If you're a regular reader, then you might remember the problems that I and the wife sometimes have with my mother-in-law. If not, here's a brief recap. She suffers from (I assume) irritable bowel syndrome. She can't get more than 2 blocks from her house before she freaks and has to use the bathroom. She also worries a lot and freaks out at the smallest thing. This causes a shitload of stress on both parties. Ok, recap over.

I'm working at home Tuesday when I get a message from my mother-in-law over MSN Messenger. Actually the message was for the wife because messenger was signed on as her. Anyway, the message was basically, "I'm getting ready to go, talk to you later." Apparently, the stress is becoming too much. The relative whose son accidentally died a while back and wants her to keep his kids is causing problems again. She got a phone call from a guy that came up on the caller ID as an attorney and that's got her freaked out big time. So, what does she do? She packs up and leaves, not telling anyone where she's going or when she'll be back. She just tells the wife that she's leaving. Apparently, she wants to get her head straight and let some of this blow over. Ok, fine. Or so I thought.

The wife, that evening, gets a call from her sister saying, basically, "Come over. Dad's here and it's fuckin' important." My father-in-law had walked down the street to my sister-in-law's house, I assume at first to see if my mother-in-law was there, then when she wasn't, he called them all together. But did he call them together to see if they could figure out where she went? Did he call them together to try and figure out what has her so stressed out? Nope. He basically calls them together and then stands there and blames them for all of the stuff that is causing her stress. The wife came home about an hour later and when I saw her crying, I was fit to be tied. I was ready to go over and have some very harsh words with him. He accused the wife and I of being bad parents and of favoring Icebear Jr. over Demonchild, which is not fucking true. He said that us bringing our laundry over was also a problem. He accused me of not liking them. Fuck, if I didn't like them, I wouldn't go over to their fuckin' house! He didn't happen to mention that she tells us to bring it over. He also didn't mention that the wife is basically her mother's fuckin' cheauffer, and bank teller. Oh, and did he take the blame for any of the stress? Nope. He blamed everyone but himself. So, we've decided that it's going to be a while before we go back over to their house. We'll just keep our kids (their only grandkids) here at home so that they don't cause any stress.

What's worse is that she called this evening and spoke to the wife, and when the wife told her what happened, she took our side. A lot of good that does, however, when she's not here. She was even being real sneaky about it. She called my sister-in-law and blocked the caller ID, then had my sister-in-law call us 3 way. That way, we wouldn't know where she was calling from. She was going to call my father-in-law and have a talk with him, but I doubt that will do fuckin' good. She brings all this shit down on herself and we take all the blame. Fine. Whatever. Turns out he was getting his information from a woman who isn't even fuckin' family. She just likes stirring the shit.

Ok, enough of that. I'm going to take time out now to do something I think I will make a regular thing here in my diary. I'll call it:

Basically, I'll review any movies that I've seen recently, be they new or old, and I'll tell you whether you should go see/rent them or not. That way, I do all the suffering (if it's a bad movie) and you save money. Sound good? Ok, here are my first reviews.

Loser: Enjoyable movie. I think this would be one of those "feel good" movies. You start off kind of pissed off at the way Paul (the main character) is treated, but in the end, everything works out. That's it's one downfall. No matter how pissed off you get at what happens to him, it's tempered by the fact that you know what the outcome will be. Still. Well worth the $3.50 rental fee.

Legend of the Drunken Master: This is an american release of an older Jackie Chan movie, and it is incredible. Jackie Chan plays a character Wong Fei Hong, an actual, living person. Apparently, his father was a master of a style of Kung Fu, but refused to teach his son Fei Hong, so Fei Hong went to his father's teacher. In the movie, Jackie plays Fei Hong and is a master of the Drunken Boxing style of Kung Fu. It's very intersting to watch. In the Drunken Boxing style, the more the person drinks, the more agile (and less predictable) he becomes. Plus, drunks feel less pain. Anyway, it's set in Hong Kong and Fei Hong discovers that the British Government is selling Chinese artifacts to foreign museums. He then joins the fight to save his countries history. The action scenes are totally fuckin' incredible and, as always, Jackie Chan is magnificent. The great part about this, however, is that Jackie isn't the only focus of Kung Fu. He's joined by a whole team of people, each using different styles. This is definitely well worth the price of rental. It's kind of slow going in places, but definitely worth your time.

And finally...

Red Planet: I rented this movie mainly for 3 reasons.
1) It has Carrie-Anne Moss in it. She's the one who played "Trinity" in The Matrix.
2) It's Sci-Fi and I thought the wife would really like it. She (as well as I) is a total Sci-Fi freak. Plus, I was renting 3 DVD's and figured this would be a good peace offering.
3) It looked like it had cool effects. The whole story of this movie is that the human race has finally fucked itself over. We've poisoned the earth beyond repair and it's only a matter of time before we start dying off. In an attempt to alleviate some of the population pressure, we've been sending missions to Mars for the past 20 years with a bio-engineered algae that will survive the martian surface and produce oxygen. Things were going good until all of a sudden the oxygen levels began to drop off with no explanation. So, a team is sent up to figure out why. With the cast of Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Terence Stamp it's got the chops. I was skeptical, but once it started, I really enjoyed it. The story might have been a bit weak, but I don't really give a fuck about that kind of stuff. I really enjoyed the movie and would definitely recommend it to any Sci-Fi fans out there. If you've got something else that you really want to see, then get that, but if you're just looking around for something entertaining to watch, then get Red Planet. It'll be worth it.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm going to go and watch The 13th Warrior for the 100th time and ponder being awake for about 19 hours. Next entry, if I remember, I'll do a movie review of Charlie's Angels. I'm sure you can't wait. So, until then. Be well.