Another Great Weekend: Baby and Batman and Computer, Oh My!

It all started Friday after work.  I went straight from work to the hospital to meet baby Patrick.  Jen and Bellana and Harry went straight from home and met me there.  Patrick is so cute I can’t put it into words.  He is just adorable.  He was about 26 hours old when we got there and Harry tried to play peek-a-boo with him.  Talk about cute!  John and Mary and the future baby P arrived just as Patrick’s dinner time came so we all had to go out and wait in the lobby.  Everyone was feeling pretty happy and there were a couple of kids fooling around.

What you really want to see here though is pictures of Patrick Desrochers.  I know, so here it is!

Former Lowell Lock Monsters goalie Patrick Desrochers!  Cool!

Oh wait… wrong Patrick Desrochers.  You want pics of baby Patrick Robert Desrochers… you’ll have to wait.  I didn’t get any that first night.

Saturday Jen and I planned to go back to the hospital.  First however, Bellana and Harry wanted to send a congratulatory email to Lisa (aka Patrick’s mom).  They both wrote a short note in an email and I sent it along.

Bellana wrote that Patrick is very cute.  Harry wrote that Patrick is very very cute.

After we dropped off the kids at their music lesson we drove down to Cambridge.  When Jen found out that my PC is about 6 years old she decided she would build me a new one.  The plan was to go to a store she likes and buy a few components.  We’d make a few trips like that after a few pay days and eventually she’d build me something swanky.  However, as things like this often go with us, we ended up getting everything we needed.

The computer building would have to wait though.  First we had to see Patrick again!  This time I got to hold him too.  Prior to Saturday the youngest baby I’ve ever held was Mike the Bass Player’s daughter Cecilia, who was about a month old.  That record now belongs to Patrick who was slightly less than two days old.

Jen held the baby a little on Friday but I was too preoccupied with staring at the baby and I never got a picture.  On Saturday I was more on the ball.  You can’t beat the smile on her face here.

Once again Patrick’s feeding time came along and we had to take off.  We went out to dinner with my parents, and then went to the movies.

We saw The Dark Knight.

There are a lot of ridiculously glowing reviews for this movie. 

They are all spot on accurate.

I was never a comic book fan.  As a kid the only exposure I had to super heros was television shows and the occasional tv movie.  My cousin Tom once gave me a few books and I read them through, but never got hooked.  I do remember that Batman was much more violent in book form than on TV.  I thought the Tim Burton movies demonstrated that as well as my memory could judge.

This movie destroys all preconceived notions of a “comic book movie.”  It’s that good.  Some people are saying that the film transcends the comic book, but I didn’t really feel that.  The bad guys were still wearing clown masks.  I think that was the sticking point for me.  However, it doesn’t matter.  It is very violent and at times it gets a bit gross.  The one moment that I expected to need to turn my head was thankfully done off camera.  (the Joker is good with a knife)  The Joker’s magic trick however… you’re not going to forget that one.  It was a hell of a way to introduce a character.

In one manner the movie doesn’t work the way it was intended.  The story clearly revolves around Harvey Dent.  He should be the guy you spend your 2.5 hours focusing on.  The Joker completely ruins that.  The character is so well done that he steals every scene he’s in, and when he’s off the screen you are anxiously waiting for him to come back so you can see what he’ll do next.  The performance is that good.  The only down side of such a fantastic job is that we won’t be able to see any more.  The film allows for The Joker to return in another sequel, but with Heath Leger’s death the only way that can happen is if another actor takes the gig… and let’s hope that a) No writer ever even considers that, and b) if a part is written no actor ever takes the job.

Now… back to that computer.  My fiance is a genius.  did I mention that?  Sunday we had two things on the agenda.  Housework and computer construction.  We got to them both.  Now sitting in our office is a new computer with 2 gigs of RAM and a terabyte hard disc (Robert is drooling over the huge amount of storage space) and a triple core processor and a monster graphics card and… and… and.  Best of all, the disc is partitioned to allow two operating systems.  Windows rules the Earth so we can’t really go without it right now.  Linux does not rule the Earth but it is the coolest thing available (Open Source Babie!) and our new computer has Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu.  I am in geek overload.

WOOHOO

But to sum up this wonderful past weekend with the most important and wonderful and fantastic thing that has happened…

I am Patrick’s Uncle!