Sorry it took me a month to update. I’ve been busy with friends. Despite my efforts to keep an online presence here, I still am living an active life in the real world, which I prefer.
Evelyn was quickly and graciously parted from her wisdom teeth, in a procedure which took all of 20 minutes. I was surprised by how fast that was!
The 16th Annual New Year’s Eve Time Travel Movie Night featured Back to the Future, Slipstream, and Frequency. I’d not seen Slipstream before. While it wasn’t as dreadful as films I’ve seen in years past, Slipstream was the clunker of the bunch. A 2005 film starring Sean Astin and Vinnie Jones, the dialogue was laughable at best, recited by flat acting, and the special effects took themselves way too seriously. Vinnie steals the whole movie, but this pales to his work in Guy Ritchie’s films. (On the other hand, Frequency is very underrated, in my opinion. Everyone I show it to loves it!)
One of my goals for 2007 is bicycling 300 miles over the coming season. Last year, despite our late September start, we managed to ride 75 miles in two months. I think 300 is a reasonable goal. I also want to get kayaking more often, and I want to go diving again. I’ve been out of the water too long, and it’s time to find a local dive club, hit the local lakes. We’re also hoping to move into a condo or duplex by year’s end, but that depends entirely on what the housing market does this spring. We had the same goal at the start of 2006, but seeing how difficult it was to find a place to suit our needs gave us pause, and we went into extended research phase.
After six years of waiting, Evelyn finally has a sewing machine! Finally she gets to exercise her long-dormant industrious creativity. Tablecloths, dresses, hats, and shirts… the possibilities are endless. She even went browsing through fabric stores. Her machine is a EuroPro 7133, a brand that still makes their machines from enduring metal, especially the gears. In the last thirty years, most sewing machines have switched to cheaper lightweight nylon gears, and Evelyn is horrified by the thought of stripping plastic gear teeth while working with denim. Hopefully the new machine will give us decades of loyal service. It sure better… EuroPro’s weakness is in customer service. Godspeed, my lovely seamstress!
I already miss the Winter Olympics. I always enjoy watching the winter games on TV, and last year’s Torino games were no exception. The winter games are much more satisfying to watch than the summer games. First of all, winter sports are much more exciting than summer games, with a generous blend of grace and speed. By comparison the summer games are ploddingly slow and tedious. Furthermore, the summer games feel more vulgar. Summer athletes wear all their skin and sweat for the world to see; winter athletes wear sleek colorful suits. Whether its the delicate artistry of figure skating or the nail-biting cliffhanger speed skating matches, the Winter Olympics are much more engaging than Yet Another Track Event. I will admit there’s also an element within me that roots for underdogs; the Summer Games unfairly get all the attention.
Nifty Wikipedia Thing: The USS Shenandoah, the Navy’s first airship.
Music of the Moment: "Back to the Life" by Spoon
What I’m Reading:
"Lost Chance in China" by John S. Service
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" by Douglas Adams
NEWS FLASH!!! THIS JUST IN! My brother Neil is now in Macerata, Italy. I wish him well on all his forthcoming adventures!
The Ryanarium 
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