Texas is a right-turn-on-red state

This morning I had the dubious pleasure of dropping AE off at school.  And was able to further establish that some people are idiots and should not be allowed to obtain a driver’s license.  I tend to have road rage issues anyway and I really don’t think that morning traffic at an elementary school does good things to my blood pressure.  I am very glad that on most days this task falls to my infinitely more patient husband.  GAH.

To be fair, it takes a lot to make me panic since I grew up on the coast

AE and I went grocery shopping on Saturday, and one of the items on my list was a gallon of purified water.  (I’ve found that this is by far the easiest way to clean my little office fish bowl – no water purification tablets or any of that hassle.)  We made it to that aisle and the shelves were almost completely empty, save for a jug or two of distilled water.  I can only assume that people were panicking over the impending landfall of Hurricane Gustav, but to those people I must say this:  we live in Central Texas.  This area is totally landlocked.  There is no coastline within a 2.5 hour drive of here.  And may I please point out that we are, in fact, an evacuation site?  Do you really think that the authorities would direct Gulf Coast residents to our fair city if there was really a substantial risk of damage and/or loss of utilities?  Please use your brains, and give me a break!  Seriously.

Movie time

I saw two movies this weekend, plus part of one that I had already seen but never reviewed:

While I was up in the wee hours having a battle of wills with Miss T, I came across the Jennifer Lopez flick Enough.  It was okay.  I found myself getting nervous for the main characters in several spots, and it was engaging enough to keep me interested.  I don’t tend to like Jennifer Lopez but she seemed to be a nice fit for this role.  Final verdict:  worth the watch if you catch it on TV, but don’t bother renting.

I decided I was in the mood for an old-school Bond movie on Saturday night, so N and I sat down to watch Goldfinger.  (Although we had to finish it Sunday afternoon after I fell asleep and spilled my wine everywhere.)  This is not the best of the “classic” Bond films, in my humble opinion, but it is good.  Sean Connery is dashingly handsome in any decade, and I was endlessly amused by the character named Pussy Galore (because I am twelve, apparently).  Final verdict:  worth renting (or, like us, buying as part of the James Bond Ultimate Edition collection).

In keeping with the theme of Movies With One-Word Titles, I came across Constantine while flipping channels.  This is not one of Keanu Reeves’ better movies.  And people, I’ve seen Johnny Mnemonic, so that is saying A LOT.  I actually saw Constantine a while back and just hated it.  I have an extremely high tolerance for bad movies and horror movies (which often go hand-in-hand) and thought this was just terrible.  The plot was hard to follow and at times incoherent, there was needlessly messy violence, and it gave me the serious creeps more than once.  Final verdict:  a total waste of time.

Free to good home

The cat made her way back into Miss T’s room on Friday night.  N and I heard some strange noises a few hours after putting Miss T to bed, but chalked it up to her rolling over or something.  At 2:30 in the morning I discovered the unauthorized visitor and realized that what we had heard hours before was the cat jumping into the crib.  Yes.  The cat slept in the crib with my 8-month-old.  We’re all about safety around here, and we expect to be named Parents of the Year anytime now.  Note to self:  YOU MUST ALWAYS CHECK UNDER BABY’S CRIB FOR POSSIBLE PRESENCE OF SMOTHERY FURRY MAMMALS.  ALWAYS.  Argh.