Posted by barb on Jul 5, 2003 in Uncategorized
Since my aunt, Maggie, is coming for a visit next Sunday, I thought it was finally time to finish the front yard. So, Andrew and I went off to a local nursery this morning to pick out new shrubs. It was only 10 AM or so when we got there, but we were sweating buckets the whole time we were looking. It would be crazy for anyone to have done yard work in that kind of heat, so I told Andrew that I would probably wait until 4 or 5 PM to start the work — after the heat of the day was past.
Yeah. That lasted. I got ants in my pants at about 2 PM, so I headed out to do the work. Hmmmm…the heat usually peaks at, what? 3 PM? I could not have planned things better. On the other hand, the yard was done by 4 PM, and while I was soaked through and through, I felt really good about having it done.
Now if we can just avoid killing these shrubs…
Posted by barb on Jul 5, 2003 in
Movies 2.5/5 stars
While this was much more enjoyable than Rat Race, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World just went on too long. There was still at least 30 minutes left when the groups started to finally converge on the park where the treasure was supposed to be buried. Then followed an excruciatingly goofy/silly/boring search for the “big W”. But up to that point, I was enjoying the chase.
Posted by barb on Jul 4, 2003 in
Biking The forecast for today was 95 degrees (F). So, Andrew and I decided that we ought to get started pretty early on our little bike trip, to avoid the worst heat of the day. I was bustling around the kitchen at about 8 AM to get our water bottles filled and ready to go, when something occurred to me:
Setback #1: Andrew’s bike was still at the bike shop.
They had promised us the bike by Friday (today), so we rearranged our plans to arrive at the bike shop at 10 AM (when they opened) and pick up his bike. I made Andrew drive me around in the new (to us) car, to give him some more practice, and we messed around the house for a bit. Then we headed off to the bike shop.
Setback #2: The bike shop had no paperwork on his bike, and consequently didn’t know what state the tune-up was in.
The guy behind the counter asked us to give him an hour to give the bike a once-over to just make sure everything looked good. In the meantime, Andrew and I walked around “downtown” Vienna — passing through the crafters setting up for the 4th of July doings and grabbing a small lunch at Whole Foods. At about 11:15 AM we returned, picked up Andrew’s bike and headed home. From there, we biked up to the Vienna Metro stop.
Setback #3: Bikes aren’t allowed on the Metro on the 4th of July.
Well, that one was a deal-breaker, so we decided to just bike around Vienna. Of course, the road we picked was probably the most hilly road in town, but I’m proud to say that I actually made it up each and every hill without dismounting (though I may have slowed to a crawl). We ended up back by the “doings”, so after grabbing a frozen chai drink from Starbucks, we walked back through the crafts, and I picked up a couple little somethings.
When we got back home, we had put about 7 miles on the bikes — my longest ride so far (though that’s likely to change later this weekend).
Posted by barb on Jul 2, 2003 in
Saxophone Horrible lesson. We moved my lesson up an hour, to 7:30pm, because I’m usually quite tired by 8:30. Well, it backfired tonight. I needed to stay at work an extra couple hours, and then it was raining, so it took an extra 40 minutes to get home. All in all, I was about 2.5 hours behind schedule. That meant that I could either have dinner or practice/warm-up before my lesson. I chose dinner. It was the wrong choice. Since my acid reflux isn’t under control yet, dinner just made me feel barfy and belchy. And, because I didn’t warm-up first, I played like crap during my lesson.
Still working on the Mozart Minuet for next week, but moving on to work on 6/8 time and some slower pieces (to work on tone).
Posted by barb on Jun 30, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
Fun, but fluffy. I can see JD’s point that the movie is not as “hilariously funny” as all of the ads and critics promised. But it definitely had moments, and was a fun story.
Posted by barb on Jun 28, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
Pixar continues its tradition of fun, entertaining animation. This is the story of a clown fish trying to find his son, Nemo, after Nemo was taken by a diver. Along the way, we meet some sharks, a scary glow-fish-thing, and some surfer turtles. Very fun.
However, I remarked to Andrew that I couldn’t think of a single WOW animation moment. In A Bug’s Life, there were the leaves on the tree — each seemed to have a life of it’s own fluttering in the wind like real leaves. In Monsters, Inc., Sully’s fur was most impressive. Maybe we’ve gotten spoiled. Maybe we’re just taking it for granted now. Don’t get me wrong, the animation was incredible, and I was duly impressed.
