Tag: movie

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WIN█

I got up early this morning after having some trouble sleeping, then ran home to shower. On the way out of town, I stopped by Casey’s for a cookie, and McDonald’s for breakfast. It was a long drive to Bentonville to get Mitch, so I put on The Matrix to listen to the original before we watched Resurrections at noon.

I made it up there with enough time to get a little food, so headed back to Fayetteville and went into the Buffalo Wild Wings right outside the Malco theater. It was exactly how I remembered it in Russellville. So much so, that we had trouble getting out in time to make it to the movie. I didn’t even have time to get through concessions for popcorn.

The theater was really nice. I had been to a movie there once before, but it was a really long time ago. The Dolby theater with reclining seats reminded me a lot of the one we visited in Dallas, but through all of the trailers and bumpers, I couldn’t tell that the height channels were used at all. Even the feature film didn’t have any obvious Atmos sound, which was super disappointing. The movie itself was pretty good though. They could have cut the runtime in half if they hadn’t included all of the clips from the original, but I guess it served to point out every one of the callbacks.

After the movie, we went to Arcadia Retrocade for a little bit. Mitch had never been, and I thought we’d spend some time there and reminisce. He had been struggling with some anxiety all day though, so we ended up playing a few games for just a short bit, and then heading on back to his place.

On the way back, we stopped by Big Whiskey’s for a while. I finally got my soda, and eventually we got some dinner as we chatted away. It was really great getting to catch up some more, and I’m excited he’ll be closer in Conway soon. We stopped by Mac’s liquor store on the way back to his place, and I picked up a stout that he recommended after they didn’t have the Bentonville Brewery flavor I had a sip of at the bar. The lady at the counter was super sweet, which seemed very different from every liquor store I’ve been to before.

After I dropped him back off at his apartment, I looked for the largest Walmart I could find. I ended up at the one across from the main office, but had trouble finding the actual entrance. It was weirdly obfuscated from the road, but I made it. The store was very large, but outside of an empty clearance area that was half the size of ours, and two entire aisles worth of bicycle helmets, there wasn’t a whole lot very special about it. I had to wait in line a while to check out, and then I was on my way home.

The trip back was rough, because for some reason people wanted to park in the leftmost lane the entire way back. After I finally got on I-40, I ended up behind a truck and another slow car trying to pass one another at like 65 miles per hour. Another guy behind me got mad and passed me on the right shoulder, all to cut off the guy in front of me. By the time I got home and cleaned up a bit, I was too tired to lug anything over to Summer’s, so I just went to bed.

Always the plan.

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People That Clap at Movies

I kept waking up last night as though I was completely full of water. I couldn’t even really sleep in very late because of it. The girls were already awake, so I got up and picked at some old leftovers. Then when Summer and Autumn went to the gym, I left to clean up.

On the way home, I stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to see if they might be free to see The Matrix Resurrections with Mitch and me next week. It didn’t sound very likely, but I had to try. Gary never responded either, until I called him out on it late in the evening.

When I finished getting ready at home, I went to pick up the girls and we made our way to Conway. They really wanted to eat on our trip, so we went to Red Robin first and had some pretty good burgers. I still don’t really think they’re worth the prices they charge, but at least it’s something a little different.

After lunch, we went to Sam’s Club for a bit, then Target. That place was absolutely packed and it was pretty difficult to get around the place. The checkout line stretched back to the cosmetics, but fortunately we pushed a cart around for absolutely no reason and bought nothing. By then, we didn’t have time to dawdle on the way through traffic to the theater.

The Cinemark was packed as well, with several theaters showing the new Spider-Man: No Way Home. We got snacks, sat down, and then I got up for more popcorn just in time to make it back before the previews. The movie was pretty good, but didn’t really have many surprises after all the rumors and spoilers that have been going around. I enjoyed it, and so did the rest of the room as evidenced by the constant clapping any time a character returned. I was pretty disappointed in the 3D, mostly because of the darkness of the projector. I guess I’ll have to just prioritize the large format screens from now on.

When we got back home, Summer and Autumn went to bed pretty quickly. Eaddie and I stayed up and watched several episodes of House, so we’ve only got three more episodes to go.

Planning with adults is stupid. Families are much easier, because they can’t leave.

