Iron Man 2 – Review

We went to see Iron Man 2 today…mostly because it had finally made it to the dollar theater (which is actually 2 dollars…don’t ask me why it’s called the dollar theater).

I adored the first Iron Man movie, mostly for the character that Robert Downey Jr. created.  I want a t-shirt that has a picture of Tony Stark and says, “I am a smarmy ass.”  Plus, the man is awfully pretty, in a cocky sort of way.

The pacing of the second movie was a little slower than the first, and it really had two major storylines rather than one.  That led to a little slow-down in the middle for me, but the ending brought the pace up again nicely.

I also really liked Mickey Rourke’s character, and thought that he was really sympathetic in the role of villain.  The actual villain of the piece was obviously Mr. Hammer, who acts so much like my old boss that it was uncomfortable to see him on the screen for extended amounts of time.  I kept waiting for him to ask me to copy something.

Going into the movie, I thought I was going to dislike Scarlett Johanssen’s character (she’s not really on my favorite list of actresses) but I came out a huge fan.  I really like that women are actually able to kick some ass in movies now, rather than spending all their time screaming, waiting to be saved, and mooning after the superheroes.

All in all, it was a great movie, and definitely 3 out of 5 stars.  However, if your child is going to become so traumatized that she starts screaming in the middle of the movie when things blow up, I would suggest that you might want to leave them at home, or go see Toy Story 3.

Internets win?

I can’t believe I just won something on the internet.  I am literally floored.  It’s a little ridiculous.

I won a Glo Paperless Wedding Stationary giveaway on http://apracticalwedding.com.  The giveaway is from http://glosite.com.

You should check them both out.  I’ve been reading A Practical Wedding forever, and other than Offbeat Bride (http://offbeatbride.com) it’s the only really sane source of wedding/marriage planning and advice that I’ve found on the internet.  Simple, realistic, and down to earth.

And Glo is amazing!  After working in offices for awhile, the amount of paper being used around the world is just staggering to me.  If our little party can reduce some of that waste, them I’m totally down.

Hiking in SoCal

Lesson number one: When hiking in summer, especially on a trail that ascends close to 800 feet very quickly, you should always bring water.  Otherwise, you may feel slightly less than optimal.

This was me about halfway through our hike.  Contrast that with a picture of Leo….

Who appears to still be able to stand upright.  Unlike me.

We saw some awesome flowers and views.  Including a momma quail and her babies who happened to be trying to eat some weeds from the middle of the fire road.

And since we were tired, sweaty, hungry, and dehydrated…we went to the best possible place to remedy all those things without falling into a fast food coma.

Subway!

Now I must get off my butt and do something.  Due to family tragedy, it’s been a down couple of days.  But I’m really ready to shake off the funk and get back to actually living.

Update of Randomness

I am awake at a normal person hour on a Sunday…mostly because it is too hot to sleep any more.  Southern CA is having a “weather advisory” as they’re calling it online, but what it really means is that it’s just hot.

Despite the moaning, I really do love this time of the year more than any other.  It gets light early in the morning, it’s always warm, it stays light late at night (I have a thing about sunlight, can you tell?)

In workout news: I ditched the New Rules of Lifting experiment.  It just wasn’t taking me anywhere useful.  The exercises didn’t seem targeted towards building the kinds of muscle I’m interested in using (for dance primarily) so I’ve switched gears again.  I’m now following a program of my own design, involving long moderate cardio, short sprint days, yoga, pilates, and a few healthy doses of Jillian Michaels.  Although Bob Harper’s new workout videos look pretty amazing, and I may have to give them a try.

In cat news: we have another cat.  Leo picked him up as a stray.  He’s tiny, loud, and wasn’t neutered until we got ahold of him.  We’ve taken to calling him “new cat” but are still undecided about whether we’re keeping him or trying to find him a new home.  We’ve had o have the door to our bedroom shut permanently for about 3 weeks now, which really disrupts the flow of traffic through the house.  Hopefully we can let him out permanently soon, and the cats can get on with kicking each other’s asses in short order.

Must go get some breakfast and be a good monkey to start the day.  Wouldn’t want to waste a bit of summer!

Community

We had a fantastic 4th of July holiday.  Our new mission is to go on a hike every Sunday, since our surrounding area has a lot of natural canyons and large hills (some would call them mountains, but I think they’d be mistaken about that).  We did a 5 mile loop that went up to about 800 feet, came back down, went to 500, and then came back down again to 0.

We also went to the neighborhood fireworks show, and were completely floored by the number of people there.  As we were walking through the park, which was packed with around 500 people, it suddenly felt like a holiday.  It also felt like we haven’t been taking advantage of the community that we have around us.  I guess better late than never, although it does make me determined to do better in the next place we live.

The weekend ended quietly, with us watching the Tour de France online (stage 2) and trying to go for a run.  I say trying, because we both came down with colds last night, so the run was more of a long walk with bursts of fatigued running.

So I’m off to work, and I’m going to try not to scare patients away with my nose blowing every two seconds.  We’ll see how that goes.