“Super 8”, new to DVD this week was our after dinner fare last night. While other families proceeded to gird their loins, step out into the November night and shop ‘till they drop, our family huddled around the flickering screen of our not so big and certainly not flat screened TV. Faced with the choice of facing Black Friday’s sale crazed shoppers, tripped out on tryptophan or space alien monsters, we choose the latter and are happy for our choice.

The title comes from the Kodak Super 8 film that the kids are using to make a monster movie. The protagonist is a boy who has just lost his mother in a factory accident. His grief-stricken father offers to send him away to baseball camp for the summer. Naturally, Rey thought the kid should have gone to baseball camp, but then there would have been no movie to watch, or maybe just a different one. Instead of “The Natural”, how about “The Extraterrestrial”?

With executive producer Steven Spielberg, and directed by Spielberg protégé, J.J. Abrams, a comparison to “E.T.” and/or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is inevitable. While, “Super 8” is not quite as good as either of these two movies, not quite as good as “E.T.” is not too bad. Elle Fanning, in her debut role, is as good as all the buzz around her claims. Be sure to watch the credits at the end of the movie, there is a great Easter egg there.

Friday morning, Anne, Rey and David played Bananagrams, while I bicycled in the park. I got 15 miles. Anne got the chance to play a word game that she dearly loves. I call this a win-win situation. We took the boys out to lunch at Pi and then we took Dan to the airport. Joanie happened to accompany us on this trip. She also tagged along when first we visited the [World Champion] Cardinal’s gift shop at Busch Stadium and then bought tickets to the Blues game at the Scott Trade Center. I muffed it on the tickets. I could have bought four tickets earlier in the day, but by the time we made it to the box office all they had was standing room only. We made a quick side trip to the Union Station food court, which has really gone downhill, then back to Scott Trade for the game.

The Blues played the Calgary Flames, so we got two national anthems for the price of one. We all stood through the first period, which wasn’t bad. What was bad was our view of the game. We really couldn’t see the goal just below us. Fortunately, all the first period’s action was at the far end. By the end of the period, the Blues were up 1-0. Joanie found a seat after the first period and later in the second period; Dave and I got seats too. Anne joined us next, but said that Rey didn’t want to leave Joanie alone. He is always the gentleman. I came back and told him that I would stay with Joanie. He went off to join Anne and Dave, but came back almost immediately. Someone else had grabbed the free seats. By the third period there were plenty of open seats, but Rey stood his ground. I sat in the row in front of Joanie. The Blues scored another goal and then the game was over. Returning home, we dropped Joanie off first. Dave and Rey left for a party and I wrote this post. It is now time for bed. I’ve gotten better at photographing the low light action of a hockey game, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Better seats would help too.