Chillin' with Antioxidants

A couple of days ago, Amanda sent out an invite to join her at Turkey Creek.  I forwarded it on and we made plans to go.  Another mom is involved with a U-pick blueberry farm nearby, so we planned to play a while and then go check out the farm and have lunch there.

We wanted to arrive early in the day, planning to get there at 10, so I was packed and ready to go  by 8:15 or so, we had some snacks but no food-food for lunch.  That gave us time to stop and pick up something along the way.  As I shut the back of the van, it popped back open.  I fiddled with the latch, no go.  I messed with it for 10 minutes before giving up and driving off to the local mechanic.  He was off test driving a car, so we had to sit and wait a while.  A couple other guys came over and messed with the latch and could not get it to open, so I was already doing the budget in my head and trying to come up with something to appease the kids for missing out on swimming with their friends (and that was after having to get up so early!).

Jerry came over and poked it with his pen knife, wiggled the handle and viola, it works again.  No charge.  We were on the road after a half hour delay and opted to just go right to the creek and play then have our snack at the picnic and grab 'real food' on the way home.

We had the radio blasting, everyone was in a great mood.  I was relieved the van had a full tank of gas, fresh oil change and safety check just the day before and the AC was freezing us out of our seats.  We sang loudly and badly and between songs we knew, everyone was chatty and we laughed.  Jake tried to insult Chandler with either something about a photo or a pickle, he said it was 'not fully articulated in my mind' before he said it.  For some reason, that set us all off laughing like crazy some more.

We arrived around 10:20 and parked and started blowing up floats.  Sunni was not far behind us and before we all got ourselves ready to walk to the creek, Amanda and Stephanie pulled in next to us. 

We set up at the falls-next time we are going further upstream so the little kids can play easier.  It's too crowded at the top sometimes.  Yesterday was not too packed at all, but some woman was smoking like an old Chevy.  It was rank.  There's enough space there to avoid stuff like that.

After sitting and chatting, playing in the water and chatting and watching the big kids run off up the creek and float back down over and over, I ended up by myself in the creek on my old floating chair, just watching the kids one way and the moms up on the bank with their little kids, feeling a little bummed that I only had to glance over to make sure the kids were not roughhousing each other to the point of drowning now and then.  I finally made my way up to the pile of blankets and toys and snacks and paraphernalia that people tote around when they have kids in the single digits.  As I sat down on my float-because I did not bring any of that stuff and had no where else to sit that was not on the dirt-they all were telling me how they were envious of me just sitting out there in the water with nothing to do.  hahaha.  I guess it goes both ways. 

The kids were chilled through and ready to head out so we did a caravan to the U-pick to have our food and explore the farm some.  There are 2 donkeys that the kids spooked and they meandered up into another area and I did not get any photos of them. 

We had our food and chatted a while, the kids ran and ran and played, so Stephanie and I wandered through the fields checking out the work they had been doing and looking at what was growing.  To our surprise, there were a few ripe berries scattered around!  So of course we had to sample. 

 

Here is my scientific experiment. Are the berries in the sun juicier than the ones in the shade?  I had to have several and Stephanie helped with some research of her own.  I finally decided they were all about the same level of yummy, though the sunny ones were a bit sweeter.  Maybe.  I ended up picking a pound to take home for further investigating.

These are scuppernog, which I LOVE.  I was thrilled to see them making so many little noggins, there should be gallons this fall.

The figs were covered over, they planted a field of sunflowers and there were crabapples galore.  I don't think I have ever seen crabapples in June, maybe I am not paying attention or maybe I am thinking 'apple:Autumn'.  Our crabapple tree does not have NEARLY the level of crab the one there did.  It's about an hour south...maybe that has something to do with it?  Anyway, enough about that, haha!

 

The pond is swimmable, but...eee!  I would paddle around on our floaty boat all day, but I don't think I want IN the water.