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Watermelon Sugar Is a Helluva Drug

I got up early this morning and went home to get ready for a day in Little Rock with Summer and Eaddie. Summer dropped Autumn off with her parents since she got in trouble last night, and then Summer had to do some more work setting up the new lube shop on Chenal. We hung out at the shop for just a little bit before meeting a couple of her coworkers at U.S. Pizza Co.

The service was pretty slow, but mostly when we were waiting to pay and leave. The pizza wasn’t bad, but reminded me of a worse Brick Oven. We really didn’t get why the others liked it so much, but at least Splash paid.

Afterward, Eaddie and I dropped Summer off back at the shop and then made our way across town to get the car washed inside and out. There were over half a dozen people standing around outside, so they had us done in mere minutes. I didn’t have a plan as we pulled out, so I ended up turning down a residential street. I’ve never seen so many leaves in my entire life. The entire street had a wall of fallen leaves that were all raked up to the edge of the street. I’m guessing they have street sweepers that come along and suck them up later. It was hilly and leafy and pretty, but much too dense of a neighborhood for me.

Eaddie decided she wanted ice cream, so we went to The Original ScoopDog and sat in the car to eat. Neither of us could finish our treats, so we drove back across town to Summer and let her finish them off. Then she dropped us off at the AMC for Eternals. Eaddie hadn’t seen it, I didn’t mind watching it again, and we needed to kill some time before their concert.

After the movie, we struggled to settle on a place to eat, and were also worried about how much time they had before they needed to be at the Simmons Arena. Chuy’s was out because of a relatively small wait, so we ultimately decided on Wendy’s. Summer found one near the arena, but the lobby wasn’t open, so they ate in the car. Then I dropped them off at the arena for Harry Styles.

The rest of the night was just me killing time. I went by the liquor store where I picked up a habanero whiskey a couple years ago, but unfortunately I couldn’t find it again, and I don’t think they carry it any more. I hung out in the parking lot there for just a few minutes before migrating to McDonald’s.

Again, I brought a bunch of things to keep myself entertained, and used absolutely none of them. I didn’t even use my earbuds because I felt super uncomfortable sitting around in that neighborhood. There were far too many people on foot around there, and every single lobby appeared to be closed. I just played on my phone and drank a bottled mojito until I noticed one of the employees writing down license plate numbers.

I gave her a minute to get back inside and then drove on to a gas station for a bottle of water and restroom break. The restroom was super gross, and of course the only soap was a bar that had fallen into the sink and was stopping up the drain. I tried hanging out in the parking lot there for a bit, but got pretty sketched out when some guy started crawling around on the ground right outside my window. He appeared to be using a crayon or something to draw on the concrete, but then he rolled over onto the ground and started “washing his hands” with leaves that had blown up against the curb. I decided to move on, driving up the road a bit and then coming back to settle into a dark Taco Bell.

Eventually Summer let me know they were almost done with the encore, so I moved further down the street to the Shell station near the onramp to the highway. There was even more foot traffic there, so I didn’t hang out long before going back across the street to the Wendy’s next to the McDonald’s where I started. It wasn’t but a minute after I pulled in that they walked up, so we loaded up and headed home.

I had to stop by my house for a package first, but then we went up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn was staying the night with her grandparents, and the other two went straight to bed after a long day. I don’t think I’ll do this again.

I really hate the city.

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Who Are You Calling?

I woke up pretty early this morning for how late I went to sleep. We just laid around though, until it was time to get ready for the movie. We’ve had plans to see Ghostbusters: Afterlife for about a week, and I invited my parents along as well. As soon as I was cleaned up, I picked up the girls and met my parents at UEC.

The movie was pretty great, though I could see why others felt like it spent too much time pandering to fans of the originals and not enough time on a new storyline. It’s been a while since I’ve seen either of those, so I couldn’t say how it compared in laughs per minute. We were all quite happy with the movie though, and I’m anxious to see if they do anything more with it in the future.

After the movie, we headed back home to meet up with Noah for dinner. Summer made chili and I grilled hot dogs, and we all had a mix of chili dogs or Frito chili pies. Then we played a long round of UNO FLIP until Noah went home. Finally, Eaddie and I wrapped up the night with two more episodes of House.

Four feet above her covers!

