Today marks the middle of a two or four day weekend, depending on who you talk to. I'd like to meet the group of idiots that missed Veterans day when they shifted the holidays to Mondays. Sheesh.

Either way, I was off yesterday and spent the day watching Mike while Denise worked. It worked out well, too. Mike took two naps, I wrote some database code, for this site, and then we played out on the front lawn. It was real nice outside too, cool breeze, warm sun. If I didn't have Mike, I'd put a chair outside with a radio and a cool beverage and read my book.

Update : I'm enjoying my date with Denis. Mike is safe at home with Steph, and we are all alone tonight. We started off by having a very nice Italian/Mediteranian dinner at Villa de Flora, in the Gaylord Resort and Convention center. Both the restaurant and the resort are worth a visit. Valet parking is free when you eat here. The place is expansive, luxurious, and fun to explore. Rivers, a misty swamp, snakes and aligator farm, exquisite food and wine, and shopping. Worth a repeat visit, especially since they have two other restaurants to experience. Yum.

Now we are off to get in line to see The Incredibles at the AMC in Disney.

Denises surgery was a success. She has the cleanest colon in all of Hillsborough county, with not a trace of schmutz to be found. Even better, her colitis is in remission. Her diligint behavior is really paying off.

After 36 hours without food, and 12 without drink, she decided on a nice italian restaurant to enjoy some lunch, We found a great new place called Carlucci's, on 54 and Little. Really elegant interior, and very well prepared food. The menu is rather contemporary, complete with a selection of sandwiches and low carb entrees, priced nice for lunch. I have a Chicken Parm platter with vegitables, Denise had a grouper dish in a lemon basil sauce. Both were excellent, but Denise was not too fond of lemon sauces, so we switched plates. :)

Our plan then was to take advantge of Denises mom babysitting, but Denises head was a little cloudy, so we went home and all took a nap. I ended up playing with Mike a few hours before he went to bed, then Denise and I watched the movie The Way We Were by Sidney Pollock. Okay movie. The Incredibles would have been better. We will definately see it this Friday when Stephie watches Mike for us.

Spent the weekend getting Denise ready for her surgery tomorrow. Minor though the surgery may be, getting a colonoscopy is still serious work, and requires some serious prep work. Clear liquid diet, no food to speak of, the a tasty diauretic cocktail nightcap. Very tasty indeed.

To make thiese preparations a little easier, we took advantage of her parents timeshare in St. Pete at the Tradewinds. We spent some time on the beach. Mike was not too fond of the cold gulf water, but he did take to the sand. I think he is undecided if he enjoys the taste of sand or not. We rinsed off in the pool, and I played some Yu-Gi-Oh(which is very hard to type on my phone) with Joseph. I still like this game, and Joseph is very slowly getting better. He'll probably get good just in time for it to go out of style.

I'm taking a break from the fun to cacth a bite of dinner. Denise is not eating, so I'm sneaking food where needed to avoid eating in front of her. I gotta be polite.

That got me thinking. There's something different about movies made today from movies made back in the 60's and 70's. It's not just the special effects either. It might be film vs. digital, but digital is too new for that to be the only difference. Story telling is different today, but I can't quite put words to how it makes movies 40 years ago, which are great even today, seem different from today. Lighting and sound stage acting, vs real live sets in real live locations? Maybe. Real acting perhaps? Better direction?

I know what the difference is, but it seems as if a dream to me, always one step away from my actually seeing the difference. It's in my periphial view. Darn it, so close. I'll figure it out yet.

Whatever the difference is, directors and producers today really need to take notice. Movies today stink by comparisson. Todays movies are hollow, soulless creatures. It's like artwork without knowing the artists background. Without the soul of the artist, it's just a pretty picture. Maybe that's the difference.

Update : A whole bunch of pictures of Mike are available here. There's 50-some snaps, so be patient while it loads.

Update : The rest of the gaming community is linking to this project, so I will too.

If you want to give toys to sick kids or to a childrens hospital, go visit the Childs Play charity drive. 5 childrens hospital will receive roughly $50,000 each in toys and cash donations thanks to this group of gamers.

Just finished a marathon movie session, watching both The Great Escape and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Both great movies, highly recommended, and classics in their own right. Go watch a film that actually looks like film, made when movies were truly epic.