Summer Reading Program Part the First

Last spring, you remember, I posted a list of the books I planned to read this summer. Some got read... others didn't, but Here's the 1st instalment of the book reviews... considdering that it is Banned-Book Week after all.

The Time Traveler's Wife:
Stephanie loved this a few years ago when it was all the rage, then it became all the rage again this summer as the big-budget, feature film came out. She talked me into reading it (it's influence on Lost didn't hurt), & I really dug it. There are certainly some holes in the plot & a few awkward spots, but the love story is interesting & the S/F stuff works pretty well. Give it a read if you're 1 of the few people who hasn't already given it a read.
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things:
Awesome! Jon McGregor was short listed for the Booker, but he should have won. It's a fantastic book about a young woman in England & the day she & her neighbors witness a tragic car accident. It borrows a little from Enduring Love, but his style is fresh & innovative. There's an odd vagueness throughout the book as wee realize the characters don't really know one another while each tries to explain what the others are doing.

The Shadow of the Wind:
Easily one of the best books I've read in years. Zafon borrows a little from Eco, but also from Borges & Marquez. A fascinating book. Absolutely read this... NOW!

The Moon Pool:
After 3 good books, we get to a clunker. I felt compelled to finish it, but I wouldn't suggest any of you do that. It's ridiculous. It's the only junk I got off the Lost list... but its level of junkocity is beyond compare.It would have made a great 1950s B S/F movie... so much so that it was hard to read w/o thinking of what would have been said on MSY3K.

The Killing Joke:
We'll finish this round of brief reviews w/ an Alan Moore. This Batman from 1988 is one of the best graphics I've ever read. The Joker sets out to prove that anyone can be pushed over the edge & become nuts like him. In order to do this, he puts Commissioner Gordon on a broke-down amusement park ride, doses him, & forces him to watch graphic films of his daughter getting raped & beaten. It's fucked up... but the fucked up Batmans are the best ones.

That's it for the 1st installment of the Visions of Ypsi Summer Reading Wrap Up. There's more to come, & in the mean time, visit this post on Solstice's blog where she wrote a short review of a book & then actually had the author comment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Alan Moore, but I'm not holding my breath.

Summer of Arnold Post # 6: The Other Stuff / The Wrap Up

Stay Hungry: This came out in 1976 & works as a nice precursor to Smokey & the Bandit. It's about some Good ol' Boys in Alabama who attempt to take over a gym in order to build a sky-rise. We get Sally Field preparing for her role (& her roll) w/ Renyolds... but in this 1 we actually get Sally-skin. If nothing else, it was worth it for that. She works @ the gym where Arnold is preparing for the Mr. Universe contest & Jeff Bridges is the investor who is supposed to buy them out but falls in love w/ Fields instead. It's actually a decent film, But Arnold doesn't do much other than flex & oil up. It's not fantastic though... obviously. It's really only for the Sally Fields or Schwarzenegger completist. 2 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Batman & Robin: It's hard to come up w/ an original comment about this film. What else can be said after 12 years of complaints. It sucks, but if we focus on Arnold, we see he actually puts in a decent performance as Mr. Freeze. From beginning to end, nothing really works, but Aiden liked it & as a family, we only have 1 more of the 4 80s/90s Batmans to watch... The 1 w/ Danny DeVito! 1 1/2 Jiggly PecsAround the World in 80 Days: This is the 3rd version of this I've seen. The Pierce Brosnan version from 1989 is actually really good. Of course the David Niven version from 1956 won an Best Picture Oscar. This Jackie Chan version is winning no Oscars, but it's fun for the whole family. The changes to the story work well, but take away from the whole comment on British Imperialism that is so important in the book & earlier films. Arnold's cameo is only about 5 minutes long; he plays a Prince in Istanbul who tries to marry Phileas Fogg's love interest. Wackiness ensues, Jackie Chan flies through the air, & we're on to the next seen. 2 1/2 Jiggly Pecs

So ends our Schwarzeneger-a-thon. was it fun? Yes. Did I learn anything? Not really. Would I do it again? Only in chronological order. Will I be purchasing the Terminator films soon? Hell Yeah! we already watched the 1st 2 again & I loved them even more the 2nd time. I'm still a littl ebaffled by the fact that no one ever sat me down & made me watch them before.

