This weekend is a special weekend for me. On Saturday, I will celebrate 11 years of marriage with my brilliant, amazing, strong and determined wife, Elyse. And on Sunday, we will celebrate Elyse’s birthday, and Father’s Day.

This weekend, in many ways, is a celebration of my life. The beauty of this weekend is I can share it with those I love most. And while the commercial world says I need to go out and buy something made of steel for our anniversary, and buy some trinket or some other gift for Elyse’s birthday. The expectation for Elyse is to give me some gift on behalf of our 2 children. The truth is, this weekend is a celebration of the gifts we have already received.

What do the following 6 movies have in common?

Group 1

• Kick-Ass 2
• Man of Steel
• Sharknado
• We’re the Millers
• The Wolverine
• World War Z

What do the following 6 movies have in common?

Group 2

• 21 Jump Street
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2
• The Avengers
• Rush
• Star Trek Into the Darkness
• This is the End

Both groups have been judged using a system called The Bechdel Test. For those of you unfamiliar with this system, the premise is simple:

Being between jobs, I spend a lot of time trying to keep myself busy during the day. I tend to do a lot of chores and small projects that have gone neglected. Over the last 2 months, the small projects have led several afternoon shopping runs. During my shopping runs, I tend to swing through the toy section and see about something small for the kids.

When I was a kid, Barbie dominated the toy section. In a normal department store, Barbie controlled about an aisle and half. And in a toy store, whether it was Toys R Us, Circus World, Child’s World, or Kay-Bee, Barbie owned the girls’ section.