Movie and a dinner

Saw Ratatouille with Mom tonight. Now that was a fun movie! (Yes, I saw a movie. And I liked it! Imagine that!)

I love Pixar.

Funny. Fun. Heart. Originality. They do good stuff.

And... well, as usual, The Onion's AV Club pretty much sums up my thoughts in their review. Which is why I always go to them first. I don't agree 100% (critics only played a secondary role in the movie, I think), but they get the basics right, and they say it better than I could.

Could have done without the intro stuff. Well, the new Underdog trailer (viewable at the official site) was pretty cool. I am so seeing that. And hey, you get to see Sweet Polly Purebred in this one. And hear the all-important catchphrase, "There's no need to fear! Underdog is here!" And to basically see some of the more traditional elements instead of the pure 1978 Superman tribute of the teaser (which was a lot of fun, but didn't really tell me too much, you know?). Still not sure about doing it live action with actual four-paws-on-the-ground dogs (especially given Underdog's near-human intelligence and his romance with non-powered canine Polly) but what I've seen looks pretty cool.

But that wasn't what I'd meant to talk about. (And the other trailers pretty much sucked.) It's that Pixar likes to tack on other things to the beginning of their movies. Which is usually good. Not what you came to see, but nice to have a quick entertaining laugh with an animated short.

This time... not so much. First, we got a preview of next year's Pixar movie. Summary: "We, the writers and animators, were out to lunch one day. We were wrapping up Toy Story, and we knew we needed to get rolling on the next project ASAP. So we tossed some stuff around, and over that one lunch, came up with the ideas that became our next few hit movies: [name drops which, noticeably, do not include the movie we're about to see]. Now, there's only one idea left from that day that we haven't done yet. It's about a cute little robot who's been working in a junkyard for 300 years, but will soon learn to dream of bigger things. It's coming out next year." (Carefully not quite said: And because you loved the other movies we just mentioned, you're going to go see this one and love it, too. So we don't need to tell you any more.)

After that was an animated short involving a UFO which was... meh. Amusing at times.

But the main feature rocked. All about cooking and having fun with it and doing cool things and improvising and... well, there's characterizations and stuff about family and being yourself and all that, but I'm trying to segue here.

See, after the movie, we came home. And, a few hours later, it was time for my dinner. Because I'm on that kind of schedule these days. Again. And since we're more or less out of leftovers, I had to make my own. Starting with the raw chop meat Mom left for me.

I didn't exactly make a new recipe. Same basic ideas as my old trademarked sloppy joes (for lack of a better term). But, back in the day, I used to make them super spicy. If I had leftovers, no one but the dog would touch them. And, well, there's a chance that it burned the liver cancer out of her system. Tried serving it to the next dog several years later. She walked up to her bowl. Sniffed it. Backed off. Sniffed it again. Looked up at me. "You want me to eat this? What did I do to deserve this??." I told her to go ahead and try it. She did. And then immediately asked to go out and spent the next hour eating grass from the backyard.

Anyway... I didn't do that this time. Didn't clear out the whole spice rack. Only used a select few. Well, not more than 10, anyway. And limited quantities.

Problem is, I wasn't really focusing. I didn't have a theme I was building on. No central idea of what I was trying to do, with everything else fitted to that (within loose boundaries). And that kind of showed. I stuck with my favored core, pretty much. Stuff you can't go wrong with. And I didn't go wrong. But I didn't really go especially right, either. Oh well, it was still good. And, after the movie, a little more fun than usual (though I do usually have fun with it).

Let's see... on the off chance any of you care... Started out with onions and fresh garlic. Added the meat. Put on some thyme, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and chili powder. Let it cook. Added some reconstituted porcini mushrooms (with the "mushroom stock" from the blanching process). Let it cook a bit more. Mixed in some Classico tomato sauce. Let it simmer down. Put it on a roll, added some veggies on the side. Like I said... not great. Nothing to really tie it all together. But still good.

And now I've got a few hours to go with the rest of the house asleep, nothing but infomercials on TV, and my web rounds pretty much done. Might take another walk with the dog after I digest a bit more. And... hey, my latest biweekly/bimonthly (depending on how you interpret the strangely ambiguous prefix) comics shipment came in today. So I guess this is good night. Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Eww. A less than pleasant adventure in the park.

There's a park not too far from my house. Nice place. There are woods, a lake, places for various sports, etc. The section by the lake is supposed to be closed from dusk 'til dawn, though the rest of the park is reasonably open and well-lit. There's no gate or anything. Just a little sign by one end of the path.

In the past, from time to time, I've ignored that. Like I said, the rest is well-lit. And it's quiet and peaceful. Grab a flashlight for that one little section, and it can be a pleasant walk.

Tonight, I decided to stick to the rules. Took a short walk with the dog during the wee hours. Then, after my last post, I had time and energy to burn and, surprisingly enough, the sun was well up by 5:30. So, shortly before 6, I took the dog to the park.

A little nippy, but pleasant. And the morning mist over the lake, framed between the trees, was very beautiful.

But...

( Sorry. Just need to get this part out of my head. Don't read. )

Walk was otherwise nice enough. When I got back, I found Mom awake. She gets up in the middle of the night a fair amount these days, unfortunately. While we were gone, she'd checked on Grandpa, whose room is on the first floor, not too far from the kitchen.

Turns out he'd been lying awake in bed for about an hour in the middle of the night because of the cooking smells. Even though his door was closed. Even though fresh air from the A/C was blowing into the vents in his room. Even though he sleeps with an oxygen tube up his nose. Even though I'd cooked with the stove's exhaust fan (which vents to the outdoors) on for most of the time. Even though he's 100 years old (give or take a year or so) and he's legally blind, often needs us to raise our voices even with the hearing aids in, has trouble feeling things, and lately seems not to be tasting things sharply or quite right. Mind's still pretty sharp, though. And, apparantly, so is his sense of smell. Oops.

P.S. Don't know how many people other than stellar_dust will care, but must remember to buy myself a copy of this book. Not gonna preorder just now, though, so leaving this link here to (hopefully) remind myself later.