Touch You Last

Despite what you might expect, this isn’t simply about doing the dishes. I actually do wash the dishes, after each meal, even. (And Sarah does the cooking. It’s part of this whole division of labour thing I got roped into.) The problem is that I’m not a real attention-to-details kind of guy. I don’t half-ass it, but I’ve been known to three-quarter-ass it on occasion. Which means I’m not also so good at getting all the crud off the dishes. I swear that I don’t know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it. I don’t see that half brick of cheese caked on to the plate. I overlook that chunky bit of whatever that gets trapped in the bottom of the glass. I’ll let Sarah correct my if I’m overstating these stats here, but I think that five dishes out of six come out okay, but that sixth dish always seems to end up with shmeng on it--which I don’t see until it’s been on the drying rack for half a day. And this isn’t a new phenomenon. I remember Brady pointing this out to...

I think the fittest I’ve ever been was between 2000 and 2002, and I’ve always held that up as my gold standard (in contrast to my current, corpulent self). The problem wit h striving to reach that level again is that a lot of different factors conspired to make that possible, and it’s a confluence that will never happen again. I was running then. A lot. There were a few 10Ks and one half marathon, and it seemed like I was always training for something. And when it was too cold to run I was a fairly steady gym goer. But this was all because I had loads of time on my hands. I was living in Georgetown with my parents, and for two of those years Sarah was still going to school in Guelph . Also, all but about three of my friends had moved from town by then, so a lot of my nights were free. Generally speaking, I was fit because I was constantly exercising because I didn’t have anything better to do. Since then, I’ve been totally unable to keep up any kind of regular fitness regime...

Okay, so I’ve been away from this project for a while. But I intend to finish what I started. (Total side note: I was thinking the other day about what a person would have to go through if one day they decided to finish everything they’d ever started. Every home reno project that had been half-assed, any race never finished or diet not seen to completion, every fistfight that was broken up, every relationship that was thwarted. I’m releasing that idea out into the ether. If anyone wants to script a rip-off of My Name is Earl, there’s your story basis right there.) Change Four: Keep in Touch With People More I go through cycles of being really good at this and pretty bad at this. I’m currently in a bad cycle that seems like it’s gone on for years. For those of you who this applies to—and you know who you are—it’s not something I do because of apathy or because I’m a jerk or because I want you to call me first, I’m just the type of guy w ho puts things off. “I have to call Brady ...

(Alternate title: I Regret Nothing!) So it was a Movie Marathon first last night: we threw in the towel two movies shy of the end. I'm not ashamed and I'm not disappointed by this. Two things killed us. First, lots and lots of shoveling. Second, the movies playing during that critical 3am - 6am timeslot were terribly dull (more on that later). It stop being fun and started being work, and everyone was dying to just go to bed, so I called it a night. We missed Footloose, which we've all seen, and Hedwig, which is actually a shame but I have no doubt I made the right call. As for the rest: Bloodsport - Best marathon opener yet. Everyone was hyper, and on, and we just really enjoyed it. This movie is the template for so many martial arts movies that followed. Secret tournament, combatants with different backgrounds and fighting styles, and the hero wins. Excepting Timecop and that movie where he played twins, every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie since this is just Bl...

I am officially the last one standing. We're (I'm) watching Suspiria right now, which is occasionally ridiculous but mostly just really really terribly dull. Damn this stupid effing movie. Entertainment Weekly called it "one of the scariest movies of all time." Lies, lies, damn dirty lies. And everyone's asleep but me. Lucky buggers. Outside of this one movie, everything else played very well. Bloodsport was eight kinds of awesome, Raising Arizona was weird and hilarious, Casablanca was dependable as always, Holes went over best of the lot, Grey Gardens was a head trip, The Warriors was outright wicked, Cube was as good as I remembered, and Hard Candy was castratetastic . And now, I'm just waiting. I'm praying to all the gods--the real ones, the fakes one, and two or three I made up right now--that this movie is over soon, and that Sunshine is seven hundred times better.

But outside of my Twittery sidebar, there's more to see over here .

It's surprising that I haven't written about this at all, seeing as it starts in about 30 hours. It's mostly because I wrote this to death last year, but also because I've been very busy since we got back. This year is going to be a bigger, louder, more viscous affair. We have a projector (thanks, Work!), surround sound (thanks, Joe!), and twelve fairly kick ass movies. The schedule goes: 9:00am - Bloodsport 10:32am - Raising Arizona 12:50pm - Casablanca 2:47pm - Holes 4:57pm - Grey Gardens 7:52pm - The Warriors 9:25pm - Cube 11:10am - Hard Candy 1:09am - Suspiria 4:02am - Sunshine 6:00am - Footloose 7:58am - Hedwig and the Angry Inch (And yes, your definition and my definition of "kick ass" might differ slightly.) There'll be no webcam this year, and no Messenger action, but I'll be Twittering up a storm though, and Jorge will be live-blogging it. And we'll offer up the same A.V. fandango as last year, too. Wish us luck. See you Saturday.