The Hungry Hungry Writer

Brokeback Mountain (2005)
My Rating: 8/10

Did I just give this movie an 8/10 rating? Hmmm, I thought I was going into this review thinking it was a 7. I mean, I don’t understand all the hype. If it wasn’t a gay love story there wouldn’t be much hype. Films with similar ideas of not being able to be with your one true love are out there, just as good and heart felt, but ‘straight’, don’t get this much hype of course. I liked stories like, “Bridges of Madison County”, or “Love Affair” or even “Sixteen Candles”. Okay, the Sixteen Candle thing is a stretch but you know what I mean. ‘Boy can’t be with that one girl he loves’ kinda thing. Anyway, the whole gay thing really propelled Brokeback to a different level. I guess that’s fine. I didn’t buy it at first. If they just played that ONE scene they showed toward the end instead of using it as a flashback I would have felt the passion or emotion a little bit more. They saved it for the end. A wasted opportunity to really nail the relationship earlier in the film. I’m talking about the one scene where Ennis (Heath Ledger) comes up to Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and hugs him from behind and tells him he’ll see him at dinner (or was it breakfast). Jack turns around to watch Ennis ride off on his horse back to the mountain and it transitions to present time as Jack watches Ennis DRIVE away from an emotional outburst they just had. It was too late to see that in my honest opinion. Oh well.

Favorite scene: The best performance to me was when Ennis’ wife FINALLY confronts him about Jack. Wow. What a powerful and well performed scene.

June 10 through June 18

I guess my official vacation started on June 10th – my Triathlon day. It wasn’t a great start to a vacation due to my dismal performance, but that night we had a birthday party for me at The Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills and I got a Garmin Forerunner 305 with heart rate monitor.

“The included heart rate monitor delivers real-time heart rate data exclusively to the Forerunner 305. This data is stored with each track point for post-workout analysis.”

So at least THAT was a good start to my vacation. And let me tell ya…

MY VACATION WAS AWESOME!

La Costa Resort & Spa is the perfect place for a family vacation. Jessica, Jake, Bella, Donna and I all had a great time.

We arrived on Sunday and wasted no time in getting to the pool area. It was crowded!

On Monday we shopped at the outlet mall and swam and drove to San Diego to meet Uncle James and Auntie Jenny for Thai food at their house. YUM!

We really didn’t need to do any theme parks, Padre games or driving because the kids just wanted to stay at the Resort and swim everyday – all day! We literally had to drag them out to Lego Land on Tuesday and the Padre/Dodger game on Wednesday night. On the way to Lego Land, in line for rides, during lunch, and walking around the park, all they wanted to do was go back to the resort to swim. We finally left Lego Land around 4:00 and did what they wanted… SWIM. Which was fine for me!

Room Service on Tuesday night was fast and efficient as well. They set up the patio table with a white table cloth and arranged the food which was all set out ready for ‘them’ when they all got back from the pool on Tuesday. I had to wait in the room for housekeeping to change the sheets because Bella had an accident during her nap and peed in bed. I took this opportunity of alone time in the room to write about my dismal performance at the LA Express Triathlon. It has yet to be finished.

Wednesday we… swam. Auntie Lori came down on Tuesday morning and went to Lego Land with us, then spent the night. Donna and her went shopping on Wednesday morning as the kids and I stayed at the pool for four hours. Donna then got a relaxing 80 minute spa treatment which lasted about two plus hours. Lucky her. But it was my gift to her. She said it was awesome. Then that night we met Uncle James and Auntie Jenny and watched the Dodgers lose to San Diego. Petco park is beautiful. But their hotdogs were horrible! Nothing… NOTHING beats a Dodger Dog. NOTHING!

We were also planning on a trip to Disneyland on the way back on Thursday morning but ‘they’ decided they’d rather swim some more. Yes – we asked and they (the kids) decided they would skip Disney and swim for a few hours before checkout. This was to the delight of me! I’d rather swim too! We scheduled a late checkout (1:00) and from 9:00 to 11:30 AM we swam, swam, swam - and it saved us a ton of cash. Disney would have run up a tab with tickets for four, parking, food and souvenirs!

I managed some really awesome workouts at the La Costa Resort Athletic Club and got in some good swims at the pool with Jessica. Her swim technique is still spot on. She just may have to do the Family Triathlon relay in Sacramento in July!

