The story that couldn’t be told....

...until now!

The scathing exposé that could not be printed...until now!

The shocking true story that scandalized the nation and brought an empire to its knees!

Okay, a slight exaggeration. But I’m going to do something now that you rarely see me doing on these pages: I’m going to air a little dirty laundry. I’m not going to make a habit of it, but this has been a long time coming, and it will be a relief to write about it publicly and be done with it. I won’t use any names, only relationships, I won’t provide any links or addresses, and I will try to be as general as possible. This isn’t a vendetta; it’s merely getting something off of my chest that has been burdening me—and us—for about five years now. Sit back and relax, because this is going to be a long entry.

Some of you have noticed the countdown clock on the upper right of this blog. (It has served its purpose, so I’ll be removing it soon.) I titled it “free of negativity.” This was the date which signalled the end of our financial commitment to Ken’s kids from his previous marriage, but it signified much more than that. I want to make it very clear that any strife and discord was never about paying support. NEVER. Ken never missed a payment, even shortly after the divorce when he was in pretty dire financial straits. More on that in a moment.

Only a handful of you know about any of this, and I don’t believe any of you know the full extent of it. It was assumed that I told anyone and everyone in the blogosphere about all of this, in detail, but that is simply not true. I never sicced anyone on Ken’s ex or asked them to leave comments on her blog, and I believe the one and only comment Ken ever left on her blog was to tell her to stop harassing us on our OWN blogs. We had several nasty comments from her, her mother, and her sister. (Remember the epic Anonymous battle about my being pro-choice? That was the sister.)

As far as we can tell, her anger with us started in the spring of 2007. Up until then, over a period of six years, we had all maintained a decent relationship based upon the best interests of the two kids. I listened and sympathized and tried to be supportive when she was going through a divorce (the third one), and this was not a pretense. Ken was fine with this, but merely cautioned me to “be careful,” because there is a history of intense friendships and equally intense blow-ups and break-ups. He was so right. The point of no return seemed to be when our friends Kim and Steve decided to come out from California to spend a week with us. Kim and Steve were close friends with Ken and his ex when they lived in California, and after a brief hiatus in the friendship, Ken resumed it shortly after we met; we’ve since continued and expanded our friendship. Despite the miles between us, we truly enjoy their company and try to see them as often as possible, even spending a vacation with them every couple of years.

Anyway, the friendship between Kim and Steve and the ex ended quite a few years ago. Although they didn’t go into a lot of detail, there were several incidents that made them decide to pull away from the friendship. When she called Kim and Steve, she began hanging up if Kim answered; she told Steve he was her “soulmate,” and at one point called him and told him she was in the tub drinking wine. (Steve said, “The only woman I want calling me naked from a tub is my wife!”) She eventually sent them a long email about her gripes about the friendship and against Kim (and then blamed it on her third husband, who she said hacked her account...but that doesn’t explain why she then called and apologized for sending the email, saying that she did not mean to send it). When she found out that Kim and Steve were coming to visit, she said that she didn’t want the kids seeing them (they are the kids’ godparents, by the way). I spent an hour on the phone with her as she cried about the loss of the friendship and about how much she’d love to see them. I asked if she wanted me to mention it to Kim and Steve, and she said, “Yes,” and that although she didn’t want the kids coming here for the weekend to see them, she would be okay if they were to drive over and meet at the halfway point (which was our arrangement to pick up the kids at that time). She went on to say that she’s changed, and that if she were the person she is now, her and Ken would still be married.

Well, I was a little taken aback by that, as you can imagine! But I discussed it with Ken, we agreed that we would present Kim and Steve with her wishes, but would say that it was entirely up to them. We would not be upset with them one way or another, whatever they decided, and if they wanted to reconnect with her, we were cool with that. They discussed it, and told us that they had decided to not renew the friendship. I believe their remarks were something to the effect of “The fact that she is trying to use the kids to blackmail us into seeing her tells us that she hasn’t changed at all.” That they decided not to contact her seemed to upset her very much, and things really started to go downhill at that point. Another thing that seemed to upset her was that that summer, we took the kids on a two-week vacation: a week in Florida followed by a week on a cruise, something we’d all been saving up for for several years (we’d asked the kids to save, too, and they contributed $250 to the cause, using the money we gave them for doing chores). I know...it’s pretty awful of us to subject the kids to something like that!

