Yes, I still am capable of doing crazy, spur-of-the-moment things. Like deciding on Sunday that all of us should go to the NCAA women's basketball tournament Monday night to watch Stanford play Maryland. There were tickets available. Spokane is only about 160 miles away. The kids have never seen anything like a Division I college basketball game. Besides, this matchup was even my grad school against Spouse's. When will we get another chance like this? Why should the little realities (work, snow/sleet, a highway closure that kept us off the Interstate and on the two-lane farm road, both kids getting over being sick, the fact that Spouse's night vision is not what it should be and I would have to do all the driving on the way back and still be at work by 8 AM Tuesday) keep me from indulging a whim?
We went. It was great. We were only four rows from the floor--though not in the Cardinal section as the seating chart on the website indicated, but oh, well. Candice Wiggins was AMAZING. 41 points earned in every possible way to make a basket. Son's observation: "Her body was shaped like a big "C" and she still got the ball in." Daughter was so enthralled by Candice bouncing up and down in excitement at the end of the game that she started to bounce, too.
It's corny, and totally unfounded, but I have always felt a bit of ownership in this team. Coach V. arrived during my time on campus, and we went to a bunch of games by just showing up at Maples 15 minutes before game time and taking courtside seats--those were the "rebuilding" years. I know there are lots of reasons to be cynical about college athletics, but I really admire this program.
Oh, and look closely at the picture--see the guy in the grey sweatshirt barely visible at the bottom left? I'm sure that's Spouse, and the rest of us are just out of the frame. We stayed and watched every minute of the post-game celebration. And even though nobody else in the family would jump with me during "All Right Now," I was doing the jump with everyone down on the court. On to the Final Four!
April 01, 2008
All Right Now
March 21, 2008
Wii Rock
Latest obsession in the NWWing household:
Son has been hanging on to the various gift cards that he got for his birthday and Christmas, just waiting for the right thing to come along. Last weekend his youth group had an overnight event and he finally got the chance to try Guitar Hero. He was immediately hooked. Fortunately for me, the local Target had it in stock for the Wii and we didn't have to chase all over town looking for it.
He is quite good at it; I am unbelievably lame, but then maybe that's because I'm only willing to try it when everyone else is either out of the house or asleep, so my practice time has been limited. I don't think Spouse has tried it yet, but the rest of us are in varying stages of addiction. A trip to the game store for a second controller is in the works. I continue to get a kick out of the fact that the playlist is dominated by songs I know from college or high school (or even earlier; this one came out when I was in 6th grade). And some things haven't changed; this song still makes me cringe....
March 12, 2008
IMDB movie meme
Time for some distraction - needing to get my mind off stuff that's in the local news. As seen at Are We There Yet?: Of the top 250 movies (as voted by IMDB readers), bold the ones you've seen, and italicize the ones you've seen part of. The first 50 are here - the rest are below the fold.
1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
8. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9.
10. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
11. Star Wars (1977)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Cidade de Deus (2002)
17. Raiders of the Lost
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
19. C’era una
20. The Usual Suspects (1995)
21. Psycho (1960)
22. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
23. Fight Club (1999)
24. Citizen Kane (1941)
25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
26. North by Northwest (1959)
27. Memento (2000)
28. The Lord of the Rings: The
29. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
30. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
31. The Matrix (1999)
32.
33. There Will Be Blood (2007)
34. Se7en (1995)
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)
36. Taxi Driver (1976)
37. American Beauty (1999)
38. Léon (1994)
39. Vertigo (1958)
40. Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
41. American History X (1998)
42. No Country for Old Men (2007)
43. The Departed (2006)
44. Paths of Glory (1957)
45. M (1931)
46. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
47.
