Random Thursday Thirteen

La Jolla seal

1. This picture of the seal makes me laugh every time I look at it.
2. I finally watched Avatar last night. Who were those people who loved it?!? Because they need a swift kick in the ass.  The storyline was asinine (Fern Gully meets Dances with Wolves meets Lord of the Rings), the blue people with their weird tentacle pony tails made me gag, and there wasn't even an unpredictable ending with him riding Toothless the giant dragon-bird and the Ents Triceratops-things coming out to help. I absolutely hated it.  In fact, half-way through it, I turned to Beerman and actually said, "I hate this movie."
3. I'm almost done reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I've restarted it 3 times because all the Vangers and Wennerstroms and Swedish town names got me all bored. I'm about 60 pages from the end, and I don't like any of the characters.  I'm holding out for a wild twist ending, because so far, it's been pretty predictable.
4. I don't foresee me reading the next two books in that trilogy.
5. City of Embers is going to be my next book. It has gotten rave reviews.  Then again, so did Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But I've got high hopes anyhow.
6. Beerman and I are heading to the opera tomorrow night. I've been to the opera and never really grooved on it. But hey, 3rd time's the charm... maybe.  If nothing else, it's a night out together doing something different.
7. C-man has his 5 year old pediatric appointment tomorrow.  Our scale says he's over 50 pounds, so we'll see what he officially weighs in at.  (You'll remember last year he was 42 lbs x 41".)
8. C-man has a birthday party to go to on Saturday. It's an Army Man theme. Am I the only one who thinks that's odd for a 5 year old's party?
9. I'd better buy a gift for that kid.
10. A major study came out yesterday linking Rheumatoid and Psoriatic Arthritis with depression. I could have saved them a lot of time and money. I mean, seriously, inescapable pain and long-term chronic illness reprecussions causes someone to be depressed? Inconceivable.
11. I went shopping at Zara while in Chicago. I love Zara. However, I restrained myself and only got 2 shirts.
12. I also bought some mate tea from Teavana. While in Argentina, I learned to drink mate. It was like grass with a steel straw through it. This was not that kind of mate and had vanilla in it. Yuk. And it definitely does not replace coffee.
13. I really need to go get myself a cafe latte.