July 4th Weekend

We had a really fun and relaxing Fourth of July weekend. I got some yard work done, completed a few easy projects in the house but the rest of the weekend was spent hanging out and watching movies.

Oh, and good food…

Friday morning I mixed up a pretty good sized batch of gazpacho soup, then Friday afternoon I made a big bowl of my mom’s famous potato salad. It was great having those two cold sides all ready to add to our main dishes (rotisserie chicken and steak) and hot sides (brown sugar and hickory baked beans and garlic grilled veggies).

 

 

We watched several Kaiju movies Friday and Saturday during the marathon on the El Rey Network.

 
During our 4th of July dinner we watched a James Bond movie, Thunderball.  I picked this one mostly because we had just watched a wonderfully awful movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000 that kind of referred to this one a bit.

The following is from TV Tropes.org**

Originally titled OK Connery and later released  in the United States (1967) as Operation Kid Brother, Operation Double 007 was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the James Bond movie series.

 

 

• It stars Neil Connery, the actual “Kid Brother” of Sir Sean.

• In addition to co-starring Bond series regulars Bernard ‘’M’’ Lee and Lois ‘’Monepenny’’ Maxwell, the cast also includes veteran 007 actors Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana Romanova from From Russia with Love), Adolfo Celi (Largo from Thunderball) and Anthony Dawson (Prof. Dent from Dr. No).

• The score is by Ennio Morricone. Yes, that Ennio Morricone.

• The film was distributed by United Artists even at the same time they were handling the legitimate James Bond film rights.

It was a fun and relaxing weekend. Looking forward to the rest of the summer and more good times.

**Check out TV Tropes for more info

#LoveWins

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Road trip: Flagstaff

My daughter’s bestest bud from Hawaii was in town visiting family, and they invited us along on an overnight trip to Flagstaff.

Walnut Canyon

We hiked one of the trails at the Walnut Canyon National Monument. The Island Trail is a loop that takes you right past and even throughsome cliff dwelling rooms/ The loop is only a mile long but is a bit strenuous due to an altitude of 7,000 feet and the 185 foot vertical descent into the canyon, and the return ascent. It’s a great hike and even though I nearly died on the way back up the stairs I had a great time.

Downtown Flagstaff

 

 

We had fun shopping at Heritage Square.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saying hi to the carriage horse.

 

 

 

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We saw this cute Airstream trailer at The Big Heap Vintage, Antique and Handmade Design Festival. There was a lot of groovy stuff at the festival like antique furniture, pretty ironwork, vintage trunks and suitcases. There was some beautiful handmade work too, there was a booth with Steampunk fashion, including some niftyhats and jackets. Another booth had some really intricate wire and resin butterfly jewelry.

Father’s Day

Several years ago we started a new Father’s Day tradition. We really needed to do something different since both of our father’s have passed, so much better than sitting around being sad. This year we celebrated a week early since we have something planned for next weekend.

So, now every June we make the trek out to Scottsdale to eat at LoLo’s Chicken and Waffles. The food is amazing and the portions are ginormous. I usually get the Chicken and Waffle special but this year I was looking at the sides and decided I was going to try something new…Chicken, okra and potato salad. I was not disappointed and we all had enough leftovers for two meals.

We gave our guy two posters Marvel movie posters exclusive to San Diego Comicon. We already have a few and these will round out the collection nicely.

The detail here is amazing. I love how the colors in the shield seem to pop out from the paper.

I love this poster.  It might be my favorite.  Check out the shadows of the Guardians, it’s really the coolest part of the poster.

Happy Father’s Day! Wishing all fathers, brothers, uncles, friends and anyone else that has cared and taken time to support others, a happy and relaxing day.

Saturday Movie Night continues…

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

 

I love the Star Trek movies but this is the movie that I’ve seen the least.  I can quote practically every line in the following movies but I’ve only seen this one for the third time.  I love how the movie looks, the cinematography is amazing but the pacing is so unlike the usual Star Trek story that it felt a little off in places.  There were a few little things that didn’t seem to fit the Star Trek universe as well, but all in all it’s a good movie.  For a movie that started out as a reboot of the television series and went through several revisions and scripts it was a good entry for the series on the big screen.

Next week…  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan