‘Sylvia’, Bistro71, ‘Looking for Alaska’

(posted from home)
(This post covers 20-23 April, 2009)

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Thursday, 23 April –

My routine dental appointment yesterday led to an appointment for some work today so I was once again back in Mechanicsburg, this time by motorcycle.
My repair to the exhaust system worked very well. And with today’s sunnier weather, I was very, very happy to be out riding again. I’ve not been on the bike since November or early December and only had a short demo ride on a Hardly bagger at Daytona to see me through.
After returning home, I soon decided ‘more, please’ and rode off again, this time to York. I went in to Best Buy to check out the big-screen televisions and accompanying furniture. The televisions are reported to be great bargains right now but I didn’t see anything worth the effort and expense of change, not to mention the additional operating expense of the television or the exorbitant prices of the ‘furniture’ which looks like it comes in a box with assembly instructions.
That evening we watched Survivor-Tocantins and loved seeing a great blind-side vote. Afterward, we watched four (!!) episodes of Corner Gas, Season Two. Brent Butt rules!!!!

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Wednesday, 22 April-

I had a routine dental appointment this morning so drove to Mechanicsburg for that. Afterward, I hit the local Starbucks for a coffee-and-Times hour. I thought I might drop into the local Borders but I was just recently in the York Borders and I just can’t see the prices they want for books and some magazines now. I’m not going to spend $10 on a magazine or $30 on a book.
Back home I spent the remainder of the rainy day on the web and reading. I’m currently reading ‘Looking for Alaska’ by Peter Jenkins. I absolutely love having been to many of the places in the book. When he speaks of Seward, for example, I know exactly what he means in his descriptions of the looming mountains and of Resurrection Bay. In Talkeetna he goes to the Roadhouse Grill. We were there (for a scrumptious halibut-and-chips meal). We were in Coldfoot and know the truck stop/restaurant/motel he speaks. And we were in Tok at Fast Eddie’s (good pizza!).
And there are still plenty of places we’ve not been. I now need to go back and see Cordova. And Barrow. I love this book!

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Tuesday, 21 April –

Today Labashi and I drove to Chambersburg to visit her high-school buddy, ‘Golden Retriever’ (her geocaching name). She lives in Maine in the summer and Cburg in the winter so she’s about to head back to Maine and we wanted to get together.
We arranged to meet at “Caledonia’s Bistro” restaurant but when we arrived we found a note on the door saying they’d be closed for three days. But Golden Retriever suggested we try ‘Bistro71’ in downtown Cburg and that turned out to be great. We had no idea this nice little upscale café was there.
We spent the mid-afternoon at Bistro71, enjoying the good food and a drink or three.
Labashi and I headed home around 1600 and stopped at Caledonia State Park for a break. The cloudy, rain-threatening day had cleared up very nicely at that point so we took a walk on the Ramble Trail. I had visited Caledonia many times but this was the first time I walked the entire Ramble Trail loop. We did get caught by a surprisingly fast-moving rain shower at the end of our hour-long walk but it wasn’t a downpour so we were fine. But just a few miles east of there we later saw heavy rain and a thunderstorm as we drove home.
That evening we watched ‘Sylvia’ with Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig. I’m not a fan.

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Monday, 20 April-

This morning I updated the blog. The days are going by at an accelerated pace and I’m getting lost on the blog. If I wait too long, I can’t remember what I was doing a few days back and (I’ve got to face it), the answer is ‘not much’! I believe this is the longest interval I’ve taken to post an update.
Other than that, I paid bills today and patrolled my regular web-news sites.
Yesterday evening I noticed an odd swelling to the left of my kneecap and of course wondered if it has anything to do with the tick bite. On reflection, I don’t think so. I know I bumped the area as I crawled across the floor of the van yesterday to retrieve a tool. I think that kicked off the swelling reaction and it will go down in a few days. I just took some ibuprofen and iced it yesterday evening and this morning it’s down 60-70 per cent. Oddly, there’s no pain with it though it is tender to the touch. We’ll see.
Today was again a rainy day. I miss the blue-sky-and-75 days I had for the five weeks in Florida.


