New pictures

I posted some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Thoroughly Enchanted

In honor of my son's 5th birthday, we asked him what he'd like to do to celebrate (having already decided we wouldn't have a peer birthday party). He asked if we could stay in a hotel with a pool and see a movie. So, over the last couple of weeks, we searched for a Boston hotel that would have space on this Thanksgiving weekend to no avail. Colleen was using her Marriott frequent traveler points, so choices were a bit limited to begin with.

We ended up in Providence, RI just two blocks from my office's satellite location, so it was fun to know my way around that area. The boys enjoyed the indoor pool 3 different times in the 24 hours we were there, so we Liam got one of his wishes.

The other one was a movie. Thank you to Joe Morgenstern on the Wall Street Journal for publising a glowing reveiw on Friday of the new Disney movie, Enchanted, which stars Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. I had seen an adverstisement on T.V. for the movie, but I have to admit I'm biased against movies that feature a T.V. star. So, I wrote off Enchanted until I read Joe's review.

We took the boys to the Providence Place Mall for a 4:30 showing of Enchanted and I went in with just medium expectations. Well, the movie really touched me. It's about an animated princess, Giselle, played by Amy Adams, who is dispatched into the real world of NYC, where she is "rescued" by a single dad, Patrick Dempsey. Her animated prince, Prince Edward, is on his way to try to bring her back to the animated world, but in the meantime, the Princess Giselle falls for McDreamy. What is so wonderful about this movie is Amy Adams' performance as the eternally peppy and positive princess. She's possesses such a vulnerability that it's hard not to fall in love with her right on a parallel path to the one that McDreamy is taking. I don't know...for those 2 hours, I was swept away...by a Disney movie. Gag. But, I am rating this movie in my top 10 movies of all time, along with:

• True Romance


• Monsoon Wedding


• Born Into Brothels


• The Pianist


• Life is Beautiful


• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf


• The Breakfast Club


• Moulin Rouge


• The Big Chill

Soccer Mom & Dad

My 7-year old son, Grady, stormed into the soccer world this season, surprising us to the Nth degree. The summer days he spent playing soccer at the beach with his older cousins really paid off. His team, the Leopards, have played 8 games so far, and have their 9th next Saturday. The Leopards are 4-2-2. I posted pictures from the game today.

Though the stats below may indicate Grady is a selfish player, it's anything but the truth. He has many assists, looks for the pass all the time, but if he has an opening, he will take it in and shoot. What impresses me the most is that he can outrun most of the opponents even while he is dribbling the ball. He keeps the ball close, keeps his eyes up, and runs his heart out.







Game/Result/Score/Goals by Grady

1/Loss/ 7-8/ 4

2/ Win/ 12-1/ 8

3/ Loss/ 3-5/ 3 (100% of team goals)

4/ Win/ 5-4/ 2

5/ Win/ 8-5/ 8 (100% of team goals)

6/ Tie/ 3-3/ 3 (100% of team goals)

7/ Tie/ 10-10/ 5

8/ Win/ 3-0/ 2

Goals for: 54
Goals against: 33
Grady's total goals: 35!

Won the Series, Lost the Camera

I had the most exciting baseball experience at Game 2 of the World Series. I was lost in the moment and could not have enjoyed myself more. The close nature of Game 2 made it more fun, though the blowout I witnessed in Game 1 was nice too.

I had a few too many beers at Game 2, so in the cab ride home, left my trusty Olympus Camedia C-50 Zoom behind. So many great pictures on there from the games, and some that I hadn't downloaded yet from late summer. I held out hope for a few days that it would be returned to me, since I had a sticker on the camera that read: Reward! and then listed my phone number. I guess a $350 camera is just too good to pass up.

Fortunately, just a few days before I lost the Olympus, we had ordered a Canon Powershot S5 IS, a full-sized 8 megapixel camera with great 12X zoom, image stabilization, video, audio, and a whole host of other great upgrades from the lost camera. It is begging for some sweet accessory-lenses for intense zoom capabilities. I figure I'll be set for the next couple of Christmases and birthdays outfitting it with accessories.

We got it last night, and I played with it for a few minutes and am terribly impressed with the clarity of the pictures. I can't wait to master it.