Movies.... and stuff

Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005
4:24 PM

One more step completed to be ready for the arrival of the little person - the car seat has been officially installed and inspected by Officer Brathwaite of the Herndon Police (nice guy, by the way). I'm not sure why this seems so monumental to me, but I guess if I go into labor early, we'll at least be able to bring the baby home. We don't have anywhere for him/her to sleep, just yet, seeing as how the crib is still in a box in the garage, but we'd manage if that was the case. We've been trying to find some time to put the thing together but last weekend completely slipped away from us and this week is just as busy. Wendy, I promise you'll get your pictures sometime soon.

We did have a nice weekend, or at least the first half of it for both of us. (The second half was fine for me but involved much schoolwork for Kevin, thus not especially pleasant.) We had a leisurely breakfast at the Bagel Cafe but left when it got rather crowded and noisy. (Note to self: Avoid Bagel Cafe on Saturday mornings in December. Check.)

Then we went to see The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, one of my all-time favorite childhood books. I have no idea how many times I've read it. Anyway, I really liked the movie, thought it was very well done, except for a few minor quibbles. Overall the filmmakers were pretty faithful to the book, but there were some things left out and a few others added in. Nothing that changed the story dramatically, but I felt that they added in some scenes just to punch up the action, and that made me feel a little crotchety. At one point I found myself thinking, "Hey! That's NOT in the book!" But only once or twice and it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the movie.

The bigger thing for me was the White Witch - she really didn't do it for me. I hated all of her costumes (what's with the dreads?!) and didn't really get a sense of true evil from her. Even in the beginning when she's being nice to Edmund, she should still be very haughty and cold and I didn't think the actress pulled that off all that well. Also, this may be too nitpicky, but she should have had blue eyes, not brown. How can you be an ice queen with brown eyes?? (No offense to any brown-eyed people - it just didn't work for me in the character.)

On the plus side, I thought all of the children were very good and I was basically OK with Liam Neeson as Aslan. I would have preferred James Earl Jones, but Kevin reminded me about the whole Lion King thing so that probably wouldn't have worked. The Beavers were fantastic, exactly as I imagined them. Definitely see the movie if you liked the Narnia books as a kid (or as an adult!).

Sunday I went with LauraSiobhan and Shannon to go see HP4 - I'd already seen it but they hadn't and I was willing to go again. It seemed like the movie went by faster the second time. I picked up on a few things that I'd missed the first time, so that's always good. And Laura, who totally rocks, brought us dark chocolate and pre-peeled Clementine oranges to snack on.

This seems to be the season of movies for me/us - we don't go very often, but we've been to more than usual lately, and there are others we want to see. I want to see Memoirs of a Geisha when it comes out and Kevin wants to see Syriana which we've heard is really good. I saw a poster at the theater Saturday for a movie coming next spring (I think) for Tristan and Isolde. I am not sure whether to have high hopes for that one or not - could be good, could be Hollywood "medieval" crap. Hard to say from just one poster, will have to search for more info on it.

In other news, I've finished my dad's sweater for Christmas. Woohoo! I still need to block it, but will get to that in the next few days. I also finished a pair of baby socks that were a pain in the ass but turned out reasonably OK. I think they may be too big for a newborn, but obviously the kid will grow into them! I hope it is still cold enough to wear wool socks when that happens.

I ought to go work on the present I'm making for my mom - a quilt motif mosaic. I've been playing with my wet saw, cutting up some tiles for that, which has been fun. I'm not a huge power tool fan, but this has been handy. I really needed to cut these ceramic tiles to very specific sizes and shapes, and I didn't trust my hand tools to be that precise. I really need to get cracking on this, but since I've the design drawn out already, once I get the tiles cut it shouldn't take too long. A bit more Christmas shopping/projecting to do and then we'll be done.

Maybe I can get a few tiles placed if I get off my butt and turn the computer off. Ciao!