(this was written soon after father's day....what? you thought I'd delete it just because I'm late?)
We were going to pick up some food and take the kids for an impromptu picnic at Lau Lau Beach. But Katelyn really wanted to eat at Shirley’s, so we ate at Shirley’s instead. Shirley’s (Susupe) is great because the staff is friendly, it has a family-friendly atmosphere, the food is always consistent and always fast (which is great when you have a one year old who can only sit still when you’re shoveling food into his mouth), and the non-smoking section is completely smoke-free.
We went home and hung out for a while and hoped that the kids would take longer naps, but Sunday’s are always terrible nap days, so that didn’t happen. So we took the kids out again.
We went to McDonald’s to pick up a late lunch and were going to park at the Garapan Fishing Base so they could eat, but James got called in to work so we drove down to PIC and ate along the way.
We drove over to Coral Ocean Point and looked at the water and the channel between Tinian and Saipan and talked about James Bell swimming the channel in 1981 and again last week at the age of 70. You know, there have been two James Bell’s that have been out here. The swimming James Bell and Dr. James Bell, an amazing humanitarian and former Vice President for Student Affairs at Cal Poly Pomona. I had the honor of serving as a James Bell Intern during my last year at Cal Poly and it was an awesome experience! Dr. Bell was on Saipan and Guam during WWII. He is one of three people that I met in California who had heard of Saipan without me having to say "do you know where Guam is...how about Japan". I was not able to spend very much time with Dr. Bell, but the most memorable experience was when he took us interns out to the movies in Pasadena. We saw Together; a beautiful film.
Did you like that Simpson-esque transition? Let’s bring it back to Father’s Day - we'll talk about movies later...
As we sat there at Coral Ocean Point we looked out to the right and saw this little lookout area with some people standing near the railing. I’m thinking that’s Agingan Point. Am I right? Anybody? Anybody? And if it is Agingan Point, how does one get there? (You'd think I'd know, right?)
Then we took the kids to Bestseller and bought some Dr. Seuss books. While I’m so glad that Katelyn is enjoying her new favorite book, Green Eggs and Ham (or Ham-I-Am, as she calls it), I’m getting really tired of reading it five times a night. The funny thing is that the thing in the book gets irritated with Sam-I-Am because Sam-I-Am won’t leave him alone with all the questions and as we read the book, Katelyn won’t leave me alone with all the questions. Or should I say question? Page 1: “Why is he mad?” Page 2: “Why is he mad?” Page 3….
From Bestseller we drove back to Garapan and took the kids to the Wax Museum. It is great! Have you been? You should go. It was never overly noisy and the displays were not too gruesome. We prepped Katelyn along the way explaining about the candles that look like people just like when she makes people out of her Play Doh…whatever, it worked.
From there we went to the U2 Collection store near Surf Turf. It was very disappointing. We were the only customers in a store that is the size of my cubicle and we were completely ignored until it was time to pay. Everything was really expensive, but we bought the kids a few things anyway, including a hair brush for each one….even though the boy has no hair. The teeth on Katelyn’s hair brush began breaking immediately and the packaging on both brushes released these white paint flake like pieces. Yuck! We are never going back.
~~~
The Air I Breathe – Forrest Whittaker is such a good actor! It was one of those “interconnected” movies. I liked it. But I probably wouldn’t watch it again. Did you know he went to Cal Poly Pomona? You know who else went to Cal Poly....
The Grand – Funny! A comedic look into the world of poker tournaments.
Jumper – Why does Hayden Christiansen always play cry-baby characters? I liked him best in this role, it’s his latest role so he’s older and better. His character wasn’t as complainy as Anakin and his acting wasn’t as soap-operay. The first time I saw him as a main character was in was Life as a House, which I liked and would like to watch again to make sure I still like it, as far as I remember, he was very dramatico in that as well. Anyway, I’m kind of in between with this Jumper. I liked the beginning and thought I was really going to enjoy it. And I guess I did, except for the really cheesball parts. But at times it just felt like I wanted it to end. Like I wanted to stop watching it, but not until I found out how it ended. And I’m not satisfied with how he left Griffin hanging in the power lines in Chechnya. I liked Griffin and I wanted to make sure he didn’t die.
Youth Without Youth – What to say? It was pretty. The artfulness was great. The story...was this adapted from a book? I was hoping for...mmmm....something more at the end. I don't know. But it was pretty.
The Onion Movie – I don’t think we finished it. Not because it wasn’t good; it was funny. But because we were tired. Hmmm, maybe we did finish it the next night? I don’t know, as you can see, I can’t remember much of it. But it was funny.
Rambo (the last one) – Note that this was the first and only Rambo I’ve seen. I’ve only seen the last Die Hard and I’ve only seen the last Rambo. I liked it.
