Mommy Brain

Another busy day, another very late link post. We’re getting into our school routine, which is nice. I’m reading a fantastic book aloud to the kids called The Penderwicks - I highly recommend it. We’re almost done, and I think we’ll start The Mysterious Benedict Society next.

We don’t have plans for the weekend. Some cleaning up tomorrow, maybe a trip to the pool. Church on Sunday, and then the Seahawks play their first official game of the season, so you’ll find me planted firmly in front of the television. Go, ‘Hawks!

~ You may not recognize Don LaFontaine by name, but I’m sure you would recognize his voice. If you’ve ever seen a movie trailer in which the voice over announcer says, “In a world….” - chances are that was Don LaFontaine. He passed away this week at age 68. Movie trailers just won’t be the same.

~ Remember the video I posted last week about the cell phones popping popcorn - the one that turned out to be a hoax? Here’s how - and why - they did it.

~ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite reads from this year - and now you can read it for free!

~ Who caught the Bones premiere this week? We had to record it and watch it a day late, since the kids have to be picked up from Awana at 8 on Wednesdays. And, I loved it! Agent Booth and Great Britain - two of my favorite things - in one episode! So good. Spoiler alert - scroll down a couple lines if you don’t want it spoiled for you! Except for the Angela/Hodgins break-up. Why did they have to go and do that? Anyway, if you enjoy David Boreanaz, EW has him answering 17 pop culture questions.

~ Still bummed about the postponement of the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Here’s a video of Daniel Radcliffe appearing on Conan O’Brien to help tide you over.

~ My Friend Amy is hosting Book Blogger Appreciation Week - and that means some awards given out for favorite book blogs. Head over to this post and vote for your favorites. Get details on how to register for all the fun here.

~ The Dharma Initiative is looking for new recruits - click over to take their screening test.

~ Speaking of hit television shows (Yes, we were, honest. If you’re a little lost, let me know in the comments. ), Anthony Edwards is due to reprise his role as Dr. Mark Greene on ER in an episode this November - in flashbacks, of course.

Thank you so much for all your insightful comments on my previous post about the presidential election. I am at least convinced that I will definitely be voting in November. That said, I’m still not sure who I’ll be voting for! I’ll continue my research and reading and thinking and discussing and praying and make a decision before I mark my ballot. Along those lines, I’ll be including links every Friday that I have read and that are helping me make my decision.

~ FactCheck.org is a great place to check the facts on speeches, interviews, and campaign ads. You can subscribe to their RSS feed and get updates sent to your Bloglines, Google Reader, or other RSS reader account. Thanks to Sarah at The Mommylogues for pointing it out to me.

~ Speaking of facts, check this list of talking points in the Republican Convention speeches that misrepresented or stretched the truth. And, here’s the fact check list for the Democratic Convention. It’s kind of disheartening to see how much both sides of the political fence exaggerate or dissemble in order to gain poll points.

~ At VoteSmart.org, you can check each candidate’s voting record while they served in Congress. Here’s Barack Obama’s voting record. Here’s John McCain’s voting record.

~ Crunchy Con tells why one soldier, currently serving in Iraq, won’t be voting for John McCain.

~ According to the Presurfer, it’s not McCain/Palin, it’s Tigh/Roslin. (This is not a site I normally read, so please don’t hold me accountable for anything else you might find there.)

~ If you’re reading this before midnight PST on Friday, September 5th, there’s still time to enter to win a copy of Guernica by Dave Boling.

Have a great weekend!

I think I’m recovered from our day-long Silverwood extravaganza. Did I mention that we left at 8:30 am and didn’t return until 10 pm? I’m looking forward to Tuesday, which - in spite of being our fifth day of school - will feel like our first day of school and life will begin to return to normal. Whatever that is.

Lots of exciting things happening in the news lately. Obama gives a darn good speech; McCain announces a surprise VP pick. And me? I’m still ambivalent about the whole thing. I’m musing over a post - that will probably be very long - about the whole presidential thing. Probably sometime this week, if I find the time to get the thoughts out of my head and into some kind of organized format.

