AJ got dressed early this morning. He wanted to find out where his pajamas were made, so he took them off. "C-A-M-B-O-D-I-A," he spelled the unfamiliar word from the label in the back of his shorts. "Cambodia. I think your uncle�s there right now." We found it on the globe as he stood by in his Batman underpants. Afterwards, he ran to his room to put on some clothes and came back with an ensemble that looked both improbable and hip: a pair of red, white, blue and yellow madras shorts and a shirt with wide Kelly green and white stripes and a large number 8 where an alligator might be.

We opened the curtains to a thick soup of a fog. We may go to the pool when it opens at ten -- there are only two more Saturdays after this one before it closes for the year. Then again, we may not. Next Saturday at this time we will be getting ready to go to AJ's school orientation, but this morning we're looking at a possibility of a weekend unplanned. Ice skating, maybe, this afternoon. I may decamp with my husband's girl cousins tonight for a gender stereotyped dinner and shopping. But a day without plans has its own inertia. We could just as easily spend the day wandering around the house, bumping into each other every now and again and drifting off again into corners with toys or books or our own thoughts.

Last night, other plans thwarted by weather and babysitters where none were expected, AJ and I drove to the next town to our favorite coffee shop, the one that roasts its own beans and has a well-thumbed book of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons on the coffee table next to the day's newspaper. One chocolate milk and latte ordered, we settled in with our chosen reading material until AJ had had enough. Then we went to the movies. We got there early and had plenty of time to survey the wide variety of gun-related video games, buy our popcorn and root beer, and stare at the crowd of heavily made-up Goth teens in line for "Snakes on a Plane." We opted for "The Barnyard," a film with some amusing moments and perplexing animation choices, like the fact that all the male cows (male cows?) had udders. Apparently transexuals are running amok on the farm. Somewhere a dairy farmer is having a seizure.

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