That fall, we got a court notice from her that she was looking to increase the child support. We had no problem with that; although the amount Ken had been paying up until then was commensurate with his salary right after the divorce, his salary had gone up since then. Then we got a second notice that she was filing a motion to get almost $150,000 in back support, and if Ken didn’t pay it, he could be thrown in jail for up to six months.

THAT we had a problem with! I’ll talk some specifics here. The divorce decree stated that Ken would pay $3200 per month for family maintenance, which would terminate upon her remarriage. That happened two months after the divorce was final, and Ken and the ex made a mutual agreement that he would pay $1600 per month going forward (which he did faithfully). She was saying that he unilaterally agreed to drop the payments to $1600, so she was entitled to get the rest of that in a lump payment as back child support. The judge considered this for all of five seconds and said, “Nope.” The ex’s lawyer tried to argue, but the judge again said, “NO.” The child support was increased to an amount in line with Ken’s salary at the time, and again, we had no problem with that. The problem we had was that she would try to get money that she was not entitled to under the decree, and that she would actually attempt to put Ken in jail if she didn’t get it. Seriously??

As I wrote, Ken never missed a payment, and the $1600 was in line with his salary at the time. He also paid many additional expenses, including new glasses, new clothes, fees for extracurricular activities and field trips, and we took them on vacation every other year, with additional small vacations close to home in the off years. Ken was portrayed as a “deadbeat dad,” but I beg to differ. He was about as far from a deadbeat dad as a dad can be!

I was told that in my writings here in which I alluded to various aspects of this, although again with no specifics, I was being “mean and unfair.” Let’s talk about “mean and unfair” for a moment, okay? Just as Ken and I have been writing our blogs for several years now, the ex and her fourth husband also had blogs. We’ve also gotten emails and seen a few other snippets of information here and there. Here is a sampling:

