One of my not-so-secret delights is cheesy action/sci-fi/based on comic books movies. They’re just a good time and allow me to escape into a little world of fantasy for a few hours.

Tonight, I saw “X-Men: The Last Stand” with Theresa. She’d seen it already, but liked it enough to see it again. I also liked it. There were some moments where my jaw dropped at the sheer stupidity of the plot “solution” or deus ex machina, but I always try to remember what movie I am seeing. I was disappointed that some of my favorite mutants were killed off/cured early in the film, while other mutants who I consider a complete waste of screen-time and flesh were allowed to torture us with their insipidness for the entire film.

All in all, though, a good time was had by all.

On the drive home from the theatre, we were trying to come up with some crap mutant powers. We were making fun of Storm and her powers (”Oooooh! Her eyes are turning white… wonder what she’s going to do NOW… maybe throw snowballs at us???”) and decided that you could have far worse powers. For example, the power to turn everything to yeast or to give everyone a yeast infection (mutant name: Candida) or the power to accelerate the growth of body hair (mutant name: Follicula).

If we’re going to follow in the footsteps of Pyro and Iceman with the generation of “the elements” or forms thereof (water = ice, fire), there’s earth, wind, fire, water and wood. Fire and water are sort of covered. For earth - the power to spontaneously generate and throw dirt at people? For wind - this could be handier, but probably harder to control… and Storm’s got it incorporated into her powers. Then wood - the power to grow trees? Power to control anything wooden? It would be a great hippie power since you could grow a completely renewable forest and then build houses for everyone with a minimum of physical effort.

Still - in terms of world domination or salvation, those are some crap powers.

My mother has a fever and aches. She went to the doctor and they took some blood tests - results back Friday. She called the doctor around 7:00 (after hours) to let her know that her fever went up to 102. The answering service said they’d page the doctor. Now she tells me that the doctor called her back and said if she continues to feel crappier, to admit herself to the hospital since it could be meningitis. That’s a scary thing to tell someone who’s already a mild hypochondriac, but I won’t take my sleeping pills tonight just in case I am roused from slumber at 3 in the morning and asked to drive her to the ER.

And I have to turn on the AC - if for no other reason than air cleansing. It’s hot and stuffy up here… 86 degrees and horribly “close.”