Last week was a short work week for me – I had Friday off as the observed day for Christmas Eve. Mer’s Christmas Break started Thursday, but she had an in-service teacher day on Wednesday (no students), which had been preceded by exam days, which keep the students occupied. So, happily, Mer did not keep accumulating grading to do.
On Monday, Mer went down to Canton to see Aunt Mary and her parents, and I puttered around home.
On Tuesday, Aunt Mary and Dale and Carlene came up to our place for supper. Mer made a very good lasagna, and I bought some fresh bread from a local natural-food market. We chatted and ate and had a good time. Mer and her family went off to visit a local family who had recently built an in-law suite. We are strongly considering doing that for Dale and Carlene, and so wanted to see how it was done. Sadly, by the end of the meal, I had a pretty good headache, so I just went to bed while everyone else went to visit the new addition. I’ll have to check it out later. Mer’s parents left on Wednesday morning, which was unfortunate since Mer’s vacation started Thursday, but that was all the result of using vouchers to fly (certain dates were blacked out for travel using the vouchers).
On Friday, I took Mer out on a mini-date. We both had the day off, and Saturday was going to be somewhat busy with church in the evening (Saturday being Christmas Eve), so I took Friday as “my” day. In the late afternoon, we headed south to Canton, to the cheap theater, where we saw In Time, a science fiction movie about a society where everyone stays twenty-five years old forever, but have to keep earning more time through work or gambling or the like. I liked the premise, and it had Amanda Seyfried in the movie; I have been fond of her since seeing Letters to Juliet, which charmed me. She played opposite of Justin Timberlake, and both actors did fairly well. Amanda’s role was not sweet at all, but both characters were interesting and believable, at least in context. There were a few moments in the movie that were hard to believe (poor security in a bank, police that are bad shots, etc.), but the overall movie was entertaining. While not a super-deep movie, it did make both me and Mer think and talk about allocation of resources, and the advantage the rich have over others (and rich nations have over others). It was very much worth $3.00 to see.
After the movie, I took Mer to Red Robin, a burger chain. I had a gift card that I could use, and Mer just got a light supper, so she was a cheap date – to the extent that we still have enough on the gift card to go back sometime. So, it was a fairly mellow day, but a good one.