Yesterday we got a late start for our rainy drive down to Dallas. We arrived at 12:20 for the noon showing of Oscar-nominated shorts. The only good thing about arriving late for a series of shorts is that if one misses some shorts, there are still other shorts to be seen. The bad thing is that twenty minutes can encompass a lot of short films.
Still, we enjoyed the animated shorts we did get to see, which still amounted to about eighty minutes of film. I was most partial to the "Peter and the Wolf" and also the animation of the recording of the 14 year old's real interview with John Lennon.
When the movie ended at 1:40, we found that Juno was set to begin its next showing at 1:50. We purchased a new set of tickets and settled in for a movie afternoon. We enjoyed Juno very much. I had been concerned based on an interview with the screenwriter and director on NPR that Juno would be a bit full of itself, but we found it instead a pleasant small movie.
We went to downtown McKinney and went to the Turkish imports store. It was having a moving sale, as it readied to move across the square. Everything was 1/2 price. My wife bought a lovely Turkish sculpture plate to use as a future holiday gift, while I contented myself with a tiny Indonesian whistle roughly half the length of my pinky finger.
We then went to Rick's Chop House, the restaurant elegantly placed in a restored hotel in the square. The place has been "turning people away" crowded since its opening, which is very unlike McKinney if one discounts the wait for seating at the local fajita chain restaurant at 8 p.m. on date night. I suspected prior to our arrival that its popularity would be based on an extremely safe menu of fancified comfort food, and my prediction proved accurate. Whether steak or smoked chicken or salmon, everything was unadventurous food cooked with a nod to nouvelle. I enjoyed my chicken very much, while the pork chop they served my wife could have fed a militia. The overall experience was very friendly, and the food was well-prepared. It's the kind of restaurant to which one takes people of an earlier generation, and there is nothing wrong with that.
We looked in a nearby antique store after dinner, where lots of great merchandise was reviewed, but I confined my purchases to one package of candy cigarettes. "I know they're supposed to be gateway drugs to nicotine", I explained, "but I have never smoked a real one yet".
Today the rain stayed away. After we sang pop pleasant songs at the "contemporary service" at church, I watched the sparrows crowding for seed at the feeder as if they were long-lost cousins at a family reunion. I liked the "aikido ninja" peaceful "dance on your head so you'll move" pacifist demonstration made by birds desirous of seeds communicating with birds already engorged with seed.
We walked 2 1/2 miles around Towne Lake Park, where we saw cormorants and one bird that looked like a mountain bluebird, except that I think it is far too early for mountain bluebirds. Then we went to the mall and had a successful quest for the brand of dress sock I wear. I did not realize that the dress sock is now subdivided into so many styles that finding one's own style of gold toe is a bit like finding one's favorite chateau vineyard's carafe of wine at the local liquor store. We dined on hamburgers and leftover salad, and called it a restful weekend.