But, for now, I promised you links - and do I have a bunch!

~ Entertainment Weekly counts down their top 25 Sci-Fi movies and TV series since 1982.

~ Speaking of sci-fi, Battlestar Galactica may be ending, but there are two projects in the planning stages that will continue the franchise.

~ Don’t Try This At Home has posted another hilarious video for her Sunday YouTube, called “Things You Don’t Say to Your Wife.”

~ Regardless of how you feel about either presidential candidate, I think this ad that McCain ran on the night Obama received the nomination was pretty classy.

~ For all of you fellow homeschooling moms who are beginning another year, I give you I Will Survive.

~ Any fans of Nathan Fillion from Firefly? He’s set to appear in a midseason series on ABC.

~ Update: Angie Hunt just commented to let me know that this video is a hoax. Sure looked real! I’m not a big fan of cell phones. Yes, I have one, and I use it very rarely - maybe twice a week. It’s simply a tool for emergencies or cases when I must reach someone and I’m not near a phone. I prepay for my minutes, so I don’t chat away on it. I don’t even know how to send a text message. I think a lot of people are very rude in how they use their cell phones - an opinion that was reinforced at a recent playdate at the park when one of the other moms proceeded to text message her teenage daughter and her mother for the entire hour she was there. She then stood up and informed the rest of us that she had lots to do and had to be going. Sigh. Anyway, this video reinforces my reasoning for not using my cell phone very often - and for not buying one for my tween daughter. It’s frankly a little scary. Hat tip: Angela Hunt.

~ Time has an amazing photo gallery from the Olympics. Some of the pictures are truly stunning.

~ Note to self: If ever in Japan, avoid the trains. Shudder.

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Review of Half-*ssed: A Weight-Loss Memoir

~ Review of The Devil’s Arithmetic

~ Reading Questionnaire

~ Teaser Tuesday

~ The Sunday Salon

~ Review of The Cross-Time Engineer

~ And, there is still time to enter to win Guernica

Well, we had a little excitement in our neck of the woods yesterday. Winds that were 55 to 60 miles per hour hit our town. We were lucky - we still have power, and we don’t have any trees down in our yard. Others weren’t that lucky - including our city park, where a few trees were uprooted by the wind. Here are some pictures, if you’re interested - click on slideshow.

While the winds were dying down, and our husbands had the kids at Tae Kwon Do, Michelle and I went to see The Incredible Hulk. Not the usual chick flick for a girls’ night out - in fact, I think we might have been the only women there who weren’t accompanying children of the male gender. But, we both needed a night out, and we both like Edward Norton, so…

No big plans for the weekend, other than sending my only daughter off to sleep-away camp for the first time. Sniff. Any of you done this before? How do you not worry?

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Thoughts on the film Into the Wild.

~ Review of Booked to Die, the first of the Cliff “Bookman” Janeway mysteries.

Other links:

~ Anyone else excited about TNT’s The Closer returning Monday night? Here’s an interview with Kyra Sedgewick.

~ William-Adolphe Bouguereau is an incredible artist - I love his paintings of children:

~ I may not agree with Christopher Hitchen’s views on religion, but this article he wrote for Vanity Fair about the interrogation practice of water-boarding is chilling. He agreed to undergo the procedure for research - but be warned: the video is disturbing.

~ On a completely unrelated and much lighter note - I scored 15 out of 20 on this Candy Bar Identification Quiz. Not sure if I should be proud of that, however.

~ This video of a new instrument called an Air Piano is pretty cool.

~ Stephen King’s advice to aspiring writers.

~ A scene from the BBC’s Black Books about responding to a rejection letter from a publisher. Hilarious!

Have a great weekend!

Happy July, everyone! Can you believe that June is over? It went very, very fast - mostly because we were so incredibly busy.

Any plans for Independence Day? We’re heading to Mom and Dad’s for the day. Dad’s got some leftover pre-cut catamarans from camp, so the kids are going to make cool wooden sailboats, and then we’re going to head to Chewelah park to float them in the creek. We’ll have chicken and potato salad for dinner, and then celebrate my sister Marni’s birthday. Her 29th - my baby sister is turning 29! How did that happen?

