smacky and bucky

I received something in the mail yesterday I had ordered for my wife for Christmas, and although the packing slip listed the correct item, the item in the box was wrong. Ten minutes of searching on their website finally yielded a phone number, and another ten minutes on hold got me through to customer service. To be fair to them, they emailed me a prepaid UPS packing slip, and I can box up the item and ship it back for free from my office. It's just annoying that with 25 days until Christmas, the package has to go back to Utah, via UPS Ground shipping, get restocked in the warehouse, and the replacement item shipped out to me. There should be time, but it's going to be close.

Which place was it? Well, sometimes, on occasion, it's all about the...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.


Spices are cool. There, I said it, and I'm not taking it back. I got Laura a book on spices for Christmas. How can you resist this snippet from the description on amazon.com:

There was a time, for a handful of peppercorns, you could have someone killed. Throw in a nutmeg or two, you could probably watch. There was a time when grown men sat around and thought of nothing but black pepper. How to get it. How to get more. How to control the entire trade in pepper from point of origin to purchase.

How kick-ass is that?!?

I stopped by our other house after work yesterday to grab a few last things and give a set of keys to the couple who are renting the place starting December 1. I spoke with one of the neighbors, commenting that after the developer bought and tore down the house three doors down from us, he hasn't done anything since. The neighbor told me that the same developer just bought the house next to the (now empty) lot. He's going to tear that one down too. "Wow, so he's going to put two mansions there?" I asked. "No," she replied. "The developer got permission from the county to subdivide the lots into three." That's right. He's going to put THREE McMansions in the same space where two regular sized colonials sat for over 60 years. If you're keeping score, here's what our side of the street will look like by this time next year (starting from the far end of the block and working toward the house we still own but don't inhabit):

McMansion (already there), McMansion, McMansion, McMansion (these three coming), regular house, regular house, our house. Our block will officially have more multimillion dollar McMansions than regular houses. And at least three more gigantic oak trees will have to come down if they want to fit three mansions on those two lots.

Ah, progress.

Back and back. Relaxing break, and the work world didn't implode because I took one extra day than everyone else. I think I can eat one more turkey sandwich before I'm done with that particular meat until next year.

A rather uneventful vacation, really. The cats did really well on the drive down, and love the house down there... lots of glass doors, so lots of sunny places to enjoy. On the drive back, the smaller kitty Maddie puked all over my lap. She gets carsick. You can't get mad any more than you could if a baby puked on you. They don't do things like that on purpose. They aren't that devious. They aren't adults.

Played Star Wars Battlefront II about 100 times with my 9-year-old cousin. He's good, but will only play the Hoth planet. So we played Hoth 100 times. I mixed it up by having us fight each other, then both be rebels, then both be the empire. We kicked rebel ass when we were the bad guys. He climbed into an AT-AT and started blasting the hell out of everything, and I was slicing through rebel scum as Darth Vader.

We watched War of the Worlds. I agree with De's review. I guess the power of Spielberg and Cruise got it the PG-13 rating, even as people were being spiked, drained of blood, and blood was sprayed over everything as fertilizer. The rating at the beginning described it as "Sci-Fi violence." Guess that makes it okay.

I'm sure this was discussed 50,000 times on the internet already, but was the Tim Robbins character supposed to be a pedophile? When he said "If anything happens to your Dad, I'll take care of you," his reading of that line wasn't supposed to make the audience say "Oh, he's so sweet." And Tom Cruise freaked out after he said that, implying he got that vibe too.

Oh was the Tim Robbins character just freaking nuts?

Another question: How did the 15-year-old boy survive and make it to freaking Boston, when the entire army he was standing beside was completely vaporized?

Sunrise this morning has been canceled. In its place, please enjoy 40 degrees with 30 MPH winds. Have a nice day.

I've been watching old episodes of Charmed recently. I never really watched the show before. I can't decide if I'm enjoying it because of the stories, action, and acting, or for the boobies. (Sexist, but honest.)

Twelve hours from now we'll be at the river, starting our five-day vacation.