 The blueberries sell for $2 a pound, I will post all the info when the farm is actually open for picking.  Everyone picked and paid yesterday-we left the money in a little pile for the owner. No need to steal the crops, even if no one knew there would be any ready yet.  I paid $3-I know I ate half a pound just walking around.  ha

It was SO hot, oh my goodness.  I had sweat running down my back, it felt like bugs racing the great Esther course.  My yoga pants were indecent PDQ! 

 This pig REALLY wants to come live at my house.  Poor thing, he has no friends at the farm!

We loaded up to head home first, the kids were wiped out and Nia was in the house all day.  I have a plan to keep her safe in the yard that we are going to work on this weekend so that won't be an ongoing issue.  We opted not to stop on the way back, everyone was hot and tired more than they were hungry.  When we got in, we unloaded the van in one big go and got a load of laundry going, Nia was thrilled to death to be back with the family and one by one, the kids headed off to nap.

Matt was 2 hours late getting off work, getting new accounts is great, but setting them up takes loads of time and running around, he has been exhausted all week.  Glad it's a 3-day weekend!  :)

Good News Wednesday!

I know! 

There's so much good going on, I have to make my happy list early.  Not bad for a slow summer!

Recently:
We replaced the fridge and I hope the new one lasts many years.  Now I need to borrow a truck or trailer to get a load to the dump!

I got the van AC fixed today, the parts were only $3.50.  Got the oil changed too.  That was a huge relief, the freon WAS leaking, from the Schrader pins.  They saved me $240 on parts!

The restructuring at work is going well, Matt is now working under/reports to Bill and their boss is the guy who gave them such a strong commendation last year.  So that could hardly have gone any better at all.  Well, throwing in a raise would have been sweet.

I got a haircut today:

The good news is, I could hardly be cuter.
Feeling I have reached the apex of adorable
I can now just let myself go.  What a relief.

Upcoming:
Swimming tomorrow and exploring a new area with friends.

Friday:
Marking another thing off my list:  going tubing at the lake!  Plus, nachos.

It's Matt's long weekend, and it should be much cooler out, hoping to get outside and be active, maybe get some hiking in!  Or, at least mow. 

What I need now is an underwater camera.  Yes.

Weekend

We started the weekend hanging out at Amanda's house on Friday, then meeting back up with her that evening to exchange kids for the weekend.  She got Ben, we got Rho.  Below, the kids are looking at the above clouds after we finished dinner.

The entire weekend, in fact most of last week, centered around the above muttlet.  She's started leaving the yard-every time she's out.  Even if we are out there with her.  She just goes through the fence.  So I bought smaller fencing and put that up, nearly killing myself in the process via a few dozen small cuts, some of which bled like I had been stabbed in an artery and scared me quite a bit.  I have blisters, gashed palms, bruised hands and the self-portrait of my leg and butt below show a tiny percentage of the mysterious bites/rash that cropped up on my lower torso after standing in brush trying to zip tie new fence to old fence.  And this is not including the new un-photographed spate of poison oak on both feet and ankles.

When all was said and done, she now simply uses the new, smaller spacing as foot holds to climb up and over the fence.  Short of electrocution or razor wire, I am unsure how to keep her in the fence and have simply opted to wait for her disappearance.  At least I have some warning this time.  And, this is my last dog, I won't be going through this again.

don't panic, it's no more than my bathing suit shows

Jake and Rhoen, this amused me for some reason, him walking around and her perched up there with a toy dragon.

The weekend went well, Saturday we mowed and worked on the fence, that night we watched Hansel and Gretel:Witchhunters, which was okay, but I really thought they used the F-word too much, it was almost forced in there and awkward.  It didn't need to happen is all I am saying, it added nothing to the story. 

Then we watched Beautiful Creatures, which I got mainly to annoy Jake, but it turned out to be surprisingly good (as we were expecting a Twilight-type plot and the girls were well prepared to egg it on) and I found myself going from irritated with the way-the-heck overdone 'Suuh-thern' accents to being a little smitten with everyone involved.  Kind of like True Blood to be honest, and speaking of True Blood, I had no idea Ryan Kwanten was Australian, though now that I know it's astonishing how Australian he looks.

