A productive weekend

I finally got all my fall duties done. I put in the second toilet in our second bathroom. I got my truck washed and now we are all set. It has been a long working around the house November. I got to go hiking with friend one Saturday though. I'm done with Kjell Eriksson's "Stenkistan". It was not one of his best but still, any Kjell Eriksson is good. I was sad to hear that he is wrapping up the Ann Lindell series with the tenth book. Currently, I'm reading another Malcolm Gladwell. It's called Blink. It is not as good as outliers but still a necessary read if you like Malcolm's books. Next I need to finish up a couple of more of Kjell Eriksson's and then move on to Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point. As you can see, fall is my reading time. I'm going to go on a hike Sunday after thanksgiving. Besides that not much else going on.

More Chores to do plus a couple of movies

Even though, I still feel somewhat tired from my sore throat and headaches lately, I did get some stuff done. Lisa and I got the gutters cleaned, I got all the leafs off my lawn and we cleaned the entire house today. Lisa got two new tires for her car and I even managed to watch two old westerns. I watched Pale Rider from 1985 and Unforgiven from 1992. Most people love unforgiven and I do to but Pale Rider in my opinion is a better movie. I know, I'm not following the mainstream but that's just my opinion. Both movies are worth seeing though. I especially like MichaelMoriarty who plays the main miner character in the movie. I can't believe it's almost 25 years ago I went and so this movie at the theater in Växjö, Sweden.

A rough week

I have been constantly sick since last Saturday night. A sore throat and chest congestion with sinus headaches, one after another. I finally felt so so enough to do my leaf raking outside today. I cleaned gutters as well and put the patio furniture inside for winter. Tomorrow I'm going to clean the whole house and then it's time for work again. I find myself very busy every November due to the end of season. I am not able to do much else. No fishing or hiking this weekend and I doubt much will happen on that front for a while. I'm going to put in a new toilet in one of my baths next weekend, and finally get around to wash my truck. Maybe I will go hiking or fishing one day during thanksgiving weekend if the weather cooperate.

Charlies Bunion

The hiking party on top of Charlies Bunion

I did Charlies Bunion together with my coworker Tamar and her husband Larry. We left Knoxville around 8 am and got to the trail head to begin our hike slightly after 9 am. The hike begins with a steady uphill climb and a descent halfway in. It's not the most difficult hike but not an easy one either. I was pretty tired when we got back. I can blame some of the tiredness on having some kind of allergic reaction. I got home at about 4:30 in the evening. After eating some tacos I began feeling real tired. I told my wife I'm going to take a nap. I did and woke up about 9 pm with a sever sore throat and headache. I took some Benadryl and Tylenol and went to bed. Didn't sleep well as I had a real bad sore throat. It is somewhat better as I write this. I'm hoping it was allergies rather than a cold. We'll see in the morning I guess. The hike was beautiful as the weather was perfect. Clear blue skies and the trail was popular on such a beautiful fall day.

Outliers and Pelham 123

I finished Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" the other week. I normally don't read much non fiction if it's not fly fishing related but couldn't pass this book up. It has been a long time on the best seller lists and I had to see what it was all about. It's kind of like a book on sociological theories but set in an everyday setting which speaks to an average guy. I don't wan to give anything away but if you are interested in sociological and societal questions put in a different light when it comes to the answer this is for you. I don't always agree with Mr. Gladwell, but he does bring out unusual answers to why so and so became what they became. The conclusion might look a little on the simple side but the book is a good read and highly recommended. I'm now going to read his previous books, including the best selling book "The Tipping Point"

The taking of Pelham 123 , was a decent action movie with Denzel Washington, John Turturro who I haven not seen in a long time, as well as John Travolta and Luis Guzman. I purposely waited until this one came out on dvd.

Zombieland

The wife and I did a night out on the town, We have had some hit and miss with Halloween so we decided to stay out of the house this time. I suggested we go see "Zombieland" about three weeks ago but no, Lisa didn't think it sounded good. I told her it's getting good buzz. Lisa came home the other day and now all of a sudden she said she likes to see it. It's kind of funny that she changed her mind when the suggestion didn't come from me. LOL. Anyway, after stopping for dinner we hit the theater at East Towne and we were there with only a handful of others. It was a game day and Halloween so I guess it's no surprise.

The movie began strong and crazy. It was a hilarious gore fest until about halfway through when the movie seemed to stall. It dragged for a while and came to an abrupt and somewhat non satisfying ending. It's an okay movie but doesn't deserve all the rave lately. If you don't have anything else go see it, but I should have gone to see the new Cohen brothers movie (A Serious Man) instead. Oh well.