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contentwith sleepy eyelids half closed i write tonight. what was supposed to be a restful sleep was cut short when mike lee called me earlier this morning at 10am asking if he could come over to pick up some stuff from the basement. i got up, let him in, then didn't go back to sleep for the rest of the day. after maura left, andrew and i hung around in the house for the rest of the day, camped out in the living room watching television. plant news: i think my ornamental peppers have finally sprouted, i think the last of my giant sequoia tree has finally died. i did some vacuuming, the biweekly cleanup schedule coming around again.

the capture of eric rudolph was the big breaking news today. it made me pay a visit to the fbi most wanted site, to see who else is out there waiting to be apprehended. on that list of course is one mister usama bin laden, that's no surprise. but did you know that usama is 6'6"? that's really tall, michael jordan tall. a guy like that can't easily hide. it's only a matter of time before he's captured!

renata called then came by in the late afternoon. andrew had gone out to porter square to run some errands, but when he came back, we decided to postpone our barbecue and go see the 6:55pm showing of winged migration down at the kendall cinema, a movie that renata was dying to see. the theatre was surprisingly crowded, a lot of people coming to see winged migration as well.

i thought the movie was visually incredible, but sort of light on the documentary front in that i didn't really learn anything other than the fact that birds migrate vast distances over varied landscapes and face many dangers during their travels. sir david attenborough's pbs series on birds is a much better bird documentary in my opinion. visually though, from a technical perspective, some of the footage is quite amazing. a disclaimer at the start of the movie claims that no special effects were used in the making of the film, which would rule out blue screen flock of flying birds in a large wind tunnel. at first i thought maybe the camera person was in a helicopter flying with the birds, but some of the shots were too tricky. if i had to guess, i think the filmmakers were using a radio controlled flying drone shadowing the birds as they flew. since the film lacks a running narration, a lot of times i found myself scratching my head because i didn't understand what was happening on the screen. the movie was more like "sit back and enjoy the lovely scenery" instead of "sit back and learn all about bird migration." a satisfying piece of eye candy is what this movie is all about, especially if you're ga ga over birds.

(oh sorry, i briefly fell asleep just now)

when we left the theatre, it was raining hard enough to make it impossible to have a barbecue. when we got back to our place, renata whipped up a chicken salad with the ingredients she had brought over, while i cooked the ribs in the oven. we ate the salad while waiting for the ribs to finish cooking. once the ribs were done, we dug in, andrew and renata using a two hands approach to rib management while i opted for the single hand, saving the other hand to eat the steamed spinach.

renata, her cheeks aglow from the salubrious effects of the wine, was tipsy enough to pose for several "marriage counseling" photos. she also tried to get me to eat the leftover barbecue sauce from the ribs. when we finished dinner and cleaned up, she went around putting toy centipedes and bananas down the back of our shirts with a pair of bread tongs. while andrew and renata had ice cream for dessert (cookie dough flavored), i finished the rest of my orange mango fruit juice. renata, having to wake up early tomorrow morning to come and pick me up to go down to rhode island, called it a night by 11:30pm, leaving andrew and i to watch some jackass: the movie on cable.

(okay, time for bed, finally!)