The Reader, Zilker Kite Festival, Random Stuff
Mar 1 2009

Since I blog about parenting as well as business here on this oddly unusual and sometimes entertaining blog, here’s what happened this weekend.

The Reader
Last night (Saturday) hubby and I went on a date night.  We decided, given the state of our financial situation, to do dinner & movie at The Alamo Drafthouse, where they serve dinner while you watch a movie and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.  Our original plan was to see the Academy Award winning picture, Slumdog Millionaire, but it was sold out.  So we ended up seeing The Reader (check out this link for the trailer) starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, one of my favorite actors.  Winslet won best actress for her performance in The Reader and we are both so busy that neither I nor my husband realized Fiennes was in that movie too!

I’ve actually had a long time fascination with Fiennes after his performance in Schindler’s List, despite the fact he played one of the really bad guys in that movie.  He was equally as interesting in The English Patient.  I was a bit annoyed at his performance in The Duchess, mostly because the character he played lacked depth and sensitivity, but after seeing The Reader I’m less annoyed.  I told my husband this and he said something like “All Fiennes has to do is smile that little half smile and you see his piercing blue/gray eyes and he’s back in your favor.”  Well maybe I added the blue/gray eyes part, but I had to smile and nod.  He then told me that Kate Winslet did all of her own nude scenes (of which there were many in this movie), and I asked him how he knew this.  He didn’t have a good answer other than he read it somewhere, but I could tell she did.  I think it’s cool that she’s so comfortable with her body that she even risked displaying a couple of her stretch marks (a.k.a. badges of honor).

The story was set in Germany and starts out with a young 15 year old Fiennes (I don’t know the actor who played him, but he was adorable!) having a summer affair with a much older Winslett.  She asked him to read her all the books he was reading in high school ranging from philosophy to mythology.  He later finds himself a law student observing a trial about the Holocaust where she is a defendant.  He is devastated because he had no idea she was involved in the Holocaust in any way and it deeply affected him and all of his future relationships with women.  It was a pretty good, thought provoking movie, but I wasn’t too happy with the ending because I was hoping for more resolution.  But I guess just like in real life there really never is a good resolution is there?

Zilker Kite Festival
This Sunday afternoon we tried to go to the Zilker Park Kite Festival.  We were supposed to meet up with some friends there but after more than 1/2 an hour of driving around the area, not finding parking, and not even being able to figure out in a timely manner where the shuttle parking was, we gave up.  Our friends were already there so after several calls and her telling me that it was chaos and she’d understand if we don’t come, we decided to bag it and take the kids to another park.  We stopped at The Domain on the way so I could return something.  Turns out the kids weren’t that interested in flying the kite so we hung out at the park for a little bit and then came home.  Hubby and son threw the football around and our daughter rode her little bike.  I threw the ball with our son for a little while, followed our daughter on her bike on the sidewalk for a little while, then washed some clothes, did some work on Babble Soft, and wrote this blog post.

Random Kid Stuff
Earlier today our 6 year old son asks our almost 4 year old daughter if she was in love with some boy named Steven (who is older than she is) at her school.  Steven likes to give her a hug when we pick her up.  She tells him “No, he’s mad.”  My son then asks her if she thought he was cute.  I’m not sure she responded to that one.  I laughed out loud because I thought how innocent that exchange was between them and how much meaning someone would apply to that exchange if they were teenagers or older.

Our son has made friends with an 8 year old girl at his school.  She’s into PokeMon and Bakugan (these toys that change from a ball to a creature and back again) and he sometimes comes home with several little Bakugan toys that he says she gave to him.  I asked him what he gives her and he says nothing, and I ask him how can that be?  He said, she likes giving the little toys to him.  I’ve told him that he must also give her some cards or toys back but he just says “But she likes giving things to me.”  So, I’m not sure what to say to that, but I feel as if I need to coach him to also give her something.  Well, at least he’s friends with a girl who seems to like sci-fi and typical boy stuff – just like his mama. 🙂

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