Fun at Granny and Grandpa's House

 At Granny and Grandpa's house, we enjoyed the outdoors. Their house is on a lake (which is not so surprising in the lake-rich state of Minnesota). The canoe was a favorite.

Canoeing with Grandpa

Coming back

Another group out on the lake

Closeup of same

Coming ashore

We had a spooky candy trail for Halloween. The walk was at night in the dark (hence the spookiness); different spots along the way had stashes of treats (hence the candiness). 

Getting ready for a spooky, sugar-filled stroll

A good variety of tree swings were set up at the house as well.

About to swing out into a leaf pile

We had fun inside the house too. Watching TV was a time for cousinly closeness.

Two chairs, four cousins

We helped bring in a tree as their Christmas tree. By "we," I mean my daughter! I did the chainsawing.

Treebearer

Some trees did not fare so well. We helped Grandpa clear out some dead wood from the forest and then burned it by the lake.

Carrying logs

The fire starts

The fire burns!

Side view of the fire

A good helper

Grandpa was generous enough to let the kids drive his riding mower around the yard. It was a harrowing time for the adults. In the words of George of the Jungle's theme, "Watch out for the tree!"

Giving some pointers

Cruising around

We saw the moon rise over the lake!

That white dot is the moon--more impressive in real life

The weather got cold enough that we could walk on the lake.

Grandpa did an experiment in the kitchen which fascinated us all...

Fun times were had at Granny and Grandpa's!

Fun on the couch

Book Review: Superman Smashes the Klan by G. L. Yang et al.

 Superman Smashes the Klan written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Gurihiru

After defeating a Kryptonite-powered Nazi bad guy who apparently doesn't realize World War II is over, Superman becomes more curious about his origins, especially why the green rock powering the villain made him sick. Ma and Pa Kent didn't tell Clark his whole history with them but they left enough clues. Superman eventually discovers recordings from his Kryptonian parents, who help him to understand his powers and his purpose on Earth. At the same time, the Lee family moves from the Chinatown neighborhood to Metropolis (or at least a suburban part of the city). Dr. Lee has a new job with the Metropolis Health Department where he experiences both openness and racism from his co-workers. The focus of the story is on the Lee children, Tommy and Roberta, who try to fit in to their new neighborhood. They go to the local youth rec center where Tommy easily fits in. Roberta has a much harder time. The family runs into a bigger problem when the Klan of the Fiery Kross burns a cross in their yard. Reporters from The Daily Planet cover the incident, drawing Superman into the fight against the Klan. 

Yang based this story on a multi-part story from The Adventures of Superman radio show in the late 1940s. The show was a big hit and a big black-eye for the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan. This kid-friendly version of the story still delivers both an exciting story and a timely message, since racism has not gone away. The characters are not one-dimensional, not even the bad guys. Paralleling the Lee family immigrant story with Superman's exploration of his own immigrant nature seems obvious but is delivered in a more subtle and convincing way. Nice moments of comedy and nods to changes in Superman's mythology through the years make the book very enjoyable for even a seasoned fan of the Man of Steel.

Recommended.

MN Geocaches 2020

While visiting Granny and Grandpa, we visited several geocaches as well!

Near their lake is herten vliegen Polka, which is translates to "deer fly polka." I guess in the summer, there's lots of flies coming off the lake to take a taste of any visiting humans. The find was so quick, I didn't take a picture!

Lyndon Cedarblade Township Park is home to a lot of caches, including standford town hall cache. The cache is indeed right near the town hall and a couple of baseball fields. The kids could not resist the siren call of the ball fields, so we wound up playing after finding the cache.

It's in there somewhere

The next day we came back to a different part of the park but couldn't find any convenient parking. We went down one road into the middle of the park, but it turned out to be private land. We parked on the side of the road near a cache. Rushing in through thick brush (thank goodness it was late Fall, so no foliage to deal with), we found Kim said "what about there". The bushwhack was fun and the find was in a classic location.

There indeed!

Not all caches were out in the woods. One cache, 10YGC - Seeing Red, is located in the back of a Target shopping plaza. The final location was a nice twist on a fairly familiar cache location.

Maybe a little obvious

Movie Review: Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Jojo Rabbit (2019) written and directed by Taika Waititi

Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is a ten-year old boy in Nazi Germany. He wants to fit in and be cool, so he's part of the Hitler Youth and even has Hitler (Taika Waititi) as an imaginary friend. He's camping outdoors with the Hitler Youth when he gets the "Rabbit" moniker. To prove their cruelty and ruthlessness, the camp leaders want the boys to break the neck of a rabbit. Jojo is the first one selected to do it, but he just can't bring himself to kill an innocent bunny. The boys then mock him for his cowardice. Imaginary Hitler comes to comfort the boy. Later, trying to show how brave he is, he throws a live hand grenade which bounce off a tree and blows up right next to him. He's out of contention as a future soldier with his scarred face and barely functioning leg. He still volunteers at the Hitler Youth headquarters in town. His mom (Scarlett Johannson) tries to cheer him up whenever she can. She puts up with his Nazi nonsense and tries in very gentle and subtle ways to show him what is really going on. Those methods are too gentle and subtle for a ten-year old. Jojo's dad is off in Italy, presumably fighting for the Reich though a lot of mixed rumors and opinions are given--Did he die? Is he a deserter? Is he still fighting? Most of those opinion come from his fellow ten-year olds, so they are hardly reliable.

Things change in a big way when Jojo discovers a girl hiding in his deceased sister's room. The girl is a Jew named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie). Jojo's first instinct is to report her but she points out that his mom will be in big trouble for hiding a Jew. Also she steals Jojo's Hitler Youth knife and threatens to cut his head off. So he has a very uneasy relationship with her as he learns more about her and he hides his new knowledge from his mother, who turns out to be more active than just hiding one Jew in her spare room.

The movie starts as a broad satire of Nazi culture and seems like it's just going to be a fun time mocking the stupidity of the Third Reich. Some subtle signs indicate that more is going on and about half-way through the story takes a very rough turn into the reality. It's late in the war and the Nazis are in denial about losing. Jojo's eyes start to open about what's going on and what's really important. By the end, there's more tension than comedy but the film earns the switch with its sincerity. 

A lot of the characters also follow the comic-to-serious arc of the film. Jojo's mom is whimsical and endearing but has a lot more going on underneath. Johannson gives a great performance. Sam Rockwell is also very good as the one-eyed leader of the town's Hitler Youth. His character starts as seeming comic relief--a jaded officer who still thinks he can fight but isn't allowed to. By the end of the film, he's shown more depth and understanding. Jojo himself starts off as a somewhat idiotic kid who is forced to mature through circumstances. The weakest performance is Waititi's imaginary Hitler, who is understandably cartoonish but his accent wavers between German and New Zealand in a very distracting way. As an imaginary friend, he has no character arc.

I'm tempted to compare this to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, which also has a big switch of tone halfway through. Benigni's film is two separable but connected stories (the romantic comedy and the desperate attempt to survive the concentration camp) set before and during World War II. Jojo Rabbit is one continuous story that changes in tone. Both films successfully navigate the change and are very moving portrayals. Both movies are more honest about the horrors than they seem from their trailers.

Highly recommended--this would make a great double-bill with Life is Beautiful. If you enjoyed that, you'll enjoy this film.

Springvale County Park

 Just outside of Cambridge, Minnesota, is Springvale County Park. The park has 211 acres of trails, hills, fields, forests, wetlands, and Johnny's Lake. Also, there's a disc-golf course and twelve geocaches in the park (and one just outside). 

We had fun walking. The older kids did disc-golf while I and the youngest hunted geocaches with Mom and Grandpa. Luckily, the caches and the golf course run parallel through the park, so we were together most of the time.

At the first hole/cache

ICP-Springvale was the first geocache we found. It was near the first hole (which I guess is actually a basket into which the frisbee goes). I was the first to spot the container but didn't point it out so others could find it as well.

Somewhere near ground zero

The golf course was mown to an easy walking height. They left plenty of "rough" on the sides for the discs to land in. 

Back to golfing

My son really enjoyed throwing the discs and he's been getting better. We may have to get our own set of discs.

Ready to throw

Caught in midflight

The path led by Johnny's Lake, which has both picnic areas and a boat launch. The weather was too cold for canoeing. Also, the lake is a bit far from the parking lot, so you have to be dedicated to use it.

Johnny's Lake

The multicache Two Parts Clearwater stumped us. Our GPS pointed into the lake as the location for the first stage, which clearly wasn't the right location. We pushed on.

It's around here somewhere

Sun over the lake

The next disc "hole" was right by the water. Any overthrow would be a lost disc, so we had someone stand by to try and keep things from getting wet.

An easy target to see

The next cache, No fires please, was an easy find for us. I was surprised by the container. It was an ammo can but made of plastic, not metal!

A fun spot to find

Another view of the location

The next cache is called Dead End cache. The path even went by a dead end sign! 

On the way to the cache with Grandpa

My son was excited to be the first to find (from our group). This one is a more traditional ammo can. 

Finding the cache

The path did turn out to be a dead end. We had to backtrack to get close to the golf course and the next cache.

End of the line

Our final cache find was Nyctohylophobia, which is the fear of dark, wooded areas, especially at night. We didn't have to go into the scary woods to find the cache.

Dark woods, dead ahead

By this point in the adventure, the disc golfers were done golfing and wanted to do one more geocache before heading back home. We found ground zero not far from the dark woods.

Not so dark in the daylight

On the way back, we had one last distant view of the lake.

There's Johnny!

Book Review: Olympus by G. Johns et al.

 Olympus written by Geoff Johns and Kris Grimminger, and illustrated by Butch Guice

An archaeology professor and three of her students end their European learning tour with a dive in the Aegean Sea. They discover a very old shipwreck and bring back a box. The archaeology program is about to be shut down because they haven't had any results, so the team decides to open the box rather than turn it over to the Greek authorities. They discover a strange and ancient vase inside. A storm suddenly comes up as another ship approaches too close. The other boat is full of mercenaries who board the archaeologists' ship. The storm gets worse, destroying the mercenary vessel. The science boat crashes on a sun-drenched beach. Suddenly the storm is gone. The shore is unfamiliar, especially the gigantic statue of Zeus on the hillside. The people discover they are shipwrecked on Mount Olympus and are soon fighting all sorts of mythical (or so they thought) monsters in an attempt to return the vase to its proper place at the top of Olympus.

The story is fun and action-packed. The violence is a bit gruesome at points (a Cyclops eats what a Cyclops eats) and the language is definitely R-rated. The mercenaries are generally unlikable, making them good cannon fodder for the island's inhabitants. The archaeologists are the heroes. One female student wears a bikini through the whole story, which seems unlikely and looks exploitative. That's the kind of action story this is.

Recommended for some light action reading.

Book Review: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

 Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

Johannes Cabal has sold his soul to the Devil in order to gain necromantic knowledge. His research into bringing the dead back to life has not worked out that well and he needs his soul back to get results. So he travels to Hell and negotiates a deal with the Devil. If Cabal can sign up one hundred souls for damnation in one year, then Satan will give Cabal's soul back. If Cabal fails, then Satan will kill Cabal and get his soul immediately. To give Cabal a sporting chance, Satan loans him a project that never got off the ground--a carnival designed to lure in likely candidates for damnation. Cabal agrees. He then frees his imprisoned brother (who is a vampire) and together they work the carnival so that Cabal can seal the deal.

Cabal is very arrogant and self-centered at the beginning of the book. So much so that I thought about bailing out after the first two chapters. He's perfectly happy to lure others into damnation with no care for them at all. I thought maybe the book is going to have Cabal grow as a character, into a more decent human being (any growth at all would be a big step in the right direction). He shows signs of being a better person but they mostly fade away by the ending. His final conflict with Satan is entertaining but not enough to redeem the book.

The style of writing is very erudite and self-satisfied, matching the prideful and disdainful character of Cabal. I found it a little wearing after a couple of chapters, much like Cabal's character.

Not recommended.