[Insert Scathingly Brilliant Title Here]

Derrick's gone for the weekend--which is both nice, and also lonely-ish. I like going into his spaces when he's gone--like his closet--not to look around, but to just experience a place that I don't usually pay attention to.

It then occurred to me that it's probably strange that the husband has 2 closets to the wife's 1, but to be fair, he's more fashionable than I.

I decided to clean the house. My neat-freak husband would be proud--he didn't even have to do the Nazi "Keep things Clean" dance to get me to do this thing. (Reference: Martha Stewart on Late Night with Conan O'Brien maybe 4-5 years ago.) Then I lost motivation after all the trash was piled (the boxes) and in bags (the loose trash). So now there are mounds of stuff just sitting around and I don't feel like taking them out. I'm amazed how much trash a wedding generates. Yet another argument for eloping.

On the plus side, I also opted to do organizing-type cleaning (which I LOVE to do). This means all my books are neatly shelved, and my iPod has the right songs in the right categories--and three new CDs of music on it.

Speaking of, Tom Waits' new album, "Orphans" is simply fab. Whenever I actually BUY music (which I don't do often) I'm always afraid that I'll be disappointed...that it won't be as good as I remember or--more likely--the track I bought it for is the only good one on the entire album. I bought this having never heard any of the songs (save "Little Drop of Poison" off of the Shrek II soundtrack), so it was a huge gamble for me. I know that I love almost everything that I've ever heard from Tom Waits, and what I don't love ("Ice Cream Man" BLAH!) is few and far between.

My gamble paid off. It's weird and raw and gravely and wonderful--just like Tow Waits always is.

This weekend I watched "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" for the first time since seeing it in theaters (really, with my guy, we HAD to see it in the theater).

Meh.

While I agree that the movies are generally getting *better* as the series progresses (as are the books), the fourth installment lacked a sense of imagination. The first two movies were basically scene-by-scene snapshots of the book (which was unimaginative, but worked), the third movie was very creatively done but wasn't an accurate portrayal of the book (which also worked). This movie is neither a snapshot of the book (which would have pushed the movie to 5 hours, I'm sure) nor was it particularly creative. I'm not a picky critic--I liked it--but I think I'm over it.

That, and Hermione was just about the most annoying creature EVER in this particular flick. I understand that the characters are aging and are supposed to be getting progressively more angst-ridden. However, Emma Watson decided to play Hermione always on the verge of hysterics. Breathless dismay and shouting prevailed--and got old quickly.

Derrick will probably watch it 67 more times...this year.

( ...and music )