Sunday, it rained and in the afternoon, Matt took Chan to buy a ukulele, which I was told at first was around $25 for an entry-level uke, then it was $70 for the better quality that would hold up longer and we were going in halvesies and then they came home and it was more than twice that and no halvesies to be seen!  I can't complain much, she never asks for anything and she's had it less than a day and has worked non stop on chords, I imagine her fingertips are going to look like mine by tomorrow.

In between providing my puppy with some mental stimulation via a VERY expensive wrap-around climbing wall, I read.  I read the final Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris.  I read Niceville by Carsten Stroud, which is to be the first in a series I have no doubt.  I read The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell, I tried reading The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis and could never sink into it and gave up after the first 100 pages.  I also read 50 Hikes on the Cumberland Plateau and Off the Beaten Path in Georgia.

I loved the way the Sookie novels ended, I was satisfied, even happy with it all.  It was pretty well how I wanted things to go, but I know many of my friends read the series and I don't want to blow the ending, just say, 'Yippee!' because I like the man she ends up with.  If I got to pick anyone from the series, it would have been him. *sigh*

Niceville is creepy, I spent most of the book having no clue what was going on, I imagine the next book will back fill some of the local legends and explain what the heck happened.  It was a ghost/revenge/abduction/murder/Native American lore/time travel/spy/Southern Gothic story with some elements of WTF added in. 

The Death of Bees was really good, I read it in about 3 hours.  It starts off with young 2 sisters burying their parents in the backyard.  The narration switches between the sisters Marnie and Nelly and their neighbor, Lennie. It is a single story book, those are kind of hard to find these days.  Seems like everyone is doing a series.

And that's it.  This week is looking pretty laid back here at home.  At work, Matt's job is being restructured with a new boss and some 'streamlining' and more than a few fired people.  I am not going to think about that, he's not worried and so I won't be either.  I do feel bad for the people losing their jobs, but from what I understand, they are dead weight and the company is trying to stay afloat.  You can't work in an ever-changing business and refuse to learn anything new or change your own self.  The last time they had a round of lay-offs, things improved, so I hope that is what will happen this time as well.

Summer Sunday

 Just playing with the light this afternoon.

Local Airport

Room

Today I did something I have not done since Chan was...4?  I cleaned her room and moved her furniture around.  She's at Brit's house this week, so I called and talked to her first.  She's always been almost comically private and independent, she's not much interested in help, either.  But she's just moved rooms and the loft bed was not safe, so she's been in the floor and it's been a huge mess in there. 

We put new bolts on the bed and it's nice and sturdy now, so I moved it where she wanted it and got it all set up and then started looking around.  Stuffed animals in rows along the walls, boxes piled with papers, bags full of bags, stacks of stuff and art supplies scattered over the whole room. 

One thing none of the kids do is leave their clothes out.  Ben keeps his room like the military commander is going to come through at any moment.  Jake is messy, but keeps it to a minimum.  Chan...explodes.  She has a dozen projects at any moment-knitting something, making a stuffed toy, making clothes for her stuffed toys, writing, drawing, painting, making things from paper or craft foam or beads...or all three.  She's never had the space to really go at it, I daydreamed for years about enclosing the front porch to make a studio for her.

Ben saved the day by suggesting a room swap, he had the larger room and his projects are all on the computer now with some scale model coaster sets to work on ideas.  He only needs a bed and desk and some work space.

So, anyway, they traded rooms and Ben got rid of all but 5 stuffed toys and his K'nex and Legos and coaster stuff.  Chan got rid of...nothing.  We boxed up some dolls, but that was about it. 

Today I went through with big bags and bagged up all the loose stuff and put it in the attic, then I put all the art stuff on her work table and put all the stuffed animals in some hammocks I made from her old curtains.

Bed, art table and pillow fort with knitting supplies at hand.
We will repaint the bed at some point, it was painted per Jake's request years ago.

