To kick off the weekend....

Moviegoing is a summer holiday weekend tradition. For whatever reason, my passion for movies left me sometime in mid-2005 after over seven years of spending most of my weekends staring at a glowing screen watching actors pretend to be people living lives. This year, it's seemed every weekend as if I'd rather sit and leisurely read the newspaper and try vainly to get a handle on my filing than go to the movies.

But I am about to embark on that rare thing in my life called A Week Off Work To Just Be At Home, and I'm hoping to take in AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, and SUPERMAN RETURNS -- when I'm not painting my kitchen and hopefully getting started on doing a reface job on my cabinets -- yes, kitchen cabinet refacing; the same thing you hear abour relentlessly in radio ads. This is kitchen remodeling for those of us who can't afford remodeling.

My kitchen was last redone somewhere around 1975-1980, by the previous owners of the house. This was the era of dark wood cabinets and harvest gold appliances. The problem is that these people didn't put in new cabinets, they refaced the old knotty-pine builders cabinets that were installed when the house was built. So since 1996, I've been living with these ugly dark wood-grain laminate doors and the old veneers in which the glue has dried out, so the veneers are coming off the cabinets. It's really quite unattractive.

Refacing is supposed to be so easy that even a novice can do it. A friend's husband did it once and said it was easy. So two years ago I measured, then measured again, then bought $2000 worth of 23 oak flat-panel cabinet doors and matching veneers and plywood end panels online, and they're still sitting in the original wrapping. So it's time to get going.

Frankly, I'm terrified, because once I pry the old trim off the soffits, there's no turning back. So I hope you'll all join me as I embark on the biggest do-it-yourself project yet in my House of Surprises. I usually prefer to pay a professional for things I know I can't do, but we'll see how I do with this one. It can't look any worse than what I have now. For those who are interested, I'll post some progress pictures. Because misery loves company.

But for those of you whose idea of a good time ISN'T scraping old veneer glue off your cabinets; those of you who plan to spend a hot weekend in a cold movie theatre, let me refer you over to my absolute favorite obsessive-compulsive.. Nathaniel is best known for his annual Oscar® handicapping, which unlike most people, he starts most years in April. But in true movie obsessive fashion, he has spent the last few months compiling lists. And Nathaniel doesn't just compile lists, he goes into exquisite detail on his lists. So just go spend 10 minutes this weekend and take a look at Nat's 50 Favorite All-Time Actors, 50 Favorite All-Time Actresses, Actors of the 'Aughts, and Actresses of the 'Aughts. Go head. Limit yourself to 10 minutes. I dare you. See if you can do it. Because I sure as hell can't.