48. The Third Man (1949)
49. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
50. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
51. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
52. Alien (1979)
53. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. Laberinto del fauno, El (2006)
55. The Shining (1980)
56. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
57. The Pianist (2002)
58. Double Indemnity (1944)
59. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
60. Forrest Gump (1994)
61. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
62. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
63. L.A. Confidential (1997)
64. Boot, Das (1981)
65. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
66. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
67. Untergang, Der (2004)
68. Aliens (1986)
69. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
70. Raging Bull (1980)
71. Metropolis (1927)
72. Rashômon (1950)
73. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
74. Modern Times (1936)
75. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
76. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
77. Sin City (2005)
78. Rebecca (1940)
79. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
80. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
81. All About Eve (1950)
82. Some Like It Hot (1959)
83. City Lights (1931)
84. Amadeus (1984)
85. Vita è bella, La (1997)
86. On the Waterfront (1954)
87. The Great Escape (1963)
88. Touch of Evil (1958)
89. The Prestige (2006)
90. The Elephant Man (1980)
91. Jaws (1975)
92. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
93. The Sting (1973)
94. Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
95. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
96. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
97. The Apartment (1960)
98. Braveheart (1995)
99. Blade Runner (1982)
100. The Great Dictator (1940)
101. Strangers on a Train (1951)
102. Batman Begins (2005)
103. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
104. Ladri di biciclette (1948)
105. Salaire de la peur, Le (1953)
106. High Noon (1952)
107. Ran (1985)
108. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
109. The Big Sleep (1946)
110. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
111. Notorious (1946)
112. Back to the Future (1985)
113. Fargo (1996)
114. Oldboy (2003)
115. Unforgiven (1992)
116. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
117. Donnie Darko (2001)
118. Ratatouille (2007)
119. Mononoke-hime (1997)
120. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
121. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
122. Yojimbo (1961)
123. Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
124. The Green Mile (1999)
125. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
126. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
127. Notti di Cabiria, Le (1957)
128. Gladiator (2000)
129. Battaglia di Algeri, La (1966)
130. Annie Hall (1977)
131. Die Hard (1988)
132. Into the Wild (2007)
133. Ben-Hur (1959)
134. The Deer Hunter (1978)
135. The Sixth Sense (1999)
136. It Happened One Night (1934)
137. The General (1927)
138. Platoon (1986)
139. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
140. Life of Brian (1979)
141. The Killing (1956)
142. Smultronstället (1957)
143. Amores perros (2000)
144. Finding Nemo (2003)
145. Diaboliques, Les (1955)
146. The Incredibles (2004)
147. V for Vendetta (2005)
148. The Wild Bunch (1969)
149. Heat (1995)
150. Children of Men (2006)
151. Brief Encounter (1945)
152. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
153. Juno (2007)
154. The Princess Bride (1987)
155. 8½ (1963)
156. The Graduate (1967)
157. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
158. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
159. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
160. The Big Lebowski (1998)
161. Crash (2004)
162. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
163. Stand by Me (1986)
164. Gandhi (1982)
165. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
166. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
167. Snatch. (2000)
168. Harvey (1950)
169. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
170. The African Queen (1951)
171. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
172. The Thing (1982)
173. Trainspotting (1996)
174. Gone with the Wind (1939)
175. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
176. Wo hu cang long (2000)
177. Belle et la bête, La (1946)
178. The Gold Rush (1925)
179. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
180. Groundhog Day (1993)
181. The Conversation (1974)
182. American Gangster (2007)
183. Scarface (1983)
184. Patton (1970)
185. Duck Soup (1933)
186. Toy Story (1995)
187. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
188. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
189. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
190. The Terminator (1984)
191. Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das (1920)
192. Sleuth (1972)
193. The Hustler (1961)
194. Umberto D. (1952)
195. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
196. Stalker (1979)
197. Glory (1989)
198. Ed Wood (1994)
199. King Kong (1933)
200. Grindhouse (2007)
201. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
202. The Exorcist (1973)
203. The Lion King (1994)
204. Hotaru no haka (1988)
205. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
206. Spartacus (1960)
207. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
208. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
209. The Lost Weekend (1945)
210. Stalag 17 (1953)
211. Magnolia (1999)
212. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
213. Lola rennt (1998)
214. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
215. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
216. Frankenstein (1931)
217. Out of the Past (1947)
218. Big Fish (2003)
219. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
220. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
221. Casino (1995)
222. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
223. Toy Story 2 (1999)
224. Mystic River (2003)
225. Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
226. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
227. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
228. Hot Fuzz (2007)
229. A Christmas Story (1983)
230. Ikiru (1952)
231. Mou gaan dou (2002)
232. Manhattan (1979)
233. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
234. Young Frankenstein (1974)
235. Dial M for Murder (1954)
236. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
237. Rope (1948)
238. Once (2006)
239. Roman Holiday (1953)
240. Quatre cents coups, Les (1959)
241. The Searchers (1956)
242. In Cold Blood (1967)
243. Ying xiong (2002)
244. His Girl Friday (1940)
245. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
246. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
247. Samouraï, Le (1967)
248. Strada, La (1954)
249. Harold and Maude (1971)
250. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972)
Observations: By my count I bolded 105, or 42%. Hitchcock, yes. Older WWII movies, yes (mostly because Spouse watches them). Recent movies, not so much. My track record for the past several years - really, since I've had kids - is to see only one of the Acadamy Award-nominated films in the theater, and this year was no exception. Juno was it. Most of the italicized films were partial because I came across them on TV when they were already underway, or because they were violent enough that I just couldn't keep going. Foreign language films, also not so much - I haven't lived in a town that has an art house theater in 20 years. Someday I'll have the luxury of enough time to really make use of Netflix.
January 12, 2008
Anybody out there?
I've been reminded that this is Delurking Week across the blogosphere. Well, evidently I've missed most of it, as tomorrow is the last official day. Don't let that stop you, though! Leave a comment, even if you're just saying "hi." And don't worry that you'll be branded a procrastinator, as no one can currently match Son in that category. His sixth grade social studies project on Native Americans of the Northwest coast was assigned Nov. 26, and he finally decided to pull out the guidelines and think about how to start on January 6. This effort has consumed the entire household since that time, and we're not done yet. Send good thoughts that we'll make it to Friday's due date without damage requiring years of therapy to repair...
Click here to continue....November 25, 2007
Player
This was daughter's first Turkey Bowl game. She was an infant the last time we spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws. She was excited about playing, but the reality didn't quite live up to the hype when it turned out to be cold, wet, and muddy. She wanted to leave after the first ten minutes, so for a distraction I gave her my camera and had her taking pictures on the sidelines. After a while I came out of the game to take some photos. Her exuberant youngest uncle kept encouraging her to come back in, and finally picked her up and carried her (upside down) out onto the field. She stayed for a couple of plays, and then came back out -- and asked me to change her jersey from the blue side out (her uncle's team) to the white side (the team her dad and brother were playing on). I didn't really get an explanation for this, but I wasn't going to debate it with her if it was getting her out on the field.
Everyone makes a point of trying to get the younger kids the football, so after a few plays it was her turn to take a handoff (she said absolutely not to catching a pass). The adults and teenagers make a big show of trying to catch the kids, but really end up chasing them into the end zone. After she scored the touchdown, Uncle Exuberant caught up with her and gave her the traditional celebration: swing her in the air, then lay her down on the ground and drag her through the mud. This was the result. Not only did she stay and play the rest of the game, she now says being dragged through the mud was her favorite part!
November 02, 2007
Halloween Recap
* 43 trick-or-treaters at our door
* One 90-lb pumpkin, still sitting intact on the front steps. I think the shell is about 4 inches thick, so I doubt it will ever get carved -- maybe we should attempt some pumpkin puree?
* Cash expenditure on costumes: $0.00 Both kids wore things we already had from prior years. I think that's the first time that's ever happened.
* Approximately 75 pieces of leftover candy. I get dibs on the Butterfingers; spouse and I will armwrestle for the Baby Ruths, and the kids can have the Skittles.
* One party in the church basement, at which Son helped run some games and cleaned up afterward, and Daughter stayed long enough to hear her favorite storyteller read "Heckedy Peg" but then opted for trick-or-treating around the block.
October 02, 2007
Milestone
OTOH, that gives me an overall comment rate of 2% - maybe you're not actually reading?
