Day 19.141; Exile #2’s Sunday Column #554

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 and I made the bold choice to get up at 5am to join our nature group at the coast for a couple of hours before church. I was not the only one to opt for a winter coat and nor did I regret it! Although we have not had any, there has been snow in the mountains, which is fairly unusual for Maine in May. It’s been pretty chilly though.

Afterwards, we swung by the house to grab the other Exiles and headed to church where Exile #4 joined the group of those being celebrated for graduating from college and high school.

Exile #4 then spent a bit of time catching up with a friend before we all settled down this evening to watch a movie. As always, we had a lengthy discussion about what it should be. Having enjoyed the very sweet Remarkably Bright Creatures last night, we opted for the grittier classic Fargo tonight. I hadn’t seen it since moving to the US, so I’m pretty sure I understood different things this time - but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again and it seemed to be a hit with everyone.

Day 19.025: Night out

This evening we took Exile #3 and her friend to a cinema in Methuen MA to see the Stray Kids movie (that was the nearest place showing it). While they did that Exile #2 and I went out for dinner in nearby North Andover. 

When we got back to the cinema, the movie finished and the K-pop fans came streaming out - many dressed up for the occasion. It seems we all had a fun night.

Day 15.225: Forky - is that you?

Part of Lake Street Dive's stage setup was a small table with a Toy Story character on it. My best guess is that it was to identify whose towels and water cups (which arrived later) they were:

Another table had a tiny fluffy toy kitten on it.

Day 13.098: Altogether now: feed the birds...

Our bird feeder has been languishing in the garage since we moved to Maine six years ago. I'm not sure what triggered it, but Exile #2 suggested putting it up last weekend - so we did. It took until yesterday to put some seed in it and today we had our first feathered visitors (including this goldfinch):

Day 12.223: Summer Camp Kid?

Here's Exile #2 sporting one of her birthday presents from earlier in the summer. I decided since she's a US citizen now, she should really start rocking the graphic t-shirts and since she didn't actually go to summer camp as a child, what better than this one?

Day 11.162: If they don't win it's a shame

It was 80's night at the Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field as we met up with a group from church for baseball, junk food, music, fun, dancing and fireworks.

The home team didn't give us much to root for as they went down by 5 in the first inning and never recovered, but we had a lot of fun!

Day 11.115: Infinity War: our reaction (no spoilers)

We enjoyed it - as you can probably tell from our reaction shots having emerged into the daylight:

And then we went home and talked about it for quite a while with no-one else in earshot.

Day 11.050: Annihilation

Exile #2 and I went to see Annihilation this evening. I can't think when the last time we went to the cinema in consecutive weeks!

We enjoyed it and certainly had a lot to talk about afterwards. Our biggest criticism is that it takes itself a little too seriously, but we loved the strong characters, the score (Geoff Barrow of Portishead contributing) and the visuals were spectacular.

Most surprising of all perhaps was that even though we stayed seated absolutely to the end of the credits - until the between-film filler soundtrack started up again - we were the first to leave our seats (and yes there were several other groups of customers in the showing!)

Day 10.361: Rogue One take 2

We watched Rogue One today - for the first time since we saw it at the cinema a year ago. I think I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Sure, the CGI human characters bothered me more than they did last time, but the story and the main actors and the scale along with great pacing really made it a thoroughly enjoyable film, and quite possibly my favourite Star Wars movie.

Day 10.345: The Last Jedi (no spoilers!)

No spoilers...unless you count my ticket spoiling the view of my excellent Star Wars Christmas sweater!

We all went to see Episode VIII tonight and found it to be very satisfactory.

Day 10.055: A long time ago...

...well about two months ago in fact... it was my birthday and this was one of my gifts (thanks P, M & D!):

Some assembly was required* and for the first time in my life I borrowed a hand-tool from one of my kids (needle nose pliers from Exile #4's jewelry-making set). It took three or four sessions over a couple of days, but it was enormously satisfying and looks pretty good at the end of the process!

Day 9.321: Christmas decorations and where to find them

This morning, E5N1 and I went to help decorate church for the first Sunday in Advent (tomorrow):

Our afternoon's activities were in the Harry Potter universe:

Day 9.318: An unexpected Arrival

While we were eating dinner, I said, "Is it date night?" and about 15 minutes later, Exile #2 and I were heading out to the cinema leaving the kids to watch a film of their own and get themselves to bed. It still surprises us that we can do that now.

We arrived while the theater was empty - but there were quite a few there by the start.

