Well, that was impressive, kind of.

Yesterday we're all out at the soccer fields for Emma and Timmy's soccer practice/games. They're usually 4:30 - 4:5o or so of practice, then the rest of the time until 5:30 is a game/scrimmage against another team. The skies were getting pretty dark and forbidding, so the guy in charge of the leagues tells the coaches to start the games immediately. They're playing and having a great time, but the skies are getting darker and darker and the wind is picking up. There starts to be some lightning and around 5p the games are called. So we pack it up and head back to the car. The wind is really picking up now, and as we're driving away, we're getting hit through open windows (it was pretty warm, in the mid 80's with a lot of humidity) by wind driven leaves and dirt and dust. It looks like at anytime, the sky is going to open up and just dump on us. We drop Cyndie off at Laura and Gow's (to pick up Daisy and Sally who we're babysitting during a Gowan date), and get hit by a slight barrage of rain, but nothing crazy. Over the next half hour, it rained some and was a bit windy, but nothing of the sort promised by the dark, crazy sky nor that which the weather reports carried (hail, 60 mile per hour winds) ever materialized. We ended up eating on the deck and enjoying the sound of the rain and laughing that it couldn't get us!

A Movie Review

There's not a whole lot to write about today, so I'll take this opportunity to post a review of the movie we watched down at Dave and Amy's, The Backup Plan.

The Backup Plan (3.1/5)
So, at first glance (i.e. from the cover of the movie and the preview or two I'd seen), this is a standard romantic comedy ... Jennifer Lopez, right? That's all the movies she makes anymore.

So, that wasn't totally right. It was a romantic comedy. And like almost all romantic comedies, they try to spin it differently so it's not exactly like every other romantic comedy ever made. Well this one was spun by having Lopez's character be pregnant the whole movie. So, we were blessed with the standard throwing up at inopportune times gags and gynecologist visit gags, etc.

I'm sitting here thinking about what else to write, but there was nothing remotely good or memorable to take away. I maybe am being a little over generous dropping a 3.1 on this movie, but it seemed to slot in well next to a similar romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You, so there you go.

The overall summary: A very generic RomCom with pregnancy bits added in (which made it worse).

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Lars and the Real Girl - 4.1/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
TransSiberian - 3.9/5
Iron Man 2 - 3.8/5
Wolverine - 3.8/5
Hurt Locker - 3.8/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Definitely, Maybe - 3.7/5
Up - 3.7/5
The Blind Side - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
How to Train a Dragon - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
Appoloosa - 3.5/5
Sherlock Holmes - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
Stealth - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel - 3.2/5
He's Just Not That Into You - 3.1/5

The Backup Plan - 3.1/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Inglorious Bastards - 2.9/5
Push - 2.8/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Meet Bill - 2.1/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Here we go again!

I guess the title of the blog could really apply to a lot of things ... the Vikings sucking this year (0 - 2), Liverpool going down the drain (4 points from 5 games in the EPL), fall really getting started. But really, all I meant when I wrote it was that it's Monday, and we're starting a new week.

Today marks the "real" start of the school schedule in that it is the first day that Emma has before school Spanish class. She'll do that on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:50 (until 8:20 or so). Timmy will do before school Spanish on Fridays. So, for now, we're locked in with Spanish MWF, school, then soccer after school on T/TH. That seems like a lot, especially when you factor in the various evening things that Cyndie and I have.

We had a nice weekend. It was fairly kick back. Saturday morning we spent some time (in the intermittent rain) cleaning up the garage. We did a fairly good job of it, but there's still some stuff to be done before winter in order to put the car in there. In the early afternoon, we headed down to Amy and Dave's for some cousin time. It was a nice visit. We hung out, grilled burgers, the kids played some outside and in, and we watched a movie. Good times. We left by about 9:30 the next morning when the cousins went to church. The rest of the weekend was pretty standard Sunday (complete with losses by both the Vikings and Liverpool), with a church meeting (regarding kids programs) at our place after church in the evening.

So there you have it. We're back and raring to go!

Better Blog ...

Yeah, I don't have a ton to say today. Nothing hugely exciting or unusual happened in the last 24 hours or so. But in order to stay consistent, and not get behind, I better throw something out there!

