California Shifts

A nearly flawless New England summer day yesterday was further enhanced with a phone conversation with the Cali-Daughter. She reported the WingMan was back on station which improved her quality of life significantly. They had just returned from the latest pre-natal doctor visit. The news was all good! The baby has shifted around to a more proper position of head down in the womb. My daughter confirmed the shift with repeated internal kicks to her ribs she’d been experiencing of late. The first blog reader certainly has inherited the leg elevated kicking style of the dad – the WingMan. In more technical news the placenta also shifted to a better position – I’m still not sure what that means but I nodded knowingly when it was reported.

Baby Bump Progress as of Last Night

Second date night this week and we doubled up with the next door Mafioso couple which made it even more fun. We went to see the new Vacation movie which was every bit as gross and puerile as promised – and also very funny. My wife laughed almost continuously and as we were leaving said she didn’t like the movie. When I asked her why she was laughing so hard she said it was funny but “so stupid”. I said that’s the point. That’s an apt description of the entire series of Vacation movies – the humor is gross but undeniable. There were several nods to the earlier films – often with very funny sudden turns – such as the fate of the beautiful woman in the hot car.

This movie has the next generation of the Griswold clan taking to the road. Clark’s son Rusty (Ed Helms) is now the accident prone but loving dad with kids unappreciative of the majesty of the family vacation. Helms is funnier than Chevy Chase was in the original but the movie plays more like a series of skits. We follow the Griswold family across country in their Albanian rental car where they encounter a cesspool swim, a well-endowed brother in law, a cannibalistic steer, and maniacal truck driver. Leslie Mann is completely underused as the now grown sister but there’s an endless parade of cameos that contribute to the fun. It doesn’t help that both of the kids are more insufferable than needed. An overblown zeppelin is called upon to reprise the role of Clark Griswold, the billing said it was Chevy Chase but I’m not so sure. So, not a film to revel in thespian excellence but pretty damned funny.

No Way That's Chevy Chase!

I also finished off another Lawrence Block book featuring Matthew Scudder in Time to Murder and Create. Yes, I did blow through the book in most unseemly haste but that’s a true indication of how well written the book was. Scudder, as the flawed hero, takes on a case of a blackmailer who wants Scudder to pinpoint his murderer if one of his victims chooses to end him. Of course one of them does which sends Scudder out in search of justice. He does so by engaging with each of the victims to think he has taken up the reins of the blackmail and therefore a target for the murderer. Block does a fantastic job of blurring the lines of good and evil while the hero deals with his own ghosts and guilt. I’m now firmly on the hook for the rest of the Scudder novels, not a bad place to be.