At the end of a long, long, long work week — make that month — I was more than happy to take Wendi up on her offer of dinner and a movie Friday night. A chance to talk as well as just “be” together is always a good thing, especially lately. We have much to discuss, after all.

Dinner was at Red Robin, home of several varieties of burger-like gutbombs. The ambience, such as it was, involved birthday chanting from the waitstaff as well as general loudness among the patrons. We weren’t bothered, since it gave us the covering noise so our private conversation wouldn’t be overheard even by the folks sitting right next to us. (I joked about not wanting to be the person shouting at the top of my lungs if the room suddenly went quiet, “… and then she offered to give me a blowjob!” Great mental image, wot?)

After dinner comes the movie, at least on nearly every date we’ve had in our nearly twelve years together. (June 22nd, folks.) This time we picked the new Matrix thing. We bought the tickets, then strolled through the Fortress Of Chaos And Evil to kill time. We picked up some bug spray, mouse traps and moss killer. Presumably none of this is to be used on Yours Truly.

What can I say about “The Matrix Reloaded” that hasn’t already been said? My capsule review reads something like this: An uneven collection of set pieces is punctuated by weird talky bits. A few really cool things happen, but mostly the movie is painful to watch. We waited through the credits for the trailer, after which I thought, “So what?” At this point I’m disinclined to see the last movie in a theater, unless a lot of people I admire tell me it’s worthwhile.

Oh yeah, and the sex/rave/orgy scene was silly. While I have less against the blatant display of human flesh as my wife, she and I are in complete agreement this time: Any movie that requires that much pointless gratuitous sex can’t have a lot going on for it in the plot department.

(Wait, was this thing supposed to have a plot? Maybe not, but I had high expectations of the people behind a couple other movies I rather liked. Go ahead and laugh if you must.)

Wendi’s review, by the way, is right here. I’m not bothering with a full write-up.

After dragging ourselves home (by way of the Albertson’s in whose parking lot we, ah, parked all evening) (and wasn’t that a surreal experience, what with the asian couple carting a dozen large bundles of tee-pee and paper towels through the express lane at nearly midnight) we paid off the sitter and Wendi drove him home. End, Friday night.

Begin the morning, late. Like, almost noon late. In bed. I don’t think I need to go into details, here, but suffice to say it was a nice morning. Er, twice.

Wendi ran off to get her tires replaced (one flat, one with nail) and then we gathered the kids (one gleeful, one reluctant) for our first visit to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in ages. (Pictures will appear in the Gallery shortly after I complete this posting, mostly in the Natural Beauty section.) Afterward we went to Bi-Mart for squirt guns and a water slide, to Baskin Robbins for a sampling of the 31 flavors, to WinCo for groceries, and finally we landed at home.

All in all, I can think of worse ways to kill half a weekend. My goodness yes. Tonight, we dine on party pizzas and play silly games until bedtime!

(Update, 9pm: A new segment of the Gallery titled The Fam contains images of my wife and rugrats enjoying the rhodie gardens and the waterfowl therein. For regular “flowers and ducks” material, check out the vastly-expanded Natural Beauty area. Thank you.)