almost a day off

While it is true that I was in at work at 8 am and spent most of the AM touring a group of Saskatoon high school students our department (they have a great media program up there and the teachers are very supportive of our program) and then met with Erik Sirke whom I just hired to help with some of my research projects over the next two months, and I did spent two hours this afternoon authoring a dvd of class projects, and I did work with my dad discussing taxes and the renovation rebate, I feel like my vacation has begun!!! William and I built Lego for much of the later afternoon and part of the evening (the part where we weren't watching Gilliam's Baron Munchhausen) restoring some of his Indiana Jones Lego. Ah, the pleasure of it all (actually I really need a back rub and my eyes are aching from trying to find specific black pieces from a cubic foot of random black pieces). Summer.

Time Bandits

We watched Gilliam's "Time Bandits" this evening. I have the great Criterion copy of it but haven't watched in in years. I tried to start it with William a year or so ago but the opening scene was to tense for him so we stopped it. This time he was totally into it. The few moments that were disquieting or confusing I reminded him that it was Terry Gilliam so he had to expect things to go wrong, and this satisfied him (recall that he has been loving the Gilliam animation from Monty Python for the past few months). We were delighted to find that the castle of ultimate darkness set at the end of the film was made of giant Lego, a detail I'd forgotten.

weekend

Last night I just couldn't blog. While Saturday morning was certainly a dad/son dream as William and I lounged on the couch in our pajamas and watched "Fist Full of Dollars", the afternoon turned more challenging as we ventured into the freezing air to see the "Ice and Fire" festival. Returning home, we had Steve from across the street over for supper. He brought smoked ribs and port roast and we consumed it in large portions with even larger portions of wine, sipping and talking until one AM. William didn't eat much and went to bed feeling sick (not from the supper, it started earlier, but some sort of stomach thing). Today was a bit more casual as William's stomach was more upset that ours (we were the ones to consume five bottles the night before, not him) so the day was spent at home. I built my Darth Vader tie fighter Lego set that William bought be for Christmas. This evening Kevin and I saw Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" which I thought was amazing. We didn't get much of a chance to talk afterward (he has painting prep waiting for him) but we talked briefly about the Devil character, cleverly played by Tom Waits and who, contrary to all of the hype around the Heath Ledger and his replacements, was really the show stealer.