We have one car. I spent Monday helping Tommy at LMU and Doug was trapped at home with four children and no car.
Me: “Noah, I’m not going to make it home in time to drive you to Scouts. Please call someone and get a ride. I will be back in time to drive you home.”
Noah: “Umm, okay.”
Not more than two minutes later, Doug called me.
“Why did Noah just ask me if I can drive him to Scouts?”
I am more than a little bit infatuated with Stir Fry Cafe. For less than 10 dollars, I can have a dinner of miso soup and Brooklyn rolls. Just before New Year’s Eve, I got a cell phone message promoting sushi and drink specials at, well, I don’t know for certain where because there was no restaurant in the text ad. Since the only restaurant I have invited to send me phone ads is Stir Fry, I am guessing it was Stir Fry that had sushi and drink specials. For Stir Fry’s sake, I hope that they include their NAME in future ads. Last week, Doug and I took Tommy to Stir Fry as a special treat before Tommy left for school. Okay, maybe we went because it’s my favorite restaurant right now, but we’ll just pretend it wasn’t my selfish choice of location. During our meal, we were constantly swatting away gnats. Halfway through the meal, Doug realized it wasn’t just three gnats, but a dozen gnats clustered on the wall over our table. We pointed it out to the waiter, thinking he would clean the spot or move us to a less gnat populated table. The waiter sympathetically agreed that it was kind of gross and noted that the gnats used to hang out on a different wall. Umm, ew. I’m thinking that as much as I love this particular Stir Fry location, it might be time to try a Stir Fry in one of the other areas of town. Either that or wait until spring to return and have our meal in the patio area. The bugs have never bothered us on the patio.
Since it’s a popular topic of “what if” in the disability community, I will make a very concise comment on a tragedy that recently occurred to a celebrity family in a vague, but clearly identifiable way. It doesn’t matter if the “label” applied to someone was what was publicly or privately discussed. What matters is that a child who was loved and given care, but never neglected or abused has died in an inexplicable tragedy. A tragedy that couldn’t have been prevented and shouldn’t have happened that could have happened to almost anyone. The family left behind deserves only sympathy and support.
teen: “Can I spend the day at the park with my boyfriend?”
me: “The park? That sounds like fun. We’ll bring your little brothers and sister and make a day of it.”
tip-tap sounds of texting on phone
teen: “We changed our minds. We’re just gonna hang out at the mall.”
me: “The mall? We haven’t taken the family to the mall in ages. Won’t you be glad to have your boyfriend along to help watch the little people?”
Instead of the “eat healthy, exercise daily, lose weight” lie, I have a “to do” list for 2009. In no particular order, my year is beginning with me:
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
Douglas Adams
“Why can’t I have a twin? I want a twin.”
Amy has a talent for demanding the impossible. I should have told her I gave her a room of her own for 9 months.
We have a friend who talked about the damage mining does to the ecosystem long before the Kingston spill. We’ve been pestering this friend to say something in the aftermath of this giant mess. The friend decided to take water samples and photographs before giving an opinion. Our friend needs more evidence than “looks yucky” to hypothesize about something. Sadly, we couldn’t get the scientific explanation we were hoping for, since our friend was prevented from getting near the site. Our friend wasn’t just told to stay away, they were physically detained and interrogated. After being labeled an “ecoterrorist” our friend was finally allowed to leave without water samples or photographs.
If the area is safe, why aren’t people allowed to take photographs? Why are they refusing to allow scientific experts to sample and test the water? If the area is too dangerous for anyone except HazMat cleanup crews, why isn’t the mess being cleaned up with any kind of expediency? What damage can an ecoterrorist do to a toxic waste spill? Are they afraid someone might, I don’t know, clean it up?
Bender’s Game is the very best of the Futurama movies. It’s an homage to Dungeons & Dragons that manages to skewer the past, present AND future.There’s a three stooges gender joke in the movie that was acted out in my living room just last week. The Yellow Submarine intro is so good you’ll have to watch it twice to catch all the references to past episodes and characters. Don’t rent this one. Buy it.
Horton Hears a Who is cutesy and holds the youngest children’s attention IF they watch it in 30 minute increments. It has several really good lines thrown in for the parents, but there is a tiny sexist subplot that should have been resolved differently. Otherwise, it’s very visually satisfying. A good choice for family movie night that all ages will enjoy.
Lost Boys is an oldie that I inflicted upon my Twilight obsessed teens. The effects are dated and the makeup artist must have been someone’s mother’s Avon lady, but the humor has aged well. Drag this one out of the clearance bin and dust it off for the teens.
Mamma Mia! is a movie made for middle aged audiences. Unlike Across the Universe’s focus on re-interpreting Beatles music for today’s teens, Mama Mia focuses on middle aged characters and disco’s Abba. There’s a beautiful, young couple in the movie, but the trio of mature women who Hollywood would normally only give odd “character” roles are the vibrant soul of this movie. The plot is thin and the acting is campy, but the movie is so much fun that it doesn’t matter. Pierce Brosnan’s crime against singing is forgiven because of the platform shoes and glittering spandex that he wears during the encore number. The only thing in the movie that jarred me from my happy place was the computer illiterate forty-somethings. That’s just not right. Feeling old but not dead? Watch Mamma Mia and sing along.
