Not Sentimental

I aim for thoughtful and entertaining when writing about my kids, but somehow sentimentality got the better of me yesterday. Sorry about that. In recompense, today I offer blatant consumerism and snark.

J, who is the world's best shopper and whom I depend on for all my shopping quandaries, turned me on to Ebags, where you can order a SUITCASE and pay NO shipping and return it for FREE if you don't like it! Much easier than lugging self and girls to mall and having to chastise girls for knocking over suitcase piles while I attempt to select from the large selection of BLACK suitcases (thought I'd see how it felt to be DOOCE for a moment there). I ordered this in lime, and no big deal if it's hideous instead of hip--I can just send it back for FREE.

And in Friday night movie news:

- Clifford's Really Big Movie (E) was not even worth discussing, though it made children happy.

- Samanatha: An American Girl Holiday (M) made sentimental pap out of turn-of-the-century class difference, and offered a stirring American Girl Place infomercial to boot.

- We Don't Live Here Anymore (me) was a tedious melodrama about early middle-aged adultery with the obligatory drunken dinner parties, barely relevant children, blocked creative writing professor burning his manuscript, R-rated sex flashbacks, and pseudo-intellectual Tolstoy references. Naomi Watt was arch and annoying, while Laura Dern suffered fairly convincingly. The men looked at waitresses' asses in bars to show that lust still drives them, lobsters symbolized guilt and desire, and I deeply regretted puting Saved! back on the shelf. (And when S got home I wanted to pick a fight with him for no reason, which made me even more annoyed at the movie.)

All in all, a better night for knitting than film.