We are the Robots

Another busy weekend. Friday night I watched I, Robot on DVD with my son. Great special effects, but having read the book years ago I was very disappointed with the plot. It had almost nothing to do with the original thought-provoking stories, and was kind of weak even when considered by itself. The robot effects was excellent however, and Will Smith is looking startlingly muscular. He's come a long way from Fresh Prince of Belair! Sadly, not recommended.

Saturday was spent fighting with Chris over homework, both over-due and otherwise. He has an almost pathological need to postpone work. Don't know where he gets that from! The result was that by 4:00 PM he had put in a hard day of avoiding work and almost nothing had been accomplished. I grounded him for the rest of the weekend. Except for one thing...

My girlfriend was having a dinner party Saturday night, and I'd arranged for my parents to babysit. They were planning to take Chris with his two cousins to see Anne of Green Gables at Stage West, a dinner theatre outside of the city. For my sake he was still allowed to attend. When I caught up with them the following morning I learned that he'd loved the buffet (loaded with lobster tails) and had even enjoyed the play although he'd rolled his eyes at it initially. They didn't get home until midnight! So maybe the punishment aspect got lost.

The dinner party was a great evening. Sheryl's condo is on the small side so it was six of us for dinner, with her daughter and fiancee joining us for dessert. Sheryl's a great cook, especially in the baking department. And I'm an earnest sous chef. Appetizers were artichoke hearts with sour cream and a tomato mousse. Main course was roast duck (which I carved with great effort) and roast potatoes. Dessert was the piece de resistance though. Sheryl makes a great apricot soufflé, and had prepared a chocolate torte as back up because she was cooking a larger batch of the soufflé than usual. It all worked, and was all eaten with great pleasure... I think I was the only person there that wasn't a model or actor. One couple has a cooking/travel show, another guest modeled and worked on a celebrity look-alike show, and Sheryl's girlfriend is a production assistant who's working on David Cronenburg's new film.

I crawled out of bed at 8:30 in the morning (the dinner party ended at 1:30 AM) to see that I had seven calls from home on my cell, but no messages. Kind of worrying... I called to find my parents having a cup of tea. Chris was out by himself shopping because we'd discussed making "stuffed french toast" for his grandparents in the morning and we needed french bread and cream cheese. He'd called to get permission to go shopping. I drove by the shops on my way home, and as I expected found him walking home with his supplies. He was looking pleased with himself as he'd also bought himself a pastry from Starbucks and had wrangled a free sample of some kind of mocha coffee drink. I gave him a lift home and then we got busy with cutting the bread (you start with a very thick slice of bread and then partially cut it through to make a pocket for the stuffing). Chris mixed the cream cheese with a mashed banana and some blueberry jam, filled the pockets and fried them up. Thank you Egg Marketing Board.

Listening to: That's Entertainment by The Jam from Sound Affects.