As promised, it's been a busy day. Despite our intentions of sleeping in this morning, we were up before eight (staying in bed after eight is my definition of sleeping late). Jean went out to a local café and brought back a bunch of poppy seed bagels. We had those for breakfast (with juice and coffee), then we started on our day. Jean went into her office to catch up on some files. I postponed raking leaves as long as possible by cleaning inside. Eventually I ran out of legitimate things to do, so I went outside to get started on raking the front lawn.
As it turned out, the city was picking up leaves from our street today, for probably the last time this winter. We have three (I think it's three) big oak trees in our front yard, and I haven't raked leaves all Fall. I figured I wouldn't get half the lawn done before the city passed my house, so I took my time. As it turned out, the city workers had gone to lunch, and I had more than an hour to rake. By the time they returned to my street, I'd finished half the lawn. Even then I figured if they only got half our leaves, it would still be a lot less to bag up later. I kept raking, and just before the city reached the beginning of my pile of leaves Jean came home. She grabbed the other rake and started helping. We managed to finish the whole yard. We had just started on the driveway when one of the guys vacuuming the leaves said they were heading out for the day, and would start here tomorrow. So we finished the whole front of our property, and I can go back for some detail work tomorrow morning early.
I hate raking, by the way. Growing up in Philadelphia our family had three acres to rake, and I never seemed to do it very well. To this day I'm sure I do a lousy job of it (which is why I'll be returning to the yard tomorrow). I'm glad that at least this year raking comes but once.
This afternoon we went to see A Bug's Life. It was the first movie we'd seen since The Truman Show back in the early Fall. We like going to movies, but there haven't been any worth seeing this year. We went to the movie with moderately high expectations. We've been fans of Pixar (the company that programs the film) since our first anniversary. That year we stayed at the Vista hotel in Washington D.C. and saw an excerpt from their short film Tin Toy at the Smithsonian. The clip was part of a computer animation exhibit, and we stood in place for about an hour waiting for all the shorts to cycle through so we could see Tin Toy again.
A few years later, I found out that we could purchase Tin Toy on video for fifty bucks. No questions asked, we did it. The short film is now available on a ten dollar tape called Tiny Toy Stories. Jean and I both liked Toy Story, and there was no question about wanting to see A Bug's Life now.
The movie is good, but not as good as I expected. I probably set my hopes too high, but I found myself hoping twice during the movie that they wouldn't take any unexpected plot turns, extending the movie. All the characters were great, and the art is superior to what was done in Toy Story. I think it was just that the plot wasn't all that interesting. The "out takes" at the end of the movie were cute, and I didn't realize until the very end that Randy Newman had done the score (or did he just do the song at the end? hmm.).
It was nice going out with Jean. We weren't sure if the seats in the theatre would be comfortable enough. We even thought about bringing her boppy (a pillow shaped kind of like a toilet seat that has multiple functions for pregnant and no longer pregnant women). Jean was comfortable throughout the movie, just a bit stiff getting up after sitting for an hour and a half.
Tonight we went to the grocery store. Our list was short but we managed to spend over a hundred dollars. We stopped by the diaper aisle to examine our fate. What the heck is the difference between Pampers and Premium Pampers? Exactly what is the premium? Will my two-day old infant truly appreciate the enhanced quality? How much effort do I need to put into diaper research?
Only time will tell.
It's still warm, but tonight it actually became muggy. There's a chance (albeit a small one) of rain tonight. Driving back from the movie, Jean pointed out only the smallest sliver of the moon. It was orange and low on the horizon, with clouds covering it over.
watching: A Bug's Life
reading: The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
© 1998 Kevin J.T. Creamer