The family pool was perfect! The Splash Bar was efficient in serving meals and taking drink orders and the ‘beach’ area of the pool was Bella’s favorite area. She built sand castles, dug up the sand with shovels which she loves, and got to fill her buckets up with water. The kids could wade deep into the pool and play and if they wanted to venture out to the ‘deep end’ with their tubes it was only 4 feet deep! Jessica was great playing with them and other kids in the pool.

We got back to LA on Thursday around 4:00 PM and boy was it HOT! I want to live in the San Diego/Carlsbad area. The weather was perfect. Especially this time of year. Plus, its so relaxed down there. It’s not all fast paced like in LA. Donna is serious about getting a job down there and asked me if I would consider looking for a job there in about six months.

HECK YA!

But I probably will end up with some crappy job with an idiot boss with bad pay. At least now I have a crappy job with an awesome boss and good pay. So who knows what will happen.

Friday morning Jessica, Donna and I went to the gym for a 90 min workout. My goal is to get Jessica into shape for her basketball season. Later I fought Friday traffic to get Jessica to a birthday party way out in the Valley. That night ‘Emo Chi-Chi’ (Auntie Vivian) and the rest of us went to one of our favorite restaurants in Korea Town called BCD Tofu House. And no, its not just Tofu. It’s the best Korean BBQ you’ll ever have. Tasty, tender, juicy, YUM! Donna also got me an early Father’s Day present… the Saucony Grid Omni 5 TR trail running shoes.

My last two Triathlon races were trail runs. I was slipping, sliding, had no traction and I’ve had right ankle pains ever since the UCLA Tri. My upcoming Tri on June 25 is also a trail run. Ugh. So these shoes will help.

Saturday we bought Jessica running shoes, I dropped her off at another party and I ran several errands. And at 6:30 Saturday evening, I met Steve at the Rose Bowl and we did a 5K trail run at the Rose Bowl. It was awesome. My new shoes were great! Steve said he was slipping around, especially on some of the uphill climbs. I was running with great traction! I was also able to use my Garmin and tracked my run which you could see on satellite pictures here: Glenn’s Trail Run (Zoom into the red path to see my actual run – use the Hybrid view).

Check out Steve’s “Run Steve Run” running blog here: http://runsteverun.blogspot.com/

On Father’s Day Jake woke up with a headache and sore throat. So we stayed home. We were going to go to The Yardhouse for lunch but he was in bed for most of the morning and afternoon. I took Bella to Target and EBGames to get a couple of games for Jake…

I worked out in the afternoon and got a car wash. Donna made an awesome Halibut steak dinner and we ended the weekend and my vacation off with a Malibu Rum Pineapple Juice cocktail for her and a double Vodka on the rocks for me.

I have to say, this was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had!

The bad things… I ate too much food and I drank too much alcohol! I spent a little too much money too but it was all worth it. I’m looking forward to La Costa again next year!

Six Days till my next Triathlon!

Recovering from a dismal performance from my Triathlon on Saturday (race report pending), we all took a trek down south to: La Costa Resort and Spa. As of today, my calf muscles are still tight and my left calf is extremely sore. But I was back on the treadmill yesterday (at the resorts fitness center) with a 2 mile run and weight training.

After a LONG DAY of shopping at the local outlet mall, we were back in the pool for a couple of hours and then to ‘uncle James’ house for a yummy Thai dinner.

Today… Lego Land!

Shop Girl (2005)
My Rating: 7/10
I read parts of the book. Kinda boring. Steve Martin’s style didn’t really turn me on. The only problem I had with the movie was Steve Martin’s voiceovers. Not that it was a bad thing, but he was talking about his character in the third person when we knew good and well who the person speaking was. Also, the voice over wasn’t great. Simple stuff, nothing too emotional or informational, just probably excerpts from his book that he had to include for pretentious reasons. It tried to make the film more poetic, but really wasn’t needed at all nor did it succeed.

Mirabelle (Played by Claire Danes) did a decent job. I wish she was more ‘homey’ as she was portrayed in the book. There was a lot going on with the Roy character (Steve Martin) but they didn’t get into it that much. Too bad. I would have liked to know more of why he was the way he was. Unfortunately, he was what he was and that was it. Oh well. The BEST thing about this movie was the Jeremy Kraft character (Jason Shwartzman). He was awesome.

Watch it if you want a Romance. It needed a little bit more ‘life’ - more heart. More comedy, more romance or more character or something. It was just kinda drab and plain with just a splash of emotion to keep you interested.

Favorite scene: When Mirabelle lays in bed crying right after reading the letter from Roy. That was gut-wrenching!!!

