Monday July 31, 2006 -
We met with the reconstructive surgeon and Petra is doing very well. The surgery is scheduled for September 12, just after we get back from Seattle and Bumbershoot.

Sunday July 30, 2006 -
We took the kids home today, but before we did that we spent a few hours with them at Fairytale Town, a fun place for kids and parents too. They had a ball, of course, as they always do there. We even ran into someone that used to be a regular customer at our record store Obsessed With Music, back in the day. She has a kid now and was there as a parent. Everybody grows up eventually. Well, almost everybody!

Saturday July 29, 2006 -
We have both granddaughters for the weekend, so that the daughter can get some studying done for her final next week. Tonight we went to 524 Mexican Food with the kids. They were talkative and excited but not bad really. Do I need to tell you that the food was good?

Wednesday July 26, 2006 -
The daughter (see family) went to a court hearing today for her divorce. She is getting full legal and physical custody of the kids with no visitation by the soon-to-be-ex-spouse. He doesn't care about her or the kids. This is a big step for her and another step back toward a better life. Way to go!

Petra has had pain in her arm ever since the surgery (if not before) and today she tried something new: swimming. Since it is a non-impact form of exercise, it doesn't put the pressure on that weights do. That might cause lymphodema. But swimming apparently is one of the best exxercises, especially in her situation. We'll see how it goes. It cooled her down on a hot day, at least!

Tuesday July 25, 2006 -
My liner notes for my Mixmaster Round 14 CD (and bonus CD) are finally done! View them here.

Almost forgot to mention, 7/19 Petra got her hair cut. This is noteworthy because it is the first trim since her hair grew back after chemotherapy. She just had it cut a little, to thin it a bit mostly. To see her without much hair, check out her web site at www.knockoutbreastcancer.com.

Saturday July 22, 2006 -
We went to watch the grandkids' swimming lesson today. They sure have fun. Then we brought Jasmine home with us to spend the night.

The music master list of what we own has been updated. You can find it here and also the list of artists we own ten or more items by is here. Are you wondering what was added to the master list? Well...

Evening Episode, The - The Physicist Has Known Sin
Young, Neil - Living With War
Blunt, James - You're Beautiful import single
Live - Songs From Black Mountain
Burnette, T-Bone - The True False Identity
Simon, Paul - Surprise
Pink - I'm Not Dead CD+DVD
Prince - Te Amo Corazon single
Prince - 3121
Talking Heads - Remain In Light CD+DVD
Talking Heads - Fear Of Music CD+DVD
Weezer - Make Believe

Thursday July 20, 2006 -
Tonight we went to the movies and saw Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" (web site). It was an entertaining and knowledge-packed look at the problem of global warming. Virtually all scientists agree on two things: It is getting much worse quickly and that it is to a large degree caused by humans. He has a truckload of statistics and they are somewhat alarming. Did you know that the 10 hottest years since they started measuring came in the last 14 years. It IS getting warmer and it is affecting more than just the temperature. The ocean temperatures are slowly rising (this has been measured), ice caps are beginning to show signs of breakups (has been measured and filmed), lakes that were huge 30-40 years ago have been reduced in size significantly (measured and photos), glaciers are shrinking (measued and photos), and the CO2 in the atmosphere is getting thicker and thicker (keeping more warm air here on earth, measured repeatedly). I don't really do it justice, just go see the movie with an open mind and you will come away with a much better knowledge of the problem. Highly recommended!

For afters, we went off the diet a bit and had some tasty mexican food at nearby Kikos. Yum. And margaritas. Yum2.

Wednesday July 19, 2006 -
A telework day and Reggie the bug man came and sprayed the place to get rid of some @#$%^*$ pesky gnats. Argh! And a big happy birthday shout out to Mama O, celebrating her birthday today! Yow!!

A random quote: "Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." - Groucho Marx

Sunday July 16, 2006 -
OK, all the kids are home and the house is peaceful once more. We watched a DVD, Must Love Dogs, with John Cusack and Diane Lane. The two main actors were good, the dialog was witty at times, the plot was so-so, but overall it was a decent romantic comedy.

Interesting fact: When President George 'Dubya' Bush came into office, he inherited a SURPLUS of $284 Billion from the Clinton administration. At that time, the Bush administration predicted a $516 billion surplus for 2006. But now that he had wasted a fortune in Iraq with no results other than lots of deaths, injuries, and a near-civil war, and he has given more and more tax breaks to his rich friends and huge corporations like Haliburton, the DEFICIT (not surplus) is projected as $296 billion. Yep, he went from $284 billion in the black to $296 billion in the red. Had enough? Vote Democrat.

