A post with no plot, but plenty of action

After surviving a week where we all got sick at one point or another and The Wife nearly went bat-shit crazy from stress at work, we made an executive decision to lay low this weekend. Well, as low as is possible for us. Unfortunately, The Wife has the need to be doing something even if there’s nothing that needs to be done, so relaxation is always a relative thing.

The Wife’s sister (who would also be my sister-in-law) came up on Saturday to watch the kids for us while we unwound a little. We went out to lunch, which was nice, and then did some shopping. I hate shopping, so that kind of sucked, but I was nice just to do something without the little people around.

In another sign that I’m officially becoming very old, my little brother and his girlfriend got their Aggie rings on Friday. Since I work on campus, I was able to pop on over and join him for the big moment, which was kind of neat.

They’re renovating the Association of Former Students building, so my brother got his ring in the always beautiful and magical ambiance of G. Rollie White Coliseum. They also got free sausages on a stick and snow cones, whereas I seem to remember getting a full barbecue lunch when I got my ring. Plus my ring cost about half of what his did. Score one for the old folks.

For those of you who weren’t blessed enough to attend Texas A&M, getting your Aggie ring is a pretty big deal. And that’s saying a lot, because we get worked up about everything.

I guess Tosca isn’t for everyone

Last night, we schlepped it over to the local kino to watch Quantum of Solace. It was okay I suppose, but I don’t think it measured up to Casino Royale. The film was so focused on character development that it failed to have a coherent plot, something that’s kind of a deal-breaker for me. I don’t expect mind-bending plots in Bond films, but I do expect at least a flimsy plot that manages to connect the dots from A to B to C. Not so much on this one. There was some vaguely creepy guy who was doing something that I guess was bad. And Bond ran into him a couple of times while he was doing unrelated things. The people who wrote the movie didn’t really seem to care about it, so why should I?

Also, I don’t really want to return to the Roger Moore days of cheesy innuendo and witless banter, but it would be nice to see the current Bond grunt out more than a few sentences in a conversation. I miss the old days when 007 would actually talk to people instead of just killing them after they jumped out of the shadows.

That said, I thought both Daniel Craig and Judi Dench did an excellent job with the minimal script they were given to work with. And the action sequences were all very well done. Even with the complaints I listed above, I still was entertained. It was certainly better than Doctor Dolittle: Tails to the Chief.

Fries at the bottom of the bag

• The Girl has discovered that books are good for more than just chewing on. But since she’s got some more teeth coming in, she’ll still chew on them too.
• While we were out shopping, we picked up some new shoes for The Girl. I think they’re ugly, but The Wife assures me that they’re cute.
• Being crazy at the dinner table is still in fashion at our house.
• I find the amorous swine featured in the logo of a local sausage company to be pretty funny. And a little creepy if you think about it while you’re eating a sausage on a stick.
• The weather this weekend was absolutely fantastic. Makes me miss living in Colorado where just about every weekend was like this one.