We've been spending our down time watching some movies. This weekend we saw Water and Murder on a Sunday Morning. The first movie documents the life of widows in India around 1930's, when they were sent to a convent after their husbands died, often very young and without having even met their husband, to lead a life of self-denial; to make matters worse, the convents supported themselves through prostitution. The second was a documentary about a teenage black kid who was arrested for a crime due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, was beaten into signing a confession, and was put on trial without any physical evidence (or even any investigation thereof). Both the movies were interesting, but kind of depressing; even though "Water" was set 70 years ago, apparently this practice still continues to this day, and "Murder on a Sunday Morning" happened less than a decade ago.

I've been kind of in the mood for something more light and fluffy, like comedies or action flicks. Unfortunately, everything I can find in those genres seems like complete crap. My latest failed attempt was Firewall. From the preview it looked like a fun action movie with a silly premise. But the movie itself was so terrible, I seriously thought about turning it off in the middle. I can't tell whether the movie makers have simply gotten lazier, or whether my tolerance for bad writing, wooden acting, and cheesy plots has gone down with years, but I do yearn for the days when I could enjoy spending two hours watching something that's not at all serious. In hopes that it's not all just me, I'm asking you, my dear readers, for suggestions. Seen anything lately that has been shallow but fun to watch?

I got a message from my mortgage company explaining that our landlord wanted a $35 fee to verify our rental history. I was a little taken aback — $35 to fill out a simple piece of paper and fax it? But with 3 days until closing, I was in no position to negotiate, so I paid the fee. I guess it will finance the team of lawyers updating the 25 (I'm not kidding!) pages of agreements we had to sign to lease the place. It's certainly not going to the non-existing maintenance they're doing on the place.

I also called to get gas, electric, and water turned on in our new house, as well as had our phone and DSL moved. The phone company was nice enough to let us keep our number, charging us $40 to do so, though. They did say they can upgrade us to faster DSL, so at least that's a plus. They also suggested that I sign up for a flat-rate local toll service, for only $2/month, to avoid paying the ~$0 a month we spend on local toll calls. I said "no thanks."

I still need to get trash collection started for the house. Turns out that there are a bunch of private companies competing for our business, so we're getting some recommendations and I'll try calling a few of them tomorrow and comparing rates. I'd like to think that competition is driving down costs, but I'm worried that all this really means is that we get to hear garbage trucks every day of the week. Sigh...

The moving truck is reserved, some boxes have been picked up, and the dollars are still in flight, due to land sometime Thursday (begging the question of where they are now?). I just hope that the mortgage people get their act together by then. They've had most of our info for nearly two months, you'd think they should be on it by now.

We watched "The Last Days" tonight; it was good, if depressing. fanlain has been watching movies about WWII recently. I usually don't put such movies on my list, not because I don't like such movies, but because I've mostly had my fill of them when living in Russia. I guess when 1 in 8 people in the country are killed in the war, a lot of movies are bound to get made. Anyway, it was moving to hear the stories of the concentration camps told by survivors. It reminded me of my mom's stories of living through the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine. I find even that world difficult to imagine, and the world inside Auschwitz is beyond my comprehension.