Message 691

Yesterday I worked some more on my memoirs and finished reading The Economist. At noon I picked Beech up at school and took him to lunch. We were headed for Subway, but when we passed McDonalds he changed his mind and we went there. Afterward we went home and I helped him with his homework until Vanessa and Annie got back from Little Wonders.

In the evening I watched the Sharks game. This time they scored the first goal for a change, and it was scored by Dan Boyle, which helped make up for his scoring the losing goal in the previous game. Joshua showed up by the second period in time to see Colorado tie the game. It eventually went into overtime, for the third game in a row, but this time Joe Pavelski scored the winning goal half way through the first overtime period to win the game 2-1. The series is now tied 2-2, so the Sharks need to win two out of three games now to save themselves from further humiliation and move on to the next series.

Message 690

Yesterday I worked some more on my memoirs, read some more of The Economist, and watched 24 with Josh in the evening. All in all a nice quiet day at home.

Message 689

Yesterday I finished reading the book My Stroke of Insight, A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor. It was a quick read, and it had a lot of good ideas in it about how the brain works and how you can tune into your right brain at will to feel happy and at peace. After a long life, I was pleased to read about many of the things I have learned to do myself. In the late afternoon I went to San Mateo for our traditional family dinner. In the evening I watched the Sharks blow another hard fought game to Colorado when Dan Boyle put one in his own net in overtime to lose 0-1. How strange can things get? After the game I watched the start of a new two-part series on PBS about Jamaica and England during and after World War 2. After that I read some more of The Economist and turned in early.

Message 688

Yesterday I started working on my memoirs again for the first time in weeks, but my computer monitor went out (even though it is a CRT), so I had to replace it with the other CRT monitor that Josh gave me from his work. While I was at it I tried to set up Skype for which Bill gave the camera to me when they were all here recently. The camera that Bill gave me and the microphone that Jason gave me all work fine, but no one was home in Houston when I tried to test the system out. Instead of returning to my memoirs (I am in Texas now in the summer between college and graduate school), I read more than half of the book Liz gave me titled My Stroke of Insight.

In the evening I also watched a DVD of the movie Yes. It starred Joan Allen, who is a favorite of mine, but it was a strange movie with all the dialog in poetry. It was like watching a modern attempt to write like Shakespear. In addition to dealing with interpersonal relations, class and religious differences, England, Ireland, America, and Lebanon, it also tried to show how the conflict between the West and the Muslin world can be resolved by love. It was somewhat interesting because it was so different, but it was pretty boring for the most part, so I give it only 2.8 stars.

Message 687

I just got back from Starbucks with Helen and Jim and Joan and David. Last night Joshua came over and watched the Sharks play the second game of their Stanley Cup series with Colorado. What a game! The Sharks fell behind within the first minute again, and then tied the game five times before going into overtime and winning. The series is now 1-1. It was heartening to see the Sharks had enough grit to hang on and win in another very hard-fought game.

Message 686

Yesterday I had breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Reggie, Vanessa, Annie, and Maureen. I finished reading The Economist and Science from last week. In the evening I watched a DVD of the movie Talk of Angels. It was a movie about the start of the Spanish Civil War, and I had the feeling I had seen it before but I could not remember it for sure. It was well done, but I did not care much for it, so I give it only three stars.

I also finished reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons, a book Marty recommended to me after we both read another of his books titled The Terror, which I liked a lot. Hyperion was also the title of a poem by John Keats and this book made a lot of references to him. It was modeled on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but it was mainly a science-fiction/ fantasy-fiction work that mostly did not hang together too well, perhaps because it has a sequel that I have not read.
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Message 681

I forgot to mention in yesterday's message that I started taking Zithromax Wednesday at 5 PM for my sinus infection. I am already feeling much better. In the afternoon I packed and got ready to fly to Phoenix to meet Liz and go to Tucson for Laurie's (Sally's sister) son Matt. Because I will be away, I will not send out messages on Saturday or Sunday. Last night I watched the Sharks beat Vancouver 4-2. They were ahead 4-0 in the third period when a whole lot of fights broke out so at one point the Sharks had six players in the penalty box. The resulting 5-on-3 and 4-on-3 power-plays allowed the Canucks to score a couple of goals, but the Sharks won anyway. Joshua did not show up, but he called later and said he had had to work late.