Deconstructing Harry, Jubilee, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers

Good heavens, how easily we fall out of habits -- when they're habits.... Oh wait, I already used that one. Well, I've only missed 5 days this time, which is half the number I missed last time, so I'm going to call that a victory! I'll just skip Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and get straight to the weekend.

Friday night I watched Deconstructing Harry, the latest Woody Allen movie. I really enjoy his movies, but this one was slightly below average. I think it was probably far more pointedly self-examining than most of his others, which is odd because his character in this movie was probably the least like himself (or at least, as I believe him to be). It was obvious that the movie is about much of the criticism that he has suffered recently, some justified, some not.

My favorite Woody Allen movies are (in order) Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, Annie Hall, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. You were just dying to know that, weren't you?

Saturday I went to the Jubilee Olde English Faire, held every year at the Jubilee College State Historic Site in Jubilee State Park near Peoria. I was hoping to get there by 10:00 AM, but was a bit too slow getting started, so I didn't show up until 11:00 -- well, almost. See, I can never remember exactly how to get there, so there's always a little bit of fumbling at the very end. I expect it. This time was a bit worse than most.

After getting off of the highway, I came to a T in the road. The sign said that Jubilee State Park was to the east. However, I had sort of been expecting to turn west, based on what I saw on the map. Plus, quite a few cars in front of me had been turning west. I headed east as the sign directed, but before long I arrived in Kickapoo. (Yes, that's the real name of a town.) I knew that the fair was held west of Kickapoo, so I decided I must have gone the wrong way.

Well, I turned around and headed back west to where I saw all of those cars going. They were all turning onto a small blacktop road, and near the entrance were a couple of cops standing and watching the traffic. Surely this must be the place. I drove along, following the line of cars. After a bit, the line slowed to a stop-and-go crawl. "My," I thought, "what a large turnout they're having this year! Either that, or they've really messed up the parking system."

We continued along, and eventually passed through a gate with a small sign that said something like "Property of Caterpillar, Inc. No trespassing." That seemed a bit odd, and I didn't remember it from before, but I decided perhaps this was some back entrance to the park. As we continued to slowly crawl forward, the small blacktop road became a small dirt road. Hmmm.... Then I saw a large building with the "Caterpillar, Inc." logo on it. We continued on past that building, slowly crawling forward. A couple of times I worried about the fact that I had never seen a sign at the entrance that said anything like "Jubilee Olde English Faire", but each time I checked my map and convinced myself that this was the right place. After all, where else could all of these people be going?

Eventually we came to a grassy area where we were directed to park. At last! I looked at my watch. It had taken a full 30 minutes to make it from the entrance to the parking area. When, I got out of the car, I heard a little boy say to his father, "I wanna go home." Ha! After sitting in traffic for 30 minutes to get in here, there was no way his dad was going to take him home anytime soon! His dad said something like, "Don't you want to play on the big slide?" Big slide? I didn't remember there being a big slide at the Olde English Faire? I grabbed my camera bag and my tripod, and begin walking with the crowd towards the entrance. And what an entrance it was! Two massive Caterpillar construction vehicles sat on either side, with their buckets raised high overhead to form an archway, like some industrial version of the castle guards! Impressive! But very out of place. Then I saw the giant inflatable slide, and all manner of fun carnival ride stuff -- and the large sign welcoming everyone to Caterpillar Days! Okay, so maybe it wasn't the construction vehicles that were out of place. And I had sat in traffic for 30 minutes to get to here!

Well, getting out of there took much less time. It turned out that, yes, the fair was held west of Kickapoo, as I thought, but I needed to go east into the town, then go north a bit, and then go west to the fair. Oops. So I showed up around 11:40 or so. Bother. Other than that, however, the day went well! The weather was warm, but not as bad as I had expected. It was overcast, which kept the heat down, but it didn't rain.

