daisy_knotwise is off with Sam, Bonnie, Steve, and Jerry to see "Julie and Julia". I'm here at home with the girls. Julie is in bed for a nap, but not yet napping, as I still hear her chirping on the baby monitor. Katie and I are watching "Bolt" while I catch up on e-mail.

All things considered, I'll probably enjoy "Bolt" more. :)

Katie's got a small problem with the letter "s" in some words. As a result, "disk" comes out "dick". And when Katie asked to see the doggie dick tonight, we knew -- from experience -- that what she really wanted was to watch a DVD.

"Gromit?" asked daisy_knotwise

"No! With kitty."

Hmm. Ah! The new Bolt DVD that I bought for her and showed her over the weekend.

So Gretchen and Katie watched Bolt while I continued to work on taxes.

The end is near, somewhere.

daisy_knotwise and I had planned to watch Mamma Mia while the girls took a nap this afternoon, a plan that was altered about halfway through the film when it became obvious that Katie had no intention of actually sleeping. While Gretchen took care of the resulting mess, I grabbed a push broom and worked ineffectually through the bedroom window to try to knock some snow off the roof where it looks like we have an ice dam. I need a longer broom. We'll look at Home Depot later to see if they have any of the correct tools left in stock.

Oh, yes. The film. Well, I may not look as good as Pierce Brosnan, but I can outsing him. :)

Katie and Julie joined us to watch the end of the film. Afterwards, we took a quick look at the very limited bonus features on the disk, which included a sing-along section. I cued up the Dancing Queen / Waterloo bit just before the end credits and we started singing.

And Katie started dancing.

We are so doomed. :)

daisy_knotwise suggested that samwinolj and I catch The Dark Knight since she didn't really want to see it. She was right. She didn't want to see it. Sam and I, on the other hand, enjoyed it immensely.

After the film, Sam and I picked up some L-brackets at Home Depot and returned back here for a quick bit of fence repair. The three of us sat around outside talking and supervising kids until dek9 arrived with Aidan and Tatum, after which we did more of the same.

Eventually, I grilled some burgers, Gretchen made strawberry shortcake, and we ate around continued conversation.

A good time was had by all.

And tomorrow, I'll e-mail the rest of SpaceTime to discuss the upcoming shows.

samwinolj, Bonnie, daisy_knotwise, and I went out this afternoon to see Wall-E, leaving Katie and Julie with the young lady who lives next door to babysit. I'm happy to report that the movie was a lot of fun. Definitely sci-fi in the sense that there are plotholes that you can drive a starship through, but if you're willing to sit back and enjoy it for the space opera that it is, you'll have a good time.

I suspect Gretchen will give me leave to add this one to our DVD collection when it comes out. And then Katie will probably be old enough to start appreciating it. :)

Courtesy of shsilver who loaned us his family's copy, daisy_knotwise and I got to watch Enchanted tonight. It's a lot of fun.

You get a nice romantic comedy, several fine production numbers, and a CGI-animated chipmunk who would really like to steal the movie. What's not to like? :)

The thing I forgot to mention in last night's post is just how much Andy Griffith reminds me of my father. The accent is a bit different, my dad being from Southern Illinois, but there's just enough physical resemblance coupled with the kind of characters he's been playing for the last fifteen years that it's just a little bit scary.

Having had quite enough of the previous day's conversations, on the way home from the WindyCon meeting today I stopped by the RedBox on the way home to rent a movie. I'd intended on renting Enchanted, but it was thoroughly not there. On the other hand, as I scrolled through the available films, I found Waitress, which we had intended to rent several months ago, but which had been previously thoroughly not there.

It's a nice little film. :)

The freezing rain has covered anything that wasn't salted with a nasty layer of really slick ice. We found this out when we went out to lunch with decadentdave and Erin and, after dropping everyone off at the door, I had to inch across the parking lot to avoid killing myself -- or perhaps ruining another knee. Neither would have been a good outcome.

