from chicago to honolulu
Not a whole lot to report on today . . . I rode my bike home from work yesterday, then I made the pasta I had already said I was thinking we should make. I used the first of at least four "veggie ground" product samples from work, this one called "Meatless Farm Plant-Based Ground," which, I have to say, exceeded my expectations. It made for a very tasty pasta sauce (along with the sauteed onion, celery, bell pepper and mushrooms I also added).
Then, we watched my library DVD copy of Chicago, which I'm not sure I have seen since its first release in 2002. It's a very, very fun movie—although there's no question it did not deserve to win Best Picture that year. Plenty of other movies were better, but, whatever. I thought a lot about what a great live play this would be to go see. If it ever gets a touring revival I am absolutely going to see it. Even Shobhit commented on how good the music was.
As usual I read through the "trivia" section of the movie's IMDb page, and was somewhat amused to learn that in 2006 Premiere Magazine included it in its list of the "20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time." I suppose it may have felt that way at the time, but honestly, the movie is largely forgotten today. And it's perfectly fun to revisit. I wouldn't say it deserved to win six Oscars, but, since when did the Academy have any consistency of sensible choices?
We kept having to lower and raise the volume, because the musical numbers were super loud and then the dialogue sections we could barely hear after we turned it down. Ivan was sleeping for much of the time, but he eventually got up and he didn't complain.
I had been told last weekend his next night off would be Wednesday, but apparently he picked up a shift: he went to work last night after all. He did message me this morning to ask about going to have dinner at this new South Asian restaurant called Karachi Cowboy, though. It sounds like we will likely do that for dinner on Saturday, after Shobhit and I get home from our day trip to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park with Laney.
I just finished with this week's virtual lunch with Karen over FaceTime, which as usual I did from the private "phone room" near my desk. I keep meaning to bring my iPad for that so I have a larger screen of her to look at, but never remember. One of these days I'll actually remember it. Maybe.
She told me all about her family's recent vacation to Hawaii. We talked a little about how seriously they take COVID there right now, and the fact that apparently just a few days ago their governor is asking tourists to stay away. In Karen's defense, she made the booking back in April when everyone though the rest of the year would just see consistent improvements. We did get warnings that it may not, to be fair; I think we were all just desperately hopeful.
As I said to Karen during lunch today, though, at least for those of us who are vaccinated, life is still way better right now than it was a year ago. I'm back at the office working every day still; I am going to the movies, occasionally going out for dinner, seeing friends (only if they are vaccinated). She's hoping things will be better by Christmas, and maybe they will be. And also, maybe they won't be; they could be worse yet. Only time will tell. In the meantime I need to get back to work.
[posted 1:08 pm]