Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A Few Movies and Some Barbecue

Last weekend I picked up a couple of movies from the Red Box, it's been a while since I watched a movie. Instead I've been watching seasons 3 and 4 of Southland, which we originally saw on network TV when it first came out and then watched again on DVD and then couldn't afford to get cable or satellite so we could see whatever channel the new seasons were showing on and then kind of put Southland on hold since we didn't have money to be spending on DVD sets. I did buy myself a Christmas present and got seasons 3 and 4 which come together in a box with season 2 which we already have but since you can't buy seasons 3 and 4 separately, what are you gonna do? Now we have two season twos. I have season 5, which is the final season, coming sometime this week from Amazon, which is where I should have gotten seasons 2, 3 and 4 from since it is much cheaper on Amazon than at Target where I got it. But I did have a $5.00 gift card from Target for buying 2 boxes of something (don't remember what) that I needed anyway. I do love those Target promotions where if you buy 2 or 3 of something you get that gift card. I only buy something that I need, though, nothing that I wouldn't ordinary buy, but have gotten gift cards quite a few times on boxes of canned cat food. It is a trap, though, because when you come back to Target to use that gift card you end up buying a bunch of other stuff, too, and maybe even stuff you really don't need (but definitely want) like seasons 3 and 4 of Southland.

If you have never seen Southland, it is a must, it's probably the best and most realistic cop show ever made and there is not one bad or hammy actor in the bunch. It's not for the faint hearted, though, they don't cut out the cussing that you know all cops do because how could you do such a stressful job without a few f bombs once in a while? And there is quite a bit of blood.

But, back to the movies. I got Fast and Furious 6 because I wanted to see why these movies are so popular, and I don't know because I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of it. Bad bad bad bad acting. I guess kids watch them for the car chases, but I couldn't even watch it long enough to see one. So, that was a waste of $1.29.

I did watch an Australian movie that had caught my eye a few times while browsing the Red Box selection. It's called The Sapphires and is based on a true story of Aboriginal sisters and a cousin that answered an ad for entertainment for the American troops in Vietnam in the late sixties. The story starts out in 1958 where the group of Aboriginals live on a mission, I don't know much about Australian history but apparently the white people wanted to wipe out the natives, much like we did when we shoved our way into America. Aboriginals were put on reservations or missions and not even considered human beings until the 1970's. Lighter skinned kids were routinely rounded up by the government and taken away from their parents to orphanages where they were brainwashed into behaving like good Christian white kids.

The story centers around sisters and cousins who liked to sing, one of the cousins having been taken away to Melbourne and raised as white. They all get together and form a girl group singing soul and go off to Vietnam to entertain the troops, the 'white' cousin finding her Aboriginal roots along the way. It was a really entertaining movie, I highly recommend it for the entertainment value and the way the story is told, not too sappy, with some humorous moments and excellent acting.

Keith was off work for the weekend, some stuff happened on his last trip out and he is having some more issues with work, once again getting very anxious and worried about getting fired. He is at a meeting right now with the boss to address some issues that have come up, some to do with the lack of good training that the bosses are now realizing is happening to all the new guys, and some with a few mistakes that he's made on the job. He's had a bad weekend, being very worried, and the fact that he stopped taking his anxiety meds is not helping. He has this thing about taking mental type meds, but after explaining to him that taking anxiety meds is basically the same thing as taking meds for any other type illness, and mental illness is just as damaging as any other, he is coming around to seeing why he needs to keep taking them on a regular basis and not just stop because he thinks he is better. I think that some of the problems that have come up in the past few weeks with his work are directly related to abruptly stopping taking his meds, and I think he is seeing that too. Anyway, he is in a meeting right now to discuss his future (or not) with the railroad. We were going to fix dinner at home last night but I thought we really needed something more relaxing, plus I hate cooking, so we went over to the new Dickie's Barbecue that opened up a few months ago just around the corner from us.

I liked the place, the ambiance was very roadhouse/barbecue, and the food gets to you fast, you order at the counter and they put it all on a metal tray, kind of like a lunchroom tray, with a paper liner. You can get a meat plate with either 1, 2, or 3 kinds of meat with 2 sides and a roll for 9-12 bucks. Not cheap but not too too expensive. Or, you can just get a big slab of ribs or whatever and order anything else you want on the side at an extra charge of course. They have ribs, chicken, pork, turkey breast, ham and some more meat that I can't remember. I'm really sick of chicken since that's about all I eat anymore, so I got some ham and some beef brisket and green beans and barbecue beans on the side. Keith got a big rack of ribs and some fried okra and baked potato casserole on the side. The baked potato casserole is basically mashed potato with cheese and green onions, he really like it. I really liked my brisket with their sweet barbecue sauce on it, very tender. The ham was good, but Honeybaked is way better. The barbecue beans are also good. Keith loved his ribs. They also have a soft serve ice cream machine in the corner and the ice cream is FREE! Well, that sold me right there, free ice cream? Yeah!

We would definitely go again, but it is a little pricey for what is basically fast food barbecue, it was a little over $33.00 for the two of us for dinner. I did like that you get your food fast and you don't have to sit and read a menu while waiting for someone to come take your order, plus you don't have to tip a waitress.

So, thumbs up for Dickie's Barbecue!

And here's hoping Keith comes home from his meeting less stressed out and ready to get back out on the road. We did discuss it all and if it does come down to him deciding not to continue on with the railroad, there is a silver lining in that he won't be as stressed out and nervous all the time and won't have to spend parts of his weeks sleeping in a motel in Barstow. We'll just go back to being poor again.

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