June 16, 2011

Biff: "I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here, I know that all I've done is to waste my life"--Death of a Salesman

    I was a long time getting to sleep again. (Didn't wake up till about 14:00!)

    Dreamed of doing an acting exercise where I played Stalin on his deathbed; telling my shrink about it.

    The pipe workers were going to come to our house today, but got delayed by a leak in the water main.

    Dinner was fettucine alfredo.

    We couldn't find any seed potatoes, so I'm going to plant regular spuds.

    Went to a Toronto Social Group Meetup at Scallywag's.  We had a Scrabble tournament, with everyone playing three games.  In the first game my first letters included both blanks, so I used up all seven letters and got the 50-point bonus on my first move!  I owned the first game, finished last in the second, and narrowly won the third.

    Wrote a customer review of Stephen E. Ambrose's To America at amazon.com .  I didn't think much of it. [Ambrose let his patriotism cloud his judgement...]

June 15, 2011

    Dreamed of the song "Cockles and Mussels."

    Father and I went to Scotiabank again for more financial business.

    Dinner was chicken curry.

    Went to the Games Meetup at 401 Games for the first time in a while.  I played the U.S. version of Powergrid for the first time, and finished last. (I know what my big mistake was...)

June 14, 2011

Younger woman: "I felt sorry for him.  He's an old man."

Michael Caine: "With an old bank account."

--Pulp

"His name was Di Nuccio.  That was the nicest thing about him"--ibid.

    Dreamed of travelling across Canada with John; taking the train to Gaspe, then proceeding on foot; seeing a horse as large as a camel; actress Jayne Mansfield.

    John and Kathrine came over and bought dinner, but it was vegan again.

    Went to a party at Boccone's for the volunteers who'd worked on the St. Paul's NDP campaign. (The provincial election is coming soon.)

    Afterward I ate a Wendy's hamburger and it immediately disagreed with me. (Serves me right!)

    Saw the DVD of Mike Hodges' Pulp.  It's a witty film noir spoof, with Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney in fine form.

June 13, 2011

    Baked rye bread.

    They're going to change our water pipes soon, so Father and I cleared space in the basement.  There was a bag of cement that had gone hard in the damp, but when I brought it upstairs and put it down, it split into pieces. (Dust galore!)

    Dinner was sausages and quinoa.

    At choir practice we rehearsed Nabucco from start to finish, including the soloists' numbers. (Paradoxically, it seemed shorter.) I flirted with Carmen, asking what music she was playing in the car on the way here.

June 12, 2011

Quint: "Here's to Swimmin' with bow-legged women!"--Jaws

    Dreamed of meeting Desiree McGraw, whom I knew at my Goodenough College stay in London in 1995.

    In the morning I went on a Walking Meetup in the Forest Hill area.

    Because I'd woken up early, I napped after getting back home.

    Dinner was beef stroganoff.

    Saw Steven Spielberg's Jaws (for the second time) at the Underground.  It's best to ignore the fact that a real shark does not lurk around a beach waiting for hunters to chase him.  Quint does a lot for the movie:  Robert Shaw plays him with just the right degree of ham.  If they were making it today, they'd show the shark a lot more and it wouldn't be as good.

June 11, 2011

    Dreamed of trying to play a saxophone; finding a coupon that entitled me to a free Volkswagen; the song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was pork steak.

    Moira and I got most of the seeds planted. (Only the potatoes are left.)

    Saw the DVD of Raoul Walsh's They Drive by Night (for the second time).  It's a realistic Warner Brothers trucking melodrama, which happily costars Humphrey Bogart.  The second half, with Ida Lupino as the boss' dangerous wife, got pretty silly.

    Saw Dion Conflict's Trailer Trash show (for the second time) at the Underground.

June 9, 2011

    Dreamed of the song of the William Butler Yeats poem "Down by the Sally Gardens."

    Visited my shrink Dr. Hassan.

    I'm ready to start planting the garden, but just don't have the energy!

    Dinner was spaghetti.

    Saw the DVD of the TV play Bang the Drum Slowly.  Compared to the movie, it did more with less.

    The city turned off our water for a short time in the evening because they're replacing the ancient pipes that connect us to the water main.