I want to believe

Probably no one reading this blog was an x-files fanatic. I wasn't a fanatic exactly, but I loved that show. Hard to say why since I never believed in aliens or paranormal activity, but my sister and I used to watch it every night.

My best friend love it too. Her mother had recently gone conservative when we found our love for x-files, so there was no watching them on tv, but we rented them from the library on a regular basis. Don't ask me why that was different, I still don't know.

When the first movie came out we didn't see it in theaters. It was 1998 and none of us could drive. Our parents weren't inclined to take us. But afterwards when it came out on video we watched it over and over and over.

It picked up after the show had ended. Scully and Mulder were both with the FBI, but had been separated and assigned to other projects. But of course the X-Files find them.

And Mulder's assertion that, "If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced," rang true.

But the unexpected was what we expected. There were aliens, government conspiracy, abductions, cover-ups and a frantic search for the truth, which would ultimately be covered up again at the end of the movie, so the X-Files could live on.

The movie I went to see last night picked up eight years later with Scully doing unfullfilling work at a religious hospital, where mean clerics thwart her attempts to save a young boy's life. Mulder, mean while is hiding out in his home office with newspaper clippings about the old days.

Not that there's any reason for you to care, but there are spoilers ahead.

The FBI is missing a young agent and declares that they need Mulder to help find her. Well, they're clearly at the end of their rope because they've enlisted the help of a pedophile priest turned psychic and mainly what they want Mulder to do is tell them if the fellow is faking or not. Scully pushes Mulder into doing it and then gets angry when Mulder gets involved.

Somewhere in the movie we find out that Scully and Mulder are living together and had a child who died and, like the dying child in the hospital, is completely irrelevant to the story.

Long story short, the agent was abducted by some Russians who have been kidnapping people and using them for stemcell research.

That's the whole story. Russians and stemcell research. No conspiracy. No aliens. No unknown. No X-Files. Just Russians.

This summer's movie selection gets more depressing all the time.

Oh Ohio

This afternoon my mom sent Bethy and I down to the meet processor's to pick up some beef.
While we waited on our change, Bethy pointed out a sign, "Notice: We no longer accept or process roadkill"

Bummer.

V is for Vacation

I'm home visiting the family. Friday night was traditional crazy story night. Everyone tells everything absurd that has happened to them since the last time I was home.

After that Bethy and I stayed up till two making up crazy stories. Not like we sit around saying, "Ok, once upon a time..." but all of us have the habit of just making up stories when we talk, about what "really" happened or what might happen.

I don't even remember Saturday, we goofed off a bunch I guess. More stories. Daniel always likes to hear stories about when I was little or when he was little. It seems impossible to him that our parents were ever obsessed with computer games or the latest Indiana Jones movie. This time they were more about the trauma he gave me when I was baby-sitting. He doesn't remember, but he's positive his actions were justified.

Sunday... the parent's church. No one ever remembers that I'm out of college there, but then again...no one remembers that I'm out of college in Indiana either.

Our old youth pastor now teaches the college/post college class. He and his wife weren't good youth leaders, but it's hard not to like them as people. The pastor's daughter is easy not to like. She must be nice to some people, because lots of people like her, but whenever I'm there she's incredibly sour.

Mary HAD a little lamb

It's time to bid farewell to Mary and her...well I guess the lamb was already gone. The point is, that the person who was hosting the image let their photobucket account expire or deleted it or some silliness of that sort.

Now we have the butterflies...I'm not sure how long they're staying. They are more cheerful than Mary & Co., but for me the most cheerful thing would be if this blasted thing fit the screen right. Sadly I don't know enough about code to make that happen.

So. We'll probably be seeing another change soon.

The Sun & the Sea

I stayed up much too late finishing this, but I'm going on vacation tommorow and I won't be near photoshop for over a week. I just needed to finish.

Forever 1990

Last weekend Robin and I went shopping. I took a lot of photos in Forever 21, which has some of the best and worst clothing in the mall.

We weren't sure about these little green shoes. They're almost cute, but I'm not sure how they would look with an actual outfit.

You know you owned a shirt like this in the early 90's.

Robin tends to like tops like these...all frilly and lacy. I'm not a lace person.

I hate this type of pattern. The fashion mags are calling it "Painterly", but to me it looks more like someone attacked this dress with a permanent marker.

I love the pattern on this dress. It's amazing.

This looks like the type of bag I would have been embarrassed for my mom to carry when I was a kid. Seriously, I knew people who owned this in the 90's. Why is it back - and why at Forever 21?

These shoes remind me of my first hideous pair of high heels. They belonged to my cousin in the '80s and I used to wear them around the house for dress up.

3-on-3

Our company sponsors this every year. You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

The photos are from www.makemeaprint.com.

I've been angry and sad about the things that you do

Tonight I wasted $7.50 watching Amanda Seyfried (Plastic Karen in Mean Girls) try to determine which of several men is her father in time for him to walk her down the isle.

Don't get me wrong, Seyfried is really enjoyable on screen. Mostly what the movie suffers from is an extreme excess of songs. After each song there is approximately ten seconds of dialogue which nudges the plot along, then it's time for another song.

Of course the excessive (and weird) songs are not the only issue. Meryl Streep and Co. take up much, much, much more of the movie than I would have anticipated. Mostly this flick is about their former exploits. Occasionally we flick back to Amanda (aka Sophie) and once in a while there are these three men.

In the end Sophie doesn't find out who her father is, but the men agree to share Sophie, while Pierce Brosnan takes Donna (Streep) all for himself, Stellan Skarsgard get's chased after by one of Donna's friends, and Collin Firth confesses that he is actually gay. If that isn't enough to ruin the movie for you, I don't know what is.

Save your money and call Mamma Mia! a miss.

How Can I Breath Without You?

Trigger Happy

When I'm home Holly always has new places she thinks Bethy and I ought to go. Frequently these are restaurants. This time it was Dewey's Pizza - one of many fine dining experiences only available in the greater Cincinnati area.

While we were there I commented that all the good restaurants are responsible for making Cincinnati the fattest city in the world, but evidently our title was stolen by a city in Oklahoma somewhere.

Dewey's is pretty amazing. They have a lot of options, but what we went for was pepperoni with double bacon.

Long Weekend. Long Day.

I got Monday off because of my birthday (yes, kids, my boss is still the best). I got Friday off because it was July Fourth. Three day work weeks are the best, ever. I may not go back to the regular sort.

Friday was a weird sort of day, but I spent a lot of it asleep, so I'll count it as a good one.

Today I got up super early (or 6:50 am) to buy stuff I needed & clean out my car. The latter action being completely unnecessary for today, but probably beneficial in the long term. I have to have deadlines to get anything done. If I don't have a reason to do something (aside from an arbitrary rule like "cars should be clean") it doesn't happen.

It was a perfect day for the canoeing & the river was beautiful. Jon thinks I didn't enjoy myself and Emily thinks she ran us into too many tree branches, but they're both wrong. I had a great time and the only real problem we had with trees was when I unwittingly left my oar in one.

Afterwards we had a fastfood picnic and then we all went home to sleep...except that it's my weekend to mow the lawn...so I did that instead.

All that and I still have the joy of knowing that tommorow is not Monday!