Crazy, Stupid, Love coverage in the Seattle Times

Moira McDonald of the Seattle Times wrote a great review of the movie last week. Today, The Times carried her article about the local connection (Brother John). Article even mentions Dad and how he used to work with the Dad of one of actresses at the premiere. Here's the link to the article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2015747808_crazy31.html?prmid=head_main

Saturday Night at the Aquasox

Boating group met for BBQ, then Aquasox baseball game. Lots of fun and crowd participation. Jim won the auction for autographed team manager's jersey. Auction benefited Japanese Tsunami relief.

Countdown to Crazy, Stupid, Love

John's movie opens at 12:01 tonight! Warner Brothers has been publicizing the heck out of this movie. So proud of little brother. Chris started an office pool about what the opening week-end box office totals will be. I'm in for 250 million! Whatever the totals, seeing my brother realize his dreams is priceless!

First 5k

I'm registered! Seward Park on October 30. Have the Brooks running shoes, thanks to my cute equipment manager (Jim)and some training ideas thanks to Niece Emily and the great people at Running Elements in Bellevue.

By the way, a wonderful extra motivator: the race benefits the Lymphoma Association. That is the disease which took the life of my mother-in-law Beth just 3 months after Jim and I were married.

More premiere pics stolen from Beautiful Sister Stacy's facebook page

With our beloved Pop

With Steve Carell

With Emma Stone

With Ryan Gosling

Here's the link to the movie website:
http://crazystupidlove.warnerbros.com/index.html

THE PREMIERE

John's Crazy Stupid Love premiered in New York last night. Opening all over July 29. Beautiful Sister Stacy and the folks were there and Stacy sent some pictures.

Scenes from a Huli drill

Huli is the term for tipping a dragon boat over. Or to borrow from Jim's joke it also means "how long can you tread water?"

Here we are in the water

Here's Jim (in yellow) safe on the dock.

Here's Jim jumping back into the water to help rescue the boat.

Everyone was fine. Stacy apparently had fun!

A greyt story

This is one email I just had to pass on .....

Subject: Fw: Great story...

In 2003, police in Warwickshire , England , opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. The dog had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had quite clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a female greyhound, to the Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, which is run by a man named Geoff Grewcock, and known as a haven for animals abandoned, orphaned, or otherwise in need.

Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved. They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.



Jasmine, however, had other ideas. No one quite remembers how it came about, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It would not matter if it were a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting animal. Jasmine would just peer into the box or cage and, when and where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff relates one of the early incidents. "We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre, and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them."

"But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them, and it helps them to not only feel close to her, but to settle into their new surroundings. She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs, and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose."



Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary's resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, fifteen chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and fifteen rabbits - and one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, eleven weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster-mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection, and makes sure nothing is matted.



"They are inseparable," says Geoff. "Bramble walks between her legs, and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary. It's a real treat to see them."



Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.



Pictured from the left are: "Toby", a stray Lakeland dog; "Bramble", orphaned roe deer; "Buster", a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; "Sky", an injured barn owl; and "Jasmine", with a mother's heart doing best what a caring mother would do...and such is the order of God's Creation.

And, just in case you wondered, Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/jasmine.asp verified the truth of this wonderful story and the reality of these photographs which accompany the story.

So you can pass this story on, and maybe make someone else's day to be just a little brighter!

Dragon boat capsizes on Thursday, Team has fun at Kent race Saturday

On Thursday, our Habu dragon boat team, ignoring signs that were obvious in retrospect, took the boat out and capsized. Scary moments re the new member's daughter's life jacket issues on one side and hysterical new teammate on the other side.

Meanwhile our junior team capsized further south. More scary moments as some of our team had kids on that boat! All ended well, they were rescued by fire, police and local residents. And they made TV and newpaper news!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015541454_boatcrash08m.html

Yesterday had a race at Lake Meridian. Had tons of fun with new and old friends.


Heading to the dock for a race.

The loading/unloading area.

Habu (in the background)in a race. Yes, that's a parrot on Captain/Tiller Bill's head!

Our junior team (in yellow)obviously recovered from their dunking on Thursday. They beat us old folks (in the background) in a preliminary race and made it to the finals.