Just forget the words and sing along

Saturday, August 03, 2013

One Day Spread Out To Two

The staycation continues, and it will soon be drawing to a close.  Back on Thursday, the true reason for this staycation finally came to pass:  I had a dentist appointment.  Some day, I'll have enough money that I'll be able to take a real vacation instead of just going, "Hey, I've got a doctor's appointment coming up.  How about I take the whole week off to sit around and the house and fret about it?" 

So, I was glad then, that everything went fine at the dentist.  No cavities, Mom!  The dentist, however, did give me his usual sales pitch that I should have my wisdom teeth removed.  I'm reluctant to get them out because, as my dentist informed me, my wisdom teeth are buried pretty deep and close to the nerve, so to get them out will constitute major oral surgery.  Since they're not causing me any pain, and even the dentist says that having them removed would be purely a preventative measure, I figure I'll just live with them.

One hitch with the dentist, though.  My appointment went longer than I expected.  The dentist looked at my file and noticed that it had been a while since I'd had the "complete check-up," so that took longer.  Which meant then that I couldn't see The Wolverine.  I missed the early afternoon shows, and if I stuck around for the late afternoon shows, I wouldn't make my hair appointment back home in Westlock.  Since I'm on vacation with no real plans, I thought, "Well, then, I guess I'll just have to go see The Wolverine tomorrow!" 

But now it was time for lunch.  Rather than my usual fast food haunts, I thought I'd try something new.  A new burger chain from the States is starting to make inroads into Canada, and I'd heard good things about it.  It's called Fatburger.  And, low and behold, there was a Fatburger just down the road from my dentist's office!

I was a little taken aback by Fatburger.  I was expecting a fast food place, but it is more of a sit-down restaurant with waiters and such.  I asked the waitress what she'd recommend for a first-timer, and she suggested the Original Fatburger.  And I got that with bacon and cheese, and made it a combo.  I was not expecting the burger to be that thick.  It was a big burger.  But it was really good.  They had good fries, too.  Again, nice and thick, and not too salty.  I was generally impressed.  Definitely worth a second visit.

Then there were a few places where I went window shopping and browsing.  Popped in at the craft store, Michael's.  I'm not a very crafty fellow, but I am at the age where I figure I should stop taping my posters to the walls like a teenager, and instead framing them and hanging them up.  I've got a stockpile of posters that I'd like to hang, and since Michael's is one of the better places to get poster frames, I stop in from time to time to see if they're having a sale.  Lucky me, they were.  Poster sales were on special, 2-for-1.  And I had two back home that I'd been dying to hang!  So what's now hanging on my wall?

First up, we've got my souvinir poster for Star Wars Identities, when that was at the Telus World of Science back in the spring.

A poster for Star Wars Identities.  Scenes from the swamps of Deigobah form Yoda's face, with the exhibit's slogan, "What forces shape you?"

Yeah, at Star Wars Identities, I got the Yoda poster.  I originally wanted the Darth Vader poster, which must have been the most popular, because it was sold out the day I went.  That one had Darth Vader's face formed out of all the various Imperial starships we see in Star Wars.

And the second poster that's now framed and hanging on my walls is this souvinir poster from the London 2012 Olympics.  I'm fond of the Olympics, despite not being a sports fan, and when a friend of mine visited the UK last year, she sent me this poster.

Poster from the London 2012 Olympics.  A collage of the pictrograms that represent the Olympic spots, along with the London 2012 logo, and the games' slogan, "Be Inspired."


And then from there, I went over to Staples.  I'm in the market for a new printer.  If you're my friend on Facebook, then you've probably seen me lament for the past few months about my printer.  Don't get wrong, it's still a good printer and prints pretty good, but it's now more than 10 years old and they've stopped making the ink cartridges for it.  So I'm being forced to upgrade.  I've had my eye on one of these sharp little 3-in-1 units, that are a printer, scanner, and photocopier all in one.  They've got some pretty good ones for around $80, and I was very, very close to buying one, but I stopped myself.  With all these trips to the city and purchasing of DVDs and such, I figured I'd spent too much money on this staycation.  In fact, my plans for the next few days are to just stay in bed, softly weeping about how broke I am.  Lying in bed and crying is still free, right?

With enough time sufficiently wasted, I was ready to go home and get a haircut.  And then, the next day, one last trip to the city to see The Wolverine!

The Wolverine Poster

I rather enjoyed The Wolverine.  Curious about it, too.  Hugh Jackman has made it clear in interviews over the year that the Wolverine solo comics depicting Wolverine's time in Japan are his favourites, so this is the Wolverine story that Jackman has been dying to tell.  And for the most part, the film is pretty good.  It's a lot quieter than the other superhero films out there.  There's more character stuff going on, and with Wolverine's hand-to-hand combat skills, there's not much in the way of big, splashy superpowers on display.  Even the whole "mutant" angle is downplayed, with really, only one other mutant in the film. 

Sadly, though, it does fall victim to a few superhero film cliches, especially at the climax.  Other than that, pretty much liked it.

I've got the complete review on my website, so click on over and check it out.

It was not one of my better moviegoing experiences though.  Like Mr. Loud guy behind me.  The Marvel logo pops up, and he exclaims to his buddies, "Oh, wow!  I didn't know Wolverine was a Marvel character!"  And I guess being surprised by that fact gave him license to offer loud comments on the film for the rest of the running time.  And the two little old ladies in front of me, who didn't quite know what Wolverine's deal was and burst out in hysterical laughter every time Wolverine popped his claws.  "That's so ridiculous, Edith!  He's got knives in his hands!"

And that's how I spent my last couple of days.  I've got a whole long weekend now to bring things to an end, so as long as the sunshine holds out, I may crawl out of bed for some of it.


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