i have spent waaay too much time driving kids here and there in this snow. Ugh.

Lump's Drawings

 

Wild Thing by Josh Bazell

I just finished reading Josh Bazell's "Wild Thing". It's a sequel to "Beat the Reaper", a book I reviewed in '09 (you'll find the link in the first comment below). Our resident MD/former mafia assassin is sent into the wilds of Minnesota to verify the existence of a mythical creature that's allegedly chomping up folks in a lake. Along the way there's meth dealers, gunfights, and, naturally, a sword wielding Sarah Palin. It's a very enjoyable novel, and I continue to be a fan of Bazell's style of annotating the text. On the down side the character is more than a little bit of an as*hole - and judging by the afterword, that goes for the author too. But if you can put aside his ludicrous political, religious and social opinions, you've got a heck of a read. Grade: minus the author's paranoid rants, an A. As is, with nuttiness embedded, a B/B+

Doctor Who Season Six

 I stayed up waaaay too late last night to finish watching season six of Doctor Who. 1st half of Volume 2: "Let's Kill Hitler" was a hoot, "Night Terrors" was ho-hum, been there/done that, and "The Girl Who Waited" was pretty ho-hum itself until the last third, when it really gave your heart a wallop. I literally cursed at the Doctor when he closed the door on 'Old' Amy, the heartless bugger.

2nd half, volume 2 of series six: "The God Complex" was smart and creepy and continues an important theme of Moffat's tenure; dumping the demi-god status granted the Doctor by Rusell Davies. "Closing Time" was grand, a LOL romp marred only by the presence of the Cyberman. It was far too bit of a part for them, and should have been pawned off on another species. Finally, the "Wedding of River Song". CLASSIC Who, just perfect. There's not a wasted line of dialogue in this show; everything comes back to haunt you at some point. Grade: Grade? It's the greatest sci-fi show EVER. There isn't a grade high enough to rank it.

Top Gun

Watching the end of Top Gun on THIS. Just as much fun as when my Dad took me to see it back in the day. Still, not much in the mood for TV or films tonight, so I may just read before bed. How very 1934.

At the Park

 @park with the kids, seeing as my 'on call' shift at work was cxl'd.

An Election by John Scalzi

long day. Settling in to watch season 6/vol 2 of Doctor Who 

Meanwhile, I finished reading John Scalzi's "An Election", a 46 page story about a human running for a vacant City Council seat in a ward that is alien-majority. Quick, funny, and simply told. Go ahead and read it. I think it's only a buck or two on the Nook.

Metropolis

Once Lis hit the sack I finished watching Fritz Lang's 1927 restored masterpiece "Metropolis", now including 25 min of footage thought lost for most of a century. Marvelous film, although I'm not blind to the fact that Lang ignores a choppy story in favor of using emotion and strong visuals to convey his theme. BTW, the look of the film - my word! It's beautiful. 85 years later and I think Hollywood would have a hard time replicating some of the sets. It must have cost a fortune; I've heard upwards of $4 million *IN 1927 MONEY.* Just gorgeous. Grade: A (duh)

Charles Dickens Turns 200, GNR Rocks, and Arrested Development Returns

Today is the bicentennial of Charles Dickens' birth. RIP Chuck, and thanks.

Oh, and the live version of GNR's 'Knockin' on Heavens Door' rocks.

Tonight after work we finished watching the last of "Arrested Development". What can I say? It's a great, intelligent show, with fine acting/writing/laughs, and it deserves its stellar reputation. We loved it. *spoiler* I did find the finale, while a perfect bookend to the pilot, to be rather depressing. It invalidates everything Michael did in the three years prior, no? It was a waste of three years of his life, and it was a bit of a buzzkill.

GAB

 The GAB has announced they will not accept third party challenges to the recall petitions - meaning even if a third party finds my name scribbled on seven different pages, right next to Minnie Mouse and JFK, too bad so sad. Justice - as defined by a 'accountability' board loyal to Dems, means "to disenfranchise honest WI voters by ignoring fraud". Seriously, this state makes me ill. If things don't improve on the personal financial front, I'm leaning towards "Adios!".

A Great Tiger Meeting!

Great Tiger Cub meeting today (IMO at least).

Lisa and Lu designed a really cool poster of the food pyramid for me, and I made a bingo game of "good for you food/not so good" using pictures of various food items I clipped out of a grocery store flyer. 

It was surprising how many kids picked ice cream, pizza, or cheeseburgers as "good for you". Then we made candy airplanes for Valentines and ended w/ a snack of watermelon.

Firefly

I finished watching the last of "Firefly", Josh Wheldon's beloved but short lived sci-fi series. I enjoyed it, esp. since I like my mysteries dark and grim and my sci-fi light and fun. But the whole old west-meets the future bit was done 20 years ago on Galaxy Rangers, thank you, and (ducks in advance) overall the series gets more accolades than it deserves just by virtue of its quick cancellation.

