Scooter Chronicles

To continue our movie weekend, yesterday afternoon Marcia and I watched “The Queen”, starring Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen. (It amazing how much movie watching you can accomplish when your child is sick and always napping.)

For those of you that don’t know, this movie centers mostly on the week after Princess Diana’s death and what effects it had on the Royal Family, the relationship between the Queen and newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the relationships between them and the people and press of Great Britain.

Helen Mirren, as is probably known by most, won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role...

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Since we knocked out one movie, and had a lot of time since Nigel went down for another nap, we decided to watch another. “Curse of the Golden Flower” (of “Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia”) starring Chow Yun-Fat, Li Gong, Jay Chou, and Ye Liu.

I wanted to find a synopsis that told you as much of the story as possible without telling you to much, however both IMDB and Amazon have the same write-up. Oh well:

China, Later Tang Dynasty, 10th Century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival (Chrysanthemum Festival), golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns unexpectedly...

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Last night Marcia and I finished watching “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. We watched the first half of this movie approximately three weeks ago. Not the best way to do it.

Here is a quick rundown on the plot thanks to IMDB:

Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990’s Sierra Leone, “Blood Diamond” is the story of Danny Archer (DiCaprio) - an ex Mercenary from Zimbabwe - and Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) - a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest...

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Poor Sick Little Boy
The Munchkin Man is sick. The poor little guy has been so out of it the last three days. He ended up taking TWO naps Thursday afternoon between my coming home from work and eating dinner. We are lucky to get him take two naps in a day! The first time he just cuddled up with a blanket on the floor after playing for a few minutes. And Friday was pretty much the same way.

Marcia has been giving him Pedialyte and/or LiquiLyte and crackers the last few days. And sometimes he even doesn’t want those. At least the last two days he has kept everything down. It is amazing to see a kid that is so active and wanting to do so much just sit there and look so pitiful. It is really heartbreaking....

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While in Detroit this past weekend, I finished reading “Syrup” by Max Barry. This is the second novel by Barry that I have read (”Jennifer Government” was the other), though it was his debut. Like my previous read, Barry takes a satirical jab at big business and marketing, but includes the film industry here as well.

From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com here is a quick rundown:

Ingenuous new marketing graduate Scat (he feels that his full name, Michael George Holloway, just won’t do for a career in marketing) moves to L.A. hoping to become rich and famous. After he gets a million-dollar...

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On Tuesday night, my brother-in-law David invited me along to a reading and signing by one of our favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. It was a real thrill.

David was the one that introduced me to Gaiman’s work, giving me a copy of his first novel “Neverwhere” one year for Christmas. If you asked me for my three favorite novels, it would be an easy choice to be one of them. I have enjoyed everything else I have read of his work, and still have a few publications yet to read. Gaiman is originally from England but now makes his home in the Minneapolis area. He wrote “American Gods” which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for “Best Novel”, “Coraline” (soon to be a “animated”...

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OOPS!! Lost a heartbreaker this past weekend to the Southern Warriors, 832-785. I named Daniel Cross of the Western Bulldogs my captain again, but he was scratched after getting injured in a late practice session. So because of this, I didn’t have a captain to score double points. Our rules work that if the person you name captain doesn’t play, the player will be replaced with one of our “emergency” choices, but will not score double points. It is made this way to keep the guys in the league in tune to what is happening, and not just half paying attention and getting lucky. Unfortunately it can play spoiler if something like this happens so close to game time. All my players scored 84 points...

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The Flights
Marcia, Nigel, and I returned home yesterday afternoon. The flight home saw more turbulence then the flight to Detroit, but that was mostly because of low cloud cover while waiting in line to land. It reminds me of what late columnist Bob Talbert used to ask how can something that looked to soft (meaning clouds) be so violent.

Nigel fell asleep about five minutes after take-off on the way to Detroit, but because of traffic on the way to the airport got a good nap before our flight home. He was feisty at times during the flight home, but wasn’t too bad. Marcia kept him well occupied, and even took him out of his seat to snuggle with her a bit. Of course, he feel asleep while the plane taxied...

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When booking our flights for our trip to Detroit for my Grandmother’s funeral, we were left with only one choice for a return flight. Actually, we had two options after the funeral, but one meant racing like mad to get to the airport on time, while the other was at 9:15 at night, getting us to Philadelphia at 10:45, and with other things like getting luggage and getting to the car, then driving up to the Lehigh Valley, we might have gotten home by 1:00 in the morning (possibly leaving a very cranky Nigel).

Weather also playing a part. There are very high winds and possible storms heading our way this evening. So flyers like me who get very uneasy with turbulence, or just worried about being delayed in the airport with Nigel,...

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Here are a few pictures of the Munchkin Man. First is Nigel all dressed up for Easter.

Next, Nigel checks out the egg that Marcia decorated for him.

Later on after Easter lunch, Nigel ditched the dress clothes for something more comfortable so he could play with his cousin Ryan.

And here Nigel is playing with his favorite blanket. He is getting into the habit of putting it on his head and walking...

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