Mom has written a wonderful essay about her childhood living in San Francisco – be sure to check it out!

Hypnotize yourself for several minutes to an hour by watching this somewhat mysoginistic animation. If she gets stuck, just drag her around a bit.

The movie was grand – the Loews digital projection was smashing, I wish the sound had been as pristine (it sounded like the center subwoofer had a broken speaker cone or driver, which exhibited itself on only the loudest lowest passages). Lots of light saber play, space ships, aliens, deceipt, heroism, and a very nice setup from the prequels to the original trilogy. A very satifying 2 1/2 hours.

Afterwards, I ate dinner at Gladstone’s, a seafood restaurant, then walked down the hill from Citywalk to the Metro station (it took all of ten minutes, if that), rode back to the car and then home.

Tonight’s Full Strawberry Moon is the lowest on the horizon in 18 years, so it should appear HUGE! Be sure to check it out!

I took LA Metro’s Red Line to the Universal City station ($1.25 one way) and walked across the street to Universal City.

About a block further up the road that leads into the complex was the stop for the Universal shuttle tram that takes visitors to all the many attractions.

There was a guide admonishing the passengers to keep their arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times It wasn’t until we arrived at Citywalk that she informed her audience that the shuttle stopped running at 7:00, which was an hour and a half from them. Uh oh!

The first time I visited Citywalk, I was reminded of Pier 39 in San Francisco, at about 10 times its scale. Here’s a shot to the right (the theaters are on the left, the Hard Rock Cafe is on the right, and there’s a big video screen in the middle showing music videos of Universal’s galaxy of music stars (Mariah Carey in on the screen – can you tell?)

I gotta practice holding that cameraphone still! Here’s a shot to the left – a neon King Kong in the center.

And finally, the famous spinning sphere that is the Universal trademark.

Movie review to come!

I’m gonna live it up this evening. After work I’ll head for Universal Citywalk and finally see Star Wars in a digital projection theater, then have a nice dinner at one of the restaurants there. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Dear Dr. Welby:

I write to request an opportunity to discuss choosing you as my primary health care provider.

No doubt your daily schedule is a full one, and this may seem to be a rather unusual request, but I take the maintenance of my health seriously, and I’d like to ensure that the physician I choose to help me with that maintenance feels the same way I do.

What with the current state of managed health care in this country, perhaps I really should be interviewing your staff, as I would likely spend more time with them than the three-to-five minutes I typically spend talking to the doctor during a typical visit. In the medical offices with which I have worked in the recent past, I have found the attitudes of reception staff and examining room assistants to run the gamut from indifference to cool presumption to downright surliness. How refreshing it would be to find a group of people working together that would assign as high a priority to the well being of their patients as they do to discussing their evening plans with their co-workers.

I admit that the people you and your staff see from day to day may not be the easiest people to serve, but most of them are sick or at least are not feeling on top of their game; I assume that wanting to help patients in their discomfort is why people choose the health care profession. I could be wrong about that.

But I digress.

Insensitive staff I can deal with; I’m really more concerned with establishing a relationship with a physician with whom I can communicate in a meaningful way, who will become my partner in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, despite the limitations of the HMO or PPO plan of which I am a member. Although I have a few chronic concerns, I would not consider myself a demanding patient. However, with the difficulty I’m facing finding a suitable health care provider, I fear that I may become one, whether I like it or not. I hope you can find a moment during your busy day to consider my request. I realize your time is valuable, and I appreciate your attention.

Sincerely,

Your potential patient

• A Campobello teen is accused of raping one neighbor’s dog and another neighbor’s two little girls.
• Authorities found the body of 43-year-old chemist Geetha Angara — along with her clipboard and hand-held radio — at the bottom of a tank filled with more than a million gallons of water. They say Angara was pushed into the bitter-cold tank by one of 85 colleagues. They say they have narrowed the list of probable perpetrators to eight co-workers, all male.
• Romanian Orthodox priest Father Daniel Corogeanu and four nuns have been charged with murder after ordering another nun who was “possessed by the devil” and “beyond salvation” to be crucified. The nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, was found dead and chained to a cross last Wednesday.

Finally feeling halfway human since coming down with whatever it is last week. I’m sure it was the travel. As Ed said, you never know what you’re breathing when you’re captive in an aluminum tube for four and a half hours with 200 other people in various states of health.

I’ll wrap up the travel writing by saying it was a lovely long weekend with Laura in Raleigh and environs. I didn’t like the mugginess at all, but I managed to miss dramatic weather like thunderstorms, which are certainly more common there than here on the Left Coast. I ate very well, I heard a lot of great music, and enjoyed a lot of great fellowship with friends old and new. I will be going back.

Coming back home was a bit of a trial, as weather (the first real rain I saw in NC) and FAA-mandated holds delayed my trip from Raleigh to Atlanta via Delta. The flight was scheduled for 4:50, I believe, which allowed for a slightly-less-than-an-hour layover in Atlanta. We didnt begin boarding until 5:00, then sat at the gate until 5:45 when the weather in Georgia finally lifted enough to release the ground hold. We didn’t get off the ground until close to 6, which pretty much nixed the chances of making the connection. It didn’t dawn on me that everyone else would be delayed as well (including the connection) and I made it handily. Unfortunately (for them), a lot of other people didn’t make the flight and despite the flight attendant’s assurance of a full plane (I think they say that whether or not it really will be), I had the rare pleasure of having an entire row to myself. Bliss!

I had planned on being back in SoCal relatively early (8:30 pm) to get a good night’s sleep, and I still got in at 9:30 or so, not too bad. But for some reason it took FOREVER to get the baggage off the plane – that took an hour. Then I had another long wait for a shuttle to the cheap lot I had parked in. Long story short, I got in the door at 11:30. The best laid plans…

Anyway, good to be home, and in the land of the living. Thanks for hanging around.

Sorry about the dearth of posts, but I’ve come down with a touch of bronchitis the last couple of days, and both my co-workers at work went on vacation on Friday, so I’ve been a little dragged out. Bear with me!