Tag: movies

Summer Update

Like last summer, this summer is shaping up to be a good ‘un. My main priorities are reading, biking, walking, enjoying the time off, etc. I’ll start this post with a humourous photo that I took at the Urbana Antique Show & Flea Market that the parental units and I went to. I first was drawn to the olde fashioned-e bug sprayer, but then saw what was defiantly sitting on TOP of the bug sprayer. Heh heh. Now that takes guts.

bugspray

One thing that I forgot to mention in my previous entry was that I finally bought myself a lawn mower. My lawn boy finally retired from the biz (he wanted to spend some quality time with his kids before they were grown – what’s that about?!? Heh.) I first tried to hire my cousin to mow my lawn, but with her living in two different towns (divorced parents), it wasn’t as easy to get ahold of her as you might think. So I tried to figure out what I hated so much about mowing the lawn. Apart from the heat (which I have little control over) it was probably the noise. So I looked into electric mowers and bought a Kobalt electric mower from Lowes. It does a great job and if I don’t mow when it’s too wet or too long, I can get the job completely done before both batteries die. 🙂 And I can listen to my MP3 player, too!

OK, since I think of the summer as beginning over Memorial Day Weekend, I will start my tally there for movies/books/bike rides.

Total movies watched so far: 20
Total books read so far: 17
Total bike rides so far: 11

As you’ll see under the cut, most of the movies I’ve watched were DVDs borrowed from the library. (One day I picked up 7 – most of the videos I’d requested showed up at the same time!) Books are a mix of library and owned books, paper and digital, graphic novels and regular novels, but I’ll cover them in another post.

Movies are either theatrical (T) or library (L). Haven’t watched any through streaming (S) yet.

  • Maleficent – T, very enjoyable and I prefer this telling to the original Sleeping Beauty.

  • X-Men: Days of Future Past – T, was the movie that and and I saw when they were at the Lake.

  • Beowulf – L, boring! And animated! Not what I was expecting. Big Finish’s Black and White is a MUCH better telling of the old myth. And Garundel (Grendl) is a hoot.

  • The Aristocats – L, having seen Penn & Teller’s The Aristocrats a few years ago, it seemed only fitting that I should finally see the one with the cats. Cute.

  • Becoming Jane – L, since I like Jane Austin and Anne Hathaway, it’s no surprise that I liked this movie.

  • RED 2 – L, saw RED last year and wanted to see what these Retired and Extremely Dangerous folks were up to the second time around. Fun mayhem with ladies (and some dudes) who kick ass.

  • Dredd – L, and speaking of mayhem… Excellent flick if you can stand the violence. Karl Urban was a great Judge Dredd.

  • The Wolverine – L, I realized after watching Days of Future Past that this was the only X-Men movie I’d not yet seen. So I’ve finally seen it. Pretty cool.

  • Thor 2 – L, and to complete the Avengers flicks, I figured I should watch Thor 2. I liked it much better than Thor. And they were smart to let Loki have a good chunk of the flick.

  • Ender’s Game – L, didn’t want to spend any money on this movie (Orson Scott Card is a real douchebag) but was intrigued enough to want to see the flick. I knew NOTHING about the story, so the twist was a surprise (and something I thought “what they should do is… oh, that’s what they did!”)

  • Kick-Ass 2 – L, another flick that I saw because the first flick entertained me enough. It was violent. Maybe not as fun to me as Dredd, but I liked the girl “sidekick.” (And did anyone else think about Doctor Who‘s “Love and Monsters” when they saw this?

  • Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters – L, the book series was… OK. I’m thinking I like the movie series better. I’ve not been tempted to read any of the other series by Riordan.

  • The Brother’s Grimm – L, eh… could have been more than the sum of its parts, but it was so much less. Terry Gilliam + Heath Ledger + Lena Headey (who I loved in Dredd and is wonderfully evil as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones) + Jonathan Pryce = eh. Very sad!

  • Julie & Julia – L, Streep stole this movie away from Adams (though Amy’s awfully cute in her part) and I’d’ve loved to have just seen a movie with Streep & Tucchi about Julia Child & her hubby.

