Interesting Things as of Late | johnozed

Late posting tonight ladies and gentlemen. Nothing bad happened, actually some good happened. I just got back from dinner with Julio and Stine, the happy parents to be. We ate at a Hoboken classic, Leo’s Grandevous. Last time I ate there was some New Years Day a while ago I think, just me and Julio nursing hangovers and eating anything that was on a plate in front of us.

Tonight was nice, the three of us, catching up. I hardly ever see them and they only live two floors below on the third floor. It being a Friday night, the restaurant was crowded and the food was as the usual sub par offerings.

It definitely helps being hungover to eat there, Sinatra photos and artworks on almost every available wall space and nonstop Frank playing on the jukebox. Yes, you are in Hoboken. We ordered appetizers and entrees which basically came at the same time. No one got upset, we just ate and talked. Julio and I drinking Stella Artois and Stine rocking a glass of ginger ale.

At the end of dinner, Julio and Stine gave me some cigars they bought at customs. Not the usual Cubans that Julio got last time, having picked up on Stine’s paranoia, and he was disappointed they were the same guage I usually get, but they are Zino Davidoff, a very nice, pricey cigar and even though a bit smaller than usual, more than enjoyable, as I sit and smoke a very fine cigar.

Julio was surprised I hadn’t eaten when he called at 7:45. I had just walked through the door after coming back from the movies. Yes, I got it together and went on my own, which after all turned out to be fine. I can enjoy a movie on my own. It is fun when someone else is there, but just as good going solo.

After speaking with Annemarie the other day, and since she recommended it, I went to see No Country For Old Men. I decided to leave work early, ala brother Frank’s shenanigans and no one had any problem with that since half the office was out for the three day weekend, or they were simply home ill, since there is a virus bouncing around the office.

It was a great movie. It was violent and also very intense in a low key way, and if I saw it before Annemarie, I probably would have tried talking her out of seeing it as it was that violent. Since she saw it first, I had to go to see for myself. Great acting all around, great story and definitely worth seeing again, just to see if there was anything I missed. A very fast two hours as well.

Next on my movie menu, might be this weekend with Chaz and we might go see There Will Be Blood, starring the great Daniel Day Lewis. And if I don’t see it with Chaz this weekend, I might go on my own after work next week. Three day weekend, got to get bagels for the parents to be tomorrow and Sunday. I’m just looking forward to sleeping past 6:30. That’s it for tonight’s Night Owl edition.

I don’t know if it’s me, but my gmail has actually been behaving very oddly the past couple of days. It’s taking forever to load, and when I try to open attachments a new window appears, which is the main mailbox, not the attachment. And there’s a message at the top of each page for gmail, saying that it will retry in x amount of seconds and you see the countdown and when it winds down to 1 sec, it starts retrying all over again. It’s crazy I tell you, crazy!

Last night I couldn’t find anything to watch on TV so I decided to give David Lynch’s Inland Empire a chance. I couldn’t get past 20 minutes. Too many distractions at home, I should have seen it in a movie theater, like David Lynch intended. I had to shut it off and I put that and the bonus disk that I also got from Netflix and put them in their envelopes for mailing today. It certainly looked interesting, but I think one needs to be immersed in total darkness in order to get David Lynch’s desired effect. After I gave up on that I was adrift in the wasteland of Saturday night television.

I watched part of Man of the Year, starring Robin Williams and Laura Linney and I once again wondered, if Robin Williams is so funny (and he is) why can’t he make funny movies anymore? I know, shades of Stardust Memories, where Sandy Bates/Woody Allen is constantly told through the movie, that his earlier funnier movies were his best. I suppose I just did that with Robin Williams, oh well. I didn’t watch the whole movie, only caught the end but I’m sure I didn’t miss too much. I also watched part of The Longest Day, which is quite long and had so many commercial interruptions it was easy to change the channel without getting hung up in the story.

Also some of Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central. He’s ok, not terribly funny, but in spots. Juan absolutely loathes Carlos Mencia. I couldn’t bear to watch Jake Gyllenhaal on SNL again singing ‘And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going’. The first time was funny, the second time worth a chuckle, but by the fourth or fifth time, it gets mighty tired. I wound up reading past midnight and wound up going to sleep around 1:30. Woke up late again which was fine since no one was expecting me to be anywhere or to do anything.

Went out, did the routine and soon was back reading papers while eating breakfast. Big snowstorm expected tonight which I’m looking forward to. I do enjoy looking at the streets, all covered in fresh snow. It looks great in the first 24 hours, then it all turns to slush. They’re expecting 6 inches or so, some places getting 10. If it’s a pain in the ass to even get out of the apartment building I don’t expect to be at work tomorrow. I don’t expect a few people to be in. Maybe the Manhattanites will make it in, but those of us, not on the island facing difficulty getting in more than likely will be out.

I watched the last half hour of The Pursuit of Happyness and I was surprised at how good it was. I plan to watch the whole thing even though I know the ending. I knew the ending before I saw the last half hour since the story was in all the financial magazines that I sometimes read. Not for financial advice, but for the suit styles worn by the business men inside. Also fixed the bugs in my photo editing program XN-View. It’s what I use to shrink down the pics and that, like gmail was all buggy last night. Now it’s only gmail. Google better get on top of it.

And here are some pics…..