Surf and Turf

Beth and I went to see the movie "Soul Surfer" last week (1/2 price Tuesdays) and I was very impressed. I had heard a little of this girl's story a while ago - a surfer who had her arm bitten off by a shark when she was 13 years old. They did a wonderful job portraying this story - great surfing photography (and of course Hawaii is beautiful), solid acting (especially from the main character - amazing!), and flawless CGI to show her without an arm for most of the movie. And of course the story itself is so unique and powerful (and true!). The important faith aspects of her life are handled tastefully and naturally. I found myself really captured by this movie and was moved to tears several times.
Tried rolling our back lawn on the weekend. Some say you shouldn't do this but our ground is very rough - the lawn mower ends up jumping all over the place - so thought I'd give it a try. The rental place said not to put water in the roller but I did anyway because it just wasn't heavy enough. Even with that extra weight it didn't smooth everything down, though it did help some. I was hoping to do it again on Sunday or Monday but it got too cold again. Maybe I should just buy one so it's available whenever I need it.
Saturday night we saw Bruce Cockburn's concert at the Centre in the Square. He always puts on a great musical show. This one was with his drummer and a newer violinist. His new album is growing on me and it helps to hear the tunes live. It never ceases to amaze me the number of songs that he has memorized out of his huge catalog. Was thrilled when he played 'All the Diamonds' during the encore - a favourite, beautiful song that I can't help but sing along with (sorry for the dangling preposition).
Our whole family ended up going to Bhima's Warung for supper on Sunday. This is the (high end, emphasis on the 'high') Indonesian restaurant where Joel is apprenticing, and he's been bugging us to go back (we were there for my birthday last year). We sure need Joel's guidance when ordering as most of the terms are foreign (pun intended) to us. But we had a great meal and a nice time around the table. I nearly fell off my chair when Josh said he'd pick up the (large) bill!
Relistened to Billy Sprague's "Wind and Wave" this week. One guitar guy on the internet calls this the best album ever and while I wouldn't go that far I do think it's very good. Great lyrics ("people need wisdom but get an education") and the music is very reminiscent of Sgt. Pepper. Further listens also to Sarah Masen's "Dream Life of Angels" and Cockburn's "Small Source of Comfort".
Decided I need to become more familiar with Bruce Springsteen's music. I've come to his stuff late (found out that his first albums came out when I was still in university) and have listened in the past few years to later releases like The Pete Seeger Sessions, Magic, and Working on a Dream. Have given a pretty good listen to Devils and Dust, reading along with the lyrics a couple of times. Got a 30th anniversary boxed set of his breakthrough Born to Run release from the library so will work through that one next week (Should I be embarrassed that I never listened to this when it first came out? Had no interest back then.) I'm finding his music to be very enjoyable and easy to listen to - more so than Paul Simon's stuff - I wonder why that is?