Mark’s Notes On The Go

Nice weekend at home. I finished painting the trim on the front of the house and painted half of the porch floor. Also reglazed all of the windows I could reach (the ones behind fixed storm windows (if they even need it) will have to wait until I pull down the storms to paint those windows. Also laid down a new vapor barrier under the house.

Next weekend will be more of the same along with the Andersonville Fall Festival. I’m taking a couple of vacation days and working a flex week this week (40 hours in four days). So, that means plenty of time for work and play. No more vacation days until December, so it’ll be a long Nov. waiting for Thanksgiving.

Next year I’ll have worked at Equifax long enough to get that third week of paid vacation! That’s both exciting and scary - glad to have more vacation - frightened how fast life flies by.

Well, best get back to work - 10 hours days are fun! Especially when you have a clipped wing - I twisted/strained an upper shoulder muscle on my right arm. I’m fine as long as you don’t expect me to lift something or move my arm beyond my shoulder. Ouch!

There’s so much I could say about the year to date. The highs, the lows - unfortunately more of the latter. Beginning with the loss of my grandmother in January and continuing with my mom’s multiple surgeries for a broken ankle in Feb, it’s been quite a year. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think there will be anything I look back fondly of for 2003.

That said, DragonCon was a heap of fun, as usual. And Brian (my cousin) and Kelly, bought a new home not far from me. I helped them move in a couple of weekends ago.

And last night we went to see a movie, Underworld, down in Decatur, along with a couple of their friends. Afterwards we had dinner at Fellini’s (sp?) - a local pizza chain. I only had a small piece as I’d had dinner before hand. I got home after midnight - which on a weeknight is probably not all that smart, but I had a good time.

The movie was better than I expected. I’d been interested in seeing it before, just based on the promotional poster and the couple of previews I’d seen. kate Beckinsale in latex - yum! But then I read a couple of really bad reviews from generally trusted sources. So, I didn’t go until Kelly mentioned last night’s plans and invited me along.

I’m glad I went. I understand some of the reviews I read. Generally, I enjoyed the movie, but I think they tried to cover a LOT of ground. To the point that the end seemed rushed, as if they were in a hurry to tie up the plot lines as much as possible in a limited amount of time.

The angle of combining science and the supernatural together is always a little iffy, but by and large I was satisfied with it here. It didn’t bother me nearly as much as the mid-whozits did in Star Wars: Episode one.