During Friday's playdate, we found out that there was a kid's night out at the Y, for $3 you could drop a kid off for two hours, and they'd be entertained, taken swimming and even fed some pizza. It was last minute, but we went for it, and got a few hours to ourselves, with which we decided to watch Malice, a Nicole Kidman Alec Baldwin movie about a college dean who's dealing with a rapist on the loose and a wife who had traumatic emergency surgery. Of course, there was more to it, the movie ended up taking a Hitchcockian twist. it was set in western Massachusetts and Boston, Mrs. Ha and I enjoyed recognizing a few scenes.

We had to pause the movie in the middle to get the kids, and the kids' night ran late, we got there at 9 and they just started serving the pizza. Eleven year old decided to be a brat and not eat anything, wanting to eat when we got home. The kids ended up going to bed late, very close to ten.

Saturday was going to be busy, what with the usual swimming and DVD exchange, and the monthly gaming meet. The girls were slow getting up, and I went to the Y with only six year old, with plans to abreviate my workout and go back and get eleven year old. Before I could do that, Mrs. Ha dropped eleven year old off, and then dented the van's sliding door navigating the crowded parking lot. We eventually got home, with new DVD's, and me only getting a stepper workout, no Cybex.

Mrs. Ha wasn't happy that I wanted to rush off to the gaming meet and spend 4 hours there. She wanted us all to have lunch, and then I guess I was free to go for an hour, which after driving time meant popping my head in and out. I'm beginning to think asking for 4 hours a month dork bonding time is going to be an issue, she doesn't understand a game can take a few hours to play. When we were first dating I did the dork bonding thing with friends from work, and she was upset that I took so long, even though I won Illuminati.

I got the the gaming meet, and there wasn't anyone free looking to game, so I watched some Rommel in the Desert, Totensonntag and Here I Stand. Totensonntag is on my potential list because you can play it in less than two hours, it's a hex and counter game of Operation Crusader.

Soon I was able to sit in on a game of Illuminati, the newer edition. One player hadn't played in 30 years, so I had an advantage in playing only 17 years ago. By the last turn of the game as C had 10 groups, I had 11, and you needed 13 to win. C tried to take three of the third players, and in my eagerness to defend him against C's aggression (and keep C from winning), I started throwing out megabucks before the others had emptied their treasuries. In the end, their treasuries were emptied and C needed to roll a 2 to get the three groups, he didn't.

I was at 11 groups, needing two to win. I thought about getting two from the others, but that would have entailed an attack against the groups directly connected to their Illumati groups, and I didn't it was as easy to get the win. I had the Moonies take over the Boy Sprouts, and the TV Preachers take over the Moral Minority, to squeak out a win. Then I went home.

Saturday night's movie was Sweet and Lowdown, a Woody Allen film about the world's second greatest jazz guitarist, Emmet Gray.  It was  a fun period piece set in the 1930's, with the usual shiny cars and guns and dresses. Highly recommended if you're a fan of the world's greatest jazz guitarist, Django.

In yet another instance of Rochester is a small city, I was able to go with Mrs. Ha to her favorite Church Sunday. The service starts at 10:30, and my parents don't usually pick the girls up until 11:30, so we're rarely both free at that time. This time, however, my parents were taking the girls to the early showing of High School Musical on Ice, so we were both able to attend. I even got a reading, though it was confusing and didn't make much sense, maybe it was for the guy in the row ahead of us. The small city part is the Mrs. Ha's therapist got a reading, she was sitting behind us.

There's more. After the service we went for brunch, then to the thrift store where Irish_sister works (and she was there). We also ran into AF_dad and AF_sibling there, AF_mom and AF_girl were at High School Musical.

Maybe it was because of MLK day, but we were able to get the girls to bed on time yesterday, Mrs. Ha and I were downstairs with all the chores done by 8:45. We decided to pop in a movie, this time it was Being John Malkovich. It was very surreal, with moments of great and awful humor (a puppet show of Abelard and Heloise?). I did like it, but I don't know if I'd watch it again, as it doesn't leave you feeling very good at the end.

In yet more Y news, they have family swim on Tuesday nights. We used that as leverage for eleven year old to finish her homework, and went. Swimming is a great workout, and I'm thinking of incorporating it more. We may even go there tonight, they have a good yoga class and the girls might like to run around the gym.