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Ah, blessed domesticity ...
... not! (That is, "domesticity" but not "blessed".) Inventoried the leftovers and sorted out long-term (freezer) from short-term (fridge), packed up half a dozen containers of "complete Xmas dinner for lunch" and popped them in the freezer. Made soup of the leftover ribs.[*] Did three loads of laundry and ironed 3 large linen table cloths with a couple dozen matching napkins. (About the only thing I ever iron are linen table cloths and sewing projects.) Replaced the transition-moulding between the living room and laundry. The one that the floor guys had installed was a bit too tall and wouldn't allow the door to close. They said, "Oh, just shave a bit off the bottom of the door," ignoring the fact that this is a fireproof metal-core door. As a stop-gap I'd ground down their moulding, but it's plastic with just a wood veneer, so that was ugly. I found a lower profile moulding at OSH with a matching oak appearance. Decided that the woodstove really isn't supposed to be smoking as much as it is (although some of the worst was due to high winds) and will see about whether it's appropriate to install a gasket between the body and lid. Got the cassettes and CDs organized in their new storage location. Got a refund back from the house insurance company for the double-payment (ignoring the fact that I'd paid up for the year, they also billed my mortgage company) which relieves the immediate cash-flow issues very nicely. Moved the new sewing worktable downstairs (it was initially installed in the dining room to help with the big dinner). Finished the pattern-gathering rows on the first panel and did the first row on the second panel. (The first row is the real time-eater because it has to be counted very precisely -- with threads pulled at regular intervals perpendicular to the gathering thread -- in order to set up the rest of the work. Later rows can just use previous work for reference in stitch placement.) Picked up the last piece of fabric necessary for the 12th Night sewing. And somewhere in there I had room for a movie.
[*] Well, that was the theory. I made a nice stock. Then this morning I took out the bones, shredded the meat, heated it to boiling and added alphabet pasta to cook with the burner off while I was out running errands. Guess which essential step of this process somehow got forgotten. Guess who gets to buy a new stock pot.
I'd actually intended to see Casino Royale, but hadn't bothered to look up times when I headed out for the shopping, and when I got to the Bay St Mall it was a couple of hours until the next showing. So I picked A Night at the Museum instead and boy was I far from sorry. I'd expected a sort of Jumanji-like piece of special effects candy, and the effects were definitely the core organizing feature of the story, but what I liked (and this is going to sound like a couple other of my movie reviews) was that although it took a fairly stale framing story (feckless peter-pan-esque man with adoring son and exasperated ex-wife tries to give it one more shot to get his act together to avoid eviction, probable loss of custody, and alienation of his son's affections in favor of the ex's new man who is a model of conventional success), spends an inordinate amount of time dwelling on exciting chase and fight scenes, and concludes with a rather dubious moral lesson (stick to your fantasy world long enough and you can make everything work happily ever after), the internal logic of the plot hangs together well without awkward contrivances or gaping holes and the action is driven by deliberate purpose. The macguffin that makes the museum exhibits come to life isn't simply a throwaway, it's the key not only to why the protagonist has been set up, but to part of the solution to the crisis. Further, the protagonist's hinted-at personal history as a eccentrically outside-the-box thinker is his leverage in solving a lot of the plot-hurdles. I also like two somewhat sneaky "lessons" that the story promotes. When the protagonist accepts that he's got a complicated mess to untangle, he hits the books. Lesson #1 is that research, broad knowledge, and understanding are the key to success. And the post-climax resolution scene involves the museum being inundated by a newly-intrigued public. Lesson #2: history and nature are fun, even without the gimmick of "history coming to life". The casting was charming as well, with Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke serving as two of the conniving retiring museum night guards. (The third was a name I didn't recognize -- I looked him up on the Internet Movie Database and he seems to be a similarly long-time character actor but without the breakthrough recognition of the other two.) And now this item is definitely going to sound exactly like something I said in my last review: once again Robin Williams appears in a character role without doing it as "Robin Williams does a character role". I may have to re-evaluate my deep-seated dislike of his acting if he keeps this up.
I did get to pondering on the whole recurring motif of "feckless peter-pan-esque man with adoring son and exasperated ex-wife tries to give it one more shot to get his act together to avoid eviction, probable loss of custody, and alienation of his son's affections in favor of the ex's new man who is a model of conventional success." You have to figure that this motif keeps showing up in films because it reflects some experience common to movie directors. Oh, like maybe they spent years being told to stop messing around with this movie-making fantasy and get a Real Job, and now that they've achieved enough success to be making major studio pictures, they figure that the take-home lesson is "stick to your fantasy world long enough and you can make everything work happily ever after."
[*] Well, that was the theory. I made a nice stock. Then this morning I took out the bones, shredded the meat, heated it to boiling and added alphabet pasta to cook with the burner off while I was out running errands. Guess which essential step of this process somehow got forgotten. Guess who gets to buy a new stock pot.
I'd actually intended to see Casino Royale, but hadn't bothered to look up times when I headed out for the shopping, and when I got to the Bay St Mall it was a couple of hours until the next showing. So I picked A Night at the Museum instead and boy was I far from sorry. I'd expected a sort of Jumanji-like piece of special effects candy, and the effects were definitely the core organizing feature of the story, but what I liked (and this is going to sound like a couple other of my movie reviews) was that although it took a fairly stale framing story (feckless peter-pan-esque man with adoring son and exasperated ex-wife tries to give it one more shot to get his act together to avoid eviction, probable loss of custody, and alienation of his son's affections in favor of the ex's new man who is a model of conventional success), spends an inordinate amount of time dwelling on exciting chase and fight scenes, and concludes with a rather dubious moral lesson (stick to your fantasy world long enough and you can make everything work happily ever after), the internal logic of the plot hangs together well without awkward contrivances or gaping holes and the action is driven by deliberate purpose. The macguffin that makes the museum exhibits come to life isn't simply a throwaway, it's the key not only to why the protagonist has been set up, but to part of the solution to the crisis. Further, the protagonist's hinted-at personal history as a eccentrically outside-the-box thinker is his leverage in solving a lot of the plot-hurdles. I also like two somewhat sneaky "lessons" that the story promotes. When the protagonist accepts that he's got a complicated mess to untangle, he hits the books. Lesson #1 is that research, broad knowledge, and understanding are the key to success. And the post-climax resolution scene involves the museum being inundated by a newly-intrigued public. Lesson #2: history and nature are fun, even without the gimmick of "history coming to life". The casting was charming as well, with Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke serving as two of the conniving retiring museum night guards. (The third was a name I didn't recognize -- I looked him up on the Internet Movie Database and he seems to be a similarly long-time character actor but without the breakthrough recognition of the other two.) And now this item is definitely going to sound exactly like something I said in my last review: once again Robin Williams appears in a character role without doing it as "Robin Williams does a character role". I may have to re-evaluate my deep-seated dislike of his acting if he keeps this up.
I did get to pondering on the whole recurring motif of "feckless peter-pan-esque man with adoring son and exasperated ex-wife tries to give it one more shot to get his act together to avoid eviction, probable loss of custody, and alienation of his son's affections in favor of the ex's new man who is a model of conventional success." You have to figure that this motif keeps showing up in films because it reflects some experience common to movie directors. Oh, like maybe they spent years being told to stop messing around with this movie-making fantasy and get a Real Job, and now that they've achieved enough success to be making major studio pictures, they figure that the take-home lesson is "stick to your fantasy world long enough and you can make everything work happily ever after."