I liked Spider-Man 3. I had heard people being down on it, and while I agree it was not as good as SM or SM 2, it was still very good. I had major concerns about there being three villains in the film – that is where the older Batman movies began to go very very wrong. Usually, when you have more than one villain, you end up with lots of fights and little story and no character development.

Spider-Man 3 did a very good job of navigating the triple villains. They did it by unifying everything around the “darkness within” theme. All the characters, Spider-Man, Harry, Sandman, and Eddie Brock, all had to fight the darkness within. So the story line held together, and there were good relationships and good development as a result.

Most of the major story lines were RIGHT out of the comic books. I imagine there were multiple “oh, come on” moments for people seeing these stories for the first time, but all the major events (except for Sandman killing Uncle Ben) were right out of Spiderman lore. Harry’s issues with Peter and his ultimate fate? Out of the books. Venom’s origins and weakness? Check (including the bells in the church tower!). Gwen Stacy? Okay, so she was not dropped from the Brooklyn Bridge by the original Green Goblin, but her appearance is appreciated by fans like me.

There were LOTS of signs and foreshadowing in the film as well. Keep an eye and ear out for details, and they keep coming back again and again.

Bruce Campbell as a maitre’d is lots of fun.

I do not think that Spider-Man 3 is not uber-deep, but it is a well made, well shot, thoughtful, entertaining film that is worthwhile to see. If SM and SM 2 were “10s,” I’d say Spider-Man 3 was an “8.” Go see it – it is a good 2+ hours.

Last week, Meredith and I went with about 140 seniors to Atwood Lake Resort for the students’ Senior Trip. Senior Trip is CVCA’s annual tradition of sending all the the seniors in a class on a trip together for several days. We left last Tuesday afternoon and got back Friday morning.

I was not supposed to go on the trip this year, but there was a last-minute chaperon cancellation, so Mer asked if I would go, which I did. I was able to get a small cabin of guys I knew, and because a couple of guys could not make it, I ended up being the official chaperon for only three guys (instead of the usual 7-9). We even were able to each get our own bedroom in the cabins (normally the students have to share a bedroom, since there are only four bedrooms).

My guys brought down an X-box and fully stocked Wii, so they were able to intorduce me to Super Smash Brothers, a game where up to four classic characters (Link, Mario, Donkey Kong, etc.) from Nintendo fight each other for up to ten minutes. You score points based on how you maul the other players, and when you “die,” you come right back. This was an older Nintendo game, so it used the classic multi-button, multi-joystick controller to work. I learned several things:
1) Super Smash Brothers is WAY too hectic for me – too much chaos going on all at once.
2) Being thrown into a video game with minimal conception of how it works lands you in last place every time.
3) The Wii remotes are MUCH better for games than the standard controllers. I suspected that the Wii was fun, and based on my experience with an older game, I was right.

You must not think that we were the only cabin nerdin’ it up. Ombusdman’s cabin had a two-player stand-alone version of Guitar Hero, and if you think that is too cool for official nerdom, then Ombudsman and his cabin held a LAN party, where they networked five laptops together to play Civ III. How cool is that? The last night, Ombudsman took his show on the road (to escape the hordes of boxer-clad Guitar Heroes in his cabin), and we set up the LAN in my cabin for three of us to play Civ IV.

The trip seemed to go pretty smoothly. This was the year that Mer and her co-advisor were in charge, so she was in demand a lot during events. When events were not going on, she spent quite a bit of her time in her (very social) cabin. I dropped in when I could, but I still saw quite a bit less of her this year compared to last year. It did rain some, but the kids seemed okay with that, and it never seemed to rain long. The indoor pool, mostly ignored last year, was a HUGE draw this year.

