The Severed Cortex

Robert and I went to see Shrek the Third last Saturday. He got Cookie Dough Bites and Sprite and I got popcorn with "buttery topping" and a bottled water. I paid for the popcorn in so many ways. First, I got one of those hulls spot welded to the back of my tongue where you can't seem to ever make it come loose. I also got the obligatory hulls stuck between teeth. And, as usual, like another Groundhog Day re-run (redundant?), I suffered through painful heartburn while sleeping.

Why must oily topping taste so buttery good and yet be so gastrically painful?

If I didn't need my esophagus so damn bad I'd show that buttery topping who's boss.

Shrek the Third was above average. As with any blockbuster mainstream movie, it suffered from trying to be too slick. The writing was mostly good and of course the voices and animation were fantastic, but the story line didn't seem all that well thought out. Synopsis: The king of Far Far Away is dying and either Shrek has to become King or he has to talk distant relative Arthur Pendragon into being King. At the same time, Prince Charming teams up with the misfits to try to take over the Kingdom. Of course, you know who wins and everything ties up nice and neat at the end. The soundtrack includes several classic rock songs including Wings Live and Let Die and weirdly enough, Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. The third in a movie series is tenuous at best. Like any other 3rd in a series, this movie is made for one reason only and that's a license to print money. I liked it OK and Robert pronounced it awesome and that's all that really matters.

After the movie we had about an hour or so to kill. I let him decide what he wanted to do. He wanted to go bowling but there just wasn't enough time. Then he decided he wanted to play in the park, but when we got there he changed his mind. Instead, he wanted to go to the museum at Melvin Price Lock and Dam. We played the towboat simulator a couple of times; successfully passing through Eads Bridge southbound, passing a tow on the one whistle in front of The Arch, and then painfully crashing into the long wall bullnose in the Lock 27 simulation (approaching from the Canal side).

On the way home he told me that his bicycle has a flat so next time we'll be teaching a little bike repair.