Corner of Bourbon & Division

I don't have a specific topic for this entry, just general catching up and making plans —most of which will never come to fruition, knowing me, but it's nice to dream. It's what my mother calls "building castles in Spain." I seem to recall that has a historical origin somewhere... hang on, I'm going to go look it up. Okay, I'm back (not that you can tell in textual form that I was gone), and the internet was mostly unhelpful, but it seems to stem from Charlemagne's abortive attempt at conquering Spain. So, there you go.

( Feel-good therapy )


( Projects and stuff )

Oh, and before I forget, I saw Ghostbusters last weekend with toughlovemuse and owldaughter, and it was amaaaaaaaaazeballs! I can't emphasize how much I enjoyed that movie. It did have some problems, but overall it was fun and engaging, and the women were all fantastic, and there was not one single fat joke in the whole movie! I was sort of bracing for impact on the latter, because of Melissa McCarthy. She's a fat woman in Hollywood, and the price of admission for that is to constantly have to make jokes at your own expense about your weight. I understand that that's how it works, but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy fat jokes. There were none, not even jokes about food apart from a running gag about wonton soup having a bad soup-to-wonton ratio. It was glorious. I have also joined the legions of fans who are super in love with Jillian Holtzmann. She has the most bad-ass fight sequence in the movie:

After a day of running errands, I treated myself to Up!. As usual, Pixar did not disappoint. It treated a difficult subject with delicacy and whimsy and a great deal of respect. I cried a lot (S.O.P. with me and Pixar films), and laughed even more. It was lovely, and in spite of my misgivings, much like the ones I had before going to see WALL*E, I was absolutely charmed.

I loved the dog. I loved all the characters, really, but the dog especially. "My name is Doug! I have just met you and I love you! I was going to... SQUIRREL!" Awww. <3

Anyway, yes. Much love for the movie. Much, much love.

Went to see Watchmen with a bunch of people last night. Time for LJ-user sightings! There was jteethy, karine, adamofeden, luvenditti, toughlovemuse, chibipunkdemon and Phil-who-hasn't-got-an-LJ. It was really nice seeing all my friends, many of whom I hadn't seen since Capricornucopia on January 10th. Eesh. Where does the time go?

The movie was fun, but suffered from inadequate writing, I think. It also ended about four times. Possibly five. It was very pretty, though some of the effects were... odd. I haven't read the graphic novel, but I understand that the movie modernized a bunch of things, and then lovingly re-created others the same way, which was jarring for me: some of the gizmos looked wildly out of place. The same went for the costumes.

( Mild plot spoilers behind the cut )

The movie was also horrifically violent. I think I may have damaged poor Phil's hearing permanently with my squeaks of horror. There's only so many instances of bones splintering through skin and the like that I can take. I mean, come on! It's not necessary to go into that much gory detail. I get it, already! Gah.


In short, it was entertaining, but had I known what it was I would have waited to see it on video.

Also, between the movie and moving the clocks forward, I only got three hours of sleep last night. I am now Cranky!Cat.

Two hours of snowshoeing yesterday and I am wrecked. Had a great time with luvenditti and fearsclave. The Wuh-Mun wasn't home from her trip yet, and I was sad to have missed her, but her sistern Karen was visiting with her two Siamese cats (they're a mix of chocolate flame point and, erm, I forget the other), so I bonded with all three. 'Twas very pleasant. We wandered out on snowshoes, went by the beaver dam and an abandoned farmhouse, and re-visited Mark's Island, where fearsclave and I built a lean-to two years ago (that's where the photo was taken that I used for this icon). The lean-to is still there, although a little the worse for wear since it hasn't really been maintained.

One nifty thing about the snow is that you can see animal tracks remarkably well. We saw turkey and rabbit tracks, and an owl strike which was very impressive, as well as deer and the Elusive Canadian Snow Hamster (ask fearsclave to show you the picture he took). At one point we scared an entire flock of turkeys out of a field and into the woods. Wild turkeys are very pretty indeed.

I caught a quick glimpse of wultabat and looking4wings while I was at the Fearsranch, but it turned out that we couldn't spend much time together. Next time. :)

There was snowshoeing, and Tim Horton's doughnuts (they don't heap disgusting amounts of glaze on their doughnuts in Ontario, it's very exciting), and then we went to the pizzeria in Alexandria for lunch. Good times. :)

When luvenditti and I returned to Montreal we stopped by my place so I could get dry socks (turns out my Magnums are no longer waterproof at all, so I shall have to buy something to seal them with again) and my citified boots, and then we wandered off to the movies.

The Queen, which was my first choice, was sold out. So we went to see Because I Said So instead. Umm, it was bad. Diane Keaton is a fabulous actress, but not even she could save the movie. For one thing, they gave her terrible, terrible lines to work with. Mandy Moore was, well, Mandy Moore. Girl couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag, and all she does is wander around looking pouty and smug. It's too bad, because if the writing hadn't been so crappy, it might have been an entertaining movie. Instead, I spent a lot of time wishing the characters would shut up.

Now I am going to have coffee, and head out to my game. Overslept this morning, again. *sigh*