Catching up ...

There’s nothing like a relaxing weekend surrounded by good friends …

On Friday night, Kates and I ventured into Chicagoland for a rendezvous with our friends Steve and Emily, and then Tad and Jen met us at O’Hare fresh off their flights into town for a weekend wedding. We went to a pizza joint, sharing in good conversation and pitchers of beer and, of course, pizza with baseball playoff games on a big screen TV in the background … On Sunday morning, we got a random call from Ray and Leah wanting to come up and watch the Packer game because our fair stations to the south only show a lesser team. We shared in good conversation over chips, salsa, Diet Cokes and chilli with the Packers finally giving us a good, old-fashioned Green Bay win …

But here we are, the more we get together, no matter how fast the last decade of knowing each other has passed, and yet how short of a time it seems, as full-fledged adults. No matter how much we still feel like kids.

Back then, we were driving across town to pick up the other friend, amid conversations about the hottest girl in school or the homework assignment that was frustrating us. This weekend, we were driving to the airport to pick up the friend who was flying cross country to meet us, amid talks about the journey of marriage, the plights of finances and mortgages …

And we looked through yearbooks, reminiscing about friends that still seem so close, although change has sent them so far away …

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The Packer win was fun and all, but, darn, was I sorry I missed the Astros-Braves game. 18 innings!

18 INNINGS!

Ah, well. Braves fans stink anyway …

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OK. Seriously now. I think I’m all caught up on the TV and ready to settle in for the fall. … and it’s kind of sad. Of all the new shows that I had such high hopes for, it seems like ‘Commander in Chief’ might be the only one I’ll stick with. …I’m not quite sold on ‘Invasion’ yet. And while I really do like ‘War At Home,’ and ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ I won’t be canceling my plans on Sunday and Monday nights to watch them.

… I still say ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is the best show on TV right now, on a Sunday night that is loaded with ‘West Wing’ on NBC, ‘War at Home’ on Fox and ‘Desperate Housewives’ on ABC all showing before ‘Grey’s’…

It looks like I’m still sticking to CBS on Monday nights (but turning it off when CSI comes on -- don’t get me started on why I hate cops shows …), ABC on Wednesday nights and NBC on Thursday nights.

…And on the other nights, you can pretty much take your pick from whatever you’re in the mood for. On Tuesdays ABC has ‘According to Jim’ and ‘Commander in Chief,’ but NBC has ‘The Office’ and CBS has ’Amazing Race,’ even though the whole family thing is going to deter me from watching that for a few weeks (here's why) …Then on Friday nights, I’m usually so exhausted from the week, I’ll take just about anything that will make me laugh -- that means anything on the WB (‘Reba’ might be one of the most underrated comedies on TV), ABC (‘Hope & Faith ’ and ‘Hot Properties’) or a good marathon of ‘Friday Night Stand-Up’ on ‘Comedy Central.’

Tubin'

I’m ALMOST caught up on my TV watching. I finally got through one of my video tapes yesterday afternoon (thanks to the Angels/Yankees playoff game being rained out) -- but I think I have like two more 6-hour tapes left. It’s been so long since I recorded the shows I’m beginning to forget what’s on them.

We really need to call about that DVR …

I got off work early Friday afternoon, so that gave me a little down time to catch up on a couple shows, including the season premiere of ‘According to Jim’ -- one of those shows that I always feel guilty for not watching enough. The one-hour premiere -- albeit like two weeks old now -- was HA-larious. In a fit of jealousy for Dana’s (played by the beautiful Kimberly Williams) new hubby, Jim steals 118 roses that Dana’s husband had planned to give her. Jim gives the flowers to Cheryl instead … Cheryl, of course, figures out what Jim did and the plot evolves into the two exchanging memories and lies about the involvement of a mix tape in their relationship … and, eventually, they settle their differences and live happily ever after …

Perhaps the best scene of the show, and the one that set the tone, was the opening scene that features the entire cast at the dinner table. When the last bite is swallowed and Cheryl gets up to begin the chore of washing dishes, Dana’s husband says ‘Cheryl, do you need any help in the kitchen.’ … There’s the sounds of clanging silverware on dishes, dropped jaws, blanks stares and dead silence all around the table … It was a great moment.

That premiere -- two weeks ago -- was followed by the premiere of ‘Commander in Chief.’ Amazing for all the people I’ve heard talk about the show (and say they really liked it), and for all the stories I’ve read about it, I knew very little about how the premiere played out, other than the fact the fictitious President Teddy Roosevelt Bridges dies of a stroke. Keeping in mind the fact this premiere is, yes, two weeks old, I’ll save all of us some time and not retell the whole story. … I will say, though, watching the whole premise of the show unfold was pretty cool. The notion of having, let alone, a woman vice president, who then defies the president’s dying request for her to resign, and THEN goes on and delivers the ‘charge’ speech she gives to the congress (with the teleprompter failing) was pretty awesome and invigorating …

… And then I watched the ‘Boston Legal’ premiere -- from two weeks ago. Not that I’m a big fan of the show. Julie Bowen’s just fun to look at, too. (… I’m still having trouble getting over NBC canceling ‘Ed.’)

… I think watching ‘Reunion’ is a lost cause. Kates and I watched the premiere and were only lukewarm on it. We taped the second episode, which was already delayed a week because of Bush‘s post-hurricane speech, but we haven’t watched it. And then we completely missed the third episode …

…‘Amazing Race.’ I only caught the last 20 minutes of the premiere, and lost interest pretty quickly. The family concept is an interesting idea, but it won’t stand to be nearly as competitive, the kids are just annoying and they’re only traveling cross-country. No fun with different languages, foreign cars or exhaustive landscapes. BOR-ing. Aside from ‘The Office,’ my television will likely be off on most Tuesday nights …

…Maybe I’ll get around to watching the rest of our videotapes by Thanksgiving …