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Movie - This afternoon I took the girls to see the new Peter Pan movie during the boys' afternoon nap. It was excellent -- one of the best movies I've seen this year. Unlike the movie, Hook, done a few years ago, this one tries its best just to stay true to the original story. A relatively new actress named Rachel Hurd-Wood (shown below) plays Wendy Darling. In my opinion she really stole the show. The special effects that we are capable of doing now really made the story come alive. Claire liked it a lot but Abby got a little burnt out because of the waiting beforehand.

I'm still hoping to take Claire to see Return of the King. I've been thinking of taking her to see it at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. It would be quite the contrast to when I saw Lord of the Rings at an Imax theatre. The other contender for movies this afternoon was Cheaper by the Dozen. While Claire and I both are looking forward to that movie, we suspected that Abby might not get much out of it and opted for Peter Pan. The movie review that swayed me was here. Overall I rate it as an outstanding family movie because it can entertain kids as well as adults.

George - Our cat, George, went in for his annual vet exam. Just when I thought he's got one foot in the grave, the vet says that he's doing fine and is reasonably healthy for his age. He's lost a bit of weight relative to last year and is certainly less spry, but otherwise he's where he should be.

Mario Kart: Double Dash -- Michelle, the girls, and I spent a couple of hours today playing our new copy of Mario Kart. We finally broke into doing some multiplayer modes of play. Claire was starting to get frustrated that she was never in first place. I say that she should just be happy that Michelle and I were so busy throwing "weapons" (banana peels, turtle shells, etc) at each other that we didn't focus any energy on slowing the girls down. Michelle, who is hardly a techie, really enjoyed the game and started to work on polishing her driving technique after the girls went to bed. Abby did a surprisingly good job at holding her own for a five year old. We look forward to a time when Chris and Katie can visit again so that they can play against their nieces.