Hannah's First Movie

Sorry this has taken so long to get posted. I have a few pictures that I would have liked to add to this post, but I'm having trouble getting pics off my camera right now. The computer's on it last legs, I'm afraid. I was hoping to find a way to get the pics on here, but I've given up for now.

Last weekend -- like, not this past weekend, but the weekend before that, Christy's parents paid us a visit. They were returning from a cross-country driving trip and stopped here before returning home to Michigan. They had driven out to California for a family wedding and to visit Christy's brother, Andrew and his family. It sounds like they had a good trip. They were able to take things at their own pace. They only travelled during daylight hours so that they could see the country. When they got tired, they slept; when they got hungy . . . they ate. Just like Forrest Gump!

Friday night, we all went to The Cinema Grill in Indianapolis and saw Because Of Winn-Dixie. This was Hannah's first theatrical movie experience. I was a little nervous about taking a three-year-old to a movie, but she did really well. She just ate her food and watched the show. She talked very little, but seemed to understand that when she did, that she needed to whisper. She had to go "potty" once, but that's to be expected I guess. Overall, a very good "first movie" experience, though, she'll forever be confused when she goes to normal cinemas wondering why there are no tables and why nobody's coming to ask her what she would like to eat!

On the way home, we stopped at a Cold Stone Creamery. I highly recommend their Breathless Bostom Cream Pie. I have them make it with their Cake Batter Ice Cream, though. Yummy!

We had big plans Saturday to go to the Indianapolis Zoo for the morning. Luckily, Christy's Dad heard about the Mini-Marathon happening in Indianapolis Saturday Morning. A quick call to the Zoo confirmed that the only access road to the Zoo would be closed until the afternoon. Blast!

After Christy's parents left to make their final stop in Ohio before returning home, we went to my Parents' house for Mother's Day, a day early. Hannah helped Grandpa plant his garden.

Turned out nice that we didn't have to travel on Mother's day. We were able to relax a little bit.

Films Recently Watched:

Priming for Episode III on Wednesday night/Thursday morning:
Star Wars: Episode II - The Attack of the Clones (2002) dir. by George Lucas
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) dir. by George Lucas

Ice Age (2002) dir. by Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha

Catching up on my, 'Dennis Quaid saves the day against all odds' films (if only I could have found The Alamo, it could have been a triple-feature -- oh well):
The Flight of the Phoenix (2004) dir. by John Moore
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) dir. by Roland Emmerich

The Third Man (1949) dir. by Carol Reed

Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time (1998) (TV) dir. by Marty Callner
OK, so it's not a film. Very funny, though. I was laughing uncontrollably through a couple of bits. It's been a long time since I've laughed so hard.

That Funny Feeling (1965) dir. by Richard Thorpe
After seeing the Bobby Darin biopic, Beyond The Sea and also after seeing his character featured on an episode of American Dreams (we did finish Season One of this excellent television series, by the way), we were kind of interested in seeing a movie that starred the real life Bobby Darin, so I picked up this DVD from the library. Starring both Bobby Darin and his real life wife, Sandra Dee,

Apart from a desire to see Bobby Darin and/or Sandra Dee on screen together, do yourself a favor and watch Billy Wilder's similar, but far superior, The Apartment, instead.

Because Of Winn-Dixie (2005) dir. by Wayne Wang
Cute, but mostly uninspired.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) dir. by Stanley Kubrick

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (Extended) - dir. by Peter Jackson
Again, found the extended edition at the library. In my opinion, this is the weakest of the three films. This time, the extended edition does little to improve on the theatrical release. My favorite added scene, though, is Faramir's flashback to Boromir's re-taking of Osgiliath and the interaction between Boromir, Faramir and Denethor there. The content of that scene influences events in both the first and third films in this trilogy.