Bowling is always one of the favorite outings when we have the boys. Jay has been sick for the last two weeks with allergies and something undiagnosable but which sounds awful almost like pneumonia when he coughs. He's taking medication and breathing treatments so his parents okayed his spending the day with grandparents doing 'indoor activities.' The pine pollen is bad right now. So while the weather is gorgeous outside, most of the city is covered with layers of the annual spring yellow dust profusely falling from the Piney Woods part of our landscape.

When we first arrived Jay excitedly asked where we were going. I said that well, I had three outdoor ideas and three indoor ones. He guessed that the three outdoor ones were probably the rodeo/midway, Mountasia, and the zoo/park/picnic. He figured the three indoor ones would be bowling, a movie, or our house to put up the new basketball hoop/play board games and hang out with Lexy. Right on all counts! He laughed and announced, "Grammy, I know you better than anybody!" After talking to his parents about how sick he's been, we all decided to go bowling, out to eat and then to the movie to see "Diary of A Wimpy Kid." The boys tied the first bowling set while Jay won the last two games getting a strike and a spare to put him out in front of Jacob in the second game right at the end. They are such good sports and encourage each other all along. I have never seen one of them be a poor sport when his brother wins. I remember when they were little, every time Jay was punished by his parents for something, Jacob would begin to cry and toddle over and sit beside Jay in time-out. Now at 14 and 11 years, it is nice to see they are still as close.

Jacob made it clear that it was his turn to choose the restaurant and it was no surprise that he chose a pizza place...again. What did kids eat in this country before we had pizza? And we really misjudged the movie. We arrived at 6:45 for a 7 pm showing and found a packed theatre with only the close-up handicapped seats left. I now know that folks are welcome to sit in those handicapped seats as long as a handicapped person doesn't need to. Makes sense. I always just treated them as sacred space.

I also learned a lot about the young actor Zachary Gordon who plays wimpy kid Greg Heffley in the movie. This doesn't mean much since I knew nothing before the movie. I love that this kid loves to read, sing, dance (hip-hop) and play basketball and that he loves 60's music. And how fun is it that he began his first year of middle school right after completing this movie all about the terrors of middle school?