Learned yesterday that my maternal grandmother passed away over the weekend.  Grandma Root (1922-2016) was sadly the grandparent I barely knew.  We'd met a few times when she came down to see my aunt (father's sister) who lived locally.  And, until her health started failing and she moved into a senior center up in Sasketchewan, I got Christmas ( Read more... )

Belated congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law on the birth of their twin boys, Augustus Alexander and George Gideon, on 10/8/16.

More bland than bad somewhat sadly.  Meryl Streep is, as always, a treasure.  As is Kevin Kline.  And Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer does a good job potraying someone both deeply depressed and really angry.  But despite having lots of interesting character seeds, the movie never really grows them into a really interesting story.  Also the writing, ( Read more... )

The brother got my internet connection for the pc back up and running. It took several hours and many beers, but I no longer need surf from the Kindle...

Off to the family Christmas Eve get together. Best wishes to all of you...

Click to view

Expecting their first child, couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) head all across the country (plus Montreal) to try out pick out a new home. Visiting various friends and family to try and find the perfect people to raise their upcoming family around. A low-key, laid back, bitter-sweet comedy...

( Read more... )

Stop me if you've heard this one. Once proud native peoples, now seemingly trapped in lives of poverty, violence and alcohol. Drunken, abusive dad. Teen-age kids spiralling into crime or despair. The main change-up here being that its New Zealand's Maori. Of course with well traveled ground like this its not so much the story, but how you tell ( Read more... )

Survived the Kid-a-palooza, as did everyone else. Very little in the way of cranky pouting and the like. My uncle's oldest girl and my step-sister Jessica's two oldest are all looking crazy mature for 11-13 year olds. Uncle Tim especially is not looking forward to the coming years of teen-girl-dom ( Read more... )

Took Sam over to the parent's so my bro's kids could play with him. And they seemed very happy with that, even if he spent 90% of the hour and a half hiding behind a couch...

And also some traditional music for your enjoyment:

Click to view