Meet The Fockers - This morning before work I was reading our local weekly newspaper, The Cabinet. Paging through the articles and advertisements I noticed that the Wilton Townhall Theatre was going to be playing "Meet the Fockers" tonight. Michelle had earlier expressed some interest in seeing it, but planned on just waiting for the DVD. Michelle hasn't been to a theatre in years. She doesn't tend to consider the effort worth it. I thought I might be able to sway her in this as this theatre is only about two miles away, is inexpensive, and has good treats at reasonable prices.
Just as I'm getting on my coat at work to finish up the week at the office, I call her and ask if she was able to get a sitter. A few minutes later she calls back and confirms that yes we have a sitter who was more than willing to come despite the short notice. I arrive at home, get the boys in bed, snarf down a bite to eat. Soon we head out. Parking is not this theater's forte, but we find a spot. As we walk into the door we see the owner out front clearing ice on the sidewalks and spreading salt. He asks what movie we were coming to see. When we tell him, he breaks the news. "Sorry, we're sold out." He mentions that there are still openings for "Kinsey", which you couldn't pay me to see. So in the end, we head back to the car. "Denied!"
Since we already had a sitter who went out of her way, we considered places to go for a bite of dessert. We settled on coffees, a brownie, and a canoli at J. Beaners. They even turned on their fireplace for us. We inadvertently stayed past their closing a bit but left as they finished cleaning up. We thanked them and relayed how we got into tonight's situation.
So even though we didn't get to see the film, we still had a nice evening. It's not that we had our hearts set on seeing this particular movie. It's just that getting Michelle to go and see a movie is rare, and this attempt failed.
Snow - Like much of the country, we had some snow on Thursday -- somewhere between 6 and 8 inches I'd guess. The girls got the day off from school, not because of what had fallen but because of what would fall during their school day. Michelle took the kids out just before lunch and they shoveled the first few inches away. It was light fluffy snow.
When I later came home from work, it was a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain, making the snow much heavier. I went out to clear it and Claire later came out to join me. It was actually an ideal night for shoveling. (I realize for some there aren't any ideal conditions for shoveling…) The temperatures were mild and there was no wind. All you needed was a sweatshirt, hat, gloves, and 'elbow grease'.
Nonetheless it continued with the icy mix through the night. This morning as Timothy went outside with his brothers to play, he looked like Bambi on ice. He fell on his knees, on his side, on his bum... He was not a happy toddler. Michelle wished she had a camera to capture this otherwise invincible Timbo slipping at every turn. Later as it approached lunchtime today, the sun came out, temperatures rose above freezing, and the driveway melted and eventually dried up.
Timothy - Every time I think 'the end is near' as Timothy learns a new … skill, we do what we can to adapt. Early on it was opening doorknobs. We bought plastic doorknob covers that require a special squeeze to open the doors. Now that Timothy is constantly flipping switches, we have to unplug the computer and the piano so he doesn't wear out their electronics power cycling them. In the last few days Timothy is starting to get the hang of climbing out of his crib. Just great! He was using the adjacent twin bed to help him get the position and leverage needed. Currently we have him a bit stalled. For the moment we've moved his crib to the center of his room away from anything to aid him out. I doubt he'll stay confounded for long. He's too clever for that. He's not just physically strong. Mentally, he's pretty crafty.
Work - I don't often write about work. In general it's not a good practice. I'll make an exception since today brought good news. Today we had performance appraisals. My reviews were positive, my title went up, and I got a raise -- my second this year. Each was modest, but together they compound to a nice rate of increase for the year. It certain beats the wage freeze of the previous year.
I read that Congress has just passed an amendment to the tax code. Any contribution made in January of 2005 to the victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster will be deductible on an individual's 2004 tax return. Considering the job blessings we received today, I think we'll offer up a good chunk towards Catholic Relief Services. While shoveling the snow yesterday, I felt a bit like this cartoon.
