying calmly, “The poor are poor. One is sorry for them, but there it is.” Fun factoid: the house used in the film as Howard’s End is supposed to be the actual one that inspired Forster to write his novel.

12. Last Action Hero: Also directed by John McTiernan, who gave us Die Hard, this clever send-up of movies in general and action movies in particular has been mercilessly trashed by critics, who don’t seem to get the joke(s). Possibly the meshing of the real world and the film world confused them. Rarely has a star made fun of himself as well and as charmingly as Schwarzenegger in this film. Best moment: Charles Dance (yet another charming Euro-villain; I seem to have a real weakness for these guys) saying, “Police! I have just killed a man!” Bonus: the kid in the movie doesn’t have the ubiquitous bowl cut haircut favored in movies and television, for reasons that defy logic and taste.

13. Little Women: The perfect film incarnation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, the film is a visual poem, a painting that moves. Never has snow looked more beautiful. Pre-shoplifting Winona Ryder gives an Oscar worthy performance as the strong-willed and independent Jo, and Christian Bale is a wonderfully romantic and passionate Laurie. I still cry when Beth (played heartbreakingly by My So-Called Life’s Claire Danes) dies, no matter how many times I see the movie. Haunting soundtrack by Thomas Newman, who also gave us the American Beauty soundtrack and the theme for Six Feet Under.

14. Nobody’s Fool: Paul Newman should have won an Oscar for his brilliant, low-key performance as Sully, a small town ne’er-do-well who boards with his former school teacher, played by Jessica Tandy (in her last role, and a swan song that befits such an actress). Sully’s estranged son and his family come to town for Thanksgiving, giving the two men the chance to reconcile. Bruce Willis shows he is capable of more than action movies, as Sully’s employer, enemy, and friend. Best moment is hard to decide on in such a subtle film, but it might be Sully’s grandson “driving” his truck and saying, “It’s a nice truck,” in a reflective voice that suggests a lifetime of owning his own beat-up old pick-ups to come; or his bar crony airily wishing a friend farewell with, “Vaya con huevos.”

15. North by Northwest: It’s hard to choose just one of Hitchcock’s many masterpieces, but this one is so stylish and fast-paced and has such a great cast. Cary Grant is mistaken for an enemy agent by elegant bad guy James Mason, and the chase is on. Best moment: the scene where Grant is chased by a crop duster, of course. Fun factoids: the film’s original working title was “The Man on Lincoln’s Nose”. And Jessie Royce Landis, who plays Grant’s mother in the film, was actually almost a year younger than Grant!

16. Repo Man: Appropriately made in 1984, this dark comedic satire would have won Orwell’s approval. From the opening credits with Iggy Pop’s Repo Man theme to the eerie ending, nothing but fun. Kickass soundtrack. Best moment: Harry Dean Stanton saying quietly, yet vehemently, “Ordinary fuckin’ people. I hate ’em,” followed closely by his description of his enemies, rival repo men the Rodriguez brothers. Fun factoid: the film was shot in LA in six weeks, for $1.5 million, but still went over budget. Cast and crew worked for free for the last three days of filming.

17. Stand By Me: The most satisfying film ever made of a Stephen King story (why is it so hard to make good movies out of good stories? Why?). It perfectly captures the nuances of the story and its characters, and most of all, what I consider to be King’s greatest qualities: he is an excEt storyteller, and remembers what it’s like to be a child more vividly than any author I can think of. These are real kids, in a real place in time. You really feel the summer in Castle Rock. Still breaks my heart to see the radiantly beautiful and moving River Phoenix in this one, the tragedy of his character reflecting that of the boy who played him. Look for Kiefer Sutherland, long before 24, being a small town badass, and Wil Wheaton, before he got screwed over by those Star Trek idiots. Best moment: There are so many! But I’d have to say it’s Wheaton’s “biggest in four counties” moment with Phoenix. And, yeah, what the hell is Goofy anyway?

18. Sunset Boulevard: Gloria Swanson showed tremendous courage in taking on the role of Norma Desmond, the forgotten silent screen star who lives in her decaying mansion on Sunset Boulevard. It must have been painful for her to play what she more or less was in real life, and she uses that pain to create a work of art. She is tragic and magnificent. William Holden plays the hack writer who gets entangled in her web. Best moment: Swanson declaiming, “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small!” Fun factoid: the film originally started with Holden in the morgue instead of the swimming pool, and included other morgue residents explaining how they got there. But audiences of the day (more than half a century ago) were appalled by this, particularly the dead child, so the opening was re-shot. You can see the original opening on the DVD. Wonder if it inspired Alan Ball as much as Holden’s posthumous narration?