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Peer Pressure

I was a little bit late to work this morning after rehearsing a big speech about standing up to the man and not being a coward. We didn’t have much of a meeting when I got there though, and in fact we were actually told we wouldn’t really be having those meetings moving forward, unless we have something we need to discuss.

I eventually made my way across the street for our called CPPC meeting, and though it ran a little long, it felt like a really good meeting. Before the meeting, I was concerned about the fact that we were still discovering mistakes only a few hours prior. Once we discussed the intent a little more, and addressed my questions and concerns, I was much more satisfied with what we were doing.

We voted to send the draft to the school board, and I made my way back to the shop just before lunch. Almost all of us went to Western Sizzlin to eat, and then it was a pretty quiet afternoon. I didn’t really get out of my office, and I think that actually made the issue with my contacts worse. I’ll be staying out of them the rest of the weekend.

I worked a little late on the meeting minutes, then went to The UPS Store to return an Amazon order. Then I picked Summer up from work so we could go pick up a white dress shirt for Eaddie’s concert tomorrow.

After dropping Summer off at her car, I went home and started some laundry and watched Shang-Chi to see what it looked like in their advertised “IMAX Enhanced” format. I’ll have to go back and skip through it in the widescreen format to compare later. When Eaddie finally got home from her band trip, I took her home and we went to bed.

I abstain.

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Köttbullar

We slept in a little this morning without losing much time, thanks to daylight saving time coming to an end. We went downstairs and loaded up on breakfast, and then cleaned up and packed for the return home. We still had a full day planned though, so it was a slow drive across the city to find an Ikea.

I’ve wanted to go to an Ikea for ages, and we never had a chance to stop the last time I saw one in person in St. Louis. There were two to pick from in the Dallas area, so we went to the one up north. Summer thought I was kidding about meatballs, and the look on her face when she saw the sign at the entrance was worth the drive all by itself.

Having never been, we were really impressed with the showrooms as we wandered through the maze. Some of them looked really incredible, and I could really see us building something entirely out of what they had available. As we finished our way through the upstairs showrooms, we entered into the restaurant where even there, you could get a push cart for your trays full of food. Summer got the regular Swedish meatballs, and I tried the salmon meatballs so we could share. Everything was pretty good, and it was a neat break from shopping.

After all of that, we really had to rush through the downstairs area in order to make our movie on time. I wish we could have spent a bit more time there, because there were actually a couple things we wanted to buy, but we ended up grabbing a couple bottles of fruit juice with mulling spices that totally wasn’t real wine, and running out the door.

The drive back to the AMC wasn’t too bad, but parking was a chore. We finally found a parking garage and briskly walked to the theater just in time to get settled in before the show. The theater was incredible, with countless Dolby speakers on practically every surface. As the previews came on, they barely scratched the surface of the experience. The seat shakers felt natural, and brought an additional layer of depth that I loved. I just wished the movie had lent itself more to that kind of theater.

I enjoyed Eternals, though I understood that it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster style action film in the traditional way. I couldn’t see it being rated poorly though. There were some things that probably could have been done better, but overall it had a nice pace for how long it was. It wasn’t like Dune that felt super slow the entire time, and then ended just as things got good.

Once out of the movie, we made the drive home. The GPS took us on our alternate route this time, heading north through Oklahoma. It was a slightly shorter drive by distance, but also shorter in time with the lack of traffic leaving the city. We stopped once for gas and food at a Moe’s inside of a Pilot, where we got surprisingly good service worthy of a tip.

Eaddie was still awake when we got home, but took a shower and went to bed as Summer crashed. I still had my own routine to go through, but then it was off to sleep as well.

Literally hundreds of speakers.

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Lil Pops

Today was another really chill day at work. Kelsea brought a chocolate cake for Gary’s birthday, along with a 3D-printed topper. I eventually made a “candle” out of a stripped piece of Cat 5e cable with the exposed wiring inside making up the flame. I helped with what I could in the morning, and then most of us went to Sumo for lunch for dinner and a show. It was pretty muted with everyone in masks, but the food was alright.

I spent some time at Oakland in the afternoon, and then came back at the end of the day for some cake. My final act was sending out the CPPC minutes, and then I headed home for the long weekend.

