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Tag: movies

A Lord of the Rings rewatch.

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Started off last evening with The Fellowship of the Ring, and now watching The Two Towers. And tomorrow after I finish putting all of the kids laundry away I will watch The Return of the King. I do enjoy watching these three films every few years. I take long enough inbetween viewings to forget all the finer points, so that I can enjoy it in full when I do sit down to watch all nine hours of the three movies. I don’t have it in me to watch them all in a row in one day. That’s too much for me. But one a day over three days (technically), now that’s a doable feat for me. I have just enough attention span for that.

I spent four or five hours last night working, and another six today, getting my edits done for the report I have on the books. A little more fine tuning tomorrow and I’ll be all caught up. I did spend a little while today taking apart the door knobs of the main floor bathroom, and my eldest daughters bedroom . Had to adjust the spring/reset tension on the door latches. They stick in, and the knobs spin when they shouldn’t. The set screws aren’t keeping the knobs immobilized to work the mechanisms. I cleaned them off a bit, and took some pressure off so I hope to have fixed the issue. Though weak set screws is beyond me. I don’t have the skills, know-how, nor machinery to make deeper, and stronger biting set screws. I’d love a machine lathe, and a milling machine, but both are out of reach to me at this precise moment in time. I could tear down my wood lathe and swap it for a Southbend metal lathe, because I can do wood turning on a metal lathe. A tad unconventional, but workable. I can not however turn metal on my wood lathe. I also need to readjust my work space to accommodate a mill/drill to replace my bench top drill press. Space and power needs limit me considerably. But I digress. I was talking about rewatching movies.

After I completed a read through of the entire Harry Potter series, speaking it aloud to my daughter at bed time, I had hoped to eventually follow it up with The Lord of the Rings. But we read four of the five Percy Jackson & the Olympians books and then my daughter was able to read by herself and she found her own books to get caught up in. Although, truth be told, the elvish names gave me pause when thinking about reading all three books out loud. In my head I shortened them for ease of reading, and that doesn’t work aswell when reciting long written works. I hope that ship hasn’t sailed, but we could potentially watch the movies together atleast.

Costumes, mugs of “ale”, bread and meats to snack on. Make a real meal of it. Could be a fun way to share it with my oldest.

In other news we shall have one funeral to attend in the next week or two. Things progressed slightly quicker towards the end there, than we were expecting. Sad. But expected. Still caught me off guard when I heard. Hug your loved ones, nothing is guaranteed. Ciao Bella.

Some folks just don’t dance.

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You can have a wide open dance floor, loud music, drinks, food, and lots of good vibes and some folks just don’t dance along with you. Have to admit, it’s been a few years since I last had a good dance party session. I know I’ve danced at weddings over the last decade, but besides cutting a rug in my kitchen along with the kids, I haven’t danced in full view of the public in a very long time. I’m also fifty pounds heavier, and my knees and hips are older than ever before. I’m not a smooth on the dance floor as I once was. Tired, heavy and falling off the beat! Ha. Still had a good time though. The music wasn’t entirely my jam, but I can make do.

I would have to imagine there are a number of hangovers avoided today by those using edibles instead of alcohol. Buzzed with no morning after roughness, what more could you ask for? No dry mouth, or raw throat from smoking. Bladder less stressed because I’m not pounding five or six beers. Less time spent searching for, and using the washroom. I’m still a touch dehydrated, but that’s from dancing in a sweater as a fat-(ish) forty odd year old man, in a small room with ten other people. Drank some Gatorade on the short walk home, and I feel right as rain.

Big plus is that the majority of my friends were there, and we all live stumbling distance from the house we were partying in. Babysitters were in short supply for the evening, I’ll bet, due to how many shin-digs were going on. We’ve had this party on the calendar since early December. It was a shame my spouse couldn’t join me in the end, but for a shining moment I thought we’d actually go to a party together for a change. But her cough, and our lack of babysitters meant she opted to stay home. Her take home prize from the doctors office earlier in the week made her desire to go out wane considerably. Damn you doctors office bug!

