Memorial Day (Caution: contains spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Kindgom of the Crystal Skull)

I'm having a hard time remembering it is now Tuesday. Because Monday seemed like my normal day off (almost always Sunday). I just got done working 7 days in a row, including one of my mandatory holidays for 2008, Memorial Day.

So I only got 3.5 hours of sleep yesterday afternoon, but I fell out of bed when my alarm went off, sucked down some coffee, and Tim and I went to join Scott and the nephews in Ann Arbor to see IJ 4. And it was sunny and warm enough (86F at one point, so the thermometer claimed) that I was forced to shave the hairy old legs and wear shorts for the first time this year. And it was a good thing.

After a visit to Trader Joe's, where we just stopped to get fresh mozarella cheese but walked out with $80+ worth of treasures, we went home and dined al fresco on Timmeh's wonderful beef short ribs which he'd braised in the slow-cooker all afternoon, and the green onion mashed potatoes I'd made in the morning. He concocted his own recipe of leftover barbecue sauce, balsamic vinegar and dried cherries, which resulted in intensely tangy, beefy falling-off-the-bone morsels. Yay, Timmeh! An Insalata Caprese with Meridian Rose, a Penfolds Shiraz-Cabernet blend, green salad and our last chocolate-glazed hazelnut mousse cake rounded out the meal. All in a all (except for the mosquitoes making my feet and ankles itch like hell), a fabulous Memorial Day.

Thoughts on the film:

--Not really sure why they used the term 'kingdom' since there really wasn't any king anywhere.

--Mutt is SOOOOOOO adorable when he's terrified. He's really sweet for a tough punk.

--I'll bet Unca George was in his glory when they were filming the beginning scenes. American Graffiti revisited.

--I'm telling you, I saw the 'he's your son' coming months ago. Then I denied/forgot it, so I got the pleasant surprise when it was finally revealed.

--Possibly favorite line in the movie: When Dean Stanforth says 'We're at the age when instead of giving us things, life starts taking them away.'

--But then at the end, the squishy, girly romantic in me couldn't help squeeing with delight. Indy gets a dean position, the girl in a long-overdue wedding, and a son.

--Still don't quite get the thing where all the skeletons shift into each other and become one alien.

--So the crystal skull wasn't carved at all? It was an actual skull. Right?

--OK, if that thing was really made of solid quartz, it would have been so heavy there is no way in hell they would have been able to toss it around they way they were doing. I'm sorry, but it looked like a clear plastic shell stuffed with wadded plastic wrap.

--I'm so glad John Williams re-used musical tag lines throughout the whole film. But the theme for the skull started out sounding like the one for the Ark, just for a second.

--The details, the special effects, everything from the saddle shoes on the girls to the horrific cobwebs and the giant ants was great.

--Yep, Harrison is getting old. No denying it. But I'm so glad they didn't try to hide it in any way. The ruffled gray hair sticking in all directions really grew on me after after a while, and he is still really in fine trim shape for a 65-year old.

--I have fears that they're going to try to do more films, and that Shia Lebeouf is going to become the next 'Indiana Jones'. I really don't want that. But I hope the end scene where Indy takes his fedora away from Mutt as he's about to set it on his own head is a major 'No way we're going that direction' clue.

--Overall, the whole 'feeling' was totally consistent with the other three films. Just a good rollercoaster ride all the way through. Of course I'll be going to see it again!