*a/k/a "All about my weekend" (Isn't "Highlights and lowlifes" such a great title? I've seen it used on many blogs before but I'm not going to let that stop me from stealing it for myself.)

• The Chicken went to a friend's bowling alley birthday party on Saturday. (I love the way that sounds… bowling alley birthday party. If I had a use for it, I'd register bowlingalley-birthdayparty.com. Maybe that's what I'll name my hypothetical band instead.) Chicken had a great time with it. When his first roll didn't prove as easy as he hoped, his first impulse was to give up. But he stuck with it, partially due to the fact that the other kids were having fun and partially due to the fact that Bunny and I were just about throwing him into the game, and he ended up really enjoying himself. He bowled three games and had one strike and one spare to show for it.

• Car accident Saturday night. Awesome! Some dumbass ran into us while we were pulling into the driveway. I knew this was going to happen eventually. We live on a busy street and people are always riding our bumper, and sometimes honking and cursing at us, as we slow to pull into the driveway.

• I take great satisfaction in the knowledge that the twit who smacked into us will not only be buying us a new bumper, but ended up with (probably) several citations. I have no idea what the cops did, but they could have issued tickets for anything from driving without a seatbelt to driving without a valid license. When I overheard the cop say "We've got a problem here, Ashley… your license expired last year," I had to really fight the urge to roll out a good Nelson-style "Ha ha!"

• Clerks II blows. That movie was so bad. It had some entertaining moments, but it's easily the dimmest star in Kevin Smith's constellation. However… the "Goodbye, Horses" sequence cracked me up. That part all by itself made the rental worthwhile. I'm so glad they went all the way with it and included "the tuck."

• My dad called yesterday. His mother died last Friday. I don't regret not visiting her one final time. I didn't ask him about any funeral services.