We’ll spend Saturday with them, too, celebrating Dad’s 60th birthday. Then Marni and Hans and the boys will spend Sunday and Monday saying their goodbyes to Hans’ parents. Tuesday morning, we will say our goodbyes. Sniff. They will be leaving for St. Louis at the end of the month, but with gas prices the way they are, Marni needing to get their apartment packed up, Natalie’s Bible camp in the middle of the month, and us leaving on the 27th for our trip to the Oregon Coast, we won’t be able to see them before then.

Well, I refuse to think about that until I have to. Here are some links for your Independence Day weekend:

~ If you love words as much as I do, you’ll love Visuwords. Type in any word, and watch what it does with it!

~ Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? is giving away up to five prize packages - each one containing 14 books!

~ There’s another book giveaway at The Tome Traveller.

~ Quantum of Solace, the next Bond movie starring (the yummy) Daniel Craig, opens on my birthday, November 7th - here’s the trailer.

~ Joss Whedon, of Firefly and Serenity brilliance, is presenting Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog, a 42-minute web-musical that will be presented in three 14 minute episodes. It stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, from Firefly. Part one will go live on July 15th, part two on the 17th, and part three on the 19th. It will remain online until midnight the 20th, with a probable DVD release after that, but while it’s online, it’s free.

~ Didn’t this already happen in an animated children’s film?

~ Anyone else looking forward to Mamma Mia? Here’s the trailer.

~ Feeling apathetic about the upcoming presidential election? The Onion has created a video to help those who couldn’t care less. It’s satire, of course - don’t want to get any comments reminding me how important it is to do my civic duty.

~ Author Dennis Cass presents Book Launch 2.0.

~ Why does everyone hate homeschooling moms?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return. (emphasis mine)

Here’s what I’ve been blogging at Books and Movies this week:

~ An Incomplete Education

~ Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables

~ The Bucket List

~ Kung Fu Panda

Head over to Books and Movies and tell me which TV character you would date - in the hypothetical, if you were single, and if it were possible to date a character from a TV program sense of the word “date” - and see who my picks are.

How was your week? Mine was busy. Let’s see: two trips to the pool, two trips to the library, one trip to Wal-mart, one orthodontist appointment, minus one boy for a sleepover, plus one girl for a sleepover, one evening out to dinner spending a little bit of our tax stimulus check, rain and cooler temperatures than we’re used to for June. (But at least it didn’t snow!) Oh, and I discovered that Supernatural is a much too scary show to watch; it causes nightmares. Even in grown women. It might even - hypothetically - cause them to sleep with the light on.

Our weekend is shaping up like this: head to Mom and Dad’s tomorrow night to celebrate an early Father’s Day since Dad has to leave Sunday afternoon to be a counselor at Royal Family Kids Camp (did I mention my Dad is awesome?), take the kids to the rodeo on Saturday, and celebrate Dad’s day with Kevin on Sunday. And next week I will put on my chauffeur cap as I ferry Nan and her friend back and forth to basketball camp every day. Phew!

~ Here are some good book suggestions for the men - or teenaged boys - in your life.

~ Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con had the same thoughts I did when I heard about John McCain’s plans for Mars:

I know it’s obligatory for American politicians to come up with new goals in the space race. It’s also obligatory to tell people who criticize this kind of thing that they’re a bunch of plodders who have no sense of adventure, and who fail to honor something deep in the human spirit.

But you know what? Plodder that I am, I don’t want this country to put a thin dime toward sending a man to Mars until we have figured out what to do about the long-term energy crisis in this country. I know, I know, you could substitute any cause you want to for space exploration (How can we send a man to the moon when there are people going without health care?!, etc.). But get this: oil just closed today a smidge shy of $140 a barrel — up over $10 in a single day. Biggest one-day jump ever.

~ Hopewell Takes on Life has some well-spoken words about trying to be the perfect Christian mother.

~ This amazing baby was born twice.

~ Are you an Overachieving Homeschooler? Take this quiz and find out. I scored a 29. I’m not an overachiever anymore.

