Father's Weekend

Good weekend with family. On Saturday afternoon, we took Trish's dad and mom out to see the Incredible Hulk and then out to lunch. (By the by, Hulk is a good, fun popcorn flick with a couple of great bad guy performances from Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson.) Always nice to get time with just the four of us. Plus Trish's dad loves movies and, like me, will get all little kid excited over a good super hero flick. So during lunch we geeked out over some of the best moments in the movie and then somehow switched to quoting Mel Brooks' lines at each other. Good times.

Sunday night was dinner with my family. Brother Tom and Kathryn hosted a backyard barbecue on a perfect day. Joined by Tom's mother-in-law Sung-Ju and Katie's mother-in-law Jerri. Lots of vying for time with Leo, and with both grandmothers there, you had to be pretty aggressive to get any time in with him at all. Sitting down with that extended family really brought home how the ranks of the Heinrich family have swelled over the past 4 years. Long way removed from the five of us sitting down together then getting a phone call from Mike in Portland. And you can see plain as day how much Dad loves it. Good times all around.

Why you should never trust award shows

Trish and I watched the classic All of Me last night. She had never seen it and I don't think I have watched it in the last 20 years. It holds up incredibly well. Steve Martin's physical comedy is second to none, and Lily Tomlin's timing and wit are impeccable as always.

My memory was that the critical acclaim for Martin in this role was deafening, and that some lamented he would not get an Oscar nod since the Oscars don't reward actors in comedies (a travesty in and of itself). So I was surprised to read in the Netflix blurb that Martin and Tomlin received Golden Globe nominations (leads in a comedy or musical), but not awards for these roles.

Who on earth could have beaten them that year? Dudley Moore in Micki + Maude and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone. I mean.... It's just..... How could.... Ahhh, screw it.

Do yourself a favor and 1) ignore award show winners and losers and 2) go rent All of Me.

The Consitution still stands

A great ruling from the Supreme Court. It is says so much - none of it good - that we have come to the point where the Supreme Court has to decide an issue like this - and in a 5-4 vote no less. But at least we get a decision that does not shred the Constitution. There is hope.

UPDATE: A more in depth look with analysis is here.

Doubts

I think I have said this before, but I love my church. I love the way it encourages people to embrace their doubts, not to stay in one place, but to continually seek new answers. Cases in point. Tonight I met with my life group, and in a meandering conversation we ended up talking about forgiveness. How difficult it is to forgive, can you forigve in the absence of justice, why do we even need it, etc. And somewhere between my first and second beers it struck me how rare this is. How rare it is for a group of men to come together and share their struggles and their doubts with faith and be open about their shortcomings and their striving to do better. And then I come home to Trish and her friend Amy deep in conversation. Amy is struggling to reconcile her fundamentalist upbringing with her current world - "I want to do good because I know it is good not because I have always been told it is good." And I realized what a gift she was giving us by sharing her doubts and her fears.

I wish this was the image more people had of Christ followers. I wish they could see more of the doubts and the struggles and the questions and less of the arrogance and the certainty and the rigidness. The only way to build an authentic community is to engage people on a level with their doubts and fears and not from a place of superiority.

Anyway... here is a picture of me and some of the guys from the group with our beers and our Bibles.

And the Emmy goes to...

...Mike Heinrich. My brother won a regional Emmy award (Public Affairs Special category) for his photography work on the series Living In a Landfill for Channel 12 in Portland. Congratulations, brother. It is well deserved.

Long flippin' week

My day job had me in a document warehouse in Kent all week reviewing 330 boxes of pension data. Not as bad as it sounds since the review room was windowless concrete with fluorescent lights which means I did not have to get depressed watching the rain come down. On Friday I was back in the office trying to pull everything together before turning the documents over to the other side and got bitched at by opposing counsel that I had done it all wrong. I will be glad to see the last of this project.

On top of that, we had some -- a lot of -- drama surrounding the Gigi short and I have to make a tough decision this morning.

But there was plenty of good in the week, too. Trish and I went over to Katie and Jim's to drop off a meal and we got to spend a little time with them and Leo, who is probably even cuter now then earlier this week. Tonight is the long awaited regional Emmy awards. My brother Mike and his wife Tracy will be in town. We will get some good family time tonight and tomorrow and will hopefully have great cause for celebration.

Todd finished the poster for our feature film project, Duo: A Geek Tragedy (picture at the bottom of the post). I know it is just a poster but it really sparked something in me. We are getting very close to being able to pitch this. Of course that means I have to spend this weekend finishing up the marketing piece of the pitch package.

And Trish met with an Ob/Gyn this week. The doc is recommending a number of tests for both of us if Trish is not pregnant. And she will then meet with the two of us to map out a plan for the next year or so. Trish really likes the doc and I am looking forward to meeting her. It just helps having some kind of plan in place... not that it gives us total control over the situation but that we are doing something more than waiting, hoping and being disappointed.

A good week all in all. But considering it started last Saturday with Leo's birth... like I said, long flippin' week.

STIFF reminder

Wanna go see Behind Closed Doors and revel in its awesomeness? Of course you do. Well it plays on Wednesday and you can get screening details and buy tickets in advance here. And if you are up for two movies this week, do not forget to check out the equally awesome Ordinary Angels on Sunday. Advance tickets for that are here.