  • The Great Gatsby – L, BORING (moreso than Beowulf). I almost contemplated not finishing the movie. Maybe it was Tobey Maguire as narrator – he just doesn’t do anything for me.

  • Cloverfield – L, knew nothing about it, so didn’t know it was a (is this a spoiler?) monster movie. Interesting idea, but never truly cared about the characters. Spent most of the time playing Doctor Who: Legacy (like I did with Beowulf and Gatsby).

  • Mamma Mia! – L, love ABBA, think Streep is pretty cool, so enjoyed the flick. Much as I love Brosnan, they really should have cast Anthony Head in his role – he’s just as gorgeous and a LOT better singer. 🙂

  • Dark Knight Rises – L, I realized that I haven’t seen most of the Batman movies. Not sure why I started with the last one of the Nolan flicks. Maybe cuz I love Anne Hathaway. Should see the other two now that I’ve seen this one.

  • The Wolf of Wall Street – L, ah, decadence. And we wonder where all the money goes… 😉 Enjoyable, but man I hope this movie doesn’t convince kids these days on how to get ahead in life!

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier – T, just saw this yesterday in the second run theater. Good stuff. Nice to see women kicking butts in movies. Need more of that, Marvel! (And, um DC????)

Dang, if I update more often, I don’t have to cover as many movies at one time!

Interesting Start to the Year

We were very fortunate to have a long Winter Break – two full weeks. And then Mother Nature decided that wasn’t enough. Heh. Today was our third calamity day for 2014 and the fifth for this school year. And I ain’t complaining! I love unexpected days off (and today was a particularly unexpected one).

January 2nd was a very snowy day and I got a number of photos from my folks’ veranda, one of which I’ll share below (once I pick it). So we spent the day inside and enjoyed each others’ company. (I’d originally planned to take the kitties to their annual appointment, but decided to change it to another day.) A friend of Amy’s and former student of dad’s came around despite the crappy weather (he and his family were on their way to Chicago, but decided after the drive to Troy to give it up and return to Pleasant Hill). We had a nice time visiting with them. And then mom and Amy went to the post office and dropped me off at the Chinese place so I could get us lunch. It was a lovely snowy day.

Sadly, the 3rd was Amy’s last day with us, so we spent the morning just watching her. Heh. We got her off to the airport and she arrived home safely. Her luggage took longer, but she was finally reunited with it in the late evening. I also made my way home and got to spend the weekend (and the past 3 days) with my kitties.

Well, actually, Saturday I spent the day with the parental units. Mom and I attended WeightWatchers (ouch – up 5lbs from before the holidays!) and then the three of us had breakfast at Bob Evans. Then we went to see Catching Fire (the second Hunger Games movie). Mom and I were impressed with how faithful it was to the book. Dad isn’t really a fan of this style of story. (Postapocalyptic just isn’t this thang, I guess.)

Sunday was supposed to be the next big snowstorm followed by ultra-cold temps. Well, the snowfall wasn’t all that big, then it turned to rain. Still, I spent the day making soup and baking bread. It was lovely. The ultracold temps did come and turned the wet into ice and the rain into snow. And thus school was closed Monday. And then Tuesday.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was getting cabin fever, so I put on double/triple/quadruple layers and walked to the post office. Amy’s birthday gift to me (the game Ticket to Ride) showed up. Yay! I returned home with all of my appendages doing just fine.

Last night the school called to say we would be on a 2-hour delay this morning. So this morning I was up an hour later than I normally would be, and getting ready for work. And then they called again to say that, due to poor roads, school would be closed again. Whee!

I figured the main roads wouldn’t be as bad as the country roads and by 11am, I headed off to Piqua to go watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a second time. Turns out Piqua can show it in High Frame Rate. No more going down to Fairborn for HFR! Whee! I followed it up with a late lunch at Red Lobster. I also baked my first focaccia bread today (after making the dough yesterday and letting it proof today). Photo also included below.

