Trapped in Eugene

Connor has specific things he likes and wants. You have to be very clear, consise and consistant when it comes to him. Thanks to cartoon network (of all things), it is much easier to put things in cronological order and have him understand. "First is tickets, then is Froggy, later is the movie" allows him to get what whats going on. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Due to a conflict in schedules Tina and Diana had an appointment at the dentist the same time as Trevor. His being quite a drive away in the 'Big City'. So I took a vacation day and the plan was to make a day of it and hit the cheapie theater for a flick (flushed away, a movie Connor has been particularly interested in seeing) prior to the given appointment.

Best laid plans eh? We made it to the shopping mall but went to the wrong theater (two theaters in one shopping mall? whouda thunk it!!??). We head to the second one and there is a freeking line across the food court. I parked Trevor in the line and took Connor up to the front to see what was going on, Connor heared and read that Flushed away was playing so he started gettting very excited that he was going to be seeing the film! It turns out it was 50cent day. And a school Holiday. And the 2:00 and 3:00 show was sold out.

At this point Connor was fully expecting to see Flushed away and this would be our last chance to see it in a theater. So with heavy sigh I resigned myself to the 6:50pm show and we stood in the line for a good 30min. I explained to Connor the series of events for that day and he was perfectly fine.

Next we wandered the mall. I had forgotten my watch and so I hit Kohls and bought Trevor a timex ($10.00!). and we hung out till 3:30ish and hit Red Robin for lunch. I like this resturant as it has veggie burgers and plenty of French Fries for Connor. In an interesting change Connor wanted spagetti and french fries. Sure enough when the food came he ate it all. Usually at a resturant we will either try something and he usually doesnt eat or we get him french fries. Seeing as how going out is a minimal thing its not a biggie on the crap food input for any of the kids.

So food devoured we headed across town to Froggy's parking was a bear in the city and afterwards taking surface streets back to the mall was a pain. The streets are very non-intuative and tend to swing from North South to east west. Signs for Freeway offramps are vague and do not always point you correctly. Luckily Rivers and Freeways are pretty specific points in the landscape and I was able to navigate obliquely to the Mall in time for the movie.

Ardman Entertainment is Nick Parks company that produced the Wallace and Grommit shorts and movie. Flushed away is a computer animated version of Mr. Parks Unique style. It is well done and has a good portion of comedy and some pretty creative use of recognized items being used as boats, houses shops etc.

In an odd twist a Mime was pretty entertaining in this film.

So we got back in late Monday night. Connor was happy, Trevor commented that he liked the Clay stop motion as it had a more organic feel to it, as in being more 'real' and a part of the wonder of Nick Park.

I was just glad to be home and out of that freeking ass big confusing, overcrowded, traffic laden, no parking City. Gimmie small towns anyday!