Library Story Times March 2018

We love visiting our local library. Where else can I feed my reading and video watching habits so easily and so inexpensively? Public libraries are awesome. Since March heralds the warmer weather of Spring, the story times had a spring flavor.

The first story time had the theme "birds." The craft was one of the most intensely difficult yet--making a bird out of paper. This wasn't origami-hard, but it was challenging enough...

Big challenge #1: putting string through a hole!

Big challenge #2: putting folded-up paper through the same hole!

Big challenge #3: fanning out the paper to make wings

Proud of finished product!

The next week they continued the "birds" theme by reading The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems. To reinforce the message of good hygiene, the children stood in the middle of the room and had a shower of bubbles.

Why have a bubble bath when you can have a bubble shower?

The craft had the kids building a bird popping out of an egg. That involved some gluing and folding, with optional coloring.

Opening the glue to fix the bird in the egg

Optional coloring

Finished product

The next week's library story time theme was "bunny," including the fun book Everybunny Count!, which mostly involved practicing counting during a hide and seek game between a bunch of bunnies and a fox (though if you ask me, a more realistic story would have the fox doing more than just seeking the bunnies). The craft was pretty easy--putting a bunny in a grassy scene. A little glue and some coloring and we were done.

A little glue

A little coloring

And we're done

We made it to the last of the Spring into Science programs. The final theme was "seeds." He filled a small planter with dirt and three sunflower seeds, then did some scientific investigating of seeds in fruit (how many, how big, etc.).

Planting seeds

Checking out the pre-cut apple

The craft was a flower budding out of a pot. This craft was much easier than previous science crafts, involving glue and crayons only.

Gluing the flower together

Happy with the final product

Smell test

Book Review: The Infinity Gauntlet by J. Starlin et al.

The Infinity Gauntlet written by Jim Starlin, pencils by George Perez and Ron Lim, inks by Joe Rubinstein, Tom Christopher and Bruce Solotoff

The mad Titan Thanos is resurrected by Mistress Death, who assigns him the task of halving the universe's population. He's filled his gauntlet with the six Infinity Gems giving him control over the Soul, the Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space. For all practical purposes, he is God. But he is also a madman, a nihilist, and in love with Mistress Death. If that wasn't bad enough, his main advisor is Mephisto, the Devil himself. Once Earth's heroes become aware of the situation, they marshall their forces to stop Thanos. But what can their relatively puny powers do against a madman with infinite power out to impress a female who is seemingly impressed by nothing?

Marvel launches another epic storyline where the slaughter of half the sentient life in the universe includes half of the Marvel heroes. The remaining heroes band together to fight the infinitely powerful Thanos. They also have their losses, leaving very few heroes until a late plot twist (which seems really obvious from early on) undoes the damage. Much like the Age of Apocalypse storyline, this makes an interesting "What if?" scenario that's undercut by the ending that returns everything to normal with hardly any consequences.

Such a story would be okay if it includes some interesting insights into or commentary about the nature of power or love, or the characters are well drawn and interesting. The most interesting character is Mephisto, who walks the thin line between sycophant and betrayer. Thanos himself is just power-mad and love-struck without any real genius on his part. He has some character development by the end but not enough to wow a reader. The other characters do their usual thing. Thanos's love for Mistress Death reads like generic character motivation, not genuine emotion. The reflections on his infinite power are more engaging but not particularly deep or insightful. The mythology about the Infinity Gems is interesting but is quickly glossed over. Maybe the story of Thanos getting the Gems would be more compelling than when he actually wields them.

Having a bunch of diverse characters band together to fight a villain is the main appeal of this book to me. The bigger issues were too flat and generic to make this a great epic.

Movie Review: Happy Death Day (2017)

Happy Death Day (2017) directed by Christopher Landon

Tree (Jessica Rothe) is a spoiled sorority girl who wakes up in some strange guy's dormitory bed. She's hung over and doesn't remember the guy's name, and doesn't particularly care either. She's unpleasant to a bunch of people she mets on her walk of shame back to the sorority. She has an antagonistic exchange with her best friend their and dumps the cupcake her roommate made for her in the trash. Tree is not a nice young woman. She get her comeuppance in the most horrible way possible: She's murdered on the night of her birthday. If that wasn't bad enough, she wakes up in the same dormitory bed and has to relive the day over and over again with the same ending--death by a masked killer. Is the only way out killing the killer before the killer kills her? She's so rude and selfish to people, the list of suspects is practically everyone on campus.

