Day 1868

Friday, February 23, 2018

Drove to East Bay early in the a.m. and played racquetball from 5-7 with Dorian.  We ran the tables, taking advantage of Steve not being there and Kirk having a bad day.  T and Tiger finally knocked us out in our last game.  Work was quiet today, a rarity, allowing me time to catch up on a few things and make appointments for my MINI and made to measure suit from Suit Supply.

I came home, made dinner, then practiced for 90 minutes, devoting 30 minutes each to the Weber, Strauss, and d'Albert.  I'll have to practice every day for 1-2 hours in order to be ready for this concert next month.  The Strauss is what I'm worried about.  It's just so hard.

I went to bed at 11, but saw that the U.S. men's curling team was playing for the gold medal against Sweden in 30 minutes, so I stayed up to watch.  I fell asleep at end 6 but luckily taped the match.  I watched the remaining 4 ends, including the pivotal 8th end where the U.S. scored five points.  That was it.  Sweden couldn't catch them and the game was over.  The precision of both teams was incredible!



Day 1867

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Back to work after a week away.  I only had a few jobs remaining.  I plowed through my emails, cleared the decks for the day and left work at 5 with only one job remaining, a PowerPoint for tomorrow morning.  Took MUNI to Alice's, had dinner, did a few things on the Toshiba, and called it a night by 10.

Day 1866

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Spent all day practicing in preparation for tonight's rehearsal.  Over rehearsal, I head to Alice's for the night.  We'll see her specialist tomorrow morning regarding her hip, then back to work after a week off. 

Day 1865

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Spent most of the morning studying the music I'm playing for the next set, including the Strauss Till Eulenspiegel.  Wow, this piece is brutal, but so much fun and wonderful.



I also went over the d'Albert Cello Concerto, which is also growing on me.


Mom and I hung out all day, playing cards, listening to music, having some lunch outside and yummy spaghetti for dinner.  I feel so well-rested and refreshed after a wonderful week with mom.

My flight was delayed an hour, so I left mom's at 6:30.  Dennis picked me up and drove me to the airport.  He's such a nice guy.  I boarded the plane around 9 and arrived in Oakland at 10:45.  Took Lyft home and crashed before midnight.

Day 1864

Monday, February 19, 2018

Mom and I had a great wedding cruise session today, going over my list, talking about the reception, choices for wine, etc.  Lots of little things to consider.  I also put together a travel registry that will be up and running shortly.

I helped mom complete her taxes using the free TurboTax software online.  We also went over all her assets.

We had dinner at home, then watched some Olympic coverage and another episode of Black Mirror.  I can watch all of these again.

It was so windy today, too windy to jump in the hot tub.  

Day 1863

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Watched The Phantom Thread at Santan Village today.  I really enjoyed this film and appreciated the ending, which I hadn't expected.  It felt true to life and certainly reflected the odd tendencies of the craziest couples among us.  Daniel Day Lewis was effortless to watch.  He's so good and enjoyable.  He owns whoever he plays.  I'd forgotten the film was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.  This is his best film I think.  I really liked it a lot.


I saw Phantom Thread with mom and Don, the new guy mom's seeing.  We went to Gordon Biersch for lunch before the movie.  Don's a very nice family man whose wife died three years ago.  I'm glad mom is able to spend time with someone.  Anyone who appreciates this kind of film is all right with me.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Back at home, we had dinner, watched Olympic coverage, then called it a night, going to bed at 10:30.

Day 1862

Saturday, February 17, 2018

We stayed home today and played cards -- cribbage and hand in foot -- watched Olympic coverage, and also two Black Mirror episodes from the current season, the first one, about a programmer who collects DNA samples of his co-workers and recreates them as characters in his own twisted Star Trek episodes where he's the hero and everyone else plays out their role (or else).  It's a great first episode to a great series.




Day 1861

Friday, February 16, 2018

Mom and I watched The Darkest Hour this afternoon, after a leisurely morning that included breakfast, hot tubbing, and a game or two of cribbage.  We're tied in our games so far.  That cards have been evenly distributed.  Mom's hot tub is very comfortable.  I love soaking for ten minutes or so before starting my day or before bed.  The weather's in the high 60s, which is fine with me, though mom considers it too cold to do much outside.  She likes things above 75.


Gary Oldman will win best actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill.  He's magnificent in every scene. 

