Slowps from the slopes

Kim and I went to see "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" at the Cheap Seats on Saturday and I don’t know for sure if I’ve ever enjoyed a movie there as much as this one. It was fun, funny, smart, original and silly. I don’t think there’s anything as funny as a whale falling to earth. I had lots of opportunity to read the book before seeing the movie but I never did. My regret for that is small, though, since I’ll make reading it a priority.

Water fights are just as fun now as they were when I was a kid. The only difference: I’m better than I was then. Now, instead of five-year-olds pelting me with water until I shrieked and ran away, now I’m the one pelting the five-year-olds, and they’re running away. There were a few cases where I had to take matters into my own hands and throw the odd kindergartener or pre-teen into the pool but I can’t just let them get away with trying to throw me in. I am all that is man.

I’m having a very hard time getting into the current CFL season. I haven’t seen a single game, though I’ve listened to snippets of Eskimos radio broadcasts. It’s not worth it. Bryan Hall is the worst radio guy I’ve ever heard. Maybe if I actually sat down and watched some football, I would be more inclined to pay attention but it’s just not holding my interest. Maybe around Labor Day…

I’m still waiting to hear back from my boss’ boss’ boss about whether I will be taking the position of Data Management Supervisor. The anticipation is killing me, although I guess that the fact that it’s taking longer is a good thing. It means that it must have gotten through my boss’s boss or it would have come back much sooner. I’m optimistic that when I hear back, it will be a positive, positive day.

Ninja versus pirates wouldn’t be much of a battle. Sure, pirates are good at bullying innocent towns and lobbing the occasional cannon ball at an unsuspecting military sloop but I don’t think they’d last very long against the greatest of all assassins. I bet that ninjas on boats (which is the coolest thing ever) would make better pirates than pirates.

I left Rob high-and-dry on Saturday. He was putting in laminate. I helped him with the sub-floor and then left him to go to church. There was no church-going that day, though, as the grandparents of my son, the parents of my wife and my in-laws all got together and changed the plan at the last moment. This is not a bad thing, as it gave Kim and I a very enjoyable evening together. I broke my promise not to pick up more books. (Honestly, we took books in for sale – they were going to give us $35 in trade or $11 in cash – what would YOU have done?) but I only got two, where Kim got a whopping FOUR. We also watched the movie and went out for East Indian desserts.

I went to church the next day, however, at a church that has a priest who looks like a hockey coach. I find it hard to imagine myself taking spiritual advice from a man who looks like he’d tell me to “take a lap” for my unfaith and assign a penance of “35 squat-thrusts”. “…the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever – HIT THE SHOWERS! ” Just before the sacrifice (where the Catholics eat Jesus), what looked like most of the kids in the church lined up for hugs from Coach Priestly. I fought the temptation to make some kind of comment because the gesture seemed genuine and heartfelt. Kim asked Nick if he wanted to go up and he said no. His reason? “There’s a lineup.” Oh, sure, he’d go hug the priest, he just doesn’t want to deal with the logjam of other kids, hugging their way into heaven.