Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
jake

pinewood derby

Jake competed in his cub scout pack’s Pinewood Derby today. Preparation for the derby started at last month’s den meeting, which was hosted at our house. None of the other dads had a means to cut out the cars, so Brian offered up his woodshop for the evening. As a bonus, the boys got a lesson in shop safety. Jake did the shaping and sanding for his car. Brian filled the car with some weights and did more sanding. Then the car came to my department–the finishing department. After that was completed, Brian installed the wheels. This week, Jake and I ran up to Michael’s and picked up some decals. Jake put those on the car and it was ready to go.

For the first phase of the derby, the dens competed amongst themselves. Jake placed 2nd in his den. Then the finals were next and it was a double elimination match. Unfortunately, Jake lost his first two races. But, on a good note, the 1st place kid from his den went on and took 1st place overall. Here are some pictures from today.

movies

man on the moon

This movie told the story of Andy Kaufman. It starred Jim Carrey. I don’t know if I would’ve found Andy interesting from an entertainment perspective beyond Taxi, but it sure made for an interesting movie. Jim Carrey did a great job in his portrayal. Courtney Love played Andy’s girlfriend. Unfortunately, her role was very small. I thought she did a great job in The People vs. Larry Flynt, so I was hoping to see her in another role like that. Regardless, two thumbs up from us.

movies

stranger than fiction

We watched this one last night. Brian really liked it. I thought it was OK. Frankly, I thought it was going to be funnier. I’m starting to see a pattern here–every time I watch a Will Ferrell movie, I think it’s going to be funnier than it turns out to be. Hmm. I have yet to watch Elf, though–that looks really funny (ha). Since Jake has it on DVD, I’ll catch it at some point. Then, I might have to give up on the Will Ferrell movies. This one at least had a unique plot. Surely you’ve heard about it by now, so I won’t rehash it. The movie’s worth watching, but not worth thinking about beyond the viewing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but that’s how it is.

movies

donnie brasco

Another mobster movie. I don’t know what I’m going to do after the Sopranos are over–we’ll have already watched all of the mobster movies out there in the meantime. Where will I get my fix? This movie was quite good–but it was a lot different than most of the mobster movies that we’ve watched. This one followed an undercover FBI agent (played by Johnny Depp) who infiltrated the mob and had the lines blurred between his real life and his life with the mob. Al Pacino was the other main character. He played the guy who got Depp into the mob. It was a pretty interesting story. As a side note, there was this one totally disgusting scene where they had to chop up some bodies in order to dispose of them. Nothing we haven’t seen before, but this one had some cringe-worthy details in it.

Two thumbs up.

books

lisey’s story

I could not wait to read this story, but it was definitely not as fulfilling as I hoped it would be. I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was 10. He is my favorite author. This is one of my least favorite novels from him. It ranks right up there with Insomnia (otherwise known as the cure for insomnia). It’s been so long since I read Insomnia, that I’m not sure if this one is my least favorite or if Insomnia is. At any rate, I did not like this book. I didn’t care about any of the characters and the story was just so weird that it wasn’t interesting. And, the worst part was all of the odd made-up words and phrases that were used. I found them to be really annoying (unlike the Gunslinger series where I found the made-up language interesting). So, don’t rush out to read this one.