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June 26, 2007

I think it is a bullet point day:

Knocked Up

June 22, 2007

Rob and I went to the movies tonight. A date night. Ooh. We saw Knocked Up. And i just have to write a post about how much I liked it and how good a film I think it was. I'd call it a review, but that would suggest a plot summary. And really, I am nothing but bad at keeping secrets and thus, i would spoil it for you. And rather than remembering any narrative arc, I just keep picturing all of these really great moments. And it makes me smile. The movie did not make me cry. And that alone is interesting. It made me laugh loudly, perhaps even more loudly than Rob. And that would be a feat.

The movie weaved together a completely well-plotted story with that profound feeling that it was saying something true. And it was funny. The reviews of the film were quite good. They don't think Judd Apatow writes as well for women as he does for me. That seems picky. He wrote clever dialogue. The situations he created put more funny lines in the male character's mouths. But the women weren't flat. We didn't see inside their head. We weren't given more knowledge than the male characters about why things annoyed, angered or pleased any of the female characters. The reviews had me on guard that the issue of abortion wasn't mentioned. In fact, when Parenthood, the Steven Martin film, was on cable this week, and in the unintended pregnancy scene when they openly argued about abortion by name, It shocked me. Can you believe that movie is almost 20 years old? Yes, in Knocked Up, abortion is not named. And omission by name meant it was touted as Hollywood's fear of the Pro-life movement. And that description seemed false to me--abortion was euphemistically referred to several times. And she did decide against, it, but as one critic put it, what would the movie be without that decision?

For some reason it really delighted me that the director's wife, Leslie Mann, played the sister of the lead actress. And the director's and her children played her children on film. Rob didn't think the family dynamic was especially strong, but it felt very natural to me. The kids were funny, but not precociously so.

I want to see it again. Is there any better endorsement?

We are the champions!

June 18, 2007

Of the world! And Rob now has a marathon under this belt. He succeeded in the feat that is amazing because it seems to cheat death. In just under 5 hours, Rob ran 26.2 miles. He is amazing. He is tired. And, God, his legs hurt.

Duluth was almost as tiring as Rob. One of the reasons Rob chose to do Grandma's Marathon was the support. It is supposed to be one of the best-supported races and just wonderful to the runners. And I have to say, if that is true, than how horrible are other marathons? And how do they get anyone to pay them more money to run in them? The hotel (The BW Bridgewater) was so overpriced, we could only laugh. Shortly after we arrived, when the children are dying to get into the pool, the ceiling begins to leak over our beds. A steady drip-drop. We call the front desk. The front desk guy, whom Miranda decided looked and acted like Jackson from Hannah Montana, was very sweet. The staff was very friendly overall. So 'Jackson' brought a large bag of towels and immediately headed for the bathroom. We said, No--it's over the beds." That seemed to surprise him--water leakage at first glance, did not. I had stripped back the comforter when the water stopped dripping down to see if the mattress was wet. The mattress was not. And the hotel was full, as was every hotel within 2.5 hours of Duluth. We made due with new bedspreads. Rob, at this pre-race point, was incredible anxious. Having a fear of wetness the rest of our stay did not help. The dripping water come from an overflowing shower on the floor above us. 'Jackson' said he expressed dismay to the guy, but somehow, if it happened again, I think we would have gotten another lame excuse. I'd rather have money,. I think water drippage should automatically trigger a small refund to our massively overpriced hotel bill. Luckily no other water fell. That was the extent of luck--no other water fell on our hotel beds during out stay in Superior (the Kentucky to Duluth's Cincinnati in our opinion).

The continental breakfast was mediocre. Wouldn't bagels seem a natural choice to have for runners? They were plentiful with the bananas, at least. We had a room off the pool. This meant we heard the guy badly practicing guitar until 10pm, when the pool closed early the night before the run. The place was also overrun with dogs. Big and small, and luckily quiet dogs. In the pool area. At the breakfast table. Next to the sign prohibiting dogs and radios at poolside.

Did you know that Duluth is practically mountainous? The city seems to have been carved out of tall rock. 100 year old houses up hilly roads the likes of which I have only seen in San Francisco. It was at least interesting to look at. We had a stroke of luck of being able to park nearer to the convention center and end of the run than I expected--the guidebook prepared me to park up one of the hilly streets and walk down. Doesn't that sound appetizing to tell Rob post-race? Yeah, I know your legs hurt, but there is no designated pickup area and we only have to walk 7 blocks (only 2 uphill) to get to the car. . Our luck seemed to have stopped there. At one point on the incredible long drove home (with a bright spot of getting to see M, B and O and having a blast and wishing we lived close enough to hang out weekly), I said, this trip is cursed. I remember, it was after a 1.5 hour long meal at Ground Round in Tomah. In which we seemed unable to get the popcorn or hot dogs our children craved. Or drink refills. Or our check at the end. And it had been bad enough that Rob made me take back the curse, because he didn't want to see what else the trip would throw at us.