On the positive side no hangover means I was up and at’em by 8:00am, and my wife can have a lie in, and chill without the kids being mental, or all up in her space. I don’t need 12-16 hours to get over a hangover. It’s a really great way to party. I endorse it as long as you can walk/taxi where you need to be. Don’t drive under the influence, not worth it. Also no throwing up, no pounding head ache, no gut rot, no need to go pee every half hour, no spins when trying to sleep, no night sweats, no dry mouth, it’s all pretty up & up compared to drinking. I’m a ten milli Tommy. That makes me feel good, but not out of control, or destined for the moon. Feet firmly planted on terrain firma, with my head in the clouds, but not in a totally blacked out menace to society kind of way. It’s nice, don’t have to worry about saying/doing anything stupid. Doesn’t make me aggressive, or melancholy, or feisty. Just a nice warm internal hug that makes me feel alright. The CBD also helps to alleviate those general aches and pains in my knee, hip, wrists, and lower back. That pain relief fuzzy coating makes the THC buzz just that much more like a warm hug. Glorious.

Anyway – Lazy Sunday is here! Shall we watch movies as a family. Play a board game? Or sit listening to the kids lose their minds playing Mine Craft. I’d like to watch more Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy if I had it my way. But that’s a long slog even for me, and I’m a fan of both series. I don’t watch the SW prequels, and I’m not as enamoured with episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rogue One however, I could watch twice in a row on most days. Far superior to all three prequels, and most of the last trilogy as well. It went off the rails as soon as The Force Awakens tried to rehash A New Hope. Lost cause. Andor was a slow burn, but added more than any of the last movies have done to the world building, and using non-Skywalker era characters. It was far more interesting. But I digress.

Can’t take the kids skiing or tobogganing due to the rain. Might need to find something constructive for them to do before they drive me crazy with Mine Craft tantrums. Where are the head phones! Not dry enough to scooter, or ride our bikes. Too rainy for ball hockey in the driveway. Maybe I should take them somewhere like a mall for an hour long walk about. I wouldn’t mind going to a Chapters/Indigo book store to find more reading material. I do have four books that I found out the other day from my TBR list, so maybe I’ll cool it on the book purchases right now. You know what I’d really like, another book like the New Horizons one, about the Pluto mission. I tried reading about the Mars Rover, but that comes across like a textbook slash technical manual. The Pluto mission was more cinematic and humanized. It was a terrific banger of a read. Makes me think of Apollo 13, and their scramble to fix issues off the cuff.

Have a great rainy Sunday January 28th, 2024. Ciao Bella!

Ah, the holiday classics.

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Started the season off early while in Florida watching Elf with the kids, with about 12 minutes of commercials every ten minutes or so. Then while I had the night to myself I sat down to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Always good for a laugh. About three days late for US Thanksgiving, but close enough for me. And now, this morning while I have the laundry running, the dish washer emptied, have showered already, and brought up the Christmas tree decorations, and fetched in the faux tree from the shed to warm up, I’m ready to enjoy National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. If the kids stay out for a Zoo visit after the group sleep over, I might even watch Scrooged too! Hard to know at this point in time. I may put the movies on in the background while I do something else. Trying to get back into the holiday spirit. We had a bunch of it rub off during the long hours of holiday cheer promoted at all three of the parks we visited for 11 of the 14 days of our trip. Trying to recapture the joy! Helps that there isn’t sweltering heat, and we are back at home in the colder temperatures, and have family & friends around once more.

Which reminds me I need to wrap my daughters birthday presents some time soon. Then I will have to do an about face and leap into Christmas shopping. Luckily I have five people off my list already with gift cards, due to distance. My kids have three gifts each already purchased. I have a few more to go get and i can call it a day, comfortably, i feel. Which is a load off my mind. This year I’m going to do a better job of keeping track by filling out lists of what i buy for whom. So i don’t panic shop, and wind up over spending like in years previous, because i forget all of what i already have picked up for the kiddies.

Spent an hour or so yesterday and added a second wrapped maple tree trunk with colourful lights, and then reworked my extension cord situation so that I could put the gecko & Christmas mouse out beside the tree. I think the Santa train can stay packed up this year. I need to get bricks or rocks to keep it from falling over, so that might be a random side quest to achieve next spring/summer/fall before another Christmas. I should draw up plans for how I want the lighting set up executed. I’m always having to switch & swap out cords, so a numbered diagram would alleviate that issue if I put in the effort to prepare one. Add it to the list of “nice to haves”.

Now I might make it seem like we do a lot of exterior decorating for Christmas, and that isn’t really the case. More than some, less than others, is where we sit. One string of lights along the eaves, two 4 ft lit wreaths, two partially wrapped maple trees, a gecko and a mouse. And if I can stand to constantly fix it, a Santa Train that falls over constantly. I’d love to have blow ups, and rows of candy canes, and even more lights up on the house, boughs with lights on the railings, but I don’t know how you’d work all of that in, or power it all up. That kind of display is for the independently wealthy, which I am not.