~ What do you get when you cross a Rube Goldberg machine and a Cadbury Creme Egg? This. Hat tip: Don’t Try It At Home.

~ Ever felt like The Invisible Woman? Then this video is for you.

~ Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the worst book, movie, and TV endings.

~ If that list isn’t long enough to keep you busy, there’s a whole ‘nother list (with different links) at Books and Movies.

Have a great weekend!

…to movies, books, and TV programs. That’s what I’m discussing at Books and Movies today.

I’m blogging about it at Books and Movies. (9 pm to 11pm PST) Update: Oh. my. gosh. What a finale!

Which cancelled programs do you miss the most? That’s what I’m talking about here today.

Well, they didn’t accept our offer on that house. Actually, they countered our offer with the stipulation that we list our house with a realtor if we didn’t have a signed purchase agreement within two weeks. We want to give it more time before we decide to give thousands of dollars to a realtor - thousands of dollars that could pay off my “new” van and some other debts so that we can afford the bigger house. So, we let the offer expire, trusting that if that’s the house for us, it will still be available when we do have a signed offer on ours. And if not, there must be another one out there, right?

We survived the weekend with our nephews. Actually, it went really well, and was much easier this year since Andrew is now potty-trained. They all got along fine, except for the typical meltdown once Mommy had picked them up. Isn’t that always how it goes?

This will be a quiet weekend before another busy one, when we’ll be watching Michelle and Don’s boys so they can have some away time. Of course, it will be a gaming weekend. If it’s anything like last year, the boys will surface long enough to eat and sleep and I’ll have lots of hours to read. If it’s nice, I’ll be really mean and force them to get some fresh air in there, too.

Other big news: Natalie is going to sleep-away Bible camp for the first time this year. She’s going with one of her best friends in July. It’s reasonably-priced, not too long of a drive to drop off and pick up (about 3 hours), and comes highly recommended by friends from church. So. I’m trying not to think about the fact that, at age 11, she is more than ready for this. I’m trying not to think about five days with her away from home. She’s been gone that long once before, but she was with my parents, so while I missed her, I didn’t worry. And I’m promising myself I won’t worry this time, either. Snort.

Lots of links to share with you this week:

~ Ellen Page is set to play Jane Eyre in a big screen adaptation. Hmmm. I loved her in Juno, but I’m not sure what I think of this. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, though.

~ Angela Hunt at A Life in Pages linked to this harrowing, death-defying video. Don’t watch if you have a problem with heights.

~ Any Firefly fans out there? Kevin and I love it, and just recently watched the complete series on DVD all over again. I get angry every time when I think of how the creator, Joss Whedon, and the cast were treated by Fox - and by how it was prematurely cancelled before it was given a chance. Grrr. Well, apparently, Whedon is ready to give the network another try, and his Dollhouse is set to premiere on Fox in January. The trailer looks intriguing.

~ If you’re expecting, Chronicle Books is having a Nursery Sweepstakes.

~ Don’t forget to enter my book giveaway.

I’m blogging the Bones and House finales at Books and Movies tonight, if you’re interested.

(Avatar: Book 3: Fire - Volume 3 was provided to me by Special Ops Media for the purpose of review.)

Avatar was a show (along with Spongebob Squarepants) that the kids were disappointed to miss when we gave up satellite TV. And, unlike Spongebob, I actually like this program, too.

According to Wikipedia:

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world, home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations—the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Within each nation exists an order called “Benders” who have the ability to manipulate their native element. These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and elemental mysticism. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

There is a bit of Eastern mysticism in this series, but because it takes place in a fantasy realm with magic creatures, the idea of religion isn’t an issue, as far as I’m concerned. The kids just think it’s a great adventure, and are rooting for Ang to to beat the Fire Nation - and for Ang to finally kiss Katara.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book 3: Fire - Volume 3) contains these episodes:

~ The Day of the Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse

~ The Western Air Temple

~ The Firebending Masters

~ The Boiling Rock, Part 1

~ The Boiling Rock, Part 2

The synopsis on the back:

The eclipse has come but where is the Firelord? Aang searches frantically for him, but finds trouble instead. The kids are forced to flee the Fire Nation Palace with Azula and her war ships hot on their heels. At the Western Air Temple , a surprise mentor joins them and offers to be Aang’s Firebending teacher and together the new team must figure out a way to get Aang back in the fight.