So anyhoo, my Winter Break is now over (probably! Hopefully the salt could finally melt the ice on the streets!) and tomorrow I can be a responsible adult again. Heh. Till then, however, I’m gonna sit in my comfy chair with my kitty (Lucy right now) and veg out. Hope y’all have had an interesting start to 2014, too!

Here are the two photos I promised!

Snow on Jan 2
The patio doesn’t look as inviting when there’s several inches of snow on the furniture!

Focaccia!
My first attempt at focaccia! It looks (and smells) wonderful!

GIP and Summer Update

Dad sent me the photo he took at Erie which I loved in particular. It’s one of the five of us ladies enjoying the beach. I’m the one on the far left. Mum is beside me. I’m probably reading The Ripple Effect during this photo. I decided I wanted to make another Lake userpic, so this I have done.

Lazing at the Lake

I also figured I should continue my book, bike, and movie stats for the summer. I’m into the final weeks of my absolutely brilliant summer vacation. I’m very close to my personal goal of 25 books read and I expect to top that and then some before the kiddies return to our building on August 26th.

# of Bike Rides: 12 since the start of summer vacation. Just a short ride yesterday (under 4 miles) but a useful one where I had my seat adjusted a smidgen by the bike shop dude.
# of Books Read: 23 (with every intention of finishing #24 today – whee!)
# of Movies Watched: 24 (whoops – that took over my book total – and I should get another watched today)

The books continued:
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce (which I borrowed from the library after watching the Rise of the Guardians movie)
Penny Arcade Vol 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots by Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins (eBook – part of a Humble Bundle eBook purchase)
Penny Arcade Vol 2: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings! (eBook – ditto)
A Crack in the Lens by Steven Hockensmith (another Holmes on the Range mystery from Hockensmith – library book)
27 Nerd Disses by Phil Plait and Zach Weinersmith with art by Jess Fink (eBook, pick your price)
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Vol 1: Save Yourself Mammal by Zach Weiner(smith) (eBook from same Humble Bundle as before)
Doctor Who: Ripple Effect by Malorie Blackman (eBook novella in honor of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, 7th Doctor & Ace)
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (which I heard about while listening to the extras on Doctor Who: Persuasion, a 7th Doctor/Elizabeth Klein adventure from Big Finish – same author for both. Library book)

The movies continued (library DVDs unless otherwise specified):
Iron Man 3 (2nd run theater)
Quartet
Despicable Me 2 (at the Icon theater in Chicago with and )
Pacific Rim (at the Icon with Judi)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I realized I hadn’t seen when we saw a trailer for The Wolverine at the Icon)
X-Men: First Class (might as well complete the set).
The Croods (2nd run theater – saw same day as Epic)
Epic (see above)
RED (wanted to see it in case I go see the sequel now in theaters)
Les Miserables (first time ever seeing the musical)

Still doing well with movie and book picks this summer! (Though it is taking me quite a bit of time to get through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell… Need to renew it from the library.)

Home again!

I have returned home from my lovely Chicago trip to see and . It’s bloody hot outside, so I’ve decided to spend the rest of the day in my house with my cats. I think they missed me. They’ve been hanging around with me since I got home.

So when I last left off, we’d had Tapas and then it was time to return home and get some sleep. The next morning was, sadly, Elsa’s last day with us. But before she began her big long drive, she made us breakfast! (Yeah, I don’t get it either! But she loves to cook and we love to eat, so it works!) She made a lovely frittata with lots of fresh veggies and ham and cheese. Then we had the unenviable task of loading her bicycles onto her bike rack. Several hugs & good-byes later and she was off.

So what were Judi and I to do? We decided to play most of the day by ear though we had a few things we’d wanted to get to. We started by visiting the bike shop where she’d bought her bike a few years ago. She tried out a different style of bike than what she owns, but decided, for the time being, to see if she can get her knee in gear before giving up on her current bike (which has hardly been ridden).

