Jamie is off at spa weekend with her college friends, so it's stag weekend for her boys. Thursday night we did dinner at McDonald's before going to the Cub Scout signup at the school (where the boys played in the gym for an hour and got so tired Collin & Parker fell asleep while I was reading their story (first chapter of "The Hobbit").
Friday night was dinner at Chili's (so Dad could have a much-needed margarita) followed by watching the old 1977 Rankin-Bass "The Hobbit".
Then yesterday we decided a road trip was in order. We loaded up and drove to Longview to pick up a used alto sax for Grayson. (He was quite upset when I referred to it as a 'horn' and just plain confused when I called it an 'axe'. We're going to have to work on that boy). But I think he likes it - he spent the next five hours in the car with the sax case sitting on his lap - he would not put it in the back.
We then hit the road to Dallas to see Star Trek at the IMAX in Mesquite (our fifth time together), starting with a memorable stop for lunch at the Dairy Queen on old SH-135. Watched "The Hobbit" again and segued directly into the extended version of "Fellowship of the Ring" which Grayson provided a running narration for his brothers on since he's recently discovered he knows everything (actually that's not a recent develeopment, and Jamie suspects may be genetic. I told her I think she's right). We got our tickets then headed up to Town East to check out the shopping, and let C&P play in the play place for a while after being cooped up in the car for three hours. Nice visit to the Cowboys store at which, as usual, the boys won't let Dad look at anything with cheerleaders on it, and they're perplexed and offended by all the Romo jerseys that are pink instead of blue.
Enjoyed the film immensely - it was far clearer on the IMAX screen - a lot like a Blu-Ray disk, although I disagree that it's true IMAX when the screen is little bigger than a normal movie screen (But I deliberately didn't sit down close where it would have been since I don't think a movie - as opposed to an immersive nature film - benefits from being that large - where I was at the movie was big enough to get my pupils below where they star "starring" thanks to Lasik but not so big that I couldn't comfortably see what was happening - it was the best balance between the two that I've seen). But the movie was much better, and I was glad we got to see it on a movie screen in HD quality. Zachary Quinto's performance in particular gains from repeated watching in better detail - you can easily miss subtle nuances (and the hair and eyebrows look better in HD - I don't know why, but they do). (Ben Cross is still great but they have got to not shoot him head-on - withe the bowl haircut and ears sticking out he looks very, very silly). And for all the talk about lens flares and dirtying up the look of Star Trek movies, the biggest reality check was the pock-marked landscape of Chris Pine's face, to say nothing of jagged teeth and fact that he spend smost of the movie with raw scars from getting beat up repeatedly. You know they are looking for drama and character when they cast somebody whose closeup is this egregiously bad. Leonardo di Caprio he is not. They really needed to spend more time on closeups of Zoe Saldana next time. She may actually be computer-generated, because I could never see a blemish. Or maybe the green Orion girl. But I digress...
We came straight back from the movie but stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Tyler because the boys get to keep their little glass pancake syrup bottles and can play with that golf tee game, which they just obsess over. Everyone was good, and I could tell Parker in particular was having a good time because he didn't fall asleep in the car until we were about twenty minutes from home. Typically he is out within five minutes of getting buckled in.
All in all, very good day with the boys. Now I have to go wrestle everybody into the shower to start getting them ready for church. Jamie will be back later today and we look forward to hearing how her weekend of massages and facials in Austin went.