Welcome, SLNRLBF! I'm totally envious of your easy access to Steph's brother's restaurant, which makes me whimper with longing every time some eastern-USian Buffista reports on it.
Rainy Saturday afternoon randomosity:
Emmett and Matilda are still unbearably cute together.
Matilda and her dad together aren't so bad either.
We had much, much fun last night at megan walker's place, puttering around and eating lasagna and doling out candy to trick-or-treaters (lamest: the many many teenagers in their regular clothes with added cat ears or glowy necklaces; coolest: the two wee kids in unidentifiable but distinctive outfits who looked like adorable anime ninjas; most surprising: the ten-year-old Venetian gondolier).
Around the corner from her is a street that does itself up, one end to the other, as the Harry Potterverse. Matilda and I slipped past the Fat Lady (probably not as impressive as Epic's costume, but still nice, and when I inquired about her suspiciously corseted silhouette it turned out that she does in fact work at the Dickens Fair) into the Gryffindor common room, presided over by Fleur (who works the RenFaire, possibly in the Queen's Court) and Mad-Eye Moody (town crier), and down a passageway past the Ministry of Magic's neatly labeled prophecies.
We could have gone through the telephone booth into other parts of the Ministry, but the line was too long. We did peep through the bricks of Platform 9 3/4 and stop to admire and cringe at Dolores Umbridge's private office (I did not let her stamp our hands).
On the way back to megan's, we stopped at a front door presided over by a 3-year-old space pirate and his dad. Matilda goggled at them from behind her binkie in solemn silence until they both asked, "Can she talk?" At which she turned the binkie sideways, shoved it into one corner of her mouth, and said, "Hi, people."
Completely other randomosity:
Prompted by Matilda's new Lilo & Stitch love, I went looking for it on IMDB, and found that its rating is only 7.1 out of 10 stars. This is because it got a metric assload of negative user reviews immediately after its release. The comments are...dazzling, in a head-hurty way. Here are the best of the worst (paraphrased from memory, because I ain't going back there):
I can't believe Disney would present a heroine who punches another little girl in the face and steals her tricycle!
Her big sister jaywalked and then kicked a car for no reason!
They showed a child hiding inside a washing machine, which is very irresponsible.
Children's movies should not have orphans in them.
The big sister has very fat legs and looks strange.
That girl is a spoiled little brat and a monster.
Of course I love all the old Disney classics, but now that we have computer animation I think doing a whole movie in this style is really a step backwards.
Still other randomosity: I always think of askye when we watch it, because I remember how you loved Stitch's line, "This is my family. I found it all on my own," and used it as your tagline to claim the Buffistas as your family. Whenever we get to that point in the movie, askye, I think of you and I'm happy and proud for you and all the hard work you've done and everything you've accomplished in the last few years, all over again, every time Stitch says it.