It was bloody hot yesterday, so Judi and I were carrying umbrellas as parasols and we took the bus to the Art Institute of Chicago. I purchased a ticket, the souvenir pocket guide book, and the audio tour. Then we headed off to see what we could see. Our main visits were the Impressionists, the British Museum loan, “American Gothic” and its neighbors, and finally the Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity exhibit. By the time we were done with that exhibit, we were ready for a late lunch.

Bennigan’s is just across the street, so we decided to eat there. I ordered fish & chips and draft Woodchuck cider. It was all very yummy. The beer batter on the fish was particularly good. And I like hard cider on tap – always a plus.

We then hurried on towards the Icon theatre to see Pacific Rim. It just seemed like the type of movie you want to see on The Big Screen. And it was. I was quite entertained and Idris Elba is very nice on the eyes. (And a good actor, too!)

After the movie, we returned to Judi’s so that she could walk Patty and so that I could see if there were any tickets still for Fireworks cruises. There were, so we ordered the 9pm tour (with fireworks starting at 9:30pm). Judi hired a cab to get us there and we arrived with time enough to fully peruse the Haagen Dazs store. I wound up ordering a Dulce de Leche shake (and Judi got a Mango smoothie). I also discovered that the reason our ice creams were so small the previous trip was that we’d ordered the kiddie size! Eep!

We were led astray by the boat dude and wound up being late to board the boat, which was boarding early (and took off early). Still, they did a nice architectural tour of the Lake-side buildings before it was fireworks time. I think we were further away in this boat than in the last, and the fireworks were more behind us than in front, but it was still nifty to see. Judi and I both missed the chill breeze we’d experienced on the Saturday cruise. It was still stupidly hot!

We got to the bus stop shortly before a bus arrived, and thanks to some confusion on the boarding passengers, we wound up getting on and getting seats. (Though we had a moment of being “THOSE PEOPLE” when Judi put her card in wrong or something and the bus conductor said she’d put her prescription card in by mistake. Turns out the advertising on her CTA pass confused us all. A cash payment and we were finally able to sit.)

Once we got off the bus, Judi got a craving for Buffalo wings, so we popped into Scout on the walk back to her place. She ordered the wings and I saw that Angry Orchard cider (my current favorite) was on tap. And then Judi bought my drink for me – yay!

After faffing about on Judi’s computer (trying to get it to go faster), we both eventually hit the hay. And subsequently both woke up early today. As I was lying in bed thinking of asking Judi if I could take her bike for a ride, she popped in to ask if I wanted to go for an early morning swim. So I went for a ride and Judi for a swim. I went the same path that Elsa and I had gone, but went further south (about 20 blocks further). I had hoped to go the whole length of the path or at least ride for 2 hours, but was pretty hot before I’d even ridden for an hour. I stopped at the north end of what apparently was Hyde park and then headed back. It’s a very pretty path, but has less shade than I’m used to. And can I repeat, it was bloody hot, even at 7am!

Once I was cleaned up and packed, Judi and I headed over to Yolk for breakfast. I’d not been to one before, but Judi remembered visiting the more northern branch some years before. I had eggs over hard, bacon, and French toast (and most of Judi’s grapes). It was all very yummy and so far has filled me up all day. We then parted company at the corner of Michigan and Roosevelt whereupon Judi headed home and I headed for the Roosevelt CTA station to take the Orange train to Midway.

After an uneventful flight, I got to my VERY HOT car and drove home. Sadly, my poor little air conditioner tried its darnedest to make my VERY HOT car less hot, but it’s like as soon as the cold air came out, it was converted to hot! 90 minutes is a long time to be driving like that. Whew! (Just imagine if I’d had no cool at all! Eep!) I got to the post office before they closed and also picked up two new books and a video from the library which had come in while I was in Chicago. So now I’m set for some relaxation time reading with my kitties! In a later post, I will publish some of the photos that I took on this trip.

July Update

My summer has continued to be a good ‘un. Looks like after 20 years of working, I’ve finally figured summer vacation out. 🙂

We had Independence Day recently in the US and I got to see fireworks two nights in a row. On the 4th, I went around to mom & dad’s community for their community party. I brought brownies & mixed fruit (not a melon in sight!) I managed to not go too overboard during the carry-in and the next day weighed in the lowest yet at WeightWatchers. Whee!

