Something probably happened.  But here's what happened yesterday, on Sept. 22, 2007, at 123 Awesome Street: not a damn thing!

After a late night out Friday, and a generally early Saturday morning, we were utterly wiped all day.  We did manage to make it out of the apartment at one point, to take care of some food needs, but that was it.  Spent the morning and early afternoon on the Sunday Times crossword, and the rest of the day on the couch.  We've been watching episodes of Mad Men, on AMC.  It's excellent.  1950's Madison Ave (hence, the 'Mad') ad-men, acting like 1950's Madison Ave ad-men.  Switchboards, corny copy, and pointy boobs - television at it's finest!

Mad Men: 4.5 out of 5
Amber says: "Gorgeous hairdos, classy dresses, intriguing workplace"
Eric says: "Pointy boobs!"

We watched the remaining 3 episodes of the first half of Season 1, ate some Mexican, lounged some more, and then popped in a movie.  (I'm going to pull back a lot right here, and kindly sanitize and brush-stroke over my incendiary thoughts.)  Here it is:  The movie we watched was Infernal Affairs - or, Mou gaan dou, to our Chinese friends of the site.  This is the movie off of which Martin Scorcese based The Departed, which was nominated for , in 2007, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mark Wahlberg), and won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Directing, and Best Picture.  "Infernal Affairs is excellent; Chinese cinema at its finest", says Eric.  When we watched The Departed on DVD in the spring, we both enjoyed it well enough, but the directing and some of the acting, we both felt, was weak; most certainly not Marty's best - or even some of his best - and definitely not nomination-worthy for Wahlberg.  So, at the time, we would've reviewed as such:

The Departed
2.5 out of 5
Amber says: "I don't understand what the fuss was all about.  It just isn't very good."
Eric says: "Some decent tension, but no re-watchability whatsoever.  And honestly, kind of a hack job in a lot of ways."

That review would have come in the spring of 2007.  Now, in September 2007, we would review Infernal Affairs as:

Infernal Affairs
4.5 out of 5
Amber says: "SO much better than The Departed in every way."
Eric says: "Infernal Affairs is excellent; Chinese cinema at its finest."

Now!  Having watched the original, we are forced to re-review The Departed:

The Departed, 9/07 re-review
1 out of 5
Amber says: "Doesn't hold a candle to the original."
Eric says: "Every single thing about Infernal Affairs is better, and shame on everyone involved in the Hollywood version for dumbing-down - and almost ruining entirely - a great movie."

There are two big problems with this whole situation: the ability for Hollywood to just hack through quality and re-package it, and (as I've always said) award shows.  There was no reason to re-make Infernal Affairs, other than to capitalize on someone else's work.  What makes The Departed such a bad offender, is that hardly anything was changed!  It's practically a scene-for-scene, word-for-word re-enactment!  The only things that were changed - the female roles, the ending - made the movie worse.  And every single one of its Academy Award nominations stemmed from this awfulness!

The worst offense - no, not Wahlberg's terrible acting (seriously, it was total over-acting) - was the Best Adapted Screenplay award.  There were full chunks of dialogue that were word-for-word out of Infernal Affairs, in The Departed.  How is that adapted?!  It's like giving your Chevy Malibu a paint job, and calling it a Mercedes Benz.

So...  if you are one who enjoys, or can at least tolerate, foreign films with subtitles, rent Infernal Affairs.  And just for the hell of it, if you haven't already seen The Departed, rent that afterwards, come back to the site, and leave a comment on our right-ful-ness.

In other news, Baker is pooping on the floor once a week but overall pretty good, Biscuit continues to enjoy following our computer cursors and blocking our monitors, Amber again kicked ass at work with her design skillz, and I gambled and won last week by locking down CD with a slightly lower rate but for a longer term, right before Ben "Still Gettin' the Hang of Things Over Here" Bernanke dropped a half-point (and, from what I get from the chatter, will probably do so again before that CD matures).  Such cockiness will assuredly lead us back to Mohegan Sun...

You know those times you're out at the bar, and you leave, and the next day someone says, "You shoulda stayed out, man!"?  I'm not saying the benefit would've outweighed the costs of staying, but when I left the local Yankees-friendly bar last night, the game seemed like a done deal, in favor of those Sox.  Down 7-2 in the 5th, the boys were looking tired and weak.  I'm not saying I should have definitely stayed for another 4 Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA's to watch the second-longest 9-inning MLB game ever.  But I definitely, probably, most likely should have stayed to watch the Yankees come back and win it, 8-7.  At least I get to watch Game 2 in a few minutes from the comfort of my couch.

General
Little news on the homefront.  The cats are doing well; more and more mischievous, without being very destructive.  The crazier they are during their play sessions, the sweeter they are when they collapse on your lap.  G'boys!

The Lady
Amberino is doing well too.  Her job is overall good; stressful at times but she's got a good grip on everything, and every time she's tasked with designing, she's hitting homeruns and impressing the suits.

Housing
We were close to taking a quick trip up to Westchester today to just pick a town, and have a little walking adventure, to scout it out.  But between the Yanks being on TV, and the weather possibly turning sour with rain, we're passing.  We haven't been doing much research or anything lately; we know what we need to do (save money).  We also don't want to get too excited now because who the hell knows what will happen, number-wise, in the next 1-3 years.  But it's looking more and more in our favor in the short- to mid-term.  If you've got any suggestions for the general NY, NJ, & CT area (anything train-able within 60 minutes of NYC), good or bad, let us know.  Places to look for, places to avoid, etc.; anything would be helpful and appreciated.

Living
The city has kind of been kicking my butt lately.  Someone passively commented to me the other day that I might have seasonal depression in the summer.  The more I've thought about this, the more I think it's the case.  Summer is really difficult for me; I've never been one who enjoys temperatures over about 75-80 degrees.  And it's just compounded in the city.  I'm extremely fortunate to be able to walk to work.  But I still have to take the subway to get around to see friends, shop, etc.  The subways are miserable enough the other 9 months of the year, they're practically unbearable for me when it's hot outside.  Right now, it's cloudy and cool; my kind of weather.  Now that the season is ending and I have time to reflect on it - and while I may or may not have a clinically-defined disorder - I'm paying more attention to, and responding to, how much it affected me and will continue to affect me.  It's the whole quality of life thing.  Just gotta figure out how to adjust and react accordingly.  For now, I'm excited to get back to wearing jeans comfortably again.

Misc
We saw the Bourne Ultimatum last week.  Really good movie, probably the best of the three.  Haven't been watching Netflix movies at all.  Hoping to rent 300 tonight (should've sent Netflix back earlier in the week).  Trying to get Foo Fighter tickets from K-Rock, for a small secret album launch show this week; very very unlikely.  And that's about it.