A weekend like this makes me feel almost rested and cheerful enough to manage the upcoming workweek:

• Went out on a lovely date with Lil’ on Friday night, including a tasty dinner at a restaurant I’d not tried before by name of Kappaya, along Division in Southeast Portland. (Picture a Japanese restaurant without tonkatsu on the menu. The food was still good, though.) In-joke of the night: “Rocks!” For the record, they are neither modern or much of a marvel unless you’re a hardcore geology nerd.
• Spent most of Saturday with the rugrats and Kyla, watching “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and eating burgers and checking out the newest rendition of the Heroes of Might and Magic V game. The in-joke of the day was not “Rocks!” since we haven’t made it to the second season of “Avatar” yet so we’re not really seeing that many earthbenders. My kids are well and truly hooked on the show now, however. (Insert maniacal laughter here.)
• Spent Saturday night and most of Sunday with Kyla, watching silly TV shows and playing City of Heroes. The last episode of the first season of “Torchwood” is not, upon second viewing, quite as terrible as I originally thought. The first episode of “Smash Lab,” however, left me unimpressed. Think “Mythbusters Lite” but without the engaging personalities. Instead of actual rocks, the show featured concrete.
• Spent part of Sunday evening hooking up the center channel speaker in my surround-sound rig. Yes, I consider this one of the pertinent high points of my weekend. Yes, I’m a dork. My rock music concert DVDs will sound just that little bit better now, which (naturally) ROCKS.
• Spent Sunday night gaming with “the boys,” as per usual, and made a decent showing in both Quiddler and Carcassonne. I didn’t win, but I almost never win and I work hard to be a good sport about that most of the time. The only rocks here were the ones in my head, I’m afraid.

And now, I think I’ll enjoy a few minutes of rock music before I go to sleep. Rock on, y’all.