sisu revisited revisited

— पांच हजार नौ सौ उनतालीस — Last night was Action Movie Night in the kitchen and theater of the Braeburn Condominiums, so it broke my streak of quite evenings at home. I'm seeing a movie with Laney after work today; taking myself to a movie tomorrow; have an afternoon Happy Hour with Laney and then Lynn's 50th birthday party on Saturday; and a double feature planned at Alexia's in Issaquah on Sunday. It's like my weekend is starting on Wednesday, except I'm still working the first three days of that five-day stretch. No plans on Monday, though! But: another movie on Tuesday; another movie on Wednesday; I'll probably go back to Steamworks again on Thursday next week; I need to pick up Shobhit at the airport on Friday the 16th, and we're just hoping the car will work. I'm going to a party with Shobhit the afternoon on Saturday the 17th, and then Laney and I have a double feature in the Braeburn theater on Sunday the 18th. I have fairly tentative plans for movies both Monday and Tuesday the 19th and 20th; then back to Action Movie Night on Wednesday the 21st. Which means: for the next two weeks solid, the one day I definitely have nothing scheduled is Monday the 12th. Anyway! Back to this week's Action Movie Night. We had eight in attendance this week: Tony, Ryan, Ben, Tom, Chris B, Derek, Daniel, and me. Jake almost never misses, and he didn't even RSVP this time—Tony thought maybe he's just out of town right now. And of course, Shobhit is in India right now. Another time, both Shobhit and Jake would have been here and there would have been at least 10. Plus, an unusually large number brought vegetarian options. This clearly happens for my benefit (and for Shobhit's, when he's here), so I feel obligated to partake in at least some of all of it. I brought bowtie pasta; Chris brought two pizzas, one of which was a four-cheese; Ben brought an even better vegetarian pizza (the last two slices of which I will have for dinner tonight); Daniel even brough a vegetarian option, even though his stuff is always something from the grocery store that he has to heat in the oven. He did a combination of microwave and oven heating to get it done faster than usual, and it was still available relatively late—I took a slice of that, and of both the vegetarian pizzas, in addition to my own pastas. I ate a lot. I also had a hot buttered rum. I'm astonished my weight was up only half a pound this morning over yesterday. I also pretty reliably feel like shit the morning after drinking rum if I have not been careful about it, but this time I absolutely was: I chugged a glass and a half of water with two Aleve right begore bed. That seemed to do the trick. — पांच हजार नौ सौ उनतालीस — — पांच हजार नौ सौ उनतालीस — Anyway, it was Ryan's choice this time. He even noted how much I hated his last pick, the Jason Statham movie A Working Man. I looked up my rating on Letterboxd, because I couldn't remember: two out of five stars. "Well, I've seen worse," I said. Ryan's choices are really hit or miss. He's shown some great films and also shown some real duds. His choice this time was Sisu: Road to Revenge, which was a relief in that at least it was decent. I did say, "I just saw this a couple of weeks ago," clearly forgetting that I went to see it in late November—so, more like a month and a half ago. Still, pretty recently. "You can leave if you want," Ryan half-quipped, but I was happy to stay. Even though Daniel, as usual, brought a full plate of seconds into the theater with him and sat two seats over from me, close enough for me to hear him eating. Bleh. What is it with loud eaters this week? To be fair to Daniel, he was clearly trying to be quiet, and I could only hear him take bites during quiet scenes. That guy in the Rainier Square lobby the other day was a different story altogether. We actually went into the theater a lot more quickly than usual—we always start at 6:30, and this week we were filing into the theater by 7:00. Both the Sisu movies are conveniently only about ninety minutes, so it was over by around 8:30. I was upstairs and starting this week's episode of Fallout by 9:00. — पांच हजार नौ सौ उनतालीस — Also: all the Christmas Trees at Rainier Square remain standing. I didn't check Westlake Center because I walked rather than took the bus this morning and I cut over to Pike Street on Melrose as usual. It seems pretty late for all this Christmas stuff to still be around, but we'll see how it looks by Monday. This is important stuff! I know you were dying for an update. — पांच हजार नौ सौ उनतालीस — [posted 12:34pm]

post-epiphany plans

— पांच हजार नौ सौ अड़तीस — Well, it's January 7, and all the Christmas Trees in the Rainier Square lobby still stand. So does the Holiday Tree at Westlake Center, for that matter. So much for the January 6, "Epiphany" theory. I bet they'll all be down by the end of the week, though. Maybe the standard is to take it all down the weekend after Epiphany? I don't know why I care about this so much. But now I want to track when all this stuff is taken down both this year and next year. I want to identify patterns! — पांच हजार नौ सौ अड़तीस — I have hardly more to tell you today than I did yesterday. In fact, much of the past 24 hours was either the same or similar to the previous. I didn't go to a movie. I had a veggie burger for dinner. I watched two episodes of a TV show. Although Monday evening the episodes were of season 2 of Fallout and yesterday evening the episodes were of season 1 of The Night Agent. Both were on Prime Video, though. I even had "chai latte" drinks both nights. I found a couple of mix packets in a kitchen cupboard that I had brought home among my samples from the Co+nvergence conference in Saint Paul in August, and then forgot about them. One of them is vanilla and one is strawberry; I had vanilla on Monday and strawberry last night. They're fairly tasty, though not as good as the regular chai I make myself. But, I should burn through them, right? No chai tonight. It's Action Movie Night. I'll be making pasta to bring, and making myself a cocktail. Hmm, should I have a hot buttered rum, or a Moscow Mule? Decisions, decisions. — पांच हजार नौ सौ अड़तीस — — पांच हजार नौ सौ अड़तीस — I am delighted to report that Shobhit now seems on board with my determination to go to Whistler this year as our anniversary trip in June. As opposed to World Pride Washington D.C., which doubled as our anniversary trip last year and lasted six nights and seven days, this trip will be two nights and three days. Fine by me. We already have a two-week trip to The Netherlands and Belguim on the books for late July and into mid-August (and which will almost certainly preclude my being able to attend Co+nvergence this year—and which is also fine). On the upside, June 14 actually lands on a weekend this year, a Sunday. So, we can drive up on Saturday the 13th, have our anniversary as our one full day there, and drive home on Monday the 15th. Anyway. Shobhit was a little resistant to the idea of Whistler at first. I think I wore him down on it a bit, but probably the biggest thing to soften him on the idea was the fairly hefty raise I'm getting this year. It lessens the financial concerns a little. The thing is, although Shobhit has been there a couple times on corporate work trips in the past, I have never been there—and as soon as I learned about their "Peak 2 Peak Gondola" it immediately landed on my bucket list. Whistler is clearly more expensive than most two-night trips are. Oh well. We can deal. I got on FaceTime with Shobhit last night and for a while we did dual searches for hotels. We found a hotel claiming they will beat any lower price found elsewhere for their rooms by 5%, and Hotels.com is definitely cheaper. I tried to call them but got no answer; I sent an email and am now awaiting response. Yes, we're being cheap. Every dollar counts! For instance, a dollar I save on this trip is another dollar I can spend in Amsterdam. Et cetera, et cetera. — पांच हजार नौ सौ अड़तीस — [posted 12:37pm]