Well, here’s another catch-up in a hurry update!

Movies (of which we’ve seen many lately!):

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, The Love Guru, and Get Smart

Of the three, Get Smart was definitely my favorite, and not just because Anne Hathaway was in it.  The humor was a little subtler in it - a little more natural.  Of course it was silly, but the characters knew when it was silly and laughed or rolled their eyes.  Steve Carell’s Maxwell Smart was a bit of a putz, but also had skills enough to be suitable as an agent.  Terence Stamp always makes a good villain, too.

The Love Guru was second best, just because Mike Meyers has the best goofy grin, and because it’s hard to go wrong with Bollywood-style dance sequences scattered throughout the movie.  The story seemed a slow at times, but the celebrity appearances were a nice touch.  Mariska Hartigay’s was especially funny.

Zohan was pretty funny, and don’t get me wrong: I don’t mind the sex jokes.  But there were just so many, and it was like each had to outdo the last, like a group of boys trying to win the gross-out title.  They got a bit out of control.  It also seemed like a bunch of the jokes were in-jokes - like they might be funnier of you were a New Yorker or Semitic.  There were pauses for laughs I just didn’t see.  Oh well.  There were still plenty of pauses where I did laugh.

Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E

Oh, man - Kung Fu Panda was great! I don’t know if it was better than Iron Man, but it was pretty close.  The art was terrific, the characters interesting - the whole thing was fun.  If it weren’t for the long and sordid history of terrible movie->video game adaptations, I’d think such a game would be great fun.

I’d been looking forward to Wall-E since the first previews, and I can’t say I was disappointed.  It was maybe a little too preachy at times, but who can really argue with a cute robot love story?

Gadgets

The new electric lawnmower arrived, and went back.  Amazon was great about it - all it cost me was some time, but the shipping cost them a bundle.  The new electric lawnmower arrived again, and it’s fantastic!  I cut the whole yard, front and back, on half a charge.  And this wasn’t an ordinary lawn-mow - the back yard had been growing for almost two months, the front yard for between 3 weeks and 6 weeks.  True - the electric mower didn’t have the horse-power the old gas mower did, but instead of sputtering and stalling when it hit deep grass, it just slowed, and as soon as I backed up it spun right up again without needing a pull start.  That is a winning quality.  When I just walked slower, it plowed through with no problem.  Since it’s battery powered, I don’t have to worry about running over any cords.  I’m very excited.

The other gadget we got (this one was a Father’s Day present) was the Flip.  It’s kind of ingenious - kind of obvious.  It’s just a little sixty-minute video camera with a USB connector and not much else - no real bells or whistles unless you think of a 2x zoom as a bell.  It’s easy to use, it’s small, and I think it’s perfect for putting baby videos on youTube.  I think it’s the super-eight of the decade.

Lastly, a bug photo.

This bug (we have a lot of them, but I haven’t been able to identify them yet - I think it’s an Acanthocephala) came inside the screen on the front porch to molt.  He hung out for awhile, so I thought I’d get a few pictures of him and his former self.

I thought y’all might like to see a few more photos, so here you go!

Shakespeare

Shakespeare is a very loving cat and will curl up with anyone who will let him.  Jenny is not so sure she’s interested in inter-species fraternization.

Since he had such a long and heavy coat we thought we’d shave him for summer.  The results were… interesting.

The Moon

I don’t know what it was that was so interesting about the moon and the trees and the cloud for me, but I was really happy this night.

I’ve made you wait long enough

It’s a boy!  What you’re looking at here is an indecent shot of the baby from the rear up, as if he were sitting on a glass table.  His legs go off to the right, and the sonogram technician was kind enough to point to the “extra bits” in the picture.  (Personally, I think he has the right number of bits.)

And finally, the glamor shot!  That’s his head on the right if you weren’t sure.

Well, this blog has been idle too long, so here are a few quick updates:

• Our lawnmower was dying (due largely to careless off-roading by myself), and last weekend it died right in the middle of mowing the front yard.  Since I’d waited a few weeks to mow - long enough for the dandelions to grow - and since I mow the lawn in a long, oval spiral, we now have a strip of tall grass and dandelions running down the middle of our front yard.  I ordered the replacement lawnmower (a cordless electric!) online, so our neighbors will have to deal with the punk yard for a little while.
• Kim’s birthday weekend was great fun!  Thanks to Mom and Wood for inviting us over.  I still feel a little goofy about getting Kim a Coach purse, but the quality level is so much higher than the purses at the shoe or department stores that I think it will actually end up being a better buy over the next few years.  In either case, she was very happy!
• Recently seen movies rated from wonderful to eye-gouging:  Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones, Sex and the City.  Iron Man would be worth a second and maybe even third viewing in the theaters.  What a great superhero movie! Prince Caspian was a step better than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I found myself disappointed by a wandering storyline in Indiana Jones.  I suspect it would improve significantly with a second viewing.  I hope never to watch the Sex and the City movie again.  I died a little bit on the inside.
• Next week we go for the ultrasound where we might find out the sex of the baby!  Woohoo!
• Work is terrifically busy, but due to urging from Dad I’m keeping A Diamond in Snow rolling on.  I think the second Act will finish up in July.
• If any of you liked Imogen Heap (I think Anne in particular liked her) and/or the band Iris, the band Way out West is an interesting amalgam of the two.  I highly recommend any and all of the three.

I bet Mom would really like this:

http://sciencehack.com/videos/view/4PKjF7OumYo

…in the name of the War on Drugs are probably the biggest indicator of what I think is wrong with America’s domestic social policy to date.  I really don’t know what to do about everything that’s wrong these days - it’s so easy to get issue fatigue - but hopefully putting a name and a face to some of the victims can help.

JusticeforTracy.com