After lunch, Dave and Erin headed back north while Gretchen, Katie, and I went to do a bit of shopping. On the way home, we picked up Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which we've just finished watching and shaking our heads at. What a muddled mess! *sigh*

The things that you find on the Web frighten me even as they amuse me. Here's the original Star Wars trilogy condensed down to a very short black-and-white silent picture.

And having seen Order of the Phoenix, I'm of the opinion that this was an action-adventure film as opposed to the previous films which weren't.

daisy_knotwise will be dropping off Katie with her former co-worker, Jennefer, this evening, after which we'll proceed to the theater to see Order of the Phoenix with Sam, Bonnie, and dek9. I'm hoping this all works out ok, as I think Katie's got a bit of a cold which is making her unhappy the last few days. So fingers crossed!

I'd made plans to work from home today, because I had a doctor's appointment at noon. This turned out to be just as well, because I'm still having (unrelated) intestinal upset. I had a burger again for lunch, but dinner's going to be another round of soup and rolls. Better part of valor and all that...

Music and Lyrics was not -- as daisy_knotwise observed -- "Laugh out loud funny", but it was fun to watch. And Hugh Grant's character kept reminding me of unclechristo. I think it was the hair and eyes. The writers obviously had a lot of affection for 80s pop music and videos.

Tonight, we'll be watching How I Met Your Mother's season finale (which might be the series finale -- apparently, there's danger of cancellation due to low ratings), followed by the next to last episode of Heroes for the season.

The new Indiana Jones movie will start filming in 2007 with Harrison Ford as the star.

daisy_knotwise quips, "What are they going to call it? Indiana Jones and the Walker of Doom?"

Via Instapundit, it appears that Indiana Jones has been denied tenure.

By way of Mark Evanier, this trailer for a movie featuring familiar characters in an unfamiliar setting.

By way of rmjwell, here's the Firefly gag reel -- unless, of course, it moves again.

On Monday, I'm venturing down to the Piper's Alley Theater to see a preview screening of Serenity, the new movie from Joss Whedon that follows on from the canceled Fox TV series, Firefly. Me, Gretchen, and a few thousand other science-fiction fans, I somehow suspect, trying to get into a too-small theater where seating isn't guaranteed, but we'll see what happens.

I've seen the trailer for the movie, which certainly looks promising. I'm an interesting sample in this case, because I still haven't actually seen the Firefly TV series. The scheduling was bad for me when it was on TV and -- I understand from my friends -- it suffered from little details like being shown out of order. It's available on DVD and is one of the things I've been planning to get around to, just as soon as I find a supply of round tuits that I'm not using.

So here I am, long-time science-fiction fan, walking in clueless. We'll see how many clues I have when the movie is over.

Here's the synopsis for the film from the publicity folks:

Joss Whedon, the Oscar -- and Emmy -- nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family -- squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

And you can find the trailer and production notes here.

daisy_knotwise and I kicked back after rehearsal tonight and watched Murphy's Romance. After 20 years, we still like that film.

Me, I just want to look as good as James Garner when I'm that age.

daisy_knotwise and I went out with the rest of the SpaceTime crew after rehearsal today to see Must Love Dogs. This turns out to be a delightfully witty romantic comedy which seems to have been too intelligent for at least some of the critics, although I see that, upon checking back at the review list, the Tribune reviewer did give it three stars, which was one more than I remembered. I particularly enjoyed the scene when Sarah met with Jake after he went out to see Doctor Zhivago.

Billy Dee gives it at least 3.5 stars. :)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled anniversary celebration.

And so we saw Fantastic Four this afternoon.
( Spoilers inside... )

daisy_knotwise and I just got back from seeing Fever Pitch at the cheap theater.
( Mild spoilers inside... )

Here, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News, is a review from a fellow who saw an extremely early cut of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The printing problem seems to be fixed. daisy_knotwise, Sam, Bonnie, and I are off to the cheap theater to see Hitchhikers.

I've been listening to WDRV a lot lately and noticed a song that I wasn't familiar with had shown up on the playlist with great frequency: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.

When I saw Bewitched, I finally understood why -- it's on the soundtrack.