July 22, 2007
All things Harry
In what was a very full week already, I juggled schedules to get in a number of HP-related activities:
- Finished re-reading OotP and HBP in preparation for the new movie/book releases
- Took a break from packing for our vacation to take Son to see OotP last Saturday. I think the best thing about the experience was learning that at age 11.5 he isn't beyond burying his head in my shoulder when things get scary. We have seen all the movies together in the theater (except for the first, which came out when he was not quite 6 and it would have been too overwhelming) and it was nice to continue the tradition. Review: we both enjoyed it as a movie; it carried us along well without too many breaks from the action to mutter "hey, they left that part out!" It was dark, as was the book, and we both found it a bit difficult to watch Harry's frustration and helplessness build. And the ending seemed contrived. And they keep changing how the dementors look! Minor quibbles, though. Overall, well worth seeing.
- One of Son's friends joined us for the last couple nights of our vacation, and the three kids and I attended a HP7 release party in the small town nearest where we were staying. The bookstore in this town is tiny, so they had rented space in a local school for the festivities. They did a nice job of it - you could make a wand in one corner, answer HP trivia questions in another, or watch the Sorcerer's Stone on video up on the stage. There was a long table with pumpkin donuts, "fairy cakes" (petits fours), and other treats including a large bowl of Bertie Botts Every-Flavor Beans. Raffle tickets were distributed and there were drawings every few minutes. Everyone received a glow stick "wand" which came in handy for visibility when we trekked the two blocks over to the store at 11:45 to line up for books. It looked like there were more than 100 people at the party, though only about 2/3 of the group actually were buying books that night. The store owner had a bag of numbered glow-in-the-dark plastic stars for assigning places in line, and I was lucky enough to draw #5! The #1 star never got drawn, so our little group was actually fourth in line. The bookstore is in a building with several businesses, including a bar at the end of the hallway that had a raucous Friday night crowd rather at odds with the families and teenagers lined up for the book - since we were right up front we had a clear view of the woman in biker attire with multiple tattoos who was checking IDs, and AC/DC and Aerosmith at high volume to keep us from getting drowsy. At 12:01 the doors were opened and we were in! The boys claimed their copies of the books (C's mom had pre-ordered one for him) and held them aloft as they left the store and walked past the cheering line. Daughter was very patient with the fact that she didn't get her own copy; she is determined to read them all in order and has just started CoS. I brought book lights so the boys could read in the car on the drive, and by 12:30 we were back. The boys took the books to bed to read, intending to stay up as long as they could, but I knew after a full day of kayaking, swimming, and mini-golfing that they wouldn't last long. I didn't stay up to check but I think they were both out by 1:15.
- I was up first on Saturday and crept into the boys' room to snag Son's copy. I got in half an hour of reading before they woke up and he came looking for it - had to hand it back right as [spoiler alert] the polyjuiced Harrys were supposed to be arriving at The Burrow, before I could find out who made it safely. The rest of the morning was full as we had to pack up, check out, and drive home, so I didn't get my hands on the book again until early afternoon. Finally finished it after dinner (which was takeout pizza; I wasn't going to put it down to make a meal at that point!). I'll probably need to re-read it more closely to fully form my impressions; I admit to skimming since I wasn't going to peek and really wanted to get to the end. I'll stick some first reactions in the comments...
- And, just for fun....
| What Harry Potter Character are You? Hermione Granger You are a smart and intelligent person. You use your smarts to help out friends. You can be emotional at times but you always seem to be in the mood to help someone out.
|
 Quizzes and Personality Tests |
June 05, 2007
Make me a map
create your own personalized map of the USA
I love maps. There's something about that transition between two dimensions and three; maps obviously can't capture everything, so the decisions about what's included and what's left out are intriguing. The boundary lines are on the paper, but not on the ground (unless you're looking at a US border these days; having just spent the weekend about half a mile from Canada, yes, there is even a fence.)
