I've recently watched Cloverfield and Michael Clayton and recommend both of them. Clovefield is a monster movie but its very well done, kind of like Godzilla from the street. It's filmed with a home camera and it can be kind of shaky at times; I've heard some people complain about motion sickness. But its a lot of fun.
Michael Clayton is a much slower paced drama but its very good. I enjoyed it, but there isn't any action and I'd advise against it if you are feeling sleepy
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
What a sight...
Oh the sight of the girls..they all had such a good time with each other. Taylor really misses Miku, and when she came up for her spring break, we got to play with Emma one night. She said that was one of her favorite parts of her visit.
I can't wait for her to come live with us.
This picture makes me laugh...with little Emma in Miku's sweater that is too big for her..trying to keep up.
J-Rod...how are your pictures coming along? I would really like to see them. =)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A Grim Commute
Yesterday my train hit somebody, undoubtedly a suicide. I sit in the front of the train and clearly heard (and kind of felt) the impact. The train didn't stop as fast as I would have expected but thinking back on it, it doesn't make sense to slam on the brakes. The person is already dead and no reason to risk injuring passengers or damaging the train.
I was close enough that I was able to go up to the front of the train and eavesdrop on the conductor giving reports. They were pretty fast in announcing to us what had happened, and people not in the first car probably didn't hear it. We were delayed for about 20 minutes while they settled things.
When I got off the train I couldn't resist looking at the front. There wasn't any gore. There were some broken headlights and the windshield was cracked pretty bad. The person had stood right between the tracks and hit the train right in the middle. There were some panels broken and caved in and I think they may have been designed that way. There is a cattle guard and the break-away panels would reduce gore and maybe even bounce the body off. They didn't end up under the train and oncoming trains weren't stopped, so the body was thrown clear.
It was a strange incident. The sound was very clear, kind of a deep metallic "SNAP!", kind of like a rock that hits a window but doesn't break it. It was clear that we'd hit something and the mind races, first think we hit a rock (but then we aren't derailed) or a car (but that would have been louder and there would have been a bigger crash/screeching metal), a bird or rock on the window (too small of a sound). I didn't feel bad, really, as I wasn't responsible or anything, but I felt a little more involved than if I'd just witnessed it. I suppose witnessing it would maybe be even harder to deal with; I didn't see anything.
Anyway, just a weird event that marked my day.
I was close enough that I was able to go up to the front of the train and eavesdrop on the conductor giving reports. They were pretty fast in announcing to us what had happened, and people not in the first car probably didn't hear it. We were delayed for about 20 minutes while they settled things.
When I got off the train I couldn't resist looking at the front. There wasn't any gore. There were some broken headlights and the windshield was cracked pretty bad. The person had stood right between the tracks and hit the train right in the middle. There were some panels broken and caved in and I think they may have been designed that way. There is a cattle guard and the break-away panels would reduce gore and maybe even bounce the body off. They didn't end up under the train and oncoming trains weren't stopped, so the body was thrown clear.
It was a strange incident. The sound was very clear, kind of a deep metallic "SNAP!", kind of like a rock that hits a window but doesn't break it. It was clear that we'd hit something and the mind races, first think we hit a rock (but then we aren't derailed) or a car (but that would have been louder and there would have been a bigger crash/screeching metal), a bird or rock on the window (too small of a sound). I didn't feel bad, really, as I wasn't responsible or anything, but I felt a little more involved than if I'd just witnessed it. I suppose witnessing it would maybe be even harder to deal with; I didn't see anything.
Anyway, just a weird event that marked my day.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Home improvement
We were very fortunate to discover that a friend of Yuzuru's family was getting rid of their old piano and were willing to give (that's right, GIVE) it to us. We had to pay for delivering and tuning/cleaning, but it's a nice machine. Miku loves to play the piano at her grandparents' houses and she play s it every day. I even was playing it the other night, reading from some music I printed out. Not concert quality, surely, but we had a good time.
This weekend is was in the mid-70s, just beautiful. Lots of chalk, barbecue, and fingerpaints int he Dora house. Yuzuru has given me 6 of 7 chapters, of which I'll proof this week. She hopefully will be done next weekend then. YAY!
This weekend is was in the mid-70s, just beautiful. Lots of chalk, barbecue, and fingerpaints int he Dora house. Yuzuru has given me 6 of 7 chapters, of which I'll proof this week. She hopefully will be done next weekend then. YAY!
Monday, April 14, 2008
"Do You Love....."
Emma was in the bath tonight playing with the green bubbles, not her favorite but better than nothing. We like to laugh and sing in the bath. One of Emma's favorite games is "Do You Love" we ask her if she loves someone and she always whispers back "yea"
This is how it went tonight in the bath.
"Do you love Daddy" instantly she responded with a soft "yea".
"Do you love Mommy" same thing "Yeeaa"
"Do you love Cassius", "Yea"
"Do you love Lewis" "Yea"
"Do you love Tigs" "Yea"
"Do you love Miku" "Yea" with a smile
"Do you love Uncle Jerrod" ".............."
"Do you love Uncle Jerrod" head down with no expression "mmmmyyea"
"Do you love Yuzuru" immediately "Yea"
and so on with everyone else that we know. I thought it was kind of funny.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Future partner at Chiro Health?
edit: There are so many funny lolcat pictures and I'm resisting putting more up, but this one has obvious relevance:
see more crazy cat pics
Monday, April 7, 2008
You all suck
Actually I include myself there too. We suck for not posting!
We're home and getting back into the swing of things. Miku had her first day of preschool yesterday. She was stoked to find that her first year teacher is also teaching her second year class. We marked her height on the wall before she left for school and she grew over 3 inches between the first day of first year and second year. 3 inches isn't all that much overall, I suppose, but when you are only 36 inches tall, it's pretty big!
I'm at school today, writing and printing syllabi and getting my office cleaned up. Yuzuru interviewed a new teacher for the Japanese school and is very close to finishing her dissertation.
The trail mix is all gone. I should have bought an extra box of those little packages. Sure glad I got those pistachios though. I fell asleep on the couch last night reading a back issue of Harper's and snacking on nuts after working all day.
We miss you all and are looking forward to getting back to see you as soon as we can.
I'll let you know when I get around to posting pictures and videos. In the meantime, you can post too. Tiggs, this means you!
We're home and getting back into the swing of things. Miku had her first day of preschool yesterday. She was stoked to find that her first year teacher is also teaching her second year class. We marked her height on the wall before she left for school and she grew over 3 inches between the first day of first year and second year. 3 inches isn't all that much overall, I suppose, but when you are only 36 inches tall, it's pretty big!
I'm at school today, writing and printing syllabi and getting my office cleaned up. Yuzuru interviewed a new teacher for the Japanese school and is very close to finishing her dissertation.
The trail mix is all gone. I should have bought an extra box of those little packages. Sure glad I got those pistachios though. I fell asleep on the couch last night reading a back issue of Harper's and snacking on nuts after working all day.
We miss you all and are looking forward to getting back to see you as soon as we can.
I'll let you know when I get around to posting pictures and videos. In the meantime, you can post too. Tiggs, this means you!
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