Weekend Rundown

This weekend, I

>helped my mom celebrate her birthday by taking her to Olive Garden for dinner on Friday. My parents have this thing for the OG, which I don't get, but don't question either because, well, it's their day, be it Mother's Day, Father's Day, their birthdays, their anniversary or any other day the family gets together. I suppose I also don't mind going because it brings back childhood memories. You see, the building Olive Garden occupies was once the home of two restaurants my folks would take us to many years ago: Coco's and Reuben's. We usually had breakfast or lunch at Coco's and dinner at Reuben's (not on the same day, mind you). Both restaurants closed in the eighties. Back then, I thought the timing was an extraordinary coincidence. Only when I was older would I grasp the concept of parent companies. After a few years, Coco's reappeared a block from its original location when Bob's Big Boy, another family favorite, closed.

>toddled around downtown Burlingame Saturday afternoon. Toddling is good fun, whether it be "walking at a leisurely pace" or "walking with short unsteady steps", though the latter is more likely than the former to attract unwanted attention from onlookers and possibly the police. Anyway, toddling affords one the opportunity to gaze into store windows, stop at cafes for coffee and sit at any number of benches to watch people or read.

>read Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy. I recently finished an extensive book about the moral history of the American Civil War and just began a lengthy book about Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet. I thought I would take a break from the laugh-a-minute reading and spend the weekend reading something shorter and more serious, which is why I selected a novel that follows Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary of Reading's Nursery Crimes Division as they investigate the murder of Humperdinck Jehoshaphat Aloyius Stuyvesant van Dumpty. If you like puns, fun with plot devices, parodies or general nonsense and need a good chuckle or groan, I'd highly recommend this book.

>contemplated hiking, but didn't because I couldn't make up my mind. Part of the problem is that I get bogged down with the possibilities. It's the whole too-many-choices-where-do-I-start predicament, which, by the way, is also known as "The Predicament Most Likely to Garner No Sympathy Whatsoever, so Shut Up and Choose Already". Big Basin, Big Sur and Forest of Nisene Marks are my top picks for hiking in the coming weeks. I'm also trying to narrow down the candidates for hikes starting from the Tioga Road when we return in Yosemite next month.

>watched the pilots of two new television shows on DVD. NBC and Netflix worked out a deal where folks could request a DVD containing the pilots of Studio 60 and Kidnapped. Kidnapped is a single-event drama in the same vein as Lost, 24, Prison Break and every third show scheduled to be on the air this season. I thought the pilot was strong, especially when it focused on Jeremy Sisto as the mercenary hired to find the kidnap victim, but it's difficult to see the writers maintaining the same quality and momentum through all twenty to twenty-four episodes. Studio 60 is Aaron Sorkin's behind-the-scenes look at a sketch comedy television show similar to Saturday Night Live. I'm a fan of Matthew Perry and Sorkin's rapid and sarcastic dialogue (an underpinning of his The West Wing), so I liked it.

Beyond whether or not I liked the shows, I'm sure somebody is wondering why anyone would "waste" a DVD rental to watch two shows that could have been seen for free in a matter of weeks. While I recognize the silliness of it, I let curiosity and novelty get the better of me. To me, it was worth delaying the next movie in my queue by a few days to satisfy that curiosity rather than waiting a month to find out if I liked either show. Plus, a sneak peek of a TV show on DVD sounded like a new and oddly appealing concept. Next year, when every network is promoting their new crop of shows this way, I'm certain the freshness of it all will have worn off.