• Nick was in town!
• Dinner: The Farm On Adderly in Ditmas Park with Nick, Martha, Nick's friend Gabe, and Gabe's ladyfriend (whose name escapes me). I had the grilled brook trout with Israeli couscous and spiced carrots. Martha had the shrimp special over poppy seed polenta, which made me jealous, but both were pretty amazing.
• Post Dinner: Scrabble and drinks at Pacific Standard, a relatively new bar in Park Slope that I really enjoy (see pic at right). They almost always have a barleywine-style ale on tap, which is both wonderful and dangerous.

• Brunch: Martha made tasty chocolate chip pancakes and we pigged out on them like whoa and lounged on the couch and watched DVR'd Law & Order and Two And A Half Men for a good part of the afternoon.
• Dinner: Kunjip in Koreatown. I had bibimbop (see pic at right). Martha had some sort of beef stew thing? Both were crazy awesome.
• Post-Dinner: We accidentally double-booked our evening, but somehow it all worked out. We had tickets to see The Magnetic Fields at Town Hall at 8, but this fact totally skipped our minds when we bought tickets to see Be Kind Rewind at 6:40. Thankfully, the restaurant, the cinema and the venue were all within a few blocks of each other, so the timing worked out perfectly. The movie was really cute and funny and heartwarming; I liked it a lot. And the show was, of course, amazing. They even played "Take Ecstasy With Me", which is one of my favorite Magnetic Fields songs.
• Post-Entertainment: Met up with some folks at Beer Table, another (brand-)new bar in Park Slope. Holy shit, this place was amazing. I had an unbelievable bottle of J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale from 1998 (see pic at right), which was so smooth that it smelled and tasted like sherry. Matt James and I decided that we should try to make it back there on a weekly basis, which I don't think will be difficult.

While researching the details of this movie and its most recent butchering remaking (starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, set to be released in 2009) I couldn't help but notice how painstakingly detailed the goofs section is on its IMDB page.

What's even more entertaining is that there was a made-for-TV remake in 1998, filmed in Toronto, for which the goof list is nearly twice as long. It's interesting to compare the two and see which errors were necessary plot points, thus showing up in both, and which were just carelessness and bad research on the part of the respective filmmakers.

By the way, the photo at left was taken at the New York Transit Museum, which I recently visited and wholeheartedly endorse as being awesome. Are you surprised?

• Travel by Amtrak sleeper car from New York to Del Rio, TX via the Crescent and Sunset Limited (including an overnight layover in New Orleans, LA)
• Rent a car in Del Rio and crisscross the desert region, making the following stops:
• Marathon, TX
• Big Bend National Park
• Presidio, TX
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Roswell, NM (we won't waste our time here, maybe just get some Alien swag)
• Albuquerque, NM/Petroglyph National Monument
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Hopi & Navajo Nation Lands
• Flagstaff, AZ (where we'll catch the flight home)

The Westcotts came down to Brooklyn for a visit this weekend. Adventures were had. Food was eaten. Pictures were taken (this one's Katy's, mine are pending). And I now have a fancy new fireplace in my living room, thanks to the advice of my father. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

Next step: Exotic Fish Aquarium.