Memorial Day Weekend Update
Hello gentle readers.
It is time for the big Memorial Day Weekend Update. I hope you all had a good weekend.
On Saturday, I was nervous about the Girl Friend meeting the Big Guy. I have been with the Girl Friend for about a year and a half now. She and I went out previously but we had our troubles so we stopped seeing each other. Now , we are back together.
In the interests of full and fair disclosure, the Princess can not stand the Girl Friend and refuses to be anywhere near her.
I will obviously have to address this condition at some point. Fortunately, the Princess lives on the other side of the country so there are few opportunities for interaction. The Girl Friend accepts that idea of me going off with the kids when the Princess is home.
Anyway.
I got up early instead of sleeping in on Saturday. I was productive and did two loads of laundry. I feel cleaner now and I cleaned up my place. The “office space” where I write these blogs looks like it was hit with a Richter Scale 7.0 earthquake. Eventually, I will clean this space as well.
After I finished the cleaning and other stuff, I finished off a book I was reading. It was a book I bought for myself as a “from me, to me” birthday gift. The book is titled Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure. It’s not what you might think it is about. The book tells the story of a naval battle in East Africa between England and Germany during The Great War. The historical events were later made into the classic film, The African Queen.
It was a fascinating story and very interesting. I am not suggesting that you all go out and purchase a copy of the book or check it out of your local library because it is not likely to be there. I enjoyed it, in part, because I love naval history books. The Princess gave me two books on the Royal Navy’s influence on England’s empire for my birthday.
The end of Chuckay, the month long celebration of all things Chuck, concluded with the traditional dinner at Morton’s the Steakhouse. As the name implies, it is definitely not the place for vegetarians; it is for beef lovers. This is something the Big Guy and I have been doing since 1993 when we observed his birthday with a dinner at Morton’s.
Not surprisingly, we both had excellent beef. The Girl Friend opted for some jumbo shrimp. Everything about the meal was excellent.
The Big Guy observed that this was the first time in a very long time that our server was really hot. We had a subsequent discussion on Monday over lunch and concluded that she was probably a Latina. Excellent. This may also explain why the Girl Friend was on the cool side towards her.
Amy the server was shamelessly tip flirting with me. The Big Guy and I clearly recognized this behavior. She was extremely attentive towards me and brought me an extra scoop of ice cream during dessert.
I asked Amy if the restaurant was going to have another steak and lobster special this Summer. When she said they were, the Big Guy and I were clearly excited because we just love this special. I said we should have a “guy’s night out at Morton’s” with the Big Guy’s film friends.
Amy said that we should definitely ask for her when we make our reservations. She went out of her way to make the point perfectly clear that she wanted to be our server. I think she was already calculating the tip she might make off of a party of eight, hungry, happy young men and young thinking men [that would be me]. Then, The Big Guy told me that Morgan [one of the film friends was a girl]. I said that was fine; she was a student film maker and that made her eligible for the dinner.
This created an immediate problem for the Girl Friend because she was not going to be invited to join the group.
The Big Guy came to my rescue like the cavalry in a John Ford – John Wayne western. He told her how I had supported the guys and their efforts like showing up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday for morning for a couple of hours of shooting some scenes for Robin’s film as well as calling into the Super Chocolate Power Hour radio show that Robin, Coulter, and Derek. The Girl Friend was still not happy but at least she understood why I had made my decision to leave her home.
I think she had gotten over being excluded from the steak and lobster dinner by the time we drove back to my place. We continued to celebrate my birthday there for several more hours.
I eventually took her home and I crawled into my bed around 1:30 AM Sunday morning.
I did not do too much on Sunday. I did sleep in and that was good. After I got up, I had breakfast and then went to the market for my weekly shopping. I like to shop on either Saturday or Sunday morning because the store is fairly empty and I get around quickly.
I picked up some steaks and chicken to bar-be-que on the grill. I now have enough meals for almost two weeks packed away in the refrigerator and freezer. I ate some grilled chicken with baked beans and potato salad for dinner on Sunday.
It tasted soooooo good to me.
Had I not gone to lunch [more about this later on] with the Big Guy today after seeing Episode III with digital projection, I would have had chicken tonight for my dinner.
The rest of Sunday was spent in catching up with my email and reading the accumulated magazines.
As I mentioned, I saw Episode III today. The Big Guy was not that happy with the film but this was an expected outcome since he is now a Film Studies major and he never was a big fan of the series.
