Much Ado About Nothing

So Neil and I were channel surfing. We decided to get cable television service when we moved a month or so ago as we had been without any television since the rest of the world went digital back in June of '09. We had the service long enough to catch General Conference and to realize that we were quickly bogging down our children's minds with stupidity. Quite honestly, they do just fine on their own in that regard, they do not need outside help. So less than a month after subscribing, we cancelled our cable service. However, we had purchased a new television which has digital television capacity, meaning we can get the HD channels in the upper stratosphere of television offerings. Seriously, PBS is channel 103.5 and RTV is 7.2. We get the standard network channels, a couple of movie channels (ION and TBS), a smattering of shopping networks, and a few way, way off broadway cable access channels (MCTV and Pentagon). Needless to say, we have odd pickings particularly in th...

This movie version of a Neil Simon play is a fun, light-hearted comedy with great actors. Martin and Hawn star as a couple from Ohio going on a trip to New York. Share in their ride as they get re-routed, have their luggage lost, get mugged, attend a sex-a-holic group meeting, air their dirty laundry, and get put in jail - all in less than 24 hours. Martin and Hawn are joined at the hotel by John Cleese who plays the perfect brown-nosing, snooty concierge, born and bred in New York. This is an older movie so if you can't find it at the rental place, try your local library.

This furry adventure tells the tale (tail?) of a special force of agents pursuing a master-mind criminal. The agents are animals - rodents actually - who have special equipment which allows them to talk to and be understood by humans. Things get complicated when their infiltration comes with a few bugs (literally and figuratively) and the animal force gets shut down. The rodents want a second chance and have to fight through pet shop adoptions, garbage trucks, and appliances gone lethal. The movie includes a couple of unexpected twists - one that was actually just useless information and one that leaves you smacking your head for not seeing it coming. It's a cute movie but not one that you have to see in the theaters. Save your money until it comes out on DVD, or if you do want the theater experience, take the kids to the drive-in where prices are cheaper and you have the option of staying for a second movie.

Not having television has led to an influx of movie-watching. Luckily, we have access to a wonderful public library which doesn't charge to borrow movies (unless you return them late). I like Will Smith. He was funny in his television debut as the Fresh Prince and has matured into an excellent actor who has not allowed himself to be pigeon-holed into any given character. I don't like all of his movies, but the only ones I won't watch are those with an R rating. It took me two times watching Seven Pounds to get it all. Partly because it has a lot of subtle nuances and partly because I first tried watching it at 10 pm. I watch a lot of movies that way and not all of them get a second viewing. Some of them shouldn't have received a first viewing, but I digress. In a nutshell, Will's character, Ben Johnson, has the ability to seriously change the lives of 7 people, but it requires him sticking to the plan. The plan starts to go somewhat awry when he becomes emotionally ...

This was an unexpected movie. I picked it up because it stars Luke Wilson. This usually means a light-hearted comedy with some romance - perfect for a lazy Sunday evening. Well, romance was involved, but not as the main plot. Instead, Luke plays a man who is forced to deal with hope, faith, and miracles when he would much rather be left alone to die. Henry Poole moves to a small community close to where he lived as a boy. His childhood memories are not great - parents fought a lot and made homelife miserable. But he moves back to this neighborhood after being diagnosed with a fatal disease. He buys a home in need of repair but foregoes any negotiations on the price. The stucco work is completed even though he has requested nothing be done. A bad water stain appears to contain the face of Christ. Poole's neighbors experience their own miracles when they come to visit the stain, much to Poole's chagrin. And though he is witness to the miracles, he will not acknowledge th...

We had a carpet cleaning scheduled for this afternoon. They would clean two rooms so I chose the dining room and the master bedroom. They have the most carpet. The dining room was easy. We had cleaned it yesterday in time for scouts and it was still in a reasonable state of clutter-free. I did have to re-vacuum, but that's not really surprising. The master bedroom was a different story. It has become the catch-all since nobody is allowed in our room outside of family. It's a fairly big room. It holds a queen sized bed with a headboard which has cupboards on either side of the bed, a couch, a dresser, a chest of drawers, two desks, an exercise/weight system, a table, and a bookshelf. That doesn't include the walk-in closet which holds boxes of books, knick-knacks, future Christmas/birthday presents, camping and hunting gear, and clothes. The room has become overrun with scout stuff, church stuff, school stuff, sewing stuff, computer stuff, and stuff which has no clear catego...

Since we are going to be busy starting tomorrow with Day Camp, I decided to take the family to the drive-in to see Night at the Museum. The kids really enjoyed the first one (as did I) and the drive-in is extra special because you get a double feature and tickets are cheap. Adult tickets (12 and older) are only $6.25 (vs. $10.00 or more at a regular theatre), children's tickets (ages 5-11) are $1.00 (vs. $7 or $8), and children 4 and under are free. Try getting anybody in free at a regular theatre. We took the suburban which does not have a working radio and my portable cd/radio/tape player. We took the third seat out figuring the little kids could all sit on that, and brought 4 camp chairs. What ended up happening was Aaron and I took 2 camp chairs each (one to sit in and one for our feet), Daniel sat on the suburban seat, and Rachel, Nick, and Cierra took turns wandering. They'd stand behind me, in front of me, try walking closer to the screen (we were in the front row), sit ...

This is another movie by the same organization that did "Facing the Giants". It tells the story of a young couple who are facing trials in their marriage - to the point of considering divorce. He is a firefighter who is respected by his co-workers and community, but not at home. She works at a hospital and is dealing with aging parents and a flirtation at work. While neither is free of accountability in making the marriage work, the viewer must wonder if it wouldn't just be better to cut losses and move on. They have no children so it would be a clean split. The husband approaches his father with the situation and is given a love dare diary. He is to complete each task for 40 days - each day bringing a new task related to showing love to his wife. As he commits to the program without his wife being aware of what he is doing, the viewer starts pulling for the husband and may have a tendency to villainize the wife. Apparently, there is a true love dare diary available in bo...