Casanova Frankenstein

It is aliiiiiiiiiiiive!

Life has been really busy, as you've probably guessed by my absence. Big changes are afoot. We're still waiting to find out about Germany, but the decision is supposed to be made at the end of this month.

I'm still stunned by what a glorious summer we're having, and enjoying every minute, though (to the children's minor chagrin) we are still doing some schooling (Homeschool Lite ^_^ ) so they don't turn into puddingheads.

We watched Mystery Men this weekend, which was a riot and, IMO one of those heretofore unappreciated gems in manner of The Princess Bride (as Bridget Jones might put it.) I mean seriously, a guy who can only go invisible when no one's looking? And a guy who can shovel better than anyone else? Too funny! The title of this post is a reference to the villain in the film, who I was sure was James Woods, but turned out to be Geoffrey Rush. Be forewarned, though, you have to be able to deal with fart humour to appreciate this one. (You already knew I never claimed to be sophisticated.)

I'm reading the second book of the Thursday Next series - VERY funny - and listening to Atonement - great so far! I was listening to Atlas Shrugged, too, but the digital download expired (well it's a little over 52 hours long and you only get it for 2 weeks) and I had to go back on the waiting list. I've read that book so many times that my original copy fell apart, yet it's always even better than I remember it. Maybe it's better just to return to the hard copy anyway, since I have another audiobook to listen to. The reader of Atlas drove me slightly batty. I looked him up and he's "the Golden Voice" of audiobooks or something like that, but he reads (this one at least) like he's preaching a sermon and it makes me a little crazy. I figured out, though, that if I put him on 1.5 speed, it's less crazy-making, PLUS it goes faster, so I can fit more in. ^_^

I'm also working on a new book while finishing up rewrites of the first. This one's completely and utterly different, so it's a refreshing change for me.

To top it off, I wanted to share this amazing vid. It gives me goosebumps every time. Especially when the whale sharks come looming out of the gloom to glide silently by. Here's a link to the creator's other Youtubes.

Willoughby Wallaby Weenis

the elephant went to Venus, Willoughby Wallaby Wuranus, the elephant saw Uranus.

Yeah, we've been having too much fun with that song. I laughed so hard I nearly wrecked the car on the way to the co-op, and I can't even remember what we came up with that set me off.

Tonight's Little Kid class was pandelirium. 23 kids. Oy! Actually, it was fun, and not too crazy. I don't think I screwed anyone up, and I remembered everyone's name, so that's good. :) To be honest, kid names are easy for me; it's the parents' I can never remember. It was also the traditional Monday night DadFest, which it hasn't really been pretty much since I mentioned here how I enjoyed perving at them. So obviously they found my blog and were horrified and made a pact to mostly stay away until now. Bummer.

I also kicked one of the fathers in the butt tonight. I don't know what came over me. It was just a reaction. He put out his hand for a high 5, and thinking it odd, but not wanting to snub him I went for it, so of course he pulled it away (shoulda seen that coming) and my natural reaction was to smack him and kick him in the butt. (lightly! lightly! Not hard. I'm not mean like that.) Yikes. I don't think I offended him, though. I hope not anyway.

I watched PS I Love You last night, which, while being a glorious ManFest (including some full backal nudity) and pretty entertaining, probably did not garner the sympathy from me that it was supposed to for the main character. She was just such a high maintenance, neurotic bitch that I thought her hubby was better off dead. But there were bits that reminded me of my dad (the knowing the end is nigh stuff) so they were a little tear-jerky. Harry Connick Jr.'s character was bloody entertaining, too. ^_^

I got a new book called Garden Spells that I'm loving, and I finished The Camel Club, which was fantastic. The twist on the terrorist attack was brilliant. I'm also listening to Twilight, so I'm finally finding out what all the hoopla is about.

Oh, and the Master taught us a new Black Belt one-step sparring tonight. I can't wait to show MuNKi. It's cool!

Bang Bang!

MuNKi and I watched Shoot 'Em Up last night, which was a riot! As I understand it, and also judging by some of the reviews I read, a lot of people don't understand that this film is a send up of 'shoot 'em up bang-bangs.'

I think the underlying reason for this is that so many of the last decade or so's shoot 'em up bang-bangs (or SEUBB) are so ridiculous that people mistake this for just another one in a long line of crap SEUBBs.