Oh, no fins on the old Malibu, but it was BIG, and built like a tank. One time in college, on a back country road, I had come to a stop waiting for the car in front of me to turn left. A Toyota plowed into the back of my car. The driver had been watching someone land after skydiving at the small airport to the right of the road. Her car was totaled: engine pushed up, front end obliterated. My car had a bent corner on the back (steel) bumper. After the accident report, I was able to drive off. Yeah, we have 50 airbags on all sides now, and "crumple zones" designed to absorb impact, but I'd bet that my (now gone) 1966 Malibu--all metal and steel, both the front and back seats were basically two sofas (they were that big)--would still take a beating from most cars on the road. Even the dumb SUVs. If I see one more person driving an SUV coming to a COMPLETE STOP before driving over a speed bump, I'm going to lose it. They are (supposedly) designed to go off-road, and you're scared of what a speed bump will do?

Rant over. Looking forward to eating too much and taking a nap on Thanksgiving.

If John Kerry had ridden a mountain bike instead of windsurfed, would he now be President? Bush is on the cover of the Washington Post today biking with the Chinese olympic team.

No President would wear bike shorts. It's just super creepy.

We get bonus checks today! The majority of it will go to the Volkswagen dealership for fixing my car. It's not exactly broken, but the "check engine" light has been on for 6 months. I took it to a garage and they hooked it up to the computer and got the code "fuel trim too lean." I believe that only affects gas mileage, but I needed to have the dealership actually turn the "check engine" light off since it won't pass inspection with it on. Scam! At least I can change the headlight bulbs myself, saving $100 each time.

In high school I drove a 1966 Chevy Mailbu. No A/C, no power steering, no power brakes. Just a big ass engine. When the "check engine" came on in that car, you damn well pulled over immediately, because it probably meant "engine on fire!"

We're taking Wednesday off, and get Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, so it's going to be a very short week for me. Laura's cooking Thanksgiving for 10 people, and wants to get down there a day early to get started. She loves being the hostess. Very Martha Stewartish (I mean in her love of cooking and hosting parties; not so much the insider trading and being a bitch part).

It's 29 degrees this morning. The moronic local ABC news anchor Alison Starling kept repeating "It's the coldest day of the year. The coldest day since last March, in fact." So, is she saying it's the coldest day since March 2004? Because if she's referring to March 2005, then it's NOT the coldest day of the year, just the coldest day since March (The difference is 9 months ago vs. 21 months ago, so it's a big deal.) When she says "year" I think she means "season." Well, whoever wrote the words on the teleprompter meant "season." I doubt Alison of Doug have the capacity to ad-lib anything.

Thanks to De for pointing out the 20% off coupon code (SUPERSALE) at Deep Discount DVD . I purchased the Back to the Future trilogy for $16.31, with free shipping. I've never seen the third movie in the trilogy.

We're staying in town this weekend, meeting Laura's father and step mother for dinner tonight.

CSI was very good last night, part two of a story. They finally gave the actor that plays Detective Brass something to do, though it wasn't something a cop wants on his record. I won't spoil it by saying more.

I imagine a LOT of the submissions are fake, but I found a site called Overheard in New York. People submit things they heard people say on the streets of the city. So far the funniest one I read was a homeless man holding a sign that said "Ninjas killed my family. Need money to learn Kung Fu and get revenge." That would be awesome on a T-shirt.


I hate copy-protected CDs. You can't add the songs to your MP3 player, and copy-protected CDs won't even play in my car stereo (the copy protection blocks the songs from being played). I've unknowingly purchased two of these monsters, sight unseen, in the form of import CDs. Annoyance aside, I (and all of us) now have a greater reason to hate these things: When you play one of Sony's copy-protected CDs on your computer, it secretly installs a "rootkit." From an article about it in Wired (Read entire article HERE):

It acts as spyware, surreptitiously sending information about you to Sony. And it can't be removed; trying to get rid of it damages Windows.... On Nov. 4, Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's president of global digital business, demonstrated the company's disdain for its customers when he said, "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" in an NPR interview.

Why should we care? Well, it turns out that the installed software opens a door into your computer, a door that bypasses virus protection and opens your computer to infection. Hackers have already created viruses specifically geared to use the Sony created path into your computer. By the way, "The rootkit has even been found on computers run by the Department of Defense." So now Homeland Security is going to get involved somehow, since the government's computers are now open to viruses, thanks to a multinational corporation that cares a hell of a lot more about intellectual property and profits than customers and security.

