Possumblog

The Long Weekend of Daddy and Catherine!

Well, after we sent everyone on their way Friday,we ate supper which was nothing more than soup, but which she enjoyed immensely because a) she's a kid, and b) because she got to help fix it. And she thought it was the bee's knees to be tasked with unloading and RELOADING the dishwasher.

After that, it was upstairs where we watched some television and she played on the computer and I did likewise, registering our feline in the giant database of RF-identifiable critters. After much fun and games, it was time for bed, and as is her habit when her big sister Rebecca is gone, she got some choice toys and blankets and piled up in her bed to go to sleep in instead of her own. I don't know why, but I suppose it helps it be less lonesome.

Me?

Well, despite being glad the house was quiet, it was sorta lonesome for me, too, so I read and watched Conan and answered some e-mails and finally wore myself down enough to be able to sleep. Alone. ::sniff:: You know, you just don't know how much you miss the sudden elbow in the throat, the snoring, the loss of blanket coverage, until it's gone. And to make matters worse, pillows do NOT make a suitable substitute for the soft squishy parts of a woman.

On the plus side, it was MUCH easier to sleep late Saturday morning. Ahhhhh.

Dressed, got downstairs, found that Cat had been up playing for the past 3 1/2 hours, was relieved that nothing had been burnt down.

"When are we going to the movie, Daddy!? And to the Skate Station!"

"Well, we have to finish up the clothes, and then the football game comes on at 11:30, and we need to watch that, and then after that we can go!"

YAY DADDY!

Gave Kitty his medicine, which he eagerly lapped up. They said it tastes like honey, and I guess it must because he certainly seemed to like it. Rolled him back around to the backyard and let him out to run around a bit, which he did, again without seeming too concerned about his missing luggage.

Go figure.

GAME TIME!

Oh, my.

This is terrible.

Oohh.

Ouch.

There--that's a quarter-by-quarter wrap-up of the whole game. Auburn now has no shot at a BCS game, or even a division title in the SEC. They'll get to go to a bowl, but as I said at the first of the year, there's only one game that really matters anymore. And as is custom, this whole week will be spent in ceaseless taunting of our opponent. SO just watch out.

ANYway, that was that and that was horrid, so to take our minds off of it, what better way than a MOVIE! But first, food!

We had tons of Chick-fil-A coupons for free orders of chicken nuggets, so we decided we'd go get a snack before, and a snack after the movie. It being in poor taste to simply use two coupons per person, you know. The first trip before the movie got us waited on by a kid who desperately wanted to be a comedian. Keep the day job, son.

NOW THEN--MOVIE!! She really had been wanting to go see the third Tim Allen Satan Claws movie, but from what I've read, this one seems to have been one sequel that would better had it gone straight to video. Or simply not been made.
SO, I managed to talk her into seeing Flushed Away.

MOVIE REVIEW TIME!

Well, it looked like a cute movie, and the trailers all seemed cute. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be--PRETTY DARNED CUTE!

Dashing (in a Walter Mitty/Mr. Bean sort of way) London city mouse gets flushed down the loo by an interloping sewer rat, and finds himself in a scaled-down simulacrum of the topside world, built entirely by the sewer rodents. Lots of nifty scenery, almost to the point of distraction.

Roddy (the name of the mouse) has to find a way to get back home, and WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, crosses paths with a plucky, determined girl mouse (voiced by Kate Winslet
--and who knew girl mice had breastes!?) who's something of a Humphrey Bogartish African Queen sorta gal with her own boat made of cast off bits of sewer rubbish.

Being that she is plucky, and independent-minded, it is no surprise she has run afoul of a gang of toughs, whose leader is NOT a rat, but rather a big toad, who once was the pet of none other than Prince Charles. We come to find out that the story behind his fall from royal grace is what drives the action of the movie, and leads in turn to several high-speed chases through various watery places, a la James Bond.

Particularly funny (at least to me) are the abundance of slugs who operate as something of a Greek chorus/sound effects/beat box/comical musical accompaniment/visual distraction. Who knew they were so talented!? The boss frog (something of a Sidney Greenstreet/Blofeld type) has an apartment filled with what he regards as high art, and he has a French cousin who is a hitman. Of course, the French cousin frog has henchfrogs, as well as the stereotypical French desire to eat, mime, and surrender. (The black rubber frogsuits were also a very clever touch.)

