Message 708

Yesterday I finished reading the book that Vanessa gave me titled The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene. It was very interesting and useful in helping Beech. In the evening after the Friday PBS shows were over I watched Disk 4 of Dollhouse. It turned out there was only one episode on it along with a lot of commentary that I also watched. Fox cancelled the show after the thirteenth episode, so it ended in a strange and puzzling way, and I felt it was never allowed to reach its full potential. The series dealt with the human struggle with the question of identity in a typical Joss Whedon science-fiction way, and it had a lot of the cast and crew from Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, but it never had the chance to reach the level of these previous productions. However, if it were a movie, I would still give it four stars.

Helen's dad is recovering from surgery, so she and Jim are with him this morning, thus I am skipping Starbucks this week.

Message 707

Yesterday I had breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Vanessa and Reggie. At noon Joshua picked me up to have lunch at the Dutch Goose with him and three of his friends at work who were celebrating the raises they had all just gotten. In the afternoon Annie came to visit me for an hour or so while Vanessa had a doctor appointment. After the PBS news shows were over at 4:30 PM I watched the Sharks game against Detroit. Detroit jumped ahead to a five goal lead in the first period, so Joshua called and said he would not bother joining me because the game had become so bad. The Sharks eventually lost 1-7, so they will have to play another game on their home ice tomorrow. By the way, it was the first time I realized that the Detroit emblem on their shirts is a winged wheel, which of course is appropriate for a city that used to be mainly about building automobiles.

After the game I watched disk three of Dollhouse. It is interesting to see how the show is evolving. I wonder where it will end up after the last two disks.

Message 706

Yesterday I walked up to the plaza and bought some things at CVS. In the afternoon Beech came over and visited with me for a while. In the evening I watched Disk 2 of Dollhouse. I have seen eight episodes now along with commentary on two episodes, which were originally two versions of the pilot.

Message 705

Yesterday I picked Beech up at school and took him to Burlingame for a haircut and then to McDonalds for lunch. I also read over half of a book Vanessa gave me titled The Explosive Child, which has some helpful tip about how to help us help Beech avoid his meltdowns.

In the afternoon Joshua came over and watched the Sharks play the Redwings in Detroit. The Redwings went ahead 2-0 in the first period, but 1.8 seconds before the period ended, Setogucci scored for the Sharks. In the second period the Redwings scored again to make it 3-1. In the third period Thornton and Coutour (a rookie recently brought up from the farm team) scored and sent the game into overtime. In overtime Thornton passed to Marleau on a two-on-one breakaway and won the game, so the Sharks are now ahead three games to zero in the series. All of us fans are now thinking maybe the Sharks are finally starting to be the team we all thought they could be.

Message 704

Yesterday Maureen and I had breakfast at Heidi's Pies (the first time I was ever there on a Monday) and then went to Annie's nursery school (which was once Beech's nursery school too) for grandparents day. I read the kids a book from their library called Me First about a pig who always wanted to be at the front of the line. When I came home I read this week's Science. In the evening Joshua came over and watched 24 with me. There are now only 4 more hours left in the series.

Message 702

Yesterday I read a good bit of The Economist and in the late afternoon I went to Los Gatos with Julian, Vanessa, and the kids and met Jason and Susan and their family at Live Oak Kitchen for dinner. Amanda and Iris were there too, so we had a table for thirteen set up in a separate room. It was great fun, and everyone had a good time and a good meal. After dinner we went next door to Sweet Retreat for ice cream, as is our usual habit. When I got home I watched a DVD of Dollhouse, Season 1, Disk 1. Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's new TV show about young people who are brain washed and then reprogrammed by a special machine to go on missions to do good. The main character is the bad-girl-slayer from Buffy, Eliza Dushku.

Message 701

I just got back from seeing Helen and Jim at Starbucks. Yesterday I finished reading the book Strange Things Happen, A Life With The Police, Polo, and Pygmies by Stewart Copeland. The book was given to me by Susan. I had not intended to read it so fast, but once I started I could not put it down. I mostly was familiar with The Police because Jason was so fond of them when he was a kid, but I found the story and the writing style very interesting.