The other night Lisa & I watched "Jesus Camp". I'm not a Fundamentalist, and where Christian practices are concerned there's a wide gap btwn their world and mine. Still, despite the filmakers intention to make them seem nuts, in the end all they are doing is passing on their Christian beliefs - and bully for them.

Junie and a Pal, and a Blurry Gizmo

Lu and Junie

My Thoughts

Everything is obvious once you know the answer

Quote of the Day

"If you can't handle me at my worst, then you don't deserve me at my best." – Marilyn Monroe

The New Nook

I played with the new Nook today. It's very compact, but the screen is about the same as the B&W Nook - excuse me, the Nook "1st Edition". It's navigation mimics the Color, and the text really is sharper. Still a 'flash' between pages, tho' I'm told that will be ironed out. Impressive

Chasing the Moon

I finished reading A Lee Martinez's 'Chasing the Moon'. It's a sci-fi comedy in the tradition of Douglas Adams, about a woman who rents an apartment that has a interdimensional perpetually hungry blob living in the closet, and a demon dog in the hall. I'm a fan of Martinez, and while it wasn't his best work, it was fun to read.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff

I stayed up to finish reading Lawrence Block's "A Drop of the Hard Stuff", the welcome return of unofficial private eye Matthew Scudder. It wasn't the best of the series, and I was sad to see the now aged Scudder relegated to narrating cases a quarter century old. Still, I rarely tire of Block's simple but skilled prose, and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish. B

The Dilemma

Lisa and I rented "The Dilemma" starring Kevin James, Vince Vaughn, Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connely. I list the cast in such detail because it's al this film had; it could never decide whether it was a comedy or a drama and so failed at both. We didn't so much as chuckle once, and Lis fell asleep with a half hour left to go. Lucky her. C-

Kid Art

Titanic

Titanic launched on this day 100 years ago

Memorial Day

My Memorial Day: marched in a parade, trimmed our lawn, failed to talk Lisa into a nooner, took a nap, did the dishes and two loads of laundry, watched Jersey Shore, went to the grocery store, took apart/cleaned/repaired and installed a window AC, went to work for six hours, and came home to find our cat had passed away.

'Annie' 2011 - Pt 2

The show was great. Really. More on the high school end of the musical spectrum than any grade school extravaganza you've seen, and the choreography and vocals on "Hard Knock Life" were WOW. I kid you not, WOW. I loved it.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that Lisa helped choreograph the songs, and did a lot of the costume work too.



I attended the musical with my friend Tre, and picked the one show that Lisa managed to watch from the seats (she was usually busy with costumes/makeup in back)





Man the girls did well!



In the week or so prior to the show Lisa picked up an Annie cross-stich kit and knocked it off as a gift for the director. Another Mom sewed it on a pillow and the cast signed the back.



I'm so proud of the girls. If you ever want to see a cheese grin on my face, put my kids on stage. I can be screaming bloody murder and I'd stop to break a cheek smiling.

Lastly, here's some pictures of the two little one's as I drove home from the play with Tre. Goofballs.

Goodbye Gizmo :(

Our 15 yr old calico Gizmo - or GizzieMo as Junie calls her - passed away a few minutes ago. She had aged dramatically in recent weeks and had been in discomfort all weeked. We were going to take her to be put down at 8 a.m. tomorrow, but instead she passed among family, on her favorite spot on the couch. RIP Gizzy. You were loved.

My Scouts March in the Memorial Day Parade - and Smiley is the grinning flagbearer!

Dinner at Landmark

Radio Bikini

'Radio Bikini', a documentary on the US atom bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, was a disappointing and unsatisfying film. Absent any narrator, you have to search the film itself for cultural and historic context; fine if you have some grounding in the event, but if you're going in blind . . . Only the final scene w/ the American interviewee, when they pull back to reveal him in full, has any emotional impact. C

Game Six by Mark Frost

Game Six by Mark Frost may just be the greatest baseball book I've ever read. Worst case scenario, top three. Easily.

It's the story of the famous sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and the Reds, the game that ended with the iconic home run by Carlton Fisk. The Big Red Machine, chock full of Hall of Famers and seeking a ring, versys the 'cursed' Red Sox looking to bring a championship home to Boston.

The book details the game certainly, but it's so much more.

It uses that night -indeliably burned into the consciousness of sports fans - to extrapolate the ins and outs of that incredible season.

Well written, masterfully crafted, full of drama and emotion. Just an excellent, excellent book. It's so good I couldn't finish another book I picked up about the '75 season - it paled in comparasion to Frost's work.

If you're a baseball fan, you NEED to read this book.


~ read in 2009

@ Landmark rest w/ the family

What. The. ??

Middle aged Woman #1 at bookstore: He was, like, a Wisconsin General in the Civil War or something . . .

 Woman #2 (shocked): WISCONSIN had a Civil War????

The War Game

'The War Game' is a 1965 'documentary' about a nuclear war that devastates Great Britain. It was banned by the BBC for 20 years. It's certainly bleak enough to warrant the ban - food riots, burned children, society in chaos, etc. As an anti-nuke film it makes its point in spades, although you have to wonder who the target audience was - who the heck *didn't* know a nuclear war would be bad?

Mom and Junie

Is shoe-tying a kink?

Long but tolerable day of work, returning home near midnight. Here's an oddity: I was helping an attractive woman in her twenties - in shape, nice chest, tribal tats, etc - when she says "Your shoe is untied". She then *knelt down* to tie it for me. I demurred, & she blushed and apologized. Weird. Hot, in a sub sorta way, but weird.

The Roman Rite Translation

I'm reading the text of the new Mass that will debut this year (the "Roman Rite Translation"). I'm not overly pleased w/ many of the tweaks, but I'm sure it'll grow on me.

My Thoughts

Lamest, most overused parenting expression in the media = a 'teaching moment'. Yes, yes, every moment can inspire a lesson. That doesn't mean you should call it anything other than what it is - a really f*ed up thing your kid shouldn't have heard/seen for another ten years or so . . .