2007-08-26

I awoke early enough to write my Camelot Journal entry for yesterday, which is my habit. While checking my e-mail afterwards, I found Gary’s request for recipes for lasagne and soup for the Friday night welcoming supper at L/L’s 2007 Homecoming – the one main meal we will serve here at home. On Saturday and Sunday nights, we will dine out, probably at a nearby Hometown Buffet.

I checked our database but did not see just the perfect recipes there, so I went to my favorite on-line recipe site, www.epicurious.com. There were many choices there, and I chose a meated and a meatless lasagne, plus a gazpacho soup. We’ll see if Gary likes those.

It being Sunday, our official day off now, I gave my morning to church while Mick gave his towards the cleanliness of our house and by lunch time we were ready for a double feature. We watched “Little Children, starring Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Connelly. Also good in the movie was Jackie Earle Haley, playing a sexual deviant. The film was awash in angst and sex, reminding me of “Desperate Housewives”. I never warmed up to it. The emotions seemed muddy and the motivations weak as the story plodded on. There were, however, funny moments, especially a scene where a husband hooked on on-line porn is discovered by his wife with a pair of women’s panties over his lower face, terribly busy at the computer.

Much better was our second film of the day, “Fracture”. Anthony Hopkins played a cool and brainy killer with a grating personality, a type of role he has owned ever since “Silence of the Lambs”, and did it very well indeed. Also excellent was his counterpart, the D.A. who sets out to put him in jail for his crime, an actor previously unknown to me but very taking, Ryan Gosling. I expect he will do well as a leading man. He seems to carry the same kind of energy as the young Jimmy Stewart, deceptively simple and folksy while carrying deeper character nuances effortlessly. David Strathairn, an excellent character actor who shone in “The Bourne Ultimatum”, was very good here also. There should be a slot for screenplay in reviewing the stars of the film. It was stylish, sharp and altogether delightful.

We had a walk around the yard so Mick could show off his incredible spate of garden work yesterday. Indeed the yard is beginning to shine! But I was heartbroken to see how parched the earth is everywhere, in spite of Mick’s faithful daily watering. One good thing is the forecast. Instead of 104 to 107 F, the weather is predicted to break Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all predicted to be 84 - 87 F, a good 20 degrees cooler! Thank you, Lord!

While Mick did some JLS work, creating a list of likely charges for the year 2008 for St. Luke’s – the new junior warden wants a budget – I played a glorious round of solitaire. We filled our evening with the usual happy routine, bathing, fun-TV, dinner, the Gaia Meditation, a kitty snuggle and bedtime at 11 PM.