We had dinner last night at Ted's Montana Grill (yes, we helped line the already-packed pockets of Ted Turner). Bison...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

After, I wandered to the bookstore and Laura went to every other store in the place. She ran and found me a bit later and dragged me to another store to look at...

...a nativity set. Not just any nativity set. The characters in this set are carved in marble, and wear real cloth clothes. Her eyes glowed as she talked about how this was something we'd pass down to our children.

I said "You finally get into action figures, and they're Jesus and his crew."

She smiled, looked at me, and replied, "You're gonna blog about this, aren't you."

Yes, honey. Yes I am.


In yesterday's comment section, I revealed that I estimate age by the Star Wars films, saying "Wow, Kate's young. She missed the original showing of both Star Wars and Empire!"

So, why do I use those movies as the touchstone for age? Well, the first Star Wars movie was probably the biggest event in my life up to that point. I was barely five when my mother took me, and afterward we went to a store that had the figures for sale. I still remember seeing them hanging on an endcap, rows rising much higher than me of the original 12 figures: Han, Luke, Leia, Darth, Ben, Chewbacca, R2D2, C3PO, Stormtrooper, Jawa, Sand People (yes, it was plural on the package), and Death Squad Commander (his name was later changed to the less overtly Nazi "Star Destroyer Commander"). I think I got Luke and the Jawa that day. Or maybe C3PO, since I know I was distracted by shiny things, as all children are.

The original three Star Wars movies were a huge part of my young life (as it was for millions of other boys). We acted out the movies on the playgound, debated what Boba Fett must look like under that mask (native New Zealander was never tossed out as an option, I assure you), and of course Leia's gold bikini... hello young boy fantasy. Even an episode of Friends explored the allure of that gold bikini.

Some generations have their major events such as the assassinations of JFK and MLK, man walking on the moon, and so on. We had Star Wars. I don't recall the exact day Reagan was shot, though I remember it happening. I don't recall when the first space shuttle exploded, though I remember it happening. I do, however, recall that three of us were allowed to take the day off of school and saw the first showing of Return of the Jedi from the front row.

I believe I'll be getting one of the all region DVD players that will also convert PAL to NTSC. I've done some asking around, and they're less than $150. That means I can get the Palin box set, and one of these two:

The one on the left is the special edition from England, found on Amazon.co.uk. The one on the right is the deluxe edition from France, found on Amazon.fr.

In America, this classic movie is out of print. I own a copy I bought for $10 when it first came out, and have never been tempted by the lure of copies going for over $50 on ebay. I wish I could pick up the North American rights to either of the above editions cheap and make DVDs. The time is right for a special edition of this movie here. You can purchase entire seasons of SAVED BY THE BELL, damn it! Why no love for the savior of the universe? The freaking universe!!!

In today's Washington Post, I saw this statistic: "...more than 6.4 million children--or about 13.4 percent of the national public school population--receive special education under the disabilities act."

Almost 15% of our population has some learning disability? That seems high. I think some parents are taking advantage of the Americans with Disabilites Act and getting little Timmy a little more attention. Not to be rude, but have we just decided as a nation that there's no longer dumb people in America? They're all just learning disabled and need a little more attention to raise them to the level of everyone else? I'm sorry, that's bullshit. Read the papers. Watch the news. Take a look at the Darwin Awards! There are some DUMB people out there, and I don't think special attention in the classroom could have saved them.

I just realized that whenever a candidate wins by a margin of less than 10%, the deciding votes were made by people who need special ed classes. That actually explains a lot about this country.

The new Medicare prescription drug plan goes into effect today, costing taxpayers billions, and old people are already complaining the plan is too complicated. So in an effort to placate them, the government announced today that they will personally deliver sacks of money to all people over 65. In response, the AARP demanded that someone also drive each old person to the bank and help fill out the deposit form. (I'm making up a few facts about this story, but fewer than you think.)

It looks like the next porn frontier will be iPods and cell phones. Watch what you want, but the concept behind these devices is portability. Who sits on the subway and thinks to themselves, "I think my time here could be better spent if I had some porn to watch"? And do you really want to watch a guy sitting across from you watch porn?

