Lovely Day in the Piney Woods

This afternoon we went to the Times Square Cinema with Carol to see Noah, a movie that has been widely panned by Christians expecting a biblical story, but one which many critics like.

We were definitely not prepared for the movie we saw. It has plenty of special effects, and Russell Crowe turned in a good performance, but it's a dark film. The first stunning thing is that the children of Seth, the good guys, are helped by the "Watchers," supposedly fallen angels who have been encased in stone and sentenced to stay on earth. They look more like transformers or some of the Ring Trilogy monsters than they look like helpers.

Noah himself becomes darkly paranoid, sees that even his own children are not entirely good, and decides that humanity must perish (though it's important that the animals live on). To this end, he threatens to kill his infant granddaughters, lest they become future mothers.... Definitely not our favorite movie.

This evening Dick and Carol took us out to dinner for our birthdays. We went to Oliveto Italian Bistro. The atmosphere was pleasant, not too noisy, and the food was quite delicious. We had the Rosemary Chicken Breast, which came with creamy jalapeño risotto and broccoli. The risotto was especially good, with just enough spiciness for our taste. Of course we also had good company, and we topped off our dinners with the "Eight Chocolate Brownie Bliss A Ghirardelli® brownie with five types of chocolate served warm with a scoop of Blue Bell® vanilla ice cream and drizzled with white and dark chocolate sauce and sprinkled with cocoa."

Earlier in the day I couldn't resist taking a picture of these azaleas in the back yard. The azaleas are late blooming this year because of the unseasonably cold spring.

On our walk this evening we stopped to thank our hosts, David and Linda. They are unfailingly cheerful and helpful.