She's got a thing for Webkinz...

Her computer desk is in the closet with a door on the right up there.

I hung her cloaks and long scarves at the foot of the bed
to give her more privacy in her sitting area under the bed.
That little desk is a sewing machine.

No doors yet.  Keep meaning to do something about that!

Now she has SO much more space! 
I can't wait to see what she will create now!

This Old House

Our house has been in Matt's mom's family all along, since it was built back in 1928 or possibly 1932 going by the county archives.  Before it was the family farm, it was part of a small town, it and the area to the east of here.  Now all that's left are the outlines of buildings in daffodils in the spring, the occasional bit of farm machinery that pops up from the soil, a couple of old buildings, a well and the remnants of the road that once was the main way to get through the area.

From what I can gather, there have been a few deaths in the house, but nothing violent.  There does not seem to be anything malicious lingering...except if there are no children in the house.  You'd think after 16 years, 9+ living IN this house, that whatever energy is in the house would at least be used to me by now.  I am a good mom.  There's not much conflict around here, no negative energy to speak of.

So, why do I only feel anything is off when the kids are not in the house?  I've spent...well, not much time at all thinking about it.  I am so rarely alone.  That used to bother me, mostly because I have so much fun out with the kids, why won't Matt take them places more often and give them memories of him?  Now I see the bright white tunnel opening so clearly ahead, I don't mind a bit spending all my time with the kids.  In another 4.5 years, they will all be adults.  Shit.  That's soon.  Ben's half birthday was yesterday.  Waa

I don't think there's any 'thing' here, a ghost or presence, but I do think the house likes kids and the house likes being clean.  I can't go anywhere without cleaning something, it's gone from compulsion to outright habit.  I change out laundry or wash the dishes, run out the trash, sweep, wipe down the counter or a sink, I even scrub the toilet a good time or two when all I was going to do was restock the towels.  The only thing I don't do regularly is mop.  I hate mopping.  No even a disembodied voice moaning, "maaaaahhhhhp!" would get me interested, I think we have reached a comprise.

All the way around the yard, it's dark.  In the height of summer growth, like now,
it can feel like there's no light anywhere else.

When we first moved in, before everything else in the house was boxed up or moved out, there was a stack of boxed games in the front closet.  Every time I went in that room, for days, the Ouija board game would have slid off the stack and be either on the floor or tipped over sideways with the top of the box showing.  I had grown up with the fear of God in me and not only could I not open it up to play around with it, I had to use a broom or an oven mitt to shove it back in place.  hahaha.  I have often wished I had taken a peek, seen if there was a message.  Though, it would probably be something like D-U-S-T M-O-R-E and not 'there's gold under the wood stove'.  *sigh*

I have had 2 'incidents' in the house that friends love to hear us retell, though Matt was not here for either, he jumps right in if I slow down at all.  hahaha.  I will record them now for posterity.

When Jake was 2, Matt's mom bought him a Blue's Clues ice cream cake and we had cake up here to celebrate.  This was when Matt and I lived in a single wide down the road and his parents were still marriedish or had just divorced.  I know I was pregnant with Chan for the house incident and the divorce because after Matt's dad told him they were divorcing, Matt climbed into the tub where I was lounging and reading as Jake napped, still wearing all his clothes.  I held him and he cried until the water went cold and then some.

So a couple of days later, Jake wanted more 'eye-keen' cake, so I came up here to get it out of the freezer.  No one was here, and I came in through the back door, parking my little car right behind the house and leaving Jake in the backseat while I ran in through the back porch and got it from the freezer just inside the kitchen.  It was later afternoon, maybe 3ish (mid-November).  The kitchen had plenty of light, but the doorway going in to the rest of the house was pitch black, I thought there was actually a black blanket hanging there. 

I heard something...I'd like to be scary and say it was a voice saying 'get...out...' but it wasn't that organized.  But it did scare the crap out of me.  Now keep in mind, I was 6 months pregnant and up there to get a cake that I had full permission to take.  I was thinking about eating nummies with the boy and not feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable or thinking anything was even remotely wrong until I saw the doorway. 

