vacation?

I'm still on vacation today so I stayed home and answered a few dozen work emails and didn't go anywhere. Very tired. Read a bit. Had  hoped to read Douglas Coupland's new book "Player One", which he read out loud in five, one-hour lectures, during this trip. I didn't find five hours of quiet so am still working on it. Paul and I watched Tim Burton's "Batman" (on my new tv). Looks good but it hasn't held up as well as I thought it did.

portrait of my brain

This isn't really my brain, it just feels that way. I had a headache all night that kept me from sleeping. This morning William asked if we could watch "Alice in Wonderland" which I bought a couple of weeks ago but haven't opened yet. I was quite certain that he didn't want to watch it, being potentially creepy, so I gladly agreed. I quite enjoyed it and so did William. He wanted to re-watch the Mad Hatter scenes. My headache persisted but discovered that it was less when I was sitting upright so I slept in a chair all afternoon. This image is a photo Margaret took yesterday while working at Gerda's on paper making. It is by Gerry Ann Siwek: image of bunny from handmade paper with inclusions.

movie night

Internet is really slow this weekend, putting me out of the mood to do things like this blog. I can't believe computers are getting slower every year, perhaps someone should write a book about that.
Academy Awards were tonight. I won a nice pot of cash at the party that Margaret went to while I stayed home with William. They say I'm not allowed to win next year if I don't attend, but I'm pretty certain they said that last year. Margaret went dressed as Julia Child. William and I watched Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks". I think he was a bit freaked out a few times but stuck with it. He is starting to appreciate the thrill of getting scared. Yesterday his friend T., whom we invited for a couple of long play dates due to her sister needing surgery on her broken leg, directed William to a site called scary maze game that concludes with a big shock (you've got to have the sound on your computer turned up loud for full effect) and now the difference between fear and shock is foremost in his mind. We've taught him that the most scary things in a movie are created in your imagination, not on the screen. This was really the case in Mars Attacks. The scariest part was the alien disguised as a beautiful human woman but you don't know when or how it is going to attack.

Sweeny Todd

Busy day, morning filled with shooting (and some re-shooting) kinescopes with Eric, and in the afternoon I had an End of Life research group meeting. Margaret worked until nine up a Sherwood so William and I packed supper and took it up there and we had a picnic. I didn't sleep well last night so by seven I was wrecked and needed a nap while William played Lego. Later while William was reading another of his Magic Tree House books (I think he's on #23) I finished volume 1 of my Popeye comic collection (1928-1930) which is amazing for the long strange story it told (20 months on the same story). After William was in bed I finally watched Sweeny Todd (which I bought the day it came out but didn't open until today.) Amazing Burton as always, I'm surprised at how daringly conservative he was with his camera, it is often locked down and doesn't move a hair (I've become highly annoyed at the constant adjusting of the frame most films have, cinematographers do it out of habit now).

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Another thing that William was really excited about, when trips to Mexico aren't exciting enough, was coming home to find that Paul had built a Lego castle with a drawbridge, just like William wanted.

Speaking of Lego, two packages arrived for us from Lego today containing replacements for all of the broken Bionicle parts that we've had, no charge. I was feeling rotten today. We needed groceries this morning (about $370 worth plus a run down to HMV to get the 2 disc "Sweeney Todd") and by the time those were put away and we'd eaten lunch, I was certain I was sick. I had booked the afternoon to do some writing, which I'd looked forward to, but couldn't get off the couch. I napped for a couple of hours then pulled myself up and to the computer where all I could muster was a couple of backlog Blogs (I should have the entire last week posted later tonight). Then I went to pick up William and the walk in the fresh air felt great - I had just been tired! Margaret worked all afternoon and evening so William and I watched some Munsters and he just got finished looking at castle Lego on their website (the music for the castle series on the Lego site is much more annoying that their other sets).