Posted by barb on Jun 26, 2003 in
Biking I finally made it up to Vienna this weekend on my bike! Yay!
Andrew and I set off about about 10AM to downtown Vienna. We started at the library so Andrew could drop off his previous batch of books and pick up a new one. I decided to read at a bench outside the library, not wanting to sit my sweaty body on the library’s cloth chairs.
Then we headed up to Once Upon A Time, a toy store on Church Street, where I picked up a few more dollhouse things (a bunk bed, two dressers and a toy chest, all for the kids’ room in my dollhouse). I dragged Andrew into Terra Christa, a new-age-y type store not too far from the toy shop.
I was getting nibbly for lunch by then, but feared that eating too much would prevent me from riding the 3 miles back home. We decided to try the Knossoss restaurant, where we each had a panini — mine was quite yummy.
Once home, I was quite exhausted, but happy that I’d finally made it into town. Oh, and I was able to make it up the hill on Courthouse both coming and going, which is amazing for me. Yay!
Posted by barb on Jun 22, 2003 in
Books A Living Doll Turns Forty
Edited by Yona Zeldis McDonough
McDonough has collected 25 pieces on that most loved, and most hated, doll, Barbie. While many of the essays blasted Barbie for (take your pick):
- giving girls an unrealistic picture of the female body
- showing girls that fashion, above all else, is the most important thing in a girl’s life
- being a negative role model for girls
- being racist,
many of the pieces in the book took a more balanced approach to Barbie.
No one disputes that Barbie was modeled after a quasi-pornographic doll sold primarily to men. Nor do they dispute that her measurements are unrealistic for a healthy woman. On the other hand, blaming the downfall of civilization on Barbie seems a bit much for her perfectly sculpted shoulders to handle. Barbie has held many jobs not traditionally seen as “female” jobs — astronaut (the first time in the ’60s), paleontologist, veterinarian, and dentist. In addition, Barbie is the one doll out there that lets girls explore their lives without babies. Baby dolls imply that a woman’s job is to have and care for babies, whereas Barbie shows girls that they can live their lives with or without babies.
I’ll admit to being somewhat on the fence about the “Barbie-issue.” I know that she’s unrealistic, and even in her non-traditional careers, she has to be absolutely fashionable. Let’s not even mention the whole “Math is hard” debacle in the early ’90s. On the other hand, I played with Barbies, and I seem to have turned out just fine — in fact, I’m quite independent and shun fashion trends and make-up with a passion. Maybe I’d have turned out more fashion conscious if Mattel had made an astrophysicist Barbie.
Posted by barb on Jun 21, 2003 in
Books by Jules Verne
While it took me a little while to get into this book, once the “Journey” was well underway, I found myself hooked.
Professor Hardwigg found a scrap of paper in a recently-acquired early edition with some cryptic writing. He vows that the household will not eat until the message is decrypted. His hungry nephew, Harry, finally figures out the secret (motivated mainly by his desire for a good meal). The note contains instructions for finding a cave in an extinct volcano in Iceland that will lead into the center of the Earth. So it’s off to Iceland for the Professor and his nephew (dragged along by his uncle’s enthusiasm, rather than any inclination of his own to see the center of the Earth).
Do they make it to the center? Well, no. But they do have a grand adventure, finding a vast underground sea populated by ancient giant sea monsters, and stumbling upon a giant ancestor of man (fleeing before interacting with him).
I found that Verne would have some wonderfully descriptive passages followed by terribly simplistic whining from the nephew (our narrator). So, I’m not sure if my difficulties of getting into the book were from Verne’s writing style, or an artifact of the translation. Overall, though, a fun story, if slow-moving.
Posted by barb on Jun 21, 2003 in
Movies 3.75/5 stars
I don’t care what other people say. I had fun. Is The Hulk the same as the TV show? Most definitely not. Is The Hulk the same as the comic book? I don’t frankly know (and don’t really care).
Andrew pointed out that it may have been more difficult to get into this movie because there was no clear super-villain. Perhaps. For much of the movie, the Hulk’s biggest battle is with himself. But in some ways that battle is more graspable for us normal people than a super-villain. We all have that inner struggle against lashing out when we’re angry, but most of us don’t have a super-villain-type enemy.