the gems doth sparkle

Nate and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend with a trip to the Guthrie where we saw Romeo and Juliet.  We'd never seen a professional production of Shakespeare before, but I guess it was pretty much what we expected.  Except the actors looked as though they were passengers on the Titanic instead of 14th century Italians.  That seemed kind of dumb - if you keep Shakespeare's language intact, you may as well keep his original setting.

Nate bought me a bit 'o bling in the form of a mother's ring, which I'd been pestering him about for a while  (just for the record, I'm not a big jewelry wearer in general).

There's April, August, March, & September.  Purty, no?

And yesterday I watched that much anticipated show on TV, the one everyone waited all week for - part 1 of Emma on PBS' Masterpiece Classic.  Nope, not the game.  Not after the first half, anyway.  It's just not worth getting your hopes up.  Our MN teams seem permanently jinxed.  There were some players with goofy hair & names though, so that's always fun.  Speaking of, there's a Marvin McNutt who plays for the Hawkeyes.  Hee. 

37 years

...since the Roe vs. Wade decision.

I'm pro nonviolent choices.

Conundrums

Don't be fooled by this ordinary looking closet.  It is an ordinary closet, but...

 

 ...there's a boy inside who's playing Nintendo DS.  Since acquiring this prize at Christmas, the older 3 kids go to great lengths to remain undetected while they play.  Zach demands to have it whenever he sees it, in the clamorous way 2-year-olds demand things.   I had to tell Nicky that it doesn't do much good to hide there if the volume is still blasting.

Speaking of Nicky, he has the sniffles right now and I'm trying to teach him how to blow his nose.  I can't figure out why it's such a difficult concept.  Is it a boy thing?  I seem to recall my little brother had trouble mastering that skill as well.  Another thing I don't get is vegetable oil.  Vegetables don't seem to be naturally oily things.  How do they get the oil out, and wouldn't it take an excessive amount of veggies to make a bottle of oil?  But it must not, because that stuff is cheap.  And then there's gum.  It lists the calories per piece on the package, but is that only if you chew the sugar out?  It should say Calories: 5  If swallowed: 25.

As Seen On TV!

I want to preface this with the fact that it wasn't my idea to buy one.  But I didn't protest.  That was one heck of a cold snap we just got out of.  My verdict:  not worth $14.99.  Maybe 3 bucks.  The material is thin and feels like a combination of felt and fleece.  "It's a blanket with sleeves!"  Before the advent of the Snuggie, we just called that a "bath robe".  It has no fasteners in the back, so you can't walk around with it comfortably.  But it does help keep one (or 3 kids) cozy on the couch, especially in our heat-challenged basement.

Hi, 2010

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since all the Y2K hullabaloo, huh?  We rang in the new year kid-free with a movie, 7 pounds, and some cheap Riesling.  Not a great flick for a celebratory night.  It was okay, but very intense.  Will Smith looks like he's going to cry, puke, or fly into a rage every moment he's on screen.  It was emotionally draining to watch.
May as well give my all important opinion of other movies we've seen sorta recently.  At our first time there, we saw Inglourious Basterds at the Cottage Grove drive-in.  Don't think I've seen anything Tarantino since Pulp Fiction years ago.  Lots of long scenes that really draw you in. The Men Who Stare at Goats sounded promising.  Quirky = good in my book, but this movie didn't have quite enough quirk.  Not enough staring action either. George Clooney was okay.  I only like him if he's playing a loony, like in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?  We finally rented Up and that was good.  It had lots more soul than many animated movies of late, and some great wacky fun scenes of the 'where the heck did they come up with this?' variety.  We also recently rented The Adventures of Captain Gonorrhea and the Starship Enterprise - er, Star Trek.  It was entertaining for this non-trekkie but not suberb.
We could've seen Avatar while the kids were at Grandma's but couldn't get ourselves to the theater.  I've heard good things, but I dunno if I could look at those freaky blue cat people for 2 or 3 hours.