May 31st - Sleeping in, puppy smell, movies, toilets and Dad...

I woke up late today at about 9:30. Usually, I have to get up with Julia since Laura insists that she needs more sleep, so I am up at about 7:30 or 8. I should go to bed earlier, but I feel like I'm wasting valuable time if I go to be earlier.

Last night, I watched the movie Sleepaway Camp, which is a slasher film from the early 80s. It's very low budget, but has an interesting twist at the end. It's not something I'd recommend to someone though. I just wanted to see it since it's considered a cult classic.

Julia spent the night at a friend's house last night, which is why I got to sleep in. Before she left, Julia smelled like a wet puppy from her day's playing. When she got back at 11:30 this morning, it was obvious that she hadn't bathed because she absolutely reeked. It was like following Pig Pen from the Peanuts gang around. She thought we were joking, because Laura was waving her hand in front of her nose and going, "Julia! Oh God! Get in the bath tub!"

Julia was like, "I don't need to take a bath."

"Oh, yes you do!" Laura said.

Julia reluctantly walked to the bathroom. All the while, Laura was waving her hand in front of her nose as she followed Julia.

"Man!" Laura said.

Later, we went to see the movie "Up", the new Pixar movie, which is in 3-D. I've mentioned my love of 3-D movies, so I opted to see the 3-D version instead of the 2-D version. There were some really cool 3-D trailers for movies, including a live-action movie about these hamsters that are genetically engineered spies.

Up was pretty good. Like all Pixar movies, it has a good story with a good heart, but unlike past ones that were 20 minutes too long (Cars and Ratatoille), this one was just the right length at one hour and 36 minutes long. There were good laughs, especially when the dogs that have collars that let them talk appeared.

After the movie, we went home and I used the bathroom, which normally wouldn't be anything to write about, but I have had it up to here with my toilets in the house because you severely run the risk of clogging up the toilets every time you use it for... bulky deliveries. I used to keep tabs on who was clogging up the toilet more (since it happened about once a week). I'm not going to say who was winning that contest because I'm under orders to keep the results confidential. Promise kept!

This last time was the last straw as even though I flushed several times during the 'bulky delivery', it still clogged and I had to plunge the bowl.

Super-powered toilet, here I come!

Ever since we moved in, it's been my fantasy and my mission to replace our toilets. Our builders installed what have got to be the cheapest toilets. I had to replace the hardware inside them less than a year after we moved in. They clog at the drop of a hat, which I've mentioned, so I'm afraid to have people come over lest they leave an unwanted bulky delivery behind.

Last night was the season-finale of Breaking Bad, the AMC original series about a chemistry teacher who starts cooking crystal meth when he finds out that he's dying of cancer. Well since the show it doing quite well in the ratings, it's been renewed for a third season. Coincidentally, Walt, the teacher, has had his cancer go into remission after miraculous progress from the cancer treatment. The finale was excellent as Walt's calculated lying for the past 19 episodes all seemed to collapse. His wife laid into him in her most calm voice, which made it all so great. Walt could only stand there speechless.

I ended the night by listening to a few mp3s I made of my Dad. I have a couple of phone calls from 2007 that I taped when I was sort of planning on writing a book about my childhood. The plan was to interview Dad, but it felt weird interviewing him without him knowing. I was thinking of asking him if he'd let me dictate family stories, but we felt that he might have been insulted. But I'm glad that I have these two phone calls. There are pretty funny in parts, especially when he talks about Hillary Clinton.

He said something like "If I lived with her, I would sleep with one eye open because she'd kill you in your sleep."

I'm glad I have them to remind me of Dad. I'm going to post the eulogy later this week after I edit it some more.