This week has been one of shows. Monday night was the finale of Heroes. Tuesday Nessa and I saw 28 Weeks Later, before driving an hour northwest to Rockford to meet up with Apocalypse Theatre for their gig at CJs Lounge. And then last night was the 2 hour finale of LOST. Getting to hang out with Kat, V, Lindsy, et all was definitely worth the drive. It was kind of a strange environ for an APOX show, but in a sense that kept it interesting. We got home at about 2a or so, but as I said it was a fun time, and well worth the drive.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

Last night was the LOST finale. I liked it, and am now frustrated that it will be about 8 months before things continue on. It was sad seeing Charlie take one for the gang, especially if it turns out to not be in their favor. I'm still a little unsure as to why he didn't just go out of the hatch and seal it from the outside. That's the whole point of those spinny wheels on those hatch doors. Still it was sort of an interesting thing having two different characters sacrificing themselves for seemingly opposite goals. Having both Sun and Sayid on the beach really made it simply too obvious that they weren't all shot. Kill one of them, maybe. Kill one of them and Bernard, possibly. Kill both of them, I don't think so. And as soon as Sawyer made the crack about Hurley's weight you knew he was going to be responsible for saving somebody. The flash forward thing caught me pretty unawares which was good, and not knowing who had died was driving me a little crazy. The go ask my father thing was a bit confusing. Not sure if it was a bad attempt at swerving us away from realizing it was the future, or if by returnng from the island somehow the past has been changed as well. I expected a bit more from Locke, and seeing Walt was a bit odd as the actor has obviously aged a lot more than the period of time the survivors have supposedly been on the island. All that said, I still really liked it. Ben getting the smackdown, Hurley taking out the Others with the VW, Des spearing Mikhail, Charlie's last moments, amongst plenty of other things. The last several weeks of this season have served to return my interest to the show. Just in time to have to wait for 8 months. Is it just me or does ABC just seem to know nothing about the concept of momentum.

Similarly, Monday night was the finale of Heroes, which I'd mistakenly come to believe was 2 hours (confusing it with LOST). It not being 2 hours was disappointing but overall I enjoyed it as well. I have to agree with some of the other people out there's comments that it seemed a tad anti-climactic, and various elements just didn't make a lot of sense to me. First of all, why can't Peter just fly himself away, and even if that's not possible why not just shoot him or knock him out. Seemed to work in previous instances. If they bring back Nathan and he isn't suffering some major radiation burns/poisoning I'll be rather disappointed, as that was the whole point of having Claire with the gun (invulnerability). I was definitely hoping for a bit more of a fight between Peter and Sylar. That's twice now that it hasn't really happened. Basically, I enjoyed many of the things they left open for next season (Hiro in feudal Japan for one), liked how some of the thngs were resolved in this season but thought that the biggest resolutions (the explosion, and Sylar) were left a bit wanting. Thankfully, I get the sense that there will be other things out there to try and keep my interest in the Heroes universe until next season begins.

As for 28 Weeks Later, I think my response is kind of simialr to these two TV finales. Overall I thought it was well done and entertaining, with several logic gaps and not wholly living up to my expectations. I find it funny in this movie that they effectively set up the military and its draconian policies as a sort of second bad guy alongside the Rage infected. We're supposed to identify with the people who are able to "maintain their humanity" and try to save a couple kids. Thing is, in the end it is their subverting of the kill 'em all containment policy that leads to potentially the end of human civilization. You get the sense that they are trying to make a statement against recent American military action and politics yet they eventually make a statement in its favor. And why not explain the whoel anti-body thign to the kids as well. Saving them at all costs to find a cure for the virus doesn't do any good if nobody knows about it. Still overall, my biggest complaint with the film was the constant recurrences of the kids' father. It just doesn't fit in with the whoel random outbreak, everybody's against us concept of a zombie film to have one mindless critter somehow by sheer coincidence stalking the characters. It just seemd a tad far-fetched even in that setting. Kind of like the building care-taker having keycard access to the military medical quarantine facilities under zero supervision, particularly after it has already been ascertained that mother is, in fact, contagious. Really, the only characters that I was able to identify with were killed off at the beginning of the outbreak, so unlike the first movie the run for survival just didn't hold the same weight. It wasn't as personal and therefore wasn't as visceral.

Thank you to everybody that came down to Grumpy's on Friday night!!! It was a great time. Nessa and I were there from 9p until 2a, and got to hang out with all sorts of folks we hadn't seen in quite a while. Its always entertaining seeing the people from lots of different social sets criss-crossing and meeting one another. Hopefully, all who made it out had fun. There were so many people I had a hard time gettgin around to spend time with everybody.

By the way Laurie, thanks much for the t-shirt, and it is true 'KISS WAS ROBBED'!!! I'll post a pic of it when I get the chance.

It was such a crazy week. Nessa's trip up there was delayed by the untimely necessity of getting the front suspension replaced on the car. What started as a simple oil change turned into a full day delay of her excursion with me doing a decent bit of traipsing back and forth from the auto shop. Thankfully, me catchign my flight up to MN went without a hitch, and it sounds like everything I had set up over the weekend here went pretty well.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Bloomington off of 35W, and gave them a pretty decent bit of room service business. I managed to squeeze in just a bit of swimming in between dropping Nessa off at her friend's bachelorette party and picking her up on the way to Grumpy's. That was pleasant. And ,as I mentionned, Grumpy's was a great time, aside from Devora getting her back passenger window smashed in, and leather coat stolen.

Saturday we headed out to Nessa's cousins' graduation party held at a gorgeous mansion on Lake Minnetoka. Very impressive. I took some pics, but don't have them on this computer. There was a pirate ship in the backyard. On our way there we managed to stop by Brittany's studio at Art-a-Whirl and say Hi. After the graduation party we saw Shrek the 3rd with Nessa's little 'sister' and cousin Heidi. The plan after that was to hit the Kitty Kat Club and the big party at Kingman's. Instead the two of us sickies found ourselves collapsing into bed with a video at 9:30p, and not waking until about 20 minutes after we were officially supposed to have checked out of our room.

The ride home was pleasant enough, and you've never seen anybody more excited than a Nessa getting to snuggle her kitties after 4 days gone.