Think again, dear Viewer, think again.

If you're wondering why I rented this flick in the first place, here's basically how the stream-of-consciousness dialogue in my head went:

"Clive Owen. Yummy! Action film? He's not so much an action dude, is he? Can he really pull that off? I'm not sure I can imagine. . . What does it say on the back? Nothing. Nothing? Oh, you have to slide it out of the little sleeve thinggy. Hmmm. Sexy and funny? And Clive Owen. OK, I'm sold."

Check it out. If it doesn't "crack" you up, I'll post nothing but naked pictures for a week. (Better watch it so you don't have to be subjected to that!)

^_^

Nada

Hard to believe I had nothing to talk about, isn't it?

Maybe harder if you knew me IRL. ^_^

Stuff Reviews

28 Days : witty, poignant, fun

Fur : bizarre, interesting, "graphic nudity" (ha!)

Walking the Labyrinth : Ehhh. Interesting to some extent, but I kept waiting for more - for the Big Revelation. It never came. Writing was OK, but nothing stellar.

Honey Bea : Very interesting, quick read, got washed by BG when I lent it to her. ^_^

Robot Dreams : surreal, confusing, sad. My children concur.

I'm re-reading The Golden Compass now, in spite of all those great books I have waiting on my shelves. Mostly because choosing was just too overwhelming. :-P

"Makes You Feel Daft"

That's what my friend wrote in the email when he sent along this vid. You have to watch to the end to get it. I felt like I had my Eyes Wide Shut.



In other news, I've been reading books and and watching flicks. We watched The Last Mimsy with the kids the other night. We almost didn't make it much past the beginning, the boy was such a brat, but we stuck it out. It was cute, other than Bratley being such a little jerk which, honestly, was unnecesary.

MuNKi and I watched The Last Time and found it very interesting. It's nice to watch one you don't figure out right at the start these days.

I read Honey Bea and enjoyed it very much, and now I'm reading Walking The Labyrinth which, in spite of the title, is not one of those how-to books.

On Sunday we scored BIG at the library book free-for-all. Michael, I seem to remember promising you a "mystery" book (not an actual mystery book) so if you want it, email me your addy, or the addy of someone you'd like to set up. ;-) Mine is milkmaidenster at gmail dot com. BG (my friend Boobies Galore) helped me pick it out. It's a winner, I think.

We actually descended on the library en masse with 2 other TKD families (in the TKD bus no less, which earned us some pretty strange looks) and then went on to the orchard to pick apples and to repsectively devour and quaff our combined body weights in doughnuts and cider. I've been in a sugar coma since then.

2 Flicks

MuNKi and I watched 2 flicks over the last 2 nights. The first was Wild Hogs. I'm not really sure what I expected of this, but I enjoyed it and laughed a fair amount. There are some good lines and a lot of great gags (like Dudley's tattoo. ^_^) Ray Liotta is a convincing bully, but when it comes down to it, putting a bunch of fake tattoos on him does not make him a convincing biker. At all. But as I said, he bullies well, so I guess he can get away with it.

The one we watched last night was Little Children. I really don't remember what I saw that made me want to check this out, since I had no clue what the plot was. I didn't even remember the name of it when we got to the vid store - just that it had Patrick Wilson and Kate Winslet. Fortunately, the guy at the vid store was able to figure it out based on that, so we were able to pick it up.

Right off, it was evident (because of the narration) that it had been based on a book, so that gave me hope that there would be an actual plot. As it turns out, there were two plots. Honestly, in this film, nothing in the story is furthered by the second plotline. Nothing. You could cut out the whole thing and it wouldn't make any difference. As it turned out, we did fast forward through some of that story towards he end. I can only assume that it's quite a different story in book format. But the main story is really very good -- nothing earth-shattering in terms of newness of concept or situation, but compelling nonetheless. And steamy. OMG. Did I mention steamy? Part of my brain was screaming "traitor" at me for finding Raoul hot in this. ^_^

I had a lot of morbid fears during this flick then never came to fruition. Knowing that, I'd like to see it again. And just fast forward through that whole other storyline. ^_^

Zen Sarcasm

In a stupefying fit of complete lackidaisicalness, I give you my favourite Zen Sarcams:

~ Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

~ The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.