I slammed the freezer door and ran across the back porch, which is maybe 3 steps, but I swear, I must have run 20, the whole time feeling like I was about to be grabbed.  I slammed the back door and turned the key and flew into the car, tossing the cake in the front seat and cranking the engine.  Jake was standing in the backseat (mom of the year!) and he turned around and looked out the back window as we drove.  I made a circle out into the pasture and went back out the access road to the gravel road and and Jake said, "Go faster, Mommy, FASTER!"  I hit our driveway (in the photo with the mailbox, it's the road going off to the left, I did not have him unbuckled on a main road) going 20 MPH, which is about 18 MPH more than I should have.  We zipped down the drive and Jake screamed, "It sees us!  GO FASTER!"

I flew into the house and locked the door (nothing says ghost-proof like a trailer lock!) and ran for my room and we hid out in there until Matt came home.  I was too scared to go to the bathroom, convinced I would see its face peering down from the skylight. 

Now, also keep in mind that when I jumped in the car, I did not say anything to my 2-year old child about something chasing me.  I am pretty open and share most things with the kids and always have, but scaring a toddler is not my thing.  Any other little kid would think I was playing a game, like I did not want the cake to melt and was hurrying to be silly or that maybe I was angry or maybe I had to use the bathroom or otherwise wanted to get home as fast as possible.  He loved Barney and Goodnight Moon and Pat the Bunny.  Nowhere in his life had he come across anything scarier than Oscar the Grouch or maybe me.  I mean, I was pregnant-the hormones made me psychotic at times. I did not start watching scary movies with him until he was much older, we did not even have a TV at that point-or a computer.  So his reaction made it about 100% worse.

The other time was, well, actually before that one.  Matt was at work, he worked nights, and I stayed here alone with Jake one time.  It was the first time I had spent more than a couple hours over here, I was going to sleep in his room, I think we were going somewhere the next morning, I can't really remember why I was here.  Jake was about 15 months old.  I was on the phone with Matt, it was around 2 in the morning and we both heard a scream, I mean a blood-curdling scream that I could not tell if it came from inside or outside or WHAT it was.  It sounded like a panther or a woman being ripped in half, it was LOUD and totally out of nowhere.  It woke Jake up.  Matt worked 45 minutes away, but he pulled up 20 minutes later.  He had not even clocked out.  Neither of us slept.  I have not heard it, or anything even close to it, again.

And that's it.  Stuff happens in here all the time.  Things go missing and pop up where they have no business being.  It's not like thinking the keys are hanging by the door and finding them in yesterday's jeans pocket instead, it's thinking the keys are hanging by the door and finding them-after MUCH searching-under the hood sitting neatly on the engine block.

I still don't think there's a ghost of anyone in particular.  I don't think the house is evil or that there's 'something' out there or in here.  I think it's an 80+ year old house that has seen a LOT of one family through those years and has absorbed some of that history into the walls and floors.  It likes being lived in, I think it was throwing a pout when it was empty, it acted up to get some attention.  It likes having the energy of kids, the thud of feet and the warmth of people in every room, it likes to be useful.  I think when the kids are grown and Matt and I end up elsewhere and the house is empty again, it will fall in on itself in less than a decade.  It wants family.

I have always thought of it as the 'homeless house', people who needed a place to stay were always showing up here, even now, as small and shabby as it is compared to houses of friends that have been built much more recently, the kids friends prefer to come here to hang out.  I host the gatherings, when I took a break this year, no one else picked it up.  They are all waiting for me to send out the next invitation, I reckon.  Every family (and many of our friends) milestone has been celebrated under this sometimes leaky roof.  So many candle-lit cakes, so many laughing women and excited kids, so many meals with friends and hundreds of ordinary days spent curled up somewhere reading or watching a movie, being together. 

