the underwear drawer

dark knight, birth day

Usually Joe and I got to the movies about once or twice a year. This is probably in some way connected to the fact that Joe's parents also visit us about once or twice a year. So Monday, given that the grandparentals were in town, Joe and I decided to embark on our annual/semi-annual movie outing, and went to go see the new Batman movie.

(If you actually look at what movies we've seen in the past three years since Cal was born, you will notice that they are all overwhelmingly superhero movies--Spiderman, X-Men, Bourne franchise et al. The reason is because usually there's only one or two movies that Joe really really REALLY wants to see each year, and usually these are of the action/superhero ilk. There are other movies that I am interested in seeing as well, but I know that Joe won't really enjoy them, and anyway, it's not like I don't want to see Batman, so Batman it is.)

Anyway. The Bat Man. I liked it. I thought I would and I did. I won't be a big ruin-y ruiner for you, but I thought the plot was fairly well-layered and Heath Ledger was, as all the critics have been proclaiming, effectively creepy in his role. And BIG THUMBS UP to the replacement of Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of The Girl, because man, I liked "Batman Begins" too, but every time Katie Holmes would show up on the screen, it would totally take me out of the movie and I would just think to myself. "Oh yeah. Katie Holmes."

The only problem with the movie (not a problem with the movie itself, more a problem with our movie experience) is that we got lost on the way to the movie theater. We went one way when we should have gone another, ended up circling around some residential neighborhood, and fifteen minutes later, were basically back at our own doorstep, having made one gigantic, meandering ellipse. WE'RE NEW TO THE AREA. Anyway, we got to the movie right before it started, and even though it was a Monday evening, the theater was full, and the only seats we could get were in the front row. It was fine once we got used to it, but the angle made it a little hard to figure out what the hell was going on during the quick cuts of the action sequences. "Wait, what just exploded? Who was that...where did...who punched that guy?"

Yes, so (new subject now!) Cal's birthday was yesterday. He likes cupcakes, so instead of cake, I decided that we would have cupcakes this year. And also, that Cal would help me make them. It would be our project. It would teach him about cooking. And math. And eating lethal amounts of frosting. All important lessons.




It actually went pretty smoothly. Of course, I had to teach Cal a few things, like the correct way to crack an egg (WRONG WAY: holding it in your chubby little fist and squeezing the shit out of it.) And of course, there were some miscalculations on my part, like not being able to mentally portion out the batter into 12 equal cups, such that we ended up with only 11 cupcakes in the end. However, I think that he had fun, and the results were tasty at any rate.






I'm taking Cal to our new Pediatrician tomorrow morning. Generally, I hate going to any doctor for any reason, but we have to go to get this form filled out for Cal's school. Ah, school forms, the bane of the General Pediatrician. He's not due for any immunizations or anything aversive that I know of, so hopefully, despite this being our first visit with a new practitioner, this will be a quick visit to the fomite factory. Every second I spend at the Pediatrician's office is one more second that I think about what my kid could be catching just by being there. I know what I'm talking about. I used to work in the Peds ER, for chrissake.