Relaxing Weekend.

Okay, this wasn't the easiest blog entry to title. On Friday night, I did some vacuuming. Later, I watched and taped "Doctor Who." I also read more of one the many books based on the "Star Trek: the Next Generation" TV series that I have in my personal library.

Saturday, I ran some errands. Harry was busy with some stuff, so I spent most of the day at home doing laundry. I watched "Ben 10: Alien Force" and "Spectacular Spider-Man." I did some ironing and swept the laundry room.

Today, Diana's friend (Sally) and her husband had their baby dedicated. Diana and I went to see this at our old church (the one where we first met Sally while she was still single). Sally had a celebration at her house afterwards, which had a lot of people I didn't know there. I spent most of the celebration off to the side by myself, though Sally's mother-in-law did chat with me during part of it. Later, I took a nap and read more of the book I was reading on Friday night.

The Forbidden Kingdom.

I had a pretty good weekend. I taped the season premiere (or "Christmas") episode of "Doctor Who" on Friday night. On Saturday, I went to see The Forbidden Kingdom with Harry and Liz.

It was an exciting and interesting movie. It concerned the Monkey King, a skilled immortal with a mystical staff that he uses to fight with. In a battle with the Jade Warlord, he was tricked into discarding it, then the Monkey King was turned to stone. The staff made its way to America (Detriot?), and a young man with a thing for martial arts movies got his hands on it. Shortly afterwards, he was whisked to an Asian realm and found himself dressed as a monk. He met up with a drunken master (played by Jackie Chan) and a warrior monk (played by Jet Li) and ended up on a journey to return the staff to the Monkey King. All the while, he is pursued by agents of the Jade Warlord, who wants to use the staff to maintain control of the kingdom he is entrusted with by the Jade Emperor.....

Today, I did some ironning and some reading. I napped for awhile and watched some taped episodes of "Kids in the Hall," an old Canadian sketch comedy series.

Peter the Spider is dead.

Sad news to report today: my pet funnel web spider Peter (pictured above) is dead. He had been my pet since late May 2006 (when I caught him in the laundry area of my old apartment). To date, this is the longest inside pet I have ever owned (my first hermit crab lived for a year and a half). Over the past one and three-quarters years, I had kept him alive by giving him live ants, flies, miscellaneous bugs, and smaller spiders I caught, as well as putting small amounts of water in the bottom of his jar.

I was getting ready for work this morning and noticed Peter was bunched up on one side of the jar. The smaller house spider I had put in the jar with him back in December (or maybe it was one I put in there in February? I'm not 100% sure) was feeding on him. Given that Peter is twice as big as the house spider (whom I now call Peter II), this was quite a surprise. The smallest spider (between a third and half the size of Peter II) I had thrown in there this past weekend was just looking on.

Another reason this morning's discover was a surprise was because Peter and Peter II seemed to be avoiding each other since the day I put Peter II in Peter's jar. Peter II seemed to have a small web going on the lid of the jar (which isn't screwed on so I can open it in a hurry when I have something to feed the spider). Peter himself would just wander around the jar, sometimes in his funnel and other times on the side of the web. Sometimes, he was closer to the top of the jar than others. I did see Peter II farther down in the jar earlier this week than I had ever seen him before. When I opened the jar to put something in (either the tiny 3rd spider or maybe an ant, I forget which) this past weekend, Peter II raced back toward his usual spot just under the lid. Up until today, I had just assumed Peter would eventually catch and eat Peter II, not the other way around......

Spider-Man and Dark Kingdom.

I am really enjoying the new "Spectacular Spider-Man" animated series. Yesterday's episode gave me my first look at the Rhino, Tombstone, and Mary Jane Watson. It also showed me that Spider-Man has to use his brains occasionally to beat villains, especially supervillains who are much stronger than he is.....

Later on Saturday, I went to Harry's house and played "Dark Kingdom" with him. We fought our way through the Steam Tunnels, then faced off with the Ashen Brute in the Kiln. It was a large monster with two worm-like heads, a bulldog-like body, and two projections from the shoulders that resembled the front legs of a spider. We got killed by it a number of times before Harry figured out that we had to dodge its attacks and drain the capacitors it was using to heal itself whenever one of them got to 85%. Harry's character (Maximus) died after we got the Brute's health bar halfway empty, but I (as Gandolf) managed to stay alive. When I drained a capacitor that got up to 80% or more, it would give me a health boost. I dodged and ran back and forth between the capacitors, occasionally hitting the Brute with a massive fireball. To my surprise and delight, I killed the creature. After Maximus was revived, we went back to the Dragon Shade hideout, only to learn in the cutscene that the wizard character I had chosen (Malakesh, or something like that) was a traitor. When the game resumed, Harry and I had to track him down and beat him in battle (which was a lot easier than fighting the Brute)......

Two-Movie Weekend.

I have kept busy this weekend. Watched more of my season three "Doctor Who" tape. Did some ironing. I went out with Harry and Liz and saw two movies on Saturday:

The first movie we saw was Nim's Island. It was about a young girl (Nim) and her dad living on a tropical island in the South Seas. Nim's dad went out to sea to track some plankton, but got lost in a storm. Nim e-mailed the author of her favorite book series (thinking it was an action hero she was e-mailing) to come help her. The author (Alex) was really an agoraphobic (fear of open spaces) woman obsessed with cleanliness, but she drove herself to come to Nim's aid. Meanwhile, Nim did her best to drive away some tourists who came to the island. It was funny, but it also had some tear-jerking moments.

The second movie we saw was The Ruins. It was about a group of young Americans (college students?) in South America. They met a foreigner who told them about some pyramid ruins he was going to see with his brother that weren't on the tourist maps. They agreed to go with him, but when they got to the ruins, some people in the jungle killed one of their group and forced the rest of them onto the pyramid. While they were on the pyramid, the foreigner fell and broke his back. The plants on the ruins moved and got into the cut of one of the American girls. They also got into the foreigner's injuries. Anyway, this movie was more gory than scary, and I think it is a safe bet that neither Harry or I will buy this when it comes out on DVD.....