Thursday… Friday… then paradise! Yeah, paradise! Vacation! 9 whole F-in days off. I’ll say it. Screw the niceness…

9 whole FUCKIN days off. Yeah, baby.

Wednesday was the shits. I was tense, I was irritable, I was stressed, I was asking myself why the FUCK I’m doing this job, and damn good Sushi lunch with the Associate CFO didn’t help me think otherwise. Because I don’t like this damn job. But its easy, it’s good pay, and I’ll do it till they fire my ass. And if they fire my ass, then my ass will actually get off itself and maybe I’ll be working my way up the Starbucks corporate ladder.

It makes it hard to hate this damn job so much when your boss, the CFO of two hospitals, is cool, has similar interests like coaching little league, fantasy baseball and was a minor league ball player, treats you like the best thing that’s ever happened to him, and tells people you’re the best financial analyst he’s ever had. I’m the classic teacher’s pet. Whatever. For now its cool. I’ve been doing this crap for 8 years. At 10, maybe it’ll be time to just do the consulting thing.

At least I have my office back.

After a year at Tarzana, I finally moved back to Encino and have my view of Ventura Blvd.

Whoo hoo! The person they kicked out of here is probably pissed. But damn, it was MY office to begin with.

Okay enough of that...

So Wednesday evening, trying desperately to not let yelling kids get to me, I finally went to the gym and took my stress out on a workout.

I was unmotivated, uninspired, unmotivated and uninspired. Yeah, a double. I got into what was a crowded-ass pool with teenagers all over the fuckin’ place. The sign says, no more than 2 per lane. There were 3 WHO WEREN’T SWIMMING in lane one, two in lane two and 3 in lane three (1 who was just crossing over to join her damn friends back in lane one). I sat at the step and was going to raise hell when I said, ‘fuck it’. I got in, TOLD the one person in lane one I was taking half and took off for my 400 meter swim. My authority and confidence made them scoot over and hug the wall. Idiots.

Yeah, they moved over. I was like a submarine powering through the water. Who cares what they think. If you want me to run into you I will.

So halfway down the lane I’m forgetting the crappy day, but I’m thinking ‘take it out on every stroke’. So every stroke counted like a punch on a punching bag. Bang, bang, bang… touch the wall and bang, bang, bang. Touch the wall again and bang… bang… slap… 40 meters and my arms were like rubber. So I relaxed from the bang, bang, bang, practiced bi-lateral breathing to stay more even on every stroke and didn’t take more than a 5 second rest on the wall - if that. It felt good. The best 400 meters I’ve ever done. Not as far as time, but as far as effort and technique. 11 minutes and 15 seconds.

I needed to relax in the Jacuzzi for a few minutes. One lady was complaining about how hot it was and they shouldn’t make it so hot. Get out then, damnit! If you can’t take the heat… I closed my eyes and ignored her. Suddenly it shut off and I felt a sigh of relief from the lady. This is a Jacuzzi. It’s supposed to be hot! So I got up and turned it back on again. Ten minutes of that and I was ready for my run.

Why do some of these treadmills only allow you to run for 30 minutes? Well, this one only allowed me to run for 20 minutes. Which was okay because that’s all I wanted to do. But why only 30? I wanted to fit in as many miles in 20 minutes as I could. I wanted to go fast but not at an incredible pace that I couldn’t walk afterwards. So in 20 minutes I did 2.14 miles on a 1.0 incline. It felt good. But my ankle hurt a little after the run.

150 situps on a fitness ball and some serious stretching later I was out the door to Barnes & Noble.

I bought three books. One for my coworker who is leaving for Arizona.

Hope he likes it. I loved the first one. Now I want this one. He has over 1,000 movies on his Netflix Queue. He watches a couple a night! AWESOME!

And two books for me.

Comic books that is.

Yeah… I couldn’t resist. I actually own these original comic books (except for Giant Size 1). That little collection of mine is worth more than $1,000. I haven’t read them since I was 16ish. So I wanted to read them again.

I read the first one (issue) - kinda cheesy to be honest. But I’ll stick with it. It’s something to read at the pool WHILE WE’RE IN SAN DIEGO, BABY!

Yeah, next week - three nights in a Resort Spa. Lego Land, a Dodger vs Padre game and then a drive back home with a stop at Disneyland! Oh, I can’t forget that I have a Triathlon on Saturday morning and my birthday party at The Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills!

Two more days, baby… two more days!

Oh, and just as an afterthought… isn’t this movie the best cycling movie ever made?

