Last night, Brian and I caught this one while drinking Margaritas (of course). Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman starred in the movie, so you know it had to be good. And good it was–full of political intrigue and whatnot. The movie really held my interest throughout. It was a story about an interpreter (Kidman) at the U.N. who overhears an assassination plot for an African leader who will be speaking at the U.N. It took a lot of twists and turns and we find out that Kidman has ties to the country in question, which further complicates the plot. Penn played a member of the Secret Service who was assigned to the case. His acting is always good, and this movie was no exception, but his part wasn’t all that interesting. Still, a pretty good movie.
riding the bullet
Brian and I watched this movie last night (it was a lender from one of his friends). It was based on the eBook (by Stephen King) of the same name. I vaguely remember reading the eBook a few years ago. I did not enjoy the format (that much I do remember). Anyway, the original story was ok and the movie followed it pretty well from what I can recall. A lot of the story was the internal dialog of the main character. It was interesting how they pulled this off in the movie–they had two versions of the actor in those scenes and the “extra” character would talk to the main character. This movie also cemented the fact that David Arquette is a horrible actor. Luckily, he was not the main character, but he had the second largest role in the film. Still, it was probably the best thing on TV last night.
thanksgiving 2005
Today was a rather subdued day for a holiday. My parents, brother, and grandmother were all supposed to come over for dinner, but my grandmother couldn’t make it due to the weather and my brother got called out to work. He eventually made it here, though, so that was cool.
We spent the past few days cleaning up the house and I spent all morning cooking. I was hoping to do the turkey breasts on the grill this year, but due to the major snowstorm we got yesterday and today, it didn’t seem like a good time to do so. The food turned out well. We had your standard holiday fare. Brian’s all bummed out because we all but ran out of gravy, so I will have to make some more tomorrow from some chicken broth. It won’t be as good as the stuff we had today, but I guess it will have to do. That’s as close as I will get to cooking tomorrow. Time for a well-deserved day off. We’re both off work tomorrow, so that will be nice. Jake’s time off continues through Monday for the official Pennsylvania holiday of the First Day of Deer Hunting.
r.i.p. ripley
Brian took Ripley to the vets after work so she could be put to sleep. He stayed with her the whole time, which was nice and not something I could’ve handled. He said things went about as well as they possibly could have and he was impressed by the compassion shown by the staff.
Needless to say, we’re both really sad. Jake on the other hand, is downright cheerful and is annoying the hell out of us both. I guess he’s just too young to understand what is going on.
Rest In Peace, Big Sweet Rip.
the latest on ripley
I took a sick day today (because I am pretty sick about this) in order to spend one last day with Ripley. After much discussion last night, we came to the conclusion that the best thing to do for Ripley is to have her put to sleep. The poor dog can’t even eat anymore and that is probably her most favorite thing in the world to do (followed by frisbee and ear scratches and eating yellow dogs–none of which she can enjoy at this point). It’s kind of funny, because she still gets excited at mealtimes (old habits die hard, I guess), but then just looks at the food in her bowl and walks away. I guess some people might wait a little longer, but I would prefer to remember her how she’s always been rather than her decline. So, the deed is scheduled for 5:45 today. Brian is going to take her after work because it’s just not something I feel I can do. I still have to talk to our vet. I want to make sure she agrees with the diagnosis. I have to think she will because a lot of it is stuff she already brought up. Even if we had a few thousand dollars to spend on Ripley’s treatment I don’t think we’d do it anyway–I don’t think putting the dog through a lot of pain in order to, at best, reduce her quality of life is a good decision.
At least we had a great summer together. For the past six months, I made a concerted effort to exercise the dogs twice a week. A tired dog is a good dog, they say. We had a lot of fun playing frisbee in the back yard. Even Lizzy now enjoys the game. Of course she is on a tie-out because she won’t stay in the yard, but Ripley has always stayed in the yard. On one particularly beautiful Sunday afternoon (and I’ve got a roll of film to prove it), the dogs and I went out to play frisbee. When we were done it was too nice to go back into the house so we just hung out in the back yard for a while–me in one of the patio chairs, them sniffing around the yard. It’s one of the nicest memories I have of my two current pups.