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

I've stayed up late to finish reading an advance copy of "Midnight in Peking" a true crime book by Paul French. It's the story of the gruesome murder of Pamela Werner, a 20 year old British woman living in Peking on the cusp of WWII.

Despite taking place in a city literally surrounded by invading Japanese, the murder of a white woman still makes headline news around the world and spawns an intense manhunt, but one that may have been rigged to fail from the beginning.

It's a fascinating tale and French tells it well, although I think he runs out of story 4/5ths of the way through. Grade: B+ On sale April 24th.

No Bueno

Man, I hate when Smiley comes home from a weekend at Grandma's (and that's no knock on Grandma). So far he's argued with the other kids, said he hated me, screamed because I won't take him to the park, and whined because I won't read a packet about ducks to him right now (yeah, no; I'm making supper, I have 3 other kids to worry about too). Grandma's is vacation land; this here is the real world. 

LuLu behind the wheel

LuLu is ecstatic that I let her 'drive' the van home from the park.

Not quite. She rode shotgun with her hand on the wheel w/ mine, and yes, when it came to our alley I let her complete the turn and guide it onto our property.

Doesn't matter; the first thing she did when she got into the house was taunt YaYa with "I got to drive before you-oo-ou".

Is Dis Summa?

 @ the park w/ lk and lu, having finally given into their pleas on a day so nice lk asked "is dis summa? Cuz winter not warm and it warm." then, off to work til close . .

53 Years Gone

53 years ago today The Music Died. RIP Buddy. The world has been a lousier place without you.

Paranormal Activity 3

We watched "Paranormal Activity 3" after dinner tonight. Given that it was the 3rd film in the series to pull the 'found footage' scenario I was expecting the law of diminishing returns to render this a dud. To our surprise, I thought it was darn good. There's an interesting plot twist and some genuine scares; we even jumped in our seats at one point. I'd rate it as a solid B/B+

The Last Great Game by Gene Wojiechowski

During a veeeerrry long wait at the Dr's office today I finished reading " The Last Great Game by Gene Wojciechowski. It's the story of the monumental Duke/Kentucky match-up in the 1992 Elite Eight. It's a joy to read, very similar in scope and style to "Game Six" (one of my favorite books of the last few yrs). 

I'll forever remember watching that game live on TV in '92. I was crushed when Duke went down w/ 2.1 seconds left in overtime - and screaming with joy when Laettner sank "The Shot" to win it for the Blue Devils. I loved that team. Hurley, Hill, Laettner, Coach K. It was good to revisit them in their prime, and to learn the background of that ferocious KY team. 

Recommended for sports fans. Grade: A.

Shark Night

Last night we Redboxed "Shark Night", a horror film starring American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee and the daughter from "Gilmore Girls". It's a film about a bunch of college kids terrorized by sharks while they visit a saltwater lake in LA.  It's not the worst shark movie ever made, and they do make the commendable effort to weave in a revenge/thriller aspect; they fail miserably, as it was a ludicrous plot twist,  but again, commendable that they tried.  Grade: C

Don Cornelius

 RIP Don Cornelius (of Soul Train) age 75, of apparent suicide

A Scary Restroom Visit

Oh man, was I worried for a second. But then I remembered: "Oh, that's right. I had cherry soda last night".

On Drug Tests and Human Poo

Passed my pre-employment drug test today. I still object philosophically to the practice; if I don't operate heavy machinery or work in a profession where safety is an issue, then it's none of your business whether I choose to spend my free time in church or snorting lines off a stripper's belly.

Anywho, the test put me less than a mile from an Olive Garden, so Lisa & I headed there for lunch. The food was good, but the memorable bit was finding a human turd sitting on the lobby floor, right outside the men's room. You won't see that on Top Chef, now willya?

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley and Taken by Robert Crais

 I finished two books today, the first being 'The Rook' by Daniel O'Malley. Myfanwy Thomas wakes up with no memory of who or what she is, but soon discovers she is a high ranking official in a centuries old British agency devoted to dealing with the supernatural. Someone in the agency betrayed her and stole her memories, and oh, by the way - mutants from Belgium are getting set to invade England. I loved the book. It had plenty of action, a great protagonist in Thomas, slime, tentacles, and a lot of humor. A.

The second book of the day? 'Taken', an Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novel by Robert Crais. Cole is hired to find a young Hispanic woman abducted by the drug cartels along the Mexican border.The POV switches back and forth from Elvis, to the girl, to Pike, and let me tell you, it's a nail biter. A few times I got squeamish, anticipating the worst case scenario to come. Grade: A

School Art