I think I'm going to see John Carter today. Spending the afternoon with explosions and Taylor Kitsch shirtless sounds pretty good right now.

This was my plan for the day, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Knut's half sister Anori made her debut!

I have one of those plastic pipe framed nylon cube things which gets knocked around but the laundry basket is SO MUCH better, so.

I think Bubba likes these because he can (and does) roll down the hall in them.

I do sometimes read those huge opening weekends and think "I thought nobody had any money."

OH! Loki discovered tonight that he can open Pumpkin's food bin. And dump it all over my freshly cleaned floor.

Pumpkin's food is relocated to a high shelf. Loki is fat enough, without poaching her food ( and it's the semi-fatass food doled out at regular times because she's still easing into a mode of plenty enough, not deprivation.) AHRG. He gets lots of exercise, but the cat drapes when he sits on stuff. Oozes. I don't want to tempt the diabetes with another cat. Devi spoiled me.

I did most of the tax form filling out today and efiled the state taxes. If the world loses easy Internet connection, governments are going to have to spend a fortune to re-create all the paper-based functions from before. Of course, it will be the saving of the Post Office, but I don't think that's enough to balance.

At one point, the preschoolers won.

Congrats on surviving the party. Did K wind up having second thoughts about the booze?

So I had one of those plexing parental moments today. Franny was invited by a friend of her's (same grade but a year older) to watch an ahemmed copy of "The Hunger Games" tonight. But after talking about my concerns with another parent whose daughter was also invited, I told her no. Not because I think it's so terrible for an 8 or 9 year old to see a violent movie, but because I know how even mild suspense, not to mention violence, really upsets Franny, and that she'd be at someone else's house, unable to turn off the tv, and feeling pressured to watch. It seemed like a recipe for fears and tears. So I said no and I told Franny my reasons, and when she didn't get mad at me about it, I figured I made the right choice.

yeah, I still think 8 or 9 is too young for that movie.

Well I decided that *she* was too young. But then again, I think she's too young to read the book too, but I let her do that, because with the book I figure she can control her reading experience.

Yeah, make no mistake: I'm not going to begrudge or criticize any parent who brings an 8-year old to the film, mind you, (not really my business) but for most 8-year-olds, I think the movie is too much for them.

It isn't "Saw", but it isn't "Up" either.