~ It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

~ Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

~ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

~ If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

~ Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

~ If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

~ A closed mouth gathers no foot.

~ Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

~ Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

~ Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night

Oh yeah. We saw Premonition last night. Ehhhhh.

I didn't like it even though it was well-made, had great acting, interesting plot etc, because I thought it was a shitty ending. If you've seen it or are never going to see it, I'll tell you why. On the plus side, though, there was some nice eye candy for both MuNKi and myself.

In other news that blasted tooth fairy forgot Fishy's tooth last night. Fortunately for her, so did he. So, crafty being that she is, she did the switch in the afternoon, and then innocently asked whether he'd thought to check under his pillow. Score: Mama - 1 CRS Diesease - a big fat ZERO.

Harroin

I dislike drug references. They make me uncomfortable. But I like puns too much to pass up on this title. :-P ^_^

The new Harry is stinking great so far. We bought another copy at Sam's today and things work like this:

Mollusc reads one. Sluggie reads one. I commandeer one, read a chapter or two and give it back, then go steal the other one, read a chapter or two and give it back. I convince Sluggie to play a computer game while I read another chapter or two. I convince her she's having too much fun to quit and read some more. I finally return it and send Mollusc to the shower, stealing her book as soon as she she sets it down.

This book does not have any slow places so far. It's addictive. But to be nice (and here is where you must award me Mother of the Year or perhaps Century) I prise the book from my hand and allow the girls to take it to bed while MuNKi and I watch a movie. This is not easy. This is painful. I find myself shaking and delirious. Is that a dementor in the corner? Hermione is giggling and waving at me from the other couch. She wants me to go and get the book back. No! I can do this!

Who am I kidding? No I can't. Accio book! Accio book! Why isn't it working? Accio book dammit!!

I struggle through the Russell Crowe film. The trembling won't stop and Russell doesn't look nearly as hot as usual. Jeff doesn't get nearly enough lines. That guy who's in everything these days appears, and his wistful ogling of Christie's bum almost distracts me, but I can feel myself sliding back into that pit of desperation. I need the book. Nothing is good without the book. The book makes everything sharper, brighter, and better-smelling.

The stupid film doesn't have a blooper reel. WTF is wrong with directors these days?! How am I supposed to keep going like this? There are 3 Russell Crowe music vids on the menu, and a desperate mashing of buttons on the remote produces 3 songs with pretty good melody, rather decent singing and crap lyrics. Oh the humanity!

One of those kids had better be asleep by now. That's all I can say.

Will Wonders Never Cease?

I got up while everyone else was sleeping so I could write, which means that I have an ecstatic (and rather sheddy) Trillian purring and rubbing all over me, following me everywhere, nibbling my toes, and generally loving me.

While I was in the shower, I started thinking about the 2 books I need to review, but decided I could do that later, because it really was time to get back to writing. And then, of course, when I fired up the computer, rather than opening up one of my documents, I came straight to blogland.

Now my Fishy is awake and has joined me on the couch, and Trilly is loving both of us, rather certain at this point that at least one of us can be dragged off to fill her food bowl. Do you think I can convince the FishMan to do it? Yes! ^_^

Yesterday at the beach, there was a group of 3 60-ish guys who were so dark and leathery that they looked like this. (Their natural shade would have been something more like this judging by the bits of unbaked skin sticking out here and there.) We've dubbed them The Cancer Club. They had a neat little remote control powerboat and when we first got there, there was hardly anyone else at the beach, so I was a little afraid they might try to strike up a conversation or something, thus ruining the point of a free and relaxing day at the beach. As it turned out, I was not wearing my "please talk to me about strange and meaningless things if I look like I might want to enjoy some solitude" sign, and we got to keep to ourselves, which was wonderful. But if Jamie had been there, they would totally have been hitting on her. ^_^ It was so nice to be away from the phone and the doorbell and all that. I saw a few people gabbling on their cellophones and had to wonder why?!?!

