Message 815

Julian is in New York this week so Vanessa is having to manage on her own. Yesterday I took Beech and Annie to the Redwood City McDonalds with a play area from about 12:45 PM to 2:45 PM. I had the one-third-lb Angus bacon-cheese burger and the kids had Happy Meals. I ate all of mine, but they barely touched theirs. Last night Mimi and I watched the French movie Home. It was a very strange movie about a family that has lived for ten years next to a freeway that is under construction but has not been finished. Suddenly, construction crews show up and finish the work. The freeway becomes heavily travelled and noisy and dangerous to live by. The family tries to stick it out, but become progressively more dysfunctional, and ultimately insane. It is something of an allegory about how people, and animals too, have to adjust to a loss of habitat brought on by change and technology. It is interesting, but I give it only three stars.

Message 814

Yesterday I read a good bit of The Economist. In the evening Mimi and I went to a dinner party at Mary and Eddie Solomon's house. There were ten people in all, including their daughter Justine (who is pregnant) and her husband. Also Dennis and Therese Rohan were there. Mary had cooked lamb, which was very good. Eddie seemed to be doing better with his Parkinson's than the last time I saw him.

Message 813

Yesterday we had breakfast at El Cerrito. Helen and Jim had to take friends to the airport. During the day I worked on getting my computer home-network working the way I want. Eventually Jason guided me by telephone and I managed to get it done. Now my old computer in the guest room is running the SETI program again.

The weather was so cool yesterday that Mimi and I went in the hot tub before dinner. In the evening I watched the pre-season game between the 49ers and Raiders. Both teams look like they should have better records this year. Mimi was not feeling well so she turned in early.

Message 812

Last night Mimi and I went to dinner and a movie with the Morrills and the Ariagnos. The movie was Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts. I had a good cast, but I thought it was terrible. Marci chose it because she had read the book. I was strictly a chick flick. I give it 2 stars.

Message 811

Last night Mimi and I watched the San Francisco Opera production of Madama Butterfly. It was very good except for the lead singer who was too old, too fat, and not Asian. It was fun to watch it again, but I like the version I have better.

Message 810

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies. Reggie and I were the only ones there this morning. Mimi had another dentist appointment, Henry presumably back in town, but he did not show up. Likewise, Vanessa did not make it. She has both Beech and Annie to take care of. Next week Beech starts school, and the week after that Annie's school starts up again from their summer break. The weather has cooled off again, so I have put in a load of laundry.

Message 809

Yesterday I went with Vanessa and the kids to a beach near Half Moon Bay to get away from the heat. The kids had a good time and I managed to find a bathroom. At first it was predicted to be cool today, but instead it is hot again. Las night Mimi and I watched three more episodes of Nurse Jackie.

Message 808

Yesterday was hot in the Bay Area. It was 95 degrees in Menlo Park. Today is going to be even hotter, but it will cool down by Wednesday. We have been lucky that we have hardly had any hot days this summer. I love it cool. Last night Mimi and I watched three more episodes of Nurse Jackie.

Message 807

Yesterday I watched two pre-season NFL games. I watched Oakland beat Chicago, and then in the evening I watched San Francisco beat the Vikings. It is rare to see both local teams win. I finished reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, the book Ethan gave me. Mimi and I ate dinner in Palo Alto at a nice Vietnamese place called Tamarine on University Avenue.

Message 806

I had a quiet day at home yesterday. I finished The Economist and read quite a bit more of the book Ethan gave me. In the evening Mimi and I watched a couple of more episodes of Nurse Jackie.

Message 805

I just got back from having breakfast at El Cerrito with Mimi. Helen and Jim could not make it to Starbucks this morning. Last night we watched a DVD from Netflix. We watched the first two episodes of Nurse Jackie. It is a comedy with dark overtones about an emergency room nurse starring Edie Falco. It was quite good, so far. If it were a movie, I would give it four stars.

Message 804

I had a quiet day at home yesterday. In the evening Mimi and I watched The Sand Pebbles, an old Steve McQueen movie that I thought Mimi might enjoy because it is set in China. In fact, she did like it. I give it four stars.

Message 803

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Vanessa and Reggie. Mimi could not join us because she had a dentist appointment at 8 AM. Today was Vanessa's first time back since her surgery, so it was her turn to pick up the check. Next week, Henry will be back too from the East Coast, so we should all be back in our routine. Yesterday I finished reading Science, so I am back to what I think of as normal. It was sad to hear from Julie that her died last night after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Message 802

Yesterday I had a quiet day at home. I finished reading The Economist and started Science. ast night Mimi and I went into the hot tub, and afterward watched a DVD of the Chinese movie Temptress Moon again.

