I’m sitting here at the new Coffee Society at the Pruneyard (which replaces the former occupant of this spot, the somewhat run-down Campell Coffee Roasting Company) trying to do some writing, but my attention keeps getting stolen by the guy in front of the Camera 7 theater. He’s dressed as a Greek warrior — he has a silver helmet with plumage on top, a red cape down to his calves, sandals, a metal breastplate, a sword, a shield. I’m sure he’s supposed to be a Greek warrior, because on the shield is written ALEXANDER in Greekish letters. Periodically he holds out his sword and salutes passers-by and cars driving by him.

Not a job I’d want. It’s 60 degrees F out — he’s got to be a little cold. And who’s going to go see Alexander because some guy is dressed up as a Greek soldier? Who thought this one up?

Anyhow. Good to have Coffee Society here, with its cleaner lines and better coffee than the previous occupant. Parking was a bitch today, though — oh, that’s right, the shopping season has started, hasn’t it? Ah well. Back to work.

• New frontiers in parenting: Simon’s EEG test is tomorrow. So we have to keep him up tonight 3 hours past his normal bedtime (which is ostensibly 8, but in reality is more like 9, so…) and we have to get him up 2 hours early. I am bleary-eyed just thinking about it.
• The babysitter got the first shift keeping Simon up tonight (and Sophia too, of course—she wasn’t about to miss out). She was exhausted when we got back from the movie.
• The movie we went to see was Shaun of the Dead, which was really frickin’ hilarious. Completely funny, with a side order of gore. Great set-ups, equally excellent payoffs. Darin really hadn’t wanted to see this one, but his review was: “I was so wrong!” Great script, great use of music, possible social commentary but easy enough to avoid that bit.
  Were all of the newscasters in it real British newscasters? I expect that sort of thing of LA newscasters, but I figure there are so many actors in Britain they wouldn’t need the real thing.
• Also frickin’ hilarious a few date nights ago was Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. This was one I hadn’t wanted to see, but I definitely enjoyed it. Except for the bits with the potty humor, which after two kids I still don’t find funny. Kumar’s intro scene should be shown to film school students as the proper way to introduce a character. One of the downer elements of this film is that “lighthearted” revenge, which involves a bag of pot, would probably in the real world lead to prison without parole in many states given our current drug laws. But this movie is still hilarious.
• Our date night one week ago was not a movie at all (couldn’t find one we really wanted to see) so we went a restaurant another mom at the preschool had mentioned to me: Crimson. Oh. Wow. There isn’t enough room in this restaurant to swing a cat—well, maybe a smallish sort of cat, not a big fat one, a slender one—but it is good. Everything we had was simply fabulous and there was too much of it. Beware of going on Wednesday nights though: that’s half-price bottle of wine night, and Darin and I got the bottle of wine. Of course, we could only drink half of it, not being much in the way of drinkers. We got red wine, and the next day I was stuffed up and sick. Doesn’t matter: still a wonderful little bistro.
• I never thought I’d be watching “Blue’s Clues” at 10:43 at night. Oy. And insisting Simon watch it too.

Okay, not really, but I am Doubleplusungood. Congested, sleeping poorly and sleeping a lot, nauseated, no energy. I don’t think it’s the flu because I’m ambulatory, but this seems like a little more than the common cold.

And since Otto thinks he can’t join me for the VP debate tonight, I’m not sure I can do the debate tonight. I’d like to, though. So tune back in for further details.

Update: And Darin just called to say that his car is totally not working (he can’t even shift into drive), so we have to go pick him up. No debate for me!