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
My Rating: 9/10

One of my all time favorite RomComs of all time. The writing, the acting, the story… the structure, the comedic timing, the directing… everything was spot on. Except for Dermot Mulroney. Unfortunately, I just don’t like him. If I did maybe this movie could be a perfect RomCom. Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz played well opposite each other and of course Rupert Everett stole the show! A must see for anyone who likes Romantic Comedies!

Favorite scene: The karaoke scene - This is where Julia realizes its gonna be tough. Cameron Diaz completely nailed the scene and Julia Roberts’ amazing internal roller coaster of emotions is all in this one scene. Brilliant!

Note: Julia Roberts says this to Michael… “Choose me. Marry me. Let me make you happy.”

“Grey’s Anatomy” fans does this sound familiar? Meredith Grey says to Dr. McDreamy, “So pick me, choose me, love me. ”

Hmmm.

Aliens (1986)
My Rating: 9/10

One of the best action movies ever!!! - in my opinion of course. Is it horror? Sci-Fi horror? Action/Horror? Maybe. Probably. Regardless, it is an awesome Action/Sci-Fi/Horror film however you want to class it. Of course Sigourney Weaver was awesome in it. The ‘Aliens’ films to follow, horrible! Absolute rubbish. Trash. Crap! But Aliens; fun, exciting, suspenseful, heart warming (I think) and a roller coaster ride full of thrills. Watch the extended version DVD with scenes that actually show Newt and the Alien earlier than the original release. This movie is great.

Just check out the Awards and Nominations for Awards:
1987 Academy Award®: Best Visual Effects
1987 Academy Award®: Best Sound Effects Editing
1987 Academy Award®: Best Music Score nominee
1987 Academy Award®: Best Art Direction nominee
1987 Academy Award®: Best Film Editing nominee
1987 Academy Award®: Best Actress nominee: Sigourney Weaver
1987 Academy Award®: Best Sound nominee
AFI®: Top 100 Thrills nominee

Favorite scene: When Bishop shows up with the drop ship just when the mother alien comes out of the elevator! A favorite scene could be the “Get away from her, you bitch!” scene, which was classic, but even twenty years after my initial viewing I can still remember how I felt when Bishop showed up behind the platform to rescue Ripley and Newt from the Mother Alien. Awesome!

Cry Wolf (2005)
My Rating: 7/10

A fun movie overall. Kinda scary. Kinda mysterious. Kinda “Usual Suspects” storytelling but not in the same league at all so I’m not comparing - just as far as twists are concerned it’s, well, similar. Maybe that’s a bad example. Forget I even said it. Lets start over…

A fun movie overall. Kinda scary. Kinda mysterious. Kinda Scream. See, that’s where it should be compared to. “Scream”. There are major holes in it but I totally bought into it as a horror flick and accepted everything that they threw at me. I liked the acting of Owen (Julian Morris). Other than that, the rest of the cast were there to fill in the roles. Dodger (Lindy Booth) was just a pretty face but she looked ten years past high school age. And she played a senior in highschool. I just looked up her age… 27. What the hell casting is that anyway? I don’t care if you’re 27 and playing an 18 year old, but shouldn’t you look 18 or something? I call this movie, Beverly Hills, 90210 meets April Fool’s Day but better than both. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention… Jon Bon Jovi is in it.

Favorite scene: The very first scene of the movie – the tease – the murder. After that, nothing special.

June 4, 2006

No… I didn’t get a brick for my birthday…

I did one.

No… It has nothing to do with sitting on the toilet.

BRick: B=bike, R=run… When you run after biking it feels icky… hence Bike+Run = ‘ick’… a “BRick”. But in honesty, after you bike several miles and go for a run your legs do feel like bricks are strapped to them. Try it!

The goal was to get out of the house by 7:00 AM and do the “BRick”. I actually got out of there at 7:45.

I’m way behind in my Tri-Training. Consider this - I haven’t been on my bike since the UCLA Triathlon on April 9th. That’s TWO MONTHS! And I have a Triathlon on June 10th and had to get on the bike and do a run at least once before then.

So I did.

Goal: a 6 mile ride (2 laps around the Rose Bowl) and a 3 mile run (1 lap around).

Hmmm… Normally, an 8AM ride would mean a few people out and about riding and running around. I wanted to beat the heat and so did everyone else. It was packed! Which is great. I feed on the energy of people out there getting fit and getting their workout in before the rest of the day. It’s an awesome feeling. You don’t go home without a good workout when so many people are there with the same intention.

Side note: One awesome thing about my Odyssey Mini-Van is that I can just stash my bike into the back after my ride and lock it then go for a run with no worries.