Message 802

Yesterday I had a quiet day at home. I finished reading The Economist and started Science. ast night Mimi and I went into the hot tub, and afterward watched a DVD of the Chinese movie Temptress Moon again.

Message 801

Yesterday I took Annie and Beech to Nealon Park to help Vanessa while she had a couple of doctor's appointments. She dropped the kids off in my parking lot about 12:45 PM. She had fixed lunches, but the kids were not interested in eating them. Beech rode his scooter around and around the sidewalk surrounding the park and Annie played with her Polly Pocket stuff. When the ice cream truck came by, the kids went wild and insisted that they had to buy something. What a loathsome racket these ice cream trucks run. Anyway the things they bought mostly melted and made messes until I threw them away. I dropped the kids off at Maureen's, as Vanessa had arranged, and got back home in time to watch The News Hour at 3 PM.

In the evening Mimi and I watched a DVD of the movie Fur. I was an imagined biopic with Nicole Kidman as a photographer I had never heard of. It was strange, but I give it three stars.

Message 800

Yesterday I watched the first half of the pre-season game between to 49ers and the Colts. The 49ers were ahead at halftime, and I later saw on the news that they won the game easily. Of course, pre-season games have limited meaning, but maybe our local team are on their way back to respectability. Vanessa had a swollen face, so she had to go in for an unexpected IV antibiotic treatment so I took Annie to the Redwood City McDonalds with a playground. Julian had taken Beech to a birthday party, and when that was over he brought Beech to join Annie at McDonalds while he went to check on Vanessa. She was OK, so he met me back at my condo and took the kids home. Vanessa was later able to drive herself home. The football game was long since over, so I took a nap for an hour or so.

It was Mimi's birthday, so when she got back from San Jose I took her to Carpachio's for dinner (next door to where Sally used to work).

Message 799

I enjoyed having Annie over yesterday for about two and a half hours. She required my undivided attention for the whole time. She basically plays house. She divides my living room up into areas and designates one parts as her bedroom, where she spreads out her blanket. Every now and then she will go lie down on it and suck her thumb for a few seconds, but she does not want to nap. Another part she calls her dining room and she takes a couple of my placemats and places bowls on them. She clears all the bowls and the candle holder from a table by the window and arranges them on the placemats. She helped me finish off the purple grapes and then started in on the green grapes. She played with my Kindle for a while. She called it her computer. She pushed various buttons, and occasionally pointed out one for me to push. I eventually had to hide it when she was not looking . I was afraid she was going to scratch the screen. When Vanessa came in to pick her up, she thought the place was a disaster, but it was really quite organized. Vanessa insisted on tidying up some, but after they left I had everything back to its original condition.

Message 798

Mimi and I just got back from having coffee at Starbucks with Helen and Jim. Last night we watched a DVD of the movie LA Confidential. Russell Crowe looks so young, it is amazing that it came out only ten years ago. I give it four stars. Vanessa is bringing Annie by for me to watch in a few minutes. Maybe I will take her to the park.

Message 797

I just got back from having coffee at Starbucks with Vanessa and Beech. Vanessa had to take Beech for a speech evaluation at the hospital, so I walked back from Starbucks. Because it is downhill on the way back it is not so hard. I have now read about half of the book that Ethan gave me.

Message 796

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies. It was just Reggie and me. Mimi could not come because she had to be at the nursing home early to meet with her mother's doctor. Vanessa is still recovering from her surgery. She can drive now, but because of that she has to forego her pain meds. Maybe next week she can join us.

Yesterday I ordered a book for my Kindle. I tried to order Abraham Lincoln by Ben Thomas. I have been trying to find this for years in used book stores, but with no luck. Unfortunately, Amazon did not have it either. It has been out of print for over fifty years, so it should be available for them. To test my Kindle, I ordered a Wilbur Smith book. I have probably already read it, but I have forgotten it.

Message 795

Yesterday I read some more of the book Ethan gave me. I also read the instructions for the Kindle. I need to decide on a book to order. Mimi and I finished watching Disk 1 of Bliss. I have watched all of True Blood Season 2 except for a couple of commentaries on the last episode.

Message 794

It was such a pleasant cool morning with thick fog that Mimi and I decided to walk up to Starbuck's for a coffee. It is a good thing I took my hat because by the time we walked back the sun was shining. Last night we watched a few more episodes of the series Bliss. It is OK, but I only give it three stars.

