No Harm Done

We were in the theater parking lot this morning when a friend rolled up behind us. "Hey! Are you going to see Batman?" she asked eagerly.

I stepped up to her window wide-eyed and clutched the door to her Jeep. "No!" I said. "We're going to see Step Up Revolution." And then I raised my eyebrows and jerked my head at Heidi and our neighbor Susan.

Our friend laughed and then pulled away to park. We ran into her again at the ticket counter, and she hooted when we boarded the escalator for the little theaters on the upper level. "You can't embarrass me," I called as we were whisked up and away to the top of the building.

And I realized that I meant it. Heidi loves those dancing shows, and she wanted to see this movie. Plus, to be honest, it was actually pretty entertaining.

It was a lot like fast food-- slick and artificial, but tasty and satisfying in the moment. 

Necessity's Child

Roasted tomato, onion, and squash blossom tarts
Peach and arugula salad with hazelnuts and chili-lime vinaigrette
Corn on the cob

Who needs to go to the store?

It's All about the Traction, Baby

We spent about three hours at the pool today, all of it in the water. Oh sure, we had a good reason, but we also had some severe monkey fingers when we got out.

When we were kids, that's what we used to call that wet finger pruny-ness. Until today, I never even wondered why that happens, but I guess seeing a 3 month old baby's feet wrinkle all.the.way.up made me consider that particular human reaction.

Fortunately for me, I did not have to go far for a theory. The New York Times did a little research on their own about the phenomena. The article is worth a read, but the high points for me were 1) It's a nervous reaction-- sever a few finger nerves and it will not occur. 2) It's only humans and macaques that are so wired. (Think about that, George Allen.) 3) Refer to the title.

Time Warp

It's just a jump to the left

One of the folks I follow on Twitter recently posted some excellent advice about limiting screen time. The gist of it is to 1) set a limit, and 2) follow it.

And then a step to the right

One of my birthday gifts was a DNA test and access to an ancestry web site. The whole family tree thing is addictive. Everyone has a story, but it is obscured by time... multiply that by four families and several generations, and that's a lot of clues to sleuth out. No worries, though, I'm just the (obsessive) detective for the job.

With your hands on your hips

Listen to this! One of your relatives was the elephant keeper at the Buffalo Zoo!

You bring your knees in tight

There goes another day with hardly a bathroom break.

Let's do the Time Warp again!

Note to self: use timer tomorrow.

Crystal Ball

We like where we live.

In the 13 years we've been here, we've seen a lot of folks come and go. In fact the place across from us is about to go on the market for the fifth time. These houses seem to fill a particular space in their owners lives-- first home, temporary home, transition home. As for us, it's a little harder to say.

It's not perfect; there are certainly times when we wish we had more space for visitors, and the bicycle storage thing has been a conundrum, but otherwise, we're fine here in our economical little corner of the county.

We invited some former neighbors up to the pool so that Heidi could give the kids some swimming lessons. When it was time to go, we walked them back to their car and helped with all the loading up and buckling in that three children require. Our friend swept her canny, ex-resident's eye across the complex. "Not much has changed," she noted.

"Nope," I laughed. "I can't imagine it's going to."

"So... Do you guys think you're going to live here..." she paused, searching for the right question. "Until you don't?" she finished.

"Yep," I answered. "You can count on that."

It's Just Not the Same Without Her

Scenario: Heidi was doing a little summer testing for a few extra bucks, so I leashed up the dog and off we went for a little afternoon walk. Generally, Isabel is a very congenial companion, all too happy to trot along by your side. Today, however, when we got to the top of the hill to leave our complex, all she wanted to do was turn back home. It took some serious goading and scolding to get her to finish our little outing.

A little over halfway, it dawned on me what must have happened. Isabel had probably heard Heidi's Jeep barreling into the parking lot at home, and she wanted to invite Heidi along on our walk. Sure enough, when we got back, there was the Jeep, and there was Heidi, an hour earlier than we expected.

Better Safe than Sorry

All weekend I've been hearing and reading coverage about the damage the shootings in Aurora, CO might have on our collective national psyche-- how a single gunman can take a place of escape like the movies away from all of us.

To be honest, I've only been listening to that part of the story with half an ear, if that. Although this event was unsettling, eleven years after the September 11 attacks we in America are fortunate to live mostly with a solid sense of security. Unlike many other places in the world, attacks on civilians here are so rare that, even here in the capital of our nation, we might only give that kind of threat a second thought when the line is so long at the airport that we might miss our flight.

Psychologically? That's where I thought I was.

That is until this afternoon when we decided to see the 4:10 IMAX show of Batman: Dark Knight Rises. I got the seats-- up high and right in the middle-- while Heidi got the popcorn. As the preshow drabble rolled across the screen, I was checking my email and playing Words With Friends in the nearly deserted row.

Right before the lights dimmed, a couple came up to sit three or four seats to my left. They were young, casually dressed; he had a beard, and she was wearing a head scarf. They also had a suitcase with them. The rolling type that will fit in the overhead compartment on a plane, something you don't often see at the movies. When Heidi came up with our snacks, they politely moved it out of her way so she could pass.

Even now, I get a little choked up thinking about it. All of a sudden, everything came crashing onto me-- what movie it was, the weirdness of the suitcase, the age and ethnicity of those people, and at that moment, my sense of danger was so high I couldn't stay there. I whispered my worries to Heidi, and we decided to leave those seats, and when we got to the exit row, I kept on going straight out the door and to the counter, to turn in my tickets and tell someone in charge about my concerns.

I got a shrug, a refund, and a hell of a lot to think about.