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CT scan results, ‘Hilary and Jackie’, Camp Michaux visit, ‘High Art’, first craigslist ad, ‘The True Meaning of Pictures…’, ‘Elevator to the Gallows’, ‘The Duchess’, another emergency room visit

(posted from home)
(This post covers 6 - 19 April, 2009)

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Sunday, 19 April –

Well, surprise, surprise. This morning Labashi noticed a tick on the back of my leg. I didn’t feel a thing yet there it was, well-embedded behind my right knee. It appeared not to be engorged but the skin around it showed the typical redness of a local infection; it didn’t just happen overnight. I can only surmise that I picked it up on my walk at Pinchot State Park on Thursday or perhaps when I mowed the lawn Friday.
We attempted to remove it using the baby-oil and sterilized-hot-nail techniques without success but a half-hour later Labashi was able to pluck it out with tweezers. However, even if we did remove the tick, it was not clear all the parts had come out and I still wanted to get a Doxycycline treatment. I headed for Memorial Hospital.
I had been given a Doxycycline dose at Memorial at my last tick bite in November of 2007 and afterwards read about its use in the treatment of Lyme disease. And I had been impressed by the fact that Memorial has a tick expert on staff. Dr. Westenberger has made a study of ticks, keeps a collection of them, and is the go-to guy on anything tick-related in York. He’s not on duty on the weekend but the emergency room doctor would forward the tick on to him for a look later on.
The other reason for opting on the safe side of this was last winter (2008) I met a young (mid-thirties) couple in my Florida campground who were suffering (I learned over time) the effects of tertiary Lyme disease. They had both had to quit their jobs and were trying to preserve their precarious health. On the surface, they appeared to have ideal lives—young, healthy-looking, financially able to travel full-time. But on closer view, they seemed fragile and not at all confident they could weather a minor challenge – like an infection— to their health.
My appointment at the Memorial’s ‘FastER’ (get it? Fast Emergency Room) wasn’t bad. Overall, I was there about two hours. I was taken in to the treatment area quickly but just when the resident came in to see me, she was interrupted—a serious emergency case had just arrived. Fortunately, I had brought along my iPod so I listened to some music and to three or four CBC-Manitoba podcasts. The resident’s boss—the doctor (also a woman) came in for a few minutes, took a quick look and ordered the Doxycycline, which I then had to wait for. But, again, no big deal. I was very comfortable and relaxed. And when I left I saw the Emergency Room had a lot more patients waiting than had been there when I came in.
Memorial is only a few blocks from the Starbucks so I went over for a quick coffee and chatted with another Miata owner in the parking lot for a bit.
Back home, I decided I just have to get on with fixing the Concours exhaust. I knew I had a leak but didn’t know how extensive it is. I checked for parts online and if I have to replace either of the header pipes, that will run into a $500 repair.
I removed the fairing’s belly pan and finally got a good look at the hole in the cross-over pipe connecting the two header assemblies. The bad news is that pipe is part of the assembly and that’s a $250 part.
I rode the KLR into the local Advance Auto and found several possible solutions. I had been looking for a fiberglass muffler bandage but that may have been too stiff to conform to the contour of the problem. I chose a Vera-Chem solution which uses a putty which hardens to a steel-like coating. You first smear this putty on the problem area, then apply a putty-soaked square of window-screen material and add more putty to fully cover the screen.
The process only took me ten minutes or so and by that time the putty was already starting to show signs of hardening. I’m supposed to wait two to four hours before trying it but I’ll wait at least until tomorrow. And with rains predicted for the next two days, I probably won’t try it until Wednesday.
That evening we watched the extras on ‘The Duchess’ DVD, then went to bed early to read.

