Dallas World Aquarium

Saturday we took Ella and Elijah to the Dallas Aquarium for Ella's first bday. I figured I'd share some pictures.

***oh, Seattle was canceled due to a shortage in funds :(***

Happy Birthday Ella!!

My niece Ella is 1 today. My sister's family and my mom are coming to Dallas today to take Ella to the Dallas Aquarium. I haven't been in years, so it'll be fun. I mean, really, what do you do for a first birthday? Elizabeth figured that she would enjoy the aquarium because it's so visually stimulating. I'm just glad they're coming to Dallas. I drove to Fort Worth last night for a date and really had no desire to drive back out there this morning - gas prices are just too crazy right now.

Afterward, I'll probably head to the car show with Mark and Brian and play the rest of the day by ear. So, far it's gonna be a really low key weekend which is good. Sunday might include hanging out at the Door with 50 cent beer - but we'll see. I've got to fit cleaning in there somewhere...

Negatory

I hadn't been tested for HIV in about 6 months, so it was time. I had a friend tell me yesterday that he tested positive, so it was on the brain - I got my ass to the clinic. I took the Rapid test where you pay $35 and you get the results in 20 minutes. It's worth the money to avoid that 7 days of Hell waiting for results.

Well, negative as usual. Hmm...that sentence sounded like I was disappointed. Not at all! I think after all of the mistakes I've made over the past 15 years it just surprises me sometimes. I'm always careful now, but that wasn't always the case. When drugs were in my life, common sense wasn't. But, I consistently test negative.

I think there's also a little guilt there because I have so many friends that are positive who may have made a mistake once and became positive. Yet I, for some reason, have dodged more bullets than I can count. Either someone is looking out for me (which I don't believe), I'm just plain lucky, or I'm in the tiny percentage of the population with an immunity to it (doubt that one too.)

I'm gonna be an uncle...again!

Well, I got the phone call last night. Actually, my mom called me and said, "Have you talked to Elizabeth?" (my sister.) I said that I hadn't and she told me she'd be calling. I knew what this meant. I asked, "Is she pregnant again?" She laughed and said that I would be getting a phone call.

Elizabeth called and told me. Her due date is Nov 30. We talked for awhile about it. They never "plan" for them, it just happens. We decided that she's making up for me not having any children. She loves being surrounded by them and I love visiting and being able to walk away. I guess nature is balancing us out.

Eddie Izzard

Last night Mark and I went to see Eddie Izzard at the Majestic. I was worried, never having seen him in person, that he wouldn't be able to live up to Dress to Kill. Honestly, I still feel that's his best performance of what I've seen - both recorded and now live. However, last night was a great show.

Because of his role in The Riches he came out in boy clothes and no make-up, but still referred to himself as a transvestite, so it's still in there, just not out on display right now. He was hilarious. His stream of consciousness comedy style is as crazy as it gets and gets even crazier when he pulls his iPhone out of his pocket to check facts about Dallas on Wikipedia.

The show was a full 2 hours and while there were several "What the fuck???" moments, it was a very fun evening...except for our seats. This was the first time I'd been in the Mezzanine. I'm usually lucky enough to get Orchestra, but not this time. It was sooo warm up there. I was wet with sweat through most of the show and surrounded by sick people. Today I woke up feeling all achy - lovely.

The other entertaining part was the people watching before the show. It was a very bizarre crowd - part computer geek, part gay, part tranny, part etc, etc, etc. We were surrounded by some very very large people and very loud people. I jokingly referred to someone as a band geek and later heard him talking about his trombone. (It's ok, I was a band geek in HS.)

Overall a great evening...except for the sick thing.

Crazy Christians on Big Brother

I have a confession to make - I'm a fan of Big Brother on CBS. This is the 9th season and I've watched every one of them. It's pretty embarrassing, but the reason I divulged this little tidbit is that I have an issue with last night's episode. It's bad enough that there is a group on the show that are constantly reading their Bibles and talking about how good they are, but last night they took it too far. They are now calling themselves "Team Christ." Nice.

It started on Thurs during the competition for Head of Household (if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, just bear with me a moment.) Natalie, who has been praying and praying for God to help her and give her strength, won the competition. I wasn't happy about it for numerous reasons, but most of all because of the kind of thing that came next.

She jumped up and down with her self-righteous friends and went on and on about how this is vindication by God for what she'd been through in the house. She'd been praying so hard and that she asked God for the answers to the questions and he gave them to her. THEN they started quoting Bible verses to back it up! I wanted to throw something!

I mean, seriously, with all that is going on in the world - starvation, disease, war, famine, etc - if there is a God, do you really think he gives even half a shit about how well she does on Big Brother? I know if I were Christian I would hope that there were better things for him to focus on than whether or not I won half a million dollars. I mean, seriously! Really??? It may seem like I've blown this out of proportion, but if you'd seen and heard the way they were carrying on and on. I was embarrassed for them.

My Luck Has Run Out

I've been very spoiled lately, I've seen some very good movies. The Counterfeiters about the largest counterfeiting operation in history run by the Nazis. It was made up of the prisoners of concentration camps. Excellent movie. In Bruges was very enjoyable (up to about the last five minutes or so, but still worth seeing.) The Bank Job which stars one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen, Jason Statham, but is also an excellent movie. Flawless starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine about a diamond heist in the 60's is also wonderful. And of course, Horton Hears a Who! which had me laughing from start to finish.

The run couldn't last though. One movie I was very excited to see was Funny Games. Last night I dragged Mark to see it. Let me just say that overall, I was bored out of my mind through a lot of it. It really is more of a character study than anything. Naomi Watts and Tim Roth were amazing to watch, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to redeem the poor editing. It would make a great book or short story, but never should have been put on the screen. It is a very drawn out, disturbing, and ultimately unsatisfying movie.