19. Titanic: Like Gone with the Wind, it’s a romance set against a historical background, and also shows how disaster and the end of an era affect ordinary people. The work director James Cameron did in reproducing the doomed luxury liner down to its smallest detail paid off. You feel as if you are really there, and it is sumptuously filmed. For example, the scene where the lifeboats are adrift under the starry skies (look for handsome Ioan Gruffudd, now the hero of the Hornblower series and the Forsyte Saga searching for survivors) is spectacular and deeply moving. Not to mention the “King of the World” scene with the leaping dolphins. Best moment: when Kate Winslet’s Rose tilts her stunning hat and we first see her beautiful face, a reminder of when Ingrid Bergman does the same thing in Casablanca, with the same breath-taking effect.

20. When Harry Met Sally: The romantic comedy to end all romantic comedies. Sparkling dialogue, wonderful cast (especially Bruno Kirby) – a fresh new take on the screwball comedies of the past. Best moment: well, yeah, I guess you have to go with the classic on this one and give it to the faked orgasm in the deli. I still think it would have been more effective if Ryan’s character had ended it with, “Sound familiar?”

Happy holidays, everyone!!

*Too similar to Boogie Nights for inclusion in this list, but it’s great. I really do think of it as a love story first and foremost. Courtney Love and Woody Harrelson are magnificent in their awfulness, as is the real Larry Flynt.

We had a great Thanksgiving. The weather could not have been more glorious, and in honor of Mom being with us for Thanksgiving for the first time in years, everything looked its best. Dinner was fabulous, and it was a happy evening with family and friends, the way it should be.

On the day after Thanksgiving, we went in to Mendocino for the annual craft fair, where I saw this sculpture and finished up my Christmas shopping – late for me! Tried not to think about all the horrible wrapping and mailing which awaits me. Wouldn’t you think I’d be good at Christmas wrapping? But alas, my impatience cancels out any pretensions to artistic ability and it generally puts me in a Grinch-like mood, which is why I get things wrapped at the store if possible. You can tell an authentic Suzy wrapped present by the amount of tape and unevenness of the paper.

After the craft fair, we stopped by the Fetzer tasting room in Mendocino, and tasted different wines before buying some, always the best way. We ended a lovely day at Ledford House, in their beautiful, comfortable bar overlooking the ocean. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful view of the sunset. Our friend Mark was working at the bar, which meant that a glass of Roederer chamapgne was waiting for me by the time I sat down, and we were also treated to their fabulous baked garlic and ch&egravevre on toast. The perfect end to the perfect day.

I’ll leave you with a picture of Jonathan’s dog Jed, who has recovered from her run-in with the bench a couple of weeks ago. Her fur is growing back on her chest, but the stitches have been removed and it’s hard to believe there was two inch deep gash there. She is even back on ball duty.

Jonathan’s cat Iggy is either chillin’ or killin’. Here he’s doing the former. I envy him.

I’m off to my brother’s and sister’s for Thanksgiving in the country. I’m picking up Mom on the way, and I can’t even remember the last time we were all together for Thanksgiving.

The last time I was at my brother’s and sister’s for Thanksgiving was two years ago, when we found Dad lying in the mud on the dirt road between their houses after he had had a stroke. I rarely, if ever, pass by that spot without thinking of that night, and being up there for Thanksgiving for the first time since that fateful one is going to be hard. It won’t be the same day, obviously, but it will be the same holiday. We will all be thinking about it. but no-one will speak of it, unless Megan and I have some time alone, because Jonathan can’t or won’t talk about Dad.

Maybe it’s the way men cope with these things, but I want to tell him that you cannot skip or shorten the mourning process. You have to go through it and work through your feelings. There’s no easy way. Not talking about Dad or your feelings and memories about him will not make them go away. And it’s not morbid to speak of these things, as my brother believes. Rather, the opposite: it’s morbid and unhealthy not to.

Since my sis and I are on T-Day cooking duty, and I’m not bringing my iBook with me, there will be no Suzy updates until Sunday at the earliest. However, John is staying at home with our cats, so he might be inspired while I’m away.

