I heard from a friend that E. L. Konigsburg, 83, died recently (April 20 of this year to be exact) and the reason it impacted me so much is because Annabeth and I have enjoyed two of her books this year: The View from Saturday and we will literally finish From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler this week, which were reading during the time of her death. Obviously, I didn’t know Konigsburg, but she provided Annabeth and I such engaging storytelling this year, and as we learned a few months ago, she graduated valedictorian of Farrell High School, located about 30 minutes from my home town of New Castle. I look forward to reading with Annabeth every night, but especially when it’s one of Konigsburg’s books.
Author: Jason Alley
Up and down and all around
Since it’s Spring Break, the regularly scheduled fitness class I attend on Thursdays is on hiatus this week. However, one of my colleagues was willing to lead our fitness group in running the Fisher Stadium steps at Lafayette. Before running the steps, we did a number of warm up exercises like jogging the track followed by wind sprints then various lunges and suicides on the football field.
The routine we ran on the steps was simply designed, but tough to execute:
- Round 1: Run the steps skipping every other step. Rest at the top and walk down as a group.
- Round 2: Run the steps hitting every step. Rest at the top and walk down as a group.
- Round 3: Run the steps skipping every other step until the tunnel. After the tunnel, run hitting every step. Rest at the top and walk down as a group.
- Round 4: Run the steps however we wish (I repeated round 3). Rest at the top and walk down as a group.
My lungs feel more open and my body feels happy to have done something productive. I’d do it again (hint, hint, Chris!).
The Croods, and The Rave under new management
Yesterday, AbC and I went to The Rave, now a Carmike Cinema, to see The Croods. I learned a few things about the new cinema company:
- GOOD: They offer a super matinee price between the hours of 4:00-6:00PM, though I’m not sure on what days other than Sundays, so tickets are $5.50 each. Sure, this is the price I used to pay for a full-priced ticket when I was in high school, but to avoid sounding like a crotchety old man I’ll move on and be grateful for the reasonably priced movie ticket.
- BAD: The Rave, when managed by its parent company, Rave Cinemas and not Carmike, offered cheaper concessions. They also offered big containers off Kernel Season’s popcorn “shaky stuff,” which Carmike is no longer offering. So, now I’ll have to “roll my own” and bring a container of white cheddar with me.
As for the movie, this wasn’t DreamWorks Animation’s best effort. It was cute though likely *way* off describing with any sense of accuracy human evolution and the way in which the world was physically changing. The scenery at times reminded me of Pandora from Avatar and less of what I imagine the evolving world to have looked like. But, once I cleared these hurdles I enjoyed the movie rather thoroughly because my company was superb sharing with me her Swedish Fish and doing a magnificent job of holding and sharing the popcorn. It’s hard for me to be disappointed with a movie because I go more for the shared experience than for the movie.
If you’re a parent and you’re looking for a fun movie that might actually get your kid to ask some questions about the origins of the world and the species we live among today then I recommend going to see The Croods. If you live in the Valley, I recommend making the trip to The Rave or wait until it comes to The Roxy in Northampton where tickets are $3.00 each and concessions are *a lot* cheaper than the cineplexes.
Guac and coloring Kitty
Before spending 2.5 hours at AbC’s school talent show this evening, we colored Hello Kitty while eating chips and guacamole and our chicken quesadillas reheated. I have to admit it was relaxing and fun. She only had a few crayons in a box so I limited my coloring choices to just those crayons. She opted to color with her many colored pencils. I forgot how much I enjoy coloring.
Note to self: we need more crayons!
A pipe dream in the basement?
Finishing our basement would give us over 500 square feet of extra space for playing or movie watching or whatever. On top of that it would give us another half bath. I’m entertaining the idea with my dad very loosely since it’s an investment I’m not yet ready to make. Regardless, I’d like to know what the materials would cost since the labor would be fronted by my dad and me (mostly him since I still need to work full time and because he’s more of a master at this stuff) as well as AbC. I have a number of great memories doing home improvement projects with my family as well as going to job sites with my dad as a young boy and teenager, so I think the time is right to help AbC build some similar memories of her own.
A productive two hours
Because of the snow/sleet mess that fell on us last night, school was delayed by two hours. Since I had my weekly team meeting this morning I brought AbC to work where she took advantage of the time cleaning up some of her school work from yesterday and getting a head start on tonight’s spelling homework. She’ll be that much further along when she comes back to work to finish tonight’s homework and hopefully find time for a little online gaming. It can’t be all-work-and-no-play.
Making his mark
It seems the universe is telling us to wait on getting a dog because we seem to continuously take care of someone else’s. For about a week we took care of Lexi and now we are letting out our neighbor’s dog, Tugboat, a rolie-polie, brute of a pug with as much personality to match. Tonight was our first assignment, which occurred during a respectable snow storm. But, that didn’t stop us from walking him around the big field near our house while letting him sniff and mark every blessed pole, tree, and whatever else contained just the right smell.
A lucky walk
After playing all day with one of her girlfriends, AbC and I took a walk with our favorite dogsitting dog, Lexi, a long-haired chihuahua. Though we didn’t wear or drink anything particularly green today, unless Sprite counts for the girls, I found walking outside in the crisp, cold, almost-but-not-quite-yet Spring refreshing enough to feel the Luck o’ the Irish was upon us.
Upcoming readings
I’m usually on the lookout for books for my daughter to read independently. We’ve read a number together this school year and she’s read a number on her own, but lately I see her enjoying chapter books with a little more substance. Currently, she’s reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and I hope she doesn’t mind me writing this, but I have heard her laugh out loud reading it, which makes me smile big.
So, to make the selection process simpler and more of a slam dunk, I started looking through the Newberry Award winners list. A few stuck out I’m hoping she’ll enjoy, which are also available at our local library:
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1982 honor book)
- Shiloh (1992 winner)
- Sarah, Plain and Tall (1986 winner)
- Walk Two Moons (1995 winner)
Posting by email
I want to see how WordPress handles an attached image when posting by email.
