The Garage Theater 2.0 presents: "The Lord of the Rings"

Daphne has wanted to watch the Lord of the Rings movies with Charlotte for a long time. (It's hard to believe that The Fellowship of the Ring is already 20 years old.) We finally decided that Char was mature enough to enjoy the films. We also decided that the best way for her see them for the first time would be on the "big screen."

The garage theater was going to make a comeback! Yes! 

I was excited because I had some improvements I wanted to make. I used the electronic equipment I bought from shopgoodwill.com last winter instead of just computer speakers and a DVD player. 

Now I can control the volume with a remote!

The Realistic Minimus 7s work well as satellite speakers for the Yamaha subwoofer.

My old Proxima projector doesn't accept HDMI cords, but an early model Blu-Ray player still has the RCA outputs.

The Roku SE from 2015 also has HDMI and RCA outputs. Now we can stream Boomerang cartoons until Mom's ready to watch the show with us.

I'm sure using the yellow RCA out degrades the Blu-Ray's picture some, but the image looks a lot better than what I got with a HDMI to RCA converter. 

What's a movie experience without popcorn? I recently rediscovered my Stir Crazy popcorn maker. I had this before we were married. The Stir Crazy is fun to use, and it pops a lot of popcorn at once. I like this better than microwave popcorn, but the real deal at the theater still can't be beat.

All of this would  have been a waste of time if Charlotte didn't enjoy Lord of the Rings, but she did. She loved The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I think we'll finish The Return of the King on Friday night. I'm dreading the scene with the giant spider, and we've already warned Charlotte. 

I was proably seven when I first watched Earth vs. The Spider on Saturday afternoon TV. The scene where the Sheriff is attacked by a giant tarantula terrified me.

Speaking of being scared, I think I'll keep the garage theater open for some of my favorite Halloween movies. I'll let you know if something really jumps out at me.

I Never Have

As seen at Menards while Charlotte was at a piano lesson:

When was the last time you used the word "enrobed?"

That's How You Do It

Charlotte was less than enthusiastic about plant shopping for mom's garden, but the Earl May store in Waukee is well prepared for children shoppers. Char's eyes lit up as soon as they adjusted to the interior lights.

There was a mini picnic table with crayons and coloring pages on it. Also, a small TV was playing the Penguins of Madagascar movie nearby. It was great!

The only thing that could have made it better was if Earl May served free snacks.

They do.

"Can we stay here for a few more minutes?" is not a question that is asked in most stores.

In other observations, there was a frost Friday night, and these plants were sprayed with water so the ice would protect them. I first read about this idea in the short story, "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa." I hadn't seen it in practice, though. The ice and the drying concrete make for a surprising contrast. 

Nice job, Earl May.