Ted is finally over all the colds, teething, rashes, etc. (knock on wood) and has been back to his usual goofy self for the past few days.  I am still working on getting him back onto a reasonable schedule.  He is close to only waking up once at night, but seems to think that it is a good idea to wake up for the day before 5am.

His mode of transportation these days is the army crawl.  He goes from sitting to his hands and knees like he is going to crawl, but then drops his belly to the floor and scooches along instead.  He loves to jump so much I think he might just jump everywhere before he learns to walk.  Oh! and he waves now!

He loves yogurt.  The first time we gave it to him he apparently came down with a new virus on the same day, so we had held off for awhile, but now he handles it fine and eats more of it than anything else except cheerios.  He has also had cherry applesauce, some white rice, and chunks of chicken.

Early this past week he got to play in the snow for the first time.  He seemed to really like it and didn’t even mind being in his snow suit.  We got 5 or six inches.  I guess it was the first time in five years that we have had more than an inch of snow!

This weekend Auntie Christine came to visit.  We had fun shopping and eating out.  Even trying out Ted’s Montana Grill.  Ted was very happy to get to play with her and ride on her shoulders all weekend.  Pat and I even went out to a movie on Saturday night.  We saw Slumdog Millionaire.  It was a great weekend!  Now we are looking forward to next weekend when we will be in RI again!

Based on previews, I thought the newly updated robots were kind of goofy looking, but in the film they worked well in adding to the feeling that cars can actually transform into giant robots and walk around. I also has happy to hear Peter Cullen revising his role as the Optimus Prime character. He’s got a distinct voice, and it enhanced the Tranformerishness of the story.

General Motors clearly had a heavy sponsorship role in the flick, as most of the cars were GM’s. It was cool to see a Mustang in the mix, though. I didn’t see any Celica’s at all, which is no surprise because they haven’t made them in a few years, but it does make me want to re-install Maya and try to make a CGI Celica Transformer again.

The plot didn’t break any ground, but it was a very entertaining movie… if you’re into the whole giant transforming robot thing.

Ps: Related to the above post, this is funny if you’re into auto insurance or autobots.

On Friday we watched the film that I chose, Science of Sleep. I had moderately high hopes for it, since it was made by the guy who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which was pretty good.

The movie is about a European fellow named Stephane who returns to his childhood home in (I think France), and tries to get his apartment neighbor Stephanie to like him. The story is told from his perspective, sometimes inside his own head (this reminded me of Herman’s Head a little), as he tries to deal with his heartache, crazy typesetting coworkers, mother, and the fact that his dreaming seems to put him in danger. At one point he writes a letter to Stephanie in his dream and sleep-walks it over to her. At another point he manages to fall asleep with his feet in a small freezer and wakes up with ice on his toes.

The stop-motion animation was cool, but the movie just sort of dragged in some parts.

On Saturday we watched Kate’s pic, The Squid and the Whale, which was a little better then Science.

It’s the story of a dysfunctional family in 1980′s New York city, dealing with bad parenting and sociopath children. Jeff Daniels (yes, him) stars as almost the worst dad ever, and the mom (Laura Linney) isn’t much better.

A more interesting story, compared to Science of Sleep, but a little painful to watch in some parts and one of those strange movie endings that kind of leave you wondering what the heck just happened.

But that’s the risk you take when not wanting to watch the same old formula-based movie. Sometimes you get something good (Little Miss Sunshine, Pulp Fiction, Fargo) and sometimes you get weird.

Speaking of movies, the Simpsons movie should be coming out soon. They have a cool thing on their site that lets you create a Simpsonized version of yourself. While it’s not nearly as accurate or time-consuming as making a Wii “Mii“, it’s still kinda fun. But no glasses option? And where’s the option for a full beard?

More Yankee Visitors
Kate’s dad and stepmom came down from up north for a little pre-father’s-day North Carolina visiting action. We had a good time showing them around the house, our rapidly-expanding neighborhood, and also a visit to the Farmer’s Market in Raleigh. They took us out to eat at the Cleveland Draft House and then we got some very tasty bbq at McCall’s. Good eats and good-to-see-family.

Etsy
As we speak Kate is rocking some Etsy product using Adobe Illustrator. She’s quickly picked up one of the harder to learn design software programs. While I spent all sorts of time over the past few years learning the intricate details of Photoshop (Illustrator’s more photogenic cousin), I had forgotten a ton about Illustrator, so it’s been a learning (re-learning?) experience for both of us. Good stuff being done here, so be sure to check out MoseandZoe.com in the coming weeks for new stuff. Or check it out now, for slightly-less-new-but-still-very-cool hand-made crafts.