Each chaperon has official things to do, and mine this year were helping to proctor two of the three AP tests that had to be given during the trip. That was not hard – the kids were quietly taking their tests, and I spelled one of our guidance counselors, so I never had too much responsibility, and I was only “on” for  30 – 40 minutes each of two days. The other duty I had was being with the bowling trip, which is not hard since I get to play. I bowled with two of my co-workers, and I did okay (although I choked away the lead twice in three games after being beaten soundly in the first game). I got around 120 (I think my high game was 125 or so) for the three or four games I played.

Each morning and evening had organized stuff for the kids, and the rest of the time was free time. The morning entertainment included a slightly soggy scavenger hunt one day, and the next day an address on lessons learned in college by the sister of one of our teachers who is an expert on Islam and was heading to Iraq the next day. That was followed up by team activities like horseshoes, games, and tug-of-war (we have teams that compete for pride and a $10 gift certificate (zeugma)). In the evenings, Tuesday night had team naming/team cheer followed by Ombudsman’s Feats of Strength that involved eating or drinking nasty things (I think the barfer count was three this year). Wednesday we had a Christian band play, followed by the Cavs basketball game on a projector. Thursday was our pseudo-formal sit-down dinner and senior share-time.

The most eventful thing to happen was a cabin decided to launch water balloons at students after the dinner while they were still in nice dresses and shirts and such. I did not see the retaliation, but Ombudsman, on a trip back to his cabin to get another network cable, had to get Mer’s co-advisor to put a stop to the 40 or so people that were laying siege to the offenders’ cabin. I guess it was quite a sight.

I had to leave early on Friday to get to a doctor’s appointment, but it seems like the packing up went well. I did have to tell my cabin to put the video games away and pack, which they did. Mer then had to ask them the same later after I left, but they complied again.

The saddest part of the trip was that my trusty HP digital camera broke – it simply won’t power on anymore. I’m afraid it may have been exposed to raw Spam juice when I was helping to set up the Feats of Strength. I’m sad that my blog will be text-only for awhile now.

Nice trip, but I am very glad Mer is not going to be in charge anymore. If I do go back in the future, we should get to spend more time together.

A few months ago my friend Matt gave me radio dramas of four of The Chronicles of Narnia. He had been given a whole set as a gift, and so the four he already owned, he gave to me. These include The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Horse and His Boy; and The Last Battle. I have been listening to these for the last four or five weeks when I ran on the treadmill. They are well done on the whole. My biggest gripe is that the actor voicing Aslan tends to over-act (he drawsssss out sylablessssss dramatically while changing volume at the same time – it is an odd effect). Of course, since in my mind Aslan clearly has the voice of James Earl Jones, any actor was going to have a hard time playing him.

I’m almost finished with the series, and have two observations about The Last Battle:
1) High King Peter of Narnia keeps the keys that lock the door to Aslan’s country when Narnia ends. He is also the High King above all kings of Narnia. It dawned on me today that his name is not accidental (Peter was given the “keys” to heaven, was the greatest of the apostles and was the “rock” that the church was built on).
2) Having a book dramatized or read to you is interesting. Take this as an example. I heard (when talking about King Tirian, when we first meet him), “There was no one with him that spring morning except his dearest friend, Jewel the eunuch.” That is a very odd thing to have in a book meant to be read by children. I know C.S. Lewis was widely read and all, but it still struck me as a strange choice to have in the book. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized it was Jewel the unicorn.

Through a dizzying series of events and quick decisions, Mer and I bought a house next to CVCA last week. We talked about the house on Monday and Tuesday, toured it Tuesday night, got pre-approved for a loan on Wednesday, and signed initial papers on Thursday. Whew.

We love our current house, but it is common for us to be gone 11 hours/day or sometimes even more. We have done that for 4 years together, and I have done that for 6 years total (more like 10 hours/day when by myself – I could leave a little earlier then). That time commitment was getting us tired.

Anyway, we both independently started thinking about things when a colleague e-mailed that his house was for sale as he was moving to Kentucky over the summer. The house is a 5-minute walk to CVCA, is affordable (just), is very nice, and has lots of room in case we ever have a child or in case we ever need to offer care to an aging parent. It seemed too good to pass up, so we bought it. Now, like so many of the idle rich, we have a house in the country and one in town. We hope to sell the one in the country soon.