Anyhoo, that night, one of the families in the community brought around some sky lanterns and we launched about 8 of ’em or so after it got dark. It was sprinkling a little that night, but we didn’t care. Mom brought out some glow-in-the-dark bubbles which I blew around to the delight of the 3-year old in the community. When the fireworks showed up around 10pm, our original placement (on the back patio of one family’s house) wasn’t ideal since the fireworks weren’t as high as they’ve been in the past. So we all meandered over to a better spot to watch them. Troy has improved their show – it actually lasted 25 minutes.

The next night, one of the folks just outside of town put on a fireworks show for anyone wanting to watch, so I wandered over to the other side of town to watch and was quite impressed. For store-bought fireworks, they were pretty decent. And the people who shoot them off take many safety precautions when doing it.

Continuing Summer Stats:

# of Bike Rides: Now up to 7 since the start of summer vacation. This includes a 19 mile ride that I did. Whew!
# of Books Read: 15 (and will finish another one tonight, I suspect).
# of Movies Watched: 14 (I think – I really should write these down as I see ’em rather than try to remember them later!)

The books continued (all of these were library books, either paper or eBooks):
Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (another knock-out from Nesbo!)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (excellent handling of the story about HeLa.)
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (probably my favorite of her three books, though I’m not entirely sure why.)
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (this is quite a contrast to The Redeemer, Dark Places, and Henrietta Lacks, I can tell you!)
The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd (I wasn’t sure I’d like this book at first, but it grew on me. Ending sucks, though.)
The Black Country by Alex Grecian (I really enjoyed The Yard so I was pleased his second book of the series is out now. Although his main characters are male, he writes very strong females in his Victoriana mysteries and I really appreciate that.)

The movies continued (all DVDs from the library):
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians (quite a fun flick – decided to check out the books, too)
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Frankenweenie (I preferred ParaNorman)
Anna Karenina (not even Jude Law could make me enjoy this flick – a shame)
ParaNorman (a great stop-motion puppet flick)
Life of Pi (beautifully filmed, true to the book)

Still doing pretty well on my book and movie choices (apart from Anna Karenina, that is). Hopefully will get some more theatrical releases into the mix soon!

Summer Stats

So far, summer vacation has been perfect. I’d feel guilty about things being perfect, but I’ve decided not to and just enjoy the perfection.

Here’s some statistics over my various “accomplishments” since summer vacation began.

# of Walks: Lost count already
# of Bike Rides: 3, with 2 other ones before vacation started.
# of Books Read: 7, with a few others started & several on order from the library
# of Movies Watched: 7, with a few others on order from the library and several marked to watch on my Roku with my Amazon Prime account

The books so far:
Wool (Omnibus) by Hugh Howey
vN by Madeline Ashby
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Orleans by Sherri L Smith
Dodger by Terry Pratchett (purchased)
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (purchased)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The movies so far:
Now You See Me (theatrical, with and )
Star Trek: Into Darkness (theatrical, with Judi)
Wreck It Ralph (DVD from library)
The Adventures of TinTin (Amazon Prime on Roku)
Hugo (Amazon Prime on Roku)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (DVD from library, finished the book first)
Django Unchained (DVD from library)

So far, I’ve picked good books & movies to read & watch! Hope the trend continues!

The 1200

I don’t pay much attention to what number of post my (now admittedly very rare) LJ posts are, but I just happened to notice I had 1199 entries under my belt before I started this one up. So, yay for number 1200!

So, what have been up to since I turned 42? Well, Amy got home safe und sound. School’s been pretty normal (though the cold & flu season is going on). I finally got caught up in grading. (The catapult research papers were a bit long in the tooth when I finally graded them.)

Yesterday, we had a sunny & almost warm day – nearly 50F. Dad grilled us New York strip steaks and they were so tender and very tasty. I was able to take half of mine home & tonight sliced up 1/4 of the leftovers to put on my salad. Yummy.

