Tree

Our next-door-neighbor had to get rid of the big, beautiful Eucalyptus tree recently because some of the roots had winded their way into her foundation and were causing problems with the plumbing pipes and such.  It's a shame, because this tree, even though it was in her yard, provided a lot of shade for our yard.  Our carport is directly underneath, so it's a good thing we have that, now more than ever.  Griffin and Matilda and I watched the men take down the tree.  It only took a few hours, here's some progression pictures:

So now just a big, empty hole in the sky where the tree used to be.

Oscars

So I was looking at all the oscar nominees yesterday and was feeling underwhelmed.  I know the awards have turned into a popularity contest but I still think they should be about rewarding quality.  I was particularly surprised by a couple movies that got lukewarm reviews that are nominated, so I cross referenced with Rotten Tomatoes to check the score.

They seem to have gotten Slumdog Millionaire (95%) Milk  (93%) and Fost/Nixon (91%) right as those three movies got excellent reviews.  But then there's Benjamin Button (72%) which is an OK score, but nothing special.  I know I've read plenty of mediocre reviews for it, and no great ones.  And last is The Reader (60%) which is quite poor for a "best picture nominee"

To put it in perspective here's some other movies that got far better reviews:

The Wrestler (98%)

Wall E (96%)

The Dark Knight (94%)

Happy-Go-Lucky (93%)

Iron Man (93%)

The Visitor (91%)

Transiberrian (90%)

Rachel Getting Married (87%)

Vikki Christina Barcelona (81%)

Most of these movies are nominated in other major categories and have far better reviews than Benjamin Buttons and The Reader.

Heck, even Tropic Thunder gets 83% !

I know a lot of these movies aren't typical "best picture nominees" but I don't think a movie should get extra consideration just because it's about the holocaust.  Just like I don't think a movie should be ignored because it's animated, or a comedy, or a comic-book movie, or a little-seen indie.

There's plenty more too.  If you look at the Rotten Tomatoes list of best-reviewed movies for the year Benjamin Buttons doesn't even crack the top 100.  Granted a lot of those are documentaries, re-releases, or super-indies, but it doesn't change the fact that the movie is middle-of-the-road at best.

Don't forget Rotten Tomatoes is a compilation of hundreds of critics' reviews so it gives the most accurate consensus of what kind of reviews a movie got.

Just bloggin'

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/?intcmp=topnav_home

Crazy Mon

Today Griffin and I were in the car and I said something silly and Griff responded "That's crazy mon, crazy!  I started cracking up and asked him where he got that from.  He said "from you daddy."  Of course I have no memory of ever using that phrase in my life, not to mention recently.  Just goes to show that kids hear everything, and will repeat it back to you at appropriate times.

One day Griffin opened my cell phone, looked at the screen and said "No service??  What's up with that?!"

He definitely got that from me

Sabino Canyon

This past weekend we took a hike up around Sabino Canyon with our friends Ruth, Rafael, and their son Ving

There's only a handful of areas with water in the vicinity, and most of the time this is just a dry riverbed, however the mountains had gotten some snow recently so now the river is flowing moderately well.  Lots of fun, Griffin and Ving always have a good time playing together

Organ Pipe

Just after Christmas we decided to take a short mini-trip down to Organ Pipe National Monument, near the Mexico border southwest of us.This is the cabin we stayed in:

Griffin and his cousins playing:


Desert Hike:


Matilda wasn't digging the backpack:

Christmas morning

OK, so I'm a slacker and I haven't gotten around to creating a viable Christmas entry yet.  But we've been quite busy with the holidays, and then traveling around New Years (more photos to come) plus house projects, and Brie going back to work, and then each of us getting sick at different times, so it can be hard to blog.  But we had a great Christmas, the kids got a lot of quality goodies, and we spent a good amount of time relaxing.  Here are some Christmas pictures:

Griffin's the first one in to the living room Christmas morning.  He's just at that age when the anticipation builds each day and the morning excitement is overwhelming

If the tree seems small that's because it is.  Neither of us like a fake tree, and any real tree you buy around here is shipped down from Oregon or someplace, and is absurdly priced and wasteful.  So be bought a real Desert Pine tree from a garden center, repotted it, and decorated it.  Now it's living happily outside.  If it gets too big for the pot we'll put it in the ground, if not we'll use it again next year.  Believe it or not this was a less expensive option than either a dead tree or a plastic tree.

Matilda is not quite at the anticipation age, but she does relish tearing into a package:

This is a cool light-up WallE shirt from Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Spike, he also got an awesome magnetic set from Denise and Andrew:

This was perhaps Griffins favorite present (at least the one he never put down all day) It's a joke camera that shoots water, we bought it on a whim, and he kept chasing us around with it all day yelling "say cheese!"

A new hat and a new action figure, you can never have too many of either.

So as a resolution I'm going to try to do more regular entries, they will of course be shorter, and will have less pictures, but they should offer greater variety.  The drawback is they may be boring or humdrum, but for all I know nobody reads every part anyway.  Other blogs I've read have a lot more regular entries, and some may be just writing.