Wendigo!

After piano practice tonight, Daddy and Madison joined the X-Men!  This was Daddy's favorite comic for a long time, and back in the day they had this large arcade game where six players could be different members of the X-Men, working together as a team to defeat an endless onslaught of robotic villainy.  And weird guys with crocodile heads.

It's the one where the Blob keeps yelling out, "Nothing stops the Blob!"  Though our favorite pointless battle cry is from Wendigo, who randomly proclaimed his name at unexpected points in his battle.  It's on the X-box, and was on sale last week, so we were like, "Okay, let's do some reminiscing!"

The funny thing about putting these games on X-box is the carefree spirit in which we dispense our special attacks.  No longer does it cost just a quarter to continue, so therefore it's okay to repeatedly press your special attack button!  The end result is Storm sending countless whirlwinds across the screen - and then dying quickly to get some more.  That was Madison's strategy, at least.  

Hopefully they put on "The Avengers" next - and I THINK they already have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on there somewhere.  We'll have to look for that one.  

WENDIGO!

Madison worked on her teacher appreciation project this evening, which involved a big handprint on a card (as part of a flower), with a note that read "Thanks for helping me grow."  It's cute - we'll send in some roses with Madison as well, as this week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  Seriously, her teachers have been fantastic this year.  Madison has shown some progress in learning.  In fact, just tonight before bed, I asked her where Nana and Ye-Ye were.  She replied "Europe."  I asked her where China was.  She said, "Asia."  I asked her where we were.  She replied, "North America."  Next, I asked her where the pyramids, lions and elephants were.  She said, "Africa." It was about two days ago that Daddy was reviewing the continents with her, pretty much talking about things from each continent.  Like penguins.  A few days later, she was able to quickly answer where certain things were from.  She's a smart girl!

It was a good day for Mommy and Daddy, who went out for a bit of shopping and eating out.  We dropped a toy horse off with Mrs. Pam, who was decorating for the big recital coming up.  But it wasn't a terribly productive day outside of that.  It was, however, a beautiful day.  The weather is gorgeous, and the lake is still well above pool.

Another thing we did was finally watch "Batman & Robin," which Madison enjoyed.  Like the Adam West version, Daddy enjoyed it for an entirely different reason:  it was ridiculous!  Here below are Daddy's Top Ten Highlights from this movie, which everyone should see (for various reasons listed below):

1.  BANE.  Hilarious!  Best lines in the entire movie are when he puts bombs down in the observatory.  Each time he puts a bomb down, he mutters, "Bomb."  Puts another one down:  "Bomb."  Right after that another:  "Bomb."   "Bomb.  Bomb.  Bomb.  Bomb."  He just generally wandered around and repeated stuff like an oversized, Hulkish Rain Main.  Which of course, is exactly what he is in the comics.  I'm sure the "Dark Knight Rises" probably ruined this character.  In 1997 with some of his friends, I remember the long drive back from seeing this movie at the theater, talking about every single problem.  We made the obvious comment:  all you have to do to stop him is unplug the yellow tubes in his back!  Duh?

2.  CAMEOS.  Coolio is in this movie!  That got a blurt of laughter from me.  Years from now, people will see this movie and wonder who that guy was with the weird hair.  That previous sentence makes no sense, because A) People have no idea who Coolio is NOW.  And B) People will not watch this movie years from now.  Jesse Ventura:  Yeah - he's in it too.  And so is - and I'm not making this up - Senator Patrick Leahy.  Apparently, the Senator is in other Batman movies too.  He's a big fan.  

3.  THE PLAN.  The master plan of the villains is to freeze the world, and then repopulate it with plants.  I love how most movie villains can get away with ideas like this because they are "insane."  That's sort of a free card for writers to do whatever they want.

4.  SKY SURFING.  Are you on a rocket shooting upwards thousands of feet and about to explode?  No problem.  Just bust out a door and surf it safely to the ground thousands of feet below, yelling "Cowabunga" as you do.

5.  MR. FREEZE.  The posters looked so cool.  The character was so awesome.  Then you watch the movie.  I have made a squillion bad puns before, but these in the movie don't even qualify as puns because they're so bad.  I remember the tragedy of this movie was thinking of how cool (there.  there's a bad pun) this character was, and how Mr. Freeze was SO ruined (see comments on BANE above).  And one more thing:  your suit is powered by diamonds?  As in, you just throw a couple diamonds in a slot and you're good to go for a few more hours?  How exactly does that work again?  One final note: you become Mr. Freeze from accidentally falling backwards into a large pool of frozen stuff?  Seriously, that's all you got?

6.  WRITING.  One scientist guy actually yells out (before getting hit with a giant telescope) "This has been a really bad day!"  That was kind of funny.  There was so much unnecessary writing in this - like pretty much every line by Elle MacPherson.  

7.  PROPS and COSTUMES.  Having skates that pop out of your shoes, and having ready a big skating hovercraft.  That's the Batman I know, always ready with things like "Bat Shark Repellant."  DVD notes tell us the giant pink gorilla suits were made up of hundreds of Santa wigs painted with some weird ink or something.  Santa wigs?  Also, speaking of costumes:  the Bat-Butt.  What's up with that?

8.  BAD EDITING.  Chris O'Donnell must have been saying something they didn't like, but they kept a close up shot of him saying something - nobody else is in the scene, so you're looking right at him talking.  And there's no words coming out of his mouth!  There was a nice close-up of Batgirl's stunt driver too.  I cannot verify this, but it looked like a guy with a wig on - remember that scene in "Spaceballs" where the Princess had a stunt man in a wig take her place?

9.  CARTOON SOUND EFFECTS.  Now this I didn't notice the first viewing.  Maybe because I was laughing too hard.  But when someone slips, there's a Cartoon Network-style sound effect of slipping.  Or one for being thrown.  I love the lingering camera work on Robin after one guy gets thrown (and there's a sound effect).  He goes, "Yeah!"

10.  POISON IVY.  Madison was covering her nose every time she saw Poison Ivy enter the room.  EVEN SHE FIGURED IT OUT.  And yet our heroes sit there and wait for her to raise one hand with magic fairy dust in it, and magically blow it on their faces at point blank range.  Even Madison had it figured out!  Mr. Freeze had the best solution though:  "It doesn't work on the cold-hearted."  What does that even mean?  I love in one scene how Batman is no longer under her "charms," and yet she gets away by simply walking up a ladder.  Not running or fleeing.  Slowly walking up a ladder.  Because Uma Thurman probably couldn't walk that fast in the costume or something.  And he just watches her go?  "Come on, Bane.  Let's leave!"  BANE:  "Leave."  

And on that note, I think I'll follow Bane's advice.  This list goes on and on, of course.  I remember spending an hour and a half, talking about everything that was wrong with this movie.  And yet, for all of those problems, I sort of enjoyed watching it with Madison last night.  I cringed here and there, but for the most part, I was laughing out loud at how ridiculous it was.