Also yesterday, I did my semi-regular trip down to the Bookery for my Doctor Who magazines. When I went to Jeet India afterwards (as I always do on said trips), the place was GONE. Just an empty space in the strip mall. Very sad. So I decided to get fast food Thai at Tik’s Thai Express. Good pad thai, tasty crab rangoon, and only so-so satay. Had the leftover pad thai for lunch today. (The good news? When I checked at home, it turns out they’ve merely moved locations. Will get to Jeet next time I’m down there!)

Decided to give the 2D version of The Hobbit a try today (before it leaves the theaters). Was surprised to see other folks in the theater. Still a very fun movie, though I think I prefer the high frame rate. Wish they’d do 2D at HFR.

This week is supposed to get bloody cold. Tuesday to get no higher than 11F. (My sister says MN is to have a high that’s -2F tomorrow. Brrrrr!) Wonder if we’ll have a delay on Tuesday with the very low wind chill temp. (It’s happened before.)

At any rate, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, keep warm & drive safe in the snow/ice. Those of you south of the equator, keep cool! (Dern that climate change!)

Seas and Ships and Ceiling Wax

Wow, December is half over and I’ve not updated once. And many’s the time I’ve thought “I should post that to LJ” and then never did. My round tuits are around here someplace…

First off: The Hobbit. Ever since I saw Peter Jackson’s take on the Lord of the Rings, I wanted him to tackle The Hobbit. And then when he cast Sylvester McCoy in it, I got even more excited. I’m pleased that judiang got into Richard Armitage, because the Armitage Army have been a great source for Hobbit info. 🙂

Anyhoo, for mom’s birthday last year, I got her tickets to my favorite ballet (The Nutcracker). This year, I got her tickets to a movie with my favorite actor in it. 🙂 So yesterday, mom, dad, and I went doon sooth to the only theatre in the area showing the film at 48 frames per second. We got ideal seats and enjoyed the flick immensely. The picture quality is so crisp, and I never got nauseous once (which I always do in 3D movies). The folks enjoyed the flick too, and neither recognized Sylv in his role (though dad had pretty much narrowed it down to Radagast). Woo!

As for Sylv in the flick – wonderful. But then I would say that. Heh. I was pleased by the amount of the movie that he’s in. Hope he shows up in the other two, too!

In other news: After our trip to Ikea in MN, I decided to go the next weekend to my own Ikea (which is even further doon sooth than the theatre where we saw The Hobbit) and get the stuff I’d decided I liked in MN. I measured my trunk and knew that everything would fit – probably. And it did. I got a dining room table (small & square that expands out to a bigger rectangle when needed), 4 dining room chairs with extra seat covers (I have cats, you know), a coffee table (Lack, with a shelf), and some candles. I even planned ahead with Weight Watchers and knew how many points my meal would be. Heh.

WeightWatchers: I am on it again through work. And believe it or not, am losing despite Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays. I’ll be surprised (though pleasantly so) if I lose over the break.

Holidays: Probably my least decorated yet. Have the tree up, got a real wreath & roping and they’re finally up, and today got out the other things I’ll decorate with. Though not everything is in place yet. Didn’t swap out dishes like usual, though. Amy will be in after Christmas, so before Christmas, I’m doing a short weekend in Chicago to hang with Judi and elsaf. Should be much fun.

Holiday shopping: Mostly done with that. Not yet done with Amy, and there’s a few things to buy locally for mom and another friend. Oh yeah, little cousins… Hmmm.

Last week of school: This week is our last of 2012. If I get all of my grading done, I’ll be very pleased. That’s my goal for the week. One less thing to hang over my holiday. 🙂

Wow, 2012, you’ve gone by so fast. You know, 2013, you can take your time if you want (even though I AM ready to watch the second Hobbit movie. Heh.)

Biking to Sea Salt

Yesterday was the nicest weather day of my trip. We started the morning with a quick drive to pick up donuts from A Baker’s Wife and then had breakfast on the girls’ back porch (Amy also made scrambled eggs).

