I had forgotten the amount of energy bundled up in kittens. We’ve had the two kittens for almost  two weeks now. Some random thoughts and updates:

• We’ve more or less settled on names now. The brown kitten is Toasty, and the brown/white kitten is Scamper, or as Lily refers to them, “TOE-stee and SCAM-puh.” Why does she have an accent?
• There is a lot of energy in those two kittens. I’m glad we got two kittens (and they’re also brothers.) Although it’s a bit more work, they can play with each other and keep each other company. My previous cat was a lot lonelier, and I believe that contributed to her behavioral problems later on.
• My wife made a joke, and I’ll quote her, because I think it’s both funny and true: “Having Josh, Lily, and two kittens is like having Josh and three Lilys.” All three act the same — cute but always getting into something.
• We bought a nice pet bed for these two, yet I’ve only caught them napping in there once. Most of the time, they sleep anywhere they want. I’ve seen them sleep on the basement stairs, the tops of the couch and loveseat, the tv stand, behind the subwoofer, on a box in our basement, and even on the floor next to the pet bed. Dammit, that pet bed cost us money. Oh well, maybe they will grow into it one day.
• They’re really cute, and each has their own personality. Toasty has a lot of energy and loves to hunt. He will keep chasing and chasing his prey. Scamper loves to play too, and he’s more likely to jump at his prey from a 45 degree angle. Toasty has taken to sleeping on/under the tv stand, and Scamper loves to cuddle. He’s certainly a cuddler.

So far, it’s been good.

It was such an eventful weekend, let me break it down by day.

Friday, July 1st

What a beautiful day. We had an early dismissal from work around 2pm, and for once, I didn’t need to hang around a few more hours to get some time-sensitive task completed before I could go. I. Just. Left. I got gas, visited a friend briefly, and got home to clean up before my sister Julie & family came over for dinner. Instead of cooking, we ordered out some BBQ ribs and sides from this new Pom Pom Barbeque place that opened up in the neighborhood. It was decent food, but it’s no Famous Dave’s. Still, I think it’s good in a pinch and when you’re in a hurry. I got to see my niece Abigail, who is crawling and starting to cruise. I haven’t seen her in a long while, so I experienced a little guilt over being an absentee uncle.

Saturday, July 2nd

Saturday entailed a little hanging around, followed by some cleaning up, and a trip to Home Depot to get gardening supplies (mulch, flowers, etc.) We were all starving, so we drove nearby for a quick (and late) pizza/Indian lunch out with the family (we had Indian, and Josh had some pizza from next door.) Sometimes, it’s the little events in life that are fun and memorable.

We got home, then the ladies got ready for a one of my relative’s baby shower. My sister Julie came by, and the three of them went off, leaving me and Josh home alone. The two of us then did a whole mess of cleaning up the front yard, washing the front of the house, and some more tidying up in the backyard, in preparation for Sunday’s big gardening extravaganza.

Side note — our backyard gate broke off the top hinge earlier this week, and it’s been rather annoying. I picked up new large wood screws to try to rehang the gate, so this would have to be a job for Sunday.

Around 8pm, Josh and I did as much as we could, then went back inside to freshen up and get ready. Town fireworks would start a little past 9pm, my brother-in-law Robbie and niece Abby would be coming around this time, as would the ladies. I also had to pull together some leftovers for a quick dinner before we walked over. Around 9pm, everyone showed up, and we made our way to our usual fireworks-watching spot. Afterwards, the Josephs hung out for a few hours with us.

Sunday, July 3rd

Sunday didn’t work out exactly as planned. We were supposed to attend church services, then garden in time for guests coming over for dinner later that evening. Instead, it began to rain in the morning while we were at church, and it continued to rain off and on the rest of the day. So, instead of having a beautiful backyard, we postponed the beautification process until Monday. Also, I couldn’t fix the gate in the rain, so I found a way to prop it up under the shed roof. Instead, we focused on tidying up the interior, and making dinner sides. I went out later back to Pom Pom Barbeque to pick up BBQ chicken to go with our sides, as well as some dinner wine.

