Weekend report

A relatively social weekend for me, starting with lunch on Saturday with Denys and Glenn, but not Kate, alas. Still, we had good fun comparing and contrasting our portable telephonic computers and other technologies. Other than that I mowed the lawn and watched Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood, which is an interesting take on the fairy tale that reminded me a little bit of The Company of Wolves. After that I watched Mirror Mirror for the fourth or fifth time. I actually caught things I hadn't caught before, such as the fact that Nathan Lane's costume at the big ball is a cockroach. (He's turned into a cockroach later in the the film.) I also noticed that the insanely catchy end-credits Bollywood song-and-dance number, "I Believe in Love", is presaged a number of times throughout the film in wildly different forms. Love that song. Love that movie.

Sunday was a barbecue at Andy and Carrie's to celebrate the release of Chunga 21. Various and sundry were there, and we put them to work stuffing envelopes and applying stamps. Much lively conversation ensued, and a surprising amount of it was about the novels of Iain M. Banks. I'm not sure our party conversation has ever been so sercon before. There was an array of wonderful beer to sample, including a number of saisons that I'd brought, along with a growler of Cascade Apricot Ale. Oops, and I just realized that I left the growler at Andy and Carrie's house. Damn! Ah well, good food (brats boiled in beer and then barbecued) + good friends = good times.