Edit: I just read that Moustapha Akkad, the executive producer of all 8 of the Halloween films, was attending the wedding in Amman that was hit by the suicide bomber. His daughter was killed instantly and he died two days later. He single-handedly kept the franchise alive. Yes, it eventually got to the point where each movie was worse than the last, but he gave the fans what they wanted: Michael Myers killing stupid teens. And if it wasn't for Moustapha, John Carpenter probably wouldn't have gotten the money to make the first Halloween, one of the scariest movies ever. If I remember correctly, the documentary included with the first movie on DVD says the story was actually based on an idea Moustapha had: a babysitter being chased by a psycho. He also had the idea to make it happen on Halloween. (I'll look around and confirm that.)

Relaxing weekend. Watched movies, took walks, finished a book.

I want this box set. All six of Michael Palin's BBC adventure shows, plus his "Great Railway Journey's."

Sixteen discs! There's a used copy available for 50.97 GBP ($88.57). The only downside: It's only available in PAL format, region 2, meaning I'd need a DVD player that would play that format (in my understanding, the PAL is the biggest obstacle, as that refers to the type of TV screen, or something).

You know who I'd like an update on? The guy that turned in Saddam's two sons to American troops. He supposedly received about $50 million in reward money. Did he collect? Where is he now? If the American government was smart (ha) it would immediately approve visas for him, his family, and his friends to come to America. He might as well spend his money here, right? Since it was taxpayer money anyway.

Maybe he moved to NYC, to Little Iraq (you know there's a Little Iraq in NYC, they just don't put it on the tourist maps because it's not good for business!). Maybe he moved here with his 50 family members, and his posse of friends. Moved into a nice 3 bedroom place, and they're all living there together. Maybe he's worried because there's a bounty on his head because of what he did, so he's living in a small town in Iowa under an assumed name, and he owns a chain of ethnic grocery stores.

It's own of those stories we'll probably never hear. We publicize the reward, then they never tell us what happened. In the meantime, some redneck wins the lottery and a week later you know the name of his dog because USA Today does a story on the guy.

Some things my aunt recently found out about our family through geneology research:

• Part of our family traces back to a son of Robert Bruce (Braveheart himself).
• The uncle of my great grandfather fought in the Civil War for B Company, 9th Infantry, Va Regiment (also known as Pickett's Division). He was wounded in the right arm between the elbow and shoulder by a miniball and the injury caused partial paralysis. He was awarded a pension of $15 per month in 1888 (or $10,000 a month in today's money. Something like that).
• My great grandfather had a brother named Cicero, who died when he was a baby.

Three-day weekend! Although I think my father and father-in-law, both Vietnam vets, have to work tomorrow. That's not right, is it? The holiday created to honor them, and they have to work, while Peace Corps veteran spends the day playing Star Wars Battlefront II.

This CD has an official release date of November 15. I saw it advertised in the Sunday circular for Circuit City and figured they'd made a mistake. I checked different online sites, and they all say November 15. Even Circuit City online says it's available November 15. I stopped by the store anyway after work, and they had two copies of it in under "B" in the regular section (not with new releases). I took it up front and though it was priced at $19.99, it rang up $14.99! The 2 CD, 1 DVD set chronicles Jimmy's two-night run of shows at Fenway Park, the first artist to play a concert there. He later followed this up with two shows at Wrigley Field in Chicago (one being an afternoon show). The DVD contains about an hour of material, and while it's not an entire concert, it is officially the most comprehensive concert release he's ever done on DVD. Not sure how or why Circuit City got it early, or why they're selling it for $7 below the Amazon sale price (and giving it a list price that is still lower than Amazon's sale price) but I'm not complaining.

If you already owned the latest book by a favorite author of yours (a Canadian, and for some reason, his new releases only come out in paperback in the U.S.) and a bookstore in Canada emailed you and said the author was doing a book signing at his store today and you could get the Canadian edition of the book, signed, for $24 Canadian (about $20), would you so it? I'm torn, because it seems excessive to own two copies of the book.

