Be-Mused — Karen Templeton

. . .because she’s actually been more interested in working on the book than coming up with pithy, witty blog stuff. Just the way it goes, sometimes.

#5 spent both Friday and Saturday night at a friend’s house clear on the other side of the city. And yes, we enjoyed the quiet. All that’s due to end, however, in about forty-five minutes when he returns, at which time we have to deal with a) homework, b) reading (which he hates), c) Halloween decorating and d) coming up with some sort of costume that says Creepy Zombie Skeleton. . .thing. As the kid himself would say, I have no clue. And all this has to happen before the West Wing/Desperate Housewives/Mystery marathon, which begins at seven. Should be interesting.

Watched THE INTERPRETER and BATMAN BEGINS this weekend. I think I was in a mood or something, because while I appreciated the performances in TI, I doubt I’ll remember it next week, and I think I hated BR. As far as I was concerned, they really should have annihilated Gotham City and been done with it. What a dreary, icky place, blech. Anyway, I have this thing about not reading reviews before I’ve seen the movie (unless we’re about to shell out the bucks to see it in the theatre, in which case it has to average at least a B or fuggedaboutit). Yahoo usually has about a dozen pro reviews on the site, and I like to guess what the average score’s going to be, based on my (naturally) objective reaction to the movie. Actually, I’m usually pretty close — if I rate the movie a B, the average score will be somewhere in that neighborhood. So imagine my shock to discover that everybody apparently loved BATMAN RETURNS but me.

I thought it was slow and overblown, with shallowly portrayed characters I couldn’t even hate, let alone give a damn about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s based on a comic book, but still. I adored SPIDERMAN and Peter Parker, so it can be done. To give credit where it’s due, I thought Christian Bale did a pretty good job, his overbite notwithstanding, and of course who doesn’t love Michael Caine? But whatshertootsies left me cold (she’s got that whole crooked mouth thing going like Drew Barrymoore, but at least it works for Drew). And movies that take place entirely at night weird me out after a while. Clearly, however, I am completely out of the loop with this one, since virtually everything that bugged me, the critics thought was awesome.

Now I know why I don’t review for a living.

My editor’s ass’t sent me a two-inch stack of coverflats for MARRIAGE, INTERRUPTED yesterday. What I’m supposed to do with them, I do not know.

Oh, and my jury panel has yet to be called, which is why I’ve been writing. Not going in on Monday, either. Not that I’m complaining. . .

Well, just got an emergency call from the husband’s cell phone — #5, calling from the car to make sure I’ve got chicken noodle soup waiting for him when he arrives.

And so it begins. Again.