I wish we had seen Rob cross the finish line. We needed the emotional boost as much as he did. The kids were troupers. Rob was a survivor. Let's hope we don't do that again.

A road movie to Duluth, can't go out the way we came in

June 14, 2007

Tomorrow we embark on a rood trip to Duluth. It has all the makings of a an incredible boring slide show. The next time Rob picks a marathon to run, I hope he thinks about going somewhere more exotic and less expensive. Or at least only as expensive as Duluth. This may be a weird concept to wrap you mind around, but we are paying top dollar to sleep in Duluth. I thought I was prepared to have thought about booking a hotel 2 months before the marathon. I was wrong. Most hotels were booked solid, at triple their maximum rates. We will wish Rob great luck and hope that we have the strength to carry him home after the finish line.

The car trip should be about 7 hours, with a stop at my aunt and uncle's for lunch. I have Henry pretty well trained for car riding--the commute the last two weeks took 1.5 hours round trip. I know we will be tired. And have to stop for bathroom breaks. In the Henry camp, we have added a new car seat. The novelty is worth at least seven conversations.

It has been a week of up-sell. The first issue is the car seat. i have been seduced by Britax I have generally resisted the idea of buying high end juvenile equipment. And yet...Henry was using the first convertible car seat we bought for Miranda. It was getting frayed. And with the third baby plans still on, it would mean that after Henry used the seat for 6-12 months, we should have a new kid to use it. It almost justified the cost of double what I would have budgeted for a new car seat. I am not sure why the Britax marketing got to me. We have good friend who we respect who use the seats and are well-pleased. It helped that I found a sale (Albee baby--it was great. I should write a review) that meant we saved $50 over what Target charges for the Marathon. Oh well, I have been seduced by the baby industrial complex. I hope the butts of my children thank me for the extra padding.

Today I had a less gratifying up-sell. We had the air ducts cleaned. And I think that was good call. The amount of cat hair still lingering here is disturbing. But the $7.95/vent sounded like I was going to get the basic, underachiever service. And really, I just wanted someone to stick a strong vacuum in each vent. $7.95/vent sounded right. My back of the envelope calculation was 16 vents at $7.95 = $128. And compared with the $250 - $500 quotes on air duct cleaning, I could justify that amount. And I was a fool. The up-sell began nearly immediately. Dry is OK, but add Microban for double the price. And a sealant for much much more. I chose dry, seeing it was only double the quick calculation I had made (there were things that cost more than $7.95/vent and the trunkline, etc had to be done to make it worth it.)

The ultimate up-sell was the mouse. The guys sucked a mouse into blower cavity, from somewhere in the house. It was dead and not too recently. Now the garage here had mouse droppings among the other crap on the floor, so a mouse isn't impossible (plus this is the country and there are animals all over). I consented to the previously reduced price for the Microban to protect us from the dead animals. But wouldn't that have been the ultimate up-sell tool, a little dead mouse would bring the customer around every time. I'm just glad I agreed, I'd hate to think what technique they'd try next.

Panic at the summer camp schedule

June 12, 2007

School is winding down. One more day! We are in the new house and summer is looming large in the calendar. I am gripped with fear. Should I add more camp? more activities? More fun? Should I keep us free and easy? running Camp Mom? What I've come up with is that August is the hardest (and the small thought that I swat away that my kids get a stomach bug every August and so miss some of the pre-paid fun). Grandma is back at work in August. Mom is less patient. So Henry will go to camp for 5 weeks this summer. God I hope that's not too much. My main thought is that Miranda will be gone 3 days a week and he'll feel left out when she gets dropped off and he doesn't. But maybe he needs special one-on-one mom time. But maybe he doesn't? He's been asking to go to school. And he's been very clingy at the same time. This might be a good push before preschool starts.

This may be the most boring post I have written. Why am I doing this? Will I read it in August when my thoughts and reality don't mesh? Such a big surprise.

In other news, Miranda had a program at school today. It was called graduation, but it really didn't feel like a graduation. I had been humming Pomp & Circumstance on the car ride there. I was prepared for it to be too formal for 5 year olds (of the 9 kids, Miranda is the only 5 year old left. The others have all turned 6.) They sang a strange Cajun French song called Bonjour. And the school song, which Miranda mouthed to me that she had to sing the wrong age in the song "I am six years old and I'm happy as can be." The kids put together a book of poems, the best part of me. It had t be a body part, which made me laugh. Miranda chose her neck. "It is not too long or too short. And it holds necklaces well." Other body parts chosen include: hair, ears, feet, smile, eyes.

