.:Meet the Ritchies:.

On Friday night Mark and I went to see the Clash of the Titans movie in 3D.  It has been the year for 3D movies so far!  We’ve seen Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and now Clash, all in the new and improved 3D.  The glasses are much cooler, and the effect itself has just become so extraordinary!  There was a small line to get in because it was opening night, but we didn’t wait long before they opened the doors.  We got good seats, up high and towards the center.  When we went to see Avatar, there were so many people and we didn’t get there that early so we could only find seats on the floor section, off to the side.  My neck was a bit cramped after that one, but it was still amazing.

Neither of us had eaten dinner yet because I had driven Claire up the Gorge, so we bought a large popcorn, nachos and a gigantic soda.  Hey, it’s the  movies, for this I made a caffeine exception.  We finished off the nachos before the movie had started and also made quite a dent in our popcorn.  This young couple with three small boys sat next to us.  The parents sat in our row and the boys moved up in the row above, sitting directly behind their parents.  The boys ranged in age ffrom probably 9 to 5.  The mother looked back at them, as they were putting on their glasses and settling into their seats, and said, “Are you boys going to be good and act your age?”  To which the older boy responded, “yes”.  I noticed that they didn’t have any popcorn and since I had chosen the large size for us, it came with a free refill.  Mark and I were done eating ours, even though there was still a bunch left so I leaned over to the young parents and asked them if they wanted to take our bucket, dump it out and then go get the free refill for their boys.  They seemed a little skeptical at first, but after a second of consideration, they thanked us and sent the oldest boy to the concession stand to get it filled up with yummy fresh and FREE popcorn.  That’s the best kind!  The boys very politely said thank you when he returned and they all stuck a hand in.  I was quite impressed and excited for this new generation of kids to see the movie that I loved watching when I was their age.  The Clash of the Titans, packed full of action and mechanical monsters, creepy Harry Hamlin, the Kraken who I thought looked a lot like King Kong with additional arms, and the beautiful Andromeda.  There are huge differences between that one and the new version, but it did not disappoint.  The story was changed a bit and a few new characters added, including Io, the new beautiful leading woman:

Io (pronounced Eye-oh), Clash of the Titans 2010

And let me tell you, her costumes were super fantastic and made me want to go home and start sewing!  (Which I did, by the way, but I will share that with you tomorrow, or maybe later depending if I have time).  She reminded me of my beautiful friend Kristi, who I miss dearly and have not seen since the wedding.  Kristi is 10 times more beautiful, but they both have such a quiet elegance that it takes your breath away.

And did I mention Io was a fighter?  Oh yeah, she held her own in the fight scenes, no worries there.   Pegasus is in it, but he is a black stallion instead of white.  And there wasn’t the robotic owl in the new one, which was kind of sad because I remember liking that character.  And the stygian witches were super creepy, not just blind but they also had twentyheads instead of foreheads.  Gigantic.  I will say that the one part that I was a little disappointed with, just a little and certainly not enough to not give the movie 5 stars (you know, if I were a critic or something), was Medusa.  I know, right!  She’s like the main obstacle and incredibly scary that she can turn you to stone just by looking into your eyes.  I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to fight something without being able to look it in the eyes!  I won’t tell you why I was disappointed though, because I don’t want to spoil anything.  But I’ll be interested to hear what you thought about her if you go see it, so leave us a comment!

Oh, and I suppose I should mention that Sam Worthington (of Avatar fame) who plays Perseus, did a fine job indeed.  He was very Russell Crowe in Gladiator, but that’s not hard since they both have the same accent.

Go see this movie in 3D, if you liked the original then you’ll like this one!  And if you don’t… well, how come?

xoxo

Do you remember when you were a kid and you and your girlfriends (or boy friends) would play the game M.A.S.H.?  It was the game where you would write those letters which stood for Mansion, Apartment, Shack and House.  And then you would choose 3 each of the following:  Husband, Kids, Profession, Where you lived.  I believe it was that simple, those four things were all you needed to come up with.  Well, as with everything else, the game has changed over the years.  I drove Claire to Hood River to meet up with her Dad for the weekend, something we do every other week, and traffic was AWFUL!  We ended up in a parking lot on the freeway just past Multnomah Falls.  The drive usually takes us 50 minutes from our front door, if the weather is great and all lanes are open.  However, they are doing construction on the freeway just before Cascade Locks and the last couple drives up the Gorge have resulted in traffic jams.  This afternoon it was stop and go, it took us 25 minutes to drive 5 miles.  So to entertain ourselves, Claire found a piece of paper and a pencil and we played the game M.A.S.H.  In the 2010 Parkrose Middle School version of this game, you choose 3 each of the following:  Husband, Age, Name, # of Kids, What your house is made of (I’m serious), Car, Color of Car, Pet, How much money you have, and Profession.  After you make your decisions (and it’s definitely more fun if all your choices aren’t exactly what you’d prefer to get) then the other person draws a swirl and you say when to stop.  They then count the number of rings that were created by the swirl, for example 5.  They then proceed to count down, crossing off every fifth thing until there is only one choice for each category.  And that… is your future.  Pretty awesome as a kid, because you will sit and wonder if it’s really true and perhaps you will end up owning an ice cream store, with 12 kids and living in an apartment.   And it’s pretty awesome as an adult because you no longer believe in the superstition and are thankful for that.  Full of thanks.

Here were Claire’s results:

Her name is Railyn

She is 20 years old

She’s married to Justin Bieber

She has 80 kids

She lives in a glass shack (which Claire declared “is probably like having a swarm of bees if we have 80 kids in a glass shack”)

She has a billion dollars (now why did I only choose as big as a million?)

She has a dog.

She is a janitor (a very overpaid one)

And she drives a neon green F150.

And here are my results:

My name is Gertrude (this was actually one I liked)

I am 40 years old

I am married to Robert Pattinson (don’t hate, Karen)

I have 5 children

I live in a wood shack (every shack should be built of wood, I think)

I have a hamster (hamsters are cute…and well contained)

I have $40,000 (I should have put a billion as one of my options!!)

I drive a white VW bus

And I am a weather lady (I said weather girl but Claire wrote lady instead, that hurts a little)

It was pretty fun and it made the traffic jam seem so much less annoying.  I really enjoy this time with Claire, it always inspires me to talk to her about stuff going on with her, see if she has any interest in boys yet, or has any questions about, ya know, girl stuff.  It’s really the best time to do this because when your driving 70 mph down the freeway, she has no where else she can go!  Captive audience, if you will.  She is good at just disappearing into the playroom or up to her bedroom if I start to ask personal questions like that.  She’s never been one for confrontation.  She didn’t get that from me though, because I am definitely one to confront.  Or I think I am (I’m sure my mother and sister could answer that question).  It’s one of the many qualities I admire in her.  She might have a fiery temper but she knows that there is a time and a place.  She’s a smart cookie.  So smart in fact, that she made the Honor Roll at school for the second trimester in a row!  She is 2 for 2 this year!  And I am so darn proud!  We celebrated at Yo Cream the other evening, her new favorite place, and she deserved every yummy spoonful!

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Mark and I went to see Clash of the Titans in 3D this evening, it was reeeeally good.  Check back tomorrow and I’ll tell you more!

xoxo