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DaredevilWe had a good, relaxed weekend. A lot of it involved food. Friday Debbi made a polynesian chicken dish she had the recipe for. That was quite good. Then Saturday I grilled pork chops with a spice rub, and that was also quite good. Sunday was the capper, though: I made the Cook's Illustrated meatloaf recipe, and that smelled good even before it went into the oven, and tasted just as good when it came out! It's very cool to make great food and not go out to restaurants all the time, as I often do when I'm lazy, or just microwaving stuff.
 Saturday we went to see Daredevil, since, of course, it's the latest movie release based on a comic book. It's gotten lukewarm reviews, but it's actually not bad. Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) is blinded as a child, but his other senses become hyper-acute, and he develops a radar sense of things around him. After his boxer father (David Keith) is executed for not throwing a fight, Matt grows up to become a lawyer, but also trains his body and becomes Daredevil, a nocturnal avenger. Matt meets and falls in love with the Greek beauty Elektra (Jennifer Garner), whose father is being set up by Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime (Michael Clarke Duncan). The Kingpin employs the inhumanly accurate Irish assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell) to pull off the hit on Elektra's family, leading to a world of hurt for Matt and everyone else involved. As Peter David pointed out, Daredevil is the story of Matt's redemption, from an angry young man to a man of responsibility and an understanding of the consequences of his actions. Its broad stroke is well-done. Its smaller flourishes are less successful. No one really distinguishes themselves as an actor working with the oft-tortured script (some of the lines are lifted directly from the comics, which isn't necessarily the best idea). Matt's physique goes beyond the highly-trained and into the realm of superhuman. Jennifer Garner does little besides show a lot of cleavage and Elektra's nuances from the comic (in which she's an assassin on par with Bullseye) are lost. Overall, it's heavy-handed but entertaining. A pretty solid 3-star film (out of 5).
Spent some of the weekend re-reading The Anubis Gates, which is truly one of my favorite books. I really didn't want it to end this time around. We also did some shopping, and went for a good 2-hour bike ride, all the way up to the Dumbarton Bridge, which was fun but involved biking through some yucky parts of East Palo Alto. They really need to finish the bike trail along the wetlands there, to get it up to the Bridge. Oh, and I'm pulling together my tax info for my accountant. What a pain in the ass - and I don't mean the accountant (who's great). After figuring out that I had indeed received all my documentation from various sources, I had to untangle some of the less-than-fully-detailed information about my W-2 form and E-Trade 1099 form. Gah. I think I've got it straightened out now, and I plan to ship the thing off tomorrow. I know I'm going to owe a bundle this year. But I think I've got it covered. Tomorrow is meeting day, as every Tuesday seems to be lately. It shouldn't be so bad, but it does mean I have to put my work on hold to attend meetings. Of course, I'm sure those of my cow-orkers who attend five times as many meetings as I do are just crying their hearts out for me. Ah well!
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