Okay, despite being off the saddle for two months, the ride wasn’t that bad. It starts with an incline and I just wanted to take it easy. But my legs felt good so I was able push it more than expected. Effort level was very important because I had to save some for a run. I managed it pretty well. I felt the burn in my legs a little early and I couldn’t pedal every inch of the way. Normally I can keep a cadence of at least 70 RPMs on my pedals throughout the whole ride. Especially the speed portion. But I had to rest my legs and didn’t hammer down like I like. I normally can ride on the big gear much longer but I didn’t want to push it so I took it easy.

The ride was fun. Relaxing. Easy. But not too easy. And it was faster than expected. I usually do the Rose Bowl at an average speed of around 16mph. I was surprised to log my times and found I was at my average. My running and weight training has definitely strengthened my legs and if I push it on the bike, I know I can up my MPH significantly. This is a good sign.

After the 6 miles I got to my car and quickly put my bike in the back, got on my running shoes, my iPod and grabbed another bottle of water. The transition time took about 2 minutes. I locked everything up and off I went.

Holy Shit. At first it didn’t seem so bad. But then it felt like I was lifting my feet with bricks attached and pounding them on the ground. Every stride felt worse and worse and worse. After .3 miles into the run (point 3 miles!!!) I gave in. I walked. It was a horrible feeling. Not the physical part I was experiencing but the mental part of not having enough power to convince myself to keep running. I was so discouraged in myself. I thought in five days I’ll have to do this all over. This after an open water swim in fact. It was very frustrating!

It only took about 20 seconds before I won the mental game. I picked up my feet and started to run. My legs know how it feels to lift my feet and move. I’ve done it enough times. I just had to do it through the pain. It felt like I was moving inches after every step but I checked my Garmin and it showed a high 10 minute mile pace. That’s pretty good after going for a bike ride. So no matter how slow it felt, I was actually moving faster than I thought. I kept reminding myself that after one mile things would get easier. It always does.

At a mile and a half I started to feel good again. I kept concentrated on every single step. I count every step at a 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 pace in my head to distract my mind from the pain. Like a march in double time Often times I talk to myself, ‘cmon, move, lets go…” and it helps me move my legs.

The last half mile or so I didn’t have ‘a kick’. It was a run at pace. I didn’t have it in me to go faster or harder. I just wanted to finish. And by god I did!

I took a four minute walk to cool down before getting to my car. I poured cool water on my head, downed my Gatorade and stretched. I turned on the radio to the STARBUCKS XM RADIO STATION and relaxed for about ten minutes. I watched people running with their dogs, parents pushing strollers and people riding on their bikes. I watched a guy struggle with a bike rack and felt like telling him he should sell the bike rack and buy an Odyssey.

It felt so good to do what I did. It was awesome. I can’t wait to do it again next year - on my 40th Birthday. But next year I hope to do a 20 mile bike and a 6 mile run! Or more!

Here are my splits:

BIKE:
Mile 1 04:30, Speed 13.3 mph
Mile 2 04:06, Speed 14.6 mph
Mile 3 02:46, Speed 21.7 mph
Mile 4 04:00, Speed 15.0 mph
Mile 5 04:03, Speed 14.8 mph
Mile 6 02:41, Speed 22.4 mph
Mile .31 01:05, Speed 17.2 mph

TOTAL: 6.31 miles in 23:11 with an average speed of 16.3 mph which is an average 03:40 min mile.

RUN
Mile 1 10:19, Speed 5.8 mph
Mile 2 10:24, Speed 5.8 mph
Mile 3 09:55, Speed 6.1 mph

TOTAL: 3.0 miles in 30:38 with an average speed of 5.9 mph which is an average 10:13 min mile. Pretty close to my 10k averages from last Sunday!

I’m 39. Wow. This year came and went - FAST. And the 9 year old reference has to do with going to the Dodger game today in the unbearable heat. It was horrible. If I was 9 I wouldn’t have noticed. I would have stayed there all day if I could. But I was so fricken miserable, the kids were getting burned despite the sunscreen, and they weren’t really into the game.

So we left.

In the FOURTH INNING!!!!!!!!

Not such a great birthday game.

But… i biked 6 miles and ran 3 for a BRick today at the Rose Bowl. I enjoyed that more than watching my beloved Dodgers in the heat. And boy, did the run feel like my legs were bricks. More about that later. Lets just say I’ve never been more sore in 6 months training than I am right now. UGH.

Off to a surprise birthday party in Santa Monica. No, not for me though. LOL