An Hour w/ the Dregs

After a long afternoon of meetings & syllabizing, I headed out to take care of the new car paper-work. We've had the car for a week & a 1/2, but I couldn't do anything until I got a copy of the release of lien which I didn't get until last Thurs. Of course, Fri. was a furlough day so nothing could get done @ the Sec. of State. Mon. being Labor Day pushed it back again so I finally go things moving today. I went to State Farm for the insurance where they promptly bent me over & inserted the policy directly up my ass w/o passing go (they did collect their dollars though). The totally of the Escape was certainly a negative in terms of the insurance payment. From there I went to the Sec. of State. I know I complained about this a couple years ago, but for you newbies... & for you high-ons who forgot, I'm doing it again. The stench of B.O. must be embedded in the carpet in that place. The funk of 40 thousand years. (If you dig that "Thriller" reference, you'll really dig this Lego version of the "Thriller" video.) I know that place is the great equalizer, everyone has to go there, & many of those people are stinky, but is a little Carpet Fresh too much to ask? It's nasty! I just don't understand why it has to stink so badly. It's not like someone deuced behind the counter, it's just B.O., but maybe I'd prefer the deuce. Of course, w/ the 4 day weekend, the place was packed so once I got my number ("64"), I checked the number they were on ("9") & realized I was in for a long, stinky afternoon.

To kill time, I hit Fun 4 All, the comic book shop a few stores down & checked out Gotham by Gaslight... a graphic that pits batman in 19th century Gotham fighting Jack the Ripper. Strange but kind of cool. I went back & they were up to 45 so I went to Dunham's & scored a dry-erase soccer field clip board. Pretty sweet! I used it this evening... AWESOME! I wish I'd gotten 1 years ago. Afterwards I went back to the Sec. of State & still waited another 15 minutes. While waiting, I did get to see something cool. A woman who shaved (or waxed) off her eye brows & tattooed electric blue dots in their place. The blue even matched her hair. Not as awesome as the dry-erase board, but close. Anyway, my number is finally called, only to find out the release of lien was wrong & I still needed something else. It was apparently from the wrong bank. I don't know how that happened, but I guess I'm in for another stinky day tomorrow.

Summer of Arnold Post #5: The Action

Commando: I loved it when I was a kid, & it sort of holds up still. I say sort of because, while it is certainly junk, the pacing is good which keeps it moving along, plus we get Rae Dawn Chong. With The Terminator, the Arnold franchise learned they needed ridiculous one liners to help the films stick in our collective hearts & this went to the wall w/ them. Along w/ the one liners, we get Arnold jumping out of an airliner, carrying a tree over his shoulder, & killing people w/ circular saw blades. 3 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Raw Deal: The viewers get the real raw deal. It's like a bad Rockford Files rip-off, w/ a smaller budget. Not even Darren McGavin could save this clunker. This blows - 'nuf said. 1 out of 5 jiggly pecs

True Lies: Unlike Stallone, when Arnold teams up w/ James Cameron the results are fantastic... & this is 1 of those team-ups. Like the old Brave & the Bold comics (& sort of like the new cartoon) the viewer always/already knows the pairing will work. Jamie Lee Curtis is great. Even Tom Arnold is good. I'd never seen this before, but I'll definitely give it another go when it's on TV & I happen upon it. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Eraser: Like Raw Deal, this involves mafia. Unlike Raw Deal, this 1 basically works. Arnold plays an agent who fakes the death of high-profile witnesses, but then gets involved in 1 of the cases a little to deeply, @ which point he teams up w/ dock workers/union guys/mafia thugs to fight terrorist/gun runners. As in Commando, he falls from an airplane, but to even better effect. 3 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Collateral Damage: Like Predator, he goes to Latin America to fight bad guys. He's a fire-fighter fighting terrorists after 9-11 which says a lot about the movie, but it's better than it sounds. It's another film which shows the US Military as just as shady & murderous as the "bad guys." There isn't the flag waving that I expected, & we see another instance of Arnold's schizophrenic politics. 3 out of 5 jiggly pecs.

