Olive Oil Prices

I couldn't help but notice today that the price of olive oil has soared since I last bought a bottle. The average price of a normal-sized bottle was easily $11-$12. What's going on? Here's an article from last July that explains what's going on. Damn you, rain in Spain, why don't you fall in the damn plans for a change?!?!?!

Okay, back to not procrastinating on my final...ooh, laundry needs to be folded!!

Local News

So as we're going out to do errands today, we see a charter bus surrounded by about 15 state police cars, and all lanes blocked on I-395 southbound. This was almost worth rubbernecking for. Here's the story (courtesy of Washington Post).

In anticipation of RB's Visit

In anticipation of RB's first visit to the blog, I decided to make a post that would be relevant and appreciated...so here are some links to some of RB's favorite things. And RB, if you wish to have a creative pseudonym on this and JC's blog.

Cats
Diet Coke, and
Justice

(Okay, so that last one was an attempt to refer to various non-profit agencies, and wound up going a completely different direction.)

Cheers...

Billy Idol

So hey, it's the only title I can think of that contains one of the words in "American Idol", but somehow isn't "Idol Chatter" or "Idol the Car in Neutral". This isn't an American Idol blog (BTW, say hi to Jessica Simpson's variety show on your much-welcomed way out the door, Pickler), but I wanted to put a link on here to a website that tries to predict who will get voted off, based on the success/failure of attempted phone calls. something somewhat scientific.

Is it right? Hardly ever (they've only nailed it once). Having worked on programs that perform similar functions, I thought this was an interesting (if somewhat pointless) use of technology.

In other thoughts, kudos to Casey Blake of the Cleveland Indians, who has Metallica's "The Thing That Should Not Be" as his intro music...an actual good Metallica song, hasn't been one of those in almost 15 years.

Coke Blak

Picked up a few bottles of Coke Blak after reading some mixed reviews out there in cyberspace. Coke mixed with coffee? That's a mix only a certain Uruguayan/Paraguayan from Canada could enjoy.

Now I'm basing my review solely on what amounts to 3 or 4 tablespoons (I shared my first bottle with a couple colleagues in order to avoid any puff-puff-give sensitivities). It's pretty smooth and tastes kind of like Starbucks Double-Shot Espresso. If you get a free sample, try it out...$5.99 for a 4-pack seems a bit steep.

Concert Calendar Update

Ahh, the wireless LAN working out on my deck on a beautiful 70-degree day, listening to the band that combines the emo-est of emo with Pink Floyd.

JC and I have gone wild in planning for a fun summer of music, baseball, and grad school. Here's an update for some shows we're going to this summer:

May 12th - Pinback @ Black Cat
June 27th - We Are Scientists @ Black Cat
July 31st - Fiona Apple, Damien Rice @ Wolf Trap
August 1st - Guster, Ray LaMontagne @ Wolf Trap

Hopefully, we'll have some type of hearing when all is said and done. Might as well live it up this summer before we go all broke in the condo.

Movie Reviews

Nothing like sitting on my comfy couch watching the NASCAR race at the end of a long, rainy day filled with watching movies and eating tasty Mexican food. Our Netflix list has been stagnant for a while, and there was a common need for procrastination, so we tore through a couple movies and a TV episode. So here's what we watched:

The Squid and the Whale - Both JC and I are pursuing Master's degrees at Johns Hopkins, but I think this movie is providing enough motivation for us to NOT get PhDs. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play married academic intellectuals who looked like they had kids so they could write a dissertation on just how to screw them up enough. The characters, including the really messed up kids, are all believable, but there's just not much oomph to the story. I've seen my share of lousy family-centered dramas (Before and After especially), and this movie isn't as bad as those. Overall, 3/5 stars, but probably a B- on the bell curve of quirky everyone-acts-like-a-friggin'-child dramas.

Capote - Philip Seymour Hoffman looks about 400 pounds lighter playing Truman Capote in the story of how In Cold Blood ultimately defined and ruined his career and life. This is definitely one of the best biopics I've ever seen, because the story arc doesn't take you from the rise to the inevitable downfall. There are little hints sprinkled all throughout about what ultimately does Capote in (alcoholism, jealousy, arrogance), but all 110 minutes of the film (not short in my book, Rick) are intently focused on Capote traveling to Kansas, doing research for his book, and ultimately showing how the events cripple him personally and creatively. Very well done film, except for one thing...The background music is intolerable, doing light strokes of the piano any time some type of serious moment came about. Movie gets 4/5 stars, because the piano drove me so mad as to deny this great film a perfect score.

Huff - We're an HBO family, but are starting to get curious about some of the original programming that Showtime is putting out there. We got the first disc containing the first three episodes of Huff, starring Hank Azaria (Moe and Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons). The titular Huff is a psychologist with suicidal patients, an overbearing mother, a drugged-out playboy for a lawyer/best friend...what am I forgetting...oh yeah, and a hhhhot wife. Considering we've only watched three episodes, I can't speak to very many plot points, but the acting is awesome and the dialogue is great (even though the mother can be a tad ridiculous from time to time). To date, 5/5 stars for the series.

A Show I Don't Like...

Please, help me to think of a show that meets the following criteria:
1) Has smug, uninteresting, need binoculars to see off of their high-horse characters
2) Plays semi-popular music in the background as a (welcome) substitute for dialogue
3) Has some heart-warming moment near the end of the show where you just go awwww shucks.
4) Appeals to men, not women

I just want to know if women are as angry at a certain TV show or movie as I am at Grey's Anatomy. What a piece of crap. Through the years of St. Elsewhere, ER, Chicago Hope, Chimps with Scalpels, I think most every hospital scenario has been played out. Give me a procedural that follows a case beginning to end, always bringing the bad guy to justice...oh wait, there are only a billion of those.

Thank the good Lord that The Office is on.