After a long day on snow shoveling duty so Mr. Spy could watch the Bears stomp the Saints, I am exhausted and cold and am curled up under a down comforter watching Groundhog Day. [By the way, did you know that the Scooter, who plays Punxatawney Phil in the movie, has his own iMDB page? He�s listed as �Actor.�] I�ve always enjoyed this movie, but it�s particularly entertaining this evening because of the weather and also because of the fact that we spent yesterday wandering around the town in which it was filmed.

We took AJ out to see the Challenger Learning Center for Science and Technology, which is newly open to the public on Saturdays. The Challenger Center is, as I understand it, part of a national chain of centers that run educational programs about space and aeronautics, mostly for field trips. They also have space camps for older kids (or at least ours does). The museum was teeny. We watched the beginning of a film about space which, like all good films about space, was narrated by Leonard Nimoy. AJ and Mr. Spy spent most of the time we were there spinning around in their chairs, which were large office chairs set in front of long, curving tables � it was supposed to feel like Mission Control. AJ wasn�t in the mood for a movie, though. He wanted to run around and see things. First stop, a room full of meteorites, including some you could touch. We read about the meteors that rained down on a nearby town a few years ago and stared at the few exhibited, wondering what it would be like if it started raining rocks.

We stopped in the main entrance to admire the rocket-shaped garbage cans before proceeding into the main exhibit hall where AJ played a giant, room-sized board game that required him to run around and read exhibits elsewhere in the room to gain points. It was the perfect game for him, as it involved space facts and running.

After we�d exhausted the museum�s exhibits, we headed to downtown Woodstock to find some food � we were all starving. We stumbled into a creperie (which can be seen in the opening sequence of the film, although it�s something else). We were greeted by intoxicating smells, piles of pastry on the front counter, three friendly waitresses and accordion music. The food was amazing, AJ was well behaved (as well he should have been, considering he got to eat a Nutella-filled crepe drizzles with dark chocolate and sprinkled with powdered sugar), I had champagne for no reason, and we all left feeling a sense of well-being. Afterwards we stopped to investigate a small bookstore in the building adjacent to the Opera House (the opera house is the building that Bill Murray jumps off of in the film). It was a lovely, cosy, independent bookstore, the kind you don�t see much anymore. We looked at a lot, but bought nothing. But we did pick up a schedule for Woodstock�s Groundhog Days, that included a map of all the local filming sites (there is apparently a plaque where Bill Murray�s character steps into the puddle, although we didn�t look for it). The official prognostication will take place at 7:07 on February 2nd. If we can get up before dawn, AJ and I might head back to check it out. I wonder if they�ll play �The Pennsylvania Polka?�

[Second entry today. Click back for a follow-up to yesterday's discussion of long form rock music]

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