slight delay in posting

The illustrated version of The Hobbit that I have been reading to Thomas.

I’m trying to work on a few different posts at the same time.  One is a For Love of Film, one is the next batch of Oscar-nominated directors.  Another is a look at Adapted Screenplays from 1912-1926.  And there are a couple of For Love of Books posts that I’m trying to work on.

Three great characters. And one not so great.

That, and I have been reading to Thomas from The Hobbit every night.  We just finished last night, after having started back in December.  Now we’re moving on to The Wind in the Willows.

Oh, and Veronica and I have been watching our way through “Doctor Who”.  After finishing all of the current run (Eccleston, Tenant, Smith), we also went back and started at the beginning.  The very beginning: “An Unearthly Child”, which aired originally on 23 November 1963.  Well, after watching a bunch of Hartnell (most of which were “meh” but definitely get “The Chase”) and every available serial with Troughton (who was awesome), we have been watching our way through the 3rd Doctor – Jon Pertwee, with some mixed results (Veronica really doesn’t like a particular companion who happens to not be Liz or Sarah Jane).  We’ve been trying to finish before the second half of Series 7 begins on 30 March.  We won’t quite make it, but it will be close.

All of this means the next post might be ready for tomorrow or it might not.  But there will be some coming soon.  And after finishing three different series which ran for over three years each (Year in Film ran from 30 Oct 2009 to 3 March 2013, The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture ran from 9 March 2010 to 17 March 2013 and The Top 100 Novels ran from 10 January 2010 to 24 February 2013) I am a bit exhausted.  So more soon.  But now I’m off to watch more Pertwee (only six more serials until Sarah Jane!).

And we’ll let you all know how Thomas’ science fair project goes.  We’re investigating if crushing Mentos before you put them in Diet Coke effects how much they explode.  Let the messiness begin!

 

How We Spent the 2013 Blizzard they Called Nemo

Thomas and I on a snow pile. Veronica took the picture and stayed far from the pile.

Well, for once the weathermen in Boston were right.  We got a blizzard.  The picture on the left is partial proof.  This powerpoint (BlizzardFeb13) is more proof.  We got closer to three feet of snow rather than two.  But, with the drifts, as you can see when you get to the first picture of the car, it went closer to five feet.  Also, our upstairs neighbors did a timelapse video which you can see here.  But, two days in a row home with Thomas and Veronica – can’t remember the last time that happened.  I love the snow.

 

What’s Coming in 2013

I hope you all enjoyed 2012.  We actually spent the whole year in one place, a place we like living in, so that alone was good for us.  And Thomas is having a much better time now at the end of the year than he was having during the start.

So, if you come to the blog to read about Thomas and to follow what he’s doing, we’ll try to keep updating it in 2013 as much as we can.  Meanwhile, now that Veronica and I both have iPhones, we’ll be trying to put more videos of him up on YouTube.  If you keep watching after the first video, it will keep playing them.  Or you can find them all here.

But, if you are here for the posts about film and literature and other random things that I feel like writing about, keep reading after the jump.

 

Merry Christmas from the Boston Becks

Well, it’s Christmas.  I suspect you might have already known that.

That pile under the tree has now pretty much been devoured.  We have eaten our eggs, coffee cake and sausage and we have our croque monsieurs and chicken cacciatore to come.  We are watching Pixar Shorts Vol II (though last night we watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and we watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol while opening presents), which Thomas got for Christmas.  And tonight it will be all about the new companion on the Christmas episode of Doctor Who.  Though before that, we’ll go out in the snow (yes – we actually have received the gift of a white christmas – at least it’s a gift to Erik).

Thanks to everyone who sent Thomas things – except for the pile in the back, everything under the tree was pretty much for him.  And he has been enjoying it all this morning.

 

Bronx Zoo and Sesame Place

Veronica and Thomas next to the famous Bronx Zoo cobra. It's actually really small.

Well, the reason for the big gap between the Year in Film and Best Picture for 1984 was that we went down to New York and Philadelphia on Thursday and Friday.

