catching up

Finally had a chance to watch Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and it was indeed a fine continuation of that series. I think I still liked the third one a touch more, but this is an enjoyable follow up. More missions. More impossibles. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. And I was glad to see Simon Pegg get some decent screen time. Too bad about the mask.

Takenoko  is an addictive puzzle-y sort of game where you are trying to grow a bamboo garden while a panda eats some of your efforts. You take turns performing a couple of actions such as placing a new bamboo plot, growing bamboo, eating bamboo, irrigating a new section of the garden etc. in order to complete objectives you have (found on cards that you can draw). Once one player has completed a set number of objectives remaining players get one more turn and then scores are tallied. I find myself thinking about this game a lot and wanting to play it more. Definitely worth playing.

Speaking of playing games, we had our monthly board game weekend and celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the same time. Games! Fish tacos! Ice cream! A pinata! Taco Soup! It was a grand time. Plus we got to play a lot of games. So yay.

And speaking of ice cream, our second batch was not quite as successful as our first. This time we tried for a chocolate peanut butter ice cream, but it was a slightly different base and we managed to scorch it just a little. If you didn't know better you might think we had just used a very dark chocolate. Having been involved in the creation process, I could tell it was a little burnt. Alas. We shall continue to try though! More ice creams!

G managed to score a goal in his last soccer game of the season. He told his big sister he was going to score one for her since it was her birthday. Of course, he also told her they'd win their game. Or at least try to. And it sounds like they were off to a decent start. They were tied 3-3 when I managed to get there, but at that point the other team pulled ahead and the game ended 6-3. Oh well. He had fun and did manage to score a goal, so good for him.

I haven't finished Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, but I can confirm it is hilarious. Of course if you know who she is, this comes as no surprise. It's pretty darn funny. And then you feel bad for laughing at her misfortunes.

Now if we can just convince the kids that they don't all need to be sixty different places at once...

And in case you missed the reference up there a Happy Birthday to McK. I refuse to believe she's as old as she thinks she is. For some strange reason she wants to have a birthday party where she and her friends play some board games. I can't for the life of me figure out why. There certainly won't be any adults at this party she can force her presence upon... Weird. Oh well, I suspect she'll have some fun anyway.

Screaming

I have been forcing a couple episodes of Masters of Horror upon lovely wife. Mostly because I always meant to watch some of them and I finally decided it was time. John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns was pretty interesting. It reminded me a little of that old Johnny Depp movie The Ninth Gate only substituting a film for a book. Or possibly In the Mouth of Madness,  which if I remember right is another John Carpenter film... Anyway, guy asks other guy to track down long lost film print that was only ever shown in public once. Riots ensued, people went crazy, etc. etc. It was fun. Stuart Gordon's Dreams in the Witch House was a decent adaptation of the Lovecraft story. Those non-Euclidean angles...

For an early Mother's Day gift we picked up lovely wife an ice cream maker. Mostly due to this book. We tried it out by making a gallon of the malted chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate chips. It was as wonderful as it sounds. Soooo goood. We're going to try another flavor this weekend for our gaming/Cinco de Mayo get together. I think there will be peanut butter involved. As for the machine itself, we opted for a nice little electric 4 quart ice/salt contraption. I kind of wish it was hand crank, but I'll be stealing Dad's hand crank machine, so I've got that base covered.

G has officially won one soccer game. It may be the only game his team wins. And strangely, soccer is far more appealing to watch than softball... I'm as surprised as anyone, I don't really like soccer.