Watching, Reading, Looking

After watching the Oscars, Up was the one movie I said, “We really need to see this!” I’m sure the Hurt Locker and Precious are impressive, but I don’t think I need to see that much misery at this point in life.

Up is fabulous. I love Pixar. And how cool is it that Russell (the little boy) is Asian-American? We love the part where Carl tells him, “Let’s play Who Can Stay Quiet the Longest.” and he replies, “My mom loves that game!”

I read two books last week.

Presenting to Win, for the Business Book Club I run at work. Great strategy concepts as well as a whole list of very practical tips for PowerPoint slide building. Example – use Wipe Right for slide transitions. Never use Wipe Left unless you’re trying to show something dissonant that should displease the audience. Western audiences in particular are accustomed to see motion going from left to right as positive. (edited)

The second book was Sean Astin’s autobiography. Sean played Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the lead role in Rudy, among many films, and it was an interesting behind the scenes story of an actor who has grown up in Hollywood. He’s momentually insecure, which is a little irritating, but he’s an engaging writer and terrific actor.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the descriptions of the life and work partnership of director/writers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. I love seeing a glimpse of their creative teamwork.

This last image is my sister’s gift to Q-ster for his birthday- Lego Indiana Jones in full color photography. He loves it! Original photo here.

And that wraps this week (month, year?)’s issue of Watching, Reading, Looking.

A Different Kind of Sock

The micro dude has taken to giving his firm opinion about his clothing. Do you see the socks on the left? They are well worn and developing holes, which led to the recent purchase of the socks on the right.

You might think that this is no big deal, but then you would be wrong. I've tried every morning for a week to get him to wear some of the new socks.

Buster: DIFF'RENT SOCKS!

And he will not be swayed until I pull out a pair of the old ones. I haven't figured out why he doesn't like these socks, but sooner or later one of us will crack. No bets on who that will be.

He also tells me that he wants to wear FUZ-ZEE PANTS when I try to put other pants on him. Fortunately, he has four pairs of fuzzy (super soft microfleece) pants, and I can't really point fingers since I am usually wearing pants of that exact same material.

Need These Peas

Oh, the cuteness! As if I needed any help with anthropomorphizing food. The ladies at We Covet say that the pea family is featured in the new Toy Story movie - yet another reason to love Pixar.

Here are my childhood friends, the Vegimals: Broccoli, Carrot, Pea Family, Banana, and guest Kiwi.

If You Give a Baby a Cookie

Buster and I were curled up on his tiger pillow singing the Ladybugs Picnic song tonight when he asked me for “Mouse Cookie!” which is his way of requesting the story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In that tale, the mouse requests increasingly elaborate things, many of which I couldn’t remember as I tried to recall the story from memory, so Buster did his best to fill in.

Me: If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want to have some . . .
Buster: Milk!
(That’s how it goes in the book.)

Me: If you give a mouse some milk, he’ll want . . .
Buster: How ‘bout, CHOC-WITT!

Me: Ok, that sounds good. If you give a mouse some chocolate, he’ll want . . .
Buster: How ‘bout, vite-mins!

And he just kept going. I was amazed at how long he could generate fresh ideas. Although he did repeat vitamins several times, since he’s recently become very fond of gummy bear vites. It also made me very conscious of how often I say, “How about . . .” when I’m suggesting activities for him.

Later, we ran upstairs to play Duplo and see how SwingDaddy and Q-ster were doing with his new birthday Lego. Q-ster had elected to open one of the massive Star Wars spaceship packages, but he wasn’t building the official Republic cruiser that it contained. Instead, he was creating some pretty terrific designs of his own.

A ship.

And a “power generator.”


Cool stuff.

Taxes, More Fun than Death

I did the first pass on our taxes last weekend and noticed either on the TurboTax or IRS website that you can now “get your tax rebate in the form of a Visa check card!”

This seems so funny and removed from the old-fashioned green paper check that SwingDaddy and started riffing on what other formats your rebate might take.

You can get your tax rebate as a voucher for the Holiday Inn!
Or get a free tank of gas!
A 2 for 1 coupon at Applebee’s!

Ah well, you had to be there.

We're Rich!

We scored a crate of 60 Eggo waffles at Costco last weekend. A triumph amidst this national shortage.

The Best $1.45 I Ever Spent

We've been enjoying Blue's Clues here in Chez M, and both Q-ster and Buster have shown intense interest in Steve's Handy Dandy Notebook, where he records the Clues.

I brought home a pair of notebooks from the dollar store, and the boys are thrilled. Buster spent the entire afternoon thrusting his little book forward, declaring, "NOTEBOOOOOOK!"


In other news, we had a fabulous weekend of celebrations for Q-ster’s fifth birthday (light saber cupcake pictures coming soon), and SwingDaddy is off crutches, walking and driving again! Many, many, many thanks to my parents, who came the first week to help us, and to his step-mom who just left this morning. They kept our lives moving smoothly between ice runs, PT appointments, and entertaining the boys.