Running Jumping Throwing

Last Thursday I got to see Tashena compete at another track meet.  Once again, she was entered in five events: long jump, hurdles, shot put, 4 X 100m relay, and discus.  She did really well and I absolutely loved watching her!

In the long jump, Tashena's best distance was 15'4" which is a PR.  She was in the lead until a girl after her jumped 15'5".  She was really happy with her distance because her coach has been working with her on technique and she had a goal to break into 15' which she did!  I am so proud of her!

I finally got to see Tashena run the hurdles!  It is usually the very first event contested so I always miss it but I left school a little early so I could see her.  She placed third overall!

In the shot put, Tashena had to complete all three of her throws one after another because she had to head to the relay (very disorganized meet).  She still managed to throw 25'6".  The girl from Kaysville Jr. beat her again but Tashena was really rushed.  Maybe the next meet?

This is the first meet this year that Tashena ran the 4 X 100m relay (she ran it last year).  Her team ended up third overall.  I didn't get to see the discus because it was contested before the meet even started due to a baseball game.  Some of the girls had to go straight from the bus to the event and none of them got any practice throws (did I mention that this was a disorganized meet?).  Tashena still managed to throw 100' to easily take first place!

Note:  Tashena threw the discus 125' in practice on Friday (which is unofficial) because her coach purposely marked the distances wrong to see what she could do!  She is amazing!  I can't wait to see what she does in the District Qualifier next week!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Late last night (early this morning?) I went to see the first screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  The movie opens with the Avengers, Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia battling von Strucker, of Hydra, to retrieve Loki's scepter.  They soon encounter the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively), upon whom Strucker has been experimenting, giving them super-human powers.  The Avengers obtain the scepter, elude the twins, and return to their headquarters where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner use the artificial intelligence found in the scepter to activate Ultron, a global defense program created by Stark.  When Ultron (voiced by James Spader) becomes self-aware, it decides the only way to save Earth is to eradicate all humans and it travels to Sokovia to recruit the Maximoff twins.  Multiple battles ensue!  By the end of the movie, I had only the vaguest notion of what was happening!  There are many characters (each dealing with their own inner demons through the use of flashbacks which are often confusing), multiple subplots, a myriad of locations (there were many times where I wondered where the Avengers were and how they got there), and very little exposition.  But all of that hardly matters because the movie is just so much fun!  (It was especially fun with the late night crowd, many of whom were dressed in character!)  The dialogue is so funny with all of the great acerbic quips we've come to expect from Tony Stark.  I particularly loved his throwaway line about being in a Eugene O'Neill play and his banter with Steve Rogers about the use of bad language is hilarious.  The battle scenes are awesome and Ultron (James Spader is a great villain, in my opinion) is a worthy foe for the assembled Avengers!  I loved it!  Fans of the franchise will definitely enjoy this movie but people not familiar with the other movies might find it hard to follow.

Note:  Don't be like me (and almost everyone in my audience) and stay through all of the credits.  There is one mid-credits scene involving Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet (setting up the next Avengers movies) but that is all.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

My book club chose The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin as its April selection. Bibliophile that I am, I absolutely loved this novel about a curmudgeonly proprietor of a bookstore located on a remote island in New England. A.J Fikry is a literary snob who doesn't really like people and he has a lot on his mind. His wife was recently killed in a tragic car accident, his bookstore has fewer and fewer customers every month, and his priceless first edition of Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe has been stolen. Books are the only consolation in his life despite the well-meaning intentions of his sister-in-law, the police chief, and an eccentric sales rep from a publishing house. Suddenly, Fikry's life is turned upside down when a young woman abandons her toddler in his bookstore (because she thinks it will be a safe place for the child to grow up). This novel is a funny and tender exploration of how life can change in an instant and how books can bring people together.  It spans a decade in A.J. Fikry's life and every chapter begins with a reference to one of his favorite short stories, such as "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl (which I teach to my sophomores), "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain, and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, among others. I think I must be as much of a literary snob as Fikry because I took great pleasure in the fact that I understood each of his references and the significance of each of them in his life.  Figuring out each reference is half the fun of the novel! Even though Fikry is as irascible as can be, he is such a sympathetic character.  I loved the fact that he judged people based on their favorite book and I loved that he organized book clubs for people (whether they like to read or not). This is a book for book lovers and I highly recommend it.

Note:  It is especially appropriate for book clubs!

Hot Rods

Yesterday I spent the afternoon watching Sean play baseball.  It was a perfect day for baseball because the sun was shining but it wasn't too hot.  It felt so nice to be sitting outside on the bleachers watching my adorable nephew.  This year his team is called the Hot Rods and they played really well.  There has been a lot of improvement since last year.

Sean got a run!  It was so fun to watch him cross home plate!  He also got to play third base and was involved in a great play resulting in an out!  The Hot Rods ended up winning 9-5!

Apparently our cheering was too embarrassing so we got "the look."

I sure do love this kid!

Note:  I find little league baseball to be highly amusing!  The Dad of the opposing pitcher was sitting behind us and he kept up a steady barrage of instructions for his son.  I really wanted to turn around and tell him to just let the poor kid play!  I'm sure he would play much better without all of the pressure!

The Water Diviner

When I was fourteen, my bedroom was in the basement just off the family room where the TV was located.  I have always had a difficult time going to sleep so I would often sneak into the family room late at night to watch movies on cable.  One night an obscure Australian film called Gallipoli was on HBO.  It stars a very young Mel Gibson just on the cusp of stardom and I was immediately enthralled by the story of two mates caught up in the excitement of running off to war only to find themselves in the middle of a futile battle with Turkey over the Gallipoli Peninsula during World War I.  In my opinion, it is director Peter Weir's masterpiece.  I watched it every time it was shown on HBO (usually late at night) and I eventually had a friend who worked at Blockbuster Video special order a copy for me.  Fourteen is a rather impressionable age, I grant you, but no movie has ever been able to equal the emotional impact that Gallipoli had on me then or continues to have on me today.  I have yet to watch it without crying in certain scenes nor can I listen to Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor (used in a pivotal scene) without tearing up.  When I saw a preview for The Water Diviner, I knew immediately that I would have to see it (which I did last night) because it deals with the same subject matter.  While Gallipoli culminates in a dramatic scene from the battle, The Water Diviner begins in the trenches and depicts the aftermath.  Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) is an Australian water diviner who to travels to Turkey four years after World War I to reclaim the bodies of his three sons who were killed at Gallipoli.  While in Turkey, he meets with much resistance from the British but is ultimately aided by a Turkish officer named Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan).  Crowe, in his directorial debut, definitely takes great pains to emphasize that the Turks had just as many casualties as the ANZAC forces and the anti-war theme really resonated with me.  I found the battle scenes, shown as flashbacks, to be incredibly affecting.  However, I didn't particularly like Connor's romance with a Turkish woman (Olga Kurylenko) or his adventures through Istanbul with her son (Dylan Georgiades).  To me, this entirely superfluous storyline lessened the impact; a father looking for the bodies of his lost sons in a country still ravaged by war is compelling enough without adding familiar plot devices meant to appeal to a wider audience.  The Water Diviner is a good movie but it isn't great (although it could have been).  For true greatness, try to find a copy of Gallipoli.