More catching up...

Alright. A number of fun things to talk about which I was unable to get to on Saturday.

To begin with, last week was a weird one. Work was neither busy nor boring, and everyone seemed to be in and out a lot. This had many positive results for my professional endeavors, not the least of which was my significant reduction of The Pile. As a matter of fact, today, I got to the bottom of The Pile for the first time since early last August – almost a year ago. I was given a new batch of letters, but there are now only 13 currently in my box. What does it mean? I, for once, am in control of the papers; the papers are not in control of me. And that, my friends, is a really cool thing.

In the not cool category, last week we received the very sad word that Peter would not be coming to grace us with his presence in the near future. Sarah’s desired consolation was dinner and a movie on Friday night, a plan which I was more than pleased to oblige. After spending almost all day emailing back and forth about what theater to patronize, we finally settled on the new one down near Springfield and the Macaroni Grill, which I suggested as a venue for dinner. It took us a while longer to get there than expected, which was more than partially my fault. I’m not used to leaving work at 5:30, so I just hopped on the first bus that came to my stop and told Sarah the driver had said 29H (which he did actually say). Unfortunately, it was instead the dreaded 29X, which landed us in Timbuktu – also known as the other side of 495. Thankfully, Allis rescued us. She’s really good at that. Practice makes perfect, I suppose?

Anyway, if I may say so myself, going to Macaroni Grill the best idea I’ve had in a while. It took forever to actually get seated, but just the bread and oil appetizer was worth the wait.

Then it was the main event – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Now I don’t want to ruin it for those of you who haven’t seen it and want to, so I will speak as circumspectly as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is such a different movie than its predecessor that it’s impossible to compare; definitely the second movie of a trilogy, for it is clearly darker and more complex. If anything, this may have erred on the side of trying to tell too much story at once, but they’re all such good stories I understand why they found it impossible to cut further. They may have changed a grand total of ten bars of the score, but I guess I should’ve expected that. Special effects are all wonderful, blah blah blah, I’ll leave that to the techies to discuss; I’m more concerned with the characters and the unfolding thereof.

I love the way Will Turner’s character comes into his own in this installment, and whoever designed his wardrobe deserves an Academy Award or something of the like. He pulls off the pirate look *extraordinarily* well… and for the sake of my male readers I will leave it at that – except to say that between The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, someone taught Orlando Bloom how to act, and they too deserve an award.

The movie also brings up some important questions about life, the universe, and everything, such as, “Why isn’t Jack Davenport in more movies?” He simply excels in his role as Norrington. Perhaps we simply didn’t see it in the first movie because, well, he didn’t have nearly as much screen time as he does in this one (and yes, I know I’ve now ruined that surprise for all those who haven’t seen it… sorry… I won’t tell you who shows up at the end if that makes you feel better). But wow. He’s fairly amazing, and there’s something irresistible about his “fallen angel” nature right up till… well, you know if you’ve seen the movie, and if not, you’ll find out. (That was definitely a heartbreaker – I don’t know why I expected anything different, but still…)

And, as always, Keira Knightley is gorgeous, charming, smart, and in all ways perfectly enviable.

Winner of “best scene” probably has to go to the three-way swordfight. Since one of the guys has to “borrow” Elizabeth’s sword, she is reduced to chasing the three men around, pitching a fit asking them to stop. It took me a few minutes to realize why this made me laugh so hard, and I leaned over to Sarah to tell her once I figured it out: “This is how I feel in my office every day!”

To summarize: really good movie. Definitely worth braving the opening day crowds, and now I anticipate I’ll so the same for next year’s installment.

So that was Friday. Saturday was a lot of errands, topped off with a very fun excursion to the Alexandria waterfront on a perfectly lovely evening. The weather couldn’t have been more gorgeous! Perhaps 65 degrees with the lightest breeze off the water… very reminiscent of San Diego. Sarah, Holly and I enjoyed our little picnic-dinner as the moon came up and we waited for the fireworks celebrating Alexandria’s birthday to start. They were very good fireworks, actually. I liked them better than the ones we saw from a distance on the National Mall… even if it was interrupted by a 747’s flight pattern. My only disappointment was that we didn’t find the park where the orchestra was playing, so I didn’t get to hear my 1812 Overture like I was hoping. Ah well… maybe next year. The company and leisure was certainly not to be equaled, so I can’t complain. We enjoyed walking from the waterfront all the way back to the Metro station… on such a fine evening it seemed like no task at all.

Suffice to say, it’s been a very busy but wonderful summer thus far. And there are yet more plans in the works; we shall see what does or does not come to fruition. It’s just nice to get settled back in, stop the traveling awhile, and enjoy existence in my current pleasant situation. There are days when it’s hard to imagine that it won’t always be like this, so I must be deliberate about relishing today’s gifts. They exist in abundance if I will simply slow down long enough to see them.