Marvel

I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania last night. I had seen a lot of bad reviews and people calling it the harbinger of Marvel’s doom. Was it really that bad?

No. It was entertaining. It also wasn’t that good. It was just kinda there. I think my biggest beef with it was that, unlike the first two Ant Man movies, it wasn’t funny. It tried. It had Bill Murray for crying out loud. None of the jokes landed for me. I didn’t laugh once.

My other complaint wasn’t a complaint about the movie, it was a complaint about how people can suck. Jonathan Majors was awesome as the bad guy. He’s supposed to be the bad guy running through the entire next phase of Marvel. Unfortunately, it looks like he may have beaten up a woman and that make me not want anything to do with him anymore. I don’t want to pay money to watch someone who would act that way. It’s my money and I can do whatever I want with it, and if I want to not use it to support the career of someone who would beat up a woman then I will do exactly that. It just sucks that such a fantastic actor has to trigger such an action from my wallet. If he is innocent of the charges then I will happily spend money on his work. If he’s guilty then recast his ass, just make sure you cast someone as good or better… and I don’t know that there is anyone better. Damn it.

Now that I have seen this flick I am back to being just one Marvel movie behind. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 came out a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t seen it. That’s the only one left now. Maybe I’ll try to go to a theater and see it this weekend. Maybe?

Long Day

Today has been a long day. Not sure why, it’s just felt stressful.

Tomorrow is going to be rough too. Tomorrow is in the office and, as I mentioned in a post the other day, I want to do a lot of Disney+ TV watching before I head out. I want to have everything packed up and ready, including my lunch, tonight so that I can save time in the morning. I am such a nerd.

Food has been okay today. I had a little stuck stomach feeling while taking my pre-lunch time calcium citrate pills. It cleared after about 10 minutes, but it was uncomfortable. Breakfast and lunch themselves both went off without a hitch. After having three issue-free meals on Sunday, I had two bad experiences on Monday. Lunch was a smidge on the bad side so I just stopped eating before I was finished. I had already eaten all of the protein I had planned so it was okay. Dinner was bad, but it mostly came down to me overcooking the chicken. It was too tough to chew enough and I just got tired. Then I ate a few chunks of potato and I think the skins weren’t breaking down enough and got stuck. We’re having fish and some green veggies tonight. I am sure things will go better. If so, I could have another three good meals day. That would be nice.

I am hoping to mix a song or two tonight in between packing for work tomorrow sessions. I would like to be done with REM (Record Every Month) for March before I sleep tonight. We’ll see how it goes.

Speaking of dinner tonight, we’re giving Hello Fresh another try. We’ve used it a few times before and it’s always been a good experience. The hang up we have is planning meals, ordering the meals, putting the shipment into the fridge and freezer, and then when it comes time to cook we change our mind and do something else. We want to get away from that and stick to the schedule. If we can do that then Hello Fresh is a great option. It’s so much better than me cooking the same thing every night, or ordering out all the time. I foresee success. Just with the added caveat that I have to avoid sugar, so anything we order that has sugar in it, I will have to take a pass on. We can still cook it, and Jen can have it. I’ll just skip that item on the menu. Let’s keep this house a No Dumping Syndrome zone, shall we?

Okay. Time to finish off the work day. The only question I have for the universe is when does Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania come to Disney+? I am not happy about the existence of a Marvel movie that I haven’t seen.

Marvel Catch Up

I am thinking about making this weekend my Marvel Movie Catch Up Weekend. I’m already halfway there. Only the two most recent movies hadn’t been seen, and now only the most recent.

Harry and I watched Wakanda Forever today. He’d already seen it. I liked it. It wasn’t as good as the first Black Panther. I found the bad guys kinda too goofy. Also, minor spoiler risk, there was a funeral scene that I found very difficult. Too close to home, I think.

