Sheep Guarding Llama

Francesca and Emily came over early this morning to get back to watching movies today.  We ended up spending much of the day trying to figure out how to hook things up so that we could watch the movies that we wanted.  It ended up being a pretty big waste of time, by the time we actually got to watch something.

We ended up only squeezing in a single movie today, Fred Astaire in Daddy Longlegs which was well done and pretty entertaining but a little big creepy since it is about a guy wooing a high school student one third his age.  It’s hard to tell how much they intended for the film to be a bit odd or if that was just still so normal in its day that it wasn’t a big thing.

By the time we had watched the movie it was mid-afternoon and Francesca had to get the kids back home and get to bed because they have school tomorrow.

We just watched some television and called it a night.

I had insomnia last night and only got about one hour of sleep.  I laid in bed but gave up on falling back asleep around four in the morning.  I got myself out of bed and came down and sat in the kitchen using the laptop all morning.  It was kind of nice getting four or five hours in the quiet, I have not had that in a few weeks.  Not since before I left California.

Today continues the weekend-long, Gilmore Girls-themed, classic movie marathon for Francesca, Dominica and me.  Francesca and the little kids, Garrett and Clara, came over very early, before I had even seen Dominica get up, and got the movies started.

The first movie up this morning is Valley of the Dolls which I did not join the girls to watch. They are attempting to only watch movies that none of us have seen and that were watched on The Gilmore Girls.  But mostly they watched really bad movies on that show and the good ones that they watched are very well known movies that we have all already seen, especially Dominica and me who are cinema buffs.

The girls ended up going through movie after movie, including All  About Eve that they started, made it part way through, and then gave up on.  They did this, starting and stopping movies, much of the day.  I was busy doing some work and running errands, including getting Madeline and Emily from tennis practice at one point, so I missed most of it.  I was confused as to how they were going through so many movies so quickly – it was because they were watching less than half of them!

When I finally settled into the living room to join them we watched part of Carousel.  I was so confused as to why they were picking the movies that they were picking because they were almost all movies that were predictably going to be really bad – movies that we had mostly avoided for a reason over the years.  But they were attempting to only watch movies watched on The Gilmore Girls and only ones that none of us had ever seen which was a pretty big limitation.

After this point we said that we just had to try some good movies, this could not go on.  So we got Francesca and now Emily too to watch Doris Day and Rock Hudson in one of our all time favourite movies: Pillow Talk.  Everyone liked this one and we have now convinced everyone that watching movies because they are good is better and if we have already seen them can still be okay.

It was bed time after that.  All day and only one good movie to show for it.

Today is the last day of my fourth week of the new job.  That’s nearly a month done already, it really feels like I just started.  Things seem to be going well and I still love it there so that is a good sign.

The weather was great today.  Dominica took the girls outside for a lot of the day so that I could have it be a bit more quiet, they love to play loudly when I am home.  They like to play imaginative games, which is great, but they just talk and talk to act out their games and it makes it extremely hard to actually do any work.  But today was gorgeous.

For the past two weeks, the north east has been getting slammed with record cold weather.  Meanwhile, here in Texas, we have the windows open and are spending time outside enjoying the perfect weather.  Not even jackets or fleeces needed.

This evening Francesca and Emily came over and surprised Dominica with Chinese take away and snacks like from a movie night on the Gilmore Girls so that we could all do a Gilmore Girls themed evening.  Francesca wanted it to be a surprise so I had to convince Dominica not to eat dinner without telling her that food was coming.  Not an easy task.

We looked at the list of movies “watched” on The Gilmore Girls and selected Easter Parade (1948) as our first movie to watch.  It was one that none of us have seen before.  But before we could get started there were minor child logistical needs and Francesca had to disappear for quite some time to get Garrett from a failed birthday party at the mall and then to get Madeline from her tennis event.

While Francesca was gone, Joe fired up the hot tub at Liesl’s request.  Liesl has been talking about getting to go into the hot tub for weeks now.  It was warm enough today and Joe was home early enough that we could do it.  It took about an hour to heat up while I continued to work.  Then Dominica watched the girls while they played in the hot tub for a while.

At one point a downpour came so I ran and got suited up and went into the hot tub with Liesl and Luciana.  Unfortunately the rain stopped very quickly.

We were in the hot tub for probably close to an hour.  It was very relaxing.  I can’t figure out why no one else joined us, it was very nice.  We had a great time just hanging out, the three of us.

Once Francesca finally made it bad, a few hours later, we fired up the movie, got Luciana off to bed, and settled in for Easter Parade.  The movie was pretty good, Liesl even joined us and watched most of it.  Emily tried but fell asleep.  Dominica was drifting by the end.  Francesca and I made it through the whole thing.  It was okay but a rather week first movie pick of a regular series of classic movie nights.  It was struggling to hold anyone’s interests, even with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland.