Anyway, Roddy does get home, but he realizes his life in a gilded cage (no-- really) is nothing compared to the excitement of life below (ref. previous comment re. bosomy girl mice), a whole way of life which he comes to realize might just be completely wiped out if the evil boss toad has his way.

WILL HE SAVE THE DAY!?

Well, go see it. It was doggone funny, and I'm going to have to get the DVD when it comes out to be able to take in all the clever scenery. The animation is interesting too, in that it replicates the look of the Claymation Wallace and Gromit work, but in CGI. There were some moments there where it was obvious there wasn't quite enough rendering power for the facial features--you could see some sort of digital artifacts keeping them from being as "smooth" as stop-motion, but overall it looked quite nice.

I give it five out of five curly possum tails!

Now then, back to Chick-fil-A for our second tiny box of snacks, and then it was time to go to the Skate Station, the multi-dimensional skating/laser tag/arcade/go-kart/miniature golf place down at the foot of the hill from our house. All she wanted to do was play the video games, which seemed reasonable enough. She was quite worried that it would be closed, but I pretty much knew it would be open, and guess what?

I WAS RIGHT!

Sorta.

It closes down between 5 and 7 for private birthday parties, and then reopens to the public afterwards. We had to wait a little while in the car, then went and stood in the freezing cold wind to get inside. Once in the door, we pressed on past the ticket booth and went into the main building and--"Sir? Are you with a birthday party?"

It was some kid who looked all of twelve. He was the bouncer, I guess. "Uh, well, no--we're just going to go play in the arcade."

"Um, well, sir, you have to ask the lady at the ticket booth. She has to say it's okay."

Wha!?

Surely they haven't started charging admission!

I pressed back to the window (it being covered over with highly impatient out-of-towners who seem to not have any idea about waiting for your turn in a polite fashion) and asked the two white haired ladies behind the glass, "She's not skating--she just wants to play in the ar--"

"SIX DOLLARS!"

No way.

"Cat, we're not going to pay six dollars just to go inside and play video games."

Uh-oh. Welling tears.

She'd waited so long, and been relatively quiet, all in anticipation of playing skeeball and Whack-a-mole. But dagnabbit, they're crazy if they think it's worth six dollars to get into their sweaty-smelling, pizza-stained zoo.

We left. "Hey, I've got an idea! We'll run back up to Wal-Mart and you can play in their arcade!"

This seemed to mollify her somewhat. It's not a big place, but they do have some games and they have an air hockey table, and she likes both of those. And you know, it had been almost six hours since we'd last been to Wal-Mart, and I must say I was a bit homesick. SO, back off across the way.

Walked in, saw the Family Fun Center sign poking out from the wall, and as we go there, the odd-looking set of chains over the opening. Inside, boxes.

The Family Fun Center had been de-funned and turned into a storage room.

Surprisingly, she wasn't that upset. "I knew it was gone!"

"Well why didn't you say so!?"

"I don't know."

Hard to argue with that.

"Can we go look at toys?"

I have a feeling this will cost more than six bucks.

And I was right. She went down the aisles pointing out things she wanted, with me close behind telling her she needs to write them on her list for Santa, until we came to an interesting diversion. "Wheel of Fortune," Plug Into the TV Version. Hmm. I've seen these things for Pong and Pac Man and several of the old arcade games--you have a control box that plugs into the A/V ports on the television and it's just like playing in the arcade. Hmm. That might be fun.

Turns out...I was RIGHT! Highly addictive, even though there is no Vanna. All the sound effects are there, though, and it works quite well. After we got it home, we must have played with it for two hours. Of course, being that I have a gigantic brain full of useless trivia and stuff, I was able to win quite handily, but Cat still had a good time, even when she was begging the machine to hit Bankrupt.

But, fun and games must come to an end--long day and time for beddie-bye and all.

And then it was SUNDAY!

Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 13, 2006 12:27 PM