Camping. With the Cub Scouts. That’s what we did this weekend.

It was actually pretty fun. Of course, the air mattress and down comforter were a plus. The weather favored us, no rain. Mosquitos abounded but weren’t too bad after a little Deep Woods Off.

On Saturday we all went to an apple orchard and went apple picking in the afternoon. Then we went next door to a smokehouse and cider place. The boys got to play on a big pile of hale bales and we got to do a little petting zoo action with pygmy goats and sheep. They also had some turkeys and geese. One of the turkeys came over for some food and when a child put the cup of food through the fence, the turkey took the entire cup right out of his hand.

The freshly pressed apple cider was delicious. The apple cobbler we baked next to the fire was excellent and the apple doughnuts (freshly made at the smoke house the day before) were just wonderful for breakfast in the morning. They went well with the cranberry pomegranite green tea we drank each morning.

It’s our fourth Blogiversary today!

TO US!

Caption Contest - click for original

Our caption contest is over and the winners are:

♫ I feel pretty… Oh, so pretty… ♫

Venomous Kate

If Cloris Leachman can do Dancing with the Stars, I can be on America’s Next Top Model!

Gayle Miller

and

Bill Clinton, off camera: “Hey! Who ate my last cherry popsicle?”

Mr. Right

Congratulations to the winners!

Is a great plugin. You can see it in action in my sidebar. It can be used in the template or as a widget. It’s highly configurable. I just love it. It’s what I’ve been looking for in a recent comments plugin for a long time.

John McCain said today that he has realized that the legislation as proposed by Hank Paulson does not appear to be able to pass congress. He’s calling on the President, Democrats, Republicans, to all come together and and work on legislation that they can actually pass.

He has called on Obama to likewise suspend his campaign, he’s called on the commission on Presidential debates to postpone Friday’s debate.

He says that this is a national crisis and it needs to be dealt with in a bipartisan manner. After 9/11 Republicans and Democrats came together for the good of the country and they need to do so again.

No prizes except kudos The Anchoress has graciously offered to send a lipstick kiss McCain/Palin button to the authors of the top three captions. Winners will be announced Friday before the family goes camping…

Caption Contest - click for original

Hat tip for the photo goes to The Anchoress who asks, “Why does Al Gore look like my mother, here?“

Just a quick note about something he said in his opening remarks. If he says anything else of note while being broadcast, I’ll note that too…

He’s thanking people…

…Your own governor, one of the best governors in the country, Jim Doyle. And two of my favorite colleagues in the United States Senate, United States Senator Herb Kohl, and and one of the strongest champions of ethics reform and finance reform and good government that we have in government today, please give it up for United States Senator Russ Feingold.

Oh my. Isn’t the finance reform bill commonly known as McCain-Feingold?

When we went to see Igor yesterday we also saw some trailers for upcoming movies. They look pretty good and we look forward to seeing them.

First up, next month, is City of Ember, with Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Saoirse Ronan, and Mackenzie Crook. The City of Ember has been been underground for 200 years and the clock running the generators that provide light is running down. In order to survive, the denizens have to find a way out.

In December there’s Delgo and one we didn’t see a trailer for, but there’s a poster up at the theater, The Tale of Despereaux. Both are animated.

Delgo is the name of the protagonist in that movie. IMDb says: Delgo, an adventurous but naive teenager, must rally his group of friends to protect their world from conflict between the Lockni and Nohrin people. Delgo took six years to complete and stars Anne Bancroft (her final film), Val Kilmer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Chris Kattan, Kelly Ripa, Eric Idle, Michael Clarke Duncan, Louis Gosset, Jr., Malcolm McDowell, and Burt Reynolds.

Despereaux stars Emma Watson, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Robbie Coltrane, Ciaran Hinds, Tracey Ullman and more. It’s the tale of a mouse, a rat, and serving girl whose fates are all tied up with the fate of the Princess.

January brings us back to live action again with Inkheart and Hotel for Dogs.

Inkheart is based on the book by Cornelia Funke, the story of a man (Brendan Fraser) who when he reads a book aloud, it starts coming to life and ends up bringing him, his daughter and her aunt into the story. They must, with the help of a storybook hero, thwart the will of a villain to destroy them all. Along with Brendan Fraser the movie stars Paul Bettany, Eliza Bennett, Andy Sirkis, Sienna Guillory, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren.

Hotel for Dogs stars Emma Roberts (Eric’s daughter, Julia’s niece), Kevin Dillon, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, Kyla Pratt, Jake Austin, Troy Gentile and some cute dogs including an adorable little Boston Terrier. Some kids take in stray dogs in an empty house and devise clever ways to take care of them without anyone finding out. They come up with a Rube Goldberg machine to feed and clean up after the dogs when the children can’t be there. Based on the novel by Lois Duncan

We went and saw Igor this afternoon and it was so much fun.

In a world named Malaria where it storms every day, the only thing to do is to be an evil scientist. Or an evil scientist’s Igor.

Except one Igor (John Cusack) who wants to be an evil scientist too.

Igor has a couple of sidekicks/friends/inventions named Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and Brain (Sean Hayes). His scientist boss is Dr. Glickenstien (John Cleese) and their nemesis is Dr. Schadenfreude – yep, Schadenfreude – (Eddie Izzard).

Shades of Young Frankenstein were seen when the Monster goes to the orphanage for blind children and then is captivated by paper flowers.

One of the best lines: “I’ll be an environmentalist, but I’ll fly private when necessary.”

Click to go to Malaria.com to donate for mosquito nets

It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day me mateys!

Dontch ye be fertgetting it now.