The Number Field

I know one thing about pregnant women: they have earned the right to have everything they want. Baby amnesia will never erase that part of my memory. Anyway, when Jenny's brother John invited us to dinner and a movie last Friday, at Karina's request, we were happy to oblige. Karina wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie before her baby came. When we were planning things out, Karina had also suggested a particular restaurant near the theater. John wanted to consider other options, and asked Jenny to suggest some other places near the theater. I told Jenny that I thought we should do what Karina wanted. In the end, we decided to go to a theater in a different part of town, which forced us to change the restaurant. John and Karina chose it without our involvement--a Texas Roadhouse partly owned by Willie Nelson.

The double date was for grownups only, so we found Elena's first real teenage babysitter. We had a girl from church in mind, and after asking around confirmed that she would be a good choice. However, we weren't ready to leave her alone in our apartment with Elena, so Jenny asked if we could drop Elena off at their house. As a result, our chosen babysitter was just the point guard for a team of playmates and caregivers--the mom helped, as well as three younger brothers and a toddler sister. With all the stimulation, Elena didn't get to sleep until after her bedtime, but they reported that everything else went well.

We enjoyed dinner, especially the part where we got to eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. We drove from the restaurant to the theater. Jenny and I took the long, perilous route past all the storefronts, through a lengthy chain of parking lots. John and Karina kicked out to the access road and made the short trip much faster than us. I don't have much to say about the movie. It was decent, but too tame for my taste.

On Saturday we had another evening out, this time at a church Pioneer Day celebration. We saw lots of good friends that we don't keep in touch with very well. Many of them we know from when we were all single several years ago. Some are still single, one couple just got engaged, others are married, and one other couple brought over their little girl, April Mei, to play with Elena. It was great to see all of them, but we made sure to track down Maverick's * owner, Larissa, to ask about how he was doing. She said that although he's making slow changes and improvements, he's still the same strange, skittish cat that we knew and loved.

* We cared for Maverick, a long-haired orange and white cat, for a year and a half just after we got married, while Larissa served a mission.