GOOD, BAD & UGLY

A nice long weekend. Ahh. Here's how it went:

The GOOD:
* Finished reading "The Host." Loved it.

* Had lunch with my Mom on Saturday, followed by a hike on Piestewa Peak under overcast skies. (It was a great hike even though it was interrupted by reports of "a rattlesnake holding its ground" not far ahead of me on the trail; after standing there for a few minutes trying to decide if I was brave or not, I decided I wasn't, and headed back the way I came.)

* Enjoyed a nice BBQ with our friends Laura and David, and got to spend quality time with their almost-1-year-old, Dean.

* The weather held up nicely and it wasn't too hot.

The BAD:
* First and foremost: Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I was NOT amused by the mess they made of this movie. I went into it knowing it had received mixed reviews, so I admit I wasn't expecting to be blown away. But I didn't know I'd feel so bummed out when I left the theater! Indiana Jones himself seemed like he wasn't the same guy from the earlier movies; not as fun, not as interesting. Shia LeBeouf didn't work as his son...and his character was completely one-dimensional and I didn't feel like we got to know who he was at all. (Not to mention at one point he apparently communicates with monkeys and proceeds to swing through the jungle on vines-- completely and utterly ridiculous. The old IJ movies never would have done something THAT implausible and cartoonish.) Cate Blanchett's character wasn't an effective villain, plus she seemed like she was CGI herself she was that unbelievable... there were plot holes and inconsistencies all over the place, and not for a SECOND did I feel tense or think that the heroes weren't going to get out of whatever crazy situation they were in. Could it have been the CGI? Or poor writing? Or a deadly mixture of both? Who knows? I just want to forget about this particular IJ movie and convince myself that only 3 movies were ever made. Yuck.

* My own Indy can't control himself around babies, apparently. He kept wanting to play --roughly-- with our friends' baby. He wasn't being mean at all, just waaay too excited. He even leapt up and tried to grab the baby's foot at one point, and that was just too much for us to take. He was banished to the bedroom for the rest of their visit. Meanwhile, Hailie was a complete angel and she charmed the baby into the cutest thing: Dean held out a goldfish cracker to Hailie, who carefully took it from his tiny fingers as he smiled. So at least 1 out of 2 dogs isn't a total spazz.

The UGLY:
* On Sunday I made a terrible error regarding my skin: I thought I'd do some yardwork while wearing a sport camisole, and since I had a wicked farmer's tan going on, I slathered on the sunblock on the tanned spots, hoping to even things out while I was outside. Bad move.
First, I was outside for a longer period of time than it felt like: about two hours, that felt more like 45 minutes. The sun was at peak brightness, since it was around noon.
Second, I apparently don't know how to evenly apply sunblock, because you can see where it was applied thanks to the ragged, uneven edges to my horrific sunburn. One of the more humorous parts of the sunburn is the area around my tattoo, because I had wisely chosen to cover my tattoo with sunblock to prevent fading. The only problem is, you can see right where my fingers swiped the sunblock on, and I went way beyond the borders of the tattoo itself, even though I really thought I was careful to stay in the lines. It looks like I taped a piece of ripped paper over the tattoo.
Two days later, this burn is STILL bright red and still ultra painful. It's one of the worst burns I've ever had. Usually I get a mild burn that fades to a tan over the next day. Not this time. I woke up today hoping it would be faded somewhat and it's just as red as ever. This sucks. I wish I'd covered everything up.

* I forgot to do a couple of things I was supposed to do this week/weekend. So now I have to run around today and try to get them done. But I've got a ton of work to do; yet here I sit blogging because I can't seem to stay focused. Plus I have yet to hear back on some test results I am anxious to receive. So anyway, this ugliness today had better fade away as the day goes on...otherwise my bitchy side is sure to force even more ugliness onto the world and no one needs that!