A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

NERD ALERT: OK, I'll admit it, we've been looking forward to today since we read months (years?) ago that Star Wars movies were going to be re-released in theaters in 3D.

Of course, the exuberance of that announcement was quickly diminished when we found out it wasn't going to be in real world chronological order, but in Star Wars episode order. That meant that "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace" would be first.

Jar Jar Binks.

Ugh.

Nevertheless, we were there for opening day, our family of four and five other people in the theater (two tweens and three people my age, each solo). For a moment here, I have to rewind and report that this opening day experience was a far cry from that rainy day in 1999, when I dropped Rick and Kennedy off at their middle school, headed to the theater in downtown Vancouver and sat on a cold, wet sidewalk for five hours to buy opening day tickets. (And on that memorable day, I was The Only Female over 20 in the blocks-long line that was overwhelmingly teen and 20-something males).

Tickets in frozen/numb hand, I raced back to Ridgefield, picked the boys and a couple of their friends up at school (which they ditched early for Star Wars, oh yeah!) and, by god, we saw it on opening day. Good times. (I'll never forget the boys' friend Steve being so nervous during the pod race scene that he ate a drinking straw. LOL.)

Like I said, a little different this go round. We didn't even buy our tickets ahead of time online today. Somehow, I knew it wouldn't be packed to the rafters. ...

That said, and Jar Jar aside (yes, he's even MORE annoying in 3D), I was glad that CJ and Annabelle had the opportunity to see any Star Wars movie in the theater. We laughed, we cried (Anakin leaving his mother, sniffle), and we cheered (CJ and Annabelle both started clapping uproariously when the movie ended).

Still heart Star Wars. A saga for the ages. I'm sure I can come up with some curricular-type activities to tie into the movie

DIGITS: The kids' math book is moving them right along through multiplication. A couple of days ago, the new exciting development was multiplying two-digit numbers by single digit numbers. Today, they were multiplying THREE digit numbers by single digit numbers. Exciting stuff. And since we were doing that, I pointed out to and demonstrated for them that they also had the know-how to multiply a single digit number times a number in the thousands, ten thousands and upward. It's the same concept, just carried forward.

They're still not quite where they should be as far as having their multiplication tables memorized, IMHO, but I have to admit, that cheezy multiples of four song to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" has come in handy for them.

MORE ON MARS: I'm still plugging away on the presentation for Tuesday. At least today, I am now concrete in exactly what I want to cover, so now it's 'just' a matter of getting together the words and graphics to make that happen.

I went through the first half of the presentation today with CJ and Annabelle, and they were an enthusiastic audience, so that was a good sign.

As I'm reviewing these materials and thinking about it all in terms of how a kindergartner would feel about it, I am remembering what my impressions and hopes for Mars were when I was 5. Back then, before all of the data from the Viking missions, we (a whole lot of science fiction writers, and me, et al) really and truly thought there might be Martians living on the Red Planet.

I didn't expect them to be like us, but I did expect something - or someone -  there. I'm starting to relive what a disappointment it was to find out it was a desolate landscape devoid of some kind of humanoid neighbor.

Even still, the Red Planet is fascinating. The very first photo any spacecraft took of it was in the year of my birth - 1965 - by Mariner 4.

Not a lot of detail there, but fascinating in its own mid century modern way. ;)

The Viking missions pretty much made it clear that we wouldn't be hosting any Martian exchange students  any time soon. I suppose instead of grousing, I should be more grateful that it also meant we weren't going to be invaded a la "Mars Attacks" or "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

CROSS-BLOGGING: I received a nice email today from author Jeanne Walker Harvey letting me know she had posted CJ and Annabelle's artwork, inspired by her book "My Hands Sing the Blues" about artist Romare Bearden on her blog. You can see it here: http://jeannewalkerharvey.blogspot.com/p/kids-artwork.html