Somusing

Since I actually became a fan of the Harry Potter books (I was late to that game), I haven't watched the movies as critically as I used to. I enjoyed the sixth movie very much. On reflection, it's missing a lot of the most important stuff from the book (many memories concerning Voldemort, for example). But I still liked it. I love the mix of normal teenage stuff and life-or-death danger.

Last Friday, we woke up to a hot air balloon coming our way: We often see them in the sky north of us, but they almost never come south. This one went almost directly over our house and then, to avoid power lines, went west and landed in a small park down the road. The kids and I drove the half mile or so to watch them take it down, and I learned a little about flying hot air balloons from one of the ground crew. (Now that must be a pretty boring job--following a hot air balloon in a van and trying to figure out where it's going to land.) Did you know there's no steering? Just up and down. Wind currents change direction at different elevations, so they steer by going up or down and seeing where the wind takes them. Interesting. And kind of scary. (Maybe they have a way of knowing which direction the wind is going. I don't know.) That was our morning adventure. Friday's nighttime adventure was attending a star party at Craters of the Moon National Monum...

We didn't get around to making s'mores while camping, so Erin made them over the gas burner in the kitchen: Better late than never!

The trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie first reminded me of that movie from the '80s, Young Sherlock Holmes , which my family loved and watched many times. (I should mention that sometimes the movies we loved were loved just because my grandpa happened to tape them off the Disney Channel, so it was a matter of access rather than quality of the movie. From what I can remember, Young Sherlock Holmes was pretty good, but I haven't seen it since I was a teenager.) And then it reminded me that I'd never read a Sherlock Holmes story or book, although I've tried to make my son read them. This seemed like something I ought to remedy. I decided to start with the first novel in which Sherlock Holmes appeared, published in 1897. For the most part, I thought it was delightful, but I was surprised and amused (and a little taken aback) that the background story of the crime was a highly imaginative tale about the crazy Utah Mormons, complete with harems, strict doctrin...

Certainly my expectations were not high, so maybe this means nothing, but I liked G-Force . Will Arnett and Tracy Morgan are among those actors who can say just about anything and it will sound funny to me. But besides that, it was a fun movie. (Again, though, my expectations were pretty low, because the last kid movie I saw was excruciating.)

In spite of a wishy-washy ending, this is a delightful little movie. I generally like Luke Wilson, who plays a guy depressed for unknown (until later) reasons. He's the new guy in the neighborhood and just wants to be left alone, but curious and well-meaning neighbors invade his life when someone notices an image of Jesus in the new stucco on his house. I liked it a lot and just wish the end had stuck to the movie's guns a little more clearly.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is a fantastic book. I think it might be my favorite book this year, even though I'm not a runner. It's right up there with The Omnivore's Dilemma and Mountains Beyond Mountains . It has inspired Jon to start running barefoot, and the kids have run with him a few to several times (depending on which kid). Unfortunately, it has only inspired me to want to go barefoot all the time, which is not practical in these parts (it's about 20 degrees outside right now). I do have plans to become a runner, though. Check back with me in a year. My non-running aside, though, I think everyone should read this book. It's full of riveting information and also funny and easy to read. I loved it!