• As I mentioned above, Ken was called a deadbeat dad and accused of abandoning them all. He was the one who left, but he wasn’t the one who filed for divorce. He never missed a child support payment, and he paid at least $1600 per month and eventually $2100 per month. There was also a percentage of bonuses paid, often to the tune of $6000 per year. He paid additional costs for other expenses before the increase in child support, and that was not insignificant. We have been accused of “hiding money,” but if we have a hidden bank account, I’d sure like to know about it! Financial disclosure statements shows that only a few hundred dollars of the child support was going directly to the kids. The rest was going towards bills.
• It was said that the kids’ toys had to be sold in order to put food on the table. We heard otherwise...that they were sold to finance a trip to England to meet up with an online “friend.” And if you can’t put food on the table when you’re getting $3200 per month, you’re doing something wrong.
• The ex has written that we are both compulsive liars and that we have Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Never mind the fact that several years ago, I took the MMPI (a comprehensive psychological evaluation test) when I was going through some counseling, and I have no such thing. The psychologist told me, “Other than a slight tendency towards addiction [no surprise there...I smoked for 20+ years], you’re perfectly fine.” I also dated a guy in Indianapolis for five years who was diagnosed with NPD, and believe me...Ken is NOTHING like him! Ken works in nuclear, and so he had to take the MMPI, as well. He also got nothing saying that he has NPD. So let’s just put that silliness to bed, shall we?
• We have been called “scumbags” and told to “go feed the squirrels, asshole.”
• Because I have never had children, I have been called selfish and barren. Yes, barren. What is this, Old Testament times? Although I have never talked about why I didn’t have children (it was mostly just a matter of timing), it’s astonishing to be called a “barren wife.”
• I have also been called a “Stepford Wife,” but then accused of influencing Ken like some sort of Jezebel.
• We got numerous emails from the ex threatening legal action. Everything from “if you don’t send your tax return within 7 days, I’m contacting my lawyer” to threatening a “slander” lawsuit (I think the word she wanted was “libel”) for what we wrote on our blogs.
• Ken has received emails signed “Wifey No. 1” and telling me to “stay my place” and stay out of it. Sorry, but if you file a motion to get $150,000 from me and my husband, and if you don’t get it, you want him to go to jail, I AM INVOLVED.
• I have been called Ken’s “whore wife,” a malicious bitch, and a passive-aggressive cunt. Ken has been called an asshole and a fuckhead. 
• It was suggested that when the kids were present, I walked around here in short shorts and no underwear. That’s just damned creepy. My “minimal mammary glands” were also mentioned, as in they were “hanging out of” my shirt. Not sure how minimal mammary glands can do that, but whatever.
• It was said that we really didn’t want the kids “fucking up” our lives.
• My profession (and all of my friends who share it) was dismissed as my being a “bench chemist.” I don’t even know what the hell a “bench chemist” IS, but that is an insult to all of us who have worked hard in the laboratory to provide quality results to every patient. I did three years of college courses in what was essentially a pre-med program, followed by a full 12-month internship in all areas of the clinical laboratory, including yes, Chemistry, Hematology, Blood Bank, Immunology, several other areas, and what I would eventually focus on, Microbiology. I take pride in what I learned throughout my career, and I take pride in the fact that I did my best to care for every patient. “Bench chemist,” my ass.
• It has been said that all I care about is “books, beer, and football.” Yes. Everyone who reads this knows that I care nothing about anything more than those three things.
• We were accused of forcing the kids to do housework and yard work. Any tasks we asked of them were not strenuous, and were a chance for them to earn some money while they were here. We eventually stopped asking and we never forced them to do anything.
• We were accused of “abandoning” them and never wanting to come to any of their events or football games or competitions. After the cruise, both Ken and I sent numerous emails to try and keep in touch. I would have to send reminders for Ken’s birthday and for Father’s Day. Ken called often and usually had to leave a message; the calls were never returned. On occasion, he would talk to the ex and ask for the kids. She’d say, “They’re not here” and would hang up. He sent many emails asking about when he could come down for a game, and would get “We’ve got an away game this week, and I don’t know my schedule beyond that.” When in Columbus on a business trip, he tried to get over to see them, and was told “They have previous commitments and won’t be able to see you.” One of the last times he went to see them, one kid decided that they didn’t want to see him...but now we get “You never came to see me.” We have evidence of the ex signing on and posting as both kids, so we wonder if they got all of those emails, or if they were deleted and they never saw them.
• Ken got angry letters from both kids saying that they didn’t want him in their lives.
• We were told that the kids decided to change their emails, and we were never provided with new email addresses in order to contact them. However, on the ONE occasion when we DID check their email accounts (which were on our main AOL account), as we were deleting them for lack of use, we saw emails from the ex to the kids stating that they were no longer to use those email accounts, and that new ones were being provided for them.
• When discussing things with the ex in the driveway of their home, she tried to pick a fight with Ken, and when he decided to not listen to it and drove off, she stood in the driveway, flipped him the double bird, and yelled, “Fuck you, Ken! Just fuck you!” Stay classy!
• It seems that she contacted my ex-husband...the one I divorced over 20 years ago. To find out what? That in my twenties I was a party girl? I wonder if he told her about how he slept with someone else a month after we got married, when he went to Texas for officer’s training school, while I stayed with my parents? I’m guessing that Mr. Born-Again didn’t mention that part!
• The ex called my parents “pseudo grandparents” and wrote that they should not contact the children anymore, that she didn’t know them and didn’t want them disturbing her home. When I attempted contact with the kids to let them know that my Dad had died, she wrote that the kids don’t care, that my Dad didn’t love them or care anything about them. That was probably one of the more vile things she ever wrote, and it was completely untrue. My entire family took them in as their own, and I have a very kind, loving, and generous family.

I guess that’s enough. You get the idea. It has been five years of incredible nastiness, a vile litany of hatred and bitterness. But I’m the “mean and unfair” one. I have heard from fellow bloggers and friends that she contacted them and sent long emails full of rants against me. One friend said that he had to quit reading her because she was nothing but bitter and boring.

Oddly enough, she seems to hate ME more than she hates Ken. The only thing we can figure is that there was some sort of hope there that they would eventually reconcile, and as long as I’m around, that won’t happen. Well, I’m guessing that even if I were out of the equation, that wouldn’t happen!

There is certainly one thing that we both regret: not pursuing visitation more aggressively when all of this started going down. We had gone down to one visit per month instead of two, then the decision was made by the ex to stop meeting us halfway. This meant a 10-hour round trip on Friday evening and Sunday. We did this a couple of times, which was a two-night hotel stay and spending the day with the kids on Saturday, mid-morning to early evening. That was it. Based on their school activities, on the level of conflict they seemed to be experiencing about all of this, and on the total cutoff of communication, Ken made the decision to step back and let them do their high school thing without conflict. I supported him on that. It was a mistake on both our parts, because it allowed the propaganda machine to kick in. If we had forced the issue and gone back to court, I believe things might have worked out differently. The decisions made were primarily about trying to remove conflict and stress from the kids’ lives. We are both sorry that the anger we’re seeing was the result of that decision. That being said, phones work both ways, as do emails. After several months of a complete cutoff of communication, you kind of get the message that someone doesn’t want to talk to you...at least that’s the conclusion we came to!

