EZ-Up And Over The Roof

Our EZ-Up is not the cheap kind. It's the super heavy duty deluxe model that you really don't ever want to have to carry anywhere, but are happy you bought when there's real weather and all of the other RC racers/MX racers/sports parents' EZ-Ups are blowing away in the wind. Its lived a long, rich life. It's been to countless MX and RC tracks, off-road riding areas and kids sporting events. It was our porch canopy for more than a month at the end of last Summer. Heck, now that I think about it, I do believe we've had it for over 7 years! But like I said, it's substantial. It's substantial enough that I call it the Relatively EZ-Up instead of the EZ-Up, because erecting it IS EZ'er than, say, building a shelter from brick & mortar. But it certainly doesn't go up with the EZ of some that I've seen recently.

For all of these reasons, we were shocked and a little mystified when we got home from a BBQ at a friends' house Friday night to see its white spindly self wadded up on the front lawn (it had been erected on the porch when we left) like a crumpled pretzel. No, it looked more like a huge albino daddy longlegs after an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest. See, a storm rolled in while we were BBQ'ing. Apparently quite a doozy. At the BBQ we relaxed, watched the trees rock in the wind, and welcomed the coolness after a 90 degree afternoon. But here at the homefront that pleasant breeze had lifted our heavy-yet-admitedly-kite-shaped EZ-Up. . . well. . . UP over the roof of our house and onto the front lawn. I don't know what I'm more sad about; the fact that I missed watching/hearing it's journey over the house or the fact that my good old EZ-Up's days may be finally coming to a close.

Max and I went to see "Surfs Up" as part of my birthday gift to him yesterday. I don't know if it's a good movie or not, time will tell, but I sure giggled my ass off :). There was even at least one extended guffaw! When you watch the movie (and you should) look for the scene where Big Z is trying to teach Cody how to carve a surfboard. That scene IS me trying to teach Max, oh, anything. Lots of heart, and a Dad who's just as O.C.D. as the boy is impatient. God I'm giggling just thinking about it! Really, go see it, I want to know if I find it so funny because IT'S FUNNY or if it's because it just happens to be exactly like me trying to parent. Other reasons I loved seeing this movie:

-Zooey Deschanel and Jeff Bridges, two of my favorites and not the usual animated feature voices, play leads.

-Either they actually recorded the voice talent TOGETHER, or they did a phenomenal job of making it sound like they did. When you watch as much animation as I do, you notice how often the scripting sounds like, well, it's scripted. Lines are delivered one after the other with little of the spontaneity or natural'ness of, say, a Robert Altman film. In this one, there is banter between the characters, specifically Bridges and Shia Leboef, that feeels natural. As though it were of-the-moment or group improvised.

-Original setting idea: it's filmed almost entirely as a Reality Sports documentary show.

-Poop jokes. I'm sorry, but poop is funny. Say it. "Poop". Heh heh. That was cool.

Gramma Gaye got Max some much-needed gear for his birthday, all in his favorite color: orange. An effort to quickly take a photo to send Gramma turned into a dress-up parade, and that evolved into a dance party. Imagine the following with "Jump and Move" from the Happy Feet soundtrack playing. . . .

And while I'm sniffing around in my photo folders, here are two from Ben and Milo's "graduation" ceremony at preschool. Before the "ceremony" they had their usual preschool routines, what with kids doing their jobs and checking them off of lists and announcing what day it was and singing songs about how they are happy and together clap your hands etc etc. . . . Of particular interest to me were 2 things. One was Milo demanding with typical Milothian Authoritatious authority that ALL SINGING MUST CEASE AT ONCE because he hadn't yet peered out the window and reported on the weather for everyone. That was his job, see.

The other thing I noticed was the speed and enthusiasm with which my little joined-at-the-hip partners in crime PARTED WAYS when it was time to sit on the rug for, um, Rug Sitting Circle Group Together Time or whatever it was called. The boys zeroed in on "O" and "K" -- if not the prettiest girls in the class, certainly the girly'est girls in the class -- with great accuracy. I thought it was cute. It was either cute or borderline disruptuve when both boys engaged O and K with such singular focus as to exclude of the rest of the class, Mrs. Teacherface, and the oft-shouted-at-them requests to shut up & pay attention. Nope, darn near got them in trouble, that did. Here is Ben glowing at O. . .

Note that while Ben's attention is anywhere but where it should be, at least he is facing the proper direction like the rest of the class. Milo is not troubled by our feeble, uncreative reality with it's "teachers" and it's "other students". . .

*heh heh* I am SO sitting with K right now.

Today we went to church. That was good. I wrangled the Bishop into pinning down my future role in Scouting, and we decided that I will be the 11-Year-Old Scout Guy. I don't know if there is a title for it, but I'll be guiding Max and a few of his peers, starting late this summer, through Tenderfoot, 2nd Class Scout and First Class Scout status. We discussed my staying with the younger Webelos while Max moves forward. But for the time being Max still thinks I'm cool and still thinks I'm funny and thinks it's just cooler than cool that his Dad is his Scout Leader. Bishop is also a father of a 10-11 year old boy, and we agreed that I should appreciate this while I can, so I'll stay with Max and be the Wee Beginning Boy Scout Guy instead of the Senior Veteran Cub Scout Guy. We also discussed my own personal scout experience, which was limited to a few months in a well-intentioned but ultimately doomed Cub Scout pack organized and run almost exclusively by single mothers. We agreed that he'll sign me up for some Scout Leader training this summer :).