Category Archives: Diversions

The stuff that didn’t fit elsewhere.

Mighty List, Screen time

The movie where everybody calls Mr. Potter “Grandpa”

I forgot to cancel my Amazon Prime free trial, so now I have Amazon Prime for the year. Turns out they have movies! That I can watch! For free! On my computer! So I went searched for all of the remaining movies on my Best Picture list and found that eight of them are free for Amazon Prime members.

This afternoon while the kids were down for Quiet Time, I fired up “You Can’t Take it With You,” the 1938 Best Picture winner. And I watched an hour of it, then turned it off. And later the kids wanted to watch some TV so I set them up downstairs and watched some more of it. And then when the kids were done with their shows they came up and watched the end of it with me, and Poppy wanted to know why there were so many grandpas in the basement. (Which would entirely make sense if you’d seen the movie, which is heavily peppered with white-haired men.)

The movie was directed by Frank Capra and starred Jimmy Stewart (my favorite) and Lionel Barrymore. Here’s the Amazon synopsis:

Lionel Barrymore is the eccentric patriarch of a clan of frustrated artists who decided 30 years earlier to retire from the rat race and use his fortune to encourage friends and family to pursue vocations that really interest them. At the center of his family is his granddaughter, Jean Arthur, who is carrying on a romance with her boss’ son, James Stewart.

It was like a not-as-good version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” featuring a whole houseful of Uncle Billies.

Diversions, On the Road

“This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. A quest for fun.”

2 Comments

My dad recently went on a cruise with his brother and several other family members.* Judging by the 1,134 pictures Dad and his girlfriend took, it looks like they had a lovely time. And now I want to go on a Great Big Family Vacation.

We’ve tagged along on my sister-in-law’s annual beach vacation a few times. The last time was 2007, before Pete was born. I haven’t been on vacation with my brother since the early ’90s, probably, and that was before he became a fully formed human. (You know it’s true, Perry Mason. I have witnesses who will back me up on that.)

So what I’m saying here is this:

All branches of my immediate family! I hereby declare that we, the Butterscotch Sundaes, want to plan a vacation with you this summer. Here are some vacation spots for your consideration:

Beaches resort
They have “Sesame Street” for the little kids, an XBox hideaway for the big kids and a DJ Academy for me. Do we even need to continue searching? Why yes. Yes we do. Because Beaches is way out of my budget.

Washington DC
Rockford’s grandmother lives just outside of DC, which would also make this an opportunity to visit her. One of my favorite family vacations ever was to DC. All the free museums make it an A-plus destination for homeschoolers.

YMCA of the Ozarks Trout Lodge
  1. It’s called the Trout Lodge.
  2. They have Archery, so I could brush up on my Katniss skills; Rifle Bowling, which sounds more awesome than the picture leads me to believe it actually is; and Underwater Basket Weaving.
  3. I always wanted to go to summer camp.
  4. It’s all-inclusive.
  5. There be pirates.
  6. It’s considerably less expensive than Beaches.
Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont
This place looks awesome. There would be separate all-day camps for the kids, and I would do zilch all day long. But it’s pretty expensive, and it would take us two days to get there.

Have you ever taken a Great Big Family Vacation? Where did you go? Was it awesome?

*No one invited me, probably because I wouldn’t have had the money to go anyway, but it would’ve been nice to be invited anyway Dad. Sheesh.

Diversions, On the Road

“This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. A quest for fun.”

2 Comments

My dad recently went on a cruise with his brother and several other family members.* Judging by the 1,134 pictures Dad and his girlfriend took, it looks like they had a lovely time. And now I want to go on a Great Big Family Vacation.

We’ve tagged along on my sister-in-law’s annual beach vacation a few times. The last time was 2007, before Pete was born. I haven’t been on vacation with my brother since the early ’90s, probably, and that was before he became a fully formed human. (You know it’s true, Perry Mason. I have witnesses who will back me up on that.)

So what I’m saying here is this:

All branches of my immediate family! I hereby declare that we, the Butterscotch Sundaes, want to plan a vacation with you this summer. Here are some vacation spots for your consideration:

Beaches resort
They have “Sesame Street” for the little kids, an XBox hideaway for the big kids and a DJ Academy for me. Do we even need to continue searching? Why yes. Yes we do. Because Beaches is way out of my budget.

Washington DC
Rockford’s grandmother lives just outside of DC, which would also make this an opportunity to visit her. One of my favorite family vacations ever was to DC. All the free museums make it an A-plus destination for homeschoolers.

YMCA of the Ozarks Trout Lodge
  1. It’s called the Trout Lodge.
  2. They have Archery, so I could brush up on my Katniss skills; Rifle Bowling, which sounds more awesome than the picture leads me to believe it actually is; and Underwater Basket Weaving.
  3. I always wanted to go to summer camp.
  4. It’s all-inclusive.
  5. There be pirates.
  6. It’s considerably less expensive than Beaches.
Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont
This place looks awesome. There would be separate all-day camps for the kids, and I would do zilch all day long. But it’s pretty expensive, and it would take us two days to get there.

Have you ever taken a Great Big Family Vacation? Where did you go? Was it awesome?

*No one invited me, probably because I wouldn’t have had the money to go anyway, but it would’ve been nice to be invited anyway Dad. Sheesh.