Sunday in the Park

I spent Sunday evening this weekend with a clan of friends and their in-laws. Javier, his dad, and "the boy" and I hopped in the old Volvo and drove north to meet up with Tim and his family and the in-laws.

Along the way, something caught my eye that made me smile inside and out, and I had to take a picture.


Stephanie met up with us there, too, and Carlos and Emily were in town visiting, so with all of us and the two other families, it was a full house.

I definitely felt welcomed when one of the in-laws' kids came up to me and asked, "Who are you?" I told her my name, and she told me hers. Then she and her cousin, with further explanation or familiarity apparently unnecessary, proceeded to climb me, put hand cuffs on me, kick me, and throw frisbees at me. I think it was my first hazing.

I was also greeted by the enthusiastically friendly wheezing and grunting of an odd little creature they call a dog but which I think looks more like the lovechild of Jabba the Hut and any goblin from The Labyrinth. Apparently, there's a button in his hobbling little leg that puts him in hyper-speed and causes him to bounce off couches, crotches, and whatever else is in his path of ankle-biting mayhem. Hours of fun. Well, minutes. After several trips around the living room, he collapsed in a snorting, wheezy lump.

While dinner was being prepared, a few of us took the youngsters to a nearby park to unleash their destructive powers in positive ways. I took the opportunity to finally take some pics of "the boy," as Javier's been wanting to do, using my XSi. I really should name it. We've been through a rocky patch with a cheap zoom lens that disappointed me severely in Oregon, but we've upgraded, and the relationship is much improved.











Yes, the dog relieved himself in one of the kids' bike helmet. I think we sort of intended to tell someone, but in the craziness of getting dinner served, we...forgot? Let's go with that explanation.

After the park, we had some great dinner. Have you had zucchini boats? You cut the zucchini down the middle, remove the guts, mix them (and/or squash guts--there was a heated debate over this) with onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and maybe something else, and top them with cheese (optional) and bake them. Way good. Way. And we watched Napoleon Dynamite. About as funny as I remember. *puzzled expression*

After dinner, we all went back out front to visit in the yard. The kids went off on their bikes. I looked at Javier and said, "Um...that helmet is gone. Did we...?" He said, with a wry grin, "Sh. I wouldn't worry about it." I nodded in agreement with a smirk of my own. Hey, what's done is done.

After getting back to Provo, Javier, Steph, and I watched The Fountain at my place while eating cinnamon- and sugar-covered almonds from Idaho and saltwater taffy and fudge from Oregon. I tried to watch The Fountain a few months ago--gosh, nearly a year ago now, I guess--but I couldn't get through it. Back then, I was distracted and...not in a good frame of mind to be watching a story of such passionate love. This time, I was able to focus much better and made it through emotionally stable. *patting myself on the back* And it was beautifully emotive and hauntingly painful and starkly hopeful and left me saying, "What a beautiful movie. What the @#$% was all that?" But I don't think it went entirely over my head. Just a little.

But seriously. What WAS it?