En Garde...

Riley and her friend Wyatt (who Olivia calls Quiet) wanted to take fencing lessons. It's pretty cool because their coach is a Master of Sport in USSR, former Ukraine National Coach, and coached a Jr. Fencing World Championship team. Not too shabby, eh? He has a very thick accent and the kids understand him MOST of the time. Hehe.


Tuesday was the last day of this round of classes and they got to use the foils that are hooked up to a score keeping doo-hickey. It was really fun to watch, though like a ding-dong I took pictures from the wrong side so all you see is Riley's back.


Riley and I also had a good time practicing Tuesday with a toy Pirates of the Caribbean sword and a vaccuum extention. I got cracked on the knuckles really good a few times, but it was still fun.

Riley is on the left.

Yes, I know she looks a bit like a one-eyed pirate here, but she actually smiled without being asked!

Live long and prosper

We saw the new Star Trek movie tonight with our friends Kevin & Jen. Now... I'm not what you'd call a Trekkie. I mean I did watch several episodes back in the 70's, and so did you! Don't lie! But I've never watched any of the movies and you couldn't have paid me to watch a bare-chested poofy haired Ricardo Montalban in "The Wrath of Khan". Some people should have just stuck to Fantasy Island and rich Corinthian leather, but I digress.

So, back to the latest Trek movie, which by the way had my man Karl Urban in it sporting a totally dorky hairdo and doing an awesome job of playing Dr. McCoy (Bones). Best line: "Dammit Spock! I'm a doctor not a physicist!"

Another plus is that for the first time I could ACTUALLY believe that Kirk was a sexy womanizing hottie... I mean seriously.. do you remember the old TV show?

Here... you be the judge... is there really any question here?

There were many homages to the old TV show that were great. They picked the perfect cast, and the moment they began to play the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" in the first part of the movie, I knew it was going to be awesome. They also incorporated a lot of the classic music from the TV show into the movie (if you've seen Jim Carey in the movie The Cable Guy, battling at Medieval Times you'll know what music I'm referring to.. watch below).

YouTube - cable guy immense

This movie was funny and action packed from beginning to end. We didn't even touch our treats, that should tell you a lot. No clip at the end of the credits, so you don't need to bother hanging around.

I give it an 'A', despite the fact that you'll be watching it in a theater full of nerds that clap and cheer at certain points in the movie.

Oh... and I'm sure all the guys want to know... yes... there IS a green chick in the movie.

The horror!!!!

Tonight Riley came running into the TV room, "Mom! There's some creepy animal in my window well! Come listen!" So I ran in there and we listened and sure enough after a minute I heard a distinct and loud chittering/chirpy sound. It was obviously coming right from the other side of the glass. So we ran upstairs and made Matt come down to listen. Sure enough he heard it too. He thought it was probably a bird or something, but I was imagining all sorts of crazy woodland creatures, opossums, raccoons, etc. and in my imagination they were just waiting to leap at my face!
We decided to get flashlights and sneak up on it from outside, because of course that would be more dramatic and more scary. So all three of us crept around the side of the house and quickly shined our lights down into the window well!! AAAAUGH!
It was a giant snail... It was slowly sliming it's way down the window and as it crept, it's shell would rub on the glass making a strange chirping noise.
So if you ever want to scare someone, just stick a big snail on a rain soaked window late at night. It's terrifying!