I had a busy weekend, but not in the way I'd planned.

I have no clue what I did Friday evening, but if I remember anything I'll let you know.

Saturday I slept in...maybe because I was up late on Friday...? I don't remember. Around 1:00 I went to the gym, but I got so hungry after about an hour of working out that I had to leave to get some lunch. Isn't that lame? I had to stop working out to eat! But, really, I could tell I wasn't going to get anything out of working out if I didn't have any food in my stomach, so I left and ate. After showering I made a trip down to beautiful downton Burien (gag, choke) to pick up some comics I missed a while ago. It was a good trip and I managed to pick up all but a couple books I needed.

Oh, I remember, Friday night I went to see "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with Matt and Dawn from work. It was an...okay movie. Too different from the original comic book, which is excellent and I really think you should read it. Here, I'll make it easier for you; go here. It really is excellent. Better than the movie by a damn sight. More entertaining, more well written, pretty much more everything. Unfortunately having Alan Quatermain start out as a opium addict, and having Minna nearly get raped by other opium fiends (it's always nice when you can use the term "opium fiends" in conversation) while recruiting him, and having Mr. Hyde being one of the most amoral, self-centered, NON-heroic creatures in existence doesn't work very well for a major motion picture. Plus there's all the really racist "yellow menace" stuff that probably wouldn't play to well in some places. Anyway, check it out. Alan Moore is a genius.

Okay, back to Saturday. After getting the comics I ran a couple of very quick errands, then went to Dawn's with Matt to watch High Fidelity and play some games. We played a bit of Magic and an old game called Quest for the Pholosopher's Stone. (Seth, I'm sorry to report that I won, so I'll never play it again. I'm at 100%, why ruin that? I'm sure you're all with me; Seth hates that about me.) It was about 1:00 AM then so we left, but I stopped in at work to check my email and ended up surfing the 'net for an hour or so. Once I finally left I ended up watching a movie until about 4:00 AM.

Sunday I slept in until late. Late in this case meaning noon...that's 2:00 PM to those of you playing in the Midwest. I was supposed to meet some people from work to go to a festival that the International District (roughly equivalent to Chinatown) and then see "Pirates of the Caribbean", but they called and said they wanted to skip that and just go see "Pirates of the Caribbean". It was an epic quest -- going to see the movie, not the movie itself.

I drove across town to Ballard to see the 3:20 showing (meaning I left at 2:30 to meet everyone). When I arrived I learned that the show was sold out, but three of our number bought tickets off a scalper (probably some guy who decided he didn't want to see it right then) so they went in. The other four of us decided to find somplace else to see it. We hopped in the car, consulted the newspaper, and drove down to the Cinerama. Notice that it's "the" Cinerama, not just Cinerama, that's because this place is an action-moviegoer's wet dream; big seats that you have no choice but to relax in, a sound system that God would envy, and a rounded screen that really immerses you in the film because it curls around into your peripheral vision more. Not that I got to see the movie there, instead we walked over to a mall and bought tickets for a showing an hour and a half later. We ate some food, checked out a couple stores, then went to see the movie.

Let me tell you about the "Pirates of the Caribbean", well, it was pretty good. I think anyone who watches t.v. or movies will think it's pretty good, too. Comedy, action-packed, has a mystery element, some horror trappings, romance, sexy bits featuring the all-too-skinny female lead, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom for the ladies, and speical effects that weren't just well done, but also worked with the story as opposed to just being thrown on the screen to be impressive. So, if you can see, you'll probably like this movie. It's like they planned it that way.

After the movie we walked back to the car. Bought some Dippin' Dots from McD's because some of our number had never had them. Yes, yes, they're totally a novelty thing, but I enjoy this particular novelty. Plus, ice cream! (Greg, I'll buy you ice cream when I'm back in Wisconsin. You deserve it.) Anyway, they dropped me off at my car and I drove back to Bellevue. Seven hours after I left! Gahh, it's not like I had anything to do except go to the gym, but I really didn't think it would take seven hours to see a two-and-a-half-hour movie.

Completely unrelated to this waste of a day I thought about how late I stayed up both Friday and Saturday (and pretty much every other day of the week) and I realized that even though I don't like to sleep and I really don't get tired, I still need to get about eight hours a night. So I was thinking that staying up really late is sort of silly because all it means is that I have to get up that much later -- and usually what I end up doing late at night is watch movies and veg out. Not very constructive. I'm going to have to fix that. Very irresponsible use of time on my part and I don't like it.

This week at work I have to get a ton of stuff done before I leave for San Diego. I finally get to go to the San Diego Comic Con International. Something I've wanted to got to for years. I'm pretty excited because it's my first trip there, first trip to California, and I have a lunch planned with Marv Wolfman -- one of my favorite writers of comics. He's written some classic stories and created a number of very cool and very popular characters (some of which you can see on the new Teen Titans cartoon starting soon). I sent him a bunch of product from the line I used to work on and he really enjoyed it. It was fun to be able to do that.

So, Greg and I have been trading spots in each other's blogs (even though his is really just a Website that he updates and not a blog proper) and I'm glad that I can do something to validate his existence since his wife apparently isn't doing it for him. She won't even buy him ice cream or laugh at his posts. I really get a kick out of some of the stuff he writes, and if you're not checking in on his site, you should. It's very entertaining and I'm always impressed by Greg's ability to talk about normal things in a very funny way.

I can just imagine that if Greg read that to Deb --and I'm sure he will -- that she'd probably start crying and call him all sorts of nasty names. (She's all pregnant and emotional right now. You know how they get.*)

What I don't get is why he likes the stuff I write here. I look at this blog as a great way to keep all my friends and family informed as to what I'm up to day-to-day. I don't give much thought to how or what I write, so I ask you, is it entertaining? And if so, why?

I'll understand if the only reason you have is that it's about me. I mean, hell, I'm pretty cool, so I can understand that I could be that entertaining.

Okay, leaving now. I'm trying to adjust my sleep schedule to near-normal. Wish me luck.


* I say these things with tongue placed firmly in cheek. Deb's a great woman and she and Greg are a lot of fun. Stop crying now. I'm not a sexist bastard who thinks all pregnant women are hormonal wrecks. Although my mom and sisters all swear that when you have a baby that some of your brain goes with it. Really, they said that.