Mer and I made a quick trip out to the Michigan home of Mom to see Mom and Marc and Sis-der and the World’s Cutest Niece (Prof. Pop was busy gradin’ papers, so we did not get to see him in Michigan). We left Friday after school, and we came back today (Sunday), so it was very much a whirlwind tour. But, it was Mom’s Day, and Sis-der, Prof. Pop, and WCN are moving on Friday to go to Alabama, so we wanted to take this as a last chance to see them before they became much farther away.

Mer and I got to the house about 10:00 on Friday (it would have been about 9:30 if I had not remembered exit 13 as exit 31 – ooopps). We stayed up and chatted with Mom and Marc, and then went to bed. It is very quiet and peaceful there, so Mer and I slept well, getting up about 8:00. Mom and Marc were gracious enough to take us out to breakfast, so after we had showered, we all walked the 1/2 mile or so to Sammie’s restaurant. We all ordered skillets. I got scrambled eggs on TOP of a mound of home fries covered in cheese. Wow, was that good! AND Sammie’s had free refills on hot chocolate! What a great breakfast. We tromped back to the house, and Sis-der and WCN were there waiting, although WCN was napping. Aunt Linda showed up a few minutes later, and we sat around and talked until I had to take a nap myself. Mer, of course, was grading the whole time. When I got up from my nap, Mer was still grading, but all the other ladies had gone for a walk (Marc was puttering in the yard). Everyone came back, and we talked and ate (Mom always has a ton of junk food on hand). Aunt Linda left, and Sis-der and I went for a walk to the beach while Mom put WCN to bed for nap number two of the day. When we got back, we had an early supper of Marc’s excellent grilled burgers. WCN woke up, and so she became the rightful center of attention for an hour or so. During this time, WCN demonstrated her promising intellect by picking up some light reading (while munching on a cracker).

After Sis-der and WCN left, Mer graded while Marc, Mom and I watched the History Channel (the history of welding, which  is appealing to Mom since she is in construction. It was quite interesting, in a nerdy sort of way.). We did make time to get down to the beach to see the sunset – it was beautiful. Lake Michigan is a fantastic lake, and the wind was up last night. So, in a clear sky with a pretty sunset, there was a strong wind and two-foot waves. It was great!

This morning, we took Mom to Sis-der’s house to drop her off for a few hours so she could babysit the WCN while Sis-der packed. We got to see Prof. Pop, and in a nice bonus, my brother Jeremy had spent the night on his cross-country trek from Utah back to Maine for the summer. We were not able to visit long – only about 30 minutes or so, but it was nice to see everyone. The trip back was uneventful, although Mer and I did get through six 30-minute lectures on Faulkner (three lectures on The Sound and the Fury and three on Absalom, Absalom!) which were fascinating – I had known almost nothing about Faulkner. He sounds really interesting, but it sounds like his novels are difficult to read.

Anyway, a quick, but very rewarding and fun, getaway.

If you don’t mind the resolution, here is a short video of the lake from last night:

Last Saturday, Mer and I went to Actors’ Summit’s production of the musical Quilters. They always do a good job at Actors’ Summit, and this was no exception. The cast was of six women, and they could all sing, and the harmony was very tight. The premise of the musical is to tell the trials of one pioneer family through the medium of creating a “legacy quilt.” There are 16 squares to the quilt, and each square is a scene in the play. The musical ends with the unveiling of the finished quilt, which was HUGE. It was probably 20 x 20.

I don’t know if I was just tired, or if I could not relate to six pioneer women quilting, but while I very much enjoyed the play, I rarely got connected with it. There was one scene involving the death of a woman’s husband on the railroad that was so wonderfully acted that I got sucked in there, but mostly I enjoyed the play without relating to it. Still, it is a good play, with good music.