Standing in line to buy my tickets was a dreadful experience for me today. I was behind some loud, obnoxious, fat, albino, blob from the Midwest who was out in California visiting family I guess. He was complaining about everything; it was too hot in California, there were too many people here, he hated standing line, and he was complaining about the screening of Episode III not being digital when it was shown on an IMAX screen. He should have stayed home.
I think he was with his brother who had a really bad dye job on his hair, you could see about a half inch of grey hair under a dark brown dye. Fortunately for me and the Force must have been with me, he and his family of ungratefuls did not end up in my screening.
I will agree with the Big Guy that the film could have benefited from some serious, major script doctoring and probably some better direction. I think the film could have been cut by 15 to 20 minutes and still not lost anything. I mean, how long can you look at light sword fights? There was only one, really big sword fight in The Adventures of Robin Hood. I think Hayden Christensen [Skywalker – Vader] needs acting lessons because he still looked like a stiff on the screen. Of course, that could have been the way Lucas wanted him to play the part.
In the end, I told the Big Guy that I was satisfied with the result. I will probably buy Episode III when it comes out on DVD in time for the Holidays. I don’t see myself buying a complete boxed set of all six episodes; that would be a waste of money in my mind.
After the film was over, I drove over to Preppie’s [the ex-wife] house to pick up the Big Guy so we could go do lunch. We ended up at Tommy’s Hamburgers and that was an excellent choice on the part of the Big Guy.
The Big Guy ordered a Mega-Combo meal. I was swept up in the food rush and ordered the same. I should have made another selection. The Mega-Combo is three slices of beef, three slices of cheese, two slices of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and chili; a portion of chili cheese fries and a 44 ounce / 1.3 liters soda drink. The chili is on the spicy side. I needed all of the soda drink.
Burp, burp, burp.
It was a wonderful but excessive meal. I will have a light dinner tonight, if I get hungry for more food.
On the way back to his house, we stopped at South Coast Plaza. He wanted to go hit the Paul Frank store for new tee-shirts but nothing caught his fancy.
I hit the Davidoff cigar store and picked up two $21.00 cigars. I have never bought a cigar that cost more than $4.00 before. I wanted to try one or two.
I had one when I came home from South Orange County. I was an excellent cigar but I don’t see myself as buying them on a regular basis; maybe once every Chuckay is often enough for me.
And so, gentle readers, that was my holiday weekend. I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to the next long weekend which will be the 4th of July, our Independence Day celebration.
Be well and stay happy.
It is time for the big Memorial Day Weekend Update. I hope you all had a good weekend.
On Saturday, I was nervous about the Girl Friend meeting the Big Guy. I have been with the Girl Friend for about a year and a half now. She and I went out previously but we had our troubles so we stopped seeing each other. Now , we are back together.
In the interests of full and fair disclosure, the Princess can not stand the Girl Friend and refuses to be anywhere near her.
I will obviously have to address this condition at some point. Fortunately, the Princess lives on the other side of the country so there are few opportunities for interaction. The Girl Friend accepts that idea of me going off with the kids when the Princess is home.
Anyway.
I got up early instead of sleeping in on Saturday. I was productive and did two loads of laundry. I feel cleaner now and I cleaned up my place. The “office space” where I write these blogs looks like it was hit with a Richter Scale 7.0 earthquake. Eventually, I will clean this space as well.
After I finished the cleaning and other stuff, I finished off a book I was reading. It was a book I bought for myself as a “from me, to me” birthday gift. The book is titled Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure. It’s not what you might think it is about. The book tells the story of a naval battle in East Africa between England and Germany during The Great War. The historical events were later made into the classic film, The African Queen.
It was a fascinating story and very interesting. I am not suggesting that you all go out and purchase a copy of the book or check it out of your local library because it is not likely to be there. I enjoyed it, in part, because I love naval history books. The Princess gave me two books on the Royal Navy’s influence on England’s empire for my birthday.
The end of Chuckay, the month long celebration of all things Chuck, concluded with the traditional dinner at Morton’s the Steakhouse. As the name implies, it is definitely not the place for vegetarians; it is for beef lovers. This is something the Big Guy and I have been doing since 1993 when we observed his birthday with a dinner at Morton’s.
Not surprisingly, we both had excellent beef. The Girl Friend opted for some jumbo shrimp. Everything about the meal was excellent.
The Big Guy observed that this was the first time in a very long time that our server was really hot. We had a subsequent discussion on Monday over lunch and concluded that she was probably a Latina. Excellent. This may also explain why the Girl Friend was on the cool side towards her.
Amy the server was shamelessly tip flirting with me. The Big Guy and I clearly recognized this behavior. She was extremely attentive towards me and brought me an extra scoop of ice cream during dessert.
