Product Placement

Nathan and I went to Bayshore after his Little Rocks to look for some Christmas presents for Mommy, and for some reason he insisted on having his picture taken with the Mercedes cars on display.

Hockey Day In Kanata

Lots of kids from the school board got to go to see the Ottawa '67s play the Peterboro Petes today at the Canadian Tire Center.  I went along with Alex's class as a parental assistant. Alex really seemed to like being out with Daddy for a day instead of in class. I had fun, too.

Dr. Strange

Writing this up makes me realise that I still have not written up Captain America: Civil War. However, Dr. Strange is not that movie, it is a different movie.

We didn't get to see it opening weekend, or even opening week. Even so, I was a pit surprised when we arrived at the theatre 10 minutes before showtime to see this:

Including us, there were probably half a dozen people in the theatre by showtime.

Another thing that was surprising: the Marvel Studios splash at the beginning was all movie clips, with no comics. Looks like Marvel is trying to stand on its reputation as a movie studio rather than a provider of comics. Which is a bit sad, since all of the movies are rooted, at least vaguely, in comics, and it seems a shame not to at least acknowledge that.

Anyways, the movie gets up your nose really quick with the "this is magic, take it or leave it" and as long as you buy into that as a premise you'll do fine. Stephen Strange gets on my nerves a bit, this movie does have a bit of the "beating a dead horse" thing going on when it comes to Strange's (lack of) acceptance of the mystical. Everyone says this is one of the best Marvel movies ever -- I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely top half.

Did You Hear Leonard Cohen Is Dead?

I know he's beloved and all that, but I got really tired of him on Friday. I had to spend the day in the car on Friday (Inkerman, represent!) so I got to listen to wall-to-wall Leonard Cohen all day.

Seriously, the day went like this:

• Thursday night: Twitter: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday 7AM news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday 7:10AM morning show: OMG Leonard Cohen is dead, let's talk about how much of an impact he had on us for 15 minutes and then play two of his songs.
• Friday, 7:30AM headlines: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 8;15AM CBC morning show: Leonard Cohen is dead. Let's play one of his tracks.
• Friday, 8:30AM news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 10AM news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 10:05AM, Q: Leonard Cohen is dead. Here's an interview that a previous host had with him.
• Friday, noon news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 12:10 CBC phone-in: Leonard Cohen is dead. Call us and tell us how that's affecting you.
• Friday, 1PM news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 1:05 PM: Leonard Cohen is dead, so we've cancelled our usual 1PM to 3PM programming to bring you a repeat of a special we did about him several years ago.
• Friday, 3PM news: Leonard Cohen is dead.
• Friday, 3:10PM, afternoon drive: Leonard Cohen is dead. Let's talk about that for 10 minutes and then have the listeners request rarely-played tracks of his all afternoon.

Yeah. I actually didn't listen to the meat of all that, once I learned that Leonard Cohen was back on the menu, I jumped back into my phone's bluetooth for music. But still.

In other news, Leonard Cohen is still dead.

OMG Spectraflame

Hot Bird
2006 Cool Classics Series 2

I love Spectraflame. Spectraflame is a wonderful, wonderful finish and I appreciate Mattel using it sparingly because while we all know I'd buy a brick if it was painted Spectraflame, using it all the time would make the other finishes look shabby by comparison. Keeping it for occasional, premium line use is just good marketing.

Post-Curling

Nathan had his first Little Rocks session today. He did very well for his first time on the ice -- although it is tricky keeping the slider leg under you when you are first getting used to it. Since I needed to come to Bayshore to get my glasses lenses installed anyways, we came to Moxie's for lunch while we waited.

Progress

After a long pause for reasons we don't understand, Alex is back on a bit of a roll with the ice cream, starting off again on his road to Montreal.