This premise may sound like an exceptionally dark take on Groundhog Day. A lot of modern horror movies do go for a pessimistic view, often with a "no win" ending for the protagonist. Happily, this movie's tone is much lighter and it takes the redemption of the main character seriously. She is really unlikeable at the beginning, she does realize she is a horrible person, she does take steps to be a better person. Instead of always doing the selfish, easy things, she starts to do much harder and more selfless actions, partly in hope of solving her murder but also in recognition that a morally better life is a happier life. Pain and sorrow are not unavoidable but they can have a healing quality that Tree recognizes. The story turns out to be perfectly in tune with Groundhog Day's message.

This movie isn't as great as Groundhog Day but it does have good thematic similarities and a lot of attention to detail. Similar events throughout the day are given enough variation (either through different camera work or different actions by Tree) that the film doesn't become monotonous or predictable. Other than her dying every time, of course. The deaths are also not as gruesomely depicted (the movie is PG-13), which keeps the tone lighter. The movie makers are certainly aware of the tropes of slasher films (Tree is stalked in a tunnel, in a hospital hallway, in a parking garage, etc.) and uses them well. While it has tense moments it isn't particularly scary. It is immensely enjoyable.

Recommended as a surprisingly upbeat and well-crafted horror film.

Parental warning: In addition to some non-grisly death scenes (mostly she's stabbed but not with lot of blood), the characters use a moderate bit of swearing, including one f-bomb presumably to ensure the PG-13 rating. There's some mild kissing scenes and one naked walk of shame without any private parts showing. One student turns out to be gay and Tree encourages that character to be open about it (there's nothing graphic other than a video of two guys kissing).

Easter 2018

Here's a quick recap of our Easter activities this year!

For Holy Thursday, we did our usual Passover-like meal (see an earlier post for the lamb and unleavened bread recipes). This year, the grocery store only had a pre-marinated boneless leg of lamb, so I skipped the marinating step. The grilling went fine since the weather was warm enough to cook outside. To ensure our table had something for everyone to eat, we also made some couscous from a box that the prescholar had selected in the store--a garlic and herb flavor (I guess the couscous was also pre-marinated!). Usually we make plain couscous so this was a nice treat. The dish made quite an impression on our young one, who called it "God's Supper Couscous," and requested it for lunch the next day using those very words.

Will I like it as much as yesterday? Will it all make it to my mouth without spilling?

SUCCESS!

Good Friday was uneventful. Half the family was suffering from colds, so we didn't go to church. We did make a small crucifixion and burial scene by the front door. Again, the weather was nice enough to allow outdoor work.

Calvary recreation

Also on Good Friday, I finished rereading Saint Thomas More's The Sadness of Christ, which I've read for three Lents in the past six or seven years. It was satisfying as usual, though a marked contrast to Saint Francis de Sales' Sermons for Lent. While both are highly practical, More is a lot earthier and speculative. Francis's final sermon is about the Passion and he sticks very closely to what's said in the gospel texts. More works from the texts and imagines the situation in more detail, adding in assumptions he's made or he's read in the church fathers. I found both books good but the differences are amazing to me.

Holy Saturday was mostly a "recovery from sickness" day for the family. We hung out at home, rested, and got ready for the big Easter celebration on Sunday. We did dye some Easter Eggs, including some "blown eggs" where we blew out the middle of the egg and dyed the hollow shell.

Blown eggs, hard boiled eggs, and decorative eggs

Family came to visit and we started off Easter Sunday morning right by going to 9 a.m. Mass. After Mass, we had brunch at our house, featuring food made by us and by my sisters. It was too delicious to bother with taking pictures, I'm sorry to report. The Easter Egg Hunt in our family room did get some pictures.

Searching for eggs

Is that an egg or a golf ball

Eggs-salent!

Still searching

We're not sure if we found all the eggs that we hid. We thought we hid seven eggs for each child, but only found nineteen eggs altogether. [PAUSE FOR READERS TO DO MATH IN THEIR HEADS] Happily they are fake eggs with candy inside, so they won't reveal themselves odiferously for a long time. The kids had a lot of fun. They wanted to eat candy right away. We let them in celebration of Easter.

