WalkerPad

We managed to get out to see X3 tonight, entirely thanks to Aunt Pam for baby sitting (THANKYOUTHANKYOU!). The flick was pretty good overall. Much like the previews made it out to be, it was a fight centric roller coaster. Less ideological and more muscle focused then the other stories but not a in a good way. The story was all over the place and not nearly as tight as the first two movies. While the phoenix was introduced she was almost irrelevant to the story line accept for as a add-hoc tool to review pieces from the board (the queen yes, but total disengaged). Actually the Chess analogies got a little annoying in the movie too . All and all I say a B tottering on B-. I was not impressed with their model golden gate, it looked and seemed all wrong perspective wise. It was fun and frankly I enjoyed taking Charise out to a movie so much it pretty much made well disposed to everything..

A lot of net pundits have been beating the doom drum for the movie theaters when/if simultaneous release to DVD ever happens. I’m generally inclined to agree. Though I think it will be a very slow old elephant kind of death that will ll likely see protection from congress dragging it out for years and years before fading away… After $20 to get in (no discounts mind you accepted), $10.55 for popcorn and 2 modest $1 caliber items I was looking for a drum to beet too. Through all that I did see a small spark of innovation that was new to me. They rolled in a mobile concession stand into the theater during the preshow (no commercials at the Century which was nice I fucking hate the AMC and the 20 minutes of TV grade commercials the flay you with). They sold Popcorn, cold sodas, candy. While not quite the Hot dog at the ball gamer experience it was nice to have somebody run my soda up to me (the least they can do for $3.25, no wait the least the could was to make me go out and buy it in crappy syrup form for the same price). This was a small, still very overpriced, thing, yet it added quite the level of satisfaction for me. Course I had already hit he concession stand, but I had forgotten napkins. I asked one of the girls at the mobile stand, they where out but she ran off and got some to reload  and then handed some up to us specifically. Holly crap, service? Unbelievable but there it was.
Not exactly revolutionary, but such a small step toward a time of service focus, even at vastly movie inflated prices, was nice to see. The whole thing gives me the barest glimmer of hope that theater owners won’t continue to print their own tickets into extinction. Of course on the flip side that fact that I would gush about such a series of little things suggests just how bad it’s all gotten.

Well, or what passes for high adventure for us these days. Grandpa and Grandma Walker came on over from Santa Cruz and we took Kaily down to a place called happy hollow setting aside the parking charge (I won’t get started) it’s a pretty fun place. Essentially a small Zoo and park (very small). It is setup pretty well for small people and has a fun (goat only for the most part) petting zoo and some small play areas.
Kaily was showing off for the Grandparents, I suspect, as she was in a blindingly good and cute mood for the couple hours we where there (even though we pushed well past nap time). She still won’t let the little leopard Grampa bought her out of her sight for more then a few minutes .

The photo story starts on the picture link bellow and runs back to page one. Snaps from both cameras have been mixed togather. 

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It’s nice to make it to Mother’s Day and to get to spend it with family. We had a quiet and relaxing time, just the three of us. Kaily is at such a fun age. Her verbal skills are great and she is so responsive. We have a lot of fun antagonizing the neighbors dogs and chasing the ducks at the park. Today we went to the bookstore. Griffon looked at adult books while Kaily and I shared stuffed animals and hard, cardboard books with all the kids in the children’s section. She was really put-out when anyone tried to leave to go home and followed them talking at them and saying "bye, bye, bye".

The MRI went very well and it looks like the tumor is gone for now. The brain is healing well and the doctor is very pleased at my progress. He said I am healing very quickly for someone with my type of tumor in the place it was at, and the size it was. Kudos for all that hard work. I also saw my wrist doctor last week and he has signed me out of physical therapy. It looks like the adventure of my broken elbow and wrist has come to a close. I am kind of sad to realize that this is as good as it will get- I still don’t have full range of motion and my left arm is still very weak. But, it is one less thing to worry about.

I am looking forward to getting my job situation finalized and settling into summer. It has been a nice Mother’s Day and I am thankful to have such an adorable little one to share it with.

Well some interesting developments on the Job front for Charise. She is going to interview for a new job next week but it turns out that her Principal (nice guy), has arranged things so that Charise can probable keep her classroom if she can find somebody to split her contract with (at least that is how things look now). Actually he had a couple good ideas to where to fish a partner from.
Not sure what will happen but I know that having some options is nice and more importantly not having to contemplate packing up her classroom is a huge stress relief. Hmmm and a relief for my poor back as well since the person who would inevitable tote all those boxes would probable not be Charise :p.

Good news all around. Today’s MRI came back looking very clean. As far as they can tell there is no tumor left and the brain is in fact healing very nicely (unussual and rare given the size and location). Will have another MRI in about 3 months, but so far we are doing very well and on track recovery wise.

Another follow up MRI today. I’ll up when we have the results. No reason to think it won’t be, there was just a bit of ocluded area on the last one.