Oh hi. How did it get to be this late in the week? I had all these grand plans of writing an update on Monday, and then…poof.

Anyway. Three day weekend. Lots of knitting, hanging out at home, hanging out with friends, reading an entire stack of books by Marian Keys, cooking. We even managed to watch a few movies – May (via Netflix), which, for a budget horror film, was surprisingly good, Terror in the Haunted House, which was astoundingly bad, Galaxy Quest, which I somehow unearthed from the boxes of DVDs we still have yet to unpack, just because I was in the mood for it, and of course Cloverfield, which was just awesome.

I admit to having been a bit nervous about seeing Cloverfield at first, not because of the wacky filming style or the big scary monster, but because up til now, the combination of Richard + me + Richard’s best friend in movie theaters has equaled really, really bad movies. And I really did not want this to be another bad movie. Luckily this one seems to have broken the curse, or maybe it’s just a one-off and the next one we go see together will result in badness again, but the point it, this movie is awesome and you all should go out and watch it Right Now.

I suppose if you’re the type to get motion sickness on a merry-go-round, Cloverfield might make you a little queasy, because it’s filmed in the style of Blair Witch (single digital camera), and there’s a lot of running and crazy camera swinging and it can be a little disorienting to follow here and there. But that sort of thing doesn’t bother me, so aside from a few minor plot points, the movie really worked for me. Big scary monster stomping around New York, eating people! Crazy people fleeing like ants before its mighty stompy feet! Smaller, skittery little monsters that come along for the ride and have too many legs and eyes! Seriously, what is not to love here?

I’ve read some really good commentary on the movie since we’ve seen it (I studiously avoided any hint of spoilerage beforehand, because sometimes it’s more fun to be startled and surprised). Hint – if you have not seen the movie and don’t want to be spoilered, don’t click the next few links. This woman also loved the movie, and I really agree with her take on the characters and their actions. Plus, she also posted an extremely funny recap.

It hasn’t all been all movies, all the time. I mentioned cooking and knitting. The recent knitting is because my sister mentioned that my niece is having a Harry Potter themed birthday party, and so I immediately determined that the child needs (yes, *needs*) a Hogwarts scarf. Friday after work I hightailed it to the nearest yarn store and wandered around clutching balls of burgundy yarn until a store employee took pity on me and found an appropriately matching gold yarn (the niece prefers Gryffindor). Then I went home and I cast on and over the three day weekend I ripped out and restarted that darn scarf three times. Luckily I finally like how it’s turning out, so my plans to get it in the mail by this weekend are coming along nicely.

As for the cooking, let’s see. I made two more tuna pies this weekend (which were immediately sliced and tossed into the freezer for lunches), because we’re both really into them right now, and I also whipped up a calico cake because I have been in the mood for some coffeecake for breakfast. There’s also been Snobby Joes (aka sloppy joes with lentils), and stew made with vegetarian meatballs, and portabello mushroom pizzas (where the mushroom caps served as the crust, and were topped with sauce and cheese and peppers and veggie sausage – so amazingly good!) and some truly awesome bread from a recipe I found here (except that mine did not have raisins because raisins are just foul and wrong and should remain far, far away from any food that wants to be considered edible).

And as for the house, progress is being made. This weekend my plan is to climb up onto the table and measure the size of the patch job on the ceiling where they swapped out the hideous, mostly broken chandelier, and then we can order a ceiling medallion that will cover the patch job and look like it was there all along. I am also hoping we can finally assemble the new coffee table we picked up at Ikea two weeks ago, and maybe finally get the last of the empty boxes into the recycling bin, and oh yes, we’re meeting with a kitchen designer as well. I’ve got appointments with two of them lined up so far, both of whom have told me that the design process will take 2 – 4 months, but that when we are done we’ll have all the permit-ready plans and every single decision will have been made and documented and then I can go out and buy the ceremonial sledgehammer to take out the hideous brown tile with black grout and wobbly dishwasher myself. You have no idea how very much I am looking foward to that day.