6 movies, 26 hours...

My nephew Jordan came to spend the weekend for the first time since he started working last summer. We made a movie weekend of it, starting Saturday morning with me getting up on 5 hours sleep for breakfast and then an early show of "Letters from Iwo Jima". He and my sister had just seen "Flags of Our Fathers" earlier in the week, via "Netflix", and so with it fresh in his mind he wanted to see it as did we. I haven't seen "The Departed", but I think Clint was robbed!

We went back home for a few minutes after that for lunch and to let Angel outside, figuring out in the meantime he had lost his wallet in the movie with his freshly cashed paycheck in it. Calling the theatre, they didn't find it, so we went back and hung around 'til the next show got out; he got it back, money intact! "Ghost Rider" was next on the agenda; I was already holding our seats while he and Dottie rescued his wallet. Dottie is a big Nicolas Cage fan, and we both like Sam Elliot in anything; it was a good movie. I'm looking forward to the extra stuff on a DVD down the road...

"Wild Hogs" was previewed here last weekend, and that was the 3rd movie for the day. The funniest thing I've seen in ages, from beginning to end! If you are lucky you might get to stop laughing long enough to catch your breath before you can't help but start again...

We went home and I had rented one Jordan wanted to see, "Proof" with Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow, and another that we had seen in the "arthouse" "Keeping Mum" with Maggie Smith and Rowan Atkinson. It's one of those "dark humor" comedies that sneaks up on you and you are enjoying before you realize it. Jordan was quoting some favorite lines from it all day Sunday. Since we had seen it already, I put it in first and cooked a batch of stir-fry chicken for dinner, we ate and then I loaded the dishwasher while it was on. Then we put in "Proof".

I was amazed at Gwyneth's performance. She matched Hopkins at every turn, no mean feat considering his experience in film and on stage. I didn't realize this had been a stage role for her before it was made into a film, and that might account for her astounding performance; all I know is I was impressed by the movie and the acting!

Jordan was pretty well exhausted by that point; he went to bed while we took showers and I watched deleted scenes and making of stuff off the two discs. I went to bed between 3 and 4, then was up at 8:45 again for the next early movie "Bridge to Terebithia". I had read enough to know what to expect, Dottie was a bit disappointed it wasn't more of a "Narnia", but still it was a good movie.

On the way home we stopped to pick up balloons and plate and stuff for a surprise birthday party for my Mom at her nursing home that afternoon. She turned 77 on Monday, and we were expecting cold and rain mixed with snow which makes it fun getting her around in her wheelchair, and knowing we could surprise her by having a party there instead of taking her out, we had been working out times and such through e-mails for a week, finally settling on 3pm Sunday.

Cindy had kept my grandkids over the weekend, so they got to pick out Mom's cake:



I had called on Friday and asked to reserve the table in the lobby for 3 on Sunday, but asked them not to put a name on it. Cindy and the grandkids went down to her room to get her and told her they wanted to go back to the lobby to look at the birds that live there.

The surprise worked wonderfully:



Left to right are my nephew Jordan, Cindy's younger son; my sister Cindy; Mom; Dottie; my younger son John; and my grandaugher Talia.

These were shot with my little Fuji digicam; the quality isn't what the Nikon would be, but we had enough things to take with us I "wimped out" and took the little camera.

Last but not least, since Boo had asked what I look like now:




Sandy pointed out that "only a man would say 20 pounds wasn't that many, lol". I have to confess, I wasn't looking at it in that light, but that having lost 100 that having a bounce the other direction of only 20% wasn't so bad; I know I can walk them off again. The part that was irking me was that 20 pounds was 6" and I had to go dig out some jeans I swore I'd never wear again!

I spent yesterday recovering from the weekend, doing a few little things around the house and trying to track down some Delco Voyager batteries for the bass boat. It seems I can't find them in town anymore, so ended up ordering a set in St. Joseph this morning that will be in tomorrow morning. In my cars I always put in "Die Hard" from Sears because I've had them last 6 or 7 years at a time, but the maintenance free aspect of the Delcos is nice when they are under deck, and some guys I know that fish tournaments say they are getting 5 seasons out of them, so an extra season or two is worth the premium over the lesser ones I can buy here.

Now I'm off to the garage to pull the 25 year old tires off the boat trailer and go replace them. They don't "look" bad, but I don't want to be that guy on the side of the road everyone feels sorry for...

alan