Good Movies at Home

Friday night, Cara and I went to the McDonald's Red Box to see if we could rent Transformers. It was not in, but Casino Royal was!

Casino Royal was a fantastic film. I already knew it was going to be. This is such a fresh way to portray James Bond. Maybe the best since the whole franchise began.

We've had Elizabethtown on our shelf for probably 2 years. I got it from Rusty Gatenby when I was working at KSTP. I think he got a bunch of copies as screeners or something so he just gave me one. Had no interest in seeing this chick flick.

We watched it last night. It started off very good. Not too far into the film, I was hooked. There were many things about the film that had an extremely familiar feel to them. One thing was the soundtrack was extraordinary. Films usually don't have such a strong selection of popular music. It wasn't music that was big at the time of the release. Another familiarity was the realness the film had. Characters were more ordinary and quirky than most chickflicks or dramas. I felt very at home in this movie. Something else that was comfortable was the narration. Some of my favorite movies also used a very similar technique. One odd thing was that there was no opening title or credits. The movie just starts.

Then the movie ended. It was a wonderful tale. And the credits rolled. And it was a Cameron Crowe film! This answered all of the hints and feelings I was recognizing all throughout the film. I had no idea it was a Crowe movie going into it. But it sure felt like one. A great movie and the best way to discover it. I'm glad I have this movie for I WILL be watching it again.

Its interesting to note that both Elizabethtown and Casino Royal had a lot of plot development involving cellphones.

Mr Mom

Cara worked at Linens and Things today so I was the stay at home dad. There is no school today or tomorrow so I can catch up on things.
WRONG! I have a new respect for Cara. Pretty much if Jack was sleeping all my attention was on Leesha. The only moments I had to myself were when Leesha was entertaining Jack and when I was on the can.

Its a Jeep Thing

Yesterday I was trying to work on our cars with little luck. Seems I actually made the Jeep worse. Trying to open the hood, I broke the hood latch cable. I've been trying to figure out a way to close it safely so the hood doesn't fly up when driving. Here's what Cara suggested:

I think its going to work.

Interesting Evening

I spoke with my grandmother on my commute home, today. We discussed Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sweeney Todd and Jack Elliot.

Cara went to work this evening, leaving Leesha and Jack in my care. As Leesha finished her dinner, which always takes her too much time, I fed Jack a bottle. As I'm feeding Jack, Leesha cleans up and hops in the shower. Still feeding Jack and I hear Leesha finish her shower, but then I hear a familiar sound... she comes out and confirms my suspicion. She puked in the toilet. So I had her lay down and take it easy. I figured it must be the large bottle of water I had her finish before she left the table (she's been coughing and we figure water would help with that), but it could be bad food. So now my stomach feels uneasy. I hate that. Jack falls asleep. Cara returns from work- they didn't need her, I guess. As she's taking care of Jack, I go to dump a bucket of mop water outside. That was enough to send me over the edge and I let my stomach go. I figured it was get it over with now or fight it all night. I don't think there was anything wrong with the food. It was just in my mind, but oh well. I felt fine after anyways.

At the convention, last Sunday, I picked up some Tom Strong trades. Man, these are good. Alan Moore is a genius.

Monday Monday

After school activity routes started today. Mine is very long. Longer than all of my other routes! However, the first half of stops were dead.

Craig and Tracy came over for dinner tonight. Adults with no kids running around. The kids were the topic of most conversation. We managed to keep environment and politics out of any conversation.

It became a late night.

Fallcon 2007

Greg, Jessie, and I all met up at Fallcon again this year. The convention was how we celebrated Greg's 31st birthday. This has become our affordable, miniature Wizard World comic convention tradition (Jessie did have Keep Coming to America in his head the whole time!). Really, its just as good. Probably better. The difference is there is no hotel or very late night drinking. Better. However, there also isn't a Sean McKeever.

The regular costumes were walking around, but this year we got footage of them. You will be seeing that soon. I didn't buy as many comics this year. One reason was I am not looking for as many comics these days and another reason is the list of comics I'm searching for was lost early on my hunt.

