My cousin Jennifer and her husband Jon had a beautiful baby boy named Hudson Allen Withers at 8:46 a.m. today.
Everybody’s healthy and the little guy is beautiful. See for yourself:
Hudson joins his big sister Reese in a house full of laughter and love.
Much love to all of you … from this guy.
My good friend and writing partner Kevin and his lovely wife Lisa welcomed Isaac Thomas Rice into the world at 9:59 a.m. this morning!
Everyone is happy and healthy and good.
Isaac is 6 pounds and 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long.
Congratulations to the Rice family! I know the little guy will live a life full of love.
Biggest possible thanks to Greg and Erin for being excellent hosts and tour guides!
Click the photo above to see the rest.
The blog going’s to be quiet for a few days, gang.
I’m leaving tomorrow to visit The Greg in Chicago.
And!
Bill Murray is going to jump out of an airplane!
Chicago Tribune: Bill Murray planning to sky-dive at air show
Illustration courtesy of ABC News
It’s the Chicago Air & Water Show this weekend. In addition to Bill Murray jumping out of an airplane, my old friend the F-22 Raptor will be there to rock aeronautical socks.
We’re also going to see The Dark Knight on IMAX; it’ll be Greg’s first time and my sixth. And I bet I still catch something new, because I always do. The movie is that good.
Before I go, I also wanted to mention that my friend Alexander Nevsky is making a Hercules movie:
The Hollywood Reporter: Alexander Nevsky to play ‘Hercules’
As things become official, we’ll have some big news about Alexander’s project here very soon.
In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!
Bob and Courtney and Oliver and Melissa and Mike came over Monday night for dinner.
I made the meatiest jambalaya ever.
One regular box of Zatarain’s jambalaya mix, one family-sized box, three 12-ounce packages of Al Fresco sweet Italian sausages, two more 12-ounce packages of Al Fresco chicken apple sausages, two pounds of fresh deli shrimp, and lots of various spices and sauces thrown at it to keep things interesting.
Big thanks to my guests; Courtney and Bob brought the cheesiest bread ever, and Melissa and Mike brought this crazy-awesome Butterfinger/brownie dessert.
Pictures are here, courtesy of Bob.
This one’s my favorite:
P.S. Kareem! Click here and check out the Batman statue you got me; he’s perched on top of the bookshelf, guarding my DC Absolute Editions. Thanks again, my friend.
Bob’s pictures from our adventure to the Newport Aquarium are here:
Bob’s Flickr: Aquarium Trip 8/10/08
Check out the gallery to see what he saw.
So the Tuesday Night Dinner Gang of me, the Nevilles (Courtney, Bob, and Oliver), and the Carsons (Melissa and Mike) has gotten hooked on this hilarious obstacle course/game show on ABC called Wipeout.
You should go right here, right now, and watch “Week 6.”
I promise you’ll laugh so hard it will hurt. If possible, watch it with several friends who also like to laugh.
Anyway, last night’s episode was a clip show — of a game show! — where they gave out awards, and one of the contestants they showed said, and I quote, “I’m laid back at lunch time, aggressive at crunch time, let’s GET THIS!”
(Shortly after saying that, he bounced between two giant rubber balls so hard it made him do the splits against one of them in what’s probably the single greatest ball-busting ever captured in the course of televised human history.)
I said, “I’m going to make that my MySpace headline.”
Courtney said, “Only if you can accompany it with a picture of you getting hit in the balls with a ball.”
So we all went outside and did this:
Big Time Ballers, 8/5/08 – Photos by Bob
Here’s a sample:
And kids, please don’t try this at home.
And yes, ladies, I’m single.
Last Thursday night, Courtney and Bob and Melissa and I drove up to Indianapolis to meet Karen and Todd for an amazing evening of music courtesy of our good friend, Garrison Starr.
Garrison has a voice and a style unlike anybody else, and her lyrics will leave you suspecting she knows you better than you know yourself.
Check out her official site and her MySpace and listen to some songs and buy some records and support good music.
Bob took plenty of amazing photos that you can see right here:
Garrison Starr at Boulevard Place (Indianapolis), 7/31/08
More adventures coming soon.
I’m still working on my review of The Dark Knight. Stuff keeps coming up and slowing me down, but it’s good stuff, so I can’t complain.
In the meantime, I’ll share a couple of comic-book movie-related dreams I’ve had over the last few days.
Last night I dreamed that Jason Bourne and I were hiding from The Joker — played of course by Heath Ledger — at my grandparents’ old house in Ramsey, Indiana, where I spent many happy days as a kid.
And even though Jason Bourne was Jason Bourne, I still called him “Matt Damon.”
The Joker was sneaking around in the yard, hiding behind our parked cars and doing a poor job of concealing the fact that he was spying on us, hoping we’d come outside so he could murder us.
Eventually we didn’t see him anymore, so we ran out of the house and got on a bus to take us to safety. We also disguised ourselves. Matt Damon (Jason Bourne) wore silly glasses and a fake pointy goatee that made him look like a hipster artist from the 1960s, and I dressed like a lumberjack with a big fake beard.
But when we got on the bus, The Joker was the bus driver and he told us he was going to kill us.
So I told him he couldn’t kill us because we had to go to work. That made him angry, but he finally agreed that it would be funnier to play bus driver all day — and thus make all the required stops — than it would be to kill us.
And a few days before that, I dreamed I was dating The Incredible Hulk star Liv Tyler.
I really, really, really like Liv Tyler.
She owned a cozy little inn in New England, and all of my friends were staying there.
We held hands and ate waffles.
It was beautiful.
What have you been dreaming about lately?
Hello, Gang.
I’m back from vacation and back to work and life is good.
More stories and photos soon.
And responses to your emails and comments, which are way appreciated.
And a review of … THE DARK KNIGHT.
I’m taking my parents to see it on IMAX this afternoon.
Have you seen it yet?
It’ll be a few days before I’m back in the full swing of things.
In the meantime, thanks to Derek and Kyle (and Murphy and Tucker), Kate, Alexander and Katya, and Kareem and Claire and their families for fun and hospitality above and beyond the call of awesome.
Life is good.
I said that already, but it’s true, so, there you go.
More to come!
And.
What have you been up to?
I’m back in Los Angeles after the Vegas detour, full of Buca di Beppo after a lovely dinner there with Kareem and his parents.
Vegas pictures from the set of Magic Man are here.
Highlights:
With my good friends Alexander and Katya Nevsky
The new Fratelli Brothers: with famous actor Robert Davi
More to come!