A Beautiful Mind

This morning Keith and I watched how the movie, "A Beautiful Mind" was made.  Ron Howard directed the movie, and Russell Crowe starred as John Nash.  The haunting musical theme is composed and conducted by James Horner (Titanic and Apollo 13).  Welsh soprano, Charlotte Church sings "All Love Can Be".

When the piece was over, I had tears in my eyes.  Howard did a brilliant job of taking the viewer on the rollercoaster ride of schizophrenia.  On the DVD version, clips show the actual presentation of the Nobel prize to John Nash, as well as how the make-up department managed to age Crowe several decades.  Although some scenes may be difficult to watch, I highly recommend this movie.

Then I checked my e-mail.  Attachments go into a separate file from my e-mail and do not appear on the messages (as they do in Outlook or Hotmail).

So, while I'm downloading messages (usually 50 or so at a time), I'm also clicking through what's new in the attachment folder.  Can you imagine my puzzlement when I see a man's photo and then a woman's photo amongst the sigtag graphics, adoption teddy bears, and photos of horses from the Alaska Horse mailing list?

The photo of the man resembled the essence of John Nash.

Blog Challenged

Melissa mentioned in her Monday's Musings idea that some people do not know what to write about in their blogs.  I decided to try a musing, but it is not because I'm blog challenged.  In fact the idea that I might run out of ideas for things to say strikes me as hilariously funny.  Why?  Because I must have at least a dozen blogs!  Monday Musings is still a great idea, though.

Note:  My tagboard is on my other blog.

Monday Musings

Okay, so today isn't Monday.  I never said I was punctual, did I?  Melissa started an idea on her blog.  I think it's a cool idea.  Since I can't think of anything for her this week's questions, I'll answer last weeks, "Name 5 things about where you live". That should be easy.  You know how I love talking about Alaska.

1. I can see the Alaska Range of mountains from my livingroom window.
2. Moose eat from my garden.
3. The daylight lasts all night in the summer.
4. When the temperature drops to 50 below, the snow turns into a crystal paradise.
5. The quiet is intoxicating.

Dreary April

I hate this time of year.  It is so grey and depressing.  The beautiful white snow is gone.  The trees look like bankrupt homeowners.

Last night I finally got a good night's sleep, the first one in over a month.

Homestyle Hangover

The past three weeks have been hectic and exhausting.  Brendon, Pam, and I arrived home last night on Alaska Airlines flight 91.

I thought I would sleep for a week when I got into my own bed, but I was wide awake at 7:35 a.m. this morning.  I woke up with mild swelling (probably from all those peanuts on the flights) and a blazing headache.

What's a hangover?  I've never had one.  That small bottle of white wine that I had on the flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks couldn't have caused this bad of a hangover, could it?

I know I would be much happier to be home if...

• I didn't have this headache.
• I didn't have so much laundry to do now.
• My website wasn't woefully in need of updating.
• I wasn't three weeks (plus) behind on answering e-mail.
• My bonsai plant had survived three weeks of not being watered.
• My house didn't need a good cleaning.
• The sheets on the bed didn't need changing.
• The dishes in the sink weren't covered with stagnant water.
• I didn't have this headache.

Carol and Jack

I had e-mailed Carol a few days ago to ask if she'd like to have lunch.  I left Great-grandma Rae's telephone number.  When Carol called, she invited Pam, Brendon, and I for dinner on Thursday evening.  Then she graciously offered us a night's stay in her guest room, and we had our own bathroom.

I've never met a more hospitable couple than Carol and Jack.  I mentioned that Pam and I have been looking for a Johnny-Jump-Up for Brendon.  Carol called information for the number and then dialed a local store to see if they had one in stock (unfortunately, not).  Jack gave us one of Carol's maps to help us decide how we'd spend our afternoon sightseeing.

When we returned from Cabrillo National Park, Carol called up Budget Rent-a-Car to help Jack plot our course to return the Ford that we had rented.  I followed him there, and then he brought me back to their house.

Carol prepared a tasty dinner of chicken and yams.  Jack picked, washed, and served us fresh fruit from their own tree for dessert, as well as a sweet potato pie.  I'm no connoisseur of wines; however, I delighted in the taste of the white wine Jack poured us with our dinner.

Carol and Jack generously shared their computer with us so that we could do a web check in and print out our boarding passes.  Then Carol got up early and fixed us scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast.  Jack loaded our humongous suitcases into their van, and they transported us to the airport.

In between all the comings and goings, we had a wonderful visit, and I regret that we didn't have more time to spend with them.

From Oceanside to San Diego

Pam and I decided to drive into San Diego on Thursday.  Otherwise we would have to get up at 4 a.m. Friday and hope we didn't have any delays due to traffic or returning the rental car.

So Wednesday would be our last night in Oceanside.  We decided to eat at an Outback Restaurant.  Now that was an adventure.  The telephone book told us that it was on Vista Way.  We drove to the end of that street and ended up in a car lot.  Well, that was not the way, that's for sure.  We backtracked the seven or so miles, and went the other direction from College Blvd. and sure enough, there it was, right next to the Target Store we'd visited only a few days earlier.  If we could have convinced Great-grandma Rae to go with us , we wouldn't have taken an hour for a 10-minute drive.  Grammy was going to bed because she'd work that day at Legoland, and she had to get up early the next morning.

I was pleasantly surprised that we managed to get packed and loaded into the car by 10:30 a.m.  We had the rest of the day to shop, explore, and drive to San Diego.

We stopped at a used bookstore to pick up a book for me to read on the plane.  Pam popped into a martial arts studio.  We shopped in a discount store for clothes.  We decided we can scratch that place off our to-do list in the future.  We also had time to buy Brendon some summer outfits at Target, and I picked up an inflatable neck pillow for the trip home.

Pam and I took some panoramic photos of San Diego from the top of a hill overlooking the city and bay.

Trip Extension

Here I sit in the library in Vista, California.  I have so much to write, and so little time.  Great-grandma Rae drove me here to check my e-mail.  Today I changed our tickets to go home next week after Brendon's follow-up visit to the neurosurgeon.  Then I extended our car rental another week, too.  Those two phone calls were quite an experience.

Now we are going out for breakfast at IHOP where I can get a wheat-free breakfast.