In the afternoon, more family came to visit and we had a fun time playing video games, board games, and wiffle ball (again, the weather held out!). Dinner was ham and sides. Dessert was cheesecake and pies and cookies, which did manage to get photographed before the hungry horde descended.

Desserts

It was a lovely Easter for us, I hope it was for you as well.

He is risen! Alleluia!

TV Review: Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time (2017)

Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time (2017) written by Stephen Moffett and directed by Rachel Talaley

The Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) winds up in Earth's arctic at the same time as the First Doctor (here played by David Bradley though in the 1960s by William Hartnell). They both refuse to regenerate and might have gotten into an interesting conversation about it if a British World War I officer hadn't blundered into their meeting. Naturally, that's quite odd for the arctic in 1986. The Doctors begin to investigate and find that some crystalline people have been snatching other people on the brink of death for mysterious purposes. The adventure is afoot!

This Christmas special features several old standbys for Doctor Who--multiple Doctors, the regeneration (which is a farewell for one actor and an introduction of another), and tying off some loose ends. The two Doctors are fun together even though it is a bit odd to have a different actor playing the First Doctor (Bradley had played William Hartnell before in a TV movie about Doctor Who's early years). Bradley does a good job though the script goes out of its way to portray him as sexistly old-fashioned (mostly for comedic effect), something that rings false with what I've seen of the Hartnell episodes. The First Doctor's resistance to regenerating is also something shoehorned into the story (it had little basis in The Tenth Planet, when Hartnell's Doctor regenerated). It makes an interesting parallel to the Twelfth Doctor, so it's less bothersome. The rest of the plot is rather run of the mill for Doctor Who--fun but ridiculous. Some old companions (and one old nemesis) show up so Capaldi can have a farewell and some closure. Capaldi does a good job with his big final speech before regenerating. The one or two really beautiful moments are outweighed by a lot of weaker moments in the story. The whole episode feels a bit perfunctory and follows the recent trend of good actors trying to make the best of mediocre to poor writing in the show.

The new Doctor (Jodie Whittaker, who played the mom in Broadchurch) shows up for two minutes and tries to keep the TARDIS from falling apart. She has hardly any dialogue, just bits of action (though not picking out a new outfit as new Doctors often do). It's hard to make an assessment of her, other than it seems like a desperate ploy to be trendy and relevant by having a female take over a male role (which really isn't an assessment of her as an actress but of the situation in general). It looks like a politically correct choice rather than an artistic choice, which generally means we'll get bad art. I hope I'm wrong but only time will tell.

Overall, this hasn't inspired me to jump back into Doctor Who. I can't quite recommend it.

Book Review: Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield by R. Goscinny et al.

Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo

Chief Vitalstatistix has had one too many banquets, so the druid orders him off to a spa for a healthy dose of exercise and boiled vegetables. Asterix and Obelix go for the journey, if not for the treatment. They run into a Roman envoy whom they beat up. The envoy reports that the Gauls are as rebellious as ever. Julius Caesar decides to come show who's boss, especially by showing off the Shield of Vercingetorix, the Gaulish chieftain who was the last to surrender, thus completing the conquest of Gaul (never mind Asterix's village). But the shield is missing. The envoy is sent in search of it. When Asterix and Obelix get wind of the scheme, they also search for the shield.

The plot runs around in a great big circle with plenty of comedy along the way. This particular volume has lots of Latin puns (one drunk fellow is always going, "Hic, haec, hoc!"). It's a lot of fun.

Recommended.

Cute Kid Pix March 2018

More pictures that didn't make their own post...

Our toddler's Sunday school class regularly has crafts though they usually don't make it to the blog. This special Easter craft was irresistible to me, showing Jesus' tomb with a sliding rock to let Him rise. The design is ingenious and fun.

Sealed tomb

Open tomb, about to be empty

The first day of Spring saw a massive snow storm on America's east coast, resulting in some nice sledding weather for our toddler.

Mom-powered sledding

Going the distance

A happy (and snowy) boy

The older kids' school had a March Reading Madness program that culminated in a Family Reading Night. The evening had lots of activities, starting with announcements and books to read in the cafeteria.

My daughter reads about pets

My son reads a "how to" book about raising dinosaurs

One activity was a relay race where children sorted books into fiction and non-fiction hoops.

Son with a non-fiction book

Dual-wielding daughter drops duo delivery

The activity in the cafeteria featured the school mascot and freshly popped popcorn. Yummy!

Posing with the eagle

Funky popcorn

A happy snacker