They are both adults now, and if they ever decide to make contact again, our address, our phone number, and our email addresses are the same. Those never changed. We’ve always been here, and have always been open to communication. Even if they don’t want any communication with me, that doesn’t mean that they can’t contact their Dad. We would both welcome that.

However, if I never have to deal with that particular ex again, I will be eternally grateful. I have never experienced such an angry and nasty personality, or anyone who was so willing to let her anger and bitterness get in the way of her own kids’ well-being. Situations were distorted and history was revised; Ken and I have both been portrayed as some sort of monsters. It’s astonishing to see yourself painted as a manipulative, controlling woman, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. On other occasions, KEN was the one portrayed as manipulative and controlling. So I guess we’re manipulating and controlling each other...? It makes no sense.

So that is our tale. There may be further developments in the future, but I hope it doesn’t involve any interaction with this person. It’s been a rough and stressful few years as we’ve tried to deal with some of this stuff. I’m happy to say that we never turned on each other because of it, which was some advice that my Dad gave us. “Don’t let this come between you.” I never forgot that, and we never let it happen. Now we can move ahead with our plans, as we get closer to being retired together. Good advice, Dad, and I’m proud that we took it to heart.

Thank you for reading and letting me get this off of my chest.

Now...onto the next adventure!

A welcome drink

No, not that stiff drink after a tough day!

After many days with little to no rain, we finally had a storm come through this afternoon. Our area is pretty fortunate in that it is rarely subjected to drought conditions, but we were five inches below normal until today. We really didn’t get a ton of rain, but it should be enough to give everything a good drink. The wind was a little fearsome for a while there, and there were downed trees and power lines in the area, along with power outages. Nutwood weathered it pretty well, with only a few small limbs down. I hope all my family and friends are okay and have no damage, or at least minimal damage!

I enjoyed a low-key day today, just reading a few things that analyzed yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling (I didn’t read everything, though...I agree with one author who said that we shouldn’t over-analyze this. The biggest thing about the ruling is THE RULING, not any political machinations or ulterior motives.), getting my workout in, cleaning up the kitchen, and general puttering.

I’m feeling a strange lethargy at the moment, and I’m guessing that it’s because of the heat and humidity. It cooled off nicely this afternoon, but the heat will return tomorrow and hang around for a few days. I could definitely feel it in my lungs—I felt sort of wheezy this morning—so please be sure to check on elderly folks or anyone who might have a hard time handling this heat. I can retreat to our bedroom and cool off there, or head down to the basement, but not everyone can escape the heat so easily.
Everyone stay safe, and as cool as possible. And don’t forget to hydrate!

Well, cut off my legs....

...and call me Shorty!

I’ll be damned if the Supreme Court didn’t uphold the Affordable Care Act, and I’ll be double damned if the swing vote wasn’t Chief Justice John em-effin’ Roberts! BOO-yah!

I was over at Shane’s to house-sit while the window installation continued (Isaiah was the installer...super nice guy, we had a nice chat, and he does great work, too!), and turned on CNN right after Shane left for work. They were reporting that the individual mandate had been struck down. This turned out to be a “Dewey defeats Truman” moment, and ClusterFox shared in the ignominy, because mere seconds later, they reported that the mandate was upheld, as was the entire act. It appears that the confusion came about because Chief Justice Roberts wrote that although the mandate couldn’t be upheld under the commerce clause, on the following page, he wrote that it could be upheld as a tax. BOOM! Done! The whole thing stands!

I can’t begin to tell you how elated I felt about this decision. Facebook just exploded, with my fellow liberals as ecstatic as I was! What an incredible validation of the ACA and of the time and political capital President Obama spent on it. The ACA isn’t perfect, by any means, but more of it will be put into implementation, and we can work on improving it. I love the provision that pushes us towards quality-outcome payments rather than fee-for-service payments. This is the sort of change we MUST make in our healthcare system. It’s easy to forget that this affects real people; one thing I always kept in my mind when I was working in the lab was that behind every accession number and medical records number was a person. A parent, a spouse, a child, a sibling, someone who was dear to someone. I feel the same way about this. There are real people who will now get the care they need, and yes...the care they have a RIGHT to.

