Don't forget to vote in the European Photo Contest! See below; Round 2 ends at 10pm CDT on Tuesday!
Michael and I went to Des Moines today to see 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' with Aunt Becky and her scandalous fiance. If I had been in California last week, I could have seen it for free with thousands of my closest friends, since my employer bought opening-day tickets for everyone at work -- but Aunt Becky's generosity (and the fact that we were running late and couldn't stand in line) ensured that Michael and I still saw the movie for free (thanks Aunt B!)
I thought the movie was great. I haven't seen a good commie-bashing movie in a long time, so this was quite satisfying. I also love Cate Blanchett in every movie she makes, and this one was no exception (even though I wasn't quite convinced by her 'Eastern Ukrainian' accent). And while the plot had more gaping holes than 'National Treasure' (which I despised), and while Harrison Ford and co. should have died every five minutes or so from the injuries normal people would have sustained in those stunts (not that Harrison Ford is normal, given how fit he looked in his trademark outfit), I still thought that the movie was perfect early-summer entertainment, and a welcome addition to the Indiana Jones franchise. They just don't make movies like they used to. And I appreciated the homage to Sean Connery early in the movie, even though I regret that he chose to end his career on 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' rather than coming back to do this movie as well.
After the movie, Aunt Becky and Brian took us to dinner at one of their favorite Mexican restaurants in Des Moines, which was pretty good -- and a good antidote to the overdose of all-American food I had yesterday. Then we drove home, making a stop in Indianola in search of a Wii -- I've decided to take the leap and get a Wii plus the Wii Fit, but sadly they only had the Wii Fit portion and no Wii consoles. I decided to buy the Wii Fit anyway, since I'll be really annoyed if I can track down a console sometime this week and then can't find a Wii Fit anywhere.
I didn't blog yesterday because we had some thunderstorms and I unplugged my laptop to avoid a catastrophic surge. We live nowhere near the big tornado that ripped through northeast Iowa last night, but the footage of the damage is pretty intense. Thunderstorms are pretty cool, but tornadoes are just scary, since they come with relatively little warning and can do more damage than a hurricane (albeit in a much smaller area). The one yesterday had estimated winds of 185+ miles per hour and was a mile wide in places, which makes it one nasty storm.
However, we were quite safe. We spent the earlier part of the day at the Methodists' Memorial Day dinner -- we aren't Methodists, but my grandma is, so we get roped into going to those things. I had an all-American bbq pork sandwich with baked beans, cottage cheese, a deviled egg, and chocolate pie. Then we hung out at home all afternoon with Gram, Uncle Mark, Aunt Kathy, and my cousin Andrew -- Aunt Kathy actually *asked* to look at all 1496 photos I took in Europe, which shocked me, but apparently she's a trooper. Mom and Dad made another all-American supper, this one almost pure protein -- grilled bratwurst, hamburgers, and hotdogs, with baked beans and potato salad. Mmmmm. I may miss the 'civilization' of California, but I'm going to miss the easy access to delicious non-tofu protein sources that I have here.
I really need to get back to working on the book, so I should go to bed and get up early enough tomorrow that I can accomplish something worthwhile. Goodnight!
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