Baby Explosion Pt. 2

Guess what?! I'm going to be an aunt again! Jojo is due January 14th and I'm super excited. Being an aunt is SO much fun. We haven't had a baby in the family since Mo, and that was six years ago. So including Jojo, I know three other people who are pregnant! Somethin' in the water....watch out!

This picture is 3 yrs old, but I love it and couldn't find a more recent one.

Temple of Doom

The iconic Indiana Jones has been around for 30 years. To mark the occasion, the Gallivan Plaza downtown is showing all four Indy movies for their Monday Movies this summer. I unfortunately missed the first one, but last night my sister and I caught the showing of my favorite Indy movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple Doom.

Yes, it is my favorite. I remember first seeing it when I was a kid. Raiders of the Lost Ark was slightly above my understanding at that age, and something about Indy, Short-round, the kids, and everything else really appealed to me. Most fans consider this the weakest Indy outing (until the utterly awful Indy 4 came out) because of the very things I liked about it. It fell victim to the sequel curse supposedly, but it is really a trilogy's middle act, not a sequel. And as such, it is quite good.

As I watch it as an adult, I am sort of shocked at how dark it is. People's hearts are getting ripped out, Indy is 'posessed' for a little while, children are forced into slave labor. I have no idea why I enjoyed it so much as a kid (or how my parents let me watch it!) But as an adult, I still enjoy it. I loved hearing other people in the park laugh at funny parts, get grossed out by the wacky dinner entrees, freaked out by the bugs and creepy-crawlies, and clap at the end.

Indy is pretty much the coolest archaeologist out there. July 11th is The Last Crusade. Be there with me.

J.J. Abrams Has Done it Again

He got me to see a movie I was initially not interested in or averse to seeing. He did it first with Mission: Impossible 3 then again a couple summers ago with Star Trek. And last night he did it again with Super 8. When I had first heard about the movie, I was not interested. Even the early trailer didn't do much to make me want to see it. I guess I thought it was going to be about kids making movies (since Spielberg is a Producer, it made sense).

Man was I wrong. J.J. Abrams is that good (and Spielberg, too).

What happens to the kids as they make their movie is amazing and terrifying. The title would never lead you to think that it's about some secret operation that takes over a town and the possible other-worldly-creature that they are tracking. The later trailers definitely lean more towards an alien-type movie, but even those are misleading, I believe.

The story and characters never take backseat to the alien, and certainly never to CGI. It's not melodramatic or sappy or absurd or silly. The dialogue is real and funny, and the emotions not faked or flimsy. There's real suspense and intrigue; early on in the movie, Summer screamed and Julie jumped, causing me to jump as well and my box of Reese's Pieces to fly in the air, raining down on me and my neighbors. For another sequence I sat with my jaw dropped. One scene I cried. Multiple other scenes I laughed.

The movie's been compared to The Goonies, Staned By Me, and E.T. And those are all great comparisons. The movie is so well-executed that I find myself wanting to see it again. Although if I go with you, I will be jealous that you get to experience it for the first time!

Weird Blog Things

Have you ever checked the stats on your blog and noticed that a completely random website is one of the referring URLs? I expect to have my blog checked by family and friends, basically the people whose blogs I also check out. I even expect a few random ones from people who go down the rabbit hole and end up clicking on mine from a common friend's blog (you know you've all done it!) But it's the complete random ones that I find strange. Like today there was an online psychology degree website that had checked out my blog. Very strange indeed.

This is almost as strange as when people I do not know, sometimes living in a foreign country, comment on my blog.

Seriously, who does that?!

Karate Kids

Ivy and Elliett are karate-chopping kids! They had a tournament on Saturday to show off their skills and it was pretty impressive. They were awesome and I love them!

Why I Like Having a Car

--careening down the freeway and singing at the top of my lungs
--it's more time-efficient than the bus
--ever tried taking a lot of groceries home with just your two hands to carry it? cars make that much easier
--I can give rides in it
--running multiple errands in various parts of the valley is an actual possibility
--when I need a Jimmy John's fix I can get there in five minutes
--helping friends move (yes, my little car can be somewhat useful in this department)

And why I don't:
--um, have you seen gas prices?!
--slow cars in front of me
--having to concentrate while I drive, instead of being able to sleep or read or daydream
--being too tired to drive with all the work that is required with a stick shift
--finding parking
--car problems (thankfully none of those for awhile)

New Blog

I realized that my blog was in dire need of an update today as I read my friend Jeff's new blog. As much as I loved my owl and pussycat template, a change was needed. This new one is called "Keep Dreaming."

I'm looking for a cool, every-day-on-that-day-I-blog-about-something-specific idea, because then I would at least have one blog a week. My friend Pam has her "A List for Tuesday" and my friend Jeff has "Hoffmann of the Month". What should mine be? Suggestions??

Falling Asleep Anywhere

My brother, sister, (faux) sister-in-law and nieces and nephew headed down to Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to visit my dad and his wife. I took practically no pictures while there--none swimming, or of my dad, or of my brother or sister--but I did capture these gems of the kids sleeping.