grrgoyl

Jito the pitbull was a lot better this weekend than last -- running out to the yard like a pro, even acting affectionate enough for me to let him lick my face (not without a tiny twinge of apprehension). I think this is because of Hamish, a Scottie pup that ruled the ward. At first I thought he resembled a vacuum cleaner beater brush, dashing around on his short legs with his long fringe brushing the ground. Then he would start spinning around and he looked more like a Roomba.

Then he would strut back inside, chest all puffed out, full of attitude. I watched him stop at Jito's cage. They'd stare at each other for a moment, then Jito would suddenly remember something he had to do on the opposite end of the run-thru. Leave it to a Scottie to have the stones to stare down a pitbull. By the end of the weekend they were more like pals. Here they are saying hello:



Tery supplied Hamish's voice for me -- since the Scottish is a bit trickier, he sounded decidedly Irish instead. "Jito, lad! What sort of name is that, Jito? Never mind. We're breakin' out t'night. You be the muscle and I'll be the brains, sonny boy!"

I also had Leo, a wee Italian greyhound. Although I didn't photograph him in action, he was all spindly Daddy long-legs. Adorable:



Another example of the lack of respect Tery gets at work: She specifically asked an employee to clean off the filthy, dust- and hair-covered emergency light at the foot of the stairwell. She ran her finger through it to demonstrate how dirty it was.

The next day it hadn't been touched. Tery happened to be walking with the same employee and asked her about it. She insisted up and down that she'd cleaned it, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. When I went in that night she asked me to look at it. Sure enough, an inch of dust and enough fur to make another small dog sat up there. There was no way in HELL anyone had touched it in months, let alone hours.

The lesson here is if you're going to lie about completing a task, make sure it isn't so quantifiable. I mean, techically I'm supposed to mop every night, but frankly the floor is so old and scarred that there's really no telling whether I do or not, so I tend to just spot wipe. But when Tery makes an exception and tells me specifically to do something, I do it. The other lesson is her employees clearly operate under the motto, "If you ignore something long enough, someone else is bound to come along and do it for you."

On a lighter note, one of those singing rubber fish plaques has sat on the wall in the hallway for as long as I can remember. This weekend I walked past it and it suddenly burst into life, singing "I Found My Thrill (on Blueberry Hill)" and wolf whistling at me. My heart just about jumped out of my chest. I took it down, shut it off, and left a note about how little I needed strange voices jumping out at me in the middle of the night (to sort of make up for my other insulting notes).

~*~

Next, a few reviews I've been putting off out of pure laziness (I apologize for the sheer number, but never let it be said I do things halfway, even laziness):

Tery called me one night at the hospital, all excited because she had finally tracked down a horror movie from her childhood based purely on her memory of an ankle-high, homicidal fetish doll. Yes, it's the ( ::Trilogy of Terror!!!!:: )

Tery remembers seeing this in high school and all her classmates being abuzz over it on Monday. Watching it through our jaded, adult eyes, the only thought on our minds was how to bring this to the attention of the MST3k team.

~*~

I got a call from Chris, Tery's ex-technician and some-time friend, he of the "You may not like this movie, but you'll RESPECT this movie" when talking about such stinkers as Reign of Fire and All the Pretty Horses. He was calling looking for Tery, but apparently had unfinished business wth me.

"We haven't had a movie exchange in awhile," he said. Because you have appalling taste in movies, I thought. He asked if I were still mad about All the Pretty Horses -- no, if anything I was still mad about Reign of Fire and being tricked into enduring a Matthew McConaghey movie.

I asked him if he'd ever seen Unleashed -- for some reason that came to mind as something that would appeal to him, because unlike him, I try to take his tastes into consideration. Unleashed, if you haven't seen it, is a Jet Li martial arts film with heart. Bob Hoskins trains him from childhood to become a vicious killing machine when his collar is removed, like a pitbull. After a chance meeting with Morgan Freeman and his step-daughter, Danny the Dog starts to learn he can have a normal life when living among decent people who don't treat him as subhuman. It was a surprising, heartwarming gem of a film and I thought Chris would like it both for that and the fighting.

He agreed to it. Then he said if I liked Jet Li and fighting movies, I should watch The Replacement Killers with Jet Li. I enthusiastically agreed. Then he called back a short while later and said it was actually Chow Yun Fat. I liked him in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon so said it was fine.

( ::More of this thrilling story under here:: )

I just sat through it, wondering if Chris had ever spoken to me or knew anything about me at all. To make matters worse, it was on VHS and it wasn't even rewound when I got it. If you insist on loaning me a damn VHS tape, PLEASE don't make me rewind it first.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: One of my favorite movies of all time is Carrington, a slow-moving but touching story about the odd love between artist Dora Carrington and homosexual writer Lytton Strachey during World War I. I would never in a million years loan it to Chris, because I'm sure he would hate every second of it. Because I believe the purpose of having a movie exchange is to say, "Here's a movie I enjoy that I'm reasonably sure you might too." Not to say, "Here's a movie I enjoy that I don't care if you do or not, but you'll RESPECT it."

I've decided at this point in my life that I've had it up to HERE with people saying, "You should watch this, you would love this. Oh, you want me to watch what? No thank you, not interested."

One of his other choices was ( ::Guarding Tess:: ) At least this proves I suppose that Chris isn't a fan solely of dick flicks.

He called back a week later and somehow maneuvered the conversation in such a way that he got my feedback on his movies while saying not a word about mine. Something else I'm sick and tired of in my life.

~*~

I almost forgot about ( ::Extras:: )

I'm not at all pleased with the new trick of calling six episodes a "season." Not at all. I'm looking at YOU, BBC. It seems your reality shows and sitcoms aren't the only things America is stealing.

~*~

Finally Ryan and I went to see ( ::Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:: -- note: decidedly spoily ) I also thought this was a great stopping place, so let's let Harrison relax and enjoy his golden years.