It wasn’t long before Summer reminded me that the girls’ father was having a soft-open at his barbecue joint, so eventually she came by to pick me up for that. The girls were already there, but hadn’t really had dinner since they were waiting on us. He had run out of ribs, so I tried the nachos with some brisket. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much of the brisket under the canned nacho cheese. Eaddie’s bologna sandwich looked pretty good though.

After we ate, the girls headed home. Summer dropped me off, and I spent the night prepping for the trip. It got quite cold inside, and I ultimately settled down and watched Shazam! until bed. I’ve really got to find some quality Atmos content.

Time to find out who really shot J.R.

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Fired Up and Smoked Out

I could tell pretty early at work today that it was going to be a chill day. We had a long, slow, mostly quiet meeting. When it finally ended, I was left to my own devices until lunch. I actually finished up what I was working on right about time to go, and I lead a group of seven of us to Stoby’s to eat.

After lunch, I got to spend some time at Oakland. I didn’t even think about it being a Friday before Halloween, so all the parties and treats in the building were a fun surprise. I got some stuff done, and then left as they started dismissing. Then Thomas let everyone go just a few minutes early, so I headed straight home to do some last minute cleaning.

Summer took Eaddie to her driving test, so after she passed that, I met them at Harbor Freight so I could buy a hatchet. Then we went to Walmart for the food we needed for the evening. John and Melissa had to go pick Travis up since he had been unresponsive the past few days. When they finally showed up, he was blitzed out of his gourd.

The rest of us had a pretty good time. It was cold and a little bit drizzly at times, but the fire was hot. It smoked quite a bit, which was disappointing, and I think I just needed to clean out the air gaps in the bottom for some better flow.

After we all had our fill of fire-roasted wieners and s’mores, we all came inside and watched 10 Cloverfield Lane. I couldn’t remember a whole lot about Cloverfield, but it didn’t really matter. It didn’t really seem at all related anyway. It was an odd movie, but I enjoyed it alright.

Just as we had gotten started, Travis wanted John to take him home. We continued watching though, and John didn’t miss much. They left when the movie was over. Autumn showed up from her ball game just as I was cleaning up outside. Then everyone went to sleep.

I don’t remember this episode of “Roseanne.”

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We’re Duned

I went home to shower this morning, then picked up Zane for our trip to Little Rock. As we pulled in to get the girls, I had him duck down in the back seat to surprise her. I was a little disappointed that she didn’t scream, but her reaction was very typical Eaddie.

We had to stop in Conway first, so I could pick up an order from Kohl’s. Then we continued to Little Rock and went to Tokyo House for lunch. The kids didn’t eat a whole lot, which left me holding everyone else up while I ate. I wasn’t just going to not eat all of the things though.

Next we went to The Promenade at Chenal to kill some time until the movie. We only went into a couple of the stores, as everyone balked at the prices of everything. The new Bath & Body Works was probably the most reasonably priced store on the premises, and we didn’t even walk in. I kind of thought we’d eat there and then just lounge around, but instead we just meandered around and then went into the theater really early.

The movie was very long and slow, so I knew the others wouldn’t really be that into it. I didn’t know what to expect, but really thought we’d get farther along than we did. I felt like the movie covered about as much as I had read of the book as a child. I never did make it very far, and it ended just as it got to the exciting bits.

As we waited for Amber to get there to pick up Zane, we walked to Maggie Moo’s and had some ice cream. It gave us about the perfect amount of time to wind things down for the day. Once she got there, I got to share some of the pictures I had taken throughout the day, and then we headed home.

Eaddie and I stayed up late and watched a couple episodes of House. I stayed up to make sure Autumn made it home from her Sadie Hawkins dance, and then made it to bed.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

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What’s Cookin’

Summer got up and made breakfast this morning. I got super stiff last night in bed, which I felt the numerous times I got up in the middle of the night. It really made it hard to move around for a while, but I never got up to much of anything anyway. We did finally play UNO Flip, which was a great twist on the classic game. Then we watched The Princess Bride while Eaddie did something else.

Eventually dinner time came around and Summer wanted to cook up some stir fry with the leftovers we had. She dug out some frozen veggies and cut some extras up, and then I threw in the leftover steak and sausage, filling up the wok nearly to the top, once the rice and everything else was in it.

Eaddie really approved of dinner, and then Summer made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We made Eaddie play a game of UNO Flip with us, and then everyone filtered off to bed.

I just want you to feel you’re doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed.