Book 26 - Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow (it's not what it sounds). This is the fourth in the the Jill Kissmet series. Good - not as good as the last two, but still pretty dark and enjoyable, and I do like Saintcrow's writing.

Movie 22 - Avatar. daddy_guido was kind enough to make sure that I didn't have to sit through this one alone. The story was straightforward and pretty predictable, but I'm good with that. The effects were AMAZING. I would say that if you can't see it in the theater, I don't know that it's worth renting - not because it's not worth seeing, but because seeing in the theater really makes this one. For all those theater owners and film studios are worried that people don't want to go out to the movies? This will make people want to go, for sure.

I was hoping to get through movie 23 tonight, but I had to stop half way through District 9 for a couple of reasons. And for one of those same reasons I won't be able to see Sherlock Holmes tomorrow morning like I'd planned, either. I'm sure I'll find a way to get the rest of the movies in this week, though.

Book 25 - The Doomsday Brunette by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem. I though The Plutonium Blonde was more entertaining, but I still liked this one. Eh - I guess Blondes do have more fun...

Movie 21 - Terminator Salvation. Let's see, Christian Bale, shit blowing up, and Sam Worthington repeatedly slipping into the Aussie accent when the scenes got intense? On the "Friday Night Relaxing" scale, it goes to 11.

One more book before the end of the year, and 9 more movies. And 3 busy weeks.

First the movie - Cloverfield (which has been sitting near my TV from Netflix for forever and a day). Actually, not the worst movie I've ever seen (but then again, that's quite a hill to climb). Pretty entertaining, especially if you're doing something else while it's on.

Now, sewing - I finished Tatum's Christmas dress (I know, almost a month in advance - go me!) I tried it on her before I had the finishing touches on it - I finished the trim tonight.

( Cut for pictures of the awesome dress, if I do say so myself )

Hoping to get a lot more done this weekend, too.

I was very tired tonight after cleaning the yard with the kids (still some work to do there, but at least a good chunk of it is done) - so I thought I'd find something braindead to watch after the kids went to bed while I finished the laundry. So, when we ran up to get yard waste stickers, I stopped by Redbox and got GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

It was a 117 minutes special effects orgy, with a thin predictable plot.

It was awesome.

Move first - movie 18 of 30 - Pineapple Express. Dude - funny, funny movie. I love Seth Rogan.

Sewing - 5 of 10 - a princess play dress for Tate. I'll have to get pics of this tomorrow. She's already in bed and I forgot to get them today. It's a little big at the moment, but I wanted her to grow into it.

Sewing - 6 of 10 - I have a skirt all cut out for me, and I used the left overs to make a skirt for Tatum. Tate's of course is done - mine, not yet. Soon.

( Tate's new skirt )

Sorry this one is actually from LAST weekend, not this past weekend.

I watched Taken with Liam Neeson. I really enjoyed it - no spoilers here, although if you know NOTHING about the movie, you should skip over the rest of this.

The Pros - I thought Neeson's character's action were 100% on. There were times - like when he shoots a guy in the back - that I thought "Yeah, a guy in his situation, with his training would TOTALLY do that".

The Cons - it's REALLY HARD to feel sympathy for the daughter, beyond the "wow, that would suck". They don't make her an overly sympathetic character, really.

I took the day off today, and after running errands and so forth, I went over to watch one of Aidan's karate lessons, which is a rare treat for me. Afterward I picked up The Tatum and took them to dinner (ok, Culvers, but we sat IN the restaurant, so for them it was going out) and then we ran off to go see Ice Age 3. Cute, funny, entertaining. Just like the other two. And both kids were great - mostly quiet, except for the part that was very reminiscent of a chest waxing. Immediately after, The Tatum said, in a very loud voice "OH! That was ouchie!"

This was the week of embarrassment.

Movie 15 of 30 was Twilight. I'll wait here while you mock.... done? no?.... how about now? Ok, come on, I know some of YOU saw it too (I'm looking at YOU jer_...)

It was - well, a teeny bopper movie about vampires. And as angsty as the vampire, Edward, was... CRIPES the main character was worse. I started to wonder why any of her new friends at school were even trying to be her friends, since all she did was mope and be bitter. Maybe that's why Edward liked her so much. She was both a food source AND fit right in with the family!

And the book... yeah, I finished book 14 of 26. And that's all I'm going to say. I finished it.

I took the kids to see Up today. It is probably the best Pixar movie to date. The kids LOVED it.

In the interests of full disclosure, however I will say while I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a really difficult movie for me to watch at times. Some of the themes touched on were a little close to home. Even so, I'm really glad we went to see this, and I really, really loved it.

Another one down - Transporter 3.

Given the crap I've taken on my previous movie comments, I'm not saying anything about this one other than:

Jason Statham has one hell of a six pack goin' on. And you get to see it MANY times in this one.

So, in the last few weeks I've been able to check off a few things from the resolutions list this year.

Book 12 of 26 - Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
I managed to wait until getting to Penguicon to purchase this book, so that I could give my money to someone who really needed it. I actually finished it last weekend, but haven't had a chance to post. It's another in the Harry Dresden series; they have really grown on me. I've said before, I didn't like the first one much, but enough that I tried the second. Each gets better and better (although I would argue that this one wasn't QUITE as good as the last one, but otherwise better than all the previous). Fun read.

Movies 8, 9, 10 and 11 of 30

8) X-Men Origins: Wolverine - daddy_guido and I saw this a few Wednesdays ago. Don't care what anyone else thought, I was happy with it. There is a LOT to tell in the Wolverine story, and I thought they did a pretty admirable job.

9) Hotel for Dogs - Last year I didn't count the movies I watched with the kids unless we went to the theater for it, mostly because when we'd been watching them at home last year it was them watch and me reading or something. I'm trying NOT to do that this year unless it's a movie I really, really don't want to see or one that we've watched a million and two times. Anyhow, we had a free Redbox rental, and this is what we got. The dogs were cute. That's about all I can say.

10) Star Trek - holy crap on a stick was this good. If you haven't seen it yet, I'm BEGGING you to please take the time to see it in the theater.

11) Night at the Museum - in anticipation of having to see the new one in the theater, we rented this one tonight. Very cute, very fun.

Quilts 1 of 5

I'm in the process of making a quilt for ellalthea & jer_, but I'm not done with that yet (and they already know about it and have seen some of it. No, #1 this year was for pheltzer and drawshad's newest family edition. I also made one of the little quilt balls that I whip up once in a while, and everyone, young and old, seem to really like.

( If you're interested in that sort of thing, there are pictures here )

Good lord I'm tired.

Great, GREAT f'ing con. Really - this is the best con weekend I've had since... last Penguicon.

Full con report coming but, quick highlights:
- for those of you that missed Dinner with Dawn and Greg, you didn't miss much.
- daddy_guido and I did the charity auction and raised almost $1700 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Everyone there says they were highly entertained, and for my first time auctioning I got lucky enough to auction off the biggest ticketing item - an appearance by the winner on Corey Doctrow's new book. We've been asked to do it again next year, which I have to say I'm more than honored to do.
- The stage production of Dr. Horrible rocked.
- jer_ and ellalthea's wedding was beautiful and I think everyone cried. Even the Ox.

Oh, and - Walking Suits. Although I think I'll let Greg explain that one.

I was too tired tonight, once I got the kids to bed, to do ANYTHING, so I watched a movie. Movie 7 of 30 in my resolutions list was The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I like the Mummy movies, but this one felt wrong. If you took the Mummy trappings off of it, it might have actually been a better movie.

Lowlight - Maria Bello replaced Rachel Weisz as Evie
Highlight - Watching Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li fight

Alight, time for sleep. Lot to get accomplished tomorrow.

Saw Monsters vs Aliens with the kids (in 3D) on 3/29. It was good - it just probably wasn't great timing for me to see it that day. I'm sure I'll be forced to watch it again when it comes to video.

'Cause apparently Hollywood is yanking my fantasies right out of my head and putting them on screen...

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=7&id=40442

They are going to put Goran Visjnic on screen as the bad guy, with Daniel Craig in the next Bond film.

Daniel Craig all James Bond and sexy.

Goran Visjnic, all bad guy and naughty and sexy.

Holy crap, I might implode.

Did I MENTION the dead sexy?