We got our first true winter storm this week.  Tuesday morning, Christina and I awoke to a winter wonderland, so to speak.  As always, I had some concern about getting to work but I really didn’t have any issue at all despite some minor skidding and sliding.  I did almost get rear-ended by a Jeep (<sarcasm>SUVs are sooooo much better in the snow…</sarcasm>) Therefore, I was pretty surprised when on my way home, I repeatedly got stuck in the snow.  I guess my way home is the uphill portion of my route and it was on some of those hills that my car got stuck.  Thankfully, I never came to a full stop and my car would (very slowly) work itself through it.  Seeing my speedometer hit 50-60mph when I was only going maybe 1mph was a bit disconcerting, however.  Nevertheless, I made it home no worse for the wear.  Though it was hazardous out, I didn’t notice all that many people getting stuck — more sliding off the road.  I was a bit unsettled at to why my car would be having a worse go of it than others so I took the car in to the auto shop Wednesday morning and confirmed my suspicions.  Driving in snowy or icy conditions with bald front tires in a front-wheel drive car is not something I’d recommend.  

That evening, Christina and I reverted back to our childhoods and went sledding.  Well, her childhood at least — I don’t think I ever went sledding when I was a kid.  The first time I ever went skiing was in college with my uncle.  I loved skiing and Christina and I had a blast sledding.  Our community has a great location for sledding even though, off to the side, there are a few hazards that Christina and I attempted to run into a few times.  Definitely prefer human sledding over car sledding, however.

This afternoon, Wil Harris, a guy I follow on Twitter and a frequent guest on the TWIT podcast, sent along a link to the new (probably not safe for work)  “Love Me Tender… or Else” Agent Provocateur ad.  I’m not all that familiar with the company though it appears to be a British version of Victoria’s Secret, though quite a bit more suggestive.  The Love Me Tender ad is pretty good and I showed it to Christina this evening.  Afterwards, she took over the laptop, started navigating the Agent Provocateur site…  and immediately starting looking through the shoe section.  Shoes!  I don’t think any guy watching that ad would immediately start shopping for shoes…

My condolences to Eagles fans but Arizona winning on Sunday was the best thing that could have happened for the Superbowl.  For many people, the highlight of the Superbowl is the commercials but — call me old-fashioned — I do still look forward to an interesting football game as well.  After the games the previous week, I thought we were destined for a Steelers-Eagles showdown in the Superbowl… probably the most boring matchup I could possibly have conceived.  49 of the 50 states would have been extremely disinterested in that game.  Or worse, a Baltimore-Eagles matchup…. ZZZZzzzzz…..  Thankfully, Arizona continued their upstart ways and the perennial bottom-dweller upset the Eagles.  Everyone likes an underdog and Arizona fits the bill nicely.  Fitzgerald is a freak of nature and who can’t love the two-time comeback kid, Kurt Warner — grocery clerk to Superbowl MVP to wash-out to Superbowl.   That’s the path never traveled and I think we have ourselves an intriguing Superbowl.  Though there is little doubt the Steelers are going to be heavy favorites, as I said, everyone loves an underdog…

While watching Burn After Reading last night with some friends, there were many moments where we would look at each other and ask where in the world the movie was going.  With a Coen Brothers movie, this is not all that unusual as they are infamous for their off-the-wall movies though often to good result (see Fargo, Big Lebowski, O’ Brother Where Art Thou?).   However, last night we were over an hour into Burn After Reading and George Clooney had just revealed his secret, um, project, and we were at a complete loss for the direction the movie was going and really wondering whether it was worth it to watch the last 20 minutes.  Finally, the final 10 minutes, and particularly the last scene,  tied it all together in comical perfection.   J.K. Simmons saves the day!

Much like two of my favorite movies, Clue and Usual Suspects, the excellent ending is what carried the movie.  On the other end of the spectrum, you have another Coen movie, No Country For Old Men – an otherwise interesting movie that for some reason, tacked on a terrible, pointless ending that left me confused and disappointed.   Does anyone out there have any idea what Tommy Lee Jones was talking about?

If there is one thing to remember about Burn After Reading from a filmmakers perspective, remember to make your final scene your best scene.  Tropic Thunder is the most recent movie I’ve seen that screwed this up.  An average and otherwise forgettable movie, the brilliant Tom Cruise scenes don’t require you to have watched the movie at all to appreciate and you’d be just as well served by viewing them on the internet.

The Girl Scouts corporation should be banned for unfair tactics.

Yes, I placed an order

So apparently Steve Jobs is taking a hiatus from his Apple day job.  Ostensibly due to continued speculation about his health, the news of his departure has hammered the Apple stock which has already taken a beating from the economic doldrums.  Despite Apple rapidly growing in marketshare and the iPhone turning into a runaway success, everyone is concerned that once Jobs leaves, Apple will go back to the ways of the 90’s when it became virtually irrelevant.  An extremely uneventful and disappointing Macworld event last week didn’t help calm the investors then and his announcement earlier this week only deepened the blow.  As I’m still working to perfect my home media solution, I was really hoping for some sort of announcement to blow me away… and with suggestions that Jobs will not return, I have great doubts that Apple will be the source of that “all-in-one” solution.

Stereotyping the whole human population, I’m going to go ahead and throw this out there: Boys and girls enjoy different things.  Girls like to shop, talk, and follow pop culture.  Guys like action, sports, and games.  There isn’t all that much overlap and since the dawn of time, guys and girls have been searching for ways to do things together where one side or the other isn’t going to die of boredom.  

No, Christina, I don’t care who <insert random athlete here> is engaged to.  But you don’t care about that amazing play he made last week either so why don’t we agree not to discuss either one?  

– if only it was that easy…

One of the areas where we have been able to come to some sort of agreement is on our regular board game nights.   I feel board games are usually more suited toward guys who appreciate “defeating” his opponent in a match of sorts but the games we tend to settle on are more crowd-pleasing, party-oriented games than the ones I would have otherwise chosen.   I think this perpetual effort to get girls involved in board games, and thus something guys will enjoy as well, is what led to the creation of Battle of the Sexes.

If the goal of any game was to put guys “in their place” and pump up girls interest in gaming, this was the game.  Battle of the Sexes is the most ridiculously unbalanced game I’ve ever come across.   The nature of the game is simply that guys must answer questions about “girlie” things while girls answer questions about “guy” things.  However the disparity between the difficulty and details of the questions is absurd.  Guys simply do not stand a chance but if they’re looking for something to play that will make their significant other feel better, this is the game.