Made a new iPod mix last night, the first since September (sheesh). Here are the first 15 songs on it, from random play:

Beautiful Intentions, Melanie C
Whistle Down the Wind, Nick Heyward
Easy to Ignore, Sixpence None the Richer
Never Can Say Goodbye, Isaac Hayes
Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division
Higher Ground, Stevie Wonder
Must Be Dreaming, Frou Frou
Don't Walk Away, Whigfield
Strange Town, The Jam
All the Dark Horses (Acoustic Version), Trash Can Sinatras
It Must Be Love, Madness
Streets of Your Town (live), The Go-Betweens
Being With You, Smokey Robinson
Black Ivory Soul, Angelique Kidjo
Under the Milky Way, The Church

Lawn mowed and leaves raked. Our soon-to-be renter stopped by to make a few notes and drop off a check. Got my hair cut. First time in quite a while. Maybe since early October or late September. Feel 100 times more fashionable.


Two new episodes of Arrested Development on last night. If you aren't watching this show, you missed a man in a mole costume destroying a model town, only to be attacked by a boy in a spacesuit wearing a jetpack. This scene was viewed by a group of Japanese businessmen, who felt they were being mocked with Godzilla references. A dozen story threads converged and led to the moment I described above, and when it all culminated in the bizarre "Mole vs. Spaceboy," I nearly wet myself. I hope Fox keeps this show on the air as an act of charity, as a gift to comedy. Later generations will catch this show and wonder how it could have possibly not been a massive hit. It's 1,000 times more witty and funny than anything on "must see TV" in the past five years.

I must vote after work. Must keep Kilgore out of office.

After work Friday I zipped home, fed the cats, grabbed the dog, and headed out of town. Of course, in my hurry to beat rush hour, I forgot the PS2 game, the book I was reading, and two DVDs I had hoped to watch this weekend. Oh well, I still beat DC Friday afternoon traffic.

Saturday we went to the monthly farmer's market. I played with the kittens up for adoption from the shelter and bought a few Christmas presents. Oh, and Santa was there. They had converted a horse trailer, so the children could walk up the ramp and Santa sat in a chair in the back, with a fake painted brick wall and mantle behind him. Rather clever, actually, as he can set up anywhere--field, parking lot--and just make money. Of course, November 5 is disgustingly early for an appearance by the jolly guy.

Sunday I watched a few episodes from the second season of Dead Like Me. That show was good. I never saw it when it was on the air (no Showtime) but I have both seasons on DVD.

This afternoon I hope to mow the lawn at the other house and get a haircut. I get out of work at 3. Sunset is at 5:01 pm. If I go straight to the other house and mow the lawn, I can get a haircut at 4, but I might be sweaty. If I get the haircut first, there might be a freakish line and I might run out of sunlight.

I have stupid problems in my life.

Kate, I went to Borders yesterday with a 30% off coupon and ended up buying myself a copy of Anansi Boys. I usually wait to read his books in paperback, but with the coupon, and finding a copy hidden in the stacks autographed by Neil Gaiman, I couldn't resist!

My wife and one of her coworkers had to play the part of a young married couple in a video shoot her company did today. I think it's all music and voiceover, so it was all visual acting. She just called and said the shoot went well and it's done, so she's having lunch then heading to the river. Which means I have to follow along when I finish work. She'll beat me there by four or five hours.

Oh, our boy cat Buzz is officially 2 pounds overweight, but otherwise completely healthy. That's 1/8th of his total weight. I told him it will be okay, and maybe I'll lose 1/8th of my total weight at the same time as a show of support. Then I estimated my weight and did the math. I think he can lose 2 pounds faster than I can lose 20 pounds. Just a hunch.

I've been filling out my performance evaluation this week. It's tough. We skipped them last year, so I now have to try to recall what I've accomplished in the last two years. It's like an exercise in humbly praising yourself. Freaky. It reminds me of the question you get asked sometimes in a job interview: "What would you say is your worst quality?" I always liked the episode of The Simpsons when Homer is asked that. The two men up for the job before him say "Well, I'm a workaholic and I push myself too hard." And Homer immediately answers "Well, it takes me a long time to learn anything, I'm kind of a goof-off... a little stuff starts disappearing from the workplace..."

Hee hee.

I'm also editing a math book, and I'm learning more about math than I ever cared to know.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Taking the cats to the vet this evening for rabies shots (They're indoor cats, so it's not really a worry, but their shots need to be kept up to date). The vet also asked for a stool sample, and before I could ask, she said "If they share a litter box, any sample will do. We don't need to know which cat it's from." Well, that's a relief. It saves me from hanging around the litterbox and waiting for one of them to make some of Kate's cookies.