One of the coolest things about this one was that they held a chapel before hand which I attended. Hans from the Source mentioned it (and gave me a ticket for the con, which was incredibly nice of him. Thank you, Hans) so I asked some questions and, boom, there I was. It was ok, not real heavy, but just the fact that they do this is cool.

After the convention I met my family at a model train shop on Marshal ave for Nathan and Aaron's birthday. That was kind of neat. Miniatures are always cool and so are shops dedicated to them.

Lots of birthday stuff today.

I'm trying to get a feed all the way from Google Documents to Blogspot and then to Conk.com

Lets see if this post worked.

I have a decision to make.

I currently and happily drive school bus routes for St. Paul for my main income, these days. This is the 2nd year I'm doing so. Last year was great. I made friends with the people I work with and the kids I transported. Last year one of the routes I drove had a bus aid that rode along with the kids. We became friends and quickly discovered that we went to the same church. This year I got the same route, but she was assigned a different bus to aid. The guy that is the aid for this route, this year, also happens to be from my church!

Now, both of them are telling me about a job opportunity at the school (Murray Jr. High). Laura (from last year's route) has said all along that I'd do well in this position. David is encouraging me daily. He says the chances are very good that I'd get the job if I tried for it.

The job would be a teacher's aid with the special education department of Murray. The pay is greater than what I'm doing now and there are benefits. It seems like a very good deal. I figure I could apply and if, for some reason, I don't get the job then nothing was lost. But, if I go for it and end up not liking it... then what? I suppose I could drive a bus again, but I'd lose this route.

I am going to submit my resume. See what happens. Usually, when I'm indifferent about a job is when I'm sure to get it. Its when I really want the job that I don't. So, if that's true, this job will be mine.

I guess I'm writing this for some feedback and just to get it out on 'paper'. Please share your thoughts on the matter.

We celebrated Craig's 40th birthday last night by going to Fasika's Ethiopian food for dinner (which is right next to Big V's which I popped in to say hi to BJ but he wasn't working yet). One of the dishes they served was goat meat. This was the best I've ever had at Fasika's.

After that we had ice cream cake at Cara's folk's house. Craig, Tracey, Nathan and Aaron are staying there while they are here in the US (they live in Kenya while Craig works his ministry working with the environment).

Today is a rare time of getting things caught up. I've been looking at different ways to promote my business and at the same time save money on the cars. Both of our cars have the engine light on. For the Honda its been determined that there is a misfire going on. Jeremy and I spent Tuesday morning replacing the plugs and the wires with no progress. I'm wondering if the same thing is going on with the Jeep. We're going to get auto repair manuals from eBay today so they can be worked on soon (by me!).

Wednesday, I spent my birthday money on the new Battlestar Galactica RPG book. I wave my geekflag high. This is a very well made game. Margaret Weis Productions improved their production since they released the Serenity RPG. This book seems more conceived and clean. The rule system has been refined as well. Great product. Its been a fun read and has gotten me back into the franchise. Too bad there won't be a DVD for season 3 until Spring next year.

Seems like its been a three day full moon.

Monday
Train parked across Como Ave.- The train was dead and there was no going around. An engineer helped me back the bus up. I was 10 minutes late for all the stops after that.
Puker on the bus from Wellstone- There was a bad smell right after picking up students at one of the stops. We dismissed it as another funky odor from the Somalian kids. After we got to the school a boy was complaining about someone puking on his backpack. Apparently a Somalian girl puked, but no one said anything to me (which was fine, because we were already late). Not much we could've done anyways. I drove the bus home and hosed it out and sprinkled baking soda all over. Smell lingered for another day, but not nearly as bad.
Released with not all the kids in PM- Loaded at Wellstone after school and all was fine, routine. The kids were a little crazy so as soon as I cleared downtown St. Paul I pulled over (into the parking lot of Sears right by the state capitol). I called into the base to let them know I was stopping. Got the kid moved to the front (I bet it was the same Somalian girl who puked) and called into base that we were moving again. They said OK, but that I had to go back to the school to pick up more students that were left behind. WHAT!? Its the teachers that clear us to depart. So we went back. It was only Dah and another girl, Wendy, that heard dispatch tell us to go back. So we decided to not tell anyone else and see how long it would take for them to figure out we were going back to the school. We were by 6th street before someone piped up!

