We see the Simpsons, Maggie speaks, and I have my Homer moment

I often try and slip out of "family movies." Partly, because on a lot of them, I end up sleeping through the latter part of the movie. The Harry Potter movies are that way for me. I just cannot stay awake through them. Don't get me wrong, my family loves Harry Potter, the books, the movies, the whole shtick that goes with it. And one of the things I love most about Harry Potter is watching my wife read to my daughter in the evening. She has been reading Harry Potter to my children since my son was in kindergarten and my daughter was in preschool. But I still can't stay awake through the movies.

So, the Simpsons was a pleasant surprise. It was a genuinely feel good movie (feel good in the Simpsons universe generally means that Homer screws up and then gets to fix it). In any event, I wasn't the only one to laugh too loud and too hard during this movie. There was another dad across the theatre. I think we took turns disturbing the audience with loud guffaws.

Just a head's up, when the movie concludes, stay through the credits for that proverbial last scene. As for my Homer moment, I got up early the next morning to make stew. I chopped and seared and put it all together in the crock pot. On finishing, I felt pretty happy. The dish looked great and I looked forward to a great after church lunch. I then went back to bed. I had gotten up at 4:45 a.m. to put this meal together.

As I lay in bed, I kind of dreamed of that dish slowly heating up in the crock pot. Sadly none of that happened exactly as I planned. Apparently, something was wrong with the crock pot, so it never got hot.

Luckily, my wife stepped in to save the day. She plugged it in.