My semi-anonymous donor did it again. I really don't think I deserve this, but how can I refuse? If there's anything better than taking the whole family out to a movie, it's taking the family out to a movie on somebody else's dime.
We went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Since it's not appropriate for Kayla, we arranged a sleepover for her. There was also an odd group-date thing going on with one of my eldest daughter's friends, and she was along as a pseudo-chaperon, so we put all the parents together, too.
It was a lot of fun. The opening puts a gigantic strain on the suspension of disbelief, but we didn't go for the realism. The adventure, on the other hand, was everything Indy promises with each new movie.
Afterwards we went to a restaurant for dessert; eventually everybody wound up in the same place and we combined our tables (much to our waitresses' chagrin). At one point my Dread Reading Addiction took over: the television over my friend's shoulder was closed-captioned, and I couldn't help but read it, even though it was college girls' softball.
I wound up missing big chunks of the conversation for a few minutes. When they discovered the problem, our wives ridiculed me for the program content. Luckily, my friend Jim came to my rescue, explaining that I was merely "enthralled by the crystal skull".
Ah, yet another appropriate euphemism for television.
On the way home, the kids piled into a photo booth. Other Jim paid for it. "Best three bucks I ever spent!", he insists. I can't see how I could possibly argue.