3... 3... 3 Posts in 1

We'll finish today w/ a fun little feminine urination device but before we get there, let's take a look @ our new car & remember the lovely trip to the Detroit Zoo we took on Tuesday.
The Zoo
We cruised out to Royal Oak on Tuesday morning for a fun-filled day of animals, over-priced food, & bonding-time w/ my brother-in-law. Stephanie had been wanting to take Isaiah out there since he's mad for animals... turns out he loved it. Other than the horse that was a little closer than Isaiah wanted, everything was great. I love the Detroit Zoo... it's big, there are a ton of cool things to see, & took care of the elephants properly, & they don't have neon junk everywhere like Toledo. Piss on the Toledo Zoo! We parked on the top of the garage so I got to spit on to Woodward while we waited for Dan to meet us up there; so I had that going for me. We saw most of the animals starting w/ the penguins & ending w/ the llamas. We walked through the kangaroo exhibit where I learned that I don't like kangaroos very much, mainly because of their gestation process. It creeps me out. Stephanie loved the prairie dogs, Aiden dug the tiger, Solstice dug the penguins & reptiles. I, of course, was into the llamas & hippos, but the prairie dogs were cool. I wish they had a cross-section of their tunnels though. They can dig like they're on Hogans Heroes. They didn't blow up any bridges or bang any local chicks though... just each other.BOO-YAA!
The Car
You may recall I totalled my car last month. Well, I finally replaced it... w/ a 2002 Taurus wagon. It's got 200,000 miles and a sweet tape deck, oh, & a backwards way-back seat. The heat/AC only works when the fan is on full blast & there's a huge crack in the windshield, but for 100 bones it can't be beat. This picture is oddly flattering.

Go Girl
And for the third part of today's awesome post. Women no longer have to take life sitting down, or so says the tag line for this funnel device women can use to aid in out-door peeing. I've seen other devices like this over the years (I remember Holly had a Playgirl w/ Kip Winger on the cover & in the back there was an ad for something like this), but apparently this new design is the best ever. I can't imagine the difference between the best & the worst could really be that great, but I suppose if it means the difference between hitting the target & dripping down a leg then it makes sense. They're marketing it for both out-doorsy stuff & also for use in public restrooms. I get the camping/hunting use, but are women's restrooms really so bad that they necessitate this? Every women's room I've ever seen has fresh flowers & some sort of fancy vending machine. They always get mirrors too. Men only get mirrors about 60% of the time. I guess they can check their Go Girl placement in the mirrors before they pee standing up. That's pretty cool.

Summer of Arnold Post #4: The Sci/Fi

The Terminator: We got our Dish Network hooked up the other day, I went to work, & when I got home, Stephanie told me she'd recorded this again. Even she loved it. I'm still shocked I hadn't seen these before. It's got everything I want in a Sci/Fi film except a theme song by GnR. 4 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Predator: I hadn't seen this since I was in high school. I loved it when I was a kid, & it basically holds up. there are clearly some holes in the plot, but the effects are cool & the location filming is great. Things I didn't remember include how long the other characters live. I remembered them dying off quickly, but he's only really on his own for a little while. I'd also forgotten about the woman they bring back. I'd like to know her story & how they explain what happened. Finally, the shady Special Ops people are interesting. Not necessarily the characters, but the shadiness. We have a case of an Arnold movie where they paint the US military as lying, coercive bastards. That's how I've always viewed them, but it doesn't seem to jive w/ Arnold's views... unless you watch all of him films, in which case we start to see an interesting pattern. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Running Man: The costumes are ridiculous, the plot is ridiculous, the gov't set-up of a good cop is believable... but supposedly in contrast to Arnold's beliefs, & Maria Conchita Alonso couldn't act her way out of Red Sonja or and Arnold comedy... bt the movie works none-the-less. We both liked it. Plus, it's the 2nd appearance of Jesse the Body. 3 1/2 jiggly pecs... + 1/2 for Richard "Cpl. Peter Newkirk" Dawson = 4 jiggly pecs

Total Recall: It's a stinker. I loved it 20 years ago, but it doesn't hold up. The blurred line between fantasy & reality is still cool, but the movie blows. The sets are cheap, the acting is weak, & the effects & not as neat as they should be. 2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Terminator 2: Judgement Day: It's got everything The terminator has plus better effects & the GnR song. 5 out of 5 jiggly pecs

