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Yes, the kids are growing up, so they’re wanting to see movies in the movie theater. With Sean and Daniel now being 3 years old, they can almost sit through a movie in the theater. So we’ve taken them with us to see a couple of movies recently.

Today, we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. OK, not the best quality movie in the world. And we hadn’t seen the original until this morning (we rented it). But the kids had fun with it, and it kept their attention. The second one felt a bit more forced, and the music just didn’t do it for me (the classics they remade for the original were better, if one can call them that). But this was for the kids, so it was a moderate hit. Still, if you can divert them from spending the money on this one in the theater, do it. (And the original was better than this one.)

Last month, we saw Fantastic Mr. Fox. Personally, I don’t see what the hubbub was about. I actually found myself rather bored by the story. Sean and Daniel certainly weren’t into it as much. We actually went to this one as part of an after-school activity with Will’s second grade class, as they had read the story in school. I have not read the book, so maybe there is more depth in there than was shown in the movie. But the movie didn’t invest me in the fate of the characters, despite me not knowing what was going to happen, so I felt rather let down on the experience. I guess it means different things to different people. (Personally, I think the Hollywood hype, given who was involved in the project, has invested a certain aura-you-should-not-question to the project.)

Anybody with any other kid movie recommendations? We’ve heard good things about The Princess And The Frog.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get out for concerts, much less other forms of entertainment, that much. I guess the kids keep us a bit busy. It’s probably been 2 years since I had seen a concert at all. But twice in one week, I actually got a chance to go out and watch three of my favorite bands.

The first concert was for a band most of you have probably never heard of — Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. And that’s a shame, because they are really good. You might actually have heard of Roger Clyne from his previous band (the Refreshments)), who had a couple of hits in the 1990s. And he also wrote and performed the theme song for the Fox cartoon King of the Hill. This is good guitar-driven rock. With the added bonus that Roger (IMO) is a great songwriter.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that he would be headlining at the Canal Club here in Richmond on a Sunday night. I got the pass from Kellie to go out and see them, and they were really good. 90 minutes of rock-and-roll, hitting their past and present, taking requests (including for one song they hadn’t played on tour yet and had only played once live before) while “breaking in” a new guitarist (as of February). I never would have guessed the guitarist was relatively new, and he pretty much had the whole catalog down.

I’d definitely see them live again. The only disappointing thing was that they didn’t come out for an encore, but they definitely performed a rocking show. Definite thumbs up, particularly if you like guitar-driven rock-and-roll. (And the acoustics in the Canal Club were perfect. It made for an enjoyable experience.) If you want to start with one of their albums, check out Americano.

Wednesday night gave me another chance to catch 2 more bands from my youth (although one had actually formed before I was born). Asia and Yes were touring together and performed in the outdoor pavilion here in Richmond. Asia had all 4 key members, and they performed both songs from Asia as well as songs from their own bands before they formed Asia. I showed up late, so only caught about two-thirds of their show. But they definitely sounded good.

Yes was the headliner, and it was clear that most of the crowd (not quite sold out, but very little room left in the grass for people to set up) was there for them. As might be expected, given their progressive rock tradition, but they only played about 12 songs in 90 minutes. Chris Squire, Steve Howe, and Alan White returned, and they had a new keyboardist and vocalist. (I was wrong when telling people earlier that Jon Anderson was with them. He was not, but the vocalist sure sounded like him. I couldn’t see very well at the back of the audience.)

The most disturbing thing of the evening? Having a 50+ year old women dancing spastically (think awkward high school boy, flicking head, hips, and arms about) during the guitar solo in Owner of a Lonely Heart and later during Roundabout. Not the parts of those songs I would expect someone to dance to.

Great stuff all around. And kind of interesting to think that I hadn’t seen any concerts in so long. (I think the last one may have been, believe it or not, Weird Al Yankovic. That was a fun one, too.) Will I see another one this year? I don’t know. Kellie has her own concert experience coming up this weekend. Yes, if you know her, you could guess who — Sir Paul McCartney.

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we got married. A lot has happened in the intervening years, but we’re still happily together, looking forward to any more.

The weird thing is that the weather this week has shaken out pretty similarly to 10 years ago. Lots of rain all week leading up to the wedding/anniversary day, and predictions of rain for May 8th, but the day broke clear and never threatened to rain. The day was hot and humid though, just like today.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any easily accessible pictures from back then. We’ve got the wedding album, so I could have scanned something, but I don’t want to tear into that. We had a digital camera back then, but it used 3.5” diskettes to store the files. Imagine that! Unfortunately, modern computers don’t have floppy disk drives any more, so getting to those files will take some jerry-rigging. So for now, we’ll just have to leave it to our imagination to remember things.

We actually took the afternoon off to spend some time together (sans kids), although it was interrupted by the fact that the dryer is going on the fritz. What a wonderful anniversary gift for each other! (We had been holding off on declaring something, so I guess this is going to count.)

We also made a spur of the moment decision to watch the new Star Trek movie, and we don’t regret it one bit. They have done a great job blending the old Trek storylines with a new direction for the franchise. Casting of the characters was very good in keeping with the old personality quirks and even the looks. All in all, it’s a great movie experience. Even if you’re not steeped in all of the Star Trek lore, it’s just a quality movie. Kellie and I both would recommend it. Kellie even said she’d see it again in the theater.

But back to today’s event. I just want to wish Kellie another happy anniversary, and I’m looking forward to many more to come. (As long as the appliances don’t keep breaking.)