Cely's Birthday

This weekend was Cely's birthday so we had some fun and did some visiting. Our kind of fun isn't really a big deal. It consisted of getting up late and going out to eat and explore a couple of malls. We first went to Salem to see if they had more to offer than the Albany mall. It was pretty disappointing. They do have a Best Buy up there for when we need an electronics fix but that doesn't happen too often. Even the Macy's in the mall looked tired.

We couldn't decide where to eat so we hopped into the car and went up to Portland. There is a pretty upscale mall up there with some fancy stores. There is a good restraurant up there too; Patini Pasteria. We like it because they are a local place and have a lot of vegetarian choices. So we walked around and window shopped. We did pick up something fun; a box of fake moss. It seemed so Oregonian. I think we will be sending them for Christmas presents! I also saw this store called Lexi Dog. Unfortunately I took the picture but didn't go up to the store to see what they sold.

Movies this weekend.

V for Vendetta. Friday night we went out to see V for Vendetta. Cely and I weren't really interested. I thought it would just be one of those action movies without much story. But this was really an excellent movie. It was exciting and the story fun too. Cely and I kept thinking it was an allegory for some of the things going on now with our government. We really enjoyed it and give it a hearty endorsement.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. This was our netflix winner for the weekend. It was a wonderful story of two young men sent to the country be "re-educated". They bring a violin to the village and western music even though they have to tell everyone that the music is really Chinese revolutionary. They tell everyone that one song is "Mozart thinking about Mao". The two boys get their hands on some western novels and begin reading to the seamstress, teaching her to read in the process. In the process the seamstress grows and gets the strength to leave the village and the two boys who both have fallen in love with her.

Junebug. This was our loser for the weekend. This movie got some good reviews but it didn't hit us. We could hardly make it through it. Thumbs down on this one from Cely and I.

To finish off, here is a picture of one of the plants in our back yard. I don't know what it is. Maybe someone could tell me. (I finally looked at some tags on the plant. Evidently it is a camillia, camillia japonica to be exact.)