Last night MuNKi and I watched The Upside of Anger. Actually, we started out watching Sideways, but it was so lame that we blew it in place and put in the other one. Good decision! I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely see it again. There were some very good lines, and lot of great moments, though I'm not sure what's up with the youngest daughter being named "Popeye." I was hesitant to check out the DVD, originally, because I usually find Costner so stilted and annoying, but it was free, so I gave it a shot. This one makes us 2 for 2, enjoyment-wise, for recent Costner films. I'm wondering if we should go for the hat trick. Any suggestions? Or is that one still waiting to be filmed? ;)

Any Wagers

as to how long I can go on without posting?

Oh.

D'oh! ~_~

OK, well, now that I'm here I may as well say something. Sorta.

We put in a paver patio by our front walk and it was backbreaking work. Without the help of good friends, we'd never have gotten done in time to get the rental compacter and brick cutter back before we had to pay for another day.

They look GREAT! Pictures to follow once I do something about planters at the edges. ^_^

Life has been seemingly hectic for the last week. I'm hoping things will settle down soon. I'm not sure that they will though. Holy Wednesday has been defiled by the necessity that I teach after school class at 3:00. However, it should only be for a few weeks. Then it will be defiled for the whole summer by kids' sparring. O_O On the plus side, the Bigs will be attending 3 hours fewer per week. And the Littles can take class together, so instead of having to try to get to 4 different age group classes, there will just be three. I hope. Unless I'm still needed to teach the 3-5 year old class.

OK. Enough rambling.

MuNKi has been making fabulous food and bread. We've had sleep-overs the last 2 weekends. The sun is shining, the peas are growing, and I think the tomatoes bought the farm due to frost.

I guess I need to face the fact that my blog is pretty much only rambling.

*shrug*

The kids are watching Spirited Away, which I definitely recommend, as long as you're OK with bizarro surreal weirdness.

Oh, and I finally caved and bought a Swiffer, something like 7 years after everyone I knew was going nutso over them. I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger because of the expense for all the pads. I think people found that a bit laughable. I'm still not big on the idea of buying cleaning pads to use once and throw away, though, so I bought microfibre cleaning cloths at the dollar store. They ROCK! Yay! :) Those things used to be somewhere between $8 and $24 when they came out. Now they're 2 for $1. Who's laughing now?

Keeping Mum

GuTTer MuNKi and I watched this on Wednedsay night and enjoyed it thoroughly. Though it's not the knee-slapping, tear-streaming sort of funny, it's that lovely chuckling with the occasional explosive HA! sort of funny, which I love. Except that it hurts to laugh because something inside my chest gave way 2 Tuesdays ago during sparring. But that may have gotten kicked back into alignment last night, because this morning it seems to be quite a lot better. In which case, I may have to watch the movie again. ^_^

I got Big Fish at the library yesterday. Has anyone seen it? One of the TKD dads (with whom I trade book titles - we have similar tates) said it was good, so I figured I'd check it out. I also got The Heart of Me, and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Oh, and I have Serenity waiting in the wings. The beauty of getting films at the library is that you can pick a bunch of different stuff to watch depending on your mood, and if you never get around to watching some of them, it doesn't matter since they're free!

I was awoken this morning by what sounded like someone banging on the neighbour's roof, and was immediately reminded of Logo. I looked out the window to see what was going on, but what that shocking spectre was, I'm not saying. ^_^

Fry Day

First, I want to thank you all for your very kind reception of my guinea pig YouTube. I still have plenty to learn, like why some of the picture resolutions dropped so low, when others stayed high, but I'm on my way. :)

I'm plodding through my current review book. Even though some other place raved about it and called it one of their top ten sci-fi picks for the year, I'm finding it sorta uninspiring so far. But maybe it will pick up as it goes. I need to finish it quickly, regardless, because I have The Shakespeare Code coming for review next. That one looks pretty cool! And I find the fact that the cipher wheel was discovered in a warehouse in nearby Detroit very intriguing.

MuNKi and I recently watched The Illusionist and The Prestige. Though neither was stellar, I found both of them entertaining.

Today I worked on Bio Vid #1 for a couple of hours, and after renaming/numbering all my clips and dismantling it (so I could add stuff and stretch as necessary without messing things up further down the line,) adding fade-ins and fade-outs, cross-dissolves and text where necessary, I have a whopping 18 seconds of completed film so far. ^_^

I'm looking for new music to love, so if you have something about which you're rabid, please tell me, and I'll check it out.