When I played with this fun widget I had to make up some rules for myself about what I would count. Any state that I've spent a night in counts, but that couldn't be the qualifying criteria, because that would leave out Rhode Island and the time that we drove there from western Massachusetts to go swimming in the Atlantic. Being a native westerner, I was completely amused by the idea that you would drive to another state to go to the beach (and we went through Connecticut to get there, so that was really a three-state trip). And Connecticut counts because we spent the morning at Mystic Seaport on the way, so we didn't just drive through. I didn't count Michigan and Texas, though I've passed through Detroit and Houston multiple times to change planes. I did count Minnesota, because I got stranded in Minneapolis overnight once because of a late flight, and had to go downtown to find a place to stay. I have never stayed overnight in Illinois, but I traversed two-thirds of the state by train, and had enough time in Chicago to visit the Field Museum, so that counts.
I will now end this post and leave the computer before I wander over to Google Earth and start in there...
August 11, 2006
My First Meme
Time for a meme. Since all of about seven people know this blog exists, and I'm sure they've all given up on it since there has been nothing posted in months, I'll just pick my own since the odds of being tagged are pretty much non-existent. So here's one I've seen around and found entertaining:
Four jobs I've had:
Ice cream scooper: my first non-babysitting job in high school, at a well-known California ice cream parlor. This one was on the main route from the beach to the highway. All the people in swimsuits and bare feet who couldn't come in and be served at a table would line up for cones. As the new kid, I had to scoop cones instead of waiting tables where the tips were better. Even when the line went out the door and around the building, none of the table servers would help out. I quit after three days.
Burgers and fries: Wendy's. My junior year of high school, after the ice cream debacle. I lasted almost a year (and met my first real boyfriend).
Switchboard operator: This was my work-study job as a freshman at Northwest Explorers' college. The entire college - departments, faculty, administration, residence halls - connected to the outside world through a 240-extension PBX. My shift was Saturday mornings (plus lunch relief for the women who staffed it 8-5 on weekdays). The worst (aside from accidentally disconnecting calls to the president's office) were the parents who would call repeatedly right after the switchboard opened at 8:00 AM on Saturday and demand to know why no one was answering the phone on their son/daughter's hall (well, there was this party last night, and ....)
Temping: I had two gigs through a temp agency that lasted more than a day or two. One was doing data entry at an aluminum smelter. I spent a month with the overhead crane operators computerizing the parts lists for the cranes. It was like learning another language. The other was taking notes at corporate negotiations led by some high-powered management consultants. I learned that the corporate world was not for me.
Four movies I've seen more than once:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Almost Famous
Sense and Sensibility
North by Northwest
Four places I've lived:
Three are in California: San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto/Mountain View vicinity, as a child and as an adult), Santa Cruz county, and Santa Barbara.
The northwest town I live in now (the longest of them all by far)
Four TV shows I've seen more than one episode of:
Star Trek (all incarnations)
NYPD Blue
House Hunters (HGTV)
The West Wing
Four places I've been on vacation:
Acadia National Park
Victoria, BC
Squam Lake, New Hampshire
Asheville, North Carolina
Four blogs I visit daily:
I don't think there are any I visit every day, but four of the places I look often for something new include Confessions of a Community College Dean, Vegan Lunchbox, Writing as jo(e), and Half Changed World.
Four favorite foods:
Sourdough bread from the Bay Area
My mom's pecan pie
Butternut squash lasagna
Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
Four places I'd rather be:
Yosemite
The north coast redwoods
Point Lobos
Any beach on the west coast of the US
(see a trend here?)
The four CDs I listened to most recently:
Being MP3 and iPod-less, this is easy:
Dixie Chicks-Taking the Long Way
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Anthology: Through the Years
Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
An Dochas - Dragonfly
The last four vehicles I've owned:
2002 Honda Odyssey (current)
1991 Ford Aerostar
1988 Mazda B2200 pickup
1975 Opel 1900
Things in my life that come in fours:
Four dogs I've owned as an adult: Maggie, Molly, Cooper, and now Buddy
My family of origin (mom, dad, me, and my younger brother)
My current family (me, spouse, and two children)
My current age (44)
May 27, 2006
Alter Ego
Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?
As seen at Bitch Ph.D. (another Elizabeth! go figure!) Click here to continue....
