With so few missions yet, I think it’s important for the kids to see the last few shuttle missions. This is Discovery’s second-last trip.

It was beautiful to watch. This is the last launch scheduled to take part outside of daylight hours.

The kids are back in bed, but all the way back up the stairs my son was asking question after question about space. I hope he goes back to sleep soon.

Now I’m going to try to sleep, too – assuming there’s no more yelling this morning.

Fess Parker, 1924-2010

I always wished my Dad was more like Jim Coates in Old Yeller. I’m sure he meant well saying what he said, but every dog we had (and there were several) “went off to live on a farm” – even when we kids knew that was bullshit.

(via www.impawards.com)

Just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy with the whole family. We were only watching the regular editions and it is STILL 9 hours of movie.

Maybe we should’ve watched this one, instead.

So, we bought the Astro Boy DVD yesterday (although I had already provided an opportunity to see it last week thanks to teh intarwebs, technically fulfilling the promise to the kids that they could watch it as soon as I could get it).

My girl watched the DVD Extras this morning.

And then this happened.

Fulfilled a promise today.

My idea of an enjoyable afternoon: Ponyo with the 9-year-old.

BTW, Sosuke’s mother is a terrifying driver.

We did it WITHOUT having access to a television signal. We don’t have a satellite subscription, there is no cable TV here and we can’t pick up much of anything with our antenna.

Everything we watched we saw online (well, with the exception of the end of the women’s curling gold medal game, which we saw while eating snacks at an out-of-town restaurant because we couldn’t get home in time).

It would’ve been better if they hadn’t streamed using crap-ass Silverlight, and there were a couple of instances where we lost the feed for a few minutes due to network congestion. Actually, on the first day the olympics feed site went down for about an hour, so there was that glitch. But overall, it worked out well.

I’m glad we have our own internet connection now, streaming from the library would’ve been a nightmare.

Pretty damn cool.

And we still have 2 weeks to go. Quite a difference from Calgary in 1988, where we won 2 silver and 3 bronze, and that’s all.

Damn kids are never going to go to bed, now.

aaaaaaaaaaaa this is a bit scarey but a lot funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPv9qfYqLE wen you see the word ZOMBE close your eyes and plug your ears qwikly if you don’t like SCAREY!

(me) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa! help! zombe

(zombe) brains! brains!

(me) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

(music) bumbumbumbumbum

(zombe) i’m a zombe i eat 100000 brains a day but today i’m eating 100001!

(me) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! help! zombe! help! help! help! help! help! help! help! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

(J) A? wakeup A! it’s time to wakeup!

(me) yawn zzzzzzzz

(J screaming in my ear) A WAKE UP NOW!!!!!!!

(me) J go away… zzzzzzzz

(J) wawawa i wonna play with you

(me) you do? ok! wutya wonna play?

(J) how bot…… ZOMBES?!

(me) NO! not zombes!

(J) then how bot…..hide’n go seek?

(me) YES! i’m gonna hide and you count to 20!

(J) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 14 18 23 39 20! reddy or not hir i com!

(me hiding ) he’ll nevr find me here hehehe …1 minit latr

(J) found ya! hehehe tag your it

(me) hay i’ll get you bupba!

THE END

I don’t care what you think, I thought it was hilarious.

In the middle at the top is my 4yo son’s tadpole, who has now almost grown into an adult toad… he’s very proud!