August 2008: Knights, Pandas, & Assasins

August 4th, Monday - I got some bad news about my jaw. "Bubbles in the bone" is not a good sign, right?

August 10th, Sunday - THE DARK KNIGHT. Oh my what a grim, grim movie. There really should be a glimmer of light in this movie, you so hope for it, but the closest you get to it is Michael Caine.

August 17th, Sunday - KUNG-FU PANDA. Talk about lightness. This movie is great. The voice work is great, especially Randall Duk Kim and Dustin Hoffman. Ooh and Ian McShane is perfect as the bad guy. The animation was lovely and this is a film I would love to have on DVD. And lest I give everyone the bad idea that this film is just good guys versus bad guys fighting, it's not. The characters are nuanced and there are hints that not every character is one-note.

We also saw WANTED. Yuck. I thought it would be cool to see bullets fly through the air and curve, and it was, but it really wasn't enough. Wesley seemed pretty stupid. It was cool to see Morgan Freeman swear and be a bad guy, but acting-wise, I really think Angelina Jolie did the best job. And she drove a car using her feet on the steering wheel while she shot people upside down on the roof of the car. And it looked convincing. She was also called upon to act like a real person, and did a very good job. This was a grimy, violent movie and definitely not for kids, so it was a bit surprising to find a small child sitting behind me in the movie theater.

More TAKING OVER THE ASYLUM at the Winchester. Now we take the semi-sad and semi-funny miniseries and really up the ante on the sad part. I'm not giving anything away, but the people in the asylum have real problems that are not easy to overcome and sometimes it's really apparent why they're there. So just take that as a warning. Sad things happen.

August 24th, Sunday - Celiac dinner at Hugo's restaurant. Gluten-free Chocolate Pancakes with Marshmallows and Hazelnuts. That is all that really needs to be said, right?

August 30th, Saturday - In San Francisco, having tea with friends at Lovejoy's. From left to right, Diane, Ancilla, Me, Daryl, Elise, & Toby.

Here's the happy couple!

August 31st, Sunday - Robin and Taska got married in Marin. Daryl and I traveled up to San Francisco to meet up with friends and then to go to Robin and Taska's wedding. They live in Germany now, but wanted to have their wedding in San Francisco/Marin. It was a lovely Quaker wedding and I was glad to be staying in the city instead of in the hostel that they had everyone in because I heard later on that the party lasted well into the morning. When we went back up to Marin to have brunch with them everyone had left the hostel and they were cleaning up. So we cooked up some sausages and helped them out. One day, Daryl and I will visit them in Germany. I hope soon!