Monday, May 27, 2024

Winter came... and hasn't left yet.

Brrrr it's cold outside!  This week felt like a low-key Winter!!  Had some drizzling a couple of days, even woke up a morning with the ground covered in water.  But for the most part it remained in the 60's during the day and some nights high 50's.  Next does forecast for temps in the high 70's so we'll see if that happens but I am enjoying this unseasonably cold to cooler weather.  Enjoying while I can at least and the funny thing is my gas bill for the past month was less than $3, and I know my heater has been going on a few times too.  Better than the AC because electricity is way more which... I kind of find that funny because if you think about it gas is a limited resource in that we do not create gas but find it.  And then with electricity we create it by generators or solar so in theory that is endless yet cost 10x more than the limited resource.  Funny how that works.

Weekly Update:
Another trip to Costco this past weekend and it was PACKED as always... but now that I think about it, I completely forgot it was a holiday weekend for Memorial Day!  Ok now it is making sense why it was so much more packed than normal  However, despite how packed it was, I still managed to get a really nice spot pretty close to the front and what was even nicer, I parked right next to the shopping cart rack or where you can return carts to.  Why is this such a great spot?  Well for many reasons... when I go back to my car, I don't have to find or go far to put my shopping cart away when I'm done.  When others are leaving, they won't leave their carts in-between cars or something because the cart rack is right there.  And, you know no one can park next to you on at least one side of your car.  I mean honestly it's a win all around if you manage to get one of those spots.

At the movies:
Driving it's way to #1 this holiday weekend is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earning a lowkey 25.6 million.  A bit disappointing opening weekend for a big budget film after it's predecessor had opened to almost double that.  New at a very close #2 is The Garfield Movie with 24.8 mill and a very solid number for this movie and franchise.  Drop down to #3 is IF with 16.1 mil and appears at this rate it may not hit the 100 mil benchmark. Also dropping down to #4 is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with 13.4 mil extra and holding steady on this present course. Rounding off the top 5 is The Fall Guy with another 5.9 mil and will disappear soon.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week coming in at #7 is Sight earning only 2.7 mil for a wide-release pattern film.  Probably will be gone from theatres quickly as we head into Summer time!

Quote of the week:
"Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen." - Anaxagoras

Facts & Tips:
If you could drive your car upwards, you would be in space in less than an hour.

"It is no more crazy than a dog finding a rainbow. Dogs are colorblind, Gretchen.  They don't see color. Just like we don't see time.  We can feel it, we can feel it passing, but we can't see it. It's just like a blur. It's like we're riding in a supersonic train and the world is just blowing by, but imagine if we could stop that train, eh, Gretchen? Imagine if we could stop that train, get out, look around, and see time for what it really is? A universe, a world, a thing as unimaginable as color to a dog, and as real, as tangible as that chair you're sitting in. Now if we could see it like that, really look at it, then maybe we could see the flaws as well as the form. And that's it, it's that simple. That's all I discovered. I'm just a guy... a guy who saw a crack in a chair that no one else could see. I'm that dog who saw a rainbow, only none of the other dogs believed me. - Liev Schreiber as Stuart Besser in Kate & Leopold.

posted by McDuck @ 00:30 0 comments

Monday, May 20, 2024

We skipped seasons and came back to Winter

Just a bit chilly!  This week turned out to be a nice Winter-like week!  It is May right?  I don't think it got above 75 degrees at its peak. I almost had to turn on the heat at some of the nights because it got low around 60.  Some crazy weather right now, it should be in the 80's at least but I like it.  I just hope this doesn't mean come July, August and into September it won't be incredibly hot in the 100's.  Then that would be very sad and disappointing and my electric bill will say ouch to me.  It has been so good right now between both my electric and gas bills because I haven't needed to use the AC or heat!  But I know one or the other will need to be turned on at some point.  Just a nice feeling when I am not spending for utilities.

Weekly Update:
Saturday was a very busy day but fun.  It was the inaugural event of Mickey's Morning Mayhem.  I was helping out but it was just nice being on the studio lot again (or any studio log again, it's very nostalgic for me).  This event is exactly like Minnie's Moonlit Madness but at the studio instead of the theme parks.  In fact a lot of our head or main clue writers for Minnie's helped the Mickey team with this event.  But, it was a lot of fun, a lot of walking and it looks like everyone was having a good time!  I didn't see a lot of people dressed up for the event like we do for Minnie's.  Teams will sometimes dress up in some kind of matching outfits or customs like one year at Minnie's all four team members dressed up as the Tweddle Dee and Tweddle Dum, Alice and the Mad Hatter.  Feels like it's a bit of a lost art these days.  But, all-in-all it was a good event and just hope everyone had a good time!

At the movies:
Yet another new movie takes the box office crown this weekend as IF earns a fair 35 million in it's debut.  Word-of-mouth is good but we are starting into the Summer season so competition will be tough.  Drop down to #2 is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with another 26 mil and reached the 100 mil mark as estimated.  However, unlikely it will reach 200 but still will have a decent run.  New at #3 is The Strangers: Chapter 1 with 12 mil and really not much on this film and will likely suffer the usual 60% drop next weekend.  Falling down to #4 is The Fall Guy with 8.5 mil and will continue to fall.  Rounding off the top 5 is Challengers with 2.9 mil more and will disappear probably by next week.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
A couple this week... at #6 is Back to Black with 2.9 mil and a pretty low per screen average, will disappear quickly.  In limited release at #9 is The Blue Angels with only 1.3 mil but was only on just over 200 screens.

