Arrival in Minnesota

In case you missed the posts on Twitter, Facebook, and didn't get a phone call, we arrived safely in Minnesota. This was our most exhausting road trip, with maybe the exception of my first road trip to Tennessee.

I had to drive a 16' moving van while towing a car, this caused a bit of stress for me as I'm not use to it. Though the stress reduced within the first few hundred miles, except in heavy traffic. The cab of the truck was made for three people, and we added a dog to the mix. It was a very cuddly 1200 miles, luckily the air conditioner worked very well.

The exhaustion began before we even got into the car, two intense days of packing and loading boxes into the truck in debilitating heat. The trip was longer than usual because we couldn't go faster than 55 miles per hour, so a  2 day trip became a three day trip. When we arrived in Minnesota, they were experiencing record heat, 101F. We had to unload the truck that night, it was due to be turned in the next day. The day after we arrived, the temperatures dropped into the 50s. It was such a nice change.

We are focusing on resting for the first few days, but working on putting things away at the same time. I've returned to my job hunting efforts, and The Girl and I have stopped by her school to get her enrollment paperwork. I've had a driving tour of the town, and discovered a local meat market. I can't wait to try their meats, it'll be tough for them to please native Texans with their quality of meat.

There is a weekly craft show/farmer's market on Fridays, at least during the summers. I've seen four separate parks in this town alone. I look forward to exploring the area and seeing what else it has to offer. I also can't wait to see our friends up here.

And People Say Movies Aren't Educational

I've gotten to watch four movies recently, one in the theater. Let me start off with that one, "The Incredible Hulk." I remember watching the show as a kid, though my parents were told by others that we shouldn't be allowed to because it would give us nightmares. BAH! We went and saw it as a family, as we tend to do. Everyone enjoyed the movie. Lots of action, it even got intense at times. It's amazing what judicial use of sound effects can do, that excessive amounts of blood can not. The casting was perfect. The Hulk looked so much better than in the other movie. They even got in all the necessary cameos, including Bill Bixby. It was almost as good as "Iron Man". I am looking forward to the Thor, Captain America, and Avenger movies.

The least favorite of my four recent movies was "The Superhero Movie", a parody film. It was stupid and funny all at the same time. Not a bad way to kill a couple of hours. Drake Bell was really good as our Spidey character.

The other two films were romantic comedies: "Definitely, Maybe" and "The Holiday".

We watched "Definitely, Maybe" last night. One of the reasons I wanted to see this movie was Ryan Reynolds, he's hilarious in everything he does. You may know him from "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" or "Blade: Trinity". He even had a small role in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle". One of my favorite Ryan Reynolds movies is "Waiting", it's about a group of waiters at a restaurant, it is disgustingly funny. The premise behind "Definitely, Maybe" is that his daughter receives a sex education class at school, and it results in her wanting to know the story of her parents and how they got together. Dad agrees to tell the story, but only if he changes the women involved names. The girl makes a game out of trying to figure out which of the women from her father's past is her mom. This movie is very sweet, and it showcases how complicated love can be. It was also very funny.

Now to the movie that actually taught me something, "The Holiday". A cast of actors that I love was the big draw to this movie: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and even Jude Law. The plot: two women that are both trying to recover from breakups decide to escape to another country over the Christmas holidays. Amanda, Cameron Diaz's character, has an inner-monologue that sounds like the movie phone guy. Hilarious. The courtships in this story are very stumbling, and in that way they feel real, though they are exaggerated for comedic effect. The thing I learned from this movie was that there is a relatively inexpensive way to travel the world. You can actually sign up to trade houses with people all over the world. I didn't think it was a real thing, so I did a Google search. It is real. Now all I need is to own a home, then world travel will be within my grasp.