I used to watch far too many episodes of The Simpsons. In fact, I’d be willing to entertain arguments that watching any episodes of The Simpsons is too many, but I digress. Several years ago, after my son began to develop some awareness of what was playing on the television screen I decided that it was probably not an appropriate show for young eyes. And so we turned of The Simpsons and haven’t really watched it since. I don’t miss it in the least.

The other day, though, I began to think about a particular episode. In the middle of this episode a group of concerned citizens knocks on the front door of 742 Evergreen Terrace. Homer opens the door, and upon seeing that the people standing around his doorstep are from the church, groans and says, “This isn’t going to be about Jesus, is it?” It’s not all that funny, really, but it stuck with me. Actually, I think the reason that line has stuck with me is that the audio for that little segment is on a Christian album. Just to make things interesting, I will reach into my big ol’ box of books and send one to the first person to post the name of that band along with the album that includes that clip.

And now I’ll tell you why I thought of that clip. Last Friday night I thought it would be fun to rent a movie for the family to watch. As you well know, it is exceedingly difficult to find a film that the whole family can watch. I suspect we can all think of times when we have allowed our children (and our wives and ourselves) to watch films that we should have turned off. I brought the DVD home from the store and my son, who is nearly six, was immediately excited to see it. He kept asking me what it was. I decided to tease him and refuse to tell him what movie it was. I said, “I don’t think I’ll tell you what it is!” As soon as I said those words his face fell a little bit, he groaned softly and said, “It’s not about God, is it?”

It wasn’t about God. It was about Valiant, an animated pigeon. It was quite a good movie and I was able to watch it guilt-free. And now I am praying for my son’s soul with increased passion!

And speaking of Disney movies, you can watch a trailer for the new Pixar film, Cars here. Pixar is still the top of the heap when it comes to computer animation. And thankfully they tend to keep things cleaner than some other studios (was anyone else shocked by all the innuendo in Shrek?).

Anyways, because we are moving next month, we have streams of people coming through the house this weekend to see if they’d like to rent it once we have left. So there will be no movies tonight. This moving thing has turned out to have some benefits. Because we paid our landlord first and last month’s rent when we moved in five years ago we have no rent to pay in March. Our first mortgage payment is not due until May, so we’re rent/mortgage free for two months. I don’t know what we’ll do with this windfall!

And that’s it for me. I have some book reviews I hope to write and perhaps post over the weekend. Beyond that I am hoping for a peaceful, restful weekend. What more could a guy want?