Movie Review, More Birth Controversy and Making Less Friends

I liked the performances of all of these actors - and the film itself

Yesterday I could not remember the last movie that Jill and I had seen in a theater but I remedied that pretty quickly; we saw a movie in a theater last night. We went to Lombard and saw The Martian. The reason we went half-way to Chicago is because we wanted to sit in big, over-stuffed reclining chairs and wear stupid-looking 3-D glasses and eat dinner while we watched a show and there is no Chuck E. Cheese around here. We forgot our bath robes and slippers dag nabbit. I thought twice about ordering sushi at a movie theater but it was excellent and the biggest pieces of sushi I have ever seen. Yes, I hear that all the time. The cheese quesadilla was pretty boring but I think that is because they didn't have any salsa included. The sushi came with all of the accouterments like: ginger, wasabi and soy sauce so why no salsa with the gosh darn quesadilla?   Anyway, I highly recommend the movie but, for full disclosure, I really like Matt Damon though I do not believe that was a deciding factor in seeing the film. Jill told me of an interview she had heard on the program Fresh Air on NPR with Matt Damon about the film prior to us seeing it. He was saying how it was bad timing that NASA discovered water on Mars because, in this movie, part of the story is his character learning to live on Mars without a water source. I did not hear it and cannot find a link to include here but I did not see it that way as he was in a small area of Mars and that is not to say there was not water in a spot where he did not visit. Maybe he was just using that Mars connection to promote the film and, if so, I am very happy that I fell for it because I would see this movie again right now. Believe it or not, I didn't even mind Kristen Wiig in this movie and, I know I am probably the only one, but I do not usually like her acting/supposed humor at all. I would say this is as close to a perfect film as I have seen (remember that is based on my movie preferences and your likes are, most probably and hopefully, different than mine). If I had to pick one weak-point I wold say Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA. I kept thinking Jim Carrey would show up as Lloyd Christmas and say "I like it a lot." Anyway, go see this film and I do recommend the 3-D version if possible.

After the movie we went and bought a new coffee-maker for Jill at J C Penny. I do not think I have been to a Penny's for about 32 years or so. Jill goes through coffee makers like I go through offending people. The problem she has usually had is that most of the coffee-makers she has had have that little spring thing at the top of the filter before the water goes into the coffee pot. That damn spring almost always breaks and then coffee leaks all over the place. We did our own in-depth investigation of many, many coffee makers and we found one that looks like it will last the Cha Cha coffee challenge. We have been looking at coffee makers at various stores for about three weeks. We could teach Consumer Reports a few things about coffee makers at this point. Ask me in a couple of weeks how the decision went but I am confident that we chose wisely.

I have more inner controversy involving my date of birth. If you will remember I was supposedly born on September 14th in German which, given the time of my birth, was September 15th at what would become my first home in the United States about a year later. To throw another wrinkle into this I looked at the dog tag that I received because of being born on a U.S. military base in a foreign country the date reads "16 SEPT '63." Jetzt ich bin mehr verwirrt als je zuvor! (I hope that says "now I am more confused than ever" but my German is a bit rostig). And that is really saying something if I am more confused than ever because I am confused about 60% of the time these days. One thing that it does confirm is that I am male. The Protestant thing was something that I was not really given a choice of. I was married in a Catholic church but I am not Catholic so I guess I can just categorize myself as "will decide on death bed" or "will decide as approaching the Pearly Gates." It's kind of the poker way of going all-in when all the chip stack is getting low.

My comedy act drew some great responses on the neighborhood Facebook page today. As a result I was chased-off by the other villagers with pick-forks and flaming torches. Some appreciated my humor and a few of the louder ones did not. My post was removed - CENSORSHIP!!!! I will not use the words dictatorship or communism or Nazis or freedom of speech and expression because that would be wrong. I am now the Sam Kinneson of Devonaire Farms in Dekalb Illinois. Isn't it funny how "the few" usually get things their way? Okay, I wasn't chased-off but I left of my own accord. I had left the page once before because of some of the stupid political bologna and I was stupid enough to go back. I will not go back again. Some other people left the page today too because of this incident. I am the Norma Rae Sam Kinneson to be exact. Lately the page had become more of a swap-meet site than anything. Someone was selling this and some were selling that and some were having garage sales... There were helpful things there occasionally too but, more often than not, it was someone peddling their crap.

If it were me I think I would move a bit closer. Foul balls are easier to get here though

The St. Louis Cardinals are losing again to the terrible Atlanta Braves. I wish they would quit resting their good players so they are at their best for the play-offs and, hopefully, the World Series. Why wouldn't you want to win 103 games and chance one of your best pitchers or big hitters getting hurt? I cannot believe you are happy with only winning 100 games and the division title. Of course, I am kidding. I know that, once the play-offs begin, anything can and does happen but I am really happy that the Cardinals did what they did with a lot of key players injured this season and I am more happy that a lot of those key players have gotten healthy and played well in the last few weeks before they let Atlanta fans be happy at their home field. Now they have to wait to see if we play the Pirates or the Cubs. Do you like that I use "we" as though I am on the team. It's the royal "we." That last statement has nothing to do with the Kansas City professional baseball team - FYI. I am not sure why they are even playing this last series with the Braves with the Braves being out of it and the Cards already having clinched the division. I suppose it has something to do with money and people having tickets to the game huh? I guess I would be upset if I had tickets to take my kids to the ballgame and the game got cancelled because the other team wanted to rest to play better teams in a week or so. I am listening to the game and they just said there is only about 5,000 people at the game. That is probably about one foul-ball per fan at the game. I doubt that I will listen t game two of this double-header (they had a rain-out yesterday).

For a guy who doesn't blog on Sundays I sure blogged the sh** out of this one didn't I? I appreciate you coming here and I hope I made you smile or think or forget your sore ankle (oops, sorry to remind you of that) or whatever. I have to end now and start preparing for tomorrow's blog. That is if I don't forget to do that after I clean the kitchen. Have a great rest of your weekend. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!