later that afternoon

Well, I can say that Daniel Craig is a great Bond. I cannot say that Casino Royale is a great Bond movie. I spent far to much time squirming in my seat wondering if they were just going to get on with it. Don't get me wrong, it was well cast and acted. It was just long. Too long. Still if over the holidays you find yourself with some downtime you could do worse. Just go to the cheap matinee.

On the other hand, I have been playing Robbie Williams album "Rudebox" like a 14 year old. It is rude, funny and you can dance to it. Perfect music for the gym and a nice antidote to the bland offerings on commercial radio.

So, I can honestly say I am starting to wind down. I could get used to this taking time off idea. Think I'll listen to Bongo Bong again, just for the hell of it. Hey, I'm on vacation.

Time off

I am on day 2 (officially, weekends don't count) of some much needed vacation time. So far, so good. Though I do have to admit it is a bit of a struggle to not try and schedule everything. I have managed to have dinner with the niece and niece v.2, who was up from Georgia for a visit. I got to give my FB Flip a rather vigorous send off before his sojourn out to the midwest for family Thanksgiving. I am seriously sore from working out at the gym as well (hyuck, hyuck) having the luxury of taking as much time as I want to exercise.

Right on time I got a shipment from Amazon. Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things", Barbara Tuchman's "The Zimmerman Telegram", which I had read years ago and loaned out, and never got back and promptly went out of print. It has been reissued and is an exciting read. Tuchman takes the final event that brought the U.S. into WWI and makes it read like a spy thriller. It is exciting and Mrs. Tuchman's asides about major historical figures are very funny. I also got "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" by James Abbot McNeil Whistler. Another loaner that never came home to Poppa. Whistler was a talented essayist as well as painter and I can suggest to anyone who has every wanted to air an opinion to read this book to get an idea of how to do it with style.

I'm headed off to see the new Bond film and then lunch with a my pal Clint. Ah the joy of not having to do anything.

Oh, BTW if you switch over to Blogger Beta, you have to go into settings to allow all comments, it automatically defaults to "members only". WTF is that about? More later.