Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

What Not to Eat before Sex and the City

My friend leaned over, "Did you see it? They showed his PENIS!"

"Mmmhmm," I replied vaguely, neither confirming nor denying any sighting.

A few minutes later, she tried again, "Those ladies are starting to show their age!"

"Right, " I muttered in agreement.

I had wanted to say more. I had wanted to elaborate and discuss, discuss! Surrounded by a group of moms from my Silicon Valley multiples club for a moms' night out at the movies, I kept mute. The film? "Sex and the City" - but of course! We'd gathered at trendy El Jardin Tequila Bar and Restaurant, sipping wine and dipping into appetizers beneath a canopy of beautiful oak trees. As we later made the move from restaurant to theater and began settling into our seats, I noticed a cloud following me.

Ratatouille, Glitter Glue and the Booming Thing

A few Saturdays ago, I bought the G-rated Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille. I was in the checkout line at Target, next to the display of popular DVDs when I spied it. "Ratatouille" said the cover, a tiny Eiffel Tower gleaming in the background. "Buy me!" screamed the merchandise. My thoughts turned to Paris and I snatched up the DVD, tossing my impulse buy into my shopping cart while cursing my lack of will power. So here's the deal: I don't get out much and the thought of indulging in a little armchair travel with my children was heavily appealing.

Yes, it's pathetic that my trip to Paris would be by way of a cartoon rat with a bad accent but I was desperate. Besides this was no ordinary sewer rat, this was Remy, a rat of considerable culinary talent and he was French, oooh la la! I had not researched this film on-line, but I had checked with friends and they'd all said it had gone over well with their preschool age children. When I got home, I slid the Ratatouille DVD into the player and waited for my 3-year-old twin boys to wake up from their naps.