So we made it back from the beach, intact. We had a good time, taking Drew out into the shallow water and letting him try to figure out what waves were all about. He's not completely sure about 'em, to be honest. All I know is I was very happy to see him and Elizabeth both after being on my own for four days.

Our nephew was there at the beach with us, and while Drew was inside napping under the supervision of Elizabeth's parents, we took our nephew out and taught him how to surf. Well, we taught him how to ride the waves with a boogie board, but more importantly, we showed him that it's okay to go out into the water. He was pretty scared of it, but we got him out there, and by the end of the weekend he was riding the waves and even diving into the water like a madman. Very cool.

One thing I didn't do much of was read. I'd brought printouts of my novel thus far, plus a printout of another story that might become a novella, and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, which I've tried to read a couple times but never finished. I even brought my paper journal, but never got up the gusto to write in it. I was too busy hanging with the kids, I guess, and just relaxing.

This morning I got up early and started tweaking my novel again, thanks to some excellent feedback from Shawn, Kathy, and Mom. Thanks, y'all! Great stuff there.

We watched "Constantine" last night, which I thought was much better than I could've expected. Maybe it was because the sound was so off that we had to use the sub-titles feature, but Keanu's wooden acting didn't bug me too much. And the guy who played the devil was quite cool.

Overall, the film was ten times better than I'd expected it to be (though I could've done without the Big-Ass Gun, even if it did shoot out bursts of Dragon Breath). And I'd read the comics, too -- once I got over the disappointment of Constantine being played by Ted "Theodore" Logan of Bill and Ted's fame, and the fact that the story was set in LA instead of London, I could handle it.

Now I want to read all the reviews in people's journals from way back when the film came out -- I'm about 6 months behind the times. We may go the entire year without seeing a movie in the movie theater. At current ticket prices, and with the quality of movies remaining pretty low, that's not such a bad thing... Later!