He pointed the machine gun at the TV and fired away.

Been dubbing some of my Mystery Science Theater 3000 VHSs over to DVD again. Tonight's double feature: Devilfish (#911) and The Screaming Skull (#912).

Bad movies! Wow...

Sometimes I'm not even sure why I dub some of these that are so painful I may not ever watch them for pleasure. Maybe it's just the completist in me.

(Note: The Screaming Skull has just started. The voiceover at the beginning of the show promises--no kidding--that the makers of the film promise a "free burial" to anyone who dies of fright while watching their film. See, you just don't get customer service like that anymore...)

***

No house updates. We're talking, putting our heads together, weighing our options, that sort of thing.

***

'Twas a good day. Kelli and THEGIRL took off for Corsicana. Kelli had some Arbonne-related stuff to do down there. Sterling was still here from last night's sleepover, so we passed on the Corsicana trip. After Sterling went home it was a father/son day.

I'd hoped to cook up something really cool, but after my chiropractor visit we found out the house was to be shown at 11:30am. Didn't give me long to run the vacuum and get us out of here. I'd considered NRH2O, a local water park.

***

Instead it was off to Grapevine Mills Mall for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Everything costs twice what it ought to, but the place is stuffed to the gills with animatronic jungle critters. We sat close to a big aquarium that had a couple Nemo lookalikes inside (real fish, the only living critters in the joint). We were also close enough to throw one of those $7 kid pizzas at a gorilla. Every half hour or so the lights flash while elephants and monkeys and all sorts of beasts go nuts. There was a time when it was a bit of sensory overload for THEBOY; his little head would dart back and forth like he was keeping an eye out for a stampede or something.

He still likes it, but he's quick to explain to me that those animals aren't real.

***

After the Rainforest Cafe we walked the farthest route possible to the toy store. You know... pick a direction in that place and inevitably it's the wrong one.

But on the way we passed a carousel in the food court. That was new. We paid our $1.75 and hopped aboard. Not a bad way to spend five minutes with the boy.

***

THEBOY walked about 20 feet into the toy store, once we finally arrived, and picked up a machine gun and announced that he was done.

I had to laugh, but you know, it was a bit of a challenge to convince him to even walk through the rest of the store. I tried to explain to him that there might be even cooler stuff in there. Clutching the machine gun, he'd gone about 10 more feet before he discovered one more toy he just had to have: a Lord of the Rings "Gollum" figure. Push the button and it hisses, "My precious."

***

His plan was to use the machine gun to shoot Gollum over and over, as I discovered, oh, all afternoon.

***

But on the way home from the mall he quite steadily elicited an entire discourse from me on Smeagol/Gollum and how the ring transformed him and, ultimately, cost him his life.

I don't know that any highfalutin attorney on any cop show could have pieced together the story through logical queries like that kid did.

***

And indeed, when we got home he was eager to see Gollum on TV. I made it clear that he could not watch the Lord of the rings, but I did find a few harmless scenes to let him watch.

He pointed the machine gun at the TV and fired away.

***

Now it's Saturday night. Kelli and I have had Starbucks treats, the kids are in bed, and MST is working its magic.

I'm pretty eager for school to get going. Kelli's telling me about her school and all these assignments she has to do, and it feels weird. Took me a while to realize that I think I'm envious. I've gotta get moving!

***

Have a good weekend.