Confessions of a One-Track Mind

Saturday with the gals was good. Soup, salad and breadsticks, followed by One for the Money, which was better than I expected. They were fairly true to the book as far as plot. Casting...Katie Heigl wasn't bad, although she's *not* a real Jersey Girl. Their Morelli was okay, despite reminding me uncomfortably of Mel Gibson (YMMV). Ranger was hot, though. Pretty close to who I'd envisioned. Lula, Connie and Vinnie, all good. Debbie Reynolds isn't quite what I had in mind for Grandma, although Estelle Getty is dead, so it wasn't gonna happen anyway. The really irksome thing was Big Blue: subbing a 1970s Buick for the 1950s Buick it should've been---not cool. But anyway, I'd give it a strong B+, maybe even an A- if it was out on dvd and I could kickback and watch it at home.

Visited Bunny at the pawn shop afterward, and took advantage of their 10 for $15 table. ($2 each, otherwise.) Ogled bling, shot the breeze, went over to J's with my loot and we watched 48 Hours. I kinda nodded off in her recliner for a half-hour in the middle of it, but that's okay: I have it on dvd now. And I felt much refreshed, so it was good.

Then we saw something new to both of us: The Maiden Heist, a caper flick with an outstanding cast. Namely, Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and the always delightful Willian H. Macy. I'd seen a preview of it on The Accidental Husband, and it looked amusing. A museum is sending most of its contents to a museum in Denmark. Our heroes are guards, each of whom have been there for years, and who each have their own special favorite artworks. Walken's is a painting called "The Lonely Maiden", which gives the movie its title; the guards decide they can't bear to be parted from their beloved artworks, and hatch a plot to substitute forgeries and spirit away the originals. Quite fun! Also a B+. The cast is terrific, but the pacing is a little slow.

Wrote a ficlet Friday evening, but didn't get it posted til Sunday because ff.net was being a total bitch-up. Seriously, I liked it better when you could buy a membership, block ads for a month at a time, and things WORKED. *eyeroll*

Something to look forward to: CF drives a minivan. I may be able to get her to take a fieldtrip to ReStore so I can score a door or two. Remains to be seen....

TTFN!

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Things have been a little up in the air for tomorrow's Girls' Day Out. Originally, we were going to meet in Viera, lunch at Panera and see "One for the Money" at the Rave. BigRed and I were emailing back and forth, and she mentioned a Mexican place called Moe's, which sounded interesting...a little negotiating with CF (third member of our wanna-be ladies who lunch bunch) and Panera was out, Moe's was in.

Then BigRed got online to reserve her ticket, and found out the only showing of OftM was at 4:30, which didn't work for her for assorted reasons. She suggested we see "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island". I have nothing against Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but I was underwhelmed at the thought of driving 20 minutes and paying $7-8 to see him. Because, if you look back over the last few weeks, you'll see I've mentioned wanting to see OftM eleventy jillion times. I was literally on my way to see it last weekend when I got the email invite from BigRed, and my patience has been stretched thin between glasses and fences and whatnot.

I offered a counter-proposal, namely that we lunch at Olive Garden on the Island and catch the 12:45 show at the mall. That met with favor from the other gals, so that's the plan.

There are a few reasons I actually prefer this version:
1) It's considerably closer, which saves on gas.
a. We're meeting at 11AM, and I'm not a morning person. I may be conscious, but aside from church, am seldom out and about at that hour. This will make it a little less painful.
b. Being on the Island will make certain errands more convenient afterward.
2) Soup, salad and breadsticks is affordable, and I can consume pasta e fagioli all day long.
3) Okay, I know they don't run on looks, as my daddy used to say, but my PoS car is always the crappiest-looking vehicle in sight at The Avenue. It isn't quite as out of place at the mall.

Maybe I'll dig out my copy of OftM for a fast reread. Although I know the series pretty well, it's been a while since I've gone back to the beginning. It's up to book 18 these days, and I've been there from the beginning. I started with OftM, and I remember how pleased I was when "Two for the Dough" came out and I realized that Evanovich was going to continue Plum as a series. I've had my own ideas of what the characters are like, and I'm interested to see how close they get it.

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