The DVD also includes an exclusive Avatar comic book. It is available tomorrow, May 6th.

First, of all, I can’t believe that I forgot to draw the winners for the All-Girl Getaways Contest! Well, the really cool thing is that I am receiving five prize packages - each one includes a traveling toiletries bag and a free issue of Travelgirl Magazine - to give away, and I received exactly five comments. So, Lawanda, Laura, Brandi, Karen, and Crissy - you all win! Watch your e-mail inboxes; I’ll be contacting you for mailing info.

Now, onto the weekly wrapup and links. First of all, I finished Neverwhere last night. I’m not going to take the time to write a complete review, but I will just say that if you like fantasy, you have to read this book. I gave it a five-star rating, and I’m pretty stingy with those.

I’m planning to read some more modern and light stuff - my brain is still worn out from Anna Karenina! I started an ARC of The House at Midnight (link in sidebar) today - so far, so good. Oh, and another volume of poetry - What the Light Was Like by Luci Shaw. She was a close friend of Madeleine L’Engle’s, and they even wrote several books together, so I’m finding it interesting to read some of Ms. Shaw’s work so close after finishing Ms. L’Engle’s collected poetry.

We have another Tae Kwon Do promotion Saturday. Jonathan wasn’t quite ready to go for his green belt when the older two did, but he is now, so that’s how we’ll be spending Saturday morning. Then next weekend is Mother’s Day! Kevin said he wanted to take me out to brunch. I won’t argue with that.

Lost is on tonight - but not till 10pm, so I’ll have to record it to watch tomorrow. Any other Losties out there? If so, be sure to check out the weekly recaps at Semicolon and Rocks in My Dryer. Did any of you know that Henry Ian Cusick, who plays Desmond, played Jesus in the movie The Gospel of John?

I guess I’m done rambling for now. Here are some links to keep you busy:

~ 33 of the most intricate and realistic Lego creations. Hat tip: Moomin Light.

~ Here’s a new Book Blog community to check out.

~ Not on the Test - a YouTube video of Tom Chapin doing the song he wrote with John Forster to protest the lack of arts education in the public school system. Hat tip: Principled Discovery.

~ Don’t miss Katy at Fallible’s Statement of Belief. Very funny.

~ Sign your kids up for Brain Food’s Summer Reading Program. Hat tip: Semicolon.

~Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent is having another writing contest at her blog. The challenge is to write a complete short story in six words. Think it can’t be done? Check out the contest link for her example - by Ernest Hemingway.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Any other House and Bones fans out there? Weren’t last night’s episodes terrific? (Spoiler: If you are watching on DVD, and are a season behind, you’ll want to scroll down past the next two paragraphs.)

I loved how House had them all thinking he had neuro-syph and that the antibiotics were making him “nicer.” Also, I felt for the wife of the patient - the look on her face after he said, “I guess I don’t like catsup. I wonder what else I don’t like.” - that was heartbreaking.

And how precious were Bones and Booth with baby Andy? Bones trying to relate to him like a logical adult: “Elephants are not purple.” And then when she started to warm up: “Phalanges! Dancing phalanges!” Leading to her blowing a raspberry into his neck - after making sure no one was watching, of course. It was a great episode. I can’t believe we only have four more to go until we’re done for the summer. The writer’s strike sure took a bite out of the TV season!

We are not partaking of American Idol this season. I don’t miss it at all - which is strange, since I used to love watching it. I thought that last season’s singers were just “meh,” though. Then last May, the choice came down to the AI finale or the Lost finale. I chose Lost, and decided we were done with AI. Natalie was bummed at first, but she hasn’t said a word about it for months, so I guess she’s over it. She’s in a huge mystery phase, and is re-watching the DVDs of Monk in order. Gotta love Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix, Kevin and I discovered a great show. Anyone out there watch Psych? It’s a USA series; I think it runs right after Monk. It’s very funny - and I have loved Dule Hill ever since he played Charlie on West Wing.

