Movie In The Park

Late post tonight...or is it morning? Just got home.



I was extremely good at the funeral luncheon. Everything looked delicious and the table must have been 30 feet long. It was crammed full of delicious appetizers, cold cut platters and veggie trays. Michelle made her sister promise not to let them serve little sandwiches if she ever had a funeral and there wasn't one sandwich there.



We had a chance to visit with old friends we hadn't seen in years and catch up on all the news. Thanks to my little pill, I got through the whole thing and only cried at appropriate moments. "Better living through chemistry" I always say. Michelle's mom read a poem she had written and it just tore your heart out. This was a very close family and they are taking it real hard. Not that death is ever easy, but she was only 42.



Tonight, Wonderful Daughter, MIL and I took the little boys to Movie in the Park to see Monsters versus Aliens. It's great family fun with a bounce house, miniature golf putting, temporary tattoo parlor, hula-hoop contests, guitar hero contests and a cheesy magician. It's always held near a playground and the kids have an absolute ball.

MIL and I hit the dollar store earlier this week and bought glow in the dark bracelets, necklaces and finger flashlights, I mean "lasers". We also bought a zillion sparklers with the intention of handing them out to all the kids who come to these things. Unfortunately, I accidentally packed the nearly empty BBQ lighter and we couldn't even get one of the sparklers lit.

But, the glow in the dark stuff was handy for keeping an eye on the little guys. We made necklaces and put a finger flashlight on it so all we had to do was turn our head to see where they were instead of going over every few minutes. And it sure was nice to have a small light when visiting the porta potty. Would have been even nicer to have hand sanitizer but we'll be better prepared next time. We handed out a few bracelets and necklaces to children around us and even made a necklace for the cute little Shih Tzu beside us. His person was thrilled.

JC had a great time on the playground, particularly the slide. Wonderful Daughter and I played train with him going down the slide. Then, later he fell asleep on my lap. He's getting so big, it was bittersweet to hold him knowing this might be the last summer he does that.

Shortly after the movie began, there was a scene where the heroine is smacking the heck out of Dr. Cockroach. Suddenly there was a loud "Pop" which I thought was part of the movie. Just as I thought, "Wow, great sound quality" the screen deflated in on itself. It turns out, because there are small leaks in the inflatable screen, they have to reinflate it every 15 minutes or so.

This time, (to the relief of the rest of the crew) the boss was manning the pump and he didn't get back to turn off the pump quickly enough. It tore an 18 foot long hole in the top of the screen. Dom just started wailing when it happened and everyone turned to look at us. I guess overly emotional crying at inappropriate times runs in the family. Fortunately, the movie people had their storage place nearby so within 30 minutes they had a new screen up and the movie back on.

On the way home, we asked Dom what was the best part of the movie. He announced it was when the screen blew up.

I guess it's just a matter of perspective.

After a tough couple days, I'm going to get my rear in gear tomorrow. I've been working on changing my perspective too.