I don't think of it as the homeless house anymore, it's just home.  I don't mind that it worries and frets and acts up at times, I love this house.  I think it loves me back.  And even if it doesn't, I will still do my best to keep it happy and keep it humming and tidy while we are here.  And I hope it will still forgive my lack of regular mopping or the fact that the front porch has been a different color for nearly 3 years now.

Marathon!

When I was in school, I'd go home with a friend the last day of school and we'd stay up all night watching movies, going to bed somewhere around 5 or 6 the next morning and setting up our whole summer to be nocturnal.  Sleeping days and watching HBO all night.  I bet I have seen Top Gun 30 times, Legend about that many and Nightmare on Elm Street at least a dozen times. When the loop got too repetitive, her dad would take us to Green's Video-the only place to rent movies in the whole county-and we'd stock up on a half dozen movies or more.  Everything from Strawberry Shortcake to Die Harder.

Home Alone, Total Recall, Dances With Wolves, Ghost, Edward Scissorhands, Pretty Woman, Tremors...and that's just from 1990!  We did this for YEARS. 

This time of year, I still get the urge to watch loads of movies.  Jake and I watch one or two during the week some weeks, we have toned down our Netflix, getting fewer dvds out and our connection is so iffy, we don't usually bother trying for a full movie on instant play.  Especially with public schools being out.

Matt and I had been getting a couple of series in that we watch via Netflix, I have not sat down with the boy and movie in a while, so yesterday we watched Dark Skies and Sinister and today we rented Dark Shadows, Parker, The Courier and The Numbers Station.

It's a glut of visual brain candy, a great chance to veg out and we actually spend a LOT of time talking while watching, usually about gaping plot holes and bad acting. 

I will give a run-down of what we think about each movie:

Dark Skies:
Obvious Part One of a franchise, this is an alien movie centered on a family of 4 who is being visited by the Greys (scarey spindly alien guys).  The first 3/4 of the movie is basically a normal family going through financial stress because The Dad has been Laid Off and is looking for a new job.  Odd things happen, none of which are okay or explainable.  The first time I walk in to the kitchen to discover all the cans stacked up with a cake slowly rotating up near the ceiling and some crop circles thrown in for the heck of it, I'd probably NOT just go back to bed and get on with things the next day.  Enter JK Simmons as the expert with some advice.  I really, really like JK, he is one of my top 5 favorite actors ever.  The family bands together.  The sequel is prepped for.

If you like alien movies, this one is okay.  It's not scary so much as a little creepy, some of the plot points make NO sense and honestly, the entire scenario is so whack that no one would leave the theater thinking, "I am being Visited!"  Thinking you may really be a psychopath would be more plausible.

Sinister:
Ghost/mystery story with a boogeyman (named Mr. Boogie) and plot holes so huge, you will actually start getting vertigo as the movie plunges into one after another.
Ethan Hawke plays The Dad who is also A Writer and has moved his family to The House where a family was killed the year before to write what everyone hopes will be a good true crime novel, as his previous 2 attempts have been crap.  It's crunch time, you want him to do a good job and Get Paid.

Upon moving in, he finds a box in the attic.  It's set in PA, and he also finds a scorpion in the attic, a juicy giant black one.  I'd be shitting a brick, and I don't think there are scorpions in Pennsylvania. (update, there's one species)  What's wrong with people in movies who see one critter and don't even look for more?

The Box is full of Home Movies which are freaking creepy-and he watches them.  Making you watch them, too.  Okay, I will admit, ghosts who live IN images are a particular favorite of mine-as are images that simply move and hold some of the personality of the subject intact.  Jake is playing a game in which the more times you view images in the course of the game, the more aware the subjects become that they are trapped in that image-creepy!.  That creeps me right out.  Dorian Grey, loved it.  Harry Potter, loved it.  The season of Fringe where they went to the other side and the photos in the newspapers moved, loved it. 

Okay, what I like in a scary movie is anticipation, I don't want the music to swell and BAM at me, but a good BOO is key.  Scary ass bad guy, children involved, parents who are doing crazy things to save their kids, mysterious good guys giving help when most needed, creepy house, a believable plot.  This has...well a couple of those.

