Wife and eldest son stopped by not quite an hour before showtime, and asked Chuck if his first show was sold out.

"No, but folks were lined up already. You'd best get here soon."

So, they hustled home in the new red vehicle and, as soon as we got the heelers herded back into the house, we were headed back into town. Finding a parking lot not quite full, and a line running out onto the sidewalk and trailing onto the asphalt.

Naturally, we knew a few folks in line, so the wait wasn't too boring. And the line kept getting longer behind us.

Made it in just fine, though. Chuck, obviously, was happy to see the expected crowd, but didn't seem his usual exuberant self. I figured the stress of such a busy Friday night, and the rush to get the new seats in by this opening show.

I was wrong.

The seats were nice, but the wife noticed it first, almost as soon as we sat down and tried to share a bag of popcorn.

They're narrower. Noticeably.

I counted the row in front of us. (I managed to grab seats 5,6,7 in row 4 whilst the wife and eldest son bought snacks). Fifteen seats (later counted 16 in the back rows). Used to be 14. Chuck had managed to sneak in a 7 percent increase in seating space, and revenue, when he replaced the seats.

'Course the wife pointed out all the extra legroom. People can walk past you without stomping on your toes now. And the extra foot room could only come from a loss of a row or two of seats. So the extra seats in each row just make up the difference for the extra footroom.

Okay. Fair trade.

Regarding the movie ads ("Trailers" they call them. Ha.)... King Kong looks to be really promising. Certainly better, effects, script and casting-wise than the Jeff Bridges version. And for those of you looking for a "Lord of the Rings" fix this holiday season, it looks like the Chronicles of Narnia will fill that bill quite nicely.

Wife says we're going to both.

Me, I just want to see Aeon flux. Charlize looks great as a brunette.

The first two rows appeared to be 100 percent kids. A few young adults mixed in the middle of row three. We were the front-most real adults in the theater.

Sometime during the "trailers", the house lights came on, and Chuck made an announcement from the back of the theater. Advising "you might as well move in and not save any seats besides yourselves. We're going to fill them all."

The young man immediately in front of us stood, turned around and shouted... "Chuck! I've got one seat right here, if you've got a cute single gal, 18 to 21 years old..."

The wife pointed out Tim was there. You ever have that guy in high school, the one who was good at everything, sports, thespians, choir, academics? The guy everybody hates, but pretends to like?

Well, that's not Tim. Yes, Tim was good at all those things, but everybody does like Tim. Probably the most amiable guy in town, next to Chuck. He was standing in the front of the theater, in awe of the crowd. "I haven't seen it like this since..."

"Star Wars!" was the response from several corners of the room.

Tim ended up taking the seat meant for a cute, single gal 18-21 years old, with his friend taking the adjoining seat, with a little boy on his lap. Just from the few comments and questions I heard in front of me, I'd say much of this movie was too intense for a youngster like that.

So, the movie...

Wonderful film. We'll be going back soon. Great special effects, as with HP3. Although, it's a little sad when the effect of flying on a broom gets to be mundane.

Especially happy that they spend essentially no time at all giving you background on this story. We presume you already know everything there is to know about this magical world, and Hogwort's, and just jump right in like this is the natural world.

There were a couple obvious scenes on teenager angst. Scenes where you can see what is coming and you ask yourself "They're not going to make us sit through that, are they?" Well, yes, they are. But, mercifully, they kept it short.

I was moved to tears in a couple places. Probably not places most folks would be, but they were touching to me.

The dragons were great, as well. I just wish we could have seen the adult versions of the other three.

As we left the register coming in, Chuck said "I'll see if I can't keep the lights off during the credits. Just for you." And he did (or at least until the one girl forgot her purse and came looking for it near the end).

For those of you who stay and actually read the credits, pay attention. There's a tiny little tidbit in there just for us.

Since we were the only ones to stay for the credits, we ended up with our usual visit with Chuck in the lobby afterwards. He tried to swipe one of our miniature mints, until he got the box and found the remainder were all melted together in one lump.

He also is looking forward to King Kong. There was one other he recommended, but I already forgot. Perhaps the one on Johnny Cash?

And we found out why he was a little subdued. His father-in-law died Wednesday night. And here he is, two nights later, working. Because if he doesn't do it, it doesn't get done.

After the attempt to swipe one of our chocolates I asked...

You got an email?

"Yeah, but I'm not gonna give it to you, I'll end up full of junk mail!"

The wife tried to calm him... "He's probably just going to send you a picture of your roof." Only when she felt my glaring stare did she realize that's exactly the surprise I had in mind.

Thanks a lot, wife.

But I got his email. And will be sending him a larger version of this, from one of our elk flights.