Barry’s Daily Web News

K-19: Widowmaker

Time for some movie reviews. The second movie of the weekend was K-19: Widowmaker. This movie was interesting, but maybe a tad too long. It’s about a Soviet nuclear-powered sub that has problems on it’s first time at sea. The movie set was very realistic (very similar to the Soviet sub we toured in St Petersburg, Fl). I wasn’t that impressed with Harrison Ford, but I thought that Liam Neeson performed well. I rate this movie a B.

Buy it.

Ice Age

The first movie of the weekend was Ice Age. This movie had an absolutely silly plot, and in my opinion, the story did not take advantage of the “ice age” them. They story is about a woolly mammoth, a sloth, and a sabre-tooth tiger who help a human (or is Neanderthal?) baby. However, the characterization was excellent, and this made the movie worth watching. In fact, I think they should have kept the three main characters, and started over with a different plot. I rate this movie a B.

Buy it.

Untitled Post

Today seemed to be more busy than the typical Sunday. Among other things, we had to straighten up the house for the maid service tomorrow. It was just two weeks ago that we had the thourough cleaning, but somehow the house didn’t take long to get cluttered again. Maybe it is just the Christmas season. With all of the Christmas stuff in the house, it is that much harder to find room for the normal stuff.

Untitled Post

We decorated the Christmas tree today. I put up the lights, and Cortney put on the ornaments. Sean tried to help out with both. He was a little too helpful, to the point where we couldn’t get anything done with him around. So, Cortney took Sean out with her to run some errands while I put up the lights, and I took Sean (with Ethan) to the park so Cortney could work on the ornaments. I hope to post a picture of the tree in the next day or two.

Untitled Post

Today was spent on Christmas activities. This morning, we went out to buy a Christmas tree. We had the tree home in no time at all, so the next item was to work on the outside lights. We have some net style lights that we throw over the front hedges, and this year, we have a lit Santa Claus to stand up in the yard. Sean was impressed. When the lights were on this evening, he said “pretty lights”. He also had fun with the Santa Claus. Later in the evening, we decided to go on a walk to see the neighborhood lights. We wondered why there were so many parties going on. All of the streets had cars parked on both sides. It turns out that tonight was the boat parade, on the lakes in the division next to us. This is where people decorate their boats with christmas lights. We caught the last half of the parade. Sean had fun pointing out all of the Christmas symbols. I thought it was interesting to see the people fold down their decorations to fit under the low bridges.

Untitled Post

In an attempt to get into the Christmas spirit, we all drove out to see a light display. We had to pay to see it, but the price was half off with a food donation. This was a winding path of lights that you drive your car to see. Most of the lights were standard Christmas trappings, but they had two tunnels with flashing lights that were neat. Sean enjoyed the lights, but Ethan thought the slow bumpy ride was the perfect opportunity to take a nap.

Untitled Post

Cortney took Sean to get his hair cut today. I’m surprised she even attempted that without my help, since she had to bring Ethan as well. Sean still screamed, but somehow they managed to get his hair cut.

Untitled Post

I was a little beat when I came home from work, and Ethan was a little cranky, so I let Ethan take a nap on my chest while I relaxed on the sofa. Cortney took Sean to the McDonald’s play area, so we had some nice quiet time. I guess even the cats thought we looked cozy, and they took turns nestling on my lap.

Untitled Post

For your amusement, checkout these optical illusions (found via Volokh Conspiracy).

Untitled Post

Cortney wanted a break when I came home from work, so I decided to take Sean and Ethan to the park. Cortney was already wearing the harness with Ethan in it, so with Cortney’s help, I put on the harness without taking Ethan out. Ethan didn’t mind; he didn’t even wake up. On the way to the park, Sean identified all of the Christmas lawn ornaments. Quite a few people have reindeers, Santa’s, and snowmen in their yards. Once we arrived, Sean had fun at the park. He learned a new trick. He now grabs hold of the bar above the top of the slide, and swings out over the slide. When his feet touch the platform again, then he drops and goes down the slide. I was actually glad to see him do this, as he has become tired of the monkey bars, and I want Sean to continue to work on his arm strength. We didn’t stay at the park as long as we normally do, since I was hungry and wanted to go home and eat. Sean was happy to go home once I told him I was making pasta. Pasta seems to be Sean’s fourth favorite food, behind chips, applesauce, and cookies.

Untitled Post

Ethan is two months old today!

Untitled Post

Sean has been getting up early the last few days, and I guess he caught up on his sleep with a long nap this afternoon. I tried waking him up, but he was sound asleep. He even slept through dinner. I was only able to get him up when I asked if he wanted to go to the library to play with the trains. He jumped up at that opportunity. In one of my goofier moments, I grabbed the wrong diaper when I went to change Sean after his nap. I tried to put one of Ethan’s size one diapers on Sean’s size six rear end. Needless to say, it didn’t fit very well. It took me longer to realize the wrong size that it normally would, since Sean had on long pants, and I didn’t want to completely remove the pants. Once Sean was up and dressed, he didn’t have any interest in all in eating dinner; he wanted to go straight to the library. I was happy to oblige, and I gathered up Ethan and all of the baby gear, and drove over. Sean played on the train table for close to two hours. Ethan alternated between looking at me and taking brief naps.

Untitled Post

The only thing Sean likes more than watching videos is watching videos of himself. Cortney put one of the short digital camera clips on a continous loop, and she was able to entertain Sean with it.

Men in Black II

We did see a movie this past weekend, Men in Black II. Not expecting much from this movie, I did find it to be enjoyable entertainment. Of course, the best acting in this movie was actually from a dog. I can’t say this movie was plot-less, but the plot only existed to allow the existence of the special effects, which weren’t too bad. Some people say this movie was a big let down from the first one, but I didn’t think the first movie was anything special, and so I didn’t see much difference between the two. I rate this movie a B-.

Buy it.

Untitled Post

I almost had Sean singing the ABC song. The trick seems to be that Sean is more likely to sing if he is dancing. When I put Sean down for the night, I told him “night-night”, and he said “night-night” right back at me.