Watching "Rear Window" On Halloween Night...

 The Trick-Or-Treaters have all returned to their homes, tired but still excited to have gotten free candy. Well, not free--it did cost some work, a costume, an evening stroll, knocking on doors and a little begging. Hopefully, all that walking and thanks to parental control--a limited candy intake--will result in a good night's sleep for all those little ghosts and goblins.

Us?

Once the little beggars were done, we came in from the cold and fired up a movie. Tonight's selection?

Rear Window

A classic.

With each passing year, thousands of movies are made. With each one brings a new entertainment choice for the public. A movie released in 1954 must compete with everything made after it, as well as before. To be chosen by a little family in Northern Utah, it needs to be a good film, a memorable film, a classic. Rear Window is all those things.

Yes, it's a sleeper, a thinking person's film. It's not flashy, but every line drips with meaning, every shot is important.

We're all tired. My wife spent much of the day making homemade doughnuts. I assembled and then disassembled our candy cannon. The kids spent much of the night loading the cannon with candy and blasting it out to the hoards. Now, we're all sitting in a semi-dark room watching Grace Kelly do her best to entice Jimmy Stewart (why she had to even put forth any kind of effort is beyond me...). It's been a great day. Its ending deserves a great film. We picked a good one.

Who Knew Puzzles Had Accessories...?

 Over the summer we scored a couple of items at yard sales--both having to do with puzzles--both were made to make the puzzle-putting-together-process easier.

They're both great.

A few weeks ago, we decided to honor Labor Day by putting together a puzzle, Eric Dowdle's North Shore. Great puzzle. Since this was the first puzzle we attempted after finding these puzzle accessories, we thought we'd try them out., Here are my grades of both items.

Roll & Stow

I wasn't sure about this one. It's a large piece of felt with some white stickers shaped like a large puzzle piece stuck in each corner. I thought the felt piece was too small. And, I suppose when working larger puzzles it will be too small, but for our 1000 piece Dowdle, it was perfect. The Roll & Stow comes with the felt and large cardboard tubes. Once you finish the puzzle (or if you're not completely finished...), you can put the tube over the puzzle, then just roll it up and stow it away. We didn't try the Roll & Stow until we finished the puzzle. We rolled it up and could have stowed it away if we wanted to.

Rating: A+

Sort & Go

My wife picked up the box at a yard sale. The yard sale organizer told my wife that the product was amazing and they were only selling the one because they had two. Of the two accessories, I thought this was was more practical. You can sort the puzzle pieces into six trays and if you want to take a break and put the unfinished puzzle away in the stackable tray, just stack up the trays and you're good. The trays prevent having a big pile of puzzle pieces containing even the smallest fleck of blue on the table waiting for the family dog to come along and eat a piece or two. Those who put the puzzle together used the trays and liked them.

Grade A

I was unaware of these accessories. I'm unaware of a lot of things that are available out there. But, if you're a puzzler and you don't know these exist, you ought to try them out. Hopefully, you'll agree with me and like them both.

Just Hanging Out...Looking At A Blood Moon

I read somewhere that it was coming. Good thing my wife was on a social media site Sunday evening or we'd probably have missed it. Sunday the earth passed between the sun and the moon and created a lunar eclipse. That amazing display was followed by a blood moon.

Very cool indeed!

There were a few disadvantages with our watching of these astrological events. First, it was cold. That happens in Utah in January. It wasn't as cold as it could have been, but it was cold enough. 

Second, this event took time. The fact that I didn't have to work the next day helped, but see Disadvantage #1 to see why Disadvantage #2 was a problem. 

Third, we had clouds. The cloud cover wasn't so bad that it ruined the evening, but when the lunar eclipse was completely blocking the moon and that red glow that gives a blood moon its name washed over the usually white object, the clouds moved in and blocked our view. I was lucky to snap a couple of pictures, neither of which was very clear, but it was clear enough to see what's in the photograph.

The whole family, minus our oldest child, decided to stand outside and look up and the night sky. It struck me as we all watched and waited, this will hopefully be one of those experiences that my children remember. As my kids get older, there's going to be fewer and fewer of these events. I look back on my childhood and remember things we did as a family. I don't suspect they'll remember that night every time they hear the phrase "blood moon," or "lunar eclipse," but they might. 

I hope to remember the night as well.