No Ratatouille For Me

I love Pixar. I wasn't to thrilled that they made a rodent into a chef, but giving it the benefit of the doubt...I was looking forward to seeing Ratatouille.

I left on vacation June 29...the day Ratatouille came out. However, my friend asked me to wait for her before I saw it. Aww...okay. I got back on July 10, but since she's only in town Sundays, we had to wait until tonight to see it.

Thinking we had plenty of time to eat dinner before catching one of the last two shows, we headed off to Wood Ranch for their yummy chopped salad. Mmmm...tri tip. Unfortunately, the service was slow and we didn't get out of there until 10:10 PM...the latest showing in that complex was at 10 PM. But...never fear...there was a 10:30 PM showing in the next city over.

We whipped out my Thomas Guide (for the first time since I bought it in 2005) and figured out directions to the movie theatre. We got into the theatre with about 3 minutes to spare and proceeded to watch a slew of horrible previews.

During the last preview, a random guy walked into the theatre, kind of cased the joint, and then headed back to the hallway. I watched the last preview in annoyance as I heard his muffled voice echoing into the theatre.

Just as the movie was about to start, he walked back in and stood at the end of one of the rows. A couple other guys entered from the other side, and then a total of four of them met up in the front row...right under the screen...and started pounding on one another.

I heard one guy in a row above me order his daughter to get out of the theatre. My friend and I quickly followed suit...for fear something worse may happen. We immediately went to guest services to report what happened and ask for a refund.

So...now I'm here at home...still without seeing the latest Pixar feature. Upset and annoyed, my friend told me I could now see it without her...since it may be another 3 weeks before we get a chance to hang out again on a Sunday night. Big bummer.

Thanks guys...thanks for choosing our movie theatre (for a G-rated movie nonetheless) to start your brawl.

M.I.A.?

I guess I didn't tell as many people as I thought that I was going on vacation. I received a call from a friend, concerned that she had not seen me online for quite some time...and another friend asked me what I was doing in Salt Lake City, in reference to my last post.

Well...for anyone else who has been wondering what may have happened to me...I was out of town...I left on June 29th and came back yesterday...6 hours later than I had anticipated. I flew in and out of the Salt Lake City airport and drove in a somewhat haphazard loop around Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and the eastern fringe of Washington. And for those of you keeping count...that means I am now up to 48 states. Just Louisiana and Alabama left!

Since I'm on this topic...in no particular order, here's a few highlights of the trip. Enjoy!

• The temperatures in the areas I visited were higher than normal. There was hay frying in the sun and at one point we even had to detour around a fire, since 10 miles of an interstate highway was closed.


• The aforementioned ding to my rental car.


• Wyoming, Idaho and Montana are called Rocky Mountain states for very good reason...I drove over and around more mountain ranges in a short period of time than I was used to.


• South Dakota rocks...the black hills were beautiful, I couldn't get enough of Mount Rushmore, and it reminded me of one of my favorite movies...Calamity Jane.


• Yellowstone was much bigger than I expected, but it's amazing that there are so many different types of landscapes and natural phenomenons concentrated in one slice of the country. No wonder Teddy Roosevelt Ulysses S. Grant named it the first national park.

Vacation Fun

Well...I was suppose to be landing back in a SoCal airport right about now. Instead, this morning I woke up to find that someone had backed into my rental car. By the time I had spoken to the front desk and filed a report with the rental car company...I had missed the cut off to check into my flight...by 3 minutes.

So...I decided to pay the extra $10 at the Salt Lake City airport to get wifi internet access. I have about another 3 1/2 hours to kill before my rescheduled flight takes off. Yay!