2.5.05

Hey hon, we're on the news! Ooooh crap.

As discussed with some friends, getting on Texas for choices made by legislative bodies doesn't mean that all Texans are jerkholes.

However, when it makes it to the Daily Show, then we just start looking silly.

Now every time someone asks you where you're from, you have to clarify that you're in Austin, Texas. Just makes me so angry. Eh, but I'm also tired, and heavy lids win out over high blood pressure.




I've seen a ton of movies this last week. Pilgrim was sick Wednesday through Friday so I had some time at home. Saw Equilibrium with Christian Bale. Good movie, not great. It's a bit predictable and just a little far-fetched, but it is sci-fi. And speaking of sci-fi, Mrs. A actually suggested we go see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you don't know anything about me and Mrs. A, know that I love movies and she likes movies. She doesn't understand waiting in line on opening night or getting there in time for previews. We have this game that we avoid playing in where she will ask what else some actor's been in, then I try to make it as simple as possible by thinking of something she's seen, but invariably ends up with both of us throwing our hands up saying, "You know what, forget it."

However, Hitchhiker’s was just a blast. It wasn't like the first time I saw, The Matrix but what is anymore? And to all you purists, if you want something that's faithful to the book, read the gorram book. It's a movie that was in part written by the guy who wrote the book, then he died, so what do you want? This movie was just fun and exciting and well crafted and well acted (I thought.) Definitely worth the $8 and the giant tub of pop corn and spiked cokes.

Also went to The Alamo Drafthouse to see Kung-Fu Hustle with some coworkers. Another fun ride. I don't think it was a fun as Shaolin Soccer but that may be because I hadn't been exposed to Stephen Chow movies yet, so I was expecting more of the same. And I got it. And I wasn't disappointed.

And while we're on movies that disappoint, what the frack is wrong with you people who think Zoolander was funny? I watched the later half of it this weekend after turning it off after the first half the first time I watched it, but coming back to it out of morbid curiosity. What a piece of shit that movie was. I really like Owen Wilson but even he couldn't save this. I was a Ben Stiller fan, but I think that admiration ran out after Mystery Men. Pee-yew.

Aliens vs. {Predator wasn't much better, but it at least had some coolness going on with it, like the fight scenes. I mean, going into this, you know the humans are going to get slaughtered, just seemed rather obvious and contrived. Plot was REALLY pushing it. I do believe Paul W.S. Anderson could have done much better had he, I don't know, pulled a kid off the street and asked him to write this. Blee-argh!




So we're thinking of buying a new house. Not thinking really as much as going ahead with plans to do so. We've been looking at neighborhoods and houses, well shoot, since we moved here. Lately we've stepped it up a notch. Word to the wise for anyone moving to Austin; stay away from Hyde Park, Terrytown, Travis Heights or Barton Springs areas. No no, they're not bad neighborhoods, far from it. But the houses are half a million dollars.

*ZOIKS*

That's right, just decent, 3 bedroom houses in Hyde Park are 750,000. Those little cracker box houses that are usually a bright shade of baby-blue or pink or yellow with a red door and the detached garage in back? Yeah, those. Built in the 50's, electricity is probably not up to code and you're 5 miles from the nearest decent grocery story, but because the zip code is 78705, it's 3/4 of a mil.

Just sick, man.

Anyway, so Mrs. A wants to live closer into Austin, that means we have to find the diamond in the rough. Something in a cool like area that won't fleece our bank accounts. We're also thinking of buying land and building our own house. There was even talk of building onto the house we already have.

So the process is started, we're going to talk with our mortgage lady again and see what we have to do to buy a bigger home but keep our mortgage about the same. It isn't going to happen unless we can conjure up $100,000. But even 30% down may not help. What needs to happen is for these kids to start working. I'm sure there's a cotton field or mine they can spend a few hours in, isn't there?

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