I watched the bonus DVD that came with Revenge of the Sith last night. I'm talking about the one with C3P0 and R2D2 giving a synopsis of the story of Luke Skywalker and the first two parts of Anakin's story. The copyright date on the disc is 2004. Anyone know when it was actually aired on TV? The odd thing is that all the clips in the Luke segment are from the special edition of the Star Wars movies--the ones shown in theaters in the late '90s--and not the originals or the ones that came out on DVD. How do I know this? Well...

*In Empire, when Luke lets go and drops down the shaft in Cloud City, Lucas had inserted a Wilhelm scream, a retarded idea that completely changed the meaning of his action. Now, instead of dropping as an act of defiance in the face of evil, Luke sounds like a wimp that instantly regrets his decision. Lucas wisely removed the scream in the DVD version.

*At the conclusion of Jedi, Sebastian Shaw still has his robust eyebrows when Luke takes off the Vader mask, and Shaw still portrays Anakin's ghost at the end (replaced in the DVD with Hayden Christensen).

My wife surprised me with Battlefront II yesterday. Our PS2 is at the river house, so we can't play it until this weekend, but the idea of slashing through folks with a lightsaber is going to rock!

Democrats in the Senate yesterday invoked Rule 21, causing a closed-door session into the intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. No word on when the Senate pages will start killing the Jedi, er, Senators... Sorry, I have Order 66 on my mind.

I picked up Revenge of the Sith yesterday, the version with the extra DVD at Wal-Mart. I also picked up the first season of Lois and Clark for $19. That's less than a dollar an episode!

The city really does have a negative effect on me. Yes, it's nice to have so many choices for where to shop and what to eat, but living in an area of such a concentrated population, the number of idiots rises exponentially.

Here's an example: I stopped at the grocery store to pick up two items (milk and beer). I walked up to one of the two open express lanes. There are two people ahead of me. The man directly ahead of me suddenly leaves his basket and runs down one of the aisles. The person ahead of him has paid and left. The cashier looks around and starts ringing up the items of the man who is no longer in line, assuming he's coming back soon. She finishes ringing up his items, but he's still not back. So she can't complete his check-out, and I can't check out.

I sigh and move over to the other express lane. That lane has one person finishing up and one person ahead of me with three items. The first person finishes and the cashier looks at the woman ahead of me. She's standing two feet back and won't put down her items.

"Maam, are you ready?" the cashier asks.

"My husband has the money," she replies, pointing to a man in line to purchase cigarettes or a money order or something in the area at the front of the store.

Everyone pauses. Seriously, no one moves for about 10 seconds. Then the woman turns in slow motion and looks at me. She looks down at my two items and says "You go ahead."

"Oh, may I?!?" I want to scream.

Why, why, why, why...

We're renting the haunted house!

The house that will not sell, that the other houses pick on, the Rudolph of the neighborhood, if you will... is being rented until May 2006!

A nice couple with a baby are moving to the area and need a place to live right away. They brought money orders to the house when I met them to show the place yesterday evening. That's what I call motivated!

So we're FINALLY getting some income out of the place (true, it only covers the mortgage, but considering we've been paying three mortgages since June, this is really going to help us out).


We had a lot of trick-or-treaters last night. A group of four little girls, all dressed as ballerinas, came to the door and screamed "Trick of treat!" Our dog ran to the door to see who was there, and one of the little girls squealed and ran past my wife and into our house to pet Lexi. The dog loved all the attention. We handed out all the candy (save for the secret stash we saved for ourselves, of course).

Our cats decided, being black cats, it would be best to buck the cliché, skip Halloween entirely, and relax with me on the bed, watching the Halloween marathon on AMC. It was fun, except for the "edited for TV" part, and commercials stuck in every 12 minutes.

After work today I'm going to purchase Revenge of the Sith. I'll be getting it at Wal-Mart, since they are offering an extra DVD of Star Wars documentaries the other places don't. Yes, Annikan still whines quite a bit, and the timeline doesn't make a lot of sense (Amidala tells Annikan she's pregnant, then has the kids like a week later? Huh?), and Darth's NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! at the end is pretty silly, but it's still Star Wars, and probably the best of the last three that came out. True, I wish Boba Fett could have made a cameo somewhere, but at least George dropped the idea of having a young Han Solo appear as a street urchin (shudder!), so it all evens out.