As I mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend with my grandmother out at my parents’ house in Helotes, which is a small suburb up in the Hill Country. It’s only seven miles away from town, and yet sometimes it feels much further than that — they can’t even get high-speed internet where they are because of the location of their house.
Anyway, it rained (and hailed) Friday during the day but cleared up long enough for me to go home, pack, and head out to my parents’ house. Then the deluge began again, dumping six more inches of rain on our already soggy city. Since January, we’ve received 34 inches of rain — and normal averages are just under 33 inches a year. All of our river basins are already well past their flood stages, and as a result, anything more than a drizzle results in flash flooding. It is insane.
So we stayed in Friday night and my grandma made one of my favorite comfort meals, SOS, fried potatoes, and sweet tea. Yum. We watched this week’s episodes of Psych and Burn Notice, along with some random stuff recorded on my parents’ TiVo.
Saturday we both slept late, which was not entirely intentional. It’s just that it was storming so hard that it was still really dark outside. Plus thunder and lightning and rain pelting the windows just makes me want to burrow under the covers and sleep. So I did. I also read (I love Mary Higgins Clark and thought I had read all of her works, but my dad cleaned out Half-Price Books the other day and I discovered four that I haven’t read yet. I’m so excited) and watched a couple episodes of Phil of the Future, and I even saw an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody where those boys were not obnoxious. It was actually sweet. Shocker.
We went out for an early dinner at a nearby coffee shop and then saw Hairspray. OMG. That was SUCH a fantastic movie. I absolutely adored it, and I’m downloading the torrent of the soundtrack as I type this. The entire cast, from Christopher Walken right down to Brittany Snow, was perfect. Although I must admit, it was a little disconcerting to see Snow play a mean girl. John Travolta, though, stole the show. I’ve even heard there’s early buzz for an Oscar nod. He sure deserves it. He was absolutely believable as Edna Turnblad, rather than just a guy who’s obviously playing drag. Amazing. Then there was Zac Efron and his eyes. Holy crap, that guy has the most beautiful eyes I think I’ve ever seen. Plus he sang. And danced. And just looked hot. He could’ve stood in a corner and I would’ve been satisfied. (James Marsden was no slouch, either.)
Before the movie started, they showed previews for three movies I am dying to see. Two are based on books, and I’m faced with a dilemma: I can’t decided if I should read the books first. Usually I like reading the books first, so that I get plenty of background and details that can’t usually fit into a movie. However, as in the case of The Bourne Supremacy and The Firm, I was so disgusted by the adaptations I couldn’t enjoy the movies themselves. (Seriously? With the exception of the character names, neither movie even resembled the books!) Good thing I never read The Bourne Ultimatum. I’ll have no problem enjoying Matt Damon the movie.
Anyway, the movies are (titles are linked to the official trailers):
Enchanted
: Patrick Dempsey, Amy Adams, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon, Idina Menzel, Julie Andrews
The Golden Compass: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Kevin Bacon, Sam Elliott, Ian McShane
Stardust: Claire Danes, Ricky Gervais, Sienna Miller, Robert DeNiro, Ian McKellan, Michelle Pfeiffer
I cannot wait to see any of them. Release dates are as follows: Stardust, August 10th; Enchanted, November 21st; The Golden Compass, December 7th.
Now I’m off to finish downloading some music (I promised Mia I’d find some Drake Bell and Jonas Brothers for her) and probably get a little HP reading in before bed.
