Category Archive Family

ByGD

Guardians of the Galaxy for the Win

Awesome MixLast week I had a good whine about parenting, so it’s only fair that I crow about the high point in my family life to date. Guardians of the Galaxy. Okay, that probably needs a little backstory. Before kids, a perfect date night was a bootleg John Woo movie. Like Tarantino, we would have had no qualms watching Shogun Assassin with our kindergartener. Except… Read More

ByGD

Freejack Mommy

Rice and Wine

Would you rather I used a picture of the drain?

Remember the nun with a shotgun in the movie Freejack who says, “The good lord always said to turn the other cheek, but he didn’t have to deal with the assholes I do*”? Of course not. Nobody remembers Freejack, but that line has been stuck in my head for hours. It’s the kind of day I’ve had. Read More

ByGD

Christmas Cheer

Ring frodoA recurring theme in The Lord of the Rings is the quest that one accepts in ignorance – no hobbit could undertake to destroy the Ring if he really knew what was required to succeed. I believe this is the reason that people don’t tell you the truth about parenting. If we really knew what it would take, we could never do it. One of the lesser sacrifices of parenting, but one that still galls me, is the vulnerability to sentiment, especially around the holidays. I try to fight it with snarky, yet seasonal, film choices. Read More

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My Daughter Got a Lammily for her Birthday and You Won’t Believe Her Response

Lammily doll in boxHow’s that for a Buzzfeed-worthy headline? Anyway, I remember hearing about the crowdfunding campaign for Lammily and thinking, “She’d better have awesome clothes.”

Oh wait, I’d better back up. Lammily is a new Barbie alternative designed after actual human body dimensions. The first time I saw a picture of one, I thought it looked weird. Then my daughter received one for her 6th birthday, and her response actually did surprise me. Read More

ByGD

Kinkaku-ji Gardens

 

XXKinkakujiGarden

When we went to Japan in 2010, we gave our then 5-year-old daughter a camera. She took this picture of the gardens at the famous Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji. Although the temple is as stunning as promised, I was most impressed with the gardens, which are possibly the finest gardens I have seen in Japan.