We need another Heroes episode!

I'm hooked on Heroes a new series on NBC. I don't generally watch many TV serials with any regularity, but did watch the last two seasons of 24 and am catching up on Star Trek : Enterprise, as it's now on Space daily now.

Anyway, Heroes is about a set of people who spontaneously develop extraordinary powers. I know, sort of hokey, but the intrigue is not simply in their coping with these personal developments, which are different for each person, but that the people all seem to be linked in some fashion that is not clear to the viewer - let alone the characters.

There is the suggestion of impending doom that these extraordinary people may be able to prevent if... well, it's not clear what the preventing conditions would be exactly.

The show's ending the last couple of episodes has caused me to cry "NOOOOOOO!" at the TV, as the last words in each case are "I have a message for you." CUT.

But, but, what's the message? Must I wait 'til next week? *SIGH*

Yes, it appears I must make that effort.

That Heroic effort.

The Departed

Saw The Departed last night. Quite good. And not EVERYone dies.

Just most of them.

But, hey, most of the city of Boston survives, so really, the body count's pretty low in that context.

Pretty fab male cast. Cute to see scenes with big name actors giving each other crap, or smacking each other around.

Recommended.

Why YouTube exists

Just came across this video on the Sloan site. I'm not a big fan of the band, which is probably why I won't be going to their concert tonight here.

But this video is hilarious! Everyone should like this.

Ahh to be on stage....

New old tunes

Picked up some new CDs today, although they're old ones. Got a Sinatra best of, as I don't have any of his songs. Frank wasn't such a bad guy, btw; really. Just got bad press that way.

Also picked up k.d. lang's Hymns of the 49th parallel, which is collection of covers, including Hallelujah and Helpless. Good stuff.

Finally, I got Metric's Old world underground, where are you now? album, which there was a lot of buzz about when it came out. I thought that was just last year, but it's dated 2003. Where the heck does the time go? First listen through and I like it. I can see what the buzz was about. Good tunes.

Clear drains

Back home and had to get the plumber in today to clear my kitchen drain. It was draining slowly last week and then I was doing some dishes before going away last Wednesday, and there was standing water in it.

I thought, "OK, let's get the plunger, and do something about this." I did, but it seemed to only make it worse. Off to the store to get some drain clearing stuff.

Come home. Pour half the bottle in. Wait. Nothing happens. Wait some more. Still nothing. Pour the other half in. Wait. Nothing happens. Curse. Curse some more.

Go back to store. Get more supplies, and other kinds of supplies. Try them all. And the plunger again. Still nothing going down, including my anger level.

Call Ron. He recommends product. Swears by it. Go get it. Not cheap. Still, if Ron says it's going to work, let's give it a go.

Come home. Push miracle into drain. Nothing doing other than water coming back up. Curse some more. Push harder it into drain with thought that you have to make your miracles happen. More of the same: water splashing, not draining.

Take dishes upstairs to laundry room and finish washing them at about 6 pm after beginning the process about 12:30pm, and after three trips to the store to get one thing or another.

Go away for weekend. Come home. Ron comes over, and tries his miracle cure for himself. Gets same result I did, which is to say he gets wet and the drain still isn't doing its job.

Thus, the call goes in to the plumber today, who comes over and clears it out, no problem. Says miracle cure is all smoke and mirrors. Recommends putting a gallon of water down the drain mixed with 2 spoons vinegar and 2 spoons baking powder every once in awhile.

So, all's well that drains well.

Back in Burlington

Well, I'm back in Burlington again for another racquetball tournament, as the Canadian Open began yesterday. Like last year, it's at the Cedar Springs club, which is a HUGE place, and there's a Comfort Inn conveinently located across the street.

I'm not playing in the tourament, just doing the website updating and the press releases. My ankle has been hurting for the last week or so. Like really hurting. To the point where it's aching some of the time. I'm going to have to see someone about it next week.

"Waiter!"

He was happy to get to the café first, tired from following four women around shopping all afternoon.

But only two of them arrived at his table. "Where's grandma and the kid?," he asked.

"Oh, they didn't want to come," one woman said. "Gran was to lie down, and the girl wanted to watch TV," said the other.

"So, what can I do to satisfy you two?" he asked eyebrows Grouchoing up and down.

The women glanced as each other, but before they could respond, the man turned in the direction of the waiter and called "MENU!"

Quote (and movie) of the day

The poem's origin probably lies in ... a painting in the Pitti Palace in Florence, then supposed to be del Sarto's protrait of himself and his wife; it is now known to be two portraits joined together, is no longer attributed to del Sarto, is not thought to depict the painter or his wife, and has been relegated to storage.

From the Editor's note to Robert Browning's 'Andrea del Sarto' (Yale edition).

This appears at the beginning of A rich full death by Michael Dibdin, a mystery I've just finished that was quite good. Written as a series of letters by an expat American back home about his involvement with Robert Browning in solving a series of murders in Florence, it's in the style of 19th letters that, well, didn't follow Strunk and White's first rule of style, which is "Omit needless words."

Also, I just saw Conversations with other women, which was quite good. It's almost completely a dialog between Helen Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckart.

Progress continues

The workshop table is clear! No, really. It is. (Yeah, yeah, I should have a photo here, but well, I'm feeling lazy.)

Of course, you might not realize exactly how monumental this accomplishment is. The stuff on that table had been there for years. Decades maybe. Such is the goings on at my house.

Now, if I had included a photo of the table as it is. Right. This. Minute. There would be some things on it. And you'd think "hey, it's not actually clear!" But all those things are things that I put there after clearing it off, and moved it around to try and get a better orientation of it in the basement.

The table's a good size at 3' by 6', but it needs to be modified a bit to be a better woodworking table. I think I can bolster up the end, so I can fix a vice on it to clamp things down. That would help.

So, I'm thinking there could be some woodworking going on down in the basement this fall/winter.