Bert, Veronica, Thomas and Ernie

All started out well on Thursday morning.  We zipped down to the Bronx in 3 1/2 hours (including stopping for breakfast) and we got to the north corner of the Bronx Zoo (Fordham Rd and Southern) by 10:08, just after the zoo opened.  All we had to do then was drive the four blocks down Southern and make a left into the zoo entrance.

It took 72 minutes.  On the worst paved major road I have ever been on.  Maybe next time instead of spending $150 million to run for a third term, Bloomberg should just spend his money on paving the damn road next to one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.  And put a cop at the intersection who won’t tell me “go down to the next light and make a left” when the next light is a one-way street running the wrong way.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was much better.  The zoo was nice (it was sunny and nice, although windy).  We saw a lot of things (although the Asia monorail didn’t open until the following Saturday) and Thomas had a nice time.  In fact, Thomas did great at both locations on the trip and the drive (but he did have a hard time calming down at night in the hotel because he was so excited).

 

Yet Another Family Update

Thomas among the rocks at Purgatory Chasm

With a weekend visit from my dad and my total inability, it would seem, to get anything typed, there has been a big lag on the blog lately.  We took a trip out to Purgatory Chasm while he was here, which is where the pictures are from.  So, here is a bit of a family update to keep everything going while I try to finish my piece on the next book (Midnight’s Children), the next film year (1983) and the next For Love of Books (Disney).  It would appear that we haven’t done a family update since Christmas so this is long overdue.

 

On Vacation

 

We will be seeing these people (V's mom and grandparents)

At best, I hope to get the Best Picture 1971 sometime in the next week, but that will be the only film / literature post in the next week.  We are off to Wisconsin before the crack of dawn in order to be there before midnight.  We’ll be back on Sunday.  Hopefully.

and this person (V's sister), though she will probably not feed any giraffes while we are there.

and this person (V's dad)

 

Family Update

While I am dealing with a bout of the flu and haven’t been able to be at the computer long enough to post anything new, I’ll throw up a family update.

I have the flu.  Getting better.  Still not well.  The last time I had a fever this high (102) was when I had pneumonia at Thanksgiving, 1995.

Veronica is doing fine.  Her department has finished their move and she now has her own office.

We had the meeting for Thomas’ IEP.  It looks he will be staying at the same school next year, which pleases us.  It looks like he will still be a in separate classroom, but a bigger one and he will be doing a lot more mainstreaming, which, again, pleases us.

He is also doing very well at swimming lessons (one unfortunately got cut short when one of the kids pooped in the pool).  He has started singing more songs including “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and, much to Veronica’s annoyance, “The Final Countdown.”

In a couple of weeks, Thomas will be getting some cavities filled.  Because of fears of how he would react to the drilling, he will actually be put under, which fills us with apprehension, as you can imagine.  That’s on June 4, so we’ll let people know after he’s out and awake.

 

Touring the U.S.A. (Not Quite in Style or Comfort)

My travels as a driver (pre-trip).

So, we got back on Saturday, driving through the remnants of Hanna, completing our journey of 7641 miles.

At one point on day 4 (day 2 of driving), we were in Nebraska (me having said we just got 2000 miles into the trip and seeing birds above and V saying “And here come the scavenger birds”) and we were trying to decide if we had just passed the same car for a second time, and we realized: We’re in a green Civic with a badly dented bumper, an Ernie bumper sticker, an Obama bumper sticker and Red Sox license plates.  We’re the ones that people are pointing at and saying, “I know they passed us before.”

The road I have driven (through 10 Sep 2008).

Well, we were gone fifteen and a half days.  We left very early on the 22nd of August (3:45 AM) because we were determined to make it the 1178 miles to Winchester, WI in one day (and we did).

In the time we were gone we went through 19 states, covering the majority of I-80 headed west and I-70, headed east.  I have now driven over 43% of the 41,000+ miles of the Eisenhower Interstate System and I must say: the most boring, ugliest, stretch of land in the country and the most beautiful, wondrous area are in the same state: Utah.  There’ll be more in depth on the trip itself after the jump.