Not Enough Time

It seems like I have less and less time lately - not just to write in this journal, but for nearly everything I like to do. I'm nearly two months behind on my taped television that I'm watching (in declining order of quality, that's The West Wing, 24, Smallville, Justice League, and Enterprise), my reading pace has slacked off quite a bit (I'm three months behind on Analog, and have been stuck on the same issue for a week now, and not from lack of desire to read it), and of course I'm only writing 2-to-3 entries here per week. Plus, Debbi I think is a bit frustrated that we're not seeing each other as much during the week lately.

Some of this is because I'm going to Subrata's for gaming on Wednesdays again (I took much of last fall off, especially while I was looking for a house), and I'm playing Ultimate one night a week (only two more weeks of that, though). By the way, we've decided that Carcassonne is a pretty excellent game, and it plays pretty fast once you get used to the play and scoring rules. It even plays well with two people! Meanwhile, Debbi went out and bought a Cribbage board yesterday and we've played several hands of that, and I recall now how enjoyable it is.

Plus, since it's almost fantasy baseball season, I've been spending a not-inconsiderable amount of time preparing for our annual draft, which will be in about three weeks. I've been listening (albeit rather half-heartedly) to spring training baseball on the radio, but the fantasy draft usually really kicks off my annual baseball enthusiasm. Though I am likely to go to the Athletics' opening game on April 1 (which starts 1 hour before a Paul McCartney concert begins in the other building at the Oakland Coliseum, thus ensuring total traffic madness; we'll be taking BART, thank you very much).

I've also been mumbling over what to do with my patio. Mainly what to do about watering it. I've been investigating a modular hose system that a local hardware store sells, which supports two widths of hose, and drip, spray and mist systems, and it seems that it might be a good way to water the planter behind the bench, and also get water to my pond (by burying a length of hose under the tiles underneath the bench). So that might be a project for an upcoming weekend.

So anyway, I have too many things to do, and not enough time to do them in.

Nonetheless, I am still getting together with Debbi every weekend. She left a little early this weekend since Subrata came over to hang out/geek out about baseball today, and she didn't really feel like hanging out while we geek out. So he pored over the Baseball Prospectus while I worked on my fantasy prep and also scanned the bulk of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract which I hadn't previously scanned. And we chatted baseball and other stuff (like the HP/Compaq merger, which we both suspect will go through but will be a mistake), and finished the evening playing two games of Carcassonne (he crushed me in one game, and nosed just barely ahead of me the second game). It was a good, lazy way to spend a chilly and rainy day.

I'll wrap up with brief reviews of the two Cary Grant films Debbi and I went to see on Saturday.

The newly-restored version of The Awful Truth is certainly worth seeing, as it's one of the funnier films I've seen lately. Grant plays Jerry Warriner, who returns from a vacation in "Florida" (it's implied that he's been having an affair somewhere) to find his wife, Lucy (Irene Dunne) not present; she returns shortly with her voice instructor, dashing frenchman Armand Duvalle (Alexander D'Arcy) claiming their car broke down on the way back from a recital. Jerry infers that she's having an affair, and they move towards getting divorced. The movie occurs during the 90-day period before their divorce becomes final, during which Jerry visits Lucy repeatedly to visit their dog, Mr. Smith, Lucy gets engaged to Oklahoman Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy), and many hijinks ensue.

The Awful Truth is a sterling example of how "they don't write 'em like that anymore", with wonderful turns of phrase and goofy situations (albeit not really embarrassing ones) which will have you rolling with laughter. For instance, when Jerry walks in on Dan visiting Lucy, Jerry says, "I know how I'd feel if I were with a woman and her husband walks in," and Lucy dryly interjects, "Yes, I'll bet you do." Grant and Dunne both turn in fine comedic performances, and the supporting cast is also excellent. There's really nothing bad to say about the film, actually.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) was I believe one of several films staged to try to resurrect Katharine Hepburn's career, which was floundering at the time (or maybe it was one of the films which caused the floundering). Grant plays paleontologist David Huxley, who while trying to impress the lawyer of a wealthy lady considering donating his museum a million dollars encounters Susan (Hepburn), a strong-willed but extremely eccentric woman who falls in love with David, but also results in him making a bad impression on the lawyer. (Her attraction to him is complicated by his plans to marry another woman the next day!) Through chicanery, Susan drags David up to her aunt's house with a live leopard (the "Baby" of the title), where he makes a further bad impression - a very bad thing, since he aunt turns out to be the wealthy lady in question! Trying to straighten things out, retrieve a lost fossil which Grant needs, and capture an escaped Baby occupies the rest of the film.

I didn't actually enjoy Baby as much as I'd expected, as it does rely on embarrassing situations, and has several moments when you just think that if David had cut his losses and walked away, he might have been much better off. And parts of it don't make much sense (what does Susan do for a living? Why was she golfing? She seems downright dumb at times, which seems out of character for her). The film is just a bit too over-the-top at times for my tastes, although on the whole it is very funny.

I do love Katharine Hepburn (which prompted Debbi to wonder if she had to compete with her for me; I pointed out that what with Hepburn being over 90, I didn't think so), but she does seem to have played in a lot of good-but-not-great films. I confess that I'm not a huge fan of The Philadelphia Story, but I did love The African Queen.

Baby sure was adorable, though. And it was an evening well-spent nonetheless.