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Saturday, 18 April –

Today was a beauty of a day--- sunny and low Seventies. I had a slow start to getting out the door, though, puttering around too much on the web. By mid-day I was out helping Labashi a bit.
We cleaned out the rain gutters (our tall pines drop needles on the roof and those wash into the gutters and block the drains). With the ladder out of the barn, that made it easy to get to the motorcycle (I store my KLR650 inside for the winter). Thank goodness I had thought to do a round of battery charging earlier this week. Every other month or so from November through April I put the float-charger on the boat and motorcycle batteries to help them through the downtime.
The KLR started fairly easily but the battery wouldn’t have lasted very long if it hadn’t started within a few cranks. Time for a new one, I believe.
I see the KLR has 5600 miles on it now. I didn’t ride it much at all last year but believe I’ll be riding it more this year. I want to get a lowering link to lower it a bit so I can more easily throw a leg over and can straddle it with both feet flat on the ground.
With such a nice day at hand I thought I’d ride it a bit to get the oil well-circulated through the engine. Before long I found myself at the Starbucks in York— just the right amount of riding for good motorcycle maintenance!
That evening we started a movie early in the evening and ended up watching two of them. First up was ‘Elevator to the Gallows’, a 1958 French film by director Louis Malle. A perfectly-planned murder is interrupted when the murderer is accidently trapped in an elevator. Recommended (so long as you don’t mind reading subtitles).
The second movie of the evening was ‘The Duchess’ with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. It’s reported to be a true story of the Duchess of Devonshire who is treated very badly by her loutish Duke when she fails to immediately give him the male heir he demands as part of their ‘marriage bargain’. I’m not a fan of period dramas like this but do appreciate the work that went into re-creating the time period and trying to get it right. I see RT top-critics give it a 65% and that seems about right to me.

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Friday, 17 April-

I mowed the lawn for this first time this year. I might have gotten away with waiting a few more days but we’re supposed to have some rain coming in the next few days so I’d better get it out of the way. My old early-Eighties mower started up on the second pull but the fancy Honda-engined Husqvarna didn’t start for a good forty or fifty pulls. That doesn’t normally happen so I suspect there may be some drying-out of the carb gaskets going on or perhaps it’s old gas. I really need to run it more often. I prefer the old mower so very seldom use the new one— it’s Labashi’s mower and she doesn’t mow very often. I think I’d better start running a tankful through the old one (that does about two-thirds of the lawn), and then exercise the other mower for the remainder of the lawn.
Labashi went off to pick up her new chair and returned with it by mid-afternoon. We un-boxed it, checked it thoroughly, and put in place in the living room. Nice!
I then spent the rest of the afternoon catching up the blog. In the evening we watched public tv, a local show called ‘Smart Talk’, ‘Bill Moyers Journal’, and ‘Now’. I loved seeing David Simon of ‘The Wire’ talking to Bill. ‘The Wire’ is my all-time favorite tv series and well-deserving of the attention.

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Thursday, 16 April-

I spent the morning working in the office on this really spectacular day. I couldn’t stand it inside by mid-afternoon so I put the top down on the Miata and drove to Pincot Park.
I walked for two hours, this time from the east-side launch ramp to the far end of the campground and back. I had kept up a good pace throughout so figure the mileage for today at six miles.
That evening we just watched some TV. The Sportsman Channel now has a Shooter’s Thursday series from 2100 on and today’s shows seemed much better than usual. If you get a chance to see ‘Best Defense’, take it.

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Wednesday, 15 April-

This morning I drove to Chambersburg to pick up Mother’s tax return info and received a shock. Where my regular tax prep specialist has the setup and connections for electronic filing, Mom’s specialist does not. I thought I was only picking up copies of what had already been filed so I almost didn’t go today. I had thought I’d go later in the week but then realized it was going to rain so I may as well go. Imagine my surprise when I found both the federal and state returns in the folder. This is the kind of thing I don’t like. You go through several meetings with a new person and still don’t get the information on what the basic process is. Even the call is deceptive (not intentionally, but nevertheless it deceives) when the message left on my machine was ‘Your taxes are ready for pickup’. But, in the end, I did get them mailed off in time.
I had lunch at Maypo’s house, gladly taking the opportunity to get some play-time with my teeny little year-and-a-half-old grand-niece. In the past she has only said a word or two but today she was chatting away. I heard the words ‘octopus’ and ‘hooray’ as clear as a bell. The former is a favorite tubbie-toy and the latter a sing-along (“If you’re happy and you know it, shout ‘hooray’”)
And today I had an unexpected bonus. Her body language says she’s afraid of the hairy old bezabor. We had our first ball-toss (well, more like rolling) session and that brought her close to me a couple of times but she still had a line she wouldn’t cross. But at one point she had just dropped the ball at my feet (errr, I mean, ‘tossed it’) when Mommie unexpectedly came in the front door and the dog barked. The bark startled her and she turned and ran into my arms before she knew it. I wasn’t surprised when she then pulled back a bit when she realized what she had done. But I was surprised by my reaction to her presence. Something jumped inside of me the instant she ran toward me. I don’t know if it was a protective instinct or just the sheer joy of having this perfect little being depending on me for something. In any case, it was very, very cool. We turned out attention back to the rigors of ball-play.
Back home I found Labashi preparing for the arrival of the couple who wanted to see the chair. They were very pleasant and said they loved the chair and they’d take it. The chair ad had been put up Monday evening and the reply had come within an hour of posting. But there hadn’t been any other replies. So we were very happy for the deal to go through.

