Harry Potter Midnight Mania!!!

My best friend Becky and I were finally granted permission to take our nerd in training to the midnight showing for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince since she just turned 11. I wanted to make Jocelyn's first midnight movie memorable, so I asked my friend Jill to make one of her amazing invitations. She surprised me and also made an invitation for Becky and myself!! Jocelyn was thrilled, and we ended up having a lot of fun at the movie. And the nerd/geek factor is passed to a new generation **sniff**

A Day Out with the Girls

For Christmas this year I bought my honorary nieces a day out with their favorite "Aunt." I gave them each a gift card to Chick-fil-a, a movie ticket, and a Barnes and Noble gift certificate. The girls are 9, 6 and 5, and we had a blast. Of course, I think the parents that I borrowed the girls from were more excited about having the days to themselves. I'm glad I brought the 9 year old, because she hung out with me the entire day, while the 6 year old and 5 year old entertained each other.


We only had minor conflict. There were some accusations of cheating during a footrace, but it was only because the 5 year old is much shorter than the 6 year old. I had to explain that being taller is not "cheating." They sorted it out, and we enjoyed the movie "The Spiderwick Chronicles". Both girls shared my chair for the entire movie as it was quite scary.

At the bookstore we scouted around for books. Princesses and Berenstein Bears were the big winners. And at the end the youngest girl said "It was nice going on a date with you." Awwww. It's nice to have created memories like this for the girls, and for me.

Beowulf

I went to see Beowulf tonight, the new movie starring Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother (even in the tale, she is never given a name), Ray Winston as Beowulf, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, and John Malkovitch. I saw the movie in 3-D, which is the version I highly recommend if you are going to see this film. I never read the tale this is based on, but the movie had looked interesting from the previews, and one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, adapted the screenplay and was an executive producer. I thought the movie was well-done, although a bit graphic as the monster Grendel is ripping people apart. All in all, I would rate it a 3.5 out of 5. If you are looking for some action, and nostalgic about 3-D films, add this to your list.

To Boldly Go Where All Nerds Have Gone Before

Today I took part in pop culture history. I attended a showing of Star Trek: The Menagerie at the local AMC theatre. This showing is a kick off event for the launch of Star Trek: TOS on HD DVD, coming out this Christmas. Now, I cannot lay claim to being a true Trekkie; I did enjoy the movies in the theater and I will watch reruns occasionally on tv, but I can appreciate the impact the shows have had on society, the advances they made in special effects, and of course, watching a young William Shatner parade around the television or movie screen, in this case. (Although my favorite Star Trek characters were always Spock and Data. I think this will make sense to those who know me). From a technical standpoint, watching this in the theater was amazing. The crew has taken the original film, frame by frame, and remastered it into High Definition. The difference in the quality of the color and picture was amazing, even if the laser beams were still a little cheesy.

The crowd there was quite diverse, and while I didn't get any photographic evidence, there was one person in costume. I thought that strange, I was guessing there would be quite a few more. The funniest thing that happened all evening was at the end of the movie, while waiting for the crowd to thin out, when this woman asked this man, obviously in his mid to late 40s, if he was going to go out afterwards. And he said "of course mom, I have the keys to the car." Hmmm. I guess some of the stereo types do hold out. :)