Yellowstoned

I'm still recuperating from a week in Yellowstone; I road-tripped with the boys there. They had a blast, although it was a helluva drive (all told, I drove >3700 miles, round trip!) But I thought it was worth it for the boys to get a sense of just how big this country is. I've been out west before, but have never driven the distance. Anyway, they loved it, had a lot of fun. We saw bison, elk, ospreys, coyotes, ravens, grebes, etc. I heard a pack of wolves one morning, too. Good times! B1 really loved the geysers and hot springs, was fascinated by them. I took over 1000 pix with my Nikon, while B1 took lots of shots with his own camera. Yellowstone was beautiful, although the ghostly remains of trees from the '88 wildfire were all over the place. That must have been one serious conflagration, because you could see those dead trees amid the sea of green, and some hillsides and mountain faces were still on that long, slow road to recovery.

Butterflying

Had a butterfly land on me yesterday. Butterflies love landing on me. B1 pointed it out, said "Daddy, there's a butterfly on you!" It hung out on my jacket for a bit, before flying off and then briefly landing on my back, and then flitting away. Go figure.

Avenge Me!

I took the boys to see "The Avengers" over last weekend -- so, that makes it the first time since the original "Star Wars" movies that I've seen a movie three times on the big screen. I just wanted them to be able to see it on the big screen, with the great sound. They enjoyed it, although they still relate more to the animated version I've showed them on DVD.

Speaking of the movie, I saw the drugstore clerk again, and mentioned having seen the movie. He waxed lyrical about it, particularly about the Hulk, breathlessly speculated that the sequel would feature more Hulk. He knew his Marvel, though, since we were talking about the Thanos cameo at the end, and what that would mean for the sequel (in a word, trouble -- watch out, Avengers! Thanos will fuck you UP!) I'm kinda hoping Kang appears at some point -- Kang is one of my favorite villains, and was always getting after the Avengers. Ultron could be a good one, too, if they did it right. Or Graviton. Anyway, we'll see. I just hope the makers of the movie are able to mine what made the first one great and run with that in the sequel.