Ant Man 3 is the only movie left now. I’m trying to talk everyone into going to the theater to see it tomorrow. I know the reviews are bad, but I hear that the fan reactions are quite a bit more positive. I think it’s worth a look. I should check to see if it’s playing at our local theater tomorrow. Hold on a second or two…

It’s playing, but no matinees. I checked Methuen, Lowell, and Salem, NH. Same at all three. Maybe I’ll wait for Disney+.

Another Day, Another Negative Test

That’s three days post-Covid exposure with a negative test. Let’s keep up the good work, shall we?

I ate a lot last night. I was kinda shocked at how I couldn’t stop myself. Today I had what is becoming a normal breakfast, a chicken patty and a supplemental protein bar, but I already had 50% of my liquid goal for the day before 8:00am. Is that bad? I don’t know. I hope to spread the second half of the goal out more as the day rolls on.

Music… there was no car music this morning. I have lyrics written for one song. I need at least three before driving to the movie theater parking lot is worth the effort. I hope to get to at least half of the 10 songs today so that I have a lot to do tomorrow. I want to have them all written and recorded by Tuesday. That will give me a week for leads and mixing.

As stated yesterday, the goal for today is to clean the hell out of the kitchen. Also, we put out some little catnip filled toys for the cats. I need to find them all and remove them from play. The two cats do not handle their drugs well. They get super aggressive toward each other when they are high on the ‘nip. That must be curtailed.

That’s the plan, kids. I believe today’s goals are achievable. Let’s see how it goes. Also, let’s try to watch Wakanda Forever, shall we? Yeah, happy Saturday.

Two Years and Seven Months

Two years and seven months ago today, at 5:30pm, my personal Covid-19 pandemic lock down began. 3/13/20 was our last day in the office. We are not particularly locked down at this point, but we’re pretty much still isolated. We’re going to stores, I’m visiting Mom regularly (and need to visit Dad more often), we’re just spending as much time as we can afford to away from everyone. We’re wearing masks and being good, virus-conscious humans.

I am so friggin’ sick of it. I miss my friends, I miss playing in the band, I miss my family. Granted, my step kids are both in Vermont so I would be missing them even without our personal lock down, but you get the point. I want to travel, though we can’t afford it, I want to do things.

I want to go to hockey games again. The Bruins won their opening game last night. They beat The Capitals 5-2. I listened to as much as I could on the radio. Probably not as much as I would have liked, but a nice chunk. UMass Lowell is currently 2-1, with all three games being non-conference games. They play in Michigan tonight and tomorrow, two more non-conference games. The first Hockey East games are next week. I have been able to catch at least a little of each game on the radio. I’m not sure if they cover road games on WUML Lowell 91.5 FM, but I think we’ll find out tonight. As for the kids’ school, University of Vermont… 0-4 with all games being in conference. Yeah… pretty grim. I haven’t tried to find them on the radio. It might not be worth it.

In closing, I watched She-Hulk while doing my walkies. Teeny Tiny Spoilers Ahead. It was season one episode nine, the first season finale. I did not realize that I so desperately needed to hear something like five seconds worth of Richard and Linda Thompson music in the MCU. I did need it though. I really, completely needed it. The episode was great, but at the end when they snuck in a few seconds of I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight just made my fucking week. Props to K.E.V.I.N. and the gang.

Covid Booster: The Day After: Still Alive (Mostly)

Just checking in. I’m still sort of alive. Mostly, at least. The foggy head is lessening a little, but the body aches are still holding on. My arm, where I took the shot, is still killing me. There’s a constant dull ache, but any time I forget about it and try to use it it kicks my ass.

Mostly I am just exhausted. I got a lot of sleep last night but my sleep numbers were sucky. My sleeping heart rate dip, which should average between 10-20%, and 20-30% is a kick ass, actually went the wrong way. It went up 7%. Crud, huh?

The only productive thing I’ve done is 30 minutes of exercise. That ring is closed. My move (calorie) app isn’t even close though. It’s only 57% complete. I expect that at some point tonight I am going to have to do another 30 minute walk.

