Running out of Steam

It's been a busy day, and unfortunately there wasn' t much in the way of accomplishment to make it memorable or remarkable -- if accomplishment is the only measure of a day.

Cheryl and the girls went out for the evening to enjoy the company of other women, eating desserts and watching movies and chatting.

We boys stayed home and watched Fantastic Four, which was a surprisingly good movie. Surprising, in that the feedback from the masses was a massive yawn. As boys, we enjoyed the explosions and the special effects. The story was good, too, although I can't comment on how well it tracked with the comic book origins story. It's been too many years since my teen-aged Comic Book phase.

But we had popcorn and Twinkies and other assorted junk food, which boys are supposed to have when the women are away, so we will all feel completely miserable in the morning as our bodies stage a protest about our mistreatment of the digestive system. We'll have to counter it with a healthy helping of bacon and eggs and toast and juice and cereal and all the other essential parts of a nutritious breakfast, just like it shows on the back of the box. I'm thinking there's something on there about substituting Pop Tarts, but haven't found it yet. Maybe it was donuts.

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James had a wonderful time on his field trip yesterday. We went to the Science Museum and the History Museum and the Capitol building and then the University, and we learned all sorts of neat things, like how to make slime and how what kinds of cool toys they have in the Gift Shop, and how small the lunch room is, and how old the capitol building is, and how much more fun it is to eat at a university cafeteria with an all-you-can-eat buffet than at home, where you don't get any choice other than what Mom makes, and you darn well better eat it or you will not get to eat anything at all. And we learned that most boys and girls of James' age have eyes much bigger than their tummies, because the majority of them left most of their food on their plates not because they didn't like it, but because they put too much on their plates!

Pizza, pizza and more pizza, soda pop or chocolate milk, followed by generous helpings of soft-serve ice cream, topped with chocolate syrup and sprinkles. Yum-yum!

Dad, being ancient and way old, went for the mushroom chicken and garlic bread and cottage cheese and fresh salad, followed by finishing up the generous helpings of soft-serve ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and sprinkles that the boys were unable to finish themselves, owing to the unbalanced eye/tummy thing. Ugh. Then Dad wished he'd brought the Tums.

We got home around eight or so, just in time to get everybody ready for bed while watching March of the Penguins. Here I must state for the record that this is not a movie I care to watch twice. Knowing that "Nature is cruel" does not justify making a movie where the audience must watch penguins being eaten by seals or dying of cold. The fact that it happens all the time does not soothe my aching heart when I watch the mother whose baby died, wandering mournfully through the crowd of other penguins and trying to find someone else's baby to raise. It physically hurts to watch that kind of sorrow. I worry too much about losing my own children to derive any pleasure in watching others lose theirs, even penguins.