To have this upheld—especially with Bush-appointee John Roberts being the swing vote—is, to quote Vice-president Biden, a “big fucking deal.” I’m a happy girl!

After being glued to the TV for a couple of hours, I headed outside for some Happy Fun Pool Time™, and I don’t think Shane and Matt’s pool has ever felt so good! We hit 100° here, and the humidity made it feel like 107°. It was brutally hot, and I made sure that Isaiah knew he could come in the house whenever he wanted for water, and Shane texted me to tell him that he should feel free to hop in the pool, too! He didn’t take us up on that offer, though. I didn’t just hop in a “time or three” as I posted yesterday. I was in there at least half a dozen times! Hop in, get wet, hop out, air-dry off. Repeat as necessary. I stuck around until Matt got home, we chatted for a bit, then I bid him and Isaiah farewell.

It was a good day, all the way around.

Stay cool, everyone!

A big decision

I was happy to hear a good report for my Mom today, when we went to see the orthopedic doctor about her knee. I was NOT happy that she had to wait an hour before she even got into an exam room, but as my niece Heather reminded me, there could have been ortho emergencies, they often overbook, and so on, so forth, and such as. I know that’s probably true, but I still don’t like seeing my Mom wait that long. She was fine, but you know...it was my Mom. Anyway, all was well. She just got a super nasty bruise on her knee, no permanent damage was done, and it’s just a matter of letting it heal. Good news!

Speaking of health care, it looks like the big decision on the Affordable Care Act will be issued from the Supreme Court tomorrow morning. As you probably recall, I was watching this very closely leading up to the vote, and in the past few days, I’ve been reading plenty of opinions on what the Court will do. The general consensus seems to be that the individual mandate will be struck down, although there have been some dissenting opinions. A few are starting to say that the Court will let it stand, if only to preserve their credibility as being above the political fray. Obviously, I want it to be upheld, and obviously, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas will go with the conservative view. The two unknowns are Kennedy, and surprisingly, Roberts. Some feel that both might side with the more liberal justices and uphold the law as constitutional.

So much speculation, but very little real information. Despite all the pieces written about this in the past few weeks, and in the months leading up to the decision, it’s still a crapshoot. I can’t even go out on a limb and make a prediction, because I have no idea what they’ll do. I’ll just wait until tomorrow morning and find out with everyone else.

Tomorrow I’ll be hanging out at Hanover Valley, as Shane and Matt get new windows installed on the house. Of all days to be asked to do this...they couldn’t have picked a better one! It’s supposed to be close to 100° tomorrow, so it will feel great to sit out by the pool and read, and take a dip or three. I’ll take my computer, my phone, and my Kindle, so I won’t lack for stimuli. I’m looking forward to some Happy Fun Pool Time™ this summer, and it starts tomorrow! It will be even better when I get to hang out with everyone, but tomorrow, I’ll just have to amuse myself. I think I can manage that!

Freshening up

I changed the look on the blog a bit. I was looking for “atomic” patterns, which were popular in the ‘50s, and came across this “atomic cocktail” pattern...I loved it! I hope you like it, too. I also have a couple of ideas for the Retro Lounge, including a coffee table that Ken and I can make, and finding some fabric for one of the lampshades. No rush on any of that, but fun to look into it.

Off to bed soon, because I want to get an early start so I can get my workout done and take care of things around here in the morning—I’m heading down to my Mom’s tomorrow to take her to a doctor’s appointment, and help her with whatever she needs done around the house. On Thursday, I’m housesitting for Shane and Matt while they have new windows installed. That’s going to be a real hardship, as I might have to sit by the pool, and as it promises to be a super hot day, I might actually have to get in the pool. *gasp* I KNOW! Can you believe it?! Such demands. Hmm, I hadn’t planned this far ahead, so I need to get the pool bag and a beach towel ready to go for that day. I guess I don’t need the pool frisbee, unless I just want to toss it around the pool and swim to get it myself. haha It won’t be nearly as much fun without Shane and Matt and Ken, and anyone else whoever comes over when we’re poolin’ it, but with as hot as it’s supposed to be that day, I’ll just enjoy getting a chance to cool off!

September rocks!

