Master Dilettante

I have watch envy. I mentioned a few weeks ago that my buddy was entering the market for a fancy watch. He’s already pulled the trigger. Although I was recommending an IWC Portuguese (below), he’s opted for the modern, refined Jaeger LeCoultre Master Hometime, in stainless steel with a brown leather strap. I’ll leave it to him to leave comments on the features and what makes it distinctive. Some beautiful photos of the watch are on the MinuteMachines Web site.

Congratulations, Jorge!

The runner up (IWC Portuguese Automatic in 18 ct. gold with brown crocodile leather strap):

And a parting quote to celebrate this purchase:

Too much time on my hands, its ticking away at my sanity
Ive got too much time on my hands, its hard to believe such a calamity
Ive got too much time on my hands and its ticking away from me

Styx, “Too Much Time on My Hands”

I’d heard that critics had panned 300, so my expectations for it were low. It turns out that 300 gets 61% fresh tomatoes — not so bad — on Rotten Tomatoes, and that I found the movie perfectly entertaining.

Sometimes dork that I am, I’ve read a number of Frank Miller comic books, including the Dark Knight (Batman) series and his Daredevil runs, and I enjoyed Sin City. 300 was consistent with this lineage — a dark, violent tale centered around a larger-than-life hero, this time Spartan King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler. In other words, this was a guy’s movie, featuring battle scenes with hand-to-hand combat and brief nudity. What guy needs more?

Butler had a wee bit of a tough time concealing his Scotish accent, and I kept imagining him as the villain he was in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Still, suspension of disbelief set in over the course of the movie, enough for two hours of diversion.

As of this writing, it’s still in theatres and deserving of a couple hours after work or a lazy afternoon on the weekend.

Congratulations to my friends Patricia and Yi-Fang on their wedding last Saturday! The consensus observation of the guests, which I shared, is that this was a great wedding, and I’m going to ruin the memory of it, of course, by analyzing why.

• For the bride and groom, the planning period was short. They started the planning around a month in advance, which means the pain was over quickly.
• Home weddings can be very comfortable and personal. Not everyone has access to a backyard that can accommodate a couple hundred guests, but, if you do, it will work well. (The lake across the street and the vineyard next door were nice, too).



• The weather was perfect — sunny and clear but not too warm — a perfect April afternoon.
• The food was distinctive, personal and delicious. Nothing fancy at the reception, just yummy comfort food prized by the bride: catered mini-cheeseburgers, mini-corn dogs, fish & chips, chicken tenders and . . . drum roll, please . . . root beer floats! And the wedding banquet included a litany of Chinese special occasion dishes, including shark’s fin soup, lobster and abalone.



• The entire occasion was filled with humor underscored by warmth and affection. I’ve never been to a more entertaining wedding. The wedding officiant was a close friend of the bride and groom and the ceremony itself was spruced with anecdotes and edgy teasing. The toasts at the wedding were riotously funny and more roast than congratulations at times.