Re-Making it Worse

I was discussing movies with a co-worker recently. He's seen pretty much every terrible movie you can think of. One of our favorites that he's seen is Vampiyaz: Brothaz in blood. Anyway, we discovered that there is a whole class of movies that he hasn't seen. Stuff like The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, and Mr. Mom. Now, I'm not saying these are the greatest movies ever made, but I think everyone ought to have seen them, as part of their general life education. But, as I was urging him to see the movies, I found myself saying "You have to see 'The Parent Trap'. The original, not the remake with Lindsay Lohan, you can skip that one." And "you must see Freaky Friday, but the original one with Jodie Foster, not the remake with Lindsay Lohan."

And then I realized that we had developed a whole new tag line for Ms Lohan: "Re-Making it Worse". The Parent Trap. Freaky Friday. Herbie. Along with all the rest of her problems in life, she has a knack for remaking movies that never needed to be remade, and not doing a good job of it.

Talking Julia

Words Julia says*:

Jesus

Hat

Shoes

Blockburger

Button

Buckle

Oh man

Milk

Hot Dog

Please

Up

Down

Book

Dog

Kitty

Duck

Mama

Daddy

Rock

Walk

Open

Eye

Nose

Mouth

Mouse

House

Car

Elbow

Elmo

Maggie

More

Isaac

Baby

Yes

No

Hi

Bye

Tickle

Uh-oh

Oh no

Apple[sauce]

Hot

Frog

Ball

Cheese

There could be a few more, but that's all the ones that the doting parents could think of right now.

* Requirements for counting it as a word are that she says it on her own (she'll mimick just about any word we ask her to, with varying degrees of sucess) and we can understand what she says. This does not mean that any random stranger could understand what she is saying.

Basketball

Hooray for basketball! My ward is attempting to set up weekly basketball games. We had 5 at our first attempt, which isn't terrible. And only 3 of them were recruited from outside of our ward. But, here are my observations from the first time I've played in ages.

1: Apparently I'm 100 years old, because things still hurt.

2: I blocked 2 shots in one evening. TWO! That's about 10 times more than I normally do. One was on a pull-up jumper. For the other, I was beat off the dribble and the other guy had a step on me as he headed toward the hoop and I blocked the shot from behind almost. I don't think I've ever blocked a shot that way before. This was probably a statistical anomaly.

3: I made a right-handed hook shot. I've had a left-handed hook that I've used for years. It's very accurate and extremely difficult to block. (Even Brett would agree with that, I think.) But, to increase my repetoir, I've been practicing a right-handed version for years. Years! It's certainly not as good as the lefty (lower accuracy and range) but I can consistantly make it when practicing. Unforutnately, I never trust it enough to use it in a game. Even when the right side is more open, I trust my left-handed shot more than the right-handed. But, without planning, I spontaneously took a right-handed shot the other day. (It went in.) NBA, here I come!

If my blog readership included anyone who liked basketball in the St. George area, you'd be invited.

Visitors

Kim and Patrick came through town this week on their way further south. They stopped to say hi to Julia and Shannon and brought food with them for lunch, too. I guess they didn't end up eating all of it (they came and went while I was at work) and left some behind. Shannon showed me the zucchini they left us:

"That's great!" I said. "I'll put it next to the one from our garden."

Sports Famine

The NBA playoffs are over. I didn't watch any of them. But at least I had something to read about on espn.com. Now, I have nothing. Sports are dead to me. Until the fall. Baseball doesn't get remotely interesting until August, and then college football comes back.

Somewhere, Shannon is celebrating.

Hot Ham Water?

We have some friends that need to watch Arrested Development. We've been meaning to watch some with them for some time, but it just hasn't happened yet. (Just like we've been meaning to do so many other things.) Anyway, Shannon and I were discussing what we could do to have an Arrested Development (hereafter "AD") themed party to enrich the watching atmosphere, but haven't come up with much. It won't be a big party, and we aren't rich, but surely there must be something we can do to bring out the AD spirit. We could make frozen bananas . . . and . . . hot ham water? Get a crane game? A sing-along to the Final Countdown? Anyone out there got any more ideas?

P

Memorial Day weekend.  There we are, enjoying sacrament meeting.  It was a double missionary homecoming.  The M's were there.  The A's were there.  And suddenly, there was something warm and wet in my lap, and running down my legs.  Thanks Julia!

Saturday (a few days ago).  Shannon had a choir performance (last of the year) that Julia and I went to.  She really enjoyed the clapping part.  She was getting kinda squirmy near the end.  The final piece by the choir was really good.  Made me feel all warm inside.  And all warm in my lap.  That Julia, so willing to share!

Today.  Shannon was working on dinner, I was reading Julia a book.  Then, I was all wet.  Yay for urine!

Shannon had even changed Julia about 90 minutes before so she wouldn't pee on me.  But somehow she still manages.  As if she didn't generate enough laundry as it is.

Happy Anniversary

No, not to me.  My anniversary was 10 days ago.  But these folks did get married 5 years ago:

Don't worry folks, that picture isn't from their wedding.  Or any time near it, really.  But it was the first picture of the two of them that I found.

But anniversaries are times for remembering.  So, I choose to remember back to 1999 when I met Sabrina . . . .

And 2000 when I met Brett . . . . 

But most of all, I like to think back to the first grade . . . .

0-1

I just went to a meeting. I walked in with 1 piece of paper. I walked out with 4.

That, my friends, is what we call losing a meeting.

More books

I hadn't realized how far behind I'd gotten on my books.

Brisingr:  This book follows Eragon and Eldest, which I read recently.  I read those two (which I had read before) to remember what happened, so I could read the third and final book in the series and be done with it all.  But, as it turns out, this wasn't the final book as I had thought.  It was long and entertaining as the others were, and, I was glad to see that it provided some plot twists that I didn't see coming.  I remain curious to see how it all turns out.  Sometimes it is best to discover series' after they've all been written so you don't have to do the annoying part of waiting for the next book.

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman:  In 35 years at Caltech, Feynmann was listed as teacher of record for 34 courses.  25 were graduate courses.  I guess when you're as big a name as Feynman, you can teach what whatever you want (or not teach, as the case may be).  But for two years, he taught a series of introductory physics courses.  The lectures were recorded and eventually edited and published as Feynman's Lectures on Physics.  The finished work is famous, among physicists at least, and anyone out there is welcome to buy it for me.  (It's 3 volumes, and not cheap.)  Until that day, I have 6 Easy Pieces, which are exerpts from the lectures.  They're interesting and are Feynman's attempts to collapse some big topics, like "Basic Physics" into a single lecture.