weekend = Friend's Dinner, landscaping, and a movie

Had a super swell time at the most recent edition of the Friend's Dinner at Denise & Ken's place, especially the bit where Laura and I got to tell everyone that she is pregnant! Woo-hoo! I can't tell you how totally excited I am about this. I still feel a little bad for jumping on Denise & Ken's pregnancy announcement like I did, but the timing was perfect, and it would have been awkward to wait until later; everyone would have wondered why I didn't just do it earlier. We had a great time visiting with everyone, and I'll get my couple of photos posted here sooner or later. And as of today, both my parents and Laura's parents know as well, so we're not keeping it a secret any more, just keeping our fingers crossed that everything will work out well.

That same morning I purchased my first lawn mower and edger, both electric, and Sunday morning I got out and added the "landscaping" merrit badge to my homeownwer belt. It all worked out great except for two nagging problems. 1) My extension cord was about 15 ft too short, so I was unable to cut part of my lawn, and right now it remains taller than the rest. 2) I thought I'd get some sun, so I wore a tank top, but like the idiot that I am I completely forgot to put on sunscreen, so my shoulders, upper arms, and the back of my neck are now dark pink like an uncooked salmon. Nicole, please don't tell your mom, I am already so embarassed, and it still burns like a mother, so I am definately paying the price. I keep hoping that one of these days I will learn from lessons like these...

I also went to see the 2nd Transformers movie with Paul & Tom Sunday afternoon. It was certainly entertaining and chock full of good graphics, but really I think the plot was "to have things explode", and then it was peppered with robots, Megan Fox's boobs, some kinda love story, and some acting. Here are my comments, in no particular order of importance:

• I never could have imagined Transformers being anything like this when I was a 10 year old playing with the original toys and watching the cartoon on TV
• Why in the hell do half the robots have British accents? I have nothing against the British, but most of the robots were GMC products. At least if you're gonna give a robot a British accent, make the car version of the robot be an Astin Martin or some other cool classic Brisish car
• Finally, I could understand what Megatron was saying. In the first movie he was screaming all the time and I couldn't understand a damn thing.
• Why in the hell do The Twins act like street thug rappers? And why did the little RC truck bad guy-turned-good-guy-leg-humper have a Bronx attitude?
• It is pretty sweet that Peter Cullen still voices OP
• Soundwave. In space. Need I say more? Well....Ok, the only problem with Soundwave attaching himself to a satellite is that the satellite would not maneuver correctly (think physics folks, mass is no longer what it was), and the folks on the ground would notice a problem. But of course if some of the robots can also teleport without explanation, then why not have Soundwave mount a satellite without anyone noticing.
• While we're on the subject of Physical impossibilities, once again most of the robots are WAY taller as robots than their volume would suggest when they are cars. But who cares.
• Biggest problem with the whole movie, which I did actually enjoy by the way, was the lack of any explanation for the Terminator-style girl. Uh hello? Robots disguising themselves as humans? I think we have a new and bigger problem here?!

Ok, sorry for the geek-out. My sunburn really hurts right now and I am looking for something to distract myself.