Not off to a good start blogwise this year at all. . .

Some excellent family news yesterday. My daughter Brittany has undergone several procedures to address a problem called urinary reflux, which had caused an inordinate number of urinary tract infections as well as some damage (thankfully temporary) to her kidneys. At Sick Kids yesterday we learned that the October surgery was successful and that we are now merely on a regular follow up schedule to ensure everything stays fine. In celebration, we went out for pizza and wings, blowing my flex points (code which will have meaning only to the initiated) for the week on only day 2. Yikes! Looks like no popcorn at the movie tomorrow.

We watched "The Pacifier" as a family on Wednesday night. The girls had seen it on a March Break day camp trip and were anxious to have their monther and I watch it. Well, it's total crap, but surprisingly enjoyable crap. Vin Diesel has no skill as a comedian, other than one extremely funny bit of physical business with Carol Kane. Any laughs he gets for his line readings are in spite of his efforts. The story is disjointed and illogical, the child actors mostly annoying, the cathartic moments connecting them to Diesel's character stagey and predictable, the tacked-on romance with Lauren Graham's character completely false (and this will sound sexist, but she looked fat), the Brad Garrett character (and his performance) embarrassing. The villains were surprising at first but really so obvious that you kick yourself for not realizing that they were the only other characters in the film. And yet, I enjoyed it, mainly because there were enough good bits/lines that you could see what had attracted people to the project in the first place. That these were butchered in the process of getting to the screen did not prevent everyone from making a lot of money from the film. I would be surprised to hear no sequel is in the works.

Gotta run.