Mimzy

Here's what critics have to say about The Last Mimzy, perhaps one of the strangest movies I've seen in a long time:

"For a movie aimed at kids, The Last Mimzy is really weird. How weird? Roger Waters does the film's original song, that's how weird. The film is a fun confection of science-fiction and Eastern religious concepts wrapped into a children's film that could just as easily pass as a stoner movie."
- Mark Dujsik, independent critic

"The Last Mimzy is a mess. It is overstuffed with everything from futuristic technology to psychic powers to Eastern mysticism to Lewis Carroll... Noah can create noises that control the movement of spiders; Emma has the power of telekinesis and can also penetrate an inter-dimensional nexus created by the spinning rocks from their new 'tox box.'"
- Stax, IGN

[*The meat analogies in this next one win the gold star*]

"'Mimsy Were the Borogroves,'" Kuttner & Moore's terrifying parable about the loss of innocence and the ending of childhood, is chopped up, its dark meat bleached until, like a chicken leg, it is converted into a breaded chicken nugget...Toss in a liberal amount of Nepalese mysticism and CGI and add in a paranoid government that locks up four-year-olds under the Patriot Act and you have this mandala-shaped piece of mystery meat.
- imdb.com

"This weird, and weirdly entertaining, movie will be, for a certain brand of nerd-kid, what 2001 must have been for drug-addled hippies. It's a freakout for sci-fi-oriented 10-year-olds with a propensity for being fascinated by New Age alternative spiritualities and physics and for reading books like The Elegant Universe before they're really ready."
- Dave White, movies.com

Yep, that pretty much sums it up: a really weird yet entertaining, inter-dimensional nexus freakout stoner chicken nugget movie. Mimzy!

Meth Lab Mystery Solved

So it looks like my mysterious neighbors aren't operating a meth lab in their basement - not yet, anyway. No, they are Ohio University sophomores who, for some reason, plan on being there "for another five years." Not as exciting as drug dealers, these new neighbors are just good old keg party boys with wall-rattling subwoofers. So much for danger and intrigue; it looks like we're in for a summer of cornhole, beer pong and piles of Natty cans overflowing into our yard instead.

A Non-Magical Morning

Once upon a time, tori-ps discovered that she didn't have to come into work until after noon the next day, so she decided to stay up late and watch episode after episode of Six Feet Under with her pal JR. Consequently she was quiet tired the following morning and she snoozed, snoozed, snoozed (every nine minutes for about 1.5 hours).

When she finally felt rested enough to open her eyes, the digital alarm clock read 11:11. She thought, "This is a great sign; a magical day awaits me, because the clock numbers are in harmony." (Of course she did not get out of bed until 11:12, because as we all know, it is much better to wake on an even number).

After getting ready for the work day, she stepped happily outside into the sunshine, enjoying the wonderful late morning weather and imagining all the magical possibilities this day could hold. As she looked upon her car from the porch, however, she noticed something small and glossy gleaming in the sunlight of this supposedly magical, harmonious morning. It was evidence that the parking ladies had come and gone.

She walked over to the car, lifted the windshield wiper and removed the small yet ominous slip of paper. Out of curiousity she checked the time of the violation: 11:11.
Indeed, this was not a magical morning, other than the fact that twenty dollars magically disappeared from her checking account.

Uterus Wagon

I recently learned about the RASCAL Unit through an Internet search.
RASCAL stands for Roaming Animal Sterilization Clinic At Low cost. That's right people - it's a spaymobile. It drives around Ohio providing cheap surgeries for cats, dogs and rabbits. Rabbits?
I think this is excellent and creepy. Excellent because it reduces the feral population - all those mangy cats that would otherwise attack my little diva - but creepy because, well, it's a van. in a parking lot. performing surgeries.
For only $45 I could drop Stella off at the van in the morning and when I pick her up later that evening, her uterus and ovaries would be gone.
After considering the trauma Stella would probably endure from spending a whole day in a van with 40 other cats and dogs, I have opted to take her to the vet for this procedure instead.
I'm sure the RASCAL is very safe and efficient, but my cat is a wuss and has no social skills.
Anyway, my hat is off to the RASCAL people and their van. They are doing us all a great service.

Up Up and Away

Today I found out that Brandon and I are going to Europe this summer; thank you Lauren G. and your fussball boy for the wonderful and affordable tickets!

Here's the plan as of now:
Priority one: go spin around on a hilltop like Maria. Priority two: wander around in Czech castles and pretend that we're international spies in Prague. Priority three: wonder at all the solar panels and watch Brandon drool a whole lot.

Other than that, we need to start planning our itinerary, so any thoughts on places to visit in Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland or Austria would be great.

Any ideas?

I hate American healthcare at the moment. and at every moment, really.
The Stephens/Patterson fam is having some serious dental crises right now, but we do not have insurance. I am writing to you - internet sages, full of wisdom - for thoughts about this. Does anyone know of discounted dental programs in Ohio, particularly oral surgery? I hope so.