Last weekend we embarked on another of our trips down to Louisville to visit friends. One of those friends mentioned on his blog that Boston Market was one of the only things he missed about Florida, as there are none in River City, alas. So after consulting with his Super Fiancee about their favorites, I stopped on the way down to pick some up. He was pleasantly surprised by that, likewise with the Wonder Woman "New Player" Heroclix and a Clark Kent changing to Superman mini bust, and giving Super Fiancee a copy of Capote on DVD from their wedding wish list, all 3 obtained for less than $5.
Shortly after lunch Mark, Lisa and Dakota (no link for you ^_^!) arrived. Soon SF brought out a copy of Apples To Apples to play. I had heard of it, being a fan of John Kovalic of Dork Tower fame. And it's real easy to play, and so fun I wanted to keep playing. I was accused of wanting to keep going until I won a game, but the fact is at my age it's getting harder to discover things you find are fun, so of course once you do find something it may be hard to let go. Plus the game needs at least 4 players, and that's something that can't be easily summoned at Casa Collett. While playing, I told everyone about this game that I just read is coming out now.
Then came the geek tour. First stop: Book and Music Exchange where I brought some books, DVDs and games in for credit. I had hoped for $20 and thought I had to settle for $10, but they offered $35! That's the end of my low expectations, as well as the end of my dealings with Half Price Books. In fact, I'm so done with them, not only am I not going to link to them (unlike Dakota, who doesn't have a link to link to) I won't let you Google them. I decided on applying that credit to the 1st season DVD set of Saturday Night Live and on Highlander's recommendation picked up season 1 of The Tick animated series, only having to give up $5 after the credit for both. H warned me that I may not be in for what I expect on SNL, but relayed what I read from Mark Evanier (specifically here) about how there was experimentation to develop SNL into the format it more or less followed thereafter, and I knew what I was getting into. I also talked about the killer bees being the first recurring characters in the show, that John Belushi hated them, and that his performing "I'm A King Bee" was one of the possible origins of the Blues Brothers (the others I read were the R&B music played and part of the soundtrack of Animal House that inspired him, and Dan Ackroyd's interest in the paranormal (specifically, the Men in Black (yes, they were talked about years before Lowell Cunningham's comic or the Wil Smith movie) (no, this isn't a record for most parentheses within parentheses)) being a source)
Next stop, The Great Escape where while looking at all the cool stuff they have ended up buying a collection of Steve Canyon collecting 1950 (the previous volume they had was 1947 when it debuted, but unlike SNL DVD where I didn't have a choice decided to get a volume after things settled in, plus the site Humorous Maximus has commenced showing the strips one a day from 1947, starting here) BTW, if you get a chance to get Caniff's "Terry And The Pirates" reprints (especially by NBM) pick it up and thank me later for it. Also, I got a reprint of "The American" by Mark Verheiden, currently of Battlestar Galactica and also for this classic Terrorists Meet The Breakfast Club movie that took place and was filmed in nearby Kokomo (trivia: during the terrorists' shooting up the town, they shoot up the sign of one of the first comic shops I frequented) and had a harrowing action sequence involving a school bus that after watching his hero make his way to the front, magically became a short bus just in time for the jump. I also got Midway Arcade Classics for PSP and "Essential Journey" CD for Kathy. Then we all went to Fat Jimmy's for pizza, then back to Castle Anthrax for a game of "Scene It" (Who won? Whose house? Tony's house!) and more "Apples to Apples" (that takes on a new level of giddiness when the day gets late and starts to take it's toll on you) and to bed.
Next day we were treated to some breakfast consisting of Monkey Bread, sausage, bacon, and eggs before going to another Book and Music Exchange where I got 5 CDs for $30 (better than 3/$20, and even better than $7.99 each) Swingers soundtrack, The Cars Greatest Hits (inspired by hearing it the day before while playing A2A), Billy Idol "Vital Idol", Symphonic Star Trek (by Erich Kunzel & The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. I owned 2 other CDs by them "Time Warp" and "Star Tracks" and they are the best at soundtrack music outside of the original source. A worthy blind buy) and Pat Benatar's "Crimes of Passion" for Kathy, missing her copy that she got rid of long ago. It was funny in the car hearing her wax philosophic over Benatar's "Wuthering Heights" song on the CD, SF knowing about it, and H satirizing some of the lyrics. Friendship also continues when you still think "I thought I was the only one", C.S.) Oh, before I forget, I should mention I also got Lateline DVD, a short lived sitcom starring Al Franken and Miguel Ferrer (remind me to tell you the story about Kathy and I meeting him sometime) that showed up again in my radar after reading Ken Levine's musings about working on the show, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles DVD, and a John Byrne Fantastic Four collection 4 (now to get 3 to complete my collection)
Then we went to see Ghost Rider a film that had many of the patented Nicholas Cage quirky nuances, plus many "refrigerator moment" thoughts that I had in the theatre instead of later that night when I go to the fridge (why are cemetaries sacred ground that the demons can't enter but churches are? And why does every officer have their gun pointed at Ghost Rider but not a one makes any effort to get the heroine (who is between them and GR) out of the way before they do their pointless shooting at him? And if the Ghost Rider manifests at night in the prescence of evil, then why [spoiler deleted, even though everybody watching the film figures it out the moment they first see the character] when there was no evil in sight, especially when he didn't fight evil, just rode?) But hey, the visuals were good as Highlander said, and I got to see the trailers for Grindhouse and the new Resident Evil movie that Kathy, true to form, recognized one of the stars of Heroes (in this case Ali Larter) was in it. I say she's true to form because lately she has this habit of channel surfing and finding someone from Heroes on a show they did before. Then we went to Wick's where Kathy and I got a large Big Wick's Pizza to eat and take home for leftovers (and there were plenty. As of now, there's just one piece left, and that's after both of us eating it for lunch the past 3 days) before hitting the trail and counting the days until we can return to River City (a nice place to visit, and wouldn't mind living there, particularly in the area we frequented).
Meanwhile, I'll have to content myself with reading their postings and listening to Pod Culture Network, a podcast done by Brad, Christina and Glenn from that neck of the woods.