We saw Arrival and loved it. It's cerebral without being heavy and generally is the kind of film I didn't think could get made in the US anymore. No spoilers, but I think it's the best kind of Science Fiction - it takes one leap, asks you to go with it and then lets the story play out in an otherwise entirely realistic way. The characters are complicated enough to seem real (avoiding the stock-character shortcuts) and yet the story moves along at an engaging pace without dwelling on them.

All in all, if you want an antidote to the big-budget all-guns-blazing films but are willing to believe a couple of impossible things before you go to bed, you should definitely give it a try - we're certainly glad we did!

Day 9.161: Exile #2's Sunday Column #112

Exile #2 writes...

After a busy day of dancing yesterday, we decided to snuggle down and watch Zootopia [a.k.a Zootropolis] together in the evening. It may have been a kids movie but it had big (and pertinent) things to say about diversity and prejudice and managed to be very funny whilst doing so. It got a thumbs up all round.

Getting up to celebrate Father's Day this morning was a bit of a struggle. Still, the young Exiles managed to present Exile #1 with cards, presents and breakfast in a slightly monosyllabic way. There was no time to hang around, however, because we had agreed to help lead a new song in church and needed some practice. But here is a picture of Exile #1 sporting his newest medal (courtesy of E5N1), one that he's been in training for for 14 years as of tomorrow (but more of that to follow...).

Day 9.037: Force, gale

The day started with a couple of inches of snow to clear from the driveway with a nice crunchy layer of ice on top, so my exercise for the morning was clearing that instead of running.

My day at work was busy but not particularly newsworthy. Meanwhile, E5N1 put his Millennium Falcon t-shirt on  and went to a Star Wars Party at the local library. He seems to come over a bit Yoda:

Later, he veered to the dark side, and had a lightsaber battle with his sister:

This evening we've been inside watching the rain lash down driven by warning-level winds. After the crazy cold of the last few days it's 45°F and barely expected to dip below freezing tonight. Crazy!

Day 9.010: The Two Towers

Since we were effectively snowed in on Saturday, we watched the second Lord of the Rings film. It had quite an impression on E5N1 (the only one watching it for the first time) who has been bursting into the musical theme without warning throughout the day.

He and Exile #2 made the eponymous towers, Mount Doom (seen from a distance) and the main cast along with some orcs and supporting characters out of Lego:

We particularly like the expressions on the hobbits' faces:

Day 8.365: Exile #2's Sunday Column #89

Exile #2 writes:

Most of the snow has been washed away today, with heavy downpours and blustery winds. There may even have been a rumble of thunder mixed in at one point. No matter. We spent the morning celebrating 10 years of our church, HopeGateWay, with a brunch woven together with grateful stories from representatives of the many individuals and communities that have found a home there.

In the afternoon, we cozied up and finished off watching the first Lord of the Rings movie (we started yesterday as part of the ongoing birthday celebrations of Exile #1). Exile #3 and Exile #4 were keen to start watching it again, having not quite made it to the end of the last movie some years back. E5N1 only knows it through the Lego video game (although that probably means he knows it pretty well, judging by our experience of watching Indiana Jones). I was pleased to discover that I still love it and somehow seemed to spend the whole movie blinking back tears of one kind or another. We did all enjoy that Sean Bean moment though...

Day 8.336: Decorations and dinosaurs

We went back to Boiling Spring Tree Farm to cut our own Christmas tree today. It was very nearly t-shirt weather (rather different from last year).

No-one took a picture of the cutting, but here is our tree with a few of its fieldmates being transported to the parking lot:

and this is how it looks now:

After decorating, we had a family movie, Jurassic Park. The kids had not seen it and it was a long time since I had watched it all the way through - I had forgotten that it's very nearly one classic scene after another the whole way through.

Day 8.277: Date night (on Mars)

A brief break from our weekend catch-up because, thanks to my parents, Exile #2 and I had a night out. We had a quick dinner and then went to see The Martian.

Thoroughly enjoyable - but I need to be up for an early start at work tomorrow, so it's bedtime!

Day 8.275: Two more lighthouses

We're home and I have a working phone (although it arrived at the hotel after we'd checked out and didn't get turned on until we were back here).

Before all that, we visited two lighthouses. The first was one I had run to on our first morning in Rockland - Owls Head Light - we had a walk on the short trail in the state park to a stony beach, visited the lighthouse (small but on top of a hill) and two of us scrambled down a bank onto another beach. It looked like this:

The second was Marshall Point Lighthouse at the end of one of the many fingers of land that dangle from Maine's midcoast.  Its claim to fame is that Forrest Gump ran to it having got to the Pacific coast and then turned around and run as far as he could in the other direction. Here are some pictures:

I have a lot of photos to sort through - I expect they will be posted over the next few days as life returns to the normal pattern of work and school for most of us.