Our main goal for the day was to ride bikes to Sea Salt, a restaurant near Minnehaha Falls. My butt was still sore from yesterday, but I took Advil an hour or so before we departed and I think that it helped.

The girls had contacted another friend of theirs to see if she’d meet us at Sea Salt and she was game. So when Rachel had returned from checking in on Winter (the needy kitty), we biked on towards the restaurant. Their friend was saving us a place in the LONG line and we joined her.

I bought a Crispin’s hard cider (with maple syrup flavoring too) which turned out to be a huge bottle (so I shared some of it). I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer and a crab cake sandwich for lunch. Then Rachel got me a salted cashew ice cream (recommended by their friend) to eat while we waited for the food. Everything that I had there was excellent – probably the best calamari I’d ever had.

We wandered a little bit around the falls whereupon my sister bumped into the fellow she just hired (and his family) – fun coincidence. We had decided to ride over to the Riverview theater to see Snow White and the Huntsman and their friend joined us.

Although I wouldn’t say it was the best movie ever, I enjoyed seeing Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, and Toby Jones playing dwarves. And for $2, I felt I had gotten my money’s worth.

We parted company with their friend and then headed home on the bikes. And since we’d been too full to partake of Riverview’s real buttered popcorn, the girls decided to pop & butter some at home. So we sat on the porch eating popcorn and peanuts in the shell. I had a cider. Then for the second round, we had sesame sticks (which Amy bought specifically for my visit) and chocolate chips (and I had a second cider).

We finished the evening watching Olympics in their basement (after Amy showed me a short film she had worked on and is going to put online soon). Another fun day with the girls!

Memorial Day Weekend – a month late…

judiang and elsaf often come down to Ohio for Memorial Day Weekend and we hang out at mom & dad’s cottage at the Lake. This year, Elsa’s schedule didn’t work out to let us do that. But when she finally got a Saturday off, we made plans to hit the cottage. So that’s what we did this past weekend.

Judi flew in Friday night and I picked her up. We had dinner at Panera on the way to the cottage and it wasn’t long after we arrived that we crashed. Saturday morning, we had bagels with a smear (which we bought from Panera the night before) for breakfast. Then for lunch, we went to New Bremen for Italian food at La Piazza. For me to learn YET AGAIN that La Piazza is NOT open for lunch on Saturdays. (I’m pretty sure I’ve taken her there for lunch before, but she’s still never eaten there…) So we went to the coffee shop down the street and had a nice lunch there.

Elsa arrived in the afternoon and I later grilled a burger (for Elsa) and hot dogs (for Judi & me). Elsa had brought along some German potato salad she’d made, plus we had store bought slaw and baked beans. We had a nice evening catching up and chatting about this, that, and the other.

Sunday was Movie Day. We went to Bob Evans for breakfast, then to the 11am showing of Brave (so only $4.75 for the tickets – 2D). We all enjoyed the movie. It’s a great mother/daughter movie, but it’s more than just that. We had Coldstone Creamery ice cream for lunch, then checked on the kitties (and I showed off my new ceiling monsters to the girls). The cats were sort of kind of getting used to the fans. (Indeed, they’re now OK with the fans in the Off state.)

Our return to the Lake saw us having much relaxation time. Elsa did a butterfly cut on a whole chicken and I marinaded it for a couple of hours. Then we grilled it and had it, fresh grilled corn on the cob, and grilled asparagus & onions. All very tasty. We spent the evening by the fire then followed up with a double bill of Puss in Boots and Beauty and the Beast. Animated films for the win!

Elsa made pancakes & sausage for us for breakfast on Monday. Then we relaxed, did a little bit of cleaning (I returned later to vacuum), and, sadly, headed out. I got Judi to the airport on time (with a McDonald’s lunch in the car) and we all arrived safely in our homes.

I’m glad the girls were able to come down for a visit at the Lake, even if it was shorter than any of us wanted. And best of all, I’ll be seeing them again this weekend, but in Chicago this time. Woo!