Spring Break With Family And Friends

The Wife is ecstatic that spring break is finally here.  We will celebrate her week of freedom with family.  The Best Man and Matron of Honor are visiting this weekend.  T_E and J_A will be joining us Saturday night for a good steak dinner at a restaurant we've been thinking about trying - Piccolo Petes.

Later on in the week we will be visiting the Loon Whisperer family to see their new digs.

I foresee good times ahead.

Photograph: Targeted Bricks

"Targeted Bricks"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: Baubles

"Baubles"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: Empty Cribs

I received an email from the GodSon yesterday.  He said he was entering a photo contest and he want opinions on which of his photos he should submit.  After giving my opinion, I decided to steal his idea and submitted a photo of my own.

The contest is monthly and each month has a theme.  This month's theme is Black and White.  Here is my entry:

"Empty Cribs"
by Bruce H.

P.S. I think the GodSon's submission is better than mine.

Book: Bill Bryson's "The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir"

I've read two Bill Bryson books before this one: "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail".  Both left me disappointed.  Both had their good points but failed to deliver in the end.  I was most disappointed with "A Walk in the Woods" - it had so much promise.  Against my better judgment I decided to give Bryson one more chance.  His last chance was "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir".  

Wow, what a difference.  I loved this book.  This is a little odd.  The Wife, who read it before me, didn't like it as much as I did.  She, on the other hand, enjoyed "A Walk in the Woods" a lot better that I did.  Thinking about this and listening to the Wife's opinion, I've decided that you have to have been, at some time of your life, a little boy to enjoy this memoir.

The book is chock full of little boy stories.  Actually it's one 267 page long little boy story and, being a former little boy myself, I found a lot to appreciate.  As I read the book, my mind constantly wandered back to my early childhood, the better parts of that childhood to boot, leaving me with a fond, nostalgic feeling.  It made me want to go back.  It made me enjoy the book.

I can't say where this connection came from.  Bryson grew up in the small city of Des Moines, IA and I grew up in a small town in Missouri and later in Guatemala City.  He grew up in the 50s and 60s.  I grew up in the 60s and 70s.  Despite these differences and the lack of common experiences, there was an underlying connection that I can only attribute to the little boy-ness of it all.

I highly recommend this book ... to all the former little boys out there. 

Our First Roller Derby

Last night we went to Skate Daze to watch our first Roller Derby Match (not sure what a race is called - race? match?).  We frankly didn't know what to expect and I think we were pleasantly surprised.  The match was between the Omaha Rollergirls (O.R.G.) and the North Star Supernovas from Minnesota.

The Wife and I found it easier to follow than we expected.  I was expecting to be totally lost but I think I caught on pretty quickly.  I'm not sure what I liked most, the derby action or the names of the skaters.  Olive U. Dye - Scarlet O'Scara - Fun!  The only disappointment - no fights.  Come on!  We wanted some blood!

The Omaha Roller Girls (in red and black) were trounced by the North Stars (in green and black).  I can't remember the score but it was something like 100+ to 60+.  

I took over 90 pictures but very few came out - Too dark and too fast.  I got a lot of great pictures of blur but that was about it.

I scored a cool O.R.G. t-shirt for my collection.

Going into this I fully expected that the Wife would recognize one of her students, something that seems to happen often.  I was close.  Turns out one of the North Star Supernovas is a friend  of the GodSon and Altar Boy.  The Wife had met her before when she was something like 14 years old. 

We wouldn't have known this at the time but I posted a Facebook status update saying we were going to the roller derby which apparently initiated a flurry of phone calls in the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area.  Next thing you know the Matron of Honor is calling us to tell us that a friend was on the North Star Team.  Turns out that Stalker Channing, (#V) was an alternate and didn't take the rink but we did manage to say our hellos after the match.  Actually, she saw us as we approached and asked "Are you [the GodSon's] cousins?"  The miracle of Facebook.

I foresee more derby in the future for us.

Photograph: Rows

"Rows"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: Sunrise 2009-02-20

I've been a little lacking in the posting department lately so I think I'll start posting pictures.

"Sunrise 2009-02-20"
by Bruce H.

Oscar's Shorts

Every year I watch the Oscars and every year I hear the nominees for best short film (animated and live action ).  As I've watched this, I always wondered where you had to go to see these short films.  This year I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Ruth Sokolof theater was showing compilations of all the Oscar nominated short films.

Each compilation was between 95 and 100 minutes long.  The longest short (... heh ...) was thirty minutes long with the average one being around thirteen minutes long.  The animated shorts were generally funny though a couple were of the serious, but preachy, subject of environmentalism (one actually had the main character hug a tree - not very subtle).  I liked "This Way Up", a British short about two undertakers attempting to get to a cemetery.  The Wife liked a Russian short name "Lavatory-Lovestory" which was pretty good.

The live action shorts were often more serious with subjects like mistakes made, racism, and antisemitism though some were humorous.  I liked "New Boy", an Irish film about a student's first day at school.  The Wife like this one as well as one called "The Pig".  The Pig was interesting but I didn't like it as much.

In general, I have to say that I was a little unsure about the shorts.  I was the one whose suggested to the Wife that we go see them but I had my doubts.  I've never been fond of short story anthologies (print short stories).  Either the stories don't make sense or they end right when they are getting interesting.  I speculated to myself that television has shortened my attention span so much that these visual shorts would work for me but that was not true.  Visual shorts are as unsatisfying to me as print short stories.  I enjoyed the shorts and I don't regret going but I was left a little wanting.

One last thing about our trip to the theater.  After buying our tickets we went up to the snack counter and bought our movie treats.  Upon seeing my bottle of Root Beer and Box of Dots, the Wife commented that my selection sounded like that of a 5 year old little boy.  I looked at her Bag of Pop Corn and Diet Coke and said "at least my selection doesn't look like the selection of a generic white woman."  We all got a chuckle out of that.  My selection was a 5 year old little boy's and I'm proud of it.

Happy Valentines Day