Methinks I need some Minions

Last night was the first night of my annual "Week-of-no-redheads" observance - that time of year when Jason and Little AM get a "vacation" and I do not, because I am so "vital" to the "operations" at my "job" that no one can fill in for me for a week.

In honor of WONR, Amanda (pictured above) and I typically try to have a girls' night out. One year, it was Vietnamese food and Napoleon Dynamite. Another, it was Vietnamese food (from a different place) and Batman Begins. This year, it was Pei Wei (are you sensing an Asian-centric vibe to our food choices?) and Despicable Me.

Since she works at the most-awesome Muddy's Bake Shop, which is across the street from the equally-awesome Paradiso Theater, someone came by last week and offered free passes to a sneak peak of the movie.

(Yeah. Anna Marie still doesn't know I went to see it without her!)

She is off this week because Muddy's closed for a "break," and the two of us painted the town yellow. Or as yellow as you can paint it on a budget and a weeknight.

(We lived dangerously, though - snuck in snacks in my purse! Power to the people!)

Thankfully, the theater showed it on a HUGE screen in a HUGE room, so there was plenty good room for all the freeloaders.

I didn't know much about this movie before last night, which I guess was a good thing. I watched a trailer this morning, and many of the jokes were included there (but were surprises to me.) But don't worry - this isn't one of those movies where all the best jokes are in the trailer!

Gru is a villain (voiced by Steve Carell) who needs to step up his bad-guy game due to competition from up-and-coming baddies. He adopts three girls from a local orphanage to help in one of his schemes, but does not expect to be won over by their love.

It was a really, really sweet movie. And funny. Did I mention funny? Laugh-out-loud funny. Not just 10-year-old toilet humor, either. I felt it was a really family-friendly-flick.

As it was a promotional event, meant to build buzz, they did have folks stationed at the exits writing down comments. We, however, were not approached personally.

We were blessed to see it in 3D, and my Android phone had a Best Buy movie app that kicked in magically as the credits rolled, translating the Minions' language. Amanda and I thought it really added to the film, and I figure other smart phones have the app as well.

I'm planning on sending Anna Marie and my mom to see this when she gets back, and downloading the app onto my mom's Hero so they can join in too.

Disclaimer: I got a free ticket to this movie, but they didn't ask me to do anything promotional in return. I'm just doing this in the name of good, family-friendly fun.

And on the {14th} day, {some of them} rested.

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Two weeks straight of running at full steam does not a happy Melz make.

Most folks get to take it easy in the summer (especially you teacher types out there - don't even get me started on summer vacation!) but not me. Not newspaper reporters, who instead see weeks filled with special editions, and weekends filled with special events needing covered, and contentious school board meetings as they decide how much to tax us THIS year.

Last week - well, I spent the first three days getting together our annual "Progress" edition (something I'd never heard of before I moved here, but apparently they're kind of a BIG DEAL, in Mississippi at least.) Strangely, though, there hasn't been much more "progress" around here than there has been anywhere else in the country. One year we had about a dozen subdivisions going up; the next, the bottom fell out of the housing market, and we've spent the past two years spotlighting the "progress" of local businesses staying around.

(Well, we have had a couple of large companies locate here in that time, but one was tied to the Toyota plant and so has been treading water for two years, and the other won't start production until first quarter next year.)

Then, I spent that Thursday doing all three of my pages, so I could be gone to our press association convention. Now, don't get me wrong - I was thankful for the opportunity to go, especially since it was only half an hour away in Tunica and not all the way down on the coast, but still - I near about pulled my hair out that week trying to get ready. Because it doesn't matter if I'm off work for a day or two - I have to get my work done before I leave!

(I was really, really happy to be there when we brought home second place in the General Excellence category, and so was my boss, who in all of his years in the business and all the papers he has owned, has NEVER placed in that competition. It's been kind of a big deal around our office this week.)

This week I thought it would be a little quieter, but we've had a couple of those contentious school board meetings, plus some other extra work thrown in there, and trying to get finished early today for an early press time - all of it landed me with a throbbing headache.

Four days with Anna Marie at camp, and I still didn't get any rest.

So, I hope you can appreciate the AHHH of relief I am letting out right now - Anna Marie spent the day here at home (with my mom in the morning and me in the afternoon) recovering from returning from camp yesterday. She is on the computer, again, making up for four days without electronics. Jason has been at the church three days this week (and only three because he had to work his "real job" the other two) helping install a new computer system for the children's department, and is still there now; and I'm on my bed, surrounded by stacks of clean, folded towels, watching the Clean House Messiest Home in the Country special on the DVR.

My house is still (relatively) clean because we've been gone so much - my child is home for a few days before she and her dad leave again for South Carolina - my headache is (mostly) gone - and I'm propped up in bed, writing for pleasure (not business), and ready to enjoy my three-day weekend.

Say it with me now: AHHHH.