Who Is John Galt?

I named my daughter Dagny, that should give you a clue about my feelings for Atlas Shrugged.  

The current state of the world has caused a renewed interest in Atlas Shrugged (originally published in 1957; sold 500,000 copies in 2009) and therefore the inevitable movie adaptation is upon us. I'm not a fan of movies of my favorite books, I hate when a good book is turned into a bad movie.  The question is, should I go see Atlas Shrugged? Is there any way they can actually do the book justice? Dagny is quite sure that they won't be able to, and has vehemently stated she will not be seeing the movie.  I'm undecided, but I'm leaning toward giving it a chance.

One thing I know that I like, the release date; April 15th, tax day.  Ayn Rand would have got a chuckle out of that.

Strike!

Things I learned about bowling

and what bowling taught me about life 

The unattractive, clown-like shoes are surprisingly comfortable

Even though bowling is only fun about once every 5 years, it's not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon

You can force a teenager to come on a family outing but you cannot force them to have fun

Just because I have serious skills at Wii bowling (289, thank you very much) does not mean that those skills transfer to the real world

Steve is a far better bowler than I will ever be (he totally made me say that)

Next To Normal

You would think that making a musical about mental illness and it's impact on a family would by a bad idea, but after you see Next To Normal you realize that it is actually a very,very good idea.  It's not your typical Broadway musical, I think that's why I loved it.  

Seeing Next To Normal was on our to do list when we were in New York last year, but it didn't work out and we were disappointed that we missed it.  Imagine our excitement when we found out it was coming to San Francisco, and that the Tony Award winning lead actress (Alice Ripley!) was in the touring company.  We had a reunion of our NY trip because we went to the show with our friends Jenna and Leslie. We reminisced about our time in NY over a leisurely dinner after the show, and we all agreed that what we had just seen was one of our favorite shows ever.  Next To Normal really is that good, the subject matter is heavy but it expertly walks the fine line between heartbreaking and hopeful. If you have the chance to see it you should, after it you will never think of Broadway Musicals the same way.  

A Very Merry Un-Valentines To You

Just for the record, I don't hate Valentines Day.  I quite like all the cute decorations and sweet cards and celebrating with my kids. A holiday centered around love and chocolate is not a bad thing. What I don't like about Valentines Day is the pressure put on people (especially men) to make grand, expensive gestures in the hopes of satisfying the expectations manufactured by society. Why put all your romantic hopes on one day of the year simply because you're told to?  I hate being told what to do (must be my authority issues) and I don't accept that February 14th is the ultimate day of love.  I'm a big fan of the 364 days of the year when the love is simply just because. 

Gorgeous and delicious


Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies 
made from the recipe I found here

Adventures In Dog Photography

You remember Gavin's lovely sister, Summer?

She's visiting us for a few weeks, and while she's here I'm determined to take a beautiful brother/sister picture. So far my results have been less than amazing, but I'm not giving up. 

Here are a few of the outakes from the millions of shots that I've taken.  Steve had the brilliant idea that I post some of the less than perfect shots so that when I post the amazing shot it will seem more impressive.  Also, he just thinks they're funny.  

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil says that Spring is on it's way.  


I'm sure people in the midwest are happy to hear that, but I bet it's hard for them to believe as they are currently in the middle of a massive blizzard.  


Phil is only accurate 39% of the time, I don't think we should pin all our spring dreams on him. 

Happy Blogiversary

Two years and we're still having fun