Day 1860

Thursday, February 15, 2018

We drove to an AMC 24-plex just outside Phoenix to see two films, I, Tonya and The Shape of Water.  I really had no desire to see I, Tonya, but mom wanted to see it and the reviews have been really strong, so I went along with it.  Glad I did.  The film's terrific with some superb performances.  Tonya always reminded me of Gwen...someone who never owned her own mistakes or bad decisions, someone who always blamed the outside world for failing to fix the inner strife that carried her from one confrontation to another.  I remember when Tonya's skate lace broke at the Olympic games and her cries to restart her routine.  It wasn't her fault that the lace broke, even though she'd arrived at the venue late without enough time to prepare.  The film captured her perspective while seemingly sticking to the truth of it all.  The Keystone knuckleheads surrounding Team Tonya made for some good laughs and pointed reminders of our crazy culture.  In 20 years, there will be an equally embarrassing cultural film called I, Donald, about a lunatic narcissist predator in chief who was enabled by an entire political party.  It will be unbelievable, embarrassing, funny, and endemic to our culture, just like Tonya.



We had lunch at nearby restaurant, then watched The Shape of Water, this year's front runner for Best Picture.  It's a beautiful beauty and the beast fable by Guillermo del Toro about a mute cleaner who falls in love with a secret Creature from the Black Lagoon captive of a paranoid 1950s red scare-obsessed government.  The details are incredible as always, and Richard





Day 1859

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Up at 4 and had Lyft take me to Oakland International where I took a 7 a.m. flight to Phoenix.  The flight was delayed an hour so I arrived around 10 and made it to mom's at 11:30 after being driven to Maricopa by Mike from Australia.  Mom's place looks better than ever.  We went shopping for food for the week, including a Costco run, then came home, played cards, had dinner, and watched Three Billboards Over Edding, Missouri.

Picture

Good film, though it lost a little of its punch when Woody Harrelson's character died.  The last 30 minutes seemed more Hollywood ending than sustaining the true essence of these characters.  It's an odd kind of film to be receiving such Oscar buzz.  Indie buzz, sure, but it's hardly your big picture epic. 

After the movie, we call it a night and went to bed.

Day 1858

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Wrapped everything up at work before a week-long trip to visit mom in Maricopa.  Came home, had dinner, packed for the week, and was ready to my trip by 9 p.m.  I leave early tomorrow.  My list of movies include The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Over Ebbing Missouri, The Darkest Hour, Lady Bird and The Phantom Thread.  

Day 1857

Monday, February 12, 2018

Racquetball, work, dinner, practice, bed.  Arizona in two days.

Day 1856

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Up at 7:20 and for the next 14 hours it was non-stop work, chores, all kinds of stuff today, including assembling an IKEA dresser for Austin.  Practiced Weber for 90 minutes, which was good.  No news today, also good.  We had delicious beef we bought at Costco...also extremely good!  To bed at 9 and two days until I'm at mom's for a week!

Day 1855

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Went to San Ramon at 8 a.m. to drop off the E-Force demo bag and play a few games with Barry Clyde, Kirk, Ron, Pat, and Dan.  Finished at 10, then drove home, packed up, went to get a Valentine's Day card at the Avenue and ran into Brandon & Vita, Rhonda & Biff, Richard & Lisa and Margaret, the whole gang basically.  Stayed an hour longer than planned but eventually made my way across the Bay Bridge to the Sunset District.  I took care of a few things for Alice, helped clean the Airbnb for the next guest, and had Alice's yummy poke for dinner.  I talked to Brenda on FaceTime, which was a treat.  Yesterday was her birthday.  Austin has a new closet to assemble so I started it before bed.  

Day 1854

Friday, February 9, 2018

I was behind all week at work, but managed to finally catch up by the afternoon.  I'm putting together an Ultimate Trivial Pursuit activity at work in March, a sort of dry run for the after-dinner activity I plan to do our first night on the cruise.  I received 1,000 cards from 10 different Trivial Pursuit games on eBay the other day.  I'll mix the cards up in a container and have folks randomly pick their card.  This will work well with large teams because I'm guessing some of the questions will be very obscure.  Trivia buffs will enjoy this game and I have a feeling there are a few of those in the firm.

Day 1853

Thursday, February 8, 2018

We had our hit & switch first round playoff session tonight and after several changes in the pairings, I was matched up with Heather, the only female in the league and a very consistent player.  We played well together, taking on the top ranked team in the playoffs, Stevie Rojas and Jacob.  Stevie's an open player, so good and naturally gifted, but we did manage to push the match to a tiebreaker, which was a victory of sorts.  Stevie got serious in game three and we were no match for his delicate touch shots.  He's really something.  I came home sore and tired.  After talking to Alice, I went right to bed.

