Movies, debates, cousins and clips

Many things going on here in the Bubble 'Burbs, and yet What to write about? This weekend we welcomed Auntie A and the M cousins, Little M and Big M, which has accounted for mucho grande good times. Big E realized her recent dream of being allowed to babysit for her little cousins. Bubble Boy laid low in the background while Big E took charge of the little girls and her brother while Auntie A and I were gallavanting around Austin. Upon our return everyone was in tact, fed and relatively clean so she earned herself a cool $10. Not bad for a first gig.

I think this is where she kept them while we were gone.

Part of that Sister Time was spent watching Burn After Reading. Great performances by all the big players, George Clooney who plays a paranoid sexaholic, Brad Pitt as the dim-witted personal trainer, Frances McDormand as the depressed, desperate middle-aged woman feeling the weight of years of loneliness and the prospect of being unloved forever. And John Malkovich. Lordy, that man. I can't even imagine him as being anything in life other than an actor. Right? Can you see John Malkovich selling cars? Or being a dentist? No. He's an Actor. So, the acting and writing were fabulous. I'm still deciding on the story. The Coen brothers often leave me wondering What's the Point? and I'm thinking that IS the point. This is life. Random things happen. Innocent actions can set into motion an entire range of events that can affect an infinite number of people in an infinite number of ways and why? Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. So there is no "point". Just a "Look. See what happened when this person did that?"


Auntie A and I have also spent many hours catching up on the political and financial upheaval of the past week by watching clip after clip via various internet news organizations, including The Onion, where one can always count on up-to-the-minute, unbiased coverage that will bring a smile during even the most dire of circumstances. Thank goodness because couldn't we all use one? I also enjoyed this account of Sarah Palin's CBS interview. Katie Couric's interview equivalent of a colonoscopy.



Big E asked to stay up and watch the debate Friday night (our old TV has rabbit ears that will pull in a static-y signal from PBS, so we spent much of the debate explaining the difference between Wall Street and Main Street and just who were Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and why did their parents give them such silly names? It was painful to watch without the DVR function for which I had developed such a deep and abiding addiction. No pausing for witty commentaries of contempt or rewinding to hear the brilliant or the ridiculous one more time. How did we manage to hear things the first time for so many years? Somehow we coped and were able to muddle through.

Now the house is quiet, the cousins back on the road heading home. The next few hours free to relax, recharge and get ready for the week ahead. In these parts if you don't hit the ground running on Monday morning you don't stand a chance of keeping your head above water.