Gratuitous Post Labor Day This-N-That Posting

I suppose I've still got a bit of the long weekend grogs, as a bunch of thoughts about it are floating about in the ol' Llama cranium but show no sign of blossoming into full-fledged posts of their own. (I'm still saving the one really big one for another time.) So what the heck, I'll just throw 'em down any-ol'-how:

****On Sunday I got bushwhacked by my failure to read our church bulletin carefully enough because we had five baptisms in our service, a fact that I didn't discover until it was too late. As I sat through it, my main thought had to do with the attire of the parents and Godparents involved: One would think that a fellah would put on a coat and tie for his own kid's Christening, but apparently not. Hmph.

****We spent yesterday afternoon at the pool, where I spent the majority of the time hurling the five year old through the air in a series of flips and spins. She has a whole command procedure mapped out: as I stand in the water, she yells, "Knee up!" When I've raised it, she proceeds to stand on my leg where, when set, she says, "Control!....Set!" I then count to three and heave her as high and away as my poor arms can manage, while she springboards off my upper leg. The gel never tires of this, although I do. (I also do it with the seven year old, although I can't toss her has far. I had to give up on the nine year old when her long, colt-like legs started kicking me in spots better left alone.)

****Last evening at dinner, not only did I finally tell the nine year old that I'd read the Harry Potter books, I also told her she could stay up to watch the baseball playoffs and world series when they aired, and that she could watch the 'Skins-'Fins football season kick-off with me as well. I wonder how much this urge to bond with the gel is motivated by the signs that she's starting to think about boys a bit.

****On the ol' Netflix queue this past weekend:

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - A nicely-done Clint western, only slightly marred by the fact that one of the bad guys chasing him was Dean Wormer. "Lean, mean and traitorous are no way to go through life, son."

Henry IV, Part 2 - I wrote a very enthusiastic review of Part 1 of this production a week or two ago. This second part lives up to the first in terms of quality. Part 2 doesn't have the same grand dramatic design as Part 1 - No Hotspur, no climactic battle such as Shrewsbury or Agincourt. Instead, the remains of the rebellion against Henry Bolingbroke, now lead by the Archbishop of York, are quietly (and somewhat underhandedly) disbursed fairly early on. The bulk of the drama focuses on the relationship between the dying Bolingbroke and his son Prince Hal. Plus, there is a great deal concerning the villainous Falstaff's plan to exploit his friendship with Hal once he is crowned, a plan that crashes in flames when Hal (now Henry V) disavows him. The Llama-ettes wandered in just as Falstaff began to understand what had happened, and were much saddened. I pointed out that it was sad, but also that Falstaff brought it on himself. [Sooper-sekret note: Falstaff is not speaking to Hal when he talks of having heard the chimes at midnight together, but to his seedy friend Master Shallow.]

High Fidelity - Well, I'd seen it before but couldn't remember anything about it. Also, the Missus is a big John Cusack fan, so I thought I'd surprise her. However, when she saw the DVD, she said, "I've seen this. Meh." I watched it anyway. Meh.

****Couple of new books that I'm reading at the moment:

Fathers and Sons by Alexander Waugh, the latest in a long line of literary Waughs. Reading about some of the appalling behavior starting with that of the paterfamilias known as "The Brute", you can begin to understand why ol' Evelyn (Alex's grandfather) went bananas.

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca, by Captain Sir Richard F. Burton. In 1852, Burton disguised himself as a Muslim and went on pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca, recording his observations as he went. Fascinating stuff. I had read his account of his exploration of the Great Lakes of Eastern Africa and found it a bit tedious. This record is far more interesting, probably because the human element is much more complicated and absorbing.