The Turner Family

Wow, a bloody throwback to the familiar slasher movies of yore -- titles like the Friday the 13th juggernaut and the Scream franchise -- Severance spins the genre British-style. Tiffani and I agreed to rent it, consulting on the phone from the video store, based solely on what was available online via Apple's FrontRow . The trailer appeared to weigh the movie heavier on the humor than the gore, and sold us thusly. Considering the gushing blood of the first scene, we knew we were in for it, and hoped the movie the kids were watching upstairs held their attention and kept them from creeping down the steps. A team-building office retreat to the outback of eastern Europe is the excuse for the seven ensemble characters to be lost and making bad decisions in the woods. Some of the scenes are outright funny -- without spoiling much, perhaps the best are the paintball extremes -- and some of the gore originates with humor, but one can tell that the director and writer were fans of th...

Sunday afternoon at the park. This is another view of the rapids on the Potomac that Ahni has previously shown. It's pretty stunning to find these rapids on the river that we think of as the wide, placid water flowing gently through the D.C. area. I'd guess that we were less than 15 miles upstream from the Lincoln Memorial. Meg, Garrett and I are standing by the flood marker post that Ahni mentioned in her blog entry. I would guess that the bottom of the post is at least 50 feet above the water level in the gorge on the day we were there. So, during a big spring flood, the water fills the gorge and then spills out all over the park. Farther downstream, where the river valley is very wide, perhaps it's hard to notice a spring flood at all. There was a canal built on the west bank of the river, complete with locks to pass these rapids. It was built by a group that included George Washington. They began in 1785. His home, MT. Vernon, is probably 20+ miles downstream. He had se...

Augusten Burroughs' memoir of the same name, the story of his sordid, increasingly unstructured childhood is thoroughly well-acted, certainly explicitly set in its late 1970s period, and, despite the best intentions of talented television director, Ryan Murphy , only marginally watchable . The period music, wardrobe and set design, to me, while well-intentioned and researched, seemed a little intrusive and stagy. Annette Bening is a contemptible mother, Bryan Cox plays well a creepy surrogate father and analyst, I enjoy everything about Alec Baldwin , Joseph Fiennes was sympathetic and hardly recognizable from his Shakespeare in Love facade, and the lead, Joseph Cross , seemed appropriately stoically reserved. Notable, though, is how Jill Clayburgh took on a decidedly unattractive appearance, much like Vanessa Redgrave did for Venus , and was the strongest, most stable adult in the film; Clayburgh's Agnes Finch is largely responsible for redeeming the movie near the end, ...

I had to work late tonight at school, so I was just coming home when the kids were heading off for bed. In the process of changing my clothes -- it was in the mid-80s today, and I couldn't wait to get my tie off and get into some shorts -- Tiffani yelled 'Christopher' which I knew meant something was up. I hustled upstairs and the kids were finished with their bedtime bathroom duties, a little informed and a little surprised, but Luther was certainly dead in the top bunk in Shea's room. Laying with some rigor on the blankets, and a whiff of an odor as well, I took Luther downstairs after the kids said their goodbyes and touched him for the last time, washed my hands and came back up for the goodnights. We all discussed Luther's passing while the bed was changed, and how it may have occurred, and the kids were understandably pretty upset. Sophia and Cori took it the hardest, with Nick working the logic of it all, how it paled, for him, to the pain he felt at Great G...

A view from one of the three overlooks at Great Falls Park . This was also the most treacherous of all the three overlooks. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70's. Lots of people had the same idea, there was a ten minute wait in traffic before we entered the park. As we were waiting two horseback riders passed us. Once in the park there were many people picnicking , lots and lots of dogs and some bicycles. I think most people visit the park just to walk the trails. There was a pole at this overlook which marked the "high water", pretty amazing considering how high we were already. The most current mark was in the 90's! Grandma got a birds' eye view of four very brave kayakers going through the falls. The rest of us climbed down to the water where these two were putting in below the falls. The foam on the water wasn't quite as beautiful in person as it is in this picture, but the girl sure was! We had a great time with Bil & Kay, it was...

New plants and a re-seeding of the lawn to freshen the immediate landscape: $ 2.5 yards of pine mulch delivered and installed: $$ Groceries for appetizers, snacks, sandwiches, and party supplies: $$$ Wine: $ Beer and keg equipment: $$$$ Slushee machine rental and margarita mixins: $$$$ Epic birthday party not necessarily held to celebrate self, but to get neighbors, family and friends together: Priceless . Early in the summer, I was languishing in full summer holiday mode, likely on the couch, when Tiff suggested we clean out and organize the garages. The logic behind working in the garages, besides the obvious tidiness, was the ultimate goal of a 40th birthday party for me; she had internally debated whether to tell me or not, whether it was going to be a surprise party, but rightfully settled on getting my assistance instead, since it was much of my clutter. Thus, June found us pitching stuff, CraigsListing stuff -- which was surprisingly fruitful, we downsized ourselves of spare...

As I said earlier "To the Top!" Dad and I finished the last three pieces we had left Friday before we quit on Thursday night to go to Josh's football game. We had several wasp nests to deal with and then had to figure out the angles for the roofs, both upper and lower. Josh and his friend Braidy helped me put the eaves trough back up. Looks better than the back, hey? I thought it was better to beat the sun on the south side and then work on the front so we finished the front on Saturday afternoon after strippng the south side. Before: Karen's Dad came over Friday morning and took the electrical service off the side of the house so I could get behind it to take the old siding down and install the new siding (right corner). After: The sun doesn't hit this side of the house until around 11:30am. The biggest slowdown was the wasps, bees and the BATS! There were three bats under the siding on Friday morning and four on Saturday morning. I managed to kill three and ha...