I asked Amy if the restaurant was going to have another steak and lobster special this Summer. When she said they were, the Big Guy and I were clearly excited because we just love this special. I said we should have a “guy’s night out at Morton’s” with the Big Guy’s film friends.
Amy said that we should definitely ask for her when we make our reservations. She went out of her way to make the point perfectly clear that she wanted to be our server. I think she was already calculating the tip she might make off of a party of eight, hungry, happy young men and young thinking men [that would be me]. Then, The Big Guy told me that Morgan [one of the film friends was a girl]. I said that was fine; she was a student film maker and that made her eligible for the dinner.
This created an immediate problem for the Girl Friend because she was not going to be invited to join the group.
The Big Guy came to my rescue like the cavalry in a John Ford – John Wayne western. He told her how I had supported the guys and their efforts like showing up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday for morning for a couple of hours of shooting some scenes for Robin’s film as well as calling into the Super Chocolate Power Hour radio show that Robin, Coulter, and Derek. The Girl Friend was still not happy but at least she understood why I had made my decision to leave her home.
I think she had gotten over being excluded from the steak and lobster dinner by the time we drove back to my place. We continued to celebrate my birthday there for several more hours.
I eventually took her home and I crawled into my bed around 1:30 AM Sunday morning.
I did not do too much on Sunday. I did sleep in and that was good. After I got up, I had breakfast and then went to the market for my weekly shopping. I like to shop on either Saturday or Sunday morning because the store is fairly empty and I get around quickly.
I picked up some steaks and chicken to bar-be-que on the grill. I now have enough meals for almost two weeks packed away in the refrigerator and freezer. I ate some grilled chicken with baked beans and potato salad for dinner on Sunday.
It tasted soooooo good to me.
Had I not gone to lunch [more about this later on] with the Big Guy today after seeing Episode III with digital projection, I would have had chicken tonight for my dinner.
The rest of Sunday was spent in catching up with my email and reading the accumulated magazines.
As I mentioned, I saw Episode III today. The Big Guy was not that happy with the film but this was an expected outcome since he is now a Film Studies major and he never was a big fan of the series.
Standing in line to buy my tickets was a dreadful experience for me today. I was behind some loud, obnoxious, fat, albino, blob from the Midwest who was out in California visiting family I guess. He was complaining about everything; it was too hot in California, there were too many people here, he hated standing line, and he was complaining about the screening of Episode III not being digital when it was shown on an IMAX screen. He should have stayed home.
I think he was with his brother who had a really bad dye job on his hair, you could see about a half inch of grey hair under a dark brown dye. Fortunately for me and the Force must have been with me, he and his family of ungratefuls did not end up in my screening.
I will agree with the Big Guy that the film could have benefited from some serious, major script doctoring and probably some better direction. I think the film could have been cut by 15 to 20 minutes and still not lost anything. I mean, how long can you look at light sword fights? There was only one, really big sword fight in The Adventures of Robin Hood. I think Hayden Christensen [Skywalker – Vader] needs acting lessons because he still looked like a stiff on the screen. Of course, that could have been the way Lucas wanted him to play the part.
In the end, I told the Big Guy that I was satisfied with the result. I will probably buy Episode III when it comes out on DVD in time for the Holidays. I don’t see myself buying a complete boxed set of all six episodes; that would be a waste of money in my mind.
After the film was over, I drove over to Preppie’s [the ex-wife] house to pick up the Big Guy so we could go do lunch. We ended up at Tommy’s Hamburgers and that was an excellent choice on the part of the Big Guy.
The Big Guy ordered a Mega-Combo meal. I was swept up in the food rush and ordered the same. I should have made another selection. The Mega-Combo is three slices of beef, three slices of cheese, two slices of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and chili; a portion of chili cheese fries and a 44 ounce / 1.3 liters soda drink. The chili is on the spicy side. I needed all of the soda drink.
Burp, burp, burp.
It was a wonderful but excessive meal. I will have a light dinner tonight, if I get hungry for more food.
On the way back to his house, we stopped at South Coast Plaza. He wanted to go hit the Paul Frank store for new tee-shirts but nothing caught his fancy.
I hit the Davidoff cigar store and picked up two $21.00 cigars. I have never bought a cigar that cost more than $4.00 before. I wanted to try one or two.
I had one when I came home from South Orange County. I was an excellent cigar but I don’t see myself as buying them on a regular basis; maybe once every Chuckay is often enough for me.
And so, gentle readers, that was my holiday weekend. I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to the next long weekend which will be the 4th of July, our Independence Day celebration.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 7:38 PM
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