So who was coming over today? My wife’s friend/coworker Mara, and her parents visiting from out-of-town. It was a very nice evening, punctuated by her parents needing advice on setting up a home theater. My heart was aflutter as I went over a diagram of their room. I do live for these opportunities.

Monday, July 4th

What a hot day. I had hoped to both hit the gym and go cycling this weekend, but neither quite worked out. Oh well, what can you do sometimes? Sometimes, you just can’t get everything you want to do. I still have next weekend, and I will hit the gym Tuesday and Thursday this week. We spent the majority of the day gardening and fixing the backyard gate. I was able to fix the backyard gate, so now it swings and closes properly. Once completed, I moved onto working with my wife to dig holes, plant new flowers, trimming bushes, and lots of mulching. Four bags of mulch, to be precise.

After 7pm, we called it a successful day. We freshened up, and went out for dinner at a local diner. Neither of us had the energy for another drive to see more fireworks, so dinner out was enough for us. After dinner, we hit CVS quickly, then came home to watch a little Kung Fu Panda before sending the kids off to bed. Of course, we the parents had to stay up longer to take care of laundry and things, but that comes with the job.

It was a very long weekend, very eventful, and very fruitful. Now, if we could just have Tuesday off as well, in order to recuperate!

Two years since the last episode aired, I’ve finally watched Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. After the webisodes and the 2007 stand alone TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor, this is the 2009 direct-to-DVD release. I am/was a big fan of the re-imagined series when it originally aired. I read up on user reviews of each episode, fan comments and speculation, and any spoilers/tidbits regarding upcoming story lines.

The series finale aired in 2009, so I consider it strange that I did not experience a strong compulsion to watch this last installment. Maybe it was the so-so reviews from critics and the fan base. Why didn’t I rush out to watch it immediately? Partly the mediocre reviews, but I think also that each episode was so intense, and with the finale, I reached closure on the overall storyline. It would feel odd to go back and open up that box of drama and suspense. Although I was still ambivalent, “The Plan” slowly moved up the Netflix queue and showed up in our mailbox. I watched it Saturday night.

Edward James Olmos directs “The Plan”, a somewhat interesting (more on that later) revisiting of the mini-series and the first two seasons of the show. Told from the viewpoint of the Cyclons, we revisit the attack on the 12 colonies, specific key events from seasons 1 & 2, and supposedly learn more about the Cylons and their “plan.” I gotta be honest that I didn’t find this direct-to-DVD movie all that exciting. For all the talk over the series’ run about the Cylons and their “plan”, it still seems like the “plan” was to eradicate the human species. There is no other plan. The plan goes awry, as the Galactica and nearly 50K human survivors on a multitude of ships escape genocide.

At this point, you realize that the plan is now FUBAR, and there are human-form Cylons living incognito within the fleet The film features all of the human “skin jobs” as they to regroup and continue to carry out their mission, under the sadistic leadership of Brother Cavill (Dean Stockwell.) Dissension in the ranks among the Cylons grows, as each Cylon begins to question the decision to kill off the survivors, and the humans continue to defy the survival odds. That’s basically where the film ends.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2009)

I found Battlestar Galactica: The Plan to be mediocre. There were some illuminating behind-the-scenes moments, and it was somewhat interesting to see the Cylons doubting themselves and the initial genocide plan. The best part was the attack on the colonies, but that is just the first 20 minutes. First of all, there is no plan. The only plan the Cylon’s had, as demonstrated by The Plan, was their plan to wipe out all humans. Well, we already knew about that so I’m confused. For four years, we the fans were told about the Cylons and their “plan.” If it was just genocide, didn’t we know that during the 2003 mini-series?

Within the first twenty minutes of the film the destruction of the twelve colonies sequence has played out, which, I might add, is the best part of the film. The visual effects and the entire momentum leading up and during the attack, is really good. But that’s it. The rest is new material spliced with old clips. Overall, unfortunately, the film doesn’t add enough to make this an interesting film.