so sorry

I know I have been absent for an awfully long time. But I usually blog during my downtime at work. And I simplyhavent had any downtime since I got back from vacation. I promise to do better though. Hopefully this weekend I will sit down and write a nice long update and some puzzles. As a quickie:

We have seen:
American Gangster - very good. Nothing truly spectacular. But good acting all around, interesting story, good piece of history.
Michael Clayton - also very good. A bit confusing. You have to pay pretty good attention. Tilda Swinton is not nearly as creepy-looking as she is in real life.
When We Were Kings - documentary about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's Rumble in the Jungle. Interesting. Again, nothing spectacular but an interesting closer look than Ali did. Interestingly, in some post-movie researching I came across these two things in Wikipedia. From the article about Ali himself:

In the early 1980s, Ali learned he had Parkinsonism, or "Parkinson's syndrome"—which is not the same complaint as Parkinson's disease—following which his motor functions began a slow decline. Although Ali's doctors disagreed about whether his symptoms were caused by boxing and whether or not his condition was degenerative,^[14] he was ultimately diagnosed with Pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome.

And in the linked article about Pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome (dementia pugilistica):

Muhammad Ali is often mistaken as a sufferer of dementia pugilistica, when in fact the main cause of his condition is diagnosed as Parkinson's disease.^{[15][16][17][18]}

I thought it was interesting anyway.

We have been watching:
The Office Season 3 - which has definitely come into its own. After it stopped being a direct mimic of the British Office it slowed a bit. But has come back full force in my opinion.
The Wire - we have only seen episodes. But I am interested enough to keep watching at least. The acting isnt superb but it is certainly interesting. Reminds me of American Gangster.
The Olympics. There will be more about this.

We have been eating:
Trader Joe's Korma Simmer Sauce - we made a saute of chicken, chick peas, peas, spinach and mushrooms and served it over Trader Joe's Thai Style Lime Rice. Excellent, will definitely have again. Will probably add less water as it was a bit dilute.
Spanikopita Chicken Meatballs with Spicy Cucumber and Yogurt Sauce. Awesome! Will definitely make again, probably for a party too. We used turkey instead of chicken and added 4 cloves of garlic instead of 3 since we didnt read the "divided" part. I also used a whole cucumber from our garden since we are trying to get rid of them which made it a bit watery. And instead of dill I used a mix of basil, thai basil, oregano and chives.
Carrot and Cucumber "Fettuccine" Salad. It was ok. A lot of carrot. I dont really like carrots. Nothing awesome. But it used two cucumbers!

Other things:
Still like the new laptop except: Vista is kinda annoying. Vista 64bit is really obnoxious since I am never going to put 32 gig of ram in this thing and it means that I cant sync my phone to my laptop without getting a bluetooth dongle. Sigh. I bought Office 2007 today because I found it for $85. But I have been using OpenOffice and I am a huge fan.

Tomorrow is Joey's birthday. Happy Birthday Joey! It also marks his last Saturday in Philly as he is leaving us for the great big world out there . . . or Hazelton. One of those. We are sure he will be back to visit. But we will miss him.

My mice and awful! They rip out their eartags and eat their young. They are so nice and friendly as compared to other strains. But now this! ARRRGGGGHHHH!

Ok, you will have to wait for more. Have a good weekend all!