Movie Night
We watched The Pursuit of Happyness with The Fresh Prince. It was pretty good. Tonight I think we’re watching Running with Scissors.

Safari
Spent a few minutes this week playing around with the Windows version of Apple’s Safari web browser. Much like iTunes for windows, it’s just not as good when its not on the OS X platform. It certainly displays the pages quickly enough, but there’s no advantage to using it over say Firefox or Opera. Maybe someday, though.

A Scanner Darkly

Rotoscoping is used in this film. The whole movie is traced over, giving it an animated effect, and for the subject matter (sci-fi-conspiracy and drug-use) it seemed appropriate. I liked the story, and the visuals certainly kept it interesting. Keanu Reeves appears to play the same character in every movie, and keeps it up in this one.

Casino Royale

Seeing the prior James Bond movie (Die Another Day, with Pierce Brosnan) right afterwards made this Bond movie (with Daniel Craig) seem much, much better. Lots of spy-stuff and running and chasing and shooting (and product-placement) here, and a pretty good Bond story, too.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Kate summed it up well, saying that it didn’t really advance the plot at all in the story, it just set up another sequel (currently in theatres). It wasn’t a bad movie, but the pirates didn’t seem very piratey in their endeavors, and I thought a few of the special effects felt a little 1980′s.

Anyone out there see any good movies lately?

This could be your chance to be our neighbor in the new Rockland Ave. We promise to let you borrow a cup of sugar and/or eggs as needed. There are also a couple of other houses, 2 houses in the other direction, for sale. I think they might have garages, if you’re interested in that kind of thing.

We’re really happy with the neighborhood we’re in. It’s active, but not crazy. You can walk down the street and not get run down, and the neighbors are friendly. It’s certainly made moving far away easier.

In Other News
This is the 400th post we’ve made on Rockland-Ave.com! So go us! We’d like to thank the academy, and our loyal readers and lurkers. Without you, we would have been bored of this long ago. Sometimes it’s hard to think of stuff to write about, but being able to see what we’ve done with ourselves over the past few years has been pretty darn cool.

Social? Yes we are
Yesterday we met up with NC locals Kat and her husband Matt. We went to see the movie Children of Men which was very dark and gloomy, and not the feel-good-movie-of-they-year by any stretch of the imagination. I thought it was great movie and a great story, and a scary vision of the future. It made V for Vendetta seem like a comedy. We all agreed to see something a bit more light hearted the next time we go out together. It was quality sci-fi though, that’s for sure.

We also ate at Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries. Maxium taste and maximum unhealthyness! I had a double-cheeseburger, which in retrosepct was a bit too much, but it was really good. Kate mentioned the fries were very good, reminding her of salt and vineger chips a little. Kat and Matt are fun to hang out with, and know where the good burger joints are.

Tonight
Me planted firmly in front of the tube watching the season premier of this.

MosesandZoe.com
Kate’s been a machine at the sewing machine! Be sure to visit (and re-visit) her Etsy page at MosesandZoe.com to see what she’s been up to!

Zoe has started fetching again. She used to be all into fetching water bottle caps, but then she got bored with that and refused to bring them back. Now she has claimed a little pink pom pom. She carries it over to me in her mouth while making a pitiful moaning sort of meow. Then she drops it and gives a series of chirps, which is of course my cue to throw it for her. She is really not a “trained” cat at all, I am the trained one. So I throw it and she races after it and sits on it and grabs it in her paws, gives it a death shake with her teeth, brings it back and we start all over.

Before Christmas Pat and I rented “Little Miss Sunshine.” I really liked it, especially the end. I found the last ten minutes or so of the movie very amusing and watched the ending about four times before we had to return it because it was only a one day rental. We also rented “Akeela and the Bee,” a movie about a girl from a bad neighborhood who enters a spelling bee. Another feel-good movie. We were going to rent “An Inconvenient Truth” but their three copies were all rented out already.

My Mom and Bill stopped by on the 26th at about 11:00 at night and then left the next morning after a breakfast and a walk around the neighborhood. Bill also helped Pat remove a stubborn license plate screw. Pat was practically doing an Irish jig when Bill pulled out his tools and removed the errant screw. Pat had spent days WD-40ing the screw, but couldn’t get it out without the right tools.

They are coming back on the 30th after visiting Bill’s daughter’s family in Suwanee, GA. We are going to put them right back to work! Bill is going to help us install our Christmas presents of a new shower head and programmable thermostat. And my Mom is going to help me hang all our pictures. They are only going to be around for one night again and then headed back to RI. Way too short of a visit!

I am working on making more stuff for MosesandZoe.com. Yesterday I put in a Black Cat Pin and a new White Cat Pin to replace the one I sold to Chris. I am also in the process of making another set of pillows. This set is black, white, and red.