Goth Panda

…so I bought this:

Yes, that’s a sleeping mask to drown out the light that pours in our east-facing bedroom windows and makes it impossible for me to sleep past 7 a.m. on the weekends. I actually used it for this first time on Sunday morning. I didn’t go to bed until past midnight, so I woke up at 6:30 incredibly tired yet could not go back to sleep. Because of the light. On my eyelids. I pulled out this mask, ignored Mike’s hysterical laughter and fell back asleep. I didn’t wake up until 9.

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I walked back into our bedroom and saw this:

That’s Hua Mei, my stuffed panda bear. The original Goth Panda, in case you didn’t know.

[Continuing a Pop5 tradition.]

Some kids’ movies are good entertainment for both kids and adults. Monsters vs. Aliens is not one of them. It is worth neither the time nor the money to go and see in the theater, or even to watch at home. The storyline was predictable and I didn’t care the slightest bit about the characters. There were some kids in the audience, and they seemed to appreciate the humorous lines that were directed at them. But these were few and far between, so I wonder if for the most part they were bored. There were also a huge number of pop culture references that only an adult would get. Some of these were cute – I liked the origin stories of the monsters and their links to classic 50s sci-fi movies – but some were just annoying, like the many, many Spielberg movie references. We get it, Dreamworks.

On the other hand, we got to see a preview for Where the Wild Things Are, which looks awesome. It almost made me cry.

Mike and I have been going out on car dates these past few weeks. Before you get the idea that these might involve some sort of back seat canoodling, let me set you straight. Mike wanted to test drive different kinds of cars without the hassle of dealing with salespeople. So he joined the Philly Car Share, which lets you rent different kinds of cars for small amounts of money and conveniently has many of the kinds of cars he wanted to try out. Meaning mostly small, foreign, and hybrid types that normal rental car places don’t carry. So he has been renting different cars and taking me along to test drive them.

The first car we tested was a Toyota Yaris, and neither of us liked it that much, although it was Mike’s number one choice before we started.

Last weekend, we rented a Scion XB and went out to Conshohocken to have dinner at the Boathouse (the “date” part of “car date”). Now, I don’t like the Scion XB at all on the outside, but I was actually impressed with it on the interior. It was comfortable and roomy on the inside, and very conveniently designed.

Scion Dashboard

South Street

Steering Wheel

South Street Mural

Scion

I know that everyone who has been to the Boathouse with us will be disappointed to hear that they have changed their menu, and it is not nearly as extensive as it used to be. They also are franchising or something – there are now two other “Boathouse” locations. Hmmm….

However, the food was still excellent.

Mike's Blackened Fish Sandwich

My French Onion Soup with Mike stealing one of my toasts

My Salad

They still had Trivial Pursuit cards with the condiments

They still had the peanut butter pie, which I forgot to take a before photo of. I think it was my fourth dessert of my birthday weekend.

Empty Plate

I told Mike he could buy a Scion XB if he wanted to. But now I don’t think he wants to, because last night he fell in love with a new car.

Please ignore the low light blurriness

Mini

The Mini has a huge speedometer

Yes, last night he drove the Mini and now I think he wants to marry one. I always liked the way the Minis look on the outside. The inside took some getting used to since nothing worked like any other car I had ever been in. All the controls were different. It was also the kind of car where you felt the slightest movement in the steering, so I was almost convinced we were going to fly off the highway several times.

So far last night’s car date was the most successful so far in the “car” department. In the “date” department, I think it might be a little lacking, since we only stopped at Wendy’s for Frosties. I think he has the Honda Fit next on his list to rent, and I need to find a nice place for him to drive me to for that one.

So what’s going on here? First of all, I have determined that Pop5 is officially dead, so I am going to shut down and archive the site.

The cause of death: Facebook. No one posted to Pop5 anymore. But I recently started feeling the urge to write longer and do more stuff than Facebook allows. So I’ve started a new site, and here it is. If any of the old members of Pop5 want help building their own personal sites, let me know.

Also, please excuse the generic look. I am working on a nice customized design, as soon as I figure out WordPress.