January 10, 2010

    Dreamed of playing a saxophone (which I briefly did in my youth); a story on an ocean liner captained by dwarf actor Herve Villechaize, where I wasn't sure which character I was; a version of Full Metal Jacket where the Drill Instructor survived being shot and went to Vietnam with the recruits; meeting a girl in a shopping centre who thought my name was Jordache (the family on Rich Man, Poor Man, which I was recently watching) and humoring her because I wanted to meet her.

    Alex North's excellent Rich Man, Poor Man theme is still an earworm in my head.

    Saw the DVD of William Hartnell-era Dr. Who adventure "The Keys of Marinus." (The later "Key to Time" season was a retread of that one.) There were a total of six episodes!

    Dinner was vegetarian chili. (I was tempted to sneak out to KFC afterward, but I felt full.)

January 9, 2010

    Baked multigrain bread overnight.

    Dreamed of a story about a filmmaker witnessing World War II.

    In the morning there was a big Jack Frost creation on my window.

    Had breakfast at Cora's with the Walking Meetup, then we walked along Little Italy. (I bought seven books from the dollar bin at Balfour Books.)

    Finally started our book business accounts for 2009.

    Dinner was McDonald's.

    Saw the DVD of the first episode of the Upstairs, Downstairs spinoff Thomas and Sarah.  They're a funny pair.

January 8, 2010

    Dreamed of the Chinese Dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet; jigsaw puzzles with pictures of characters from British comics.

    Finished watching Rich Man, Poor Man, except they hadn't posted the 11th of its 12 hours, which I also missed the first time around.

    Dinner was pork chops.

    Saw the DVD of a documentary about Cole Porter.  What a mysterious talent songwriting is!

    I mistook "tekno^n" for "techno^n" and mistranslated the Greek saying "Breeding children means self-inflicted grief" as "Self-inflicted grief breeds wisdom"! Which is pretty good too...

January 7, 2010

End of a "Dear John" note: "It's for the best.  Thanks for the memories.  Ha ha!"--Rich Man, Poor Man

    Dinner was a chicken curry with korma sauce. (I didn't care for it.)

    Went to an Aspergers Meetup at the Ryerson student centre.  We played Settlers of Catan, which I won! (I'd only won once before, and then we were only playing up to 7 points instead of 10.) There were four of us, and I had to explain it to two who'd never played it before.  They enjoyed the game.

    On the way to Ryerson I saw a long queue of people waiting to meet a wrestler who was signing his new DVD in the record store near Dundas Square.

January 6, 2010

"My grandfather built this [mansion] to last for eternity.  And I'm living it."--Rich Man, Poor Man

    Dreamed of a crazy version of the future.

    Went shopping. (Our load was small this week.)

    Last week I also got the book Teach Yourself Ancient Greek. (I learned some about 25 years ago.) Today I learned some sayings.

    Dinner was KFC.

    At tonight's Games Meetup at 401 Games, I played Smallworld and Galaxy Trucker.  In the former game my races were seafaring amazons, merchant skeletons and wealthy humans.  I led the scoring in the latter game.

January 5, 2010

    Someone on Youtube posted all of the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man in nine-minute pieces!  His playlist turned out not to be in order so when I saw the first episode I ended up seeing parts of it twice.

    Dinner was salmon.

    At opera rehearsal we staged Cavalleria Rusticana for the first time. (Giovanni's standing close to me again.) Barbara was impressed that most ofus seemed to know our parts completely.  Giuseppe started conducting without taking his cap off!

January 4, 2010

    Dreamed of a comic antihero who was the prime minister for a Viking king, and both paranoid and incompetent; hoping that the '70s miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man would be released on DVD.

    Finally practised my opera notes.  I know them pretty well.

    Dinner was linguini. (It would have been spaghetti, but we didn't look at the fine print on the package.)

    Choir practice resumed.  We started preparing for a concert on the 27th, including the Sextet from Lucia di Lamermoor.

    Last week I bought a German grammar book. (Singing German songs got me interested in increasing my small knowledge of the language.) Moira got touchy about me learning "her" language, though I didn't complain when she started learning Latin.  Anyway, when I've finished reading through it I'll give it to her:  she should find it very useful when she's learning German.