Achievement

 True to myself and my word, I have been watching some film noir!  Friday I watched "Pickup on South Street," starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and several other noted supporting characters; basically it's "pickpocket picks wrong pocket" and the plot revolves everyone trying to recover the valuable Cold War secrets in the package.  Interesting; fast pace, a little unrealistic in the romance, but for the time... It's also on the National Film Registry (762), which escaped me due to sloppy handwriting (imagine that).

 Today I watched "The Lady in the Lake," a Philip Marlowe tale starring Robert Montgomery -- shot entirely from the view of the narrator, which was pretty cool (a lot of mirror shots).  The story itself was interesting (some of the plots are not exactly wound tightly), dealing with crooked cops, a world-weary private eye, and women trying to pull a fast one on the men.  The camera work was impressive; I mean, they had to create new dollies for the work, and the car crash scene... I wish we saw more of these.

I also got started on Xmas presents -- cracked open the ones I have received, made a list for shopping for the rest, and finally did the Xmas budget.  On the one hand, you want to keep it to a minimum, on the other... with all this inflation, you can't skimp.  And, of course, I am cheap.  

Went to Heartland Coffee Roastery in Hudson yesterday to meet a friend; supposedly, it is one of Ohio's most beautiful coffee houses, and I guess it was... nice?  Rustic?  Has an upstairs, which I almost sat in, aside from the challenge of hauling a full cup up there.  The coffee itself -- I had two cups -- was a little...acidic at first?  Once I added milk and Splenda it was fine, but I was a little surprised by the harshness.  Of course, to go to a place not in a shithole neighborhood was...pleasant.