It all started Friday evening, as most weekends do. My grandfather and his wife took the kids to a concert, so Wendi and I took advantage of the opportunity for a quick dinner date. Have I mentioned that I love NoHo’s teriyaki chicken? I have? Good.

We hurried through dinner, hurried back to the house… and waited until 10:30 for the kids to be returned. See, they decided to visit the conveniently-located Burgerville for a bite. Oh well. This just meant that the kids would be really tired once we got home from…

X2: X-Men United. We dragged the kids to an 11:00pm showing on Friday night. The short review? I liked it. The longer review looks something like this.

Saturday dawned far too early for our sleepy bodies. Wendi had to work, and before work she had to run around doing errands. Luckily for her she had a trainee along to help lug things, and doubly lucky for her the gig ended early. Afterward came some unpleasantness between her and I, but it was all sorted out by morning to the betterment of all involved.

Let’s just say that communication, caring and honesty are incredibly vital things in any loving relationship.

Sunday was Bebop Movie Day for my friends and I. First, however, I had to do my usual email maintenance and AS/400 tape backup routine. I won’t go into the problems with corporate email, since it’ll only ruin a perfectly cheerful mood. Suffice to say that eventually I got the hell out of there and out to the theater, where I met…

Mari, with Angst and Anxiety (Lilith’s “demonspawn”) in tow. We bought our tickets and headed for the front of the balcony, where I’ve sat for nearly every movie I’ve seen at Cinema 21. (Let me tell you, back in the day I saw movies there all the damned time, too.) Eventually Mari was able to find and retrieve Lilith and Geoffrey, but couldn’t spot Celina and Wade. Oh well.

Short version of my Bebop review: Eh, it was okay. The details are available if you want the full discourse.

I’d like to break for a rant, here. What is it with anime moviemakers? Is there some cultural thing that decrees, “thou shalt include random philosophical mumbo-jumbo in all action/adventure fare”? Escaflowne has it, the X movie was drowning in it, and even the Bebop movie couldn’t escape the curse. (Don’t get me started on Gundam Wing, an entire TV series built around the concept of “philosophical discourse during battle.”) The movie is chirping along just fine, and WHAM, we get two or three solid minutes of pointless rambling about fate or the nature of the universe or reality versus fantasy or some-such. I don’t mind a bit of deeper meaning, but I don’t want to be preached at. Repeatedly. Is anyone listening? Anyone? Bueller?

Okay then. The movie (that Mari slept partly through) ended, and surprise! We found Celina and Wade, who’d gotten to the theater just a bit too late to meet up with Mari. Ah well. This was the first time Mari or I had met Celina, though we’d chatted with her on and off for quite a while from back in the old #KNRK days. (She was Mononoke.) Celina’s a cutie, and Wade’s a helluva lucky guy.

We all went out for chinese food, had a pretty good time, and went more-or-less on our seperate ways. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than taking in a movie and then dinner with friends. Far, far worse.

The remainder of my evening was spent killing time over at Lil’ and Geoffrey’s place. We made fun of Red Planet, we made fun of the demonspawn, we made fun of Sometimes They Come Back, we made fun of each other. In short, we all had fun.

I’m sure that everything I forgot or left out will appear elsewhere, eventually. In the meantime, suffice to say that I had a fulfilling and happy weekend, all told. I’ve never had so many good friends at one time before, and it’s a great feeling.

Thank you, my friends, for making my weekend fabulous.
My X2 Review
My Bebop Review