Movies/Football/Mules

The week passed. I wrote some stuff. I've written better; I've written worse. Work was pretty uneventful. One of my students took her six weeks of maternity leave. God bless Mamma and her little one-wheel-in-a-ditch-before-the-light-even-turns-green baby.

The weekend was low key, as well. Monkey and I went to see Brokeback Mountain. It was a truly great film. Larry McMurtry co-wrote the screenplay, which was based on an Annie Proulx short story. I love Annie Proulx. Ang Lee's direction was spectacular. The cinematography was breath-taking. Heath Ledger was...well...let's just say that that may be the best performance I have seen in a long time. I mean, I love Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the guy's a GREAT actor, and he was in top form as Truman Capote, but Heath Ledger was just the shit in this movie. He had it all going on. His body, his eyes, his mouth, his voice--he truly became some Wyoming cowboy named Ennis Delmar. Heath Ledger was nowhere to be found. And the story was just damn well-told. All I am saying is go see this movie. If you choose not to see this film because you heard it's about gay cowboys, you are simply doing yourself a great film-watching disservice. Drop your hangups and run, don't walk, to see this movie.

Sunday was spent birding at Eagle Bluffs (yes, I DID see an eagle) and watching the Conference Championships. Hooray for Pittsburgh. Boo, Seattle. Not that I have any emotional investment in either team, but I picked the Steelers and Carolina in my pool. At any rate, I am tied for first with just the Super Bowl standing between me and the "entertainment purposes only." I am finding Super Bowl Extra Large (a name Monkey coined, NOT Shannon Sharpe) a difficult game to handicap. It should be an entertaining game, nonetheless. My heart is saying Steelers, but my head is leaning toward Seattle (which makes everything look just a bit slanted).

Today was relatively quiet, too. Funny thing, when I took the dog out after work, I felt like spring was just around the corner. I know we have to make it through February, but something in the air made me think that the rest of the winter was going to be pretty mild. Of course, this might mean that we will wake up to six feet of snow tomorrow here in Central Standard. As Doris always said, "Que sera sera."

One thing I neglected to mention in my last post: Monkey was tickled by the sight of three mules on our drive up to Scrivner. She had to take a picture. I don't know what was so interesting about three mules. One of the donkeys is a male. See if you can tell which one!