Tuesday
worked on cars- fixed nothing! Jeremy is Leesha's bio-father and he is a bit car-savy. It could be a lot more awkward hanging around with my wife's ex-boyfriend/step-daughter's father, but its not too bad. He has changed his attitude about Cara and Leesha and we've found common ground to actually be friends. Jeremy had some nice things to say to me about who I am and who Cara ended up with. As for the car work. I think he messed up the spark-plug wires and tried to hide it from me and to make up for it he put 110% effort into the work that morning. We also topped off the transmission fluid, which he purchased for me. It wasn't bad hanging with him. The only bad part was it took up the time I usually spend chilling. So I lost some 'me' time.

Wednesday
actual full moon.

Today was all about the Zoo. We were a large clan: David, Darlene, Craig, Tracy, Nathan, Aaron, Cara, Leesha, Jack and me. We met our cousin, Melanie who works at the zoo. She let us in for free!
We saw all the standard stuff plus a 3D movie about dinosaurs which was really good. The gibbons were disappointingly mellow. Watched the dolphin show from the underwater window. I think that may be the best way to see it, actually. Also saw the bird show. Jack stayed awake the whole time. Thank you, Melanie.

Last night, just as I turned out the light in our room I heard the chain-link fence between our yard and the neighbor's. So I went to the window. Our room was completely dark. I watched three guys moving through our yard right by the window that I was looking out. I waited for the first guy to get right next to me and then I yelled "Hey! Get out of our yard!" Ho ho, how that guy jumped! He kind of said something like "Eh!, Sorry, sorry." and they RAN. I couldn't stop laughing.

Cara and I have been watching the 3rd season of MillenniuM. This has always been one of my favorite shows (even before it aired). One major reason is Lance Henriksen. He is amazing in anything he is in. Another reason is this series deals with spiritual warfare. There is a lot of dark truth through-out the show around that aspect. And the secret society/conspiracy always is a winner if done well- which this is.

Since Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH, we started a new series called LAST EXILE. I've seen this show in its entirety and its pretty good. This may be pushing her to try to understand some more mature sci-fi concepts for this show is a bit intellectual. I think she's up to it. Of the shows I've shared with here I think she'll identify with similarities I saw in NADIA
- Secret of Blue Water, which was the very first show we shared.

Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH. This is interesting timing since there has been notable ROBOTECH news lately.

Could the following news mean the end of Tobey Maguire in the role of Peter Parker? The Hollywood Reporter is (fittingly) reporting that Maguire has acquired the rights to ROBOTECH, a classic anime series from the eighties. Toby will be producing and is looking to star in the film that takes place in an alternate universe where "Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle." They then use this technology to fend of a bunch of alien invasions. Basically Toby will be strapping into giant robots and blowing up a smorgasboard of shit.

After the success of TRANSFORMERS, I'm sure most studios are looking to get into the giant robot business (in this film they're called mechas) and Warner Bros. is thinking franchise with this one, which like I said, could spell the end of Tobey as Spidey. Too bad Topher Grace was wasted on Venom, because he easily could have been the next to suit up.

Extra Tidbit: Tobey's production company is called Maguire Entertainment. How modest/creative of him.

Link

Last night Leesha and I watched the 2nd to last episode of ROBOTECH. One more to go. Probably finish off the series tomorrow.

I started tracking the LCTs Leather Clad Trucks today. Here is more information on what that's all about.

Jack is 6 weeks old.

First day of school - went very well. Its good to see many of the same kids from last year. Seems most of the trouble makers on the Elementary route graduated last year. Yay!

Really good bible study

Best birthday since #9.

T's, Willis West, Capital Ws, CaraJoy's folks. Greg made me two t-shirts- one of Dr. Midnight and the other was Snake-Eyes vs Storm Shadow. Very good Birthday

Jack is a month and a day old.

Took him to the MN State Fair, we did. Eric, Cara and I. Saw the old KSTP crew: Zack, Swifty, Schmitty, Char, Katie, DT, Glen, Becky, Amanda, Dave Dahl, John Mason, Leah McClain and Tommy. Felt strange not helping them do the news.

Mowed the lawn today for the first time in a very long time. Not that the yard needed it. Its been very dry all summer until this last week. Nothing but rain, almost.