Since I had been on a work trip for the past two weeks, I managed to build up enough hours to work a half day on Friday. Met up with Darren and hit the Fashion District for some suit shopping. After a couple of hours we headed home, I had picked out a blue pinstripe and light grey pinstripe suit.
Waited for Esther to get off work, then picked up Craig on the way to see the new Harry Potter movie. Luckily for us the theater wasn’t too crowded. I’m pretty sure that the book release events at all the local bookstores contributed to it.
Saturday: Went to the Huntington Library to take some informal pictures in the gardens. After about 125 shots, I think there were 15-20 that we liked. Definitely plan on going to more places and taking more.
Met up with the crew at Cheesecake Factory for Steven’s going away party. I guess he was sick of doing lab work, so he took a job in San Diego and is joining the cubicle/office working ranks! Saw Transformers after dinner and called it a night.
Ended up starting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that night since Esther had picked it up.
Sunday: Accidentally slept in, then hit Costco for lunch and shopping. Visited Esther’s friend and her baby. Went to Craig’s to borrow his copy of Harry Potter for Esther, and called it a quick night.
I tried to take Esther to the El Tepeyac on the way home, but was surprised to see “Marquez Family Restaurant” there in it’s place. We decided to try it out anyway and it turns out the food and menu is pretty much the same.
posted by irv at 5:21 pm
Giant Robot fighting movie, what’s not to like?
If you’re a fan of the cartoon series, you might remember some differences:
- Bumblebee is a VW Bug, not a Camaro
- Megatron turns into a gun, not a jet/cannon
- Devastator is a giant robot made up of five smaller transformers, not a giant tank
- Jazz is a Porsche, not a Pontiac Solstice
If you were more of a casual viewer, or just watching the movie just because, then who cares about all of the above. The CG integration with the live actors is pretty much seamless.
Some things I noticed from the movie and cartoon, Megatron was more based on the animated movie version Galvatron, who was able to transform both into a jet and a cannon. The memorable Megatron line “you have failed me yet again, Starscream” made it, as well as Starscream cowardly leaving his comrades to die.
One major thing that annoyed be was the superduperextra close-up camera during the climactic fight scene. I’m pretty sure it was done to convey the hugeness of the robots, but the shaky camera just ended up getting annoying.
Overall though, must say I loved the movie. Would probably see it again in the theater, just for the effects.
posted by irv at 5:11 pm
Being the longest book (so far), I expected a lot to be trimmed off in order to get into a decent length movie.
Basically your typical Harry Potter movie. I know some people have complained that they cut out too much and et cetera, but I think concentrating on Umbridge and her takeover of Hogwarts was a good choice to make. Sure, I would have liked to see more background in terms of the actual Order of the Phoenix, but I’ll live.
Definitely a plus to have the book source knowledge going in.
Worth seeing now if you’re a Harry Potter fan. Maybe worth the matinée price.
posted by irv at 5:01 pm
Back from Hawaii. Turned out to be good, there was downtime while Esther was there, so we got to tour around and whatnot. Hit the local eating spots, as usual:
- Zippy’s – multiple times
- Rainbow Drive-in – multiple times
- Matsumoto Shave Ice – my first time there. EH, they are certainly getting by on reputation
- Waiola Shave Ice – Yup. Still my favorite.
- 7-eleven – still has my favorite spam musubi
- 3660 on the Rise – a fancy Asian/American fusion type restaurant. It’s still a bit weird to hear the locals in the “fancy” restaurant setting. “Pardon my reach, ya?”
On Kauai, we stayed out on the eastern end, which I had only done once before. Took a tour boat up the Wailua River since I hadn’t yet seen the Fern Grotto. Then of course there were the eateries:
- L&L Drive-Inn – much better than the L&L we have here in CA.
- Wahooo Seafood and Grill. Yummy. Fresh fish and good flavors.
- Duke’s – similar to what we have here, but fresher fish and they know how to cook rice!
- Brick Oven Pizza – gotta stop here at least once every trip. Super thin crust and garlic butter brushed on the edges. Yum.
And that, in a nutshell is how I gained 8 pounds in two weeks.
But it was well worth it!
posted by irv at 4:55 pm
I had been looking forward to this movie for some time. If not for the whole ‘Bruce Willis is an old guy still doing action movies,’ I had also enjoyed the previous installments.
In short, this was a great action flick that didn’t leave many boring minutes. Justin Long (the Mac guy) was believable as a low level hacker. Kevin Smith! Maggie Q! The plot made sense!
Sure, you probably won’t remember much about it after a week or so, but it’s a great way to get out of the heat and burn two hours…
posted by irv at 2:36 pm
Friday: Amie, Andy, Craig, Darren and Esther came over for a pre-holiday barbecue. Craig brought his mom’s yummy macaroni salad. Woot. I picked up some potatoes and corn to grill since it was my day off. Amie brought her Houston’s inspired marinated rib-eye.
Due to a slight mishap regarding the grill and open vents, the steaks were just a wee-bit overseared on one side. Oops, my bad. For the most part there was still enough left to fill us up. In any case I was saving room for the creme brulee I had made from scratch in the morning. Yum. After figuring out how to work the torch and failing in a few brown sugar burning experiments, we were filled with yummy brulee goodness. To think it was so easy to make, too!
Thus satisfied, we ended the night by watching Russell Peters’ Outsourced comedy special.
Saturday: Lazed around watching TV while we waited for Darren to get off work. Picked him up and went to the body shop to get Esther’s car an estimate for some work.
Grabbed some Johnny Rockets and then hit the theater for Live Free or Die Hard.
Sunday: Stopped by Best Buy to grab a few CDs and DVDs for my upcoming trip. Ended up watching Spaceballs until we fell asleep.
Weekend over. Luckily it’s a holiday week, plus we’re leaving for Hawaii! ALOHA, suckaz!
posted by irv at 2:27 pm