Message 653

Yesterday evening I watched the Shark's game against Nashville. The Sharks were totally outplayed for the first two periods and were lucky to be behind only 2-4 at the start of the third. Like they have done in the last four games they then got their act together in the third period and played like the champions they should be all the time. They scored six goals and won the game 8-5. Joe Pavelsky was especially entertaining with a spinorama goal that made it 6-5. It was his second goal of the period in addition to two assists.

Charlie Rose had two very interesting women that I had never heard of on his show last night. One was British and one was born here in Cupertino.

Before dawn today I decided that I can not continue without taking Flomax. Following my doctors suggestion to try giving it up for a month, I thought I was doing pretty well for about two weeks, but it has been getting harder to get by without it. I had a few leftover Hytrin pills from my days with Kaiser, so I took one of those, which fortunately worked like a charm, so I went back to bed and slept for four more hours. My new prescription for Flomax is supposed to be ready to pick up at 5 PM today.

Message 352

I just got back from breakfast at Heidi's Pies. I told them that next week we would need to put two tables together to seat nine because Liz and her family will be joining us. Last night I watched a DVD of the movie Bright Star. It is another biopic written and directed by Jane Campion. It is about the British poet John Keats and his unconsummated love affair with his girlfriend whom he was too poor to marry before he died at age 25 in about 1865. It was done well enough that I give it four stars.

Message 351

Yesterday I picked Beech up at school and took him to McDonald's for lunch. We then went to his house and I helped him with a couple of pages of his homework, after which I watched him play Mario Cars. When Vanessa got home with Annie, I went to Little House (the senior center at Nealon Park) and had my taxes done. It is good to get them out of the way, and I should get my refunds in a few weeks.

In the evening I watched a DVD of the movie An Angel at My Table. It is another movie directed by Jane Campion. It is a biopic based on the autobiography of Janet Frame, a famous New Zealand author and poet that I had never heard of. She was a brilliant writer, but because she was such a shy and insecure person she had a difficult and troubled life, but she hung in there and got a lot published. I have a lot of respect for the movie, but it was somewhat painful to watch, so I give it 3.5 stars.

Message 650

Yesterday I picked up a new bottle of antibiotics at PAMF and did two loads of laundry. In the late afternoon I watched a DVD of the movie The Merry Gentleman with Kelly Macdonald and Michael Keaton. It was a strange sort of crime/love story, but it was good enough that I give it 3.2 stars. In the evening I watched 24, so I am up to date on what Jack Bower is doing.

Message 649

Yesterday I read some more of The Economist. In the evening I went to San Mateo for the regular family dinner. Julian had fixed a pot of chili. It reminded me of Chris's favorite meal to cook. In the evening there was nothing except fundraisers on PBS. I suppose they figured most people would be watching the Oscars. I watched a DVD of the Japanese movie Departures, which won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 2008. I was not expecting much from it, so I was again amazed at how good it was and how strongly it affected me. It dealt with some of my favorite subjects like life, death, music, work, and love. The photography was beautiful, and the subtitles were easy to read and not distracting. One the best things was the cello music. The story is: a classical cello player loses his job when the orchestra goes broke because few people go to their concerts. He then leaves Tokyo with his wife and goes back to his home in the country that was left to him by his mother who died a few years before. He then finds meaning in his life in an unlikely line of work, the ritual preparation of bodies for cremation. I give it five stars.

Message 648

Yesterday I went to Justine Solomon's wedding in Los Altos, and then to the reception and dinner at the Lucy Stern Center in Palo Alto. There must have been a hundred or more people there, including all of the people who work with Justine at Cafe Barone. I sat at the table with Ron and Marci Ariagno and Dennis and Therese Rohan, plus three others. It was a very nice wedding and reception. Eddie's Parkinson's symptoms have continued to get worse, so he has a full-time care-taker with him all the time now, but he was able to manage a speech as father of the bride at the dinner. I got home in time to watch the third period of the Sharks game. They were behind Columbus 0-1, but Dany Heatly and Joe Pavelski both scored in the third period to finally win the game 2-1. I then read some more of The Economist, but I was a little tired and there is no Charlie Rose on Saturday, so I went to bed around midnight.

Message 647

Last night after the Friday PBS shows were over I read over half of The Economist. I am going now to Safeway for my weekly shopping. No Starbucks today.