The 6th Day: The marketing dudes got together & decided the only way to top fighting Satan was fighting himself... which says a lot about Satan & Arnold. It kind of sucks though & was clearly written by a committee. 2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines: Arnold is looking old & haggard, but the film is better than a lot of people seem to think. I would even go so far as to suggest that this may be Claire Danes' best film (@ least out of the ones I've seen). We haven't seen the new Terminator film, but of the 3 we've seen it's the worst... still pretty good though. (Side-bar: we watched the 1st season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles recently & I'm dying to see the 2nd. I wish they'd bring it back for a 3rd.) 3 3/4 jiggly pecs

High Speed Chase in Ypsi

Last night around 10:30, we had just finished watching Tropic Thunder (which was funny, but not as Earth shattering as I'd been lead to believe) & switched on Man v Wild when we started to hear sirens... not the hotties on some remote island, but the loudies on some gov't vehicles. I assumed we were hearing cops, fire trucks & ambulances because there were so many, but then they came roaring down the alley across the street & turned in front of our house. A few minutes later, they came down the alley again, but this time they went straight between our house & the neighbors'. The chase went on much longer than I would've expected (10 or 15 minutes), & @ 1 point, they even seemed to have lost him as he cruised down the street laid back w/ his cigarette dangling out of the corner of his mouth. Stephanie noticed the butt & is still laughing over the image of him smoking while being tailed through the neighborhood by 6 or 7 city cars, 3 county cars, & a rumored helicopter. In the end, the cops did their job & got him right @ the end of the alley across the street, but it was touch & go for a little while. The idea of a high-speed chase on our street is scary enough, but then the thought that he might slam into our new car which was parked in front of the house added to our heightened anxiety. There's still no word about what he did, but in keeping w/ my sworn duty as a verbal vigilante for Visions of Ypsi, I promise to post any & all info as soon as I get it.

Summer of Arnold Post #3: The Fantasies

*Hercules in New York: If you're like me, you never actually attempted to sit through this thing until recently. The stand out scene involves Hercules wrestling a bear in Central Park & the bear is clearly just a dude in a bear costume. I'm sure Arnold had plenty of experience w/ furries before this film so he was able to pull on that going in, plus he was then able to claim all the previous experience as some sort of Stanislovski preparation for this movie. Don't watch this unless you have a lot of time to kill. It's only about 80 minutes, but it feels like a lifetime. 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs... unless you've seen it a million times over the last 30 years; in which case, 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Conan the Barbarian: The 1st of his 3 "Sword & Sorcery" films based on the stories of Robert E. Howard, most people like this 1 the most. The bad guy is played by James Earl Jones, which was a bit of downgrade after The Empire Strikes Back, & the good king is played by Max Von Sydow, an interesting finale to his early '80s triumvirate which also includes Flash Gordon & Victory. Certainly worth another viewing... but Stephanie hated it. 2 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Conan the Destroyer: The fact that I like this 1 more than Barbarian puts me in a small minority, but it is hat it is. The cast is fantastically awful, & ironically Wilt Chamberlain gets to protect the sanctity of the virgin. I imagine he actually banged everyone on set... including the horses & the llama... & that horned God thing. An awesomely awesome flick. 3 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Red Sonja: Steeling a move from the Indiana Jones Playbook, Arnold is teamed up w/ a kid, but Ernie Reyes Jr. is certainly no Jonathan Ke Quan. I kind of liked this when I was a kid, but it blows. Skip it & check out the recent comic book instead. 1 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*End of Days: This film has 2 good qualities: Gabriel Byrne is a good Satan & Arnold's character's name is pretty good... Jericho Cane. Other than that, it's pretty fun, but the gaping holes in the plot are endless. As a side-note, this is the first film we've covered so far to come straight out of a marketing meeting. And the meeting went thusly:
Marketing Dude #1: "Who can we get Arnold to fight?"
Marketing Dude #2: "Satan?"
MD1: "Cool!"
These are the same dudes who came up w/ Arnold v Los Angeles (The Terminator), Arnold v a Space Alien(Predator), & Arnold v himself (The 6th Day). 2 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Champions League Draw

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsberg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique de Marseille, Wolfsberg
Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL
Group E: Liverpool, Olympique Lyonnais, Fiorentina, Debrecen
Group F: FC Barcelona, Internazional Milan, Dynamo Kyiv, Rubin
Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni
Group H: Arsenal FC, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos FC, Standard Liege

First off, Arsenal lucked out. This is certainly their easiest grop stage in quite a while. I would guess Olympiacos will go through as the #2 team, but AZ might slip through. The other easy group is definitely Group G: Sevilla & Rangers pretty much have a pass to the knock-out round. Man U should breeze through Group B, but the 2nd team is up in the air... it could go to any of them. Of the rest, Groups A, C, & D look the toughest. My prediction is Bayern & Juve, Real Madrid & Marseille, & Chelsea & Atletico, but Bordeaux, AC Milan, & Porto could certainly get through too.