Saturday July 15, 2006 -
We took Jasmine home but Josephine got to stay another night. Last week Jasmine was here so we are kind of trading off, I guess. Josephine was begging us to go to the Sunflower Drive-in, Sacramento's all vegetarian drive-in restaurant. What could we do ;-) We couldn't disappoint her so we went. She loves to see the chickens that roam around outside and at the nearby park. I think the chickens know they are safe there! Anyway, it was really good, as usual.

Friday July 14, 2006 -
This evening we took the two oldest grandkids, Josephine and Jasmine, to the snow. Well, sort of. You know it doesn't snow in Sacramento, in fact it was about 100 degrees today. But at the nearby high school, a community group had brought in 6000 pounds of snow and created a fun fair around it. Food, booths, police and fire demos, and most of all a couple snow mountain slides for the kids to sled down! The small one was only about six feet tall but the kids just LOVED it! They did it over and over and had a really great time.

On another front, Mom's condition is improving but it will be months before she is actually recoved. Hang in there.

Thursday July 13, 2006 -
We went to a movie, The Lake House, a romantic drama starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves (web site). It had it's corny moments and was one of those movies where you shouldn't think too much. But I still liked it. The stars were likable and it moved along quickly. Good but not great.

Wednesday July 12, 2006 -
Friends Larry and Robin came into town because their son Brian and his band The Evening Episode are nominated for a "Sammie" award (Sammies web site). The awards show is tonight and the band will be performing at the awards show and (hopefully) winning the award in their category. We have thirteen people going to dinner beforehand and about 10 or so going to the show.

Update: Dinner was at Amarin Thai and was delicious. And The Evening Episode played a quick but very good set at the awards show, after which they WON the award in the Electronica category! Way to go!!

Sunday July 9, 2006 -
Every year we go to Seattle for the Bumbershoot festival, a multi-day festival of music, arts, comedy, drama, lliterature, and much much more. Today they released their full schedule for this year's upcoming event. Check it out.

We went with Jasmine to Costco for some major shopping. She was pretty good and really liked the samples they were giving out all over the store. I kind of liked those too! Then, after her nap, we took her back to the daughter's house. Jasmine starts pre-school tomorrow so she needs some rest. Hmm, come to think of it, I'm a little tired too. Good night for now...

Saturday July 8, 2006 -
In the morning we took both of our cars in to the dealer in nearby Davis for scheduled maintainance. While we were waiting, we walked down the street and had breakfast at Cindy's, which was very good. The staff was helful and full of substitution ideas to keep things vegetarian and we will probably go back there next time we are in the area. We walked over to a nearby independent video store and scoured their '3 for $25' bin, ending up with Must Love Dogs, Monster In Law, and Match Point. Guess which one I picked? Hint, Match Point is a great drama and I loved it when I saw it in the theater. ;-)

Then we went and picked up the middle grandchild (Jasmine) and brought her back to our house to spend the night. The older one (Josephine) has had turns so now it was Jasmine's turn. We enjoyed her and without her sister around she was much more talkative.

Friday July 7, 2006 -
We've been trying to so a bit of a diet this week, but enough is enough! We went to 524 Mexican Food and it was g-o-o-d!!!

Wednesday July 5, 2006 -
Mom came home from the hospital today. Hey, Mom, we wish you well and our thoughts are with you!!

Tuesday July 4, 2006 -
Happy Independence Day! In these times of government snooping into our lives without warrants and sending our young people to die for no good reason halfway across the world, it is important to celebrate our freedoms and vow to work hard to keep them. Let freedom ring.

We went to the hospital to visit Mom today too, she is healing and recovering.

Monday July 3, 2006 -
We were both off work today, always a good thing. The daughter and family came over and the daughter and I too their car back in so they could finish fixing the air conditioning. Doesn't it seem like they always need 'a part'. Anyway, it is working now. They stayed for dinner and we used our recently-purchased barbeque. What? In a meat-free zone?!? Don't panic! We barbequed some Boca patties, some Smart Dogs and some Tofurky brat sausages. With all the fixings slathered over the food, it was as good as real. Better actually if you are a cow or pig. As it grew dark, we went out and shot off some fireworks in the street. The kids were scared and excited at the same time, they loved it! We celebrated the holiday a day early because no one had to get up early the next day. So the kids spent the night.

Sunday July 2, 2006 -
Mom had the surgery for her broken hip and it went well. Good news.

Saturday July 1, 2006 -
In celebration of their recent 50th anniversary (!), we took Petra's parents out for dinner to Hana Tsubaki japanese food. The service was excellent and the food was very good too. It is one of their favorite places but we had not been there before. We will go back. Not too many vegetarian choices but the seemed willing to modify dishes as requested. We also brought some wine and enjoyed it with the meal. Anyway, happy anniversary!!


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