March 25, 2003

I got up this morning and headed off to Johnson City to go to the dentist. After my teeth cleaning, I went to Endicott to the CTG office where Loopy and I used to work to have lunch with Sue, our old boss from our IBM days. We went to a new Italian restaurant in Endicott that was really good. Then I drove over to Big Flats and went to Walmart and Barnes and Nobles. I found a Linux book that I have been looking for.

I did some work on the computer after getting back and then Min and I went out to do some grocery shopping at Wegmans. After getting back, we did some cleaning of the refridgerator. Then Min and I decided to watch a couple episodes of Coupling which is still awesome. We only have one more episode of the series left.

March 24, 2003

I started the day by doing some laundry down at the laundromat. I spent the morning doing that and had lunch with Dominica. After lunch, I headed out to a meeting with Steve Lucente which ran from 2:00 until 9pm. So the news of the day is rather short. After the meeting, I came home and pretty much went straight to bed.

March 23, 2003

I did a little research and found out that there was only ever three series of Father Ted ever made. So we now have the entire collection. I know that everyone is really anxious to borrow the series, Eric has it right now. Min and I watched two episodes of Father Ted to start off the day. I needed a FT fix.

After a little Father Ted, we watched the classic Disney live action film Babes in Toyland with Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands. I had never seen it before but Min really likes it. It is Disney’s first musical made in 1961, the same year as the Parent Trap.

After Babes in Toyland, Min and I decided to finish watching the rest of Father Ted Series 3 plus the bonus episode. It is kind of sad because the actor who played the part of Father Ted died the day after they finished filming this season. While we were watching the bonus episode, Loopy came home from his week in Canada. But, he had some work to do for Lifestyle Properties so he just ran into the room for a second and ran right out the door again.

Dominica made a Chicken Pot Pie for dinner. Nate and Tammy went out house hunting again. They think that they may have found one that they really like not too far from Ithaca.

Min and I tried a new series called “Coupling” which has turned out to be awesome. Kind of like a British version of Seinfeld only up to date and much funnier with more interesting characters. We are really liking the show. We only have series one but two and three have already been made but only the first one is released on DVD so far.

Loopy, Bob and I watched some of Father Ted Series II and Min went to study her MicroBiology. Everyone has fallen in love with Father Ted. It is really awesome.

March 22, 2003

Dominica told me this morning that she has never seen The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh before. So we got up early this morning and hooked up the laser disc player and watched it. She has been playing that Kingdom Hearts video game based on the Disney movie so she knew a lot of the parts of the stories but didn’t know how they all fit together and she hadn’t realized that all of the parts of the video games where straight out of the movie.

After watching Winnie the Pooh, we popped in the original Parent Trap. What a great movie that is. The Parent Trap is one of my all time favorite Disney live action movies ever. The Parent Trap represents the height of the Disney “era.”

While we were watching all of these Disney movies, I decided to make a page that lists all of the Full Length Animated Features. I also added a list showing which ones of the movies are in the collection. I am only about a dozen movies shy of having the entire collection – and, according to Amazon, all of the movies that I don’t currently have are all available. On the list, Beauty and the Beast is listed as Min DVD because it is the only one that Dominica has that I don’t. So I wanted it listed anyway. So I specified. Now I am anxious to own the rest of the collection. It is tempting when I am so close to owning them all. Min is very anxious to get Swiss Family Robinson.

I finally got around to adding the Assorted Views on France page that Eric sent to me weeks ago. It is one of the funniest additions to our Funnies section that we have had in a long time.

After the Parent Trap, Min wanted another live action Disney movie so we popped in In Search of the Castaways. It isn’t the most classic Disney film ever but it is ok. Nothing compared to the Parent Trap. Actually, it is pretty silly and almost all of the scenery is done with a camera projecting random rocks behind the actors and all of the distance shots actually look like a painting and not like a real place.

At 6:00, the house went out to celebrate Nate’s birthday at Maxie’s Supper Club. Nate, Tammy, Bob, Zach, Min and I all made it out. Dinner was a lot of fun; it is nice to get to have a “family” outing from time to time.

After dinner, Min and I went on a Disney movie shopping spree because we have been addicted to them all day and the rest of the gang headed up to Ithaca College for the Choir Concert. Well, Min and I did pretty well and we managed to get Swiss Family Robinson, Babes in Toyland, The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, Make Mine Music, Melody Time, The Three Caballeros, The Fox and the Hound, Dumbo and The Sword in the Stone. As you will be able to see from my Disney page, we now have every one of the full length Disney animated features except for Saludos Amigos (which is in moratorium and we haven’t been able to find yet,) Mulan (which we forgot to pick up) and Lilo and Stitch (which I thought was awful.) One thing that I have learned is that I really don’t like the early Disney films. Of the first fourteen movies, only Bambi is good and it is very sad. Other than that, the early movies have bad or no stories with weird art. But number fifteen was Lady and the Tramp which was one of the greatest cartoons ever made and the streak of great movies continued all the way until Pocahontas ruined it in the nineties. During the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties Disney managed to turn out an amazing feature film every couple of years.

When we got back to the house, Min and I popped in The Three Caballeros. That has got to be one of the worst cartoons ever. There is no story or plot and even the music is pretty bad. It is mostly just Donald Duck watching a travelogue about South America. I have read before that the early 1940’s were a time for great appreciation of all things Latin American here in the US and so Disney made two big filmes about South America.

After that bad movie, we decided to watch something safe, so we popped in Swiss Family Robinson which I haven’t seen in forever. It is nice to get to see it after all these years in the original wide screen. On the Disney Vault DVD, it is so much better than it was on television over the years.