We're having date week, with the kids at DisneyWorld with my parents we've been doing lots of fun stuff we can't do with the girls around, like watching movies, going to thrift shops and garbage picking. With the girls gone the house settles into a much more relaxed rhythm, there's no hurrying to get some sort of dinner on the table, no kids off to school, or anything.

The weekend was good, but a little rushed as we got the girls ready for their trip. I did have a scary time on Sunday, I had a caramel from there Easter candy (bad, bad) and it took out my crowns (which were only held in with temporary cement). The drugstore sold repair cement, so I was able to clean them off, and stick them back in. The dental assistant said I did a good job, too. Now they're in permanently.

I took off Monday and Wednesday, in those two days we hit five thrift shops, one garage sale and took an hour long walk on garbage night. Mrs. Ha got some interview clothing, my whole haul was a book on Rommel. I hope later in the spring as the wasteful college kids move out and people leave apartments the garbage picking will get better.

It wasn't all shopping though, there were movies!

I had been curious about Brick since I read a great review a few years back. I really enjoyed it, but you have to suspend a lot of belief, it's a theatrical noir set in a suburban California high school. The kids don't talk like teenagers I know, and don't pose or act like teenagers I know, there's a disconnect between their appearance and setting and the hard boiled dialogue, at times it reminded me of Bugsy Malone. But if you go with it, it becomes on hell of a film.

In Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy on 3rd Rock), plays a loner worried about his ex girlfriend. While he has the artsy glasses wearing Encyclopedia Britannica geek thing going on at first glance, he ends up kicking serious ass to kick to the bottom of his ex's disappearance.

Surprisingly, the imdb fourms were scant for a recent film. This mystery was solved when I found out the  writer/director has an active blog with forum, Rian's BRICK forum, where you can read all about it, and even interact with the writer/director and a few of the cast members. That's where I got the description of Breakfast Club, too.

The streak of ANZAC movies continues with An Angel at My Table, about some Kiwi poet. It didn't really engage me, but Mrs. Ha liked it. Instead, I played Magic Realm.

For those who don't know, Magic Realm was Avalon Hill's attempt to cash in on the early 80's D&D craze with a hex based game with no DM required. It does work surprising well, but needs a thick rulebook and a lot of set up time to replace the DM. It made it tough and tedious in the 80's, but now, with the magic of Java, it's been redone as somethign called Realmspeak (google it). To someone unfamiliar with Magic Realm, Realmspeak comes off as a clunky poor cousin to Betrayal at Krondor, but on the other hand, it's unscripted, you decided what each character's goals are and how to meet them. 

I ended taking off Friday because my car was acting funny, the temperature gauge kept rising and rising. The garage was good enough to get me in and out in a day, and $200 later, the thermostat was replaced, as were some hoses and seals that suffered from overheating.

It ended up being a providential day to take off, I found a replacement headlight bucket for my Kawasaki at a garage sale for $3, as well as CD's from Ani, Flogging Molly, the Descendants and Cake.

Mrs. Ha has been looking for a new job and has had a few interviews at smaller offices. We hope something comes through, the flower shop is cutting her hours, and it's shitty work.

Stay tuned for the next diary, in which we talk new games, men fishing over dead girl, Tiffany Aching, wrenching, and more!