Two Plus Two

Alyssa and I have now been married for two months and two days, and I must say it has been completely incredible. She has completely blown my mind. She gets up with me at 6 every morning, makes my lunch, makes me coffee, and sends me off with a smile and a kiss (or two). She makes dinner every night the two of us are at home, and typically does an incredible job. She's trying new recipes, experimenting with things we know we like and truly being the most amazing housewife ever!

I told her when I came home from my first day of work after the honeymoon, and she greeted me with a full glass of ice water and a bowl of fresh made guacamole that her performance as my wife so far was not only much more than I expected but also significantly more than I needed. Well so far as I can tell, she's only getting better and better as time goes on.

Here's a little taste of our nights in Paris on the honeymoon. This is looking at the back of Notre Dame from the East on the bridge in between Ile St. Louis and Ile de la Cite or something like that. (French spelling is definitely not my strongest academic discipline.)

The Apartment

Alyssa and I got through our 21st film of the AFI top 100 on Saturday, "The Apartment" starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. I enjoyed it, Alyssa had seen it previously and wasn't interested in paying complete attention to it, due to its less than uplifting story. Essentially, Jack Lemmon is a pushover, he takes a bunch of crap for an extended period of time before he realizes, screw it, it just isn't worth it. Shirley is the love interest, and wow, I have to say, you can see the much, much older, Shirley MacLaine in the young, beautiful elevator operator, and she really has aged very well. It's nice to see the young woman be improved by age.
And that's all I have to say about that.

Quick Catch Up

Sooooo... It's been a while but I thought I'd take a quick second and update the movie list. We watched "Spartacus" a week or so ago. It was blah, though seeing Kirk Douglas as a bad ass was interesting considering I'm most used to seeing him as a decrepit old man at The Oscars. We barely even watched it. Oh well.
I've been trying to consider the reason certain films have been included in this list, like the silent movie we watched the other day. Or the other month really, we're kind of slow. Anyway, at the time "Spartacus" was released, it probably blew people's minds the same way "Jurassic Park" or even more recently "Avatar" did. Which is great, but forty years from now "Jurassic Park", in my opinion, will still be appreciated for the original, interesting and entertaining story, as well as the great acting by the old dude that played Santa in Miracle on 34th Street (the remake). But "Avatar" and so far as I'm concerned, "Spartacus" just don't have that staying power. Though the blood, sex, blood, sex and sex "Spartacus" television show on Starz would argue that.
Epic storytelling is great, in every medium, if it is interesting, and original, and entertaining. When it is lacking (for my one regular reader) one or more of those elements it will fail to stand up to the test of time.
Perhaps my generation, myself included, is used to a faster pace or a story that doesn't seem so unnecessarily drawn out. Or we just don't have the patience to stick with a 3.5 hour long movie. Though I've watched "Dances With Wolves" multiple times without any problems. "Spartacus" did nothing to pull me in to the viewing experience, which is a shame because there really is a decent story to be told there.
"Spartacus" gets 2 thumbs down from Alyssa and I, or at least 2 thumbs sideways. We didn't hate it, we just didn't care.

Anyway, the point of this post was to mention the movie and to let any readers I may have out there that I know it has been a while and yes, I do intend to continue blogging here. I need to let all the stuff from the wedding and honeymoon sink in a little bit, not to mention actually upload pictures to the computer before I can blog about it.
So when we get really settled in, I can start working on those types of things rather than building Target furniture, which we love, and hanging pictures, which I don't love, though I do love seeing them on the wall. Unfortunately, moving in and becoming settled takes a while, so just keep on waiting. As much as I love typing and telling about myself, ultimately life is more important, especially when I have such a lovely, wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, gorgeous, hardworking new wife to share it with!