Reviews and More

Jerry and I took several European vacations when we were in our twenties, but haven’t been back there in almost eight years. We had such amazing times on our trips to Rome, Paris, London, and Brussels that we always promised ourselves we’d return when we have a month or more to spend backpacking like a couple of college kids. One of our first stops would be Amsterdam, a city we’ve managed to miss on all of our previous trips.

Besides the myriad Amsterdam tourist attractions, I’ve got to admit that we’re attracted to that city because of its reputation for uninhibited partying! Jerry and I haven’t really let loose and partied together in years, so I think it would be so much fun to forget about being “responsible adults” for a while and just enjoy ourselves again.

Anyway, I’ve got some great leads on discount hotels and flights, so all we’ve got to do now is try to wrangle a month off from work. I don’t think Jerry’s boss will go for that anytime soon, but it’s at least worth asking for!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was continuing to watch House, but that I wouldn’t post recaps of every single episode anymore. Well, I’m now about two-thirds of the way through Season Two, so I figured it was a good time to give you all a brief update about what I think of the show.

First, I think the episodes are getting rather repetitive — at least the medical aspects are. I mean the eps are rather formulaic to begin with in terms of a patient coming in with strange symptoms, House and the team making several wrong guesses before coming up with the right one, and the patient eventually getting well in the end. That type of formula in and of itself doesn’t bother me, but now it’s as though the team hazards the same exact guesses each week. They run through cancer, lupus, meningitis, and MS almost every time, which means they also perform the same tests each time (LP, MRI, CAT scan). Kind of boring!

Second, I have to say that I don’t like the extraneous story arcs that this show delves into. Last season was almost ruined with that annoying Vogler arc that ended up serving no purpose, and this season we had that whole Stacy arc. Sure, we were able to get some House backstory via Stacy, but overall I thought it was a waste of time.

Despite those two problems, I still like the show as a whole. The best parts are when House and the gang interact with each other, and when Wilson and Cuddy provide the comic relief. The characters remain the strongest part of House, so I’m going to continue watching just for them!

I usually don’t go in for horror movies, but one of my all-time favorites is The Exorcist. So when I heard that William Friedkin, the director of that classic film, was back with an all-new effort, I decided to check out the preliminary buzz. Friedkin’s latest movie is called Bug, and it stars Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, and Harry Connick, Jr.

After viewing the trailer on YouTube, all I have to say is that this movie looks SCARY!! I don’t know if I’ll be able to sit through whole thing without covering my eyes or totally freaking out! First of all, I hate bugs to begin with. The tiniest little creepy-crawly is likely to send me running out of a room yelling for my husband to come in and remove the thing. Second, I often get the sensation that there are bugs crawling on my skin — even when there’s nothing there. So this Bug movie seems like it’s going to hit a little too close to home!

And take a look at the promo posters for the movie. The tagline makes it sound as though these bugs actually have an agenda… yikes!! I know if I watch the movie, I’m going to be paranoid about bugs for weeks to come. But that probably won’t stop me from lining up on opening day (May 25th) to see it! Plus, my husband loves horror movies, so I’m sure he’ll want to take me.

Anyway, view the trailer right here to get a better idea of what I’m talking about!

I’m way behind in my television viewing (as usual), so I just got around to watching Thursday night’s episode of CSI today. It was called “The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix” and featured a case revolving around Lady Heather, that erstwhile dominatrix that has been intriguing Grissom for years.

Lady Heather has previously appeared in two or three other CSI episodes. I believe one of them involved a client that was murdered in her brothel, and then she was in a two-parter involving a serial killer that targeted her daughter (I think). Again, I’m not the kind of person who remembers every single detail of every episode ever aired, so I could be wrong here!

At any rate, Lady Heather was back in episode 7×23. This time, she was found by the night watchman at some kind of Old West theme park. She had severe bruising on her neck, which indicated that someone tried to strangle her. Catherine and Brass arrive on the scene first, and both realize that Lady Heather’s injuries probably weren’t the result of her job since she’s a dominatrix, not a submissive.

Sara joins Catherine a bit later to start combing for evidence. While they’re working, Catherine starts talking about Lady Heather and how much she interested Grissom. This scene felt really off because Catherine and Sara hardly ever gossip, so it just seemed like the writers stuck the whole thing in there only because we know that Sara and Grissom are dating. Anyway, Sara tries not to get too jealous, but we can see that Catherine’s words are having an affect on her.

There’s also a B-plot in this episode, which Nick and Warrick investigate. They find an apparent hit-and-run victim lying in the street and have to try to figure out what happened to her based on the very few clues left at the scene. The vic was a young woman (age 25) and had a purse full of wallets, IDs, and other odds and ends. Clearly, she was a kleptomaniac, so the CSIs figure her murder was one of revenge. Maybe she tried taking a wallet from the wrong person and ended up dead because of it.

The rest of the episode deals with the separate investigations of these two cases, neither of which were particularly interesting or mysterious. There were only two suspects for each case, so it’s not as though you’ll spend the entire episode scratching your head and wondering “whodunnit.”

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty weak episode overall. I used to love the Grissom character (like in seasons 1-4), but for the last few years I’ve grown kind of tired of the one-dimensional portrayal. Plus, it seems that William Petersen has been phoning in his performances over that same time period, which makes me like Grissom even less. So — what I’m driving at here is that I didn’t care at all about Lady Heather and Grissom’s fascination with her, so this ep was supremely boring for me. And Sara angst?? OMG, shoot me now. I don’t need to see anything like this ever again!

Please let the finale be a good one. Let’s wrap up that miniature model serial killer story and get the whole thing over with. I’m sooo ready for a break from CSI!

Summer’s almost here, but I still don’t have new sunglasses yet. I’ve been shopping for a new pair ever since winter, and though I’ve found a few good prospects, nothing has really jumped out at me thus far and I haven’t made a purchase yet. But I’ve got to get on this pretty soon, as my softball league starts up in two weeks.

Since I’m always involved in a lot of activities during the summer, I’m definitely going to buy polarized sunglasses to help reduce the sun’s glare and allow me to view my surroundings more clearly. Polarized sunglasses are much better in this respect than regular sunglasses because of their ability to filter light reflected from certain angles.

Anyway, one of the leading candidates in my sunglasses search is the Kaenon UPD. This particular model comes with a unisex frame and can even be fitted with prescription lenses, which is what I need. Furthermore, Kaenon polarized sunglasses are some of the best around and are even used by professional baseball players like Tom Glavine.

As I said, I still haven’t made up my mind yet. But if nothing else jumps out at me in the next two weeks, I’ll probably end up going with Kaenon!