Details have been released at the USA Today site about the extra content that will be in The Two Towers extended edition, to be released November 18.
See also our release dates notice post.
(Thanks to Ilene Tatroe for sharing the news.)
Family News Update
Well, it’s about time I updated a few family items; Nichelle can add her 2¢ later.
- Isaac’s last day of school (second grade) was yesterday. He cried because it was over. He does much better in elementary school than I did.
- Work at Kronos has been great, and a wonderful opportunity to daily improve my Java skills. One colleague pointed out that our team seems to have “the right amount of fun.â€
- My father’s health has actually improved (this was not expected)! He was able to walk into and out of church a couple of weeks ago, and the congregation appauded when he came in. This is a big difference from how he was doing at Christmas.
- Nichelle’s pregnancy is halfway through, and she finally has another ultrasound scheduled for June 16, which should be the gender-determining one. (If this child is a boy, I’ll post a link to the e-bay auction soon.) If it’s a girl, we still need to pick a middle name. I’ll probably create an online submission form for suggestions. (Kherna Yoyo continues to insist the middle name should be Kherna.)
- We are still working on our move to Nashua. The cosmetics on our current house are nearly done. I have a minor plumbing problem to correct, but the greenboard for the new bathroom ceiling is up. Nichelle is (as usual) doing her masterful job of spackling, patching, and painting. We do not yet have a house picked out in Nashua or Hudson, but we find reasonable listings every day. We continue to pray for God’s guidance in this.
- The Mexico missions trip is back on after a one-year absence. I am going alone (sniff), but am looking forward to continuing to help with the church and children’s home in Constitución, as well as reimmersing myself in the culture. (I will be keeping The Missions Trip Site updated starting in a week or two, and will be porting the BLOG software to it, so I can do live updates from the trip. I read an excellent biography on Benito Juarez, the orphan-who-became-president. His story rivals that of Lincoln in some ways. I’d like to re-read the book before we leave, and take some notes.
The Amazing Geckoman
Scientists in the UK have created a sticky tape which works in the same way as gecko feet.
Co-worker Brian Cortez sent me this link from the BBC, about a tape that has been developed that works using microscopic hairs, just like a gecko’s feet. (Isaac owns a New Caledonian crested gecko, and they are amazing climbers.)
There are still significant technical challenges to overcome before this can be mass-produced, but Brian suggested this likely scenario at the WIlcox house:
I can see the toy manufacturers drooling over this one. Imagine being able to sell a set of real “Spiderman†gloves! I can also imagine you as a parent telling your son Isaac to get off the ceiling … it’s dinner time. 🙂
One Thing I Overlooked!
One can now add responses to the items that are “perm-a-linked†and/or in the Hot Topics list.
A View Too Good to Pass Up
Well, last week’s lunar eclipse was clouded out, but this view of Earth and Jupiter from the Mars Orbital Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor is pretty darn cool, and helps compensate [somewhat] for the missed eclipse.
Stinkin’ Clouds!
Last night we were all psyched up to watch the full lunar eclipse. An hour before it would have begun, the sky was relatively clear. An hour later, completely obscured. I was disappointed, but not as much as my friend Phil, who’s never seen one.
David Gets me In Trouble (Again)
Our 4-year-old son [david]David has always been a “people person,†even when only 2 or 3 years old. He is typically the one to notice when Nichelle has a new dress or hair style. I get in trouble for failing to notice such things like the house being cleaned (to me it always appears clean).
So, Nichelle has been doing some finish work on our upstairs bathroom, as part of getting the house ready to go on the market again. When I got home from work, I was ordered to go take a look at the bathroom. It looked good, and I said so. I pointed out that a lighter color, perhaps a floral pattern, would improve the darker sponge-painted border Nichelle had created. David, of course, trumped me. “Oh, Mom, it’s beautiful!†That little weasel.
The Two Towers DVD Release Dates!
See the official Lord of the Rings Web site for more details, but we have the regular DVD (and—ugh—VHS) release on August 26, an extended edition on November 18, and, of course, we’re counting down to The Return of the King in theatres on December 17.
Woo-hoo!
Nightmares About Dinosaurs—An Unusual Solution
Most children are fascinated with dinosaurs, and our boys are no exception. However, when David was three years old, he kept having recurring nightmares, from which he would awake screaming and generally require staying in bed with us, about dinosaurs.
To complicate matters, he kept begging to watch Jurassic Park, having seen the dinosaur pictured on the DVD case. Of course, given his nightmares (and having some negative leanings toward showing somewhat-violent programming to small children), we did not grant his request.
But the nightmares continued for weeks. Finally, I reasoned, he was already having nightmares about the dinosaurs, what harm could there be in letting him watch Jurassic Park? As I recall, we did skip over the scene where the T-Rex attacks the jeep with the kids in it.
After watching the film (actually, after watching all three JP films), his nightmares went away. Go figure.
24
[tv]Nichelle here: I noticed my husband has failed to mention the rather noisy incident that happened the other night. Well, I'll be nice and fill you all in. Well, Doug and I were recently introduced to a fairly new show, which is now in the second season, called 24 w/ Keiffer Sutherland. Well, the show is very addicting and extremely intense. We love it.
Well, back to the noise, which made me heave myself off the couch and bolt upstairs to find Isaac on the floor crying. He fell out of his top bunk. Well, Doug eventually made it upstairs to see what happened. I was later informed that he was trying to figure out what to do. He could only see himself needing to take a child to the hospital and missing the last half of the episode. The funny thing is we have the whole first season on DVD!!!! He only needed to pause for a moment, but I did mention that the show is really intense…LOL Well, Isaac did hurt himself, but nothing to take him to the hospital. He's fine now. Oh, we haven't yet finished the episode, but we did get another friend hooked on the show, by showing him the first two episodes.