Howdy Howdy

It's Monday morning and I don't have to be at the library until noon. Mel and I had a nice weekend, did a little Christmas shopping and I spent a few hours scanning some of her family's photographs for a little project we got going on. The Christmas crowds weren't all that bad yesterday. The most crowded store was the World Market. That place is just made for gift shopping. You can get anything there from a wooden statue of a giraffe to a glass tea pot.

We had a nice little house movie night on Saturday. The four of us gathered together to watch the Dark Knight. Heath Ledger was just as great the second time around. Christian Bale's "bat voice" still bothered me but not quite as much. I still wasn't crazy about the ending. There have been several instances in Batman story lines where he fought the cops but I didn't care for how this one was setup. Essentially Jim Gordon has to lie like he lied to his wife earlier in the movie. I still think it's the best Batman movie ever but it's still a mixed bag. What impressed me is that they were trying to make a great movie. That last franchise became a joke, at least these guys are trying.

Mel has become some kind of breakfast hash goddess. I ate so much yesterday morning that I couldn't move for an hour. I just sat at my laptop and played Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. I did help with the preparation. I chopped the green peppers and the tomatoes.

We also cozified the living by setting up the white ceramic Christmas tree. It's a beautiful piece of Americana made about sixty years ago by Melanie's great aunt. I need to take a picture of it and post it here. We have been improving the living room in baby steps. We got a rug a few months ago at World Market. We finally found the type of shades we wanted for the two antique lamps that sit by the picture window. I think the next step is going to be find a nice curtain for the picture window. What we got there now is jury rigged and a nice curtain would really tie the room together.