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Tuesday, 14 April –

The first thing we saw upon logging on to email this morning was we had a reply to Labashi’s craigslist post. When we checked the time stamp we realized the email had been sent less than an hour after our ad went up. Talk about quick response!
Labashi replied back this morning after we talked a bit about the possible complications. Maybe it’s a prank reply, maybe the woman won’t like it once she sees it in person, maybe we’ll get into a bargaining situation, etc. We crossed our fingers.
That evening we watched a documentary, “The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia”. Mr. Adams is a photographer who works in large-format black-and-white- -the kind where you see every line on a person’s face or hands. His photographs are somewhat controversial in that they portray what some call unfair stereotypes of Kentucky hillbillies. Mr. Adams defends his work as being true to his own background. We learn in the film that some of the scenes are set up and that forces us to think about whether or not that makes a difference. When we see a gory hog-killing and butchering, we learn that the family doing the work haven’t killed a hog in many years. They did it at the request of Mr. Adams, who remembered this being done in his childhood. So is it somehow ‘wrong’ to stage it now for photographs?

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Monday, 13 April –

I worked in my office today, catching up on bills. That evening I helped Labashi post our first craigslist ad, this for her Queen Anne chair. It’s time for a change and her chair is actually still in great condition so we’re hoping it goes fairly easily.

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Sunday, 12 April –

Today we recovered from yesterday’s tour and spent much of the day on the web.
Late in the day I called Maypo to wish him a happy birthday and heard the family had celebrated at one of his favorite restaurants. That’s great! He deserves a break.
That evening Labashi and I watched ‘High Art’ with Radha Mitchell and Ally Sheedy. I see RottenTomatoes has mixed feelings on it in that the regular critics give it a 71 and the Top Critics a 50. I don’t normally see that kind of spread. But I think I know why. I also have mixed thoughts about it. On the one hand I can’t help but admire the ultra-fearless actress that is Radha Mitchell. But then again, something isn’t right in the storyline. She has a boyfriend and they seem to get on well but she suddenly switches teams, in a manner of speaking. I don’t have a problem with the idea but I didn’t feel we learned why she made that decision. And when presented the opportunity to try some heavy-duty drugs, she joins right in. So we who are following along in the story line with at least some thought that she represents us and how we’d react, we’re suddenly set adrift.
But I highly recommend the film. If nothing else, see it for Patricia Clarkson’s portrayal of Greta, the drug-addled former actress.

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Saturday, 11 April –

Today we drove to Pine Grove Furnace to participate in a tour of the CCC camp, prisoner-of-war camp, and church camp that was Camp Pine Grove (in the CCC and WW2 days), then Camp Michaux (as a church camp). The walking tour was sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society and was led very ably by David Smith, former librarian at the Society.
Here’s a link to lots and lots of great info about Camp Michaux: http://www.schaeffersite.com/michaux/. We met Lee Schaeffer at the event and thanked him for doing such an outstanding job with his website. If you happen to check the site while the notice of the April 2009 walk is still up, you’ll see a picture of the participants. Labashi and I are in it.
The morning’s rain was ending as we started the tour and by the end (two hours later) we had a beautiful sunny day.
After the tour we decided to go home Route 30 instead of Route 74 so we continued south through the Michaux State Forest. Once on 30 we stopped at a little white-tablecloth restaurant I like. It’s called “Caledonia’s Bistro”. It’s an odd little place. It never seems to have much business but then again we’re typically coming through here at odd times. On this wonderful Saturday afternoon we were the only customers in the place for the first hour, then another couple did come in.
We only had drinks and appetizers and then shared a crab-cake sandwich but we loved the variety of tastes.
Afterward we drove home via Gettysburg, Abbottstown, and Dover, just taking our good old time.

