Belated Friday Five:

1. What was the last TV show you watched?
At the gym tonight I caught the premiere of “My Big Fat Greek Life”. Confession: I never saw the movie the show is based on. I meant to, and up til tonight I was planning on renting it. But given how dumb the show looked (even with no sound), I can’t say I’m eager to run out to Blockbuster and pick it up. (And has anybody else noticed that Nia Vardolos has seriously gone orange?)

2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem?
It’s been raining here for two weeks straight and I’ve been complaining about it constantly. Yeah, yeah, we’ve had a drought for the past year so I shouldn’t bitch, we need the rain, yadda yadda yadda… but it sucks. Especially when you don’t have a clothes dryer and your ability to have clean laundry depends on nice sunny days to dry things on the line. Needless to say, I’m now on a first-name basis with the Chinese laundry lady around the corner.

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?
It was the Snook. I told him he smelled like a baby this morning. I mean, in a good way. It’s weird. I know all his fragrances: laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, aftershave… and somehow it all mixes up with his weird little pheromones and ends up smelling like the top of a baby’s head.

4. What was the last thing you threw away?
The foil wrapper from a chocolate Easter rabbit. I obtained it by nefarious means, actually. It was on my desk at work as a present from our “Social Club”, but I quit the Social Club three months ago. I even checked my paystubs and I definitely haven’t been paying the $8/month fee. They must not have gotten the memo though. Don’t bother telling me to confess. I’ve already eaten the evidence. 🙂

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited?
Glitter. I’m on there a lot lately.

Matt keeps feeding my Ebert obsession. I knew Rog was a bit of a lefty, but I didn’t know he was such a raging, full-on lefty. *sigh*

Grrr. The Snook’s latest home brew just set off the fire alarm. We didn’t even know the damn thing worked. It took us five minutes of yelling at each other and whacking at it with broom handles to get it to stop. Stupid high ceilings…

One Eighty
The Snook and I went into our local Flight Centre today to price flights home for a 10-day visit in July. We walked out half an hour later planning a one-month round-the-world trip instead. As the Snook put it, if we’re going to be spending $2000 each anyway, why not go the extra $500 and make it a proper holiday? I was trying to be all grown-up and economical but then he mentioned the magic word… Italy. With visions of the Arno in my head, I rapidly agreed. Looks like the Snook-Howard World Tour will be leaving here in late June bound for Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, and Rome. Anybody got a floor we can crash on in one of those cities?

Trivia Update: Victory! We completely dominated last night’s pub trivia competition, winning by eight points. Of course, we also had about double the usual number of people, but even discounting the answers they gave us, the core group would’ve probably still pulled off the win. My personal highlight was winning a jug of beer for correctly identifying James Van Der Beek in a “Who am I?” type question. (Embarrassingly, the Quiz Master hadn’t even gotten to Dawson’s Creek yet when submitted my answer. I knew it based on a description of the actor’s football injury and his first movie role in Angus.) I also knew that BJ Hunnicut was played by Mike Farrell on “MASH”. (Thanks, Dad.) Okay, here’s the question of the week for all you play-at-home types: “Name the NINE cities in the world that have hosted the Summer Olympics that were NOT the capital cities of their country.”

Hell yeah! Feel the love for the Irish. It’s been too long since I’ve heard the Victory March. Much too long… (Link courtesy of fellow Domer Brigita.)

Monday night the Snook and I went to see Nowhere in Africa, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It’s about a family of German Jews who flee to Kenya during the second World War. I wouldn’t really categorize it as a Holocast movie though. It was about a family way out of their element and how each member adapts to his surroundings. The story is great and the scenery is amazing. I cried at the end when Owuor left with Rummler. Ebert also gave it a glowing review. I highly recommend it, if you can find it playing anywhere near you.