Here are some questions that should have been asked, but were not (in no order):
"How did you get photos of a crime in progress?"  Deputy So-and-So
"How did a 150 pound limb lift 500+ pounds?"  Viewer
"Why is that limb still there."  The New Owners
I could go on.

Dark Shadows
Just...skip this one.  We had put off watching it for over a year now, then today asked, "How bad could it be?" and got it.  It was like the people in editing hate Tim Burton and pieced together all the spoof pieces that were meant as jokes or outtakes into the actual movie.  Plus, Jake walked around afterward talking like Barnabus.  The only question that should be asked while watching this one is...WTF?

Parker
Or, Jason Statham Volume 13.
I honestly can't remember if I saw this one before.  They are all so similar, parts felt like I had seen them already.  This one had Jason playing himself, the guy who from Pawn Stars, PeeWee Herman, a big black guy and someone else I can't even remember.  There was Jennifer Lopez in her underwear, a dog, there was some of Palm Beach in the background, Nick Nolte looking like an asthmatic Santa, the Ohio State Fair, some scary clowns, loads and loads of guns, fake blood and things being smashed.  The only thing this one did not have was a series of car chases, I mean really, it's JASON STATHAM.  The man can drive.

The Courier:
Well...okay, so I am madly in love with Jeffery Dean Morgan, he has all my stringent requirements in a man.  He's beefy and scruffy.  Which may imply I have the hots for Bluto, but that's not true.  I am a Popeye girl all the way.  Don't ask me to explain, there's no sense in it.  Just be happy that after 16 years I still find Matt's scruff more than just a little appealing. 
I thought he did well with this travesty of a plot.  It may just be that the plot was too complex for my female brain, or it may very well be that it was TOTALLY WANKED.  There were gaping holes, no chemistry between him and the female lead, who only looks 12, IRL, she's my age.  I stopped looking 12 when I was 9. 
Skip this one, unless you can forgive the man anything.  Being in a bad movie is not the end of the world, but this tattered display of cliched 'twists' and the open ending just made me feel tired.  But, not as tired as Matt and Jake, who both slept through the last half.

Numbers Station
I don't get the cloak and dagger stuff that supposedly runs our government or why there are people who need to be killed at such regular intervals that there are actual shifts of people to decide and carry that out.  John Cusack was better as an assassin in Gross Pointe Blank.  In this, he seems like a mid-40's guy who has woken up and seen that what he does is shredding his soul.  Hey, wait-that sounds like a PLOT!  This may very well be the only movie out of all of them with a story to tell and that tells it.  Nothing much before and nothing at all after the day the movie takes place, it's a one-shot event that has the potential to change his life. 
The numbers station where he works as some type of security has come under attack.  There are plenty of questions for this one, but over-all, it's an interesting character study as John and the girl who reads the numbers are pretty much the only 2 people in the whole movie.  As you can see, I was not stuck dumb with insight into her, as her name does not even graze the vault door of my memory.  His was Emerson, because we all know in government, you go by your first name. Just like footballers.
The questions you will ask in this one is "why would a secret agency make such a huge public event of an assassination to the point of taking out civilians...instead of just waiting until dude went home.  Was it THAT imperative that he be taken down that instant?"
"When an assassin shows up to kill you in your house, is it not bad form to fail to look around for anyone else in the same house?  Are they not now potential loose ends?"
"If there were 4 bad guys, one dead in a tunnel, one killed by our man John and one outside shooting an amazing amount of bullets, one is otherwise occupied-so WHO is running the drill?"
"Why are they drilling in?  Why did they not just all stay in the bunker to begin with?  They had to kill people, leave, get a drill, come back, get locked out and then start drilling.  They could have just stayed put."

In all, it's a pretty good movie, different enough plot to not be 100% predictable, worth watching if you like John Cusack, which I do because why?  He's scruffy.