We were spectacularly unsuccessful at getting Red Sox tickets today. I was in the "virtual waiting room" for hours and both Sox Paks (a grouping of four games the Sox sell as a package) I tried for were sold out.

After winning the World Series, the Olde Towne Team is apparently hotter than ever. I kind of miss the days when you could show up 15 minutes before game time most nights and get a pretty good seat. Of course, I miss $2 bleachers, too...

A. and I had a babysitter to watch the kids and went to the movies tonight. We saw Closer at the Embassy Theater in Waltham. I had been looking forward to seeing a "grown-up" movie for a change, but I just couldn't get into it at all. The four main characters, played by Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Clive Owen were such repellent individuals I found it very difficult to give a damn about any of them. It was very well acted, written and directed, but not my kind of movie at all. The one saving grace was seeing Natalie Portman, who played a stripper, wearing very little, but it wasn't nearly enough to save the movie for me, though.

The Embassy theater was wonderful, though. It's a relatively new place, but it has the feel of an old time downtown movie theater. Part of the reason for that is that it IS right in downtown Waltham, surrounded by restaurants and shops, instead of being surrounded by acres of parking. The popcorn is served with real butter instead of that butter-like substance you usually get. I'm kicking myself that it took me this long to see a movie there, but I'm sure we'll be back. After the show we had dinner at the excellent Watch City Brewery. I've yet to have a bad meal there, and the beer, a winter ale they brew on the premises, was excellent.