Heath Ledger’s ghost hates me

Every time I say something bad about Heath Ledger, things happens to me. Bad things. First there was this incident back in January.

Now this: Less than a day after I made a mildly disparaging remark about his death (and really, it was more about the media coverage of his death), a frickin’ MACK TRUCK strikes my parked car and tears up the bumper, tail light, and trunk. And I’m not even exaggerating. It wasn’t just a big truck, it was an actual MACK TRUCK. 

The worst part is, Heather basically saw this coming. Again. I never learn.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

I’m already sick of the Dark Knight

Apparently I’m the only person in America who isn’t all that interested in The Dark Knight. I’ve never really liked any of the DC superheroes, or Batman in particular. I think Christian Bale is overrated. I found Batman Begins boring and bloated. And oh my god am I sick of hearing about Heath Ledger’s “tragic death” and “Oscar-worthy” performance.

Now Zap2It is calling The Dark Knight “the finest comic book movie ever made.” No, sorry, that would be Spider-Man 2, followed very closely by X-Men 2, or possibly even The Incredible Hulk. (OK, that last one was just for your benefit, Eric.)

Anyway, all I’m saying is I’m skeptical. Nevertheless, my parents have volunteered to babysit Ethan this weekend so Penny and I can go see the movie. She liked Batman Begins more than I did, so she’ll probably enjoy this one, too. Me, I’m only going because I feel like it’s my duty as a comic book connoisseur.

1,097

Another thousand-plus words today. Sucky, craptacular, barely-a-notch-above-stream-of-consciousness words, but words nonetheless. Yay me.

Raiders of the Back Yard

Indy pays a visit to my back yard

On Saturday night we fired up the Epson Moviemate and showed a DVD-quality projection of Raiders of the Lost Ark in our back yard. Before everyone arrived I strung up two Queen-size sheets to the back of the garage, and at sundown everyone piled onto blankets and we watched Indy beat the Nazis (spoiler!) on a giant 12-foot screen. Awesome, right? Thanks to Sarah, Kate, Parves, Cara, and Zak for helping Penny and I test out our new toy. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

681

It’s not much, but that’s how many words I managed to write in Coven Hill today. Back on the wagon. Write a little every day, even if it’s just a sentence or two. That’s the goal.

Mountain Munchkin

The Mighty Climber

Ethan climbed his first mountain on Saturday. Granted, it wasn’t much of a mountain, and granted, he didn’t actually do any hiking himself, but he did offer encouraging words like “Up! Up!” as we carried the little critter up and down the trail on our backs.

New England Patriots

Hooray for the USA

Two years ago today…

… I was freezing my ass off in Iceland.

Love that icy water

Even colder than it looks

A good time was had by all

Happy Fourth of July!

Random thoughts and observations

I’ve been a bit slow to post things to the blog this week. Not for lack of things to write, just for lack of time. Anyway, here are a few random thoughts and obvervations from the week that was.

• Things found in Ethan’s toy box: A plastic cup, a stick of deodorant, a pen, a book, a brush, and my sunglasses. The boy is a packrat.
• For the past 15 months I’ve sung The Ants Go Marching to Ethan at naptime to get him to go to sleep. This week, he started singing it back to me. (”Hurrah, hurrah” is “Ooh-ah, ooh-ah.”) He gets the rhythm and syllables perfect.
• My neighbor tore out the old wooden fence separating our yards and put up a shiny new white vinyl one. He managed to annex a few extra inches of our property in the process and dump dirt all over the grass on our side. I am so not pleased.
• The Sox are in second place for the first time in what seems like a decade. At least they’re still ahead of the Yankees.
• This weekend Penny and I are planning to hike our first mountain since Ethan was born. She even bought new hiking boots for the occasion. It will be Ethan’s first time on a real mountain. (Technically he was with us in Iceland two years ago, but he was just a zygote at the time and probably doesn’t remember.)
• Eighteen strait days of exercise for me.
• Penny and I are really getting into the homemade ice cream thing. So far we’ve made: Mango sorbet, chocolate, and chocolate mint. (Now you understand why all the exercise.)
• Today is new comic book day. On my pull list for the week: Amazing Spider-Man # 564, Astonishing X-Men # 25, Secret Invasion: Front Line # 1, Buffy Season 8 # 16, and Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods # 1. I may start stocking up on the all-ages Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man for when Ethan’s a bit older, too.
• We finished Season 3 of the new Doctor Who series on Friday. David Tennant is inching his way closer to becoming my favorite Doctor. Right now he’s a close second to Peter Davison, and Martha Jones is a close second to Tegan. Could go either way in both cases.
• Tried watching a few of the old Tom Baker episodes last week. Oh my god. They really don’t hold up well at all. That kind of depresses me.
•  Just ordered Season 1 of Torchwood to hold us over till the fourth season of the new Who comes out on DVD.
•  Starbucks is closing 600 stores?! OK, now I’m starting to feel the effects of this economic slowdown.

Like I said, just some random thoughts.

Call of the Wild

Just got my advance copy of Britain and Ireland’s Best Wild Places from Penguin UK. It’s a gorgeous doorstopper of a book with photos and descriptions of 500 of the most spectacular places in the United Kingdon.

This is the kind of book I’d want to own even if one of my photos weren’t featured. Fortunately, that’s a moot point because the editors selected this photo from my Tuesday Traveler series for the entry on Skellig Michael.

Learn more about the book at Penguin’s website or Amazon UK. There’s also an article about the book over at the Guardian UK’s website, and they used my Skellig photo in one of their online slideshows, too.

I almost feel famous.