Old Timey Movies

Mom dug out our old family movies and projector today and tonight Dennis threaded the film and we watched about 4 of them. The only room dark enough to show the movies was our bedroom, so we gathered there this afternoon after dinner. No popcorn.

Pine Valley Days

I was sorry not to be able to participate with a booth at Pine Valley Days this year, but I was just not up to it. We did go to see what was going on in the morning. It was hot. I wrote about it on Flash's blog.

Dennis accompanied me to the neurologist yesterday morning. I'm happy to report that the neurologist agreed that it wasn't worth staying on Plavix if it was causing me all the muscle and joint pain I've been suffering. She said to stop Plavix for a month to see if it was the culprit or if we have to investigate further. I am very much relieved.

After the doctor's appointment, we drove over to Fiesta Island to see how it is these days and if it would be a good place to take Flash. I was surprised to see how large a place it was and how clean they keep the beaches.

Then we went to the Fish Market for lunch. Nice day.

This morning Dennis surprised me with a plan to take Flash to Fiesta Island. See Flash's blog to see how it turned out. Tonight Mom came over for an antipasto salad dinner. We watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics in London while we ate dinner.

I left the house at 6:15 this morning, headed to Rancho Bernardo for an MRI. It's a long trip so I listened to an audiobook on my iPod. It's a really good story called The Kitchen House. I'm really enjoying it, which is good because I have to go to La Jolla tomorrow for an appointment with my neurologist. I feel weird even having a neurologist.

My goal is to see if I can somehow get off Plavix, which I suspect is causing all the muscle and joint pain I am feeling. I can barely walk anymore; even sitting in the movie theater is painful. I was supposed to have a booth at Pine Valley Days this Saturday, but I begged off. If it's not Plavix, it could be Amlodipine, my blood pressure medicine. They both have the same side effects, although it is rarer in the blood pressure med.

Yikes. How did it come to this?

Movie Tuesday

Yesterday we saw Dark Knight Rises, the new Batman movie. In all fairness, I fell asleep during part of the movie (about the time I ran out of popcorn) so when I say I didn't care for it, you'll have to take that into consideration. What I did see was hard to understand, ugly and violent. And what happened to Robin? I guess I should have reviewed the previous Dark Knight movie before I went to see this one. Oh, well.

Another hot day

It was almost as hot today (97) as it was yesterday (103) except it was muggy, too. The kittens were out most of the day. Their door was open so they could go in and out. They're getting quite confident now.

Dennis fixed a vegetable spaghetti dish for us tonight; Mom came over and had her pasta with marinara sauce. Then we watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It's getting to be slim pickens on Apple TV.

Movie Friday

We've taken to downloading movies though Apple TV and watching them with Mom on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. This Friday I made stuffed peppers for dinner and Mom came over for dinner and a movie.

There wasn't much choice this week (we've either seen most of the movies or don't want to), but I found a foreign film that I thought would be cute and acceptable to all. The name of the film was Quill, a true story of the making of a guide dog from birth to the final hour. It was such an engaging and moving story we all had tears in our eyes at the end.

Movie Tuesday (a little late)

Last Tuesday we saw Savages an intense film directed by Oliver Stone. Although we were a little leery of seeing a movie about drug dealers on both sides of the border, we did enjoy it. It was a tough movie, though; not a romantic comedy for sure.

Kitten update

Sorry to keep you in suspense...the kittens are all fine. None of them had to wear an E-Collar; it was, in fact a nonevent. They are happy and healthy following their surgery.

Kittens in Hospital

I took all four kittens to be fixed this morning. I forgot not to feed them after midnight, so they had to stay all day. I'll pick them up tomorrow. Word is they are doing fine.

Movie Tuesday on Thursday

It's Thursday, but here's the Movie Tuesday review:

Mom, Dennis and I saw The Amazing Spider-Man in iMax-3D. I'm still not sure what iMax is--it seemed just like 3D--but the movie was pretty good. It starts the spider-man series all over from the beginning with a new actor playing spider-man. I really liked Toby Maguire in the role and it took some time for me to warm to Andrew Garfield. He was a bit of a brat  in the beginning but came around eventually. If you like the spider man movies, go see it.

Is your computer infected?

If you didn't see the news tonight, you may not know that there is a computer threat out there that may have infected your computer. There's a simple way to check:  go to www.dcwg.org and click on the green Detect icon. This will send you to a page describing the problem and solutions. Skip down to the link "http://www.dns-ok.us/." Once you click on this link, you will be taken to a page which will tell you whether or not your computer is infected. If you come out ok, there's nothing else to do. If your computer is infected, solutions will be provided. 


If you don't want to take the first step to read about the problem, you can just click on the link above and it will automatically check your computer.

Best wishes, Michael and Lina

On Saturday afternoon, Mom and I drove to La Jolla to attend Lina's wedding shower. She and Michael Martinico are getting married in September. She seems to be a lovely young lady, tiny compared to Michael, who is tall like his mother.

There were about 50-70 women there, all but 8 of them from Lina's family. Michael is marrying into a large Mexican-Jewish family. They were all very nice and very happy for Lina. Michael made an appearance late in the afternoon after lunch. Poor guy, the only man in an ocean of women. He looks much the same as he did as a child except, of course, grown up...and up and up.

Mom and I sat with Vince's Linda and John's Linda and Jacqui from our side of the family along with two of Linda's long-time friends who were the mothers of Michael's best friends and the girlfriend of one of those friends. It was very noisy so we could only talk with the people nearest us.

After lunch, we viewed a video showing Lina as a baby and then growing up with her family; after that we saw some photos of Michael and his family. I recognized many of the Christmas photos Linda sent of the kids through their growing years. There were some family shots, too. Jacqui and Linda were tearing up and it was emotional for me, too.

We wish Michael and Lina all the best. They seem very much in love.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We are having a small celebration with Mom, Dennis and me this afternoon. We are having hot dogs barbecued outside. Life is good.

Movie Tuesday

Sometimes you expect nothing and end up more or less pleasantly surprised. That could be the theme for today's movie, The Avengers, a Marvel Comics adventure. Marvel Super Heroes (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow) are called together to save the world from Loki, the psychotic adopted brother of Thor, both Nordic gods.

The best part, I think, is The Incredible Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo. The movie had several quips and humor without being slapstick. Oddly, we all enjoyed it. I would say go see it and have some fun.