Monthly Archives: January 2016

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This afternoon, I overheard the tell-tale giggles of a tickle war happening without me. CJ was in the playroom with the two older kids and they were having obvious fun.

We ended up in a massive pile on the floor; even the dog got involved by licking any exposed faces. CJ hates his feet being tickled, but I somehow managed to pin his feet between my legs. He was going to lose! MJ had CJ’s underarms, Q has his ribs and belly. Poor Daddy.

Our downfall came when Q decided to stop what she was doing to pick up one of the toy phones. She starting yelling “hello” into it and I informed her that “Now is not the time to make a phone call.” She took this to mean I also wanted to talk on the phone, so she began holding it up to my ear so I would talk as well. With this distraction, CJ was able to shift the tide in his favor.

Needless to say, CJ won. Another tickle battle lost in our eight years together. One of these days, I swear I’ll win one. Oh, who am I kidding? I probably won’t. But it sure won’t stop me from trying.  🙂

Russian Cinema Attempt #1

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Today I tried out Russian cinema for the first time. Still deciding.

My sister introduced me to a movie a while ago that was…well, okay. Having read the book, I was fully expecting the male protagonist to have a Russian accent. He did, but I was curious to see if he was actually of Russian decent or if he was just a good actor. So I turned to my old standby, IMDb, to look him up. I love IMDb. It is such a wealth of information. (and no longer do I have sit there going “Ah! What else is that person in?) But I digress…

Turns out this actor has only ever been in one American Hollywood movie. Everything else he has ever acted in has been Russian. So I decided to check some of it out. I thought he was a good actor and he has won awards for some of his Russian films. So today, I watched My Iz Budushchego. I watched it in Russian with the English subtitles.

So, as far as my one, brief foray into Russian movie watching, I noticed there was not much in the way of an exposition. Within the first seven minutes, there had been two fights I did not fully understand even though I was reading along. I eventually caught up. Kind of.

Once the main problem occurred, I really enjoyed most of the war scenes. Which is saying something since I don’t really like them in any movie. The rising and falling action kept me intrigued and there were even moments of good humor. The denouement – and I use that term loosely – was…weird. Obviously the movie ended but it was after an overly dramatic scene in/at a lake and a strange scene in a square the just felt awkward and I wasn’t really sure how they were supposed to wrap up the movie.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and look forward to trying out some more Russian cinema to get a better view of it. I’ll probably stick to the same main actor though since I don’t really know anything about any other actors or directors in order to look up their stuff.

 

 

 

 

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All the wrapping paper has been thrown away. The last of the gift bags have been folded and stored for next year. As I have been going through everyone’s gifts and finding homes around the house for them, I was able to pay a little closer attention to the charm my parents (well, Mom) had gotten me for my charm bracelet. It is a simple silver heart engraved with the words ‘Best Mom.’

When I first opened it, I didn’t realize it was engraved, so I only thanked them for the charm. I wish I would have noticed the words sooner, because I would have liked to thank her for them as well.

My mother does not hide that in both our child rearing and career paths, my sister and I have differed from what she herself did and what she believes to be best for us. Therefore, this gift really struck a chord with me. You don’t buy this type of gift for someone if you don’t believe it yourself; at least a little. It means so much to me that even though we do/did things differently, she still thinks I am a good mom. Well, I think she’s a good mom, too.  🙂