After the movie, Francesca and Emily went back home and Liesl went off to bed.  Dominica and I attempted to watch an episode of Sleepy Hollow but Dominica was unable to keep herself awake and we had to abandon the effort.  So it was only just after eleven when we went to bed.

It’s Thursday.  Because Clara has been sick with the flu (the real flu, not just something that people say) we are hunkered down at the Tocco house all day and the Grices are staying at their house.  So my dad was dedicated to worked and was otherwise quiet and uneventful.

No ability to watch any movies in the theater and likely there will not be for the duration of the time that we are going to be here.

New look on the site today.  It has been many years since the theme for SGL was updated and I decided that it was time for something fresh.

Joe worked on his projector late last night and this morning but to no avail.  He did managed to eventually get the firmware update done as recommended by Epson but after he did that all it accomplished was to have the projector able to flash the red light indicating that the system had failed.  No news there.

We found out this morning that our niece Clara has influenza A.  So she is on medication and is quarantined at home.  Francesca spent the morning at the doctor’s with her and then was home all day.  We were not planning on going over there today anyway, but now we are trying to keep the kids from getting sick.  Luciana felt a little warm to Dominica who was unable to find a thermometer with which to really test her.  But I think that it is just her feeling that it must be so.  Luciana acted normally all day, no signs of her being sick at all.  I think that she is fine.

It is a little warmer here today.  Although back home is crazy cold.  Niagara Falls has begun to freeze over and Lake Erie is nearly all frozen.

Not a very eventful day for me.  At the house in the morning, mostly hanging out as everyone was home today.  Then at noon I started working at sat at the kitchen table all day as that is where I work.  For lunch Dominica made salads which were really good.

Liesl and Dominica got back into their school routine today.  Liesl finished her first math book!  We have to order the next one right away so that we will have it before we leave for Spain.  She loves her math class and cannot wait to get on to the next book.  It is so awesome that she loves math so much.

Liesl also had writing, reading and history today.  She is learning about “The Tomb Makers”, all about the tombs and mummification processes in ancient Egypt.

After her school work was done, Liesl watched Raiders of the Lost Ark in the living room with her aunt and uncle.  She really likes the Indiana Jones movies and is looking forward to watching more of them.  She is so funny: she states that she refuses to watch them out of order.  She wants to see them as they are meant to be.  It was very sad that she has to watch them in the living room now, she would have loved seeing them in the cinema.  That would have been perfect for her first time seeing the second and third films.  But now the cinema will not likely be working again until the summer after we are back from Spain.  So the girls are missing out of a month of getting to use it now.  I am not sure that they managed to see a single movie in it since we got down here.

The girls were great, playing with each other all afternoon and evening.  They put together new Playmobile boat sets that Liesl got for Christmas and they played with them extensively.

Brittany made eggplant parmesan for dinner which was amazing.  We had that and salad and watched an episode of The Simpsons which Liesl really enjoyed.  I am pretty sure that this was her first time every seeing The Simpsons.

After dinner I finished up with work around nine o’clock.  Then I wrote up a new article that I am hoping is able to go to press tomorrow.  Nothing like cutting it to the last minute every time!

We got the girls off to bed at ten.  They begged for me to sleep in their room with them.  They love it when we have slumber parties together just the three of us.

Dominica and I have been doing a lot of shopping for South American cruises as we are very excited about the possibility of doing a cruise between Valparaiso, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina for a fortnight next year.  We have always wanted to do this particular cruise and it looks like we might have the chance to take the girls on it now.  It would be a very long cruise, especially for Liesl, Luciana and me who have never been on any cruise at all before, but the amazing set of otherwise inaccessible destinations like the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego and the Chilean Fjords make it really attractive.  Not to mention it would be an ultimately practical journey too taking us from one country to another that we need to go between anyway removing the need for costly flights which would dramatically offset the cost of the cruise.  In fact, if the flights are an assumed cost as is the cost of housing and food which we would not be paying for during the cruise time, the cruise actually becomes extremely inexpensive as it is two full weeks!

So our hope is to be able to try the cruise in thirteen months from now.  What an adventure that would be.  An adventure to us.  For more normal people, cruises are the calm, safe way to travel. For us it is a bit of the opposite.  Moving to a foreign country where they don’t speak English, no problem.  Living in a small village with few resources, no problem.  Getting on a luxury cruise liner for two weeks of pampering, now that worries me.  Thankfully no seasickness or motion sickness for me and Dominica has been able to handle a cruise before so we think that that is not an issue at all.

We stayed up until a little after eleven.  Dominica edited my latest article and I submitted it before turning in for the night.

Tomorrow Dominica is going to be taking Madeline to her dentist appointment, if all goes according to plan, and I will be home watching the girls again.

We are only two days away from the one month mark before we depart for Europe and almost exactly at the one month mark before Dominica and the girls head off to Walk Disney World and Universal Studios.  Time moves very quickly.  It will be upon us in no time.