Later on today when the kids get home, I’ll put on some music and we can assemble the tree and decorate it as a family. I’ll give my wife a chance to have a nap after her girl guide outing with the kids last night, and this morning. Hard to believe we are back to Lazy Sunday again, so soon. Ciao Bella!

Home Alone – watching movies, reading, and working.

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Not necessarily in that order, but while the girls are all away for a bit this week, I tackled some minor cleaning, and watched some pretty violent movies at a reasonable hour. John Wick 4 was yesterday evenings attraction. Not a bad entry in the pantheon on Gun-Fu flicks. I liked it better than number three. But the first one is still the best. Sad to know now how the actor whom played The Concierge is actually dead, so no Continental Hotel of New York spinoff money for that guy. Too bad. Incredibly bad timing. But maybe they centre that set of stories around Winston The Manager now instead. Not sure how they’d do that. Writers strike will have to put a pin in it for now anyway.

I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World again on Monday night. Not really appropriate for the kids either, but less violent, sort of. No guns, but swords and fighting play a big role. So best to wait a few more years before I share that movie with either of them. I saw GOTG Vol 3 on my phone the day it came to digital, so I don’t need to rush to watch the Bluray. I’d like to share it with my wife, she sort of liked the first two anyway. Though, now we have this massively bloated roster of tv shows, specials, and other films in the universe that you have to have some (minor) understanding of, to enjoy the transition between movies 1 & 2, and the huge gap prior to movie 3. It certainly doesn’t play as an interlinked trilogy. Which spoils the overall flow just a little bit. Little bit. Little bit, you know? It feels as though someone cut out three hours of exposition between 2 & 3. Which they did. They smeared it over a bunch of other ‘content’, in hopes you’d watch that other stuff too, in order to get the whole picture. This film needed a prologue where they just straight up give you all that stuff up front. Would make it feel a whole lot more in line with movies 1 & 2 if they did. A Re-rerelease but with that upgrade would be beneficial. Oh well.

So here we are, Wednesday. Clean sheets, showered, house tidied up, and the rain outside is still falling. I have some projects to attend to, but otherwise a chill day is in store. The family is set to return today, in preparation for appointments tomorrow, and a child’s birthday party on the weekend. The house will come alive with noise once more! As much as I enjoy peace & quiet, I do miss the minions when they aren’t here with me. But I had loads to do, and I wasn’t much fun, so better to be with the rest of the family at the cottage to play with cousins, grand parents, aunts & uncles while I was working. Still missed them all terribly though.

So now we are down to the last 10 or 11 days of summer break 2023. Amazing how quickly nine weeks can pass you by. This summer will remain one to remember, not just for the tragedy, but for some other more pleasant memories. First time ever taking the kids to Wonderland! That was pretty awesome. Movies, parks, parties, pig farm, and sadly a funeral. Fireworks, shooting stars, fishing, paddle boarding, wake boarding, tubing, the fun seemingly never ends! The Bancroft Rockhound Gemboree! Finding a new route home! New roads, and books, and things to do & see. A very busy summer. Split by tragedy, right in the middle. Followed by the mad dash to fundraise, and then multiple funerals across southern Ontario. Sadly, at this point I think that will only start to happen more often, as we get closer to fifty years of age.

We are none of us left untouched by tragedy for long. May the long cold fingers of death not touch you until you are ready.

Things that I accomplished yesterday.

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Can’t be resting on those laurels for long, so today we acknowledge what we’ve finished, and then we turn to face the front and keep on truckin’. I managed to finish book number eleven (11) of my twelve books in a calendar year challenge. Mo Hayder’s “Ritual”, which was… anticlimactic at best? A 400 plus page book about two or more adults who are unable to deal with loss, whether it was recent or from their childhood. And a sub plot about ghastly mutilation & murder. I thought there was going to be a bigger build up to pay off, but, eh! Not bad, not awful. I mean I finished it, and we all know I have no problem giving up on books part way in. But… a bit of a let down in the end. I think that is the third or fourth Mo Hayder book I’ve read. The others were far superior. This one was more melancholy than suspenseful. Tick it off the list. Book eleven is in the can! So I turn to another Richard Morgan book to complete the twelve. His 2008 novel “The Steel Remains”. More light hearted and humorous than “Black Man” or any of the Altered Carbon series. Let us hope it stays good so that I can complete my 12 book challenge. Although if I get enough pages between multiple unfinished books, I’d take the page count of what was read, add it up, and if it crosses 250, I’d call my challenge done. If I’m being honest. Cover to cover is the goal, but I’ll take partial credit for pages read in a pinch.