I was prepared to be choked up, even though most of my mind resisted the conceit that kindergartners need a graduation. NPR had a story on the photographers who take photos of stillborn babies. I had previously read about this very kind and caring creative gift to grieving parents. But I was wiping tears at a furious rate. I turned that off. I didn't need to cry at school. Instead the program was sweet without being heart-tugging. It was short. It was sweltering in the room.

For Miranda we're going to do 3 weeks of Rainbow camp, a week of science camp and a week of art camp. And spend as much time as possible crawling the parks and local pool for friends. The easy access to potential friends was a huge selling point for Cedarburg. And I can feel that shy dynamic creeping all over me--hide in your house, no one wants to play with you anyway. Let's hope the grown-up in me can get us in the public sphere daily.

Reading

June 7, 2007

Miranda can read. It is pretty cool to have her read every truck, street sign and billboard. She tries to figure out the words, to have it make sense. We were at Noodles today for lunch. She read "Noodles" and several other words around the restaurant.. After we were seated, she said, "Mom, that says Pad Thai." I nodded, as it made sense for the word Pad Thai to appear in a noodle restaurant. When I turned to look, she was actually seeing the sign directing you to sit on the patio. I love this kid!

Notes from Henry

June 5, 2007

Henry slept in this morning. He didn't get up until after my mom went to work and I took Miranda to school. He came down the stairs about 15 minutes after I left. He said to his grandfather, "Where's mom?"

GP: She's taking Miranda to school

H: Where's Grandma?

GP: She's at work

H: I'm going back to bed.

And he went back to his room for 45 minutes. Then he came down again and announced he had used the potty.

His day had great ups and downs, but in a quieter, more-amusing-to-grownups way than if he were older. His great-grandmother stepped backward and stepped on his foot. He cried for 10 minutes and required several minutes of hugging. He grunted while crying, gesturing for the chair. I said, "The chair? Did the chair hurt you?" [because the crying seemed completely overdone and I wondered if he slipped off the chair as well]

H: No, I want you to sit on the chair and hold me.

At the end of the day, despite not taking any naps (granted he did sleep in, but that was many hours earlier), Henry didn't want to sleep. I sent him to find his grandma and great-grandma while I settled Miranda in bed. He had acquired a wood shim that he was using as his pirate sword. He put the shim on the edge of the couch and then told Trinket, his great-grandmother's dog to "Walk the Plank!"

H: Trinket! Walk the Plank. {He gestures to the plank to show her how to jump off. Trinket is s small dog. 11 pounds. The shim is 8 inches long and 2 inches wide. Even if Trinket were game, she can't walk the plank]

H: Walk the Plank!

H: Grandma, why won't Trinket walk the plank?

That was my idea!

June 3, 2007

I used to drive past an Assembly of God church everyday. And it always had an amusing church sign. If it was really good, I'd call Rob to share. I had this idea that i should take photos of the good ones. That I should make a website.Oor publish a book. I wanted to know the history and the reasoning---if the signs all come out of a source book handed from church secretary to church secretary. Or if they ideas come to each spontaneously. How often to do they repeat.

And now we'll never know if I ever got off my lazy keister to research and write such an ode. Someone beat me to it.

Frogs, Cows, Skeeters, Buccaneers, Oh my

June 1, 2007

First, a Happy birthday to W!

Second, we're adjusting to the new house. It will even feel like home sometime in the next 6 months. Won't it?

At nightfall, you can hear frogs or crickets (still a bit vague on rural nighttime noise). They freak Henry out. The kids are delighted by the holstein herd just a few miles north of us. And none of us are all the excited by the mosquitoes that seem to have crept into the house through myriad broken screens. Henry yells "Bug" or "bee" or "fly." He has several bites already. The worst was when he tried to squash them with Grandpa's heavy-duty hammer.

Tonight we went to Port Pirate Fest. It felt like we were at a preview event. But the preview was going to turn into something cool. The heavy fog off the lake was quite ambient, but the event wasn't supposed to be spooky. They might have worked with it more. (Here I am asking a free community festival to make fog work. Only Tim Gunn could ask that much...)

Miranda posed a riddle at supper.

Can a pirate jump higher than a mountain?

Knowing that Dora episode with Boots as Mr Riddles, I said, Yes.

And the answer was NO. Because pirates can't jump either, what with the sword to swish or the peg leg to hold them up.

Saints preserve us.