Don't forget... Man U v Arsenal this Saturday @ 12:15... who's coming over for it?

Summer of Arnold Post #2: The Comedies

*Red Heat
Admittedly, calling this a comedy is a bit of a stretch, but it attempts to fit into the mold of Beverly Hills Cop & Lethal Weapon. However, James Belushi never tries to be as funny as Eddie Murphy, & Arnold is certainly no Danny Glover. Overall, it works well though. It's 1 of the 2 I skipped when I was young, but I'm glad I saw it. Not only is it a solid film, but Arnold, as the Soviet cop, gets to enlighten Belushi's benighted dufus about the importance of friendship & openmindedness. 3 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pectorals
*Twins
My favorite of the comedies, Twins pairs Arnold w/ Danny DeVito for the 1st of 3 winning films. I was thinking about DeVito & realized that I've never seen a Danny DeVito film I don't like. Maybe next year we'll have a summer of Danny... we've already seen 4 this summer (along w/ the Arnold's, we watched Romancing the Stone w/ the kids), Aiden is already dieing for a viewing of Batman Returns, & I'd get to watch Johnny Dangerously again. Anyway, the chemistry between the 2 is strong, & the ridiculous premise works well... much better than when they revived it years later w/ Junior. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Kindergarten Cop
We watched this 1 twice, once by ourselves & then later w/ the kids. We liked it & so did Solstice & Aiden. Plus, we get our 1st & 2nd Schwartze-quips on the list. Of course, "It's not a tum-mah" is good & has been a favorite of mine for years, but I realized there's a better 1: "I'm the pah-rty poopah" is just fantastic. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*The Last Action Hero
This post-modern action-comedy starts strong but fails miserably by the final act. DeVto provides the voice of Whiskers the Cat, & the long train of cameos is clever, but the kid isn't good enough to hold the comedy together, & the self-referential film w/in a film is sort of forgotten after 15 minutes of decent comedy. The other problem is that it takes a while to get going. Those 15 minutes of decent comedy are actually the 2nd 15 minutes of the film. 2 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Junior
Again, Arnold teams w/ Danny DeVito in an homage to Frankenstien, & again it works pretty well... not reall well, but pretty well, & certainly not as well as Twins. Once the disbelief is properly suspended, we get to enjoy Emma Thompson who is always good. The role-reversial is fun, but we made the mistake of watching it w/o the kids. I'll have to see it again w/ them because they'll like it more than me. 3 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Jingle All the Way
One we didn't forget to watch w/ the kids; it teams Arnold w/ Sinbad & a young Anakin Skywalker plus we get a cameo from Jim Belushi as the mafia santa selling shoddy toys to yuppie parents. Complete w/ dwarf tossing, this goes beyond the other comedies in an attempt to reach a dumbed down audience & it works in spades. Solstice wants to make it a X-Mas tradition. 3 out of 5 jiggly pecs

Summer of Arnold Post #1: The Beginning

As you probably know, we watched every* Schwarzenegger film over the last month & a half. It started w/ the Terminators, progressed through the other late 80s Sci/Fi & then became a whole summer film project. Since the project ended last night, my 1st plan was to review all of the films in 1 long post, but the scope of a project like that is unfair to his nuanced complexity. I wouldn't be able to give each film it's propers in 1 long post, but then again an individual post for each movie wouldn't be what my dedicated readers want so I decided to break them up by category (comedy: Red Heat, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, The Last Action Hero, Junior, & Jingle All the Way; Fantasy: Hercules in New York, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja, & End of Days; Sci/Fi: The Terminator, Predator, Running Man, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The 6th Day, & Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines; Action: Commando, Raw Deal, True Lies, Eraser, Collateral Damage; Other: Stay Hungry, Batman & Robin, & Around the World in 80 Days). I know that some of these films don't fit perfectly into their categories, but give me a break, I just watched 26 of these fucking things besides, I wanted to round out the groups so as to keep the posts relatively similar in length.People have been rather curious as to why we even attempted this cinematic Everest. Well, it started out as simply a goofy thing to do this summer, but the more time I put into it the more I thought I should do something w/ it. I'm kicking around a couple articles right now, 1 about the construction of masculinity throughout his movies, 1 as some sort of light general interest piece that the New Yorker or NPR would be all about, & 1 about his comedies. Little has been written about them so I think that's the path I may follow... & it's where we'll start next time... here @ Visions of Ypsi. So stay tuned for ore Schwarzerneggerian fun & remember the Visions of Ypsi Summer Book Club Post is coming soon too.