Second item on the list was to finally sit down and watch Sony Studios’ “Morbius”. Which felt much like “Venom”, in that it was ok. Obviously lower budget than standard MCU fare, but not horrendous. It wasn’t a Uli Boll film, so it wasn’t unwatchable. Slightly better than Venom 2, the Carnage one with Woody Harrelson. It even had one of the actors from Andor in it. I’ve had that dvd in my possession since Christmas, so I’m glad to finally take that off of my personal to do list. The kids had dance last night, and costume fittings, and dinner with Grandma, so I had an additional 90 minutes on my hands. Nearly three hours of free time to watch a movie, eat, finish my book, and shower in peace.

Also, I finished all the sanding on the Urn. Up to 800 grit with hand sanding using a rubber hand block. Buttery smooth. I used a torch to make the grain pop, and then needed to move through the grits again back up to 800 grit. No matter. Looks good. I’m happy with it. I even managed to get some Osmo finish on it, and buff it off with my polisher. Very nice! Today I want to add feet, and perhaps some spacers to stop the lid sliding around. We’ll see how we feel later on. But I can see the end of the tunnel on this one. Glad to put it behind me. I have since learned that the recipient is not sure if they want it anymore, so I may keep it for myself, for future use. I’m not afraid of that kind of preparation. Live and learn.

I have burgundy, yellow, emerald green, and this blue felt to choose from. Think HP House colours.

I’m also just about ready to rewash my resin kit in warm soapy water, to make sure all of the mould release is gone. I don’t want any part of this thing to peel or puckers or wear off prematurely. Given how much time and effort it takes to test fit, sand, and scribe lines, and fill holes, and pin together, and find work around for misshapen joints, I don’t fancy my expensive paints peeling off of it just hours after laying it down because I missed a spot.

So here we are, Thursday. Looking at the four day long weekend for Easter. By next Wednesday the temperatures supposed to reach above 20°C. That’s wild. I’d settle for three to five weeks at the 14°C range, and rains over night, and storms while we’re all sound asleep. As I understand Ottawa had an ice storm recently, with parts of the city without power. Yikes.

Oh in work related news, we managed to get just about all items off to the printers. Some items that require a third parties input were held up, but that’s honestly to be expected at this point. So yeah! Fantastic news. Ciao Bella!

Watching the Winter Olympics

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And feeling rather blah about it. Not that I get all dressed up in red and white face paint and shake a flag around for two weeks at the best of times, but really not feeling it this year. We watched a few moments of Alpine skiing, half pipe, freestyle snowboarding and some speed skating. Not for very long, and with only passing interest. I remember years were we would wake up super early, or stay up late to catch stuff live, and to watch the over tired tv personalities wrangle with sports figures and get drunk on set and act up. It was hilarious and entertaining and fun. But this Winter Olympics feels like it has this massive black cloud looming over it, because we all know about the Uighurs, and the Human Rights issues going on there, but we are to what? Forget it for two weeks, forgive it for the sake of some live sports on tv 24/7. It feels off. Hard to shake even with all the pomp and ceremony surrounding the events. Doesn’t help that Covid has the stands bare, and it looks as hollow as it feels. But before we get all Righteous and sanctimonious, let us remember how many other countries are participating in Apartheid like occupations, and are actively producing human rights abuses against members of their own populations. So – yeah. Now that that has been said. On to something else.

After last weeks school covid exposure we have tested clear again today, thankfully. Our friends whose child fell ill from Covid from that same classroom has since passed covid along to three of the four members of the family. Three of them seem to be mild, but one is in tough shape. The little one who brought it home is now on the up & up.

Did anyone out there watch the new Ghostbusters? Was it any good? I kind of want to see it, but I’ve had a slew of bad luck watching reboots and things like that. I don’t want to buy it, as the cgi looked suspect. More cartoony than I had hoped for. Although now that I’m a middle aged man I realize that most franchise stuff is geared towards 8-12 year olds to garner life long fans. Trying to revisit movies you loved as a kid will deflate you fairly quickly. The rose coloured glasses of misunderstood jokes, or being enthralled by bright colours and slapstick comedy while missing the point of the film itself comes home to roost when you finally have more to bring to the viewing than the enthusiasm of child-like wonder.

Hold on, I’ve just been asked to make a pumpkin out of blue and yellow pipe cleaners. A father’s work is never done.