Week In Review

1. Went to see Forbidden Kingdom this week expecting to absolutely love it.

2. The kung fu scenes were incredible, the settings were a visual banquet, the acting was well done, but...

3. They lost me at the Monkey King - a whimsical beast with golden sideburns, mad kung fu skills, and an unfortunate tendency to giggle like a school girl while dueling with the Jade War Lord, a dude so menacing his mother probably died of fright the moment he was born.

4. Who played the role of the Monkey King?

5. Jet Li, that's who. Which explains the mad kung fu skills but very little else.

6. Look at that face up there. That's a face that says "I can kill you with a thought but a sword is more fun". Jet Li runs up the sides of buildings, disarms and immbolizes fifteen steroid-fed goons at a time with movements that look like lethal poetry, blows up buildings and motorcycles, and uses a sword like it's an extension of himself.

7. Jet Li does not giggle.

8. Anyway, who takes someone with the title "The Monkey King" seriously? Why couldn't he have been the Snake Lord or the Dragon Master?

9. Moving on.

10. Sauteed mushrooms are yummy things.

11. I will be adding a new "feature" (for lack of a better term...my brain refuses the simplest request this morning) to the blog next week: Author Interviews. I'm starting with some of my fellow Golden Heart finalists to give you a peek into how other authors manage aspects of craft, business, and the writer's life.

12. A close friend of our family brought us dinner last night and stayed to enjoy it with us.

13. We've been friends for four years now. The kind of friends where my house doesn't have to be clean for him to come over. We know each other well.

14. He's a quiet guy and unfailingly polite which, as I'm sure you realize from the tone of my blog, can sometimes make me feel like a bull in a china shop because I am rarely quiet and prefer wit and sarcasm to careful politeness with my friends. Well, with anyone, really.

15. Last night, for the first time in four years, I was teasing him about something and he opened his mouth and said "Silence!". I was so proud!

16. Naturally, I was not silent.

17. On this, his maiden voyage into the land of snarkasm, I praised him and let his effort slide by unchallenged.

18. He won't get another freebie.

19. The kids are out of school in another three weeks. Hard to believe.

20. Finally, our own dear Starshine is still actively exploring his own little universe as demonstrated by our dinner conversation the other night:

Me: So how was Fun Run today at school?

Scientist: It was okay.

Me: Do all the grades run on the same size track or do the kindergardeners and pre-k run half laps?

Scientist: I don't know. I think the pre-k runs half laps.

Daredevil: No, the pre-k runs on a different track.

Scientist: There is no different track. The pre-k runs half laps.

Daredevil: Maybe their laps count as two since they're little.

My Hubby: Do the pre-k even participate in Fun Run?

Scientist: Yes! Well, maybe. I think so.

Daredevil: I saw the pre-k outside when I was going in.

Whereupon Starshine looked up from his plate and said: "Hey! We have pre-k at our school!"

Thus demonstrating the accuracy of his nickname. Good morning, Starshine, the earth says hello.