Here’s what I did this weekend:
Friday – I took the boys to see How To Train Your Dragon. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The story wasn’t full of quippy one-liners, but it was still funny. It followed the standard kids’ flick plot — a kid who “doesn’t fit in” (in this case a Viking boy named Hiccup who’s the son of the village leader) tries to get everyone else to understand him, his scheme blows up in his face, he feels like a failure, then must save the day, etc.
Part of why I liked it was the Viking setting. I also liked how they had various species of dragons with their own unique personalities. Hiccup’s cleverness and how he learned things about dragons that ran completely counter to what the rest of his culture believed was cool and also an interesting message about how the things we believe very deeply may, in fact, be wrong.
Some of the scenes with Hiccup flying the dragon through cloud-shrouded granite spires rising from the sea were eerily reminiscent of the flying scenes in Avatar. Not that I think one was copying from the other — both of these have been in production for years. But the similarities were kind of startling.
Fun fact: When you can’t see his face, Craig Ferguson sounds exactly like Mike Myers doing his Scottish shtick. I thought it was Mike Myers until I saw Ferguson’s name in the end credits.
Saturday — In the morning we all went bowling with Kelly’s family. We had to go early because Kel’s mom works in real estate and had to be at work early in the afternoon. After bowling we went to lunch with my sis-in-law Shannon and her kids, and Kel’s aunt and uncle.
After we got back I started writing a fantasy short story called “The Unquiet Dead.”
That night we went to see a Hershey Bears hockey game (yes, the same Hershey as the candy bars; we live about 30 minutes away). I got tickets through work to the Comcast luxury suite. Kel had never been in a luxury suite before, and Anthony, my stepson, had never been to a hockey game. We saw two fights (woo hoo!), and the Bears beat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, so the evening was a success.
Sunday – Worked more on the story, ran a few errands for Kel. Alex and I are planning to watch the final part of Band of Brothers, the brilliant HBO miniseries that follows Easy Company from boot camp through the capture of Hitler’s Eagles Nest. If you’ve never seen it, I highly, highly recommend it. Like run out and buy or rent it right now. This is one of the best, if not the best, miniseries ever made.
Fun fact — Dick Winters, the commander of Easy Company, lives near Hershey (and unfortunately is reported to be in poor health). I would love to shake his hand and thank him for what he did in the service of our country, but I would probably make a fool of myself by tearing up (the final words of the miniseries are both humbling and heart-breaking and devastated me when I first watched this, which was not too long after my dad had died.)
After that I’ll work some more on my little story. I hope everyone else is having a good weekend.