I brought along my Hi8 camcorder, with my new tripod and camera equipment bag. That worked out rather well, particularly for taping the Knights of the Silver Sword (jousting) and the SCA combat. I didn't do very much taping of the one-man shows, vendors, etc, in part because a video camera intimidates some people in a way that a still camera doesn't. I'm not sure why, but I decided I would avoid any potential problems this time.

While I was there, I saw (from our gaming group) Bill, Mary, and Bob, as well as Sandy (from SCA), Bob (Mary's brother, also from SCA), Eric and Patti (ex-SCA), and some girl who I recognized and had a nice conversation with, but whose name I could never pull out of my brain. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Sunday I slept and sat. My feet hurt from standing all day on Saturday, and I was basically beat! I watched the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the one with Donald Sutherland. I've always liked it, but hadn't seen it in years. I had realized before that one of the actresses, Veronica Cartwright, was also in Aliens. Irony, eh? Or perhaps just typecasting.

My Life by the Numbers

Wednesday: 230 pounds.

Thursday: 230 pounds.

Friday: 230 pounds.

Saturday: 230 pounds.

Sunday: 230 pounds.

Today: 230 pounds. My weight seems to be stuck! Again! I'd try jumping up and down on the scale, but I think that would result in the opposite of the effect I'm looking for.

I haven't walked for several days, mainly because I've been waiting for a boo-boo on my foot to heel. Er, heal. The last time I went walking, when I got done the toe of my sock was quite bloody. I have no idea why, since there doesn't seem to be anything in the shoe at that spot to cause a problem. I'll start walking again tomorrow.

As for learning Irish, I had repeated listening to lessons 5-7 of "Irish on Your Own" numerous times -- but always while driving somewhere. As a result, I wasn't able to study the book and actually see how the words that I was saying were spelled! I would like to study in the morning, before I go to work, but I'd have to get up no later than 5:30 to pull that off, so I don't think it's going to happen. Instead, I think I'll try studying on any morning that I don't go walking (e.g. in case of rain). We'll see how that works. As for today, I finally studied the book for lessons 5 and 6. I can now tell you want kinds of television shows I like to watch and I can order drinks. Isn't that nice?

Good heavens, how easily we fall out of habits -- when they're habits.... Oh wait, I already used that one. Well, I've only missed 5 days this time, which is half the number I missed last time, so I'm going to call that a victory! I'll just skip Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and get straight to the weekend.

Friday night I watched Deconstructing Harry, the latest Woody Allen movie. I really enjoy his movies, but this one was slightly below average. I think it was probably far more pointedly self-examining than most of his others, which is odd because his character in this movie was probably the least like himself (or at least, as I believe him to be). It was obvious that the movie is about much of the criticism that he has suffered recently, some justified, some not.

My favorite Woody Allen movies are (in order) Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, Annie Hall, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. You were just dying to know that, weren't you?

Saturday I went to the Jubilee Olde English Faire, held every year at the Jubilee College State Historic Site in Jubilee State Park near Peoria. I was hoping to get there by 10:00 AM, but was a bit too slow getting started, so I didn't show up until 11:00 -- well, almost. See, I can never remember exactly how to get there, so there's always a little bit of fumbling at the very end. I expect it. This time was a bit worse than most.

After getting off of the highway, I came to a T in the road. The sign said that Jubilee State Park was to the east. However, I had sort of been expecting to turn west, based on what I saw on the map. Plus, quite a few cars in front of me had been turning west. I headed east as the sign directed, but before long I arrived in Kickapoo. (Yes, that's the real name of a town.) I knew that the fair was held west of Kickapoo, so I decided I must have gone the wrong way.

Well, I turned around and headed back west to where I saw all of those cars going. They were all turning onto a small blacktop road, and near the entrance were a couple of cops standing and watching the traffic. Surely this must be the place. I drove along, following the line of cars. After a bit, the line slowed to a stop-and-go crawl. "My," I thought, "what a large turnout they're having this year! Either that, or they've really messed up the parking system."