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving with your friends and loved ones. Have fun and stay safe!

My horoscope for today, from the Chronicle: “You’ve spent too many nights worrying. Let matters run their course.”

Considering I’m writing this at 1:00 a.m., it’s probably good advice.

Reward for walking home on Tuesday: I finally got to see Nicolas Cage! He has a house (one of many, I’m sure) three blocks from our place, and in the 7 years we’ve lived on this street, I have never seen him. But on Tuesday, there he was, chatting to two guys in his garage with the garage door open. He has quite a messy garage. As I passed, I smiled, and he smiled back and said “Hey”. Brush with fame!

This brings me to a grand total of 4 brushes with fame:

1. Driving through Seacliff in my convertible with the top down, passed Robin Williams’ house with a birthday party going on for one of his kids. Balloons and kids everywhere, Robin severely outnumbered but taking it well. Exchanged a smile and wave, my usual MO when encountering famous people.

2. Walking across the Hungerford Bridge in London, saw Elvis Costello shooting a video. I was with my Dad, which really limited the fun, because he had no idea who Elvis Costello was and there was no point in trying to explain it. Usual smile & wave exchange. Elvis was wearing a silly hat.

3. While visiting Althorp, Princess Diana’s childhood home, met her brother and had an actual conversation for a change. He’s really a celebrity by association, so it may not count and might be the reason I was able to exchange words instead of the drive/walk by wave’n’smile.

4. The Nicolas Cage walk by wave’n’smile.

Why is it that I can never come up with a clever and/or witty thing to say when faced with a famous person?

Reward for taking a cab home yesterday:

Cab driver looked very Japanese, much like Pat Morita, but talked like a hick from Arkansas, the total hillbilly accent. The contrast was so delightful that it was hard not to laugh. Cab driver also a conspiracy theory nut who held forth all the way home. He was wasted on me, since he was really John’s dream cab driver. He also reminds me of a story John tells of when he lived in Edinburgh and was going home late one night. The only other person on the bus was a very drunk Indian (as in Indiah) guy, beautifully singing “Danny Boy” with a deep Scottish accent.

Well, things went pretty well yesterday. Number one, the rain that had been forecast with consistent gloom to be here from Wednesday through Sunday has yet to appear. In fact, the sun even peeped out coyly from time to time. Our stove seems to have recovered from its temporary fit of diva-ness, and roasted the turkey to perfection and turned out several batches of Suzy’s famous cheese biscuits (which, if I could figure out a way to market them, is definitely my million dollar idea).

Dinner was fun and stress-free, and no-one cried. I had my brother, sister and brother-in-law here, as well as my brother’s wonder dog Jed and his friend Carrie, who is expecting her first baby on Christmas Eve. I hadn’t met her before, but I really liked her, and it was a happy and relaxed evening.

Of our four cats, only Hannah was brave enough to approach Jed and smell her curiously. Jack, who thinks she’s so tough, barely looked at Jed for a split second before vanishing for the rest of the evening (later, we found her wedged under the couch). However upsetting this may have been to Jack, it did mean that for the first time since Jack entered our lives, we were able to eat a meal in peace, without her whining and demanding food, or possibly even jumping onto the table, which would have been really embarrassing in front of someone I had just met. So that was good, too.

We left the house at about 12:30 this afternoon with the intention of seeing “Harry Potter”, along with most of the city’s population. Insane traffic snarls, parking problems, crowded theater lobbies, and sold out show after show later, we finally bought tickets for the 4:00 p.m. show at 2:00 p.m., went and had a weirdly late lunch (hey, everyone’s eating habits are all screwed up now anyway) and finally got into the movie. By the way, all the shows up to 11:00 p.m. were sold out when we got back to the theater for the 4:00 p.m. show.

I liked the movie, but they fucked with some plot points for no reason (i.e. Norbert the dragon), and I didn’t like Hermione, but other than that, the casting was great. But Harry’s scar was lame (as my sister said, it looks like someone put it on with eyeliner) and I don’t understand why they didn’t give him green contact lenses when the books make such a big deal about his green eyes and this kid has the standard-issue English blue ones. But, having nit-picked and griped (and you just knew I would), it looked absolutely spectacular and the actors were wonderful. I guess with any beloved book, it’s very difficult to translate it to the screen and win everyone’s approval for how you did it. Definitely worth seeing, and worth seeing in the theater.