Quote of the week:
"Nothing can be done except little by little." - Charles Baudelaire

Facts & Tips:
Blueberries are one of the only natural foods that are truly blue in color.

"You tell Capone, that I'll see him in hell." - Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables.

posted by McDuck @ 00:00 0 comments

Monday, May 13, 2024

HI-HOoooooooo

What a busy weekend it was for me, well actually just Saturday was pretty crazy.  Even if the rest of the week had nothing, Saturday sure filled up my weeks worth of stuff to do... but let's start with Wednesday first.  I finished my jury duty!!!  It's finally over and we finished about 3 weeks earlier than expected.  I do appreciate the whole process but there are some things I wish would change or be provided.  I wonder if they do juror surveys because I would definitely provide feedback there.  But back to Saturday... so I volunteered to help test some clues and such for Disney Studio as they are doing their own version of Minnie's Moonlit Madness this coming Saturday.  I think they are calling it Mickey's Morning Mayhem or something like that?  I had to drive up there and started testing by 10A (left the house at 8) and was there till at least 2P.  Then drive back to my area for a friend's 60th birthday party at 4.  It did take me over 2 hours to get home in traffic so time wise it worked out.  Then I had to get to our game night at Round Table Pizza that started at 5 but I didn't show up till closer to 7.  After all that I was so tired more so from the driving and the testing as I had to walk around a lot for that.

Weekly Update:
Gyro's!!!  Costco had Daphne's gyro meat on sale and since all of the Daphne's near me have closed, I had to try it.  It's more than I expected and I would say after buying the meat, some pita/flat bread and I opted to buy made tzatziki because I've never made it myself before... I think my pricing averages out about $1.50 per gyro give or take.  Not bad at all and they are really delicious to boot.  And I'm not really sure if making my own tzatziki sauce would be that much cheaper after buying all the ingredients for so I am happy with the pre-made stuff.  I will say I did keep my gyro pretty basic but honestly that is the way I like them... just the meat and the sauce wrapped up in the bread.  Not a fan of onions and don't care too much for tomatoes in it.  Also fries, some put fries in it and it's ok but really starts to muddle the flavors together  you lose the meat.  I could see about adding maybe feta cheese but not necessary.  Overall great value and some delicious food.

At the movies:
New at #1 is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with a big 56.5 million to open.  Very solid number considering non-holiday and off-season with good word-of-mouth.  Easily an 100 mil film but how far will it carry into that will be a big tell next week.  Drop down to #2 is The Fall Guy with 13.7 mil and unfortunately despite it's mass promotion, doesn't look like it will reach the 100 mil mark.  Holding at #3 is Challengers with 4.7 mil and this one will start to fade out as new titles are released.  Also holding ground at #4 is Tarot with 3.5 mil and will disappear sooner than later.  Still in the picture at #5 is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with 2.5 and SO close to 200 mil... at least another week or two and it should get there.

Quote of the week:
"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." - William Makepeace Thackeray

Facts & Tips:
10M bricks were used to build the Empire State Building.

"Look, if you want to torture me, spank me, lick me, do it. But if this poetry shit continues, shoot me now, please." - Lori Petty as Tank Girl in Tank Girl.

posted by McDuck @ 01:00 0 comments

Monday, May 06, 2024

Was it hot?

I was not looking forward to the predicted weather this week as it said we were going up into the 80's and sunny, I thought that mean Spring was over and into Summer we go.  But, in fact it was very much the opposite!  Or should I say it didn't move at all, we stayed in the 60's, maybe hit low 70's and got some light rain here and there, just enough to cover the ground.  Also it was pretty cloudy a couple of days which was nice because it helped keep it cold.  I am not sure how come our weather forecast has been so off this week as it's generally pretty accurate, did someone forget to replace the batteries on all the weather machines?  Or feed the hamster that turns the wheel to generate the power or something?  So let's see how this next week goes... right now it's calling for high 70's with cloudy days.  Let's see if that happens!

Weekly Update:
I was at Costco again this week and I started to wonder, why would you back-up into a parking spot there?  For the most part, the spaces between the cars on the rows is very narrow where you can't event fit a shopping cart in between, let alone one of those bigger orange carts. So as I was parked, I just noticed the car in front of me in the next aisle did exactly that but that means when they load up their car (assuming the fill the trunk up first as most do), they will have to carry the items from the front of the car to the back.  The space between the cars is pretty narrow as well that you would likely scrape cars bringing a cart through!  I know there is one aisle in the Costco parking lot that does have that space but most of time it's filled with empty carts!

At the movies:
New at #1 is The Fall Guy with an 28.5 million dollar opening.  For this time of year, it's a decent number however for the big push on this film, a bit under expectations.  Week two will be the big tell on how this film will do in the long run. Re-releasing at #2 is Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace with 8.1 mil. Good number for a movie that originally came out in 1999 to less than stellar reviews. Drop down to #3 is Challengers with another 7.6 mil and not a bad drop percentage-wise.  New at #4 is Tarot with 6.5 mil and looks like a throw-away film to clear up the slate for summer.  Rounding off the top 5 is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with 4.5 mil and still on track to hit 200 mil before it's said and gone.

Quote of the week:
"Friends are the siblings God never gave us." - Mencius

Facts & Tips:
In the state of Arizona, it is illegal for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs.

"Letty grew up just down the street. She was into cars since she was like ten years old. Dom always had her attention. Then she turned sixteen..." - Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto in The Fast and the Furious.

posted by McDuck @ 00:00 0 comments