We continued along, and eventually passed through a gate with a small sign that said something like "Property of Caterpillar, Inc. No trespassing." That seemed a bit odd, and I didn't remember it from before, but I decided perhaps this was some back entrance to the park. As we continued to slowly crawl forward, the small blacktop road became a small dirt road. Hmmm.... Then I saw a large building with the "Caterpillar, Inc." logo on it. We continued on past that building, slowly crawling forward. A couple of times I worried about the fact that I had never seen a sign at the entrance that said anything like "Jubilee Olde English Faire", but each time I checked my map and convinced myself that this was the right place. After all, where else could all of these people be going?

Eventually we came to a grassy area where we were directed to park. At last! I looked at my watch. It had taken a full 30 minutes to make it from the entrance to the parking area. When, I got out of the car, I heard a little boy say to his father, "I wanna go home." Ha! After sitting in traffic for 30 minutes to get in here, there was no way his dad was going to take him home anytime soon! His dad said something like, "Don't you want to play on the big slide?" Big slide? I didn't remember there being a big slide at the Olde English Faire? I grabbed my camera bag and my tripod, and begin walking with the crowd towards the entrance. And what an entrance it was! Two massive Caterpillar construction vehicles sat on either side, with their buckets raised high overhead to form an archway, like some industrial version of the castle guards! Impressive! But very out of place. Then I saw the giant inflatable slide, and all manner of fun carnival ride stuff -- and the large sign welcoming everyone to Caterpillar Days! Okay, so maybe it wasn't the construction vehicles that were out of place. And I had sat in traffic for 30 minutes to get to here!

Well, getting out of there took much less time. It turned out that, yes, the fair was held west of Kickapoo, as I thought, but I needed to go east into the town, then go north a bit, and then go west to the fair. Oops. So I showed up around 11:40 or so. Bother. Other than that, however, the day went well! The weather was warm, but not as bad as I had expected. It was overcast, which kept the heat down, but it didn't rain.

I brought along my Hi8 camcorder, with my new tripod and camera equipment bag. That worked out rather well, particularly for taping the Knights of the Silver Sword (jousting) and the SCA combat. I didn't do very much taping of the one-man shows, vendors, etc, in part because a video camera intimidates some people in a way that a still camera doesn't. I'm not sure why, but I decided I would avoid any potential problems this time.

While I was there, I saw (from our gaming group) Bill, Mary, and Bob, as well as Sandy (from SCA), Bob (Mary's brother, also from SCA), Eric and Patti (ex-SCA), and some girl who I recognized and had a nice conversation with, but whose name I could never pull out of my brain. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Sunday I slept and sat. My feet hurt from standing all day on Saturday, and I was basically beat! I watched the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the one with Donald Sutherland. I've always liked it, but hadn't seen it in years. I had realized before that one of the actresses, Veronica Cartwright, was also in Aliens. Irony, eh? Or perhaps just typecasting.

My Life by the Numbers

Wednesday: 230 pounds.

Thursday: 230 pounds.

Friday: 230 pounds.

Saturday: 230 pounds.

Sunday: 230 pounds.

Today: 230 pounds. My weight seems to be stuck! Again! I'd try jumping up and down on the scale, but I think that would result in the opposite of the effect I'm looking for.

I haven't walked for several days, mainly because I've been waiting for a boo-boo on my foot to heel. Er, heal. The last time I went walking, when I got done the toe of my sock was quite bloody. I have no idea why, since there doesn't seem to be anything in the shoe at that spot to cause a problem. I'll start walking again tomorrow.

As for learning Irish, I had repeated listening to lessons 5-7 of "Irish on Your Own" numerous times -- but always while driving somewhere. As a result, I wasn't able to study the book and actually see how the words that I was saying were spelled! I would like to study in the morning, before I go to work, but I'd have to get up no later than 5:30 to pull that off, so I don't think it's going to happen. Instead, I think I'll try studying on any morning that I don't go walking (e.g. in case of rain). We'll see how that works. As for today, I finally studied the book for lessons 5 and 6. I can now tell you want kinds of television shows I like to watch and I can order drinks. Isn't that nice?