Last Friday, CVCA had its annual Junior-Senior Banquet. It is the major CVCA social function in the spring, and you have to be invited by a junior or a senior to attend. Since Junior-Senior Banquet is a mouthful (and is hard to spell with chocolates), it is commonly referred to simply as “prom,” even though there is no dancing – it is a formal meal and some entertainment; no dancing.

Prom was nice this year because Meredith was a guest, and not in charge. She was more relaxed, so I got to enjoy her company more. Also, I thought I was going to have to schlep lots of equipment into the building like I did last year, but they had rented a sound system, so I only needed a DVD player, a projector, a computer, and a few cables. That was not that bad.

It is great fun to see the kids get all dressed up. They behaved very well, and seemed to be having a good time. The food was excellent, and I had a good time at the chaperon table chatting with some fun colleagues.

The entertainment part of the evening is traditionally the showing of the Senior Video, which is a collection of still shots with music, and a few videos, all of the senior class. It is really well done – Mr. Myers spends a LOT of time on this project every year, and you can tell. The only problem with the video this year was my fault – I turned up the sound too loud, so you could not hear the kids laughing at their pictures. That laughter adds much to the experience, but it was drowned out this year (the sound system was not easily accessible, so I could not turn it down once I discovered it was too loud).

After the video, a magician took the stage. Like all good audience members, I was sure I was going to see through his tricks. Out of the 12 or so tricks he did, I only figured out one (a watch that “magically” reset itself to a time suggested by an audience member almost assuredly had a pressure-sensitive spot on the band, since the magician held it by the band in one spot the whole time). It was very impressive.

Once the magician was done, the students cleared out to go to “After Party,” an event where they can change clothes and hang out at the Natatorium. They can eat, play games, etc. We swung by for about an hour. It looked fun, but we were tired, and did not have a good change of clothes.

After the half marathon last year (read all about it here), I kept running some distance, but I slowly turned my attention to speedwork on the treadmill as the winter came in (I don’t like running when the temperature gets in to the low 40s). I got serious about working on my speed after I got back from Christmas Break. Starting in early January, I have been moving up 0.1 mph per week on the treadmill, running for 25 minutes. I have mostly stuck to that schedule, taking time off for a cold and for spring break. My goal was to break 20 minutes for a 5 k distance, and then maybe to look at breaking 19 minutes.

As of today, I made the first part of the goal. I have worked my way from 8.0 mph to 9.4 mph. That is going from a 23:15 5k time to a 19:50 5k time, and I still feel pretty good. Granted, it is on a treadmill. I am suspicious about treadmills because they are flat, there is no wind, and the “ground” is moving backwards when your foot hits it. On the positive side though, I run that speed for 25 minutes, which is almost 4 miles. It is my hope the extra distance will help me compensate for training on the treadmill.

I’ll continue working on speed for another 5 weeks or so. If I can maintain the 0.1 mph/week increase, I should have a decent chance of breaking 19:00 in a 5 k by early June. I go on vacation in June, and after that I have to switch back to distance for a half-marathon in October. Still, I’m hoping to find one or two races over the next month to see how I do in a real race.

Tonight was the last Fools show of the year. It was a good show – we had solid games, and a good crowd of about 45 people, including several Former Fools. It was a good time. We had three solid shows this year – I am very pleased, especially where we only had 5 people in the group, which is small. It was much fun to be in the show tonight (I was in 4 games), and it was great to see the Former Fools back out supporting us (and joining in the fun for Audience Participation Freeze!).

Now, off to bed….happy!

My manager has made me pitch in Wii Sports baseball two nights in a row. I’ve thrown two no-hitters in a row, but I have a slightly pulled groin muscle from pitching. I’ve heard rumor that some people can pitch sitting down, but where is the fun in that?

On a rating scale where 1000 is pro, I’m a 322. If I keep going, I might make The Show in another 10 games or so.