Grace and Grunts

Last weekend was fun and productive for the Rileys.  The girls' school had a movie night Friday night.  I really enjoyed watching Monsters Inc. under the stars.  I have to say, Monsters Inc. is one of my all-time favs.  After the girls went to bed, Meg and I watched Date Night.  I don't think the reviews were very favorable when this one was released, but we thought it was hilarious.  Of course, we'd watch Tina Fey and Steve Carrell in just about anything.  Meg crashed, but I decided to go for the movie hat trick.  For some reason About Last Night has been in my head lately, so I hopped on Netflix and streamed it.  This is one of my new favorite things, late night Netflix streaming.  I can't say that ALN stands up very well; I fell asleep half way through.

Saturdays are all about soccer right now.  Scout's team played a great game, easily winning 4-0.  Quinn's team also won, 1-0, with Quinn scoring the only goal.  Quinn's effort reached new levels on the pitch this weekend.  She's always had classic facial expressions, but on Saturday she was grunting almost every time she kicked the ball.  It was hilarious and more than a little impressive.  The girl is a beast out there.

Saturday afternoon the girls danced at the annual Tucson Meet Yourself, kind of a showcase of cool things going on in the city.  One of Scout's old teachers was there, and her husband, an amateur photographer, took a bunch of pictures.  He kindly sent them to us, and they're amazing.

Sunday would have been perfect, but the Packers managed to blow another game.  I'm afraid the old GBPs are just not good enough.  Ah well, I'll keep watching, it's what I do.  I finished reading an excellent book, let the northern lights erase your name.  This is the third novel by Vendela Vida I've read recently, the other two being And Now You Can Go and The Lovers.  She has quickly become one of my favorite authors.  I really enjoy her writing style: very sparse, lots of short sentences, perfectly descriptive. 

We closed the weekend out with another movie, City Island.  I'd never even heard of this movie, but I found it looking around on Netflix. The story takes place in City Island, a picturesque section of the Bronx (sounds like an oxymoron, I know).  Andy Garcia and Juliana Marguiles are a married couple raising two teenagers.  This is a movie about the secrets we keep from those closet to us, and it rang very true to me.  I highly recommend it.

I thought I'd just start Jonathan Franzen's new book Freedom, 15-20 pages before going to bed.  80 pages later, I reluctantly turned off the light.  I'm sure I'll have more to say about it later, but it's already obvious that this one is going to be a classic.