Message 793

Yesterday I finished reading The Economist and read some more of the book Ethan gave me. In the evening Mimi and I watched the first couple of episodes of a new series from Netflix called Bliss.

Message 792

Yesterday I finished watching Disk 4 of True Blood Season 2. In the evening Mimi and I went out to dinner with Larry and Judi and Ron and Marci. Afterward we went back to Ron and Marci's house and watched a DVD of the Japanese movie Depatures. It was the third time I have seen it and Mimi's second time, but it is such a good movie that we all enjoyed it very much. Because it was Marci's 65th birthday, Judi brought a cake from Prolific Oven to celebrate after the movie.

Message 791

I just got back from having coffee at Starbucks with Helen and Jim and Joan and Dave. Mimi could not join us because she had an early appointment with her back doctor in San Jose. Yesterday I started reading The Economist that came in the Friday mail. I also watched two more episodes of True Blood.

Message 790

Yesterday I finished reading both The Economist and Science from last week. I am now ready to start on the new ones that I expect will arrive in the mail today. I even started on the book that Ethan gave me while we were in Tahoe. We have been having nice cool nights with early morning fog for the last several weeks. I love it and think of it as perfect weather, even though it is cooler than usual. I prefer cool to hot.

Message 789

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Mimi and Reggie. Vanessa is still not recovered enough from her surgery to join uns. I hope she will be able to start up again next week. Yesterday I picked Annie up at home and took her to her pre-school at noon. I then drove Vanessa to her hair appointment to have her hair dyed. She still is not able to drive because of the pain pills she is taking. Maureen picked her up from her hair appointment, and a college-girl neighbor picked up Beech and Annie and brought them home. I now have the washing machine going with more laundry. Yesterday I finished reading The Economist from two weeks ago, so today I can start on the one from last week. I will try to get it finished before the new one comes tomorrow.

Message 787

This morning Chris and Linda left about 7:30 AM to pick up Charlie and Kat at her aunt's house and drive to the airport. We had a nice visit and ate at a different restaurant every night. Yesterday it was the Japanese restaurant Gombei. Last night we all watched the three-hour finale of The Bachelorette on ABC to keep Linda company because she is a great fan. I had never heard of the show and will avoid watching any more like it. Today I am running the dishwasher and the washing machine.

Message 786

Yesterday Chris and Linda came with me to watch Annie in Nealon Park while Julian to Beech with him to do the grocery shopping. Chris and Linda and Mimi and I went to Celia's, where the old Fontanna's used to be, for a Mexican-food dinner. Julian was supposed to bring Annie to my place on the way to the hospital fro Beech's surgery (to put new tubes in his ears) this morning, but at about 6:40 AM, while I was getting dressed to go down to the parking lot to get her while he was on his way to the hospitel, he called and said Vanessa felt well enough to watch her, so the let her sleep and I went back to beb.

Message 788

Yesterday after Chris and Linda left I washed and changed their sheets and pillow cases, and got the guest room ready for whoever comes to visit next. I have tabulated all of the people who joined us at the Tahoe reunion. It is shown below:

RPB family : 19 total, including 6 for Jason, 5 for Liz (with Vlad but not Nicole), 3 for Ethan, 3 for Julian, 2 for Jose & me
Cleavers : 14 total, including 5 for Jeanne, 3 for Marty, 2 for Rob & Carson, and 2 for Bill & Lisa and 2 for A & Joe
Davidsons : 14 total, including 5 for Carrie, 4 for Jamie, 3 for Jessie, and 2 for Ginny & Jim
Dahlgrens : 8 total, including 4 for Sarah Jane and 3 for Kirsten, and 1 for Mary
Chris : 4 total, including 2 for Chris and Linda, and 2 for Charlie and Kat
Umbachs : 2 total, for Linda and Walt
Mullens : 2 total for Marilyn and Jay

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Overall : 63 people

Message 785

Yesterday I drove back from our great reunion at Tahoe and dropped Kirsten and her two girls off at the Sacramento airport. I finally got home about 1 PM. I went to PAMF and got the materials to start making my antibiotic solution myself. They do not want to mix it themselves anymore, but they are willing to sell me the supplies to make it myself. In the afternoon I did laundry and grocery shopping. Chris and Linda arrived about 4 PM and Mimi returned from San Jose about 6 PM. We all went to dinner at Sultana and Chris picked up the bill. We all had the salmon except Linda who had the lamb. They were all very good. In the evening we watched a DVD of the French movie Horseman on the Roof. Chris can't see well enough to read subtitles, so he slept through some of it.