Yesterday was overcast with a nice thunderstorm and downpour in the morning. I spent 15 or 20 minutes working out on the deck enjoying the sound of rain, thunder and lightning. Actually, it was raining so hard, it really wasn't the "normal" sound of rain I was hearing, but really more of a constant roar! It was a bit strange because I went for a run in the very early morning (5:45 is when the alarm goes off, and, when it's my turn for the outside exercise, I'm usually on the road by 5:55), it was actually quite warm. I was definitely not at all cold in shorts and a t-shirt, something I can't say about other runs in the last week or so. So the rain lowered the temperature by something like 10 or 15 degrees, making the rest of the day pretty darn cool. It did clear up enough to be decent weather for soccer in the afternoon. Both of the kids enjoyed their games, but wearing sweatshirts under their jerseys. Tim was in the goal for a lot of his game and spent much of his time (when the ball was at the other end of the field), diving around on the ground making pretend saves and generally not paying a whole lot of attention to what was going on on the field. Anyway, it was good times.

So there's life. We're hoping to work more on the tree fort and to clean out the garage tomorrow, but a lot of that will depend upon the weather (it's supposed to rain).

Tree Fort Baby

Yesterday was the start of the tree fort building effort at our place. I went to get the wood I need for the deck part early. Then my dad came over in the afternoon to help me get the "square" (the main beams) up. It was quite an effort. Included in that was cutting down a tree that was dead so that I can use it for one of the main vertical supports on the tree fort. It was a little trial and error getting the stuff up. In the end we got up two beams. And, due to a number of reasons, they are a bit higher than I originally intended. The plan now is to take those two back down and lower the base to a bit safer level (8 or 9 feet instead of 11 or 12). I think, based upon what we learned in the couple of hours we spent yesterday, it will go MUCH quicker this time. Hopefully we'll have quite a bit of time to work on that on Saturday ... at least getting the main platform up. Fun times.

In the evening, Em and Tim went over to the cousins house to have dinner/play while Cyndie and I went out for dinner with our friends Al and Sherri. This was our victory dinner for winning the biggest loser competition with (against) them. We hit Paisanos, our favorite area restaurant. I was absolutely stuffed after that!

So now we're nearing the end of the week. The kids have soccer tonight ... Cyndie's running errands today ... work, work, work for me!

Art Class!

Well, we've started art class again. Fun times! We're working on a fall painting. To me, fall is about football, so mine is composed of a football theme. Cyndie is working on a still life of leaves. Should be fun! It's nice to be back in there and being creative in a different way.

Yesterday was soccer for the kids. It was a warm afternoon. Timmy was sweating up a storm! Grandma and Grandpa D came to watch the games and then we went over there for dinner.

This morning I got up early to run over to Home Depot to get the materials for starting a tree house in the newly cleared area of the yard (past the mound). I'm looking forward to getting started on that, and the kids are anxious to have a new toy!

Weekend in Bullets

Yes, I missed yesterday ... my apologies. I was not feeling at all well. In fact, I only worked a couple of hours. Strange times. Anyway, I'm feeling much better now, so the blog is back and active! So bullet points for the weekend:

• My cousins Christa and Kyle were here for the weekend from Minnesota. It was totally fun to reconnect with them and lament over the 15 years that we didn't see each other as "lost" time.
• Jane was out too. That's twice in three weeks ... keep it up Auntie Jane!
• We spent much of the weekend together as a large, extended family group. Meals, hanging out, etc.
• We managed to get everyone out on the boat on Sunday morning in some surprisingly nice, temperate weather. Good times.
• We mixed in some church meetings that various people had to be at on Saturday.
• Timmy turned 6 on Saturday*.
• We helped break in the "Big House"** a bit. Some of the first extended hang out at Laura and Gow's new house!
• We did a bit of an "Alpine Reunion" at our pastor's house. Alpine is the camp my folks worked at (and I lived at) during junior high/high school. It's funny that there are now, 1500 or so miles away from there, a group of staff/staff families living within 10 miles of each other ... Dale and Jeannine Holte, me, my folks, Ray and Janette Warren, Alissa (Rounke) Bruns and her family, and Tim Rounke was out visiting. Good times.
  

*I think Timmy's birthday is worth a full paragraph rather than limiting it to a bullet point. He really enjoyed himself. All of my direct family was here. We played some games (the bounce house was definitely the biggest hit), ate burgers, opened presents, ate cake. Good times. Timmy got a lot of legos. He's been building all the stuff a set at a time. He's really good at reading the directions and putting the rather complex (age 7 - 12 for most of the stuff) together without much, if any, help. Thanks to those of you who were here for making it a fun party for Tim!

**The "Big House" is the name that 2 year old Sally gave the new house since it is so much bigger than the duplex that they lived in before. Every time I hear that, I think about prisons and Johnny Cash for some reason!

So now we're into the week. The kids had a fun run through school yesterday and enjoyed that. Then we had a quick dinner and went to back to school night. I was very impressed with Mrs. Crowell, Emma's 3rd grade teacher. Looks like it will be a good year ahead for both kids!