I haven’t just been sitting around watching television, though, I’ve also been sitting around reading. Friday afternoon, after I finished Anna Karenina, I read The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health, which is a collection of 43 sonnets Jane Yolen wrote while her husband was undergoing radiation for a brain tumor. Every night during treatment, she wrote one sonnet before bed. They are heartbreaking, funny, poignant, and wonderful. When she finished the book, her husband David Stemple was still alive and had a good prognosis. I looked her up on Wikipedia and found that he later died - in 2006, I think. The book of sonnets was published in 2003. Highly recommended.

I also read Debra Ginsberg’s memoir About My Sisters this weekend. I have three sisters, like Ms. Ginsberg, and so much of it rang true, even though their family’s “style” is completely different from ours. Also recommended.

I am currently halfway through Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. You never know what you’re getting with a Gaiman book! The kids and I adored Coraline, even though it was by far the creepiest book we’d ever read aloud. I tried to read American Gods, and couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters - too bizarrely sexual. (Is bizarrely a word?) Michelle read Anansi Boys and said it wasn’t like that at all, which prompted me to listen to his Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders on audiobook. I don’t even know quite how to describe it. Some stories I liked very much, and you should definitely hear him read his poem “The Day the Saucers Came”. (The link is to a video of Neil Gaiman visiting Google to talk about Fragile Things. He reads the poem at the beginning of the video.) Some of the stories in Fragile Things were disturbing, others funny and fascinating, and a couple were downright horrific. He is the only author who should definitely perform the audiobooks of his own work - he is one of the best audiobook readers I’ve listened to, and I’ve listened to a bunch.

Anyway, back to Neverwhere, which I’m about halfway through, and absolutely loving. It’s fantasy, dark fantasy, but not horror. At least, not so far. He is a craftsman when it comes to words, and very funny. An example:

“Richard had noticed that events were cowards: they didn’t occur singly, but they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.”

That’s how last week felt. Blech.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough. Have any of you been watching or reading or listening to anything wonderful? Please share.

I haven’t posted much lately, have I? We’re in the middle of our toughest part of the school year: the stretch between spring break and summer break. Michelle homeschools four weeks on, one week off year-round (with a little bit longer break at Christmas and a two-week stretch in the summer), and during the school year I envy their week-long breaks. But now that spring is finally here, I’m very much looking forward to summer break. I got so much reading done last year during the summer! I’d take the kids and my books to the park, and let them run wild while I read the hours away.

And, there’s nothing that can make you look forward to summer break more than next year’s school books arriving on your doorstep. History and science for next year arrived today, and it’s crazy that I still get that little jolt of excitement as I look at the books and think that I can start planning soon!

Kevin has taken the kids to Tae Kwon Do, and Josiah is outside playing, so the house is quiet. (It’s wonderful.) I’m planning to pop Slings and Arrows: Season 1 into the DVD player and fold some laundry while I watch. I haven’t seen any of this series yet, but it comes highly recommended by Mrs. Mm-v.

Since this is still National Poetry Month, I thought I’d start you off with some poetry links.

~ YouTube has a ton of Billy Collins’ poems read to accompanying animation. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but the effect is wonderful. My favorites so far: Forgetfulness, Man in Space, The Country, and Sweet Talk.

~ The Telegraph has an article about the popularity and need for fantasy in our fiction.

~ This article confirms what I’ve been noticing as I shop for food in the past few months. It could be worse, though - as Kris pointed out.

~ MawBooks is having a book giveaway in honor of her 100th post. Click over for details.

~ There are still a couple days to enter the All Girls Getaway contest.

On Saturday, Josiah and I are headed south to Post Falls to visit Marni and Hans and their boys. Hans has graciously offered to watch the boys while Marni and I head to the theater to see Leatherheads. My sister and George Clooney all in one day - what could be better?

Have a great weekend, everyone.