Here we are.

Dr. Michael Klaper studies the vegan diet and its health benefits. One way he tracks the health of vegans is through a nice online survey. Non-vegans are the control so anyone can take it. In addition to the survey, he will also run comprehensive bloodwork and provide a phone consultation (from Hawaii! sweet!), but that costs big bucks, oh well.

My wife was distressed by some of the concerns related in the most recent summary of his research, especially regarding our kids, who’ve been vegan since birth ( other than breastmilk! :> ). Many of the concerns are old news for vegans (“take your B12”), but some are newer. Here’s a 10-second summary of Dr. Klaper’s “things for vegans to watch”:

Filled with charm and warmth and punk rock, how could you go wrong? Travelling through this one is like falling into the rabbit hole. This is the movie that Velvet Goldmine wishes it was.

We are having a blast with soccer. It’s the second half of Reiley’s U10 season. Reiley and I (and Wrenny on occasion) have been braving the cold dark startup practices of the end of winter, and now we’re moving into warmer spring game time. There are three teams in the league again, which means lots of games – we have to play two every other weekend so all teams get a game EVERY weekend. We’ve worked on basics, passing, channels, big kicks… we may be ready to beat even the “slow giants”, the Hurricanes. If we can just keep all that energy focused!! Regardless, we plan on lots of fun. Stay tuned! :>

Yeeeeeow! Jammed to the brim with great characters, this movie is about existentialist detectives exploring the lives of several intertwined friends/enemies/lovers/”coincidences”. Whether it’s crazy characters or the crazy philosophy that attempts to exlain it all, the pace and the fun never let up. Permagrin!

Edward Norton is charmingly disarmingly idealistic and Robin Williams is joyously profane in what you might at first think sounds like a fairly predictable gag. Both characters lay on just enough edge to put it over the top. Fun fun.

I’m the last person to search out movies that allow you to indulge in the “opulent lifestyles of the rich and famous”, but when the Coen brothers are driving the horsecart, sign me up. In this case it’s Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney playing the cold-hearted gold digger and high-powered divorce attorney, respectively. It’s like a surreal self-parody of themselves (or at least their stereotypes), and of course, being a Coen movie, there are some great supporting characters (even if there are less than in the average Coen movie) – don’t miss Geoffrey Rush’s great performance kicking things off.

It was a birthday too big to not celebrate in person, so we packed up the minivan with the family, dog, snacks, sleeping bags, VCR, pillows, cooler, laptop and kitchen sink and headed out for the 13-hour drive from NC to FL. We didn’t realize until the day before that we would be driving right through the Superbowl in Jacksonville, FL, but the only repercussions were passing an occasional decked-out RV enroute to the 100,000-member party. But we had our own to attend, and the important people were at ours: Donna, Dick, Reiley, Wren, Bailey, Mike, Andrea, Dan, Val and Betty. It was a bummer that Niki, Tom and Corey weren’t in town, hopefully we catch up with them the next time.

We came down for the weekend before her birthday, driving down on Friday, whooping it up on the weekend, and heading back on Monday. The plan: to surprise the guest of honor by arranging a Saturday lunch with her usual gang, with the rest of us already there waiting for her arrival. We somehow managed it, but when she arrived, she jumped right in the buffet line and was NOT about to give up her spot! It took us 10 minutes to get her attention off of the line. When she finally looked over, her jaw hit the floor. Wheee!!

A nice full weekend of meals and jokes (and even some video gaming with bro, whoop) later, we headed back home. We need to work in more family time!!