All in a weekend

Okay, so it's Tuesday, and I'm just now reporting on the weekend. That's pretty much how my life has felt lately--a bit behind schedule. Anyway, here goes.

The Chocolate Fountain
Saturday, Darryl and I went to a surprise party for our friend Blake, who turned 40 years old. The party was fun, with lots of good food, 80s music, and good friends. (Okay, technically, these were Blake and Jessica's good friends, but we did know a few people there and enjoyed talking with them.) I also enjoyed spending lots of time--too much time--at the chocolate fountain, and I also realized that my favorite thing to dip in the fountain was pretzels. Yum.

The Perfect Coffee and End Tables
Darryl and I had been keeping our eyes open for a new coffee table and new end tables. Our old coffee table had a bottom shelf on it that was a couple of inches from the floor, and unfortunately, that bottom shelf had endured seven years of two dogs sliding across it over and over again. (And on a selfish note, Darryl and I were tired of having to retrieve the dog's ball when it got stuck under that shelf.)

A few weeks ago, Darryl and I found a coffee table we really liked at Costco, of all places, but they didn't have the matching end tables, so we didn't buy it. (We liked these tables because they reminded us of some tables we liked at Crate and Barrel, but at about a third of the price.) Sunday, on a whim, we went into a different Costco that had one end table. We asked one of the clerks if another end table and the coffee table were available at any other Costco, and apparently the quickly selling tables were available at the Costco in Morrow. Soooo, we ended up going to Morrow, and we easily spotted the coffee table. The one end table they had in stock (the "display" table) was a bit harder to find. The clerk looked in the back. He looked in the returns. He looked again in the back. Finally, Darryl , who was just browsing the aisles while waiting for the clerk to return, spotted it on a random shelf above something like canned tomatoes. Only in Costco. :) Anyway, we have our tables. If I had more energy, I would take a photo. I'll try to do that soon. They really are cool tables.

A Good Movie
The movie Ladder 49 had been sitting around on my fake TiVo for about a month, and I finally decided to watch it. I highly recommend it. While the movie does have several "big fire scenes" and the obligatory "close call" scenes, it is primarily about the type of person it takes--as one of the characters says, and I'm paraphrasing here--to run into a fiery building when everyone else is running out. It didn't seem over the top or grandiose; I suspect that the emotions, struggles, and glories were quite accurately portrayed. I made the mistake of watching it before I went to bed, and I had trouble sleeping that night because the movie just affected me that much.

The movie also made me realize how much I like Joaquin Phoenix as an actor. I haven't seen that many movies of his, but I loved Walk the Line (probably my favorite movie last year), and he was just as impressive in this movie. I'm not an acting pro, so I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology, but he just has a certain intensity about him that gives his characters some intrigue and depth. John Travolta is good in this movie, too. I'm kind of hot and cold on Travolta; sometimes I like him and sometimes I think he's a goofball. His role as a fire chief suits him well, though.

And one more thing...
I went to the gym last night...for the first time since school started. Go me.