Happy Quiet Birthday to Me

I don't know the last time I stayed home and was antisocial on my birthday, but it's sure fitting the bill tonight.

I've just cooked off some sweet wine chorizo sausage and I'm now caramelizing an assortment of veggies, a mirepoix with leek, to which I'll soon add homemade dark chicken stock, a couple ripe tomatoes, and some cannellini beans. I'll puree it all and add the sausage, and that's my down-home birthday treat on a stormy Saturday night.

Tomorrow the weather is also supposed to suck, but I have a bunch of things I want to do -- breakfast out with people, possibly a Film Fest movie or two, visit someone else, etc. I decided to keep the actual birthday day mellow after a week of sickness, et al, but since I *have* to brave the weather downtown to pick up my paycheque for rent, well, I might as well enjoy the town a little, too.
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So, it's later. Muchos vino later, and I'm watching the first season of The Unit. Now, this is no JAG or NCIS... The Unit isn't exactly what you would expect when you sign up for a regular television military show. This one's a bit of a pleasant surprise. It's written by The Shield's Shawn Ryan and produced both by he and David Mamet. An unlikely team, at the least.

The writing's tight. The acting's led by Dennis Haysbert and Robert Patrick. It's solid from the ground up.

I like military stuff. Hell, anything from Platoon and Full Metal Jacket right through to From Here to Eternity and the Nuremberg Trials -- it all gets me going. I was reared on stuff like All's Quiet on the Western Front and Elie Wiesel's Night. I've always known who the bad guys were, and when the chips are down, it's the covert ops guys I expect to save my ass.

Heh. Hey, I grew up on Rambo, too. (My 11 year old nephew has now been indoctrinated into the cult of Rambo. Upon hearing that he'd be seeing his first-ever shoot-em-up Western, 3:10 to Yuma, and me explaining what a shoot-em-up Western would entail, aka a Brief History of John Wayne and Clint, he said, "But I bet Rambo would beat 'em". Why, sure, son... he's ARMY!)

Anyhow. Gonna watch some more. I consider this the anti-"my time of the month" movie marathon. Ooh-rah.