Atomic Monster Cafe: Winding Down...

...another weekend...I'm so happy I could spit.

On the other hand, I really have nothing to complain about...but I'm normally the resourceful type and can usually come up with something.

This one time I'll spare you the complaints...a surprise to some, a joy to others. You're welcome.

Not much shaking in my neck of the woods...only watched one movie this weekend...

...Jersey Boys...a behind the scenes look at how Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons came together and achieved lasting success.

We'd seen it before so it was really our second choice - our first choice being a horrendous mistake - we rented This Is Where I Leave You from DirecTV's On Demand feature.

Now THAT"S a movie to avoid...we tried really hard to keep watching it since we did spend actual money to rent it - but with Hanoi Jane and the dorky Tina Fey we should have known what was waiting for us.

The movie is filled with monumentally stupid characters in a race to the bottom to outdo each other for uncouth vulgarities. Unfit for human consumption unless dull, boring, stupid and profane is your genre of choice.

So we grabbed our Jersey Boys DVD and enjoyed (again) a couple of hours of musical history.

Even if you're not a big fan of their music - and I'm sort of in the middle with them - their story is fascinating and the movie is very well done. Plus the actors really are handling the singing parts, which makes it that much more intriguing to watch.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, it's both engrossing and entertaining...definitely worth your time.

In the "working me like a borrowed mule" department, we cut down a dying bush in front of our wall and replaced it with a miniature white pine:

...and we're making plans for some southwest desert landscaping in one section of our front lawn:

It won't look just like the above and won't be our entire front yard, but we will have those elements over a substantial area...gravel, a few large stones, some yucca plants, etc.

We have lots of sandy soil around our home and basically water just leeches through the front yard in a flash...

...very hard to keep anything green for long so we're going to embrace the elements we have rather than wasting endless gallons of water on it. Besides, southwest style landscaping is a "thing" with mid century modern homes.

Golfing this weekend was the usual mixed bag...

...a few very nice shots, a few very bad shots, and a whole bunch of in between shots in between.

About the time I'm asking myself "why do I bother?" I'll "do it right" and end up with a birdie on a short par 4 as I did today on #6. Oh to be consistent instead of every shot being an adventure.

In general I've found if I stand over my shot thinking about all the things I need to do to hit it right, it's pretty much guaranteed I'll blow it.

Thinking needs to happen before I take club in hand; doing needs to happen once I do.

I'll press on, if for no other reason than I deserve the punishment.

We tried dining out at Boatwerks tonight...

...but our server informed us any food we ordered would take an hour to prepare...they were that backed up.

I asked him if I ordered their turkey sandwich, it would actually be an hour before I got my food?

"We're very busy," he replied.

So I told him we'd pay for our drinks and be gone. He seemed truly shocked we weren't thrilled to sit and wait for an hour but I assured him all we needed from him at that point was the bill.

We then trekked over to the Irish pub in town...

no I did not drink both of those...just the guinness...

...where even though they were just as busy as Boatwerks we managed to get a meal in about 15 minutes.

Let's hear it for the Irish.

later, mcm fans...

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