The Mummy

And yet a little tumult, now and then, is an agreeable quickener of sensation; such as a revolution, a battle, or an adventure of any lively description.
-- Lord Byron

Friday, May 7, 1999
One year ago: Being There

Jack and I had arranged to go see The Mummy, and after examining the theaters and showtimes, we decided that I'd drive over to his place and we'd go to the Woodinville Cinemas. It was so good to see him, after his first week of work at Bellingham! He asked me if I wanted to drive to the theater also, which isn't our usual practice, but was fine with me.

But we encountered the early signs of rush hour traffic, even on the rural road that would take us to Woodinville, so Jack instructed me to take the next right and we'd drive out and around to the east, and approach the town from another direction. Even this didn't suffice to get us there in time for the four o'clock show.

So after I picked the parking spot that suited me -- I'd rather be at the edge of a parking lot and park easily, than fight and jockey for a close-in spot -- we wandered around the "strip mall with pretensions to fancy," buying a few things at the Top Foods grocery. I hadn't visited that chain before; I don't think there are many in the Seattle area.

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We'd bought our tickets from the auto-dispensing machines upon arrival, so we walked right in to the theater. We had a fun/guilty thrill from smuggling in our sodas and chocolate.

We both enjoyed the movie a lot! I've always liked Brendan Fraser (a Seattle native) and most of the rest of the cast was good, too. The production design and special effects were extra-good. Columbine noted the attraction of the lead ninja-desert person, and I certainly agree. The pace was pretty good all the way through, but I think that having the bad guy needing to incorporate four men to become whole was probably one too many. After all, we knew he would succeed or the movie would be over too soon! Diane didn't like the movie as much as I did. I agree that snappy dialog wasn't the movie's strong point.

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Of course, now that Jack is leaving this area, he's getting around to checking out all the places that he's been meaning to get to for a long time. So for dinner, we went to Armadillo Barbecue, also in Woodinville. As the reviews state, it's a funky place! Dark panelling, animal heads on the wall (including an Archie McPhee frog mask), a cooler of Jones Sodas. Jack sat beside me on the banquette, and said, "This place only needs a tapestry of dogs playing poker!" Jack dearly wants one of those hangings; I'm sure he'll get one for his new place. We looked up at the wall directly over our heads, and there it was!

We decided to get the family feast for two -- a platter of various types of barbecued meat (ribs, beef ribs, chicken) along with side dishes and cornbread and such. It was good! But Jack said that Dixie's "The Man" still rules, for him.

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We watched the last few minutes of Millennium, on the TV screen on Jack's computer. Ugh! I really dislike scenes where someone is begging for zir life, and that's what was happening, in flashback, so it was certain that the character would be murdered slowly, while screaming and struggling. This squicks me like few things do.

Jack had planned on going down to Olympia early on Saturday morning to talk to his older daughter A----, but a phone call to his sister (that's where she's staying now) told him that she was already at her mom's for the weekend, so that plan fell through. We'll work on packing stuff around here, instead.