So, it was a weekend. Thankfully, not much going on. After another five hour drive home from work on Friday, I wasn’t up for much anyway. However, I kind of expect this, and have more or less built it into my expectations by now. The job, it’s myriad drawbacks and frustrations considered, has, at least started to become routine. I’ve developed a feel for what to expect, and what’s expected of me. It’s still not optimal, but I’ve become okay with that, for now. There’ll be other opportunities in the future; I just need to be alert for them. The last month or two has been easier. Part of that, I think, is the combination of finding a couple of non-work outlets to release some stress and frustration, the welcome addition of an additional scheduled telework day, and the welcome knowledge that I’ve got a boss that’s supportive, understanding, and has my back, despite all the crap the organization throws at us – that sort of thing counts for a lot.

The actual weekend was otherwise uneventful, beyond a couple of trips to the store for basic essentials (Friday being payday and the cupboard being bare), and a trip with the boy over to the local cineplex to take in a screening of Iron Man Three, which was, as they say, a lot of fun, and a decent ride. I didn’t mind the Mandarin “twist”, because for me, a comics guy of the old school, the Mandarin is a Fu Manchu simulacrum with ten magic rings he stole from a crashed alien spaceship, and who occasionally hangs out with a giant space dragon wearing purple underpants – I knew going in I wasn’t going to get that, so my expectations were dampened. The Extremis storyline wasn’t one of my favorites from the comics, but at least it was a story that didn’t boil down to two guys in powered armor wailing on each other, which is where most Iron Man stories eventually end up. The new director, Shane Black, brought a lot of himself and his particular buddy action comedy sensibility to this one, though for my money, his best work is the excellent and underrated Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (also starring Robert Downey Jr.), a film you should seek out right now if you haven’t yet had the pleasure.

The other movie I saw this weekend was A Talking Cat?!?, which has become something of a low budget underground classic, largely because it’s so unintentionally hilariously awful. It’s about 10 minutes of pedestrian family fare plot within a 90 minute movie with laughable special talking cat effects, starring a couple of former porn “actresses”, the grown-up child star of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the (perhaps literally) phoned-in voice of Eric Roberts as the cat, and looks like it was shot on the set of a porn film, because it was. However, the pre-schooler seems to love it, and has been turning it on the Netflix box whenever somebody turns away long enough.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and having spent the last couple of days telling the spouse she wasn’t allowed to open that box UPS delivered on Thursday until the weekend (and watching her squirm a bit, which is always fun), we presented her with her big box of Doctor Who stuff from Thinkgeek, which is exactly the kind of thing my wife wants for Mother’s Day, which is, frankly, one of the many reasons I married her (beyond, of course, the biggest reason, which is that she consented to actually do so). After the usual morning rituals, we had lunch with some friends, and then spent a quiet afternoon at home, with Colleen playing video games, and me reading some comic trade paperbacks and drinking some good beer from Center of the Universe Brewery.

All things considered, I’ll take it.