Other than that I’ve just spent the day staring at the television. I watched all five episodes of Star Wars: Andor. This week’s episode is going to be awesome. When I finished that I needed something else to veg out to so I started rewatching Falcon and Winter Soldier. I just started episode four. I think I can get through the whole season today. Once that’s done… Loki? We’ll see. We have The Walking Dead tonight (only seven episodes left!) and House of the Dragon so we’ll see if I can get to either of those tonight.

Nutritionist Day

I have an appointment with the Nutritionist today. Not exactly sure what we’re going to talk about. Can I eat green veggies at will now? Can I eat bread yet? Should I change up my meal planning? Are there any more restrictions to think about? How’s my exercise routine working out? Should I start counting calories? All sorts of things like that.

I am working a half day. If the appointment ends early I might have some time for errands. I need to pick up a small order at the store I call Tall and Fat, I need to drop off a bag full of clothes for donation, I need to stop at the post office, stuff like that.

(Pause while I remove a small spider from the ecosystem)

I still have to put together the weight bench we bought a couple of weeks ago, along with a box of free weights. I’ve never been into lifting weights before so I am not sure what I should do with all of this stuff. Youtube will probably help me out.

Last night we watched the first episode of Stranger Things 4. I got some real Evil Dead 2 vibes and I am all for it. We also saw Thor: Love and Thunder in our first trip to a movie theater since the pandemic started. There were only four or five groups in the theater and we were all spread out. The only health issue we had was with Harry’s insulin pump, but that worked out fine and wasn’t really a problem.

The movie was good. It wasn’t as good as Thor: Ragnarok, but it was good. The laughs were genuine, the action was cool. My only beef was that it moved too fast. They cut it down to two hours, but it felt like another 30-40 minutes would have improved the story.

Okay then. Wish me luck on the Nutritionist appointment. Fingers crossed for low-fat Ritz crackers and quinoa, though not at the same time.

Movie Night

I have half an hour left in the work day. After that we will get some DoorDash (or something similar) Dinner. I ordered steak tips and broccoli. After that…

Movie night.

Thor: Love and Thunder.

My first trip into a movie theater since the Dawn of the Pandemic. I will be masked. I will be nervous. I will also be confident that I will be safe. I’ve had four vaccine shots. Let’s put ’em to work.

We are hoping that a Wednesday night movie will mean a mostly empty theater. We’re also going to the new cinema in Salem, NH. Harry’s been there once and said the theater seats are comfy. Nice. I will not be getting any food, but I will probably get a bottle of water, if I can.

Here’s hoping the movie lives up to my very high expectations. I’m sure it will.

Step Back

I don’t know what to think right now. My mother seemed to take a step forward yesterday. It was good. There was a bit of optimism. I just heard that last night she took a big step back. I don’t know what to think now. I am just so sad.

We slept a little late this morning and it’s thrown off my mojo a little. Work is weird. I feel like I never left, but I also feel completely out of touch. I mean, it was only four weeks. It’s not like I forgot how to do everything. I said the other day I was feeling like an alien. That’s it. Totally. I feel like an alien posing as me. I blame my new stomach, but only because I have nothing else to blame it on but me.

Harry is at his dad’s this week but he came over to watch part four of Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was awesome. We did not, however, watch the first episode of Ms Marvel. I’m trying to sneak it in before work. I should just make it. That means I am not watching this week’s episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. That will have to wait for later tonight. All in all, I’d rather be seeing my mother moving to a new facility rather than anything Marvel or Star Trek or even Star Wars.

Chicken for breakfast. I’m starting to get a little sick of scrambled eggs. Is that new? I never used to get sick of food. If I ever get sick of chicken I am screwed. Hold on while I start my 30 seconds-between-bites clock.

Marvel Postscript

Just when you thought it was over… one more Marvel rewatch post!

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home
    • Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

When Harry came home from school he was super interested in breaking down the latest Marvel movie so we went ahead and watched it. It wasn’t as good as No Way Home, but it was better than the other two phase four-ish movies. I liked it a lot.

So that is it. All of the Marvel movies that were available for viewing have been viewed. Bam. So I guess we’ll return to this topic in a few months when the next Thor comes out.