'V' for Veto

Tom's parents graciously granted us a date night last night so we opted for dinner and a movie. Tom seemed interested in "'V' for Vendetta". After watching the trailer (to which Tom let out a masculine, "Yeah!") and recalling how humdrum Denise was after she and Dennis watched "Master and Commander" on their date night ("A total guy movie"), I vetoed V for Vendetta, finding the dude in the mask a bit freaky and in general just not wanting to deal with "action" on a date night.

But instead, we discovered old and new haunts. We saw "After the Thin Man" at the newly restored Stanford Theater. It was a great experience and a great movie that had a young Jimmy Stewart in it. Perhaps what endeared me most to the theater was after the movie was done, this huge organ rose up from beneath the stage and played old tunes that made me feel like one of the silver haired couples that peppered the audience. The only thing that kind of brought be back to the new milennium was that when we got a closer look at the organ and organist, he was some Asian dude in his 30's or 40's. He was really an excellent organist but it kind of reminded me we were still in Silicon Valley circa 2006.

Then we ate again at La Strada. Tom had a rather bland beet ravioli and I had our favorite sausage and amaretto ravioli with brown butter. Tom surprised me by actually wanting to try the artisan cheese plate, including a sweet Gorgonzola. We had no idea what we were doing and whether we were eating the cheese (without wine) "properly". But it was fun to try something different than their house special meats that I usually get for appetizer. Their dessert menu is just hohum so we opted for Haagen Dazs instead. A visit to Borders to dream about reading books and it was home at 10 after we were sure the kids went to sleep.

After getting the "report card" from Tom's parents on how the kids did, I am starting to be resigned to the fact that Eli just might not be as easy as Tobey. True, Eli has been in a sleeping and eating funk, therefore making any evening a more difficult one. I still want to keep my standards and expectations high, trying different things, hoping he'll rise to be as good an eater as Tobey. But if he never does, then what everyone says is obviously true. Every kid is different.