Unique Saturday...

Today has been literally the strangest day in recent history.

I woke up at 8:30am, which is a rarity for me on a Saturday. Normally, Saturday is reserved for decompression and recuperation, which means that seeing my ass out of bed prior to noon is a special occasion.

However, I think the excitement of going to go see "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" shorted out my sleep circuits...either that, or the ear infection I've been unsuccessfully fighting for the last week. One of the two...

So once my wife finally finished getting ready (a process which takes the better part of three hours), we walked to the train station and arrived just as our train left. We decided to walk down to the next train station and caught a bus going the same way about halfway down.

We got to Cityplace Station eventually, I ran in to the Loew's Cineplex and picked up our two tickets, then we walked over to Whataburger for lunch. I was...less than impressed. I felt like I was eating a Whopper with half the taste.

New Personal Rule #1: Any place that my co-worker's rave about shall now be viewed with abject skepticism.

We walk back over to the theater and end up as the first ones in our particular theater. This was notable as this is the first movie we've gone to see since I arrived in Texas. It was also notable because I realized exactly how much Loew's hated us. While the theater was large enough for an opening weekend show, the seats were literally the worst seats I've been in since the last time I went to the discount theater in Kaysville, Utah.

New Personal Rule #2: Loew's sucks...go to AMC instead.

So I watch the movie with only a minor allergic reaction to the seeing eye dogs that the blind couple brought in with them, and I must say that while it doesn't hold a candle to the books, it is a well-written, well-acted piece in its own right. My wife, who hasn't read the books, loved it. I give it a 3 of 5 stars, she gives it a 4 of 5. If you go, stay through the end credits for a modified in-joke for people who read the books in the guise of a Guide entry.

We try to figure out what to do next, and I get a wild hair up my ass and decide to go to Mockingbird Station and explore a bit. We get to Mockingbird in a matter of moments, and I decide to treat my wife to a place that neither of us had been to...Cold Stone Creamery.

New Personal Rule #3: Cold Stone Creamery doesn't hold a candle to Nielsen's Frozen Custard back in Utah, but it's a good enough substitute for me.

We enjoy our desserts, wonder why a dessert restaurant wouldn't have any seating at all, and walk over to the Virgin Megastore. I finally see Darth Tater, and my wife nearly buys a babydoll tank that says, "I Slept With The Guitar Player." At that point, I think that we should drop by Lone Star Comics and see if they got my art back.

We hop on the bus, and when we get off at Mockingbird and Abrams, we split up. My wife goes to try to find a solution for her hair problem, and I go to Lone Star. They have some extremely cute yarn plushies of the Hitchhiker characters in, including a lovable Marvin plush. Nobody remembers me from 24-Hour Comics Day, but the moment my wife walks in, they say, "Hey, I remember you! Lego Spaghetti!" They give me my art back, and say that someone called me to tell me to come pick it up. News to me...

I pick up a copy of "The Settlers of Catan" from them so I can keep my current record of never leaving the store empty-handed. On my way out of the store, I see this lady fawning over the Marvin plush with her son there looking embarrassed. I make an off-hand remark about how much it looks like the Marvin yarn figure in the movie, and she goes off about how she saw it last night, how faithful it was to "Doug Adams'" vision, how it didn't "cheat" the books, and how she never envisioned Zaphod having a Texas accent. She thought it was a perfect dig at the current president.

So not only do I get to see the strangest movie in recent history and eat the lamest meat there is to be had in Texas, I also find that the fact that I'm balding from the chin back is not as memorable as my wife's choice of cooking containers and the first Texas Democrat I meet is a "Doug Adams" fan.

Oh, did I miss that? I have a growing section on my face that will not grow hair. It started in the center of my chin, and has now grown to an oval that's about 2" by 1 1/2". Evidently, I can't even go bald normally.

Finally, we head out to catch the bus back, and the bus arrives early, thereby ensuring we'll miss it.

New Personal Rule #4: Buses in Dallas are as early as my wife is late on average...

So anyway, I'm home now. Tomorrow, I'll start scanning in the comic. I'm going to put it on my my domain in a dedicated section. I'm also going to transcribe the dialog in a screen-reader friendly format, and put in "director's commentary" describing what went through my mind during the 12 hour 33 minute experience. Hopefully, I'll have all 26 pages up by the time I go to bed on Sunday.

Well, good night.