Mrs. Poolman and I had a fairly uneventful weekend. We ran errands, did a little shopping and rented a couple of movies to watch. We’re so exciting.
On Saturday, we braved the highways and parking lots to finish up some Christmas shopping. We stayed in Saturday evening and I made some cream of artichoke soup (recipe under the “Recipes” tab above.) 
We watched “Julie and Julia” with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. This isn’t an Academy Award winner, but it is a very cute movie. Meryl captures the Julia Child persona perfectly. Amy is nothing if not cute. It was very enjoyable.
On Sunday, we went out to brunch after mass and ran into some old friends from whom we have drifted apart over the past few years. When we showed up at the local breakfast-place, there was a line out the door, but our friends, the V’s, had two seats at their table and waved us over. It was nice catching up. I spent the rest of the day doing four loads of laundry and the usual weekend chores assigned to me (updating the checkbook, paying bills, cleaning pool, etc.)
On Sunday evening, we watched the second of our two weekend movies, “Gran Torino” with Clint Eastwood. This movie has already received a bunch of publicity and awards, and they are well deserved. I’ve always been a big Clint Eastwood fan. In this movie, he plays himself as well as he has since “Dirty Harry.” I love the “squint.” Unlike “Julie and Julia”, this is absolutely will not leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, but it is an outstanding movie with somewhat of a surprise ending. If you haven’t seen it yet, put it on your to-do list.
Another Beautiful Day in Paradise! 
Uneventful weekends are the best kind, in my book. I’ve heard good things about Julie & Julia. LOVED Gran Torino.
I loved both of these movies, you’re exactly right about Meryl’s performance. I’m still wishing they were able to bring her back to explain her dislike of Julie’s blog. Have you read any of the recent things in the paper about Julie having an affair but still being married to her husband, then writing about it? It took a little bit of the sweetness factor away. Now that I think about it, she came off really well in the movie considering she would not have been easy to live with during that time.
Gran Torino — what can I say? There has never been a bad Clint Eastwood movie :p)