Even though we’ve already got two concerts going on in September (Bruce Springsteen at Wrigley Field on the 7th and the Smithereens in Valparaiso on the 22nd), the Palladium in Carmel made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: the double bill of two of my all-time favorites, Blondie and Devo!

In a flash of brilliance, they are billing this as the “Whip It To Shreds” tour. Super clever!

Even though it’s only three days after the Smithereens, this was one that was hard to pass up. Two great ‘80s tastes in one evening! Shane and Matt didn’t decide until recently whether or not they would go, but I guess it was just too sweet a deal for them to refuse, too, so this morning I got up at 6:45 in order to get four tickets when they went on sale at 7 am. Success! When we had lunch yesterday, we were talking about how impressed we were with Devo a couple of years ago, how they just seriously rocked up the joint. (Shane and Matt saw them on a different occasion from when Ken and I—and our friend, Doug—saw them.) You don’t normally think of Devo as playing a rave-up concert, but I’m telling you, it WAS! Shane and Matt and I saw Blondie a few years ago, too (Ken decided to sit that one out, so I think he’ll enjoy seeing them this time), and they also sounded great. What a fun concert that is going to be!

Shane and I were kind of surprised at this venue...neither of us had heard of it! When I was getting tickets, I saw that the B-52s are also playing there, in late August. It’s obviously been built since I lived there in the ‘90s, and it looks like they get some pretty decent and varied shows. I’ll do some further checking and find out more about it. It doesn’t look huge, which will make for an even cooler show.

I think I forgot to mention this, but when we were on vacation, I got a notice that Chris Isaak was also going to be in Indianapolis, at the Murat on November 25th, so I got tickets for that. I think I’ve seen him twice, and Ken has seen him more than once (including before Chris hit it big, when he was playing tiny venues in San Francisco), but it’s been a while since either of us saw him.

So we’ve got a busy fall coming up, at least when it comes to concerts! I wish they were a little more spread out, but we’ll enjoy them all! I have two new goals now: to see one of my ‘90s favorites, The Dandy Warhols (I just missed them in Chicago...we were on the road!), and to see the Stones again. I’m hopeful for both.

It’s fun to go to some concerts again. When I lived in Indy, it was pretty much a concert a month, and I saw a lot of great bands. The pickings are slim here in South Bend, but Chicago and Indy are great occasional short trips. Hey, kids...rock and roll...rock on!

Railsplitter

Today we met Cousin Shane and Matt for lunch at a local wing joint and got caught up on things. We had a few doo-dads from Route 66 for them, including something that was a super cool find. At the Blue Swallow Motel, they had a rack of vintage, uncirculated postcards of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Based on the cars, it dates from the early ‘50s. The owner said that a guy found tons of old postcards in an estate sale, or something like that, and they bought as many as they could afford at the time. I couldn’t resist that, so I got us one and Shane and Matt one. I couldn’t write about it until now, since I hadn’t given it to them yet! After a good chat about our trip and about what was happening with their house and pool, we headed over to see a matinee of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

Ken, Matt, and I had all read the book and loved it. The movie has been getting some brutal reviews, including that it is a “sin against entertainment,” the “worst thing to happen to Lincoln since he went to the play,” and has “massive lapses in plausibility.” As one Facebook commenter put it, “They went to see a movie about Abraham Lincoln killing vampires and they weren't expecting lapses in plausibility?” Brilliant!

I really don’t know if they were expecting some sort of deep and philosophical movie, but seriously. Abraham Lincoln. Killing vampires. With his axe. This is not high theater, folks. It’s all about em-effin’ Abraham Lincoln killing em-effin’ vampires with his em-effin’ axe. It was fantastic fun, with plenty of blood spatter and flying, decapitated vampire heads. Definitely not for everyone, but we all enjoyed it. Oh, and it was in 3D! It reminded me of a movie you might see at a drive-in theater in 3D, and you all know that I love drive-in theaters!

It’s gory and fun and silly and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I really don’t see anything wrong with that, either! It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I found it a super fun summer movie. Despite my fairly pronounced skepticism, I’ve never had a hard time suspending disbelief and just enjoying the ride, whether it’s a book or a movie. (The exception is when lab-related stuff is completely implausible. That pisses me off. It’s probably the same for anyone else in whatever profession is portrayed.)
Fun lunch, fun movie, great company, and great afternoon! I hope your Sunday was as pleasant.