Movies, tables and ACfH

This promises to be another disjointed entry. Lots to say, and (if I’m lucky) a half-hour or so to type.

Rented and watched “The Green Mile” over the weekend. I tend to be very leery of Stephen King movies (I liked his books twenty years ago, but you can only get away with ending your story with “and the evil thing is still out there lurking” so many times before it gets old). After I had gushed about “Hearts in Atlantis” though, I had someone tell me that “The Green Mile” was a must. Without giving away too much, it was even better than “Hearts in Atlantis”, and well worth the decubital ulcers I must have gotten from sitting stock-still for three hours to watch it. Well worth the price of rental.

We also went out and caught “The Time Machine” at the Sunday matinee yesterday. That was a major disappointment. Again, without giving any spoilers, if you saw the ’60’s version, then you’ve pretty much seen the new release. Yes, there were some interesting plot tweaks, but none of them were explored in any depth. The CGI was very good, but “The Time Machine” made the unfortunate timing error of coming out a few months after “Fellowship of the Rings” and I simply couldn’t help making comparisons that had “Time Machine” coming up on the short end of the evaluation. The ending of the movie was absolutely not believeable, if you keep in mind that elapsed time from the main character’s perspective is no more than a few days. He makes a decision at the end of the movie that, considering his motivations at the beginning of the movie, is completely out of character. Since that is the note the movie ends on, it really rather ruins the story. My advice is to wait and rent it if you really want to see it. You’ll only kick yourself if you spend good money to go see it in the theater.

Ah, and in the money spending department: I might have mentioned a week or so ago that I fell in love with a coffee table. Don’t ask; some people fall in love with clothes, some people fall in love with art, some fall in love with food. I apparently have a previously unexplored soft spot for furniture. The Professor and I had nearly two hours to kill before “The Time Machine” started, and he suggested we go look at the coffee table again. I warned him that, if I went in and spent any more quality time with it, I was going to end up buying it. And I did. *sigh* It won’t be in for nearly three months (it’s a custom order from Italy) but that’s OK. This thing is a cross between a piece of furniture and work of art, and I simply ran out of will-power. [insert sheepish look here] If I can find a picture of it somewhere, I’ll plug it in an entry some time, but you may have to wait three months to see it.

Finally – cats. Specifically, ACfH. I swear, she’s getting to have as expensive tastes as her owner has. Saturday night The Prof and I are seated in our comfy new sofa, watching “The Green Mile”. A movement catches my eye. I look down. It’s the little grey wonder-dunder, with something in its mouth. I look closer. The something in her mouth was my silver necklace that I’d been wearing earlier in the day and had put down on my dresser. The little thief didn’t even have the good graces to look guilty. I chased, she dropped the necklace, I put it away in my jewelry box. Yes, I should have put it away the moment I took it off, but sheesh ….

Slight time shift. It’s now Sunday morning. I’m sitting on the sofa with The Prof, talking. I had a few rings on, and I took them off and put them on the snack table that was set up by the sofa. It was an unconsious sort of action. The Prof and I made our game plan for the day, then gathered up what we needed and took off from the apartment. I forgot about the rings. Later, when we got home that evening, The Prof noticed that my rings were still on the snack table. He observed dryly how lucky I was that the kitten hadn’t discovered them, after our little escapade of the previous evening. I checked. There were only two rings there. I had left three rings. My absolute favorite ring, the one with the two slender gold bands framing silver leaves that chased around my finger, was missing. I knew it would turn up eventually, so I didn’t panic, but The Prof was bound and determined to find the ring immediately. Two flashlights, much furniture moving and tons of consternation later, and I spotted the ring. It was far underneath the new sofa – too far for me to reach. When I tried to knock it out with a yardstick, it just wedged into the pull-out bed mechanism. ACfH must have pushed it as far under the one inch gap between the floor and sofa that her ever lengthening legs could reach. The Prof finally had to lift the sofa up so I could get my hand underneath to rescue the ring.

I wish ACfH would stop curling up next to me and resting her head on my lap while she goes to sleep. It makes it hard to keep up a good “mad” at her.