Welcome to the Broiler
This is the scene outside right now. Every time I go into the kitchen I can see it's gone up another notch so now I'm avoiding going in there. Yesterday was supposed to be the horrible day and today hot but not horrible. It's hotter today than yesterday. I guess the weatherman lied so as not to totally demoralize us. All the poor little plants that have been shivering out in the yard are now burned to a crisp. But then by Tuesday, 55 degrees and raining again. Oh Mother Nature: how may we appease you?

Lucy For A Day
If I could ever live the life of a fictional character, without hesitation, my answer would be Lucy Pevensie. I'm an ancient old lady and I love her stories as much now as I did the first time I read them.

Yesterday, I went to see Prince Caspian. I expected the world to be filled with nerds rushing to see it so I made sure to get there early. Then I did a gymnastics routine in the lobby of the empty theater so the popcorn clerk would have something to look at. More people came in closer to show time including the lady with nice talking child who sat right behind me. Interesting all-ages crowd, starting with some very young kids and up to older people of retirement age.

The movie was fabulous. I loved it. Ten minutes in I was hugging my knees, thinking, "Omigod, I can't wait to see it again." At one point the High King was fighting in chain mail while Prince Hottie was running around in leather pants. I was just wishing every day for the rest of my life could be exactly like that moment.

**Warning: small spoilers ahead ... but it's only the 2nd book in the series so you can probably guess that everyone isn't going to die.**

Having said all that, it was a teeny bit like diet Lord of the Rings. And I love Lord of the Rings like nobody's business but the Battle of Helm's Deep is my favorite nerd battle of all time (even beating out many prime Star Wars battles like Yavin IV and that really sad one that makes me cry every time in Revenge of the Sith where they kill all the Jedi) and the big battle in this story felt very Helm's Deep-y. I loved it once. I love it again. But I at one point (LOTR II spoiler ahead) I fully expected to see Gandalf galloping in to save the day. And it sorta happened except that instead of Gandalf we had Aslan and instead of the Riders of the Rohirrim people it was Ents. Oops. I mean, the trees.

Have I ever mentioned that the Ents are my favorite characters in all literature?

I recommend the movie. Another one of my favorite characters of all time is Reepicheep who I'd totally forgotten appears in this story and makes an incredible entrance. One Million Stars for Narnia lovers. Probably less than that for non-Narnians.

I Can't Wait to Stay Home
I'm having a hard time playing with others lately. I got into a thing with my eye doctor's office and the charmless, witless staff that run the place. This morning I got into a thing with a surly young person at the farmer's market over some tomatoes. If I tell you the story it will only be to make me look good and right and them wrong and stupid and I don't know what's stopping me but I'll let it go and we can all try to be better human beings from this day forward.

Meanwhile, Bob told me that there's an Obama rally tomorrow at Waterfront park and he might go check it out. Then later he told me the Decemberists will be playing.

"Sounds like it will be nuts," I said. "I can't wait to stay home."