Weekend In Review

Saw Mom and Grandma Saturday and had a nice visit and a huge breakfast at Mo’s. That was the start of the day and I was feeling okay then, relatively speaking. Afterwards, it was going to be “guys day out” but we ended up with Lizzie so our plans changed accordingly. We met up at Sawgrass Mills and instead of a movie for big people (probably the Tarantino film) we saw Ponyo.

Ponyo is an animated film by famous Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki . While hailed by critics, it is — in my opinion — pretty much the Little Mermaid tale all over again. That’s not a knock but I do need to put it out there because this isn’t “original” like his other films. It’s got an all-star voiceover cast so as long as the lips and words being out of synch doesn’t bother you, this might be worth your time if you’re a fan of the art form. It’s hand-drawn old-fashioned animation. It’s also a movie for kids so don’t expect heady stuff on multiple levels like a Pixar film. But, all that aside, I enjoyed the film. And the critic that matters here, Lizzie, liked it and didn’t get distracted except during the first few minutes.

Afterwards we roamed the mall for a bit and then went to Books-A-Million and Best Buy. At Best Buy on the X-Box (ew) they had a demo of Beatles Rock Band. The visuals were fantastic. The songs were awesome of course. We watched the guy playing it, then Evan took a hand at Yellow Submarine on the easiest level. Some kid came up and thrashed a hard song on expert level. It was all good fun. We went our separate ways, but I wasn’t in the mood to be home alone, so I called Erin to see if she wanted company. She was willing, so I accompanied her to purchase Snow Leopard (the new Mac OS) which we played with a bit at the Apple Store at a different mall. We stopped at the Vans store where I found awesome shoes but not in my size — now ordered on-line. I’m sure you’ll all hate them, but I really like them: they have colour. Lots of it. In spades.

Afterwards we decided to have dinner and drove around in a freak rainstorm that just dumped water everywhere and the roads were flooded out. It was quite a challenge driving around and down Las Olas where a number of our choices were out of business. We then used her iPhone to find more choices which were, sadly, out of business as well. We ended up at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza. I’ve heard about this chain but never been. The Pizza was okay but not great because I really didn’t care for their tomato sauce which was reminiscent of chunky apple sauce and was also a little overboard on the olive oil. Loved the crust and cheese. Erin ordered the wings appetizer. I don’t normally do wings, but had one anyway and it was way too salty but otherwise it would have been really good. The place isn’t bad but not somewhere I’d pick myself. For dessert we ended up at “Goofles” a new frozen custard place that was surprisingly good. After that I went home. I had my usual fitful sleep though it lasted longer than normal.

Sunday AM got the skating call at 1030 due to a miscommunication and bolted out the door. We ended up eating an early lunch at Cheddar’s which was both decent and surprisingly cheap. Though for a place called “Cheddar’s” I’m surprised the cheese they use on the burger is such bad quality. Still it was a good experience and I’d go back. We had time to kill so wandered about Barnes & Nobles for twenty or so minutes before heading to the rink which was as crowded as I’d ever seen it. They were having a huge tournament. Nonetheless, we skated the first session and part of the second one, and I knocked off a bit before 3pm and headed off to get my skates sharpened at Play-It-Again, not realizing they close at 3pm. I went in they said they were closed but I asked if they could sharpen me, and they said they would. The guy had quite some trouble saying my blades were too thick (horseshit) and mis-sharpened by the previous person (absolutely true). He showed me the problem: they were not sharpened on center so he had to cross-grind and start over. Next time I skate, we’ll see how they are. No dizzy episodes on ice today.

Headed home for laundry and nearly dozed off in the car so called people to talk to in order to stay awake. Listened to the Sting album Mom got me as I typed this (Brand New Day) and am wholly unimpressed by most of it. For some reason my Snow Leopard download button isn’t appearing on my Apple Developer account and I’ll have to deal with that Monday. I was planning to install it today.

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