I didn't say anything at the time, but awhile back I went through my comic strip links and did some updating. One that caught my eye was Lio, about an imaginative little boy. Quirky and original. And today's strip proves the adage "it's better to burn out than fade away to keep chugging along".
More to come on the blog, including what I did last weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy some chewy Flipper, courtesy of the wife.

Remember me saying that a filet-o-fish special at McDonald's was the thing I looked forward to most, fast food wise? Well, now in my neck of the woods at least, they're 2 for $3! Woo hoo!
Of course, the main thing I'm looking forward to now is this weekend where we get to meet up with our friends again, see a movie we all want to see, and maybe get some good stuff for cheap. Double woo hoo! Or, woo hoo woo hoo! if you prefer.

Patton Oswalt calls BS on George's melding Star Wars with the Joseph Campbell "Power of Myth", and Campbell's hitching his wagon to the former.
"The only "Journey" that most of the world even comes close to identifying with involves Steve Perry and midnight trains going anywhere."

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but really I haven't had anything to say.
Kathy's vacation started yesterday, but between all the snow we got and the stressful week it didn't start on the best foot. We went to Wendy's and ate in the restaurant (we usually prefer to get food to go and eat at home) We had leftover KFC from the previous day for supper, much to the delight of our two cats. There was a small medical hiccup with Kathy having some trouble breathing, but sitting up made it better. It gets so dry in our bedroom in the wintertime, and I have 2 humidifiers going all the time to keep things within the "comfort zone" according to the little plastic meter that came with one of them that measures humidity.
Today was a little better for her, as she got to sleep in later than usual and went to church. I gave her a backrub among other things to try to make her feel better. I'm trying to clear out my TiVo before it gets full. There's all sorts of good stuff on there, but the main thing is I'm falling behind on "Arrested Development" a cult sitcom that G4 runs every day and 4 times late Saturday. It doesn't help that I signed up for a free trial at Blockbuster's Total Access, but I got to see an episode of "Lucky Louie" that HBO didn't show and Kathy got to renew her acquaintence in another cult fave series "Beauty and the Beast". With the roads clear I was able to take advantage of bringing back a disc to a Blockbuster store to get another one. Saw Hollywoodland about the death of George Reeves, although no matter what I could only see Ben Affleck. And isn't that Alma Garrett playing Adrien Brody's estranged wife? And wasn't his assistant on "Wonderfalls"? And did George really kill himself, or was it his fiancee, or was it ordered by his jilted lover's husband? Not a proper review, but it conveys my impressions of the film.
Supper's getting ready: Shake n Bake boneless pork chops with green beans and mashed potatoes. Probably watch "Deal or No Deal" and maybe catch up on some of the "30 Rock"s accumulating on the TiVo. Oddly enough, we seem to prefer "Studio 60", which Kathy's excited that she gets to stay up and watch tomorrow night, not to mention "DoND" and "Heroes" before it.