During the evening, I got Tiger to take a picture of me and Robbie, our club pro.  I love Robbie's shirt!


Day 1852

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Our symphony music this set is really hard.  I'm not sure how I'll be able to play it, especially some of the fast parts.  

Day 1851

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Work, home, dinner, practice, bed.

Day 1850

Monday, February 5, 2018

Racquetball, work, dinner, practice, bed.

Day 1849

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Today ended up being busy for a Sunday.  I was up at 6 and caught up a bit on the journal.  After breakfast, I helped Alice clean her Airbnb for her next guest, who comes tomorrow.  The Super Bowl was on in the afternoon, but since Lisa couldn't make the game, we postponed the party a month for the Oscars.  I watched maybe half the game and none of the halftime show.  I did see Philly's 4th and 1 at the goal gamble with an amazing trick play that seemed to be out of a college playbook.  While watching the game, I practiced a piece from our new orchestra set, von Weber's overture der Freitschutz.  I washed both cars during halftime and afterwards we had hot pot for dinner, which was delicious!  And fun.  Bed by 10. 

Day 1848

Saturday, February 3, 2018

No Super Bowl party this year, which worked out fine for me.  Too busy.  Too many things going on.  At Alice's.  Lots of chores, but also took it easy today.

Day 1847

Friday, February 2, 2018

The great tragedy in having a malignant con man in the oval office is the endless attention sucked up by the malignancy, all at the expense of other, more important, more relevant, more essential issues, concerns and ideas.  It's a shame.  Malignancy stops everything, kills everything, endlessly distracting and halting life.  That is what this con man creates for the country, nonstop nonsense, embarrassment, mental instability and abuse. 

Minions like Devin Nunes should be voted out of office in November.  What a load of nothing this congressman is.  Boo hiss on his C- propaganda.  His staff's so-called secret memo is so laughable, but then Bill Maher made the point that the memo isn't for us.  It's just a prop, a tool, to hold out as a reason to take action.  We'll see what con man feels he's able to do next week, even though reaction to the memo seems to validate Mueller's investigation.  The constitutional crisis is coming soon.  The beginning has already arrived.  Scary times.

Day 1846

Thursday, February 1, 2018

It was our final night of our doubles hit & switch league.  All the games I played were tough, long and fun.  Next Thursday is our playoff night before the finals.

Earlier today, I watched "Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff again insinuate that Nikky Haley and Trump were having an affair. He insinuated without owning it, and Morning Joe host Mike Brzezinski kicked him off the show.  Wolff overplayed his hand and deserved the reprimand.  As much as his book captures the upheaval of the White House, what he suggested last week on Real Time with Bill Maher was wrong.  He'll go away now, which is too bad.  His Dr. Evil looks and fulsome excoriation of all things Trump was welcome cable clatter until this unsubstantiated Nikky Haley rumor appeared.

Day 1845

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Racquetball, work, then went to bed around 7:30 tonight.  I slept through the night and didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m., 11 hours.  Wow.

Day 1844

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

At Alice's after work to wrap up preparing her Airbnb for her next guest.  Alice had her contractor repair a lower strip beneath her kitchenette.  We watched an episode of The Crown Season 2 before bed. This episode focused on Charles as a boy going to a school that didn't suit him at all. His father forced him to go, which is sad really.  

Day 1843

Monday, January 29, 2018

At Alice's tonight after a long and busy day of work.  We took care of a few items with her Airbnb.  She just completed her second guest stay, who gave Alice's place five stars.  Alice is two-for-two in five-star ratings.  Her place looks so good!  She did such a terrific job.  After working on the room for nearly two hours, we watched an episode of The Crown.  Almost finished with season 2.  

Day 1842

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Our concert was at 4.  We came over to Oakland, leaving at 1.  Alice settled in.  I arrived at the church at 2:30.  We ran through a few tempo changes.  My bridge popped out during the Mahler and luckily nothing broke.  Chris the concertmaster put it back in.  That was nice of him. 


The concert went very well.  The cellos sounded great throughout.  I played my part and had a lot of fun performing.  I enjoyed everything about our performance. 

Alice, Lisa, Sophie, Margaret, and Howard attended.  We went out for pizza at Star Pizza afterward.  

Day 1841

Saturday, January 27, 2018

I had a morning rehearsal with OCO at 9:30.  We ran through the Mahler and Hansel & Gretel and finished at 12:30.  It sounds pretty good.  I think the concert will be just fine tomorrow, but I still needed to practice an extra hour or two, so at Alice's in the evening I ran through some of the most challenging sections.