Room

 A great if sorrowful film. Lisa read the book, and on her recommendation I sold many copies of it in my time at BN. I don't agree that this deserved an Oscar for Best Actress, but it's a damn shame the young boy didn't get a nod for his role.

Really? Maybe you should treat people in a more timely manner I'd you want us to stay off our phones. How is being on your phone in a closed private room disrespectful to anyone? That's where this was posted, the exam room. - Lisa

After Marquette I stopped home for a minute then went to the gym for half an hour. I'm trying people, I'm trying.

video

 A tradition of my Grandma's (and my Great-Grandma's) that I'm trying to keep going. Sorry about the awful pronunciation Marta M Starosciak lol. Happy Birthday Parker Slap!

Smiley's 11th Birthday

Yesterday we held Smiley's birthday party - the 46th of our parenting career - at Escape MKE. We were all handcuffed and locked in a room and had one hour to uncover clues to a) get out of the handcuffs b) open various safes and c) defuse a bomb before it went off. Alas, we failed. The staff said we were seconds away from the solution when the blast went off. We expected meltdowns, tantrums, and arguments, but none lasted more than a few seconds, and the entire party answered a resounding "Yes!" when I asked if they had fun.

note: no video or photographs were allowed in the actual puzzle room to protect the "sanctity" of the clues. These are from a conference room we gathered in for cake.

 I'm converting a VHS of Lisa's dance recital from 1989. Everyone else is asleep, the house is dark, and the the only noise (outside of the fishtank) is Artie Shaw playing "Begin the Beguine". If the internet wasn't such a bore I think I'd stay up a little longer and enjoy the tranquility.

An OJ Simpson special on Dateline. Having just finished one book on the case and 300 pages deep in another, I can say with certainty they are getting details wrong. They're also painting Lange as great detective, when in fact the DA's office called some of his work a "fiasco". The media will *always* mold a story around the people that agree to talk to them.

Nancy Reagan

 Rip Nancy Reagan died at 94 - Grandma Jeanne

I just used Q's signature "Wellllll . . ." for the first time and the timing was perfect, the comic effect devastating

2006

 

 So Mark Hamill, in a sign of absolute PC stupidity, disregards Luke's attraction to Leia, and later his wife in the Expanded Universe, and declares Skywalker's sexuality open to interpretation. Huh. Well, the books are no longer canon, but that still leaves his lust for Leia. Somehow I doubt SW wants their first gay hero to be a guy who had an unhealthy attraction to his twin sister

Heart

 I'm converting our wedding tape from VHS to digital. Junie is sitting at the kitchen table watching the laptop record it.

"THERE'S MOMMA!," she just screamed. "She looks beautiful, especially in her veil. Dad, it woulda been cool if you taped it when you proposed. Mom said you asked her to make you the happiest man alive. Were you?"

"Yup," I said. "I've got no regrets. I dig your Ma."

 I've noticed that some FB pages are the exact opposite of the person's life and personality. Rest assured, mine is a pretty accurate description of my life, minus the stuff that should stay private even if you're a Kardashian. Oh, and my potty mouth. That I save for church.

ISO

 I am in dire (but temporary) need of a converter tape for camcorder tapes - you know, the kind of converter box that looks like a vhs tape.

The Run of HIs Life by Jeffrey Toobin

 I finished this tonight. It's far less even-handed than the TV series based on it, and perhaps deservedly so given the evidence. Toobin has had several ethics problems in his life and career, so I took some of his declarations with a grain of salt. Time has also eroded some of his conclusions (Kris Jenner, then unknown, is painted as a weak and victimized woman). Still a thorough and entertaining book

At the Gym

On the treadmills with LuLu

The OJ Simpson Trial

I checked out nine (yes, nine) books from the law library about the OJ Simpson trial. I've dismissed Darden's off the bat, as he writes like a petulant loser, referring to the defense lawyers by mocking nicknames and trying his best to excuse his sorry performance. Bugliosi's is good, if a tad racially dated ("a cool Black cat " is his description of one African-American). Toobin's, on which the current TV show is based, is very readable but also very biased against Simpson, and certainly not objective reporting.

Pat Conroy

RIP author Pat Conroy

1964 Redux

So Romney has cast himself as Nelson Rockerfeller to Trump's Barry Goldwater. It's 1964 all over again.

Wedding Bells

A few weeks ago the clerk at our local gas station traveled to Pakistan to marry - and be introduced to - his bride. As we've talked to him him daily for years, #TeamSlap bought the couple a greeting card for the wedding. 

"No offense, but it's awfully hard to find a card for an arranged wedding. It's not exactly a big seller at Walgreens," I told his friend.

Times Change

With some of my fantasy football winnings I bought software to convert VHS tapes to digital files. It required a VCR, but all of ours in storage were kaput. I put one of them by the back door. 

Me: "Junie! Throw out the VCR,  I told you to take that out to the garbage an hour ago."

Junie: "I don't know what you mean."

Me: "You heard me little girl. You know *exactly* what I mean."

Junie: "No, I don't! What's a VCR?!"

#stunned

Where'd she get that mouth?

LuLu:  Do you NEED something?

Me: Yeah, a respectful daughter.

Lulu: Huh. Shouldn't have stopped having kids then. Maybe you would have got one.

#ProbablyNot

 

 Thank you Junie for filling out #TeamSlap's monthly calendar

Sicario

 GREAT movie