Today I recovered from the weekend by going to work. Yes, there is nothing like work to make one frustrated and longing for time off. So excuse me if I reminisce about the weekend that just ended; Memorial Weekend 2008. (WARNING: Boring details ahead. Be ready to initiate IPOD rescue sequence).
Usually Memorial Day weekend presents three options: Soccer tournament, weekend get away, or barbeque extravganza(s). Oh, combinations of the above are also in play. Past long holiday weekends have included a camping trip to Lake Cachuma, daily soccer in Las Vegas, daily soccer near Disneyland, or daily barbeques. The key to the past weekend is summed up in a newly minted word- staycation. Staycation is a nice combination of "stay" and "vacation". Since the word was introduced on the 11 pm news on channel 4 it must already be widely accepted around the globe. There has to be a well documented entry in Wikipedia. Anyway, we stayed close to home all weekend- and liked it.
To prepare for her 3 day walk in November to raise funds for cancer research (http://08.the3day.org/goto/conniestopcancer), I accompanied Connie in a early morning walk Saturday. Visions of a pleasant stroll along the stand between Manhattan and Hermosa Piers were quickly dampened by a cool drizzly workout. We did the roughly 4 mile round trip in about an hour and Connie gave her new walking shoes "two thumbs up." (must resist tempation to substitute toes for thumbs). Since we were back home by 8 am, Connie made a big but healthy breakfast before the boys were up. The smells of breakfast cooking quickly enticed the boys to wake up.
We now switch to the audio-visual portion of our blog which serves multiple purposes. By playing the clip I'll test the process of dubbing video from my Sony D8 digital camcorder to Google, demonstrate the fullness of sound achievable when one plays the drums indoors, and wake you from your slumber. Also notice the nifty noise reduction headphones the drummer is wearing.
Joseph picked up the headphones while he and Vincent joined Connie on a trip to the mall. While Connie succeeded in picking out an outfit for one of the soirees this summer, Joseph purchased protection for his ears while he drums. I don't know how much protection is achieved as he listens to his IPOD for accompaniment but he does look professional. He also can claim he doesn't hear us when asked to come to dinner or do a chore or keep it quiet. How convenient.
Movies, movies, movies. Each day we watched movies- five in all. The first one was an offering on TBS of Trading Places. Remarkable in that we all liked the movie and laughed at mostly the same places. One practice long forgotten is how commonplace frontal nudity was in the 70's and 80's. There were two scenes that had me scrambling for DVD remote while Connie asked Vincent to look away. Joseph was at the movies watching the Tina Fey/Amy Poehlner Baby comedy. I'm not certain at what age we won't react that way but we'll let you know when we'll feel comfortable watching similar scenes with the older kids. We are not there yet.
The other movies were Chuck and Larry, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Hairspray, and PS I Love You. Connie and I watched all the movies, Vincent saw the first two with us, and Joseph saw none. Chuck and Larry was funny for the first half hour and then ran out of any semblence of humor. Before the Devil was selected by doing a quick search on the web. It was interesting throughout but the ending was not the way we would have liked. It is probably consistent with the premise and storyline but.... Devil offered a moment more akward than Trading Places. The movie opens with an outright sex scene. After some turbo FF fumbling, we had to back up a bit because I zoomed so far ahead that the movie made no sense. The movie unfolds in a manner similar to Momento where a scene is followed by one or two earlier scenes. One take away is that Marisa Tomei is not shy.
Hairspray was pure entertainment and a little trip down memory lane. We enjoyed the music and the story but PS I Love You is an outright chick flick. Yes, I enjoyed it too.
Now its time for a little visual break. If you double click on the image it will enlarge into a more pleasant arrangement. No gurantee that you can click back to the blog.
In the collage, the view in the lower left is from our bedroom looking towards the south. It is Memorial day morning which was sunny but the day got much windier and it progressed. The other photos show Brian and Rosie's dog Buddy during his first visit to our home and introduction to Dinker.
the boys cousin Ryan visited Sunday after soccer game and stayed overnight. they played the Wii, skateboarded, little soccer, walked to Roebecks, did kid things
Connie accompanied Nicole and Rosie to shop for wedding veils in downtown LA on Sunday
Boys played soccer for school team at school while girls were in LA. cool and windy. other team had only 5 players. Played informal game by dividing all players. Went to Taco Bell after game.
Spent time prepping guest room for Frank's visit in July.
i cleaned the yard. gotta make sure i write that down. Also note that i picked up a pile of piles- who's dog is it anyway! hint- not mine.
burned some wood in the portable fire pit.
had a barbque in late afternoon for just the four of us. Chicken and vegetables. Very windy.
brian and rosie visited. Brought Buddy to meet dinker.
jeanette and tom came by to pick up Ryan and visit a bit.
1 comment:
what's up dude. Cool blog.
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