I wanted to see Brother Bear in the theater because I was all about stemming the rapid crash 'n' burn of Disney Feature Animation (especially the Florida division), but in the end I never got around to it (much like I never got around to seeing Home on the Range. Apparently I'm all about supporting a product unless I have to actually do something to help it). However, when Brother Bear came out on DVD I did make a special effort to go out and buy it. And then couldn't be bothered to watch it.

Easter rolled around and middle sis came to spend Easter Sunday with us. She lives in town, and we do not any longer, and she will not drive on highways (or anywhere, really; she literally went through three tanks of gas during the two years she attended grad school in Wisconsin). mr rampy was not about to drive to town to pick her up, drive back to our hood to hang out (we had just moved in then, and she hadn't really seen the house yet, and we wanted to show it to her), and then drive her back at the end of the day. I agreed that would be a bit much and asked my friend who lives near middle sis (and whose parents live near us) to carpool middle sis out here.

We had a pleasant visit�church-going and brunch and then sitting together in silence in the living room. This was only a month or so after middle sis had gotten her own apartment and stopped living with us, so there was still a little friction left to dissipate between her and mr rampy (he is very social and likes to yell things at the tv; she is not and spent most of her time with us closed up in her room so she wouldn't be bothered to make small talk; living together was not the best of things for them). We were pretty much talked out and ready for the visit to be over at this point. However, we had to wait for my friend to finish her Easter visit with her family and come pick middle sis up, and we had to kill time until that could happen.

Perfect timekiller = Brother Bear

About five minutes into the movie, the phone rang and it was my friend saying that she was planning to hang out with her family for several hours more. mr rampy and middle sis were backed halfway down the driveway before I had hung up the phone and switched off Brother Bear.

A couple of months later we were having our house-warming party. mr rampy and I scrubbed the house top to bottom, had all our furnishings painstakingly arranged and decked out with fresh flowers, and so on. We'd invited a mix of people (random neighbors, co-workers, friends), and before anyone arrived I was pacing around wondering what to do if it looked like people weren't having fun.

"It'll be okay," I assured myself in all seriousness. "I can always put on Brother Bear."

It's my new go-to guy for awkward social situations.