Easy Photos Day

Ian and Grandpa go to the Firehouse Open House in Alexandria last weekend.

Heading into DC to the Natural History Museum.

The kids invent a unicorn-themed treasure hunt at the Sterling Community Center playground.

First fire pit and s'mores of the season this past Saturday night.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Miguel Wants to Fight (PG):
This is a coming-of-age story about a high schooler who's about to move away and realizes he's never gotten in a fight. It has Reservoir Dogs vibes mixed with the stylishness of Scott Pilgrim VS the World. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B+

Line of Duty, Season Two:
The second season improves on the first, introducing more morally grey habits in the characters and having less "smelling the fart" acting. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B

Barry, Season Three:
The third season of Barry is slightly less weird than the second and goes in some interesting directions. The show's at its best when juxtaposing seriousness with clever sight gags, like Gene Cousineau being chased through a backyard by dogs.

Final Grade: B

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (PG-13):
This movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes long and it's only PART ONE of the whole story. It takes 30 minutes to get to the title sequence. It epitomizes the "big budget by committee" problem that these movies have today: fun stunts that go on for three times too long until they're just exhausting interrupted by extended exposition dialogue and cliched one-liners that are intended to be comedic. Skip it. Or fast forward to the two or three big set pieces and enjoy the stunts.

Final Grade: C-

Ian Fragments Day

♠ Yesterday at 6:54 AM, Ian said that he didn't want the sun to come up because it hurts his eyes and he loves the darkness.

♠ Ian wants to be a ghost for Halloween. We have yet to define these requirements more clearly, but I expect it will be a white sheet type of affair like the one Papa Bear wears in the Berenstain Bears.

♠ Favourite foods: pizza, yogurt, hamburger buns. Tolerated foods: vegetables, chicken tenders. Disliked foods: popcorn shrimp, salmon.

♠ Ian loves riding the yellow balance bike he inherited from Maia and asks us to watch him "drift", which really just means coasting in a big arc on our dead-end court.

♠ Current songs stuck in his head: This Land is Your Land, Life is a Highway, Country Roads.

♠ Recent read: a My Little Pony anthology (belonging to Maia) containing a spooky forest called "Everfree Forest".

♠ Favorite color: the rainbow "because I like all of the colors".

♠ We struggle to get Ian to use the bathroom without endless complaints because "peeing is not my favourite thing". He will hold it for hours.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:19 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

7:37 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

10:44 AM: Building factories in Satisfactory.

12:08 PM: Lunch.

12:43 PM: Replacing the walking belt on my 12-year-old treadmill.

1:57 PM: Finally successful.

4:44 PM: Relaxing in the middle of the day is possible when the kids are away.

5:58 PM: Date night at Local Provisions.

6:18 PM: The best flat iron steak.

7:35 PM: Wandering through Reston Town Center during the free performance of The Bacon Brothers.

7:38 PM: Several degrees of separation between us and Kevin Bacon.

8:54 PM: TV time after a run to Trader Joe's for wine and tea.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Upload, Season Three:
The second season of this show about the digital afterlife was a miss -- meandering and just gaining momentum when it ended. Season three is slightly better but the tone is uncertain. The show can no longer decide whether it's leaning into the funny sight gags about a future world completely sponsored by advertising companies or trying to bring the more serious "who owns your consciousness on a hard drive?" plotline to a close. I enjoyed the subplot about the AI helper learning to be more human, but felt like the main characters were too split off into their own plotlines to be much fun. On Amazon Prime.

Final Grade: B-

The Bear, Season Three:
I thought I would hate the first episode that takes place almost entirely in dreams (PTSD to the later seasons of The Sopranos), but it hooked me in spite of myself. From that excellent start, the show just treads water for the entirety of the season -- overusing some of the comic characters and preventing Carmy from doing much more than recognizing that he needs to change. The final episode full of real chef guest stars felt more self-congratulatory than good TV. (We almost stopped completely during the pregnancy-themed episode, but that episode ended surprisingly more lightly than expected). On Hulu.

Final Grade: B-

Cobra Kai, Season Six Part One:
I hate the slow place that shows are being released in modern times -- the final season of this karate show is coming out in 3 chunks of 5 episodes each over the coming 12 months. These first episodes are fun but not game-changing, and probably can't be fairly judged until we see where they lead. On Netflix.

Final Grade: B-

Elden Ring:
I tried out Elden Ring during a gaming drought in August, but it never hooked me. It seemed to have all the right ingredients -- open world, challenging combat, great graphics -- but everything in the introductory sequences is poorly explained and the world felt shallow and sterile. I only lasted 80 minutes.

Final Grade: Not Rated