* I know a few of his projects are missing from our viewing. For the most part, we left them out on purpose & here's why.
Pumping Iron: we left out all documentaries.
The Villain: It's a western from 1979 w/ Kirk Douglas & Ann-Margret. I couldn't find it anywhere, but it's not really a Schwarzenegger film anyway. He has a bit part so I'm not worried about it, but if & when it's on TV I'll be sure to check it out.
The Jayne Mansfield Story: It was made for TV, & we stuck w/ the features.
Lincoln: He voices a character but isn't actually in it.
Christmas in Connecticut: He has a tiny, uncredited roll & we skipped all of those, but I'm sure we'll give it a go come December.

Another Cub Scout Outting

We just got back from the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Only 4 of the boys showed up (3 more than went to the Mudhens' game), which was nice, although 1 was his typical loud, obnoxious self. The rest were great, & Aiden seemed to love it. We saw frogs, fish, deer droppings, birds, deer tracks, flowers, & a plethora of fancy plants & trees. Of course, they were too loud for us to have seen any larger animals, but that was ok. We expected as much. The new leader seems much cooler than the 1 from last year, so if Aiden wants to stick w/ it (& it seems he does), it will probably be easier to handle this year. One of the kids kicked his shoe into the stream so his dad had to wade in after it. In hind sight, it was pretty funny, but I'm glad Aiden didn't do it. The pond... just like a Bob Ross The kids (+ a sibling) Fleming Creek Bonus Pic: The sweet Railroad construction vehicle that was in Depot Town Yesterday

Solstice is 10? Are you shitting me?

Solstice turned 10 yesterday. WTF? It's crazy how fast it goes. When I was 10 I was a shit-head... making out w/ chicks and drinking the occasional beer. I can say w/ confidence that she's not doing these things, but I'm sure they're on the horizon. Well, not the kissing girls part, but kissing boys I'm sure will come soon. So we'll let this be a warning to all the little shit-heads who think they're going to pull the same crap on her that I pulled on the girls when I was her age (& who happen to be avid readers of Visions of Ypsi): Touch her & be prepared to suffer the consequences!Her big day was fun. Family came over Sunday afternoon for cake & presents & then we had our little time yesterday morning. I made a fun breakfast of blueberry pancakes, eggs & brie (no one wanted the cheese but me) after which she opened her presents. In the afternoon, while I was working, Stephanie & Mary took the kids raspberry picking. They came home & proceeded to make jam (& also can some peaches which is apparently a major pain in the ass. They look great though... I'll keep you all posted on the outcome of the canning & jamming, but Stephanie's previous attempts have been fantastic so I have high hopes.

Hercules in New York...

The dubbed version w/ a messed up sound track. Enjoy!

Lighthouses & Ice Cream

If you've known me for any length of time, you might know that I've always had some weird fascination w/ old lighthouses. It may go back to my 1st viewing of Pete's Dragon when I was 6 or 7; I'm not certain, but I know I want to live in one some day. That said, The Coast Guard is giving one away off the coast of Massachusetts. According to Wikipedia, it dates back to 1860 & the 1st 40 feet are solid granite. Apparently, the upkeep is pretty expensive, but it's cool as hell. The only problems would be the fact that there's really no back yard in which to kick a ball around, & because it's solid granite for 40 feet, getting to the top requires going up a ladder on the outside until one reaches the door. That might not go over well w/ Stephanie or the kids.In other awesome news, The Icecreamist Boutique in London will start selling Viagra-Ice cream in September... & it come w/ a shot of absinthe! Here's a picture of Cheryl Cole enjoying the sweet treat. Apparently, Ashley Cole needs more than a hot wife and £90000 a week to get things going.