Happy Labor Day

Saturday Three-Line Movie Review

I could probably write a three word review of Jason Reitman's saccharine peach pie (significant scene!) of a movie Labor Day, and those three words would be Really?, Really?, and Really? Neither Kate Winslet's acting chops nor Josh Brolin's manly biceps could possibly save this Damsel-in-Distress-Saved-By-Ex-Convict-Prison-Escapee-and-Creepy-Adolescent-Nerd-Son melodrama that ranks up there with Autumn in New York as a movie where I both squirmed in my seat because of the lack of explicit sex (which might have saved it) and felt embarrassed for the filmmaker. Really.





Other 3-line movie reviews:

Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Completely Beside Ourselves

Aside from the mini Anthem Blue Cross rant, and it wasn't really a rant but more of a sardonic aside, we've had a lazy three days here in southern California. The weather was seasonably hot -- smokin' hot, actually -- and since the AC has barely been on all summer, it was cranked up, I let the boys play video games nearly all day, Sophie slept for hours and hours and I read. And read. And read. I'm reading a weird and wonderful novel called We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves whose title I adore. I also flipped through a pile of New Yorkers, and watched a few episodes of Orange is the New Black which I found not so great at first (too much titillating yet slick lesbian sex that I imagined the crew of writers guffawing over) and then I was sucked in and now I'm in. I rejoiced with the rest of the world as Diana Nyad, the world's Goddess, swam in to the shores of Miami from Cuba and I celebrated the laborers -- those who've brought us the weekend, the eight-hour workday, etc. etc.

Reader, what did you do this long weekend?

Contrived Scenes - Labor Day

 The Husband and I drove with our progeny down the highway to Orange County, where we visited our dear friends Erika, Phil and Izzy. Phil is the genius who put together the slides for the Extreme Parenting Video Project (that has now had over 4,000 hits thanks to all of you wonderful bloggers who posted it on your blogs!). Erika is the incomparable mother, holding on to her flippin' hat in the video, who can also cook some delicious Hungarian delicacies. Izzy is the hummingbird, their delightful daughter who smiles charmingly at my sons as she kicks her legs and giggles, completely belying the fact that a couple of months ago, she lay in an induced coma fighting for an intact brain and her life.

Here's a shot of what it looks like in Phil, Erika and Izzy's parts:

Here's another one:

Here's the contrived scene from the title. Something about my sons in this little hideaway makes me want to mock them. But I won't:

The children at the top of this grassy hill are sitting on cubes of ice and sliding down the hill. They are contriving to sled (is that grammatically correct?). Only in Southern Cal would you contrive to go sledding when the glorious Pacific crashes onto the sandy beach below, tanned and muscled surfers everywhere you look and bikinied damsels frolicking in end-of-summer waves.

Here's another contrived scene - disregard the blurry photo and Sophie's glittery eyes. I really only made them sit there, together, to get a shot of the fantastic chartreuse couch that Phil picked out. I'm still marveling over that. I mean, The Husband can cook, but pick out a gorgeous, completely hip, chartreuse couch? I had a contrived vision in my head of my beautiful children arrayed on that couch. The colors would pop and it would be worthy of a design blog. Never mind that I only had my Android phone.

We had the most wonderful, relaxing day with our friends and reluctantly left in the late afternoon to drive back to Los Angeles.  It's the last day of summer as school starts for my boys Tuesday morning. Oliver just went to bed in what I think are contrived tears as he earlier stated that he was excited to go back to school.

I could never contrive that light and that sky, the road to our little house just there, on the left, nor my gratitude for all of it.

A brief summer wrap-up

 The Summer 2011 list is pretty much filled in -- with notable exceptions:

Note: That's "Prepare Dinner for Family" -- meaning, the kids prepare dinner for family.

Oliver's newly acquired trophy collection is artfully arranged in his room, at the foot of his bed:

Yesterday, in a pique of boredom, Oliver blew up the 6-foot tall palm tree and cleaned it thoroughly.

He then disappeared for what seemed like hours, and when I finally found him, this is what I saw:

My take from the Shut-Up envelope is $11.00. Since making more would have been counter-productive to the scheme's aim, I'm happy.

Happy Labor Day. I'm ready for school to start on Wednesday.