Halloween 2004

Our friends the W's came over for Halloween, and their son and two twin daughters went trick-or-treating with the Heir to the vast El Jefe kingdom. Ate hotdogs, and such, and lolled around in the yard doing the candy thing. After a time, collected the kiddos, piled in the W's Suburban and went off to visit the B's (big time Thurston supporters, but they are still cool to hang with).

The B's had an adult beverage I'd not sampled before, something by Smirnoff called "Ice V-Twisted Cranberry" or some such thing. A malt beverage, like beer, that tasted like a cranberry drink. Very tasty and will definitely try the things again.

The B's had their DVD movie equipment deployed (Daddy B. is a big techie) and were showing movies on their garage door. They started with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and ended up with Frankenstein (the original, not the re-make).

Last night, the wife and kiddo crashed early, and El Jefe, along with High Patronesses MILO and FLINKY, settled in to watch Godfather II.

El Jefe is a big devotee of the Godfather films (particularly the first one), applying the leadership and life philosophies of the Godfather to running his own vast nefarious empire. The Don definitely has no time for mushy-headed liberals. Godfather II, a favorite of the critics, is less preferred by El Jefe primarily because Don Michael (Al Pacino) is a much more, well Stalinist Don than was Don Vito.

Godfather II, often cited as the finest sequel ever made, also suffers somewhat from its incomplete meshing of two plot lines - the early life of Don Vito in 1900's Sicily and New York, and the activities of Don Michael in 1950's Nevada (with a very interesting interlude in Batista era Cuba). The film jumps back and forth between the two plots, but they are never firmly tied together. Still, these are minor complaints, because El Jefe definitely gives Godfather II four stars, or two thumbs up, or whatever your rating preference for a top-notch production may be.

Everything is sort of winding down early tonight, I suppose because of the wacko time change. El Jefe HATES standard time, where it is dark at six o'clock p.m., and wishes Daylight Savings Time was a year round thing.