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Friday, 10 April –

I finished up the tax stuff today (hopefully) and had a short video call with Orat. In the afternoon I went over to the local Rite-Aid to buy a new headset for the iPod. I also helped Labashi prepare her recliner chair for sale. We carried it out onto the patio and took pictures for a craigslist ad and I shot a short video clip of it. I sent the clip to family in case they’re interested before we post the ad.
We spent the evening on the web, preparing for our visit to Camp Michaux tomorrow.

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Thursday, 9 April –


I spent the day working on taxes for Mother’s final tax returns. In mid-afternoon I walked the six-mile loop. The walk was a little tougher than normal—I don’t know why.
That evening we watched ‘Hilary and Jackie’ with Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths. It’s the story of two sisters – Hilary and Jacqueline DuPre-- who were musical prodigies. One goes on to international fame while another chooses a more traditional path. Highly recommended.

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Wednesday, 8 April –

I spent most of the day today doing software updates on our computers and running security and system-clean-up programs. It’s just routine stuff but so easy to ignore then find later that you wish you had done it. The new version of Skype (4.0.0.216) claims to have made major improvements to both regular and video phone calls. In my first call using it, however, the person on the other end complained of an echo. I’ve noticed that Skype-Out calls (calls to regular telephones) are a lot more likely to have a problem. I think it has to do with the delays and various idiosyncrasies of the analog phone network. When I do have a problem it can often be cleared up by calling back, presumably because the phone routing takes another path. But overall I love it, particularly the video calls. And I love being able to make an 800 call to a support line for free and surf the web or do whatever I want online while waiting in the call queue.


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Tuesday, 7 April –

This morning I had my consult with the urologist about the latest CT scan. This one was a followup to the discovery of a small lesion on my left kidney in January. The results of this one: no indication of a problem but we need to keep an eye on it with another CT scan in November.
After the appointment I ran some errands around town, then spent the afternoon on the web and I watched a few ’30 Rock- Season Two’ episodes on Netflix that evening.

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Wednesday, 6 April-

Today is Labashi’s birthday. I spent the morning catching up email and the blog, then we ran over to the local Quiznos for lunch—just to get out of the house for a bit.
I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into thermal imaging cameras. I’ve seen some interesting footage on YouTube and thought I’d love to have one to look for wildlife at night. But it looks like they’re still WAY too expensive—something on the order of $4000 for an entry-level unit. I’ve seen the footage and photos from the cheaper night-vision light-amplification units and they just wouldn’t be useful for this except in very limited opportunities.
That evening we finished off the ‘Lost- Season Four’ extras. Good season!

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‘Slumdog Millionaire’, daily routine

(posted from home)
(This post covers 1-5 April, 2009)


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Sunday, 5 April –

Today was a beauty of a day. I finally got around to resolving a problem with the electrical outlet in my office so we can turn the light on and off from the wall switch. I also drove the Miata in to Staples to enjoy the day while I went in to buy a replacement UPS for Labashi’s computer. Last night hers began alarming on an overload condition and wouldn’t come out of it until I removed the internal battery. The unit was over-heating and I have to wonder whether it would have gotten dangerously hot if we hadn’t been here. When I saw Staples had a higher-capacity and better-featured unit on sale for not much more than I’d have to pay for a replacement battery and shipping, I jumped on it. After returning home I installed the unit and its controlling software with no hassles.
Labashi had gone shopping so I took a long walk to enjoy the sun. I walked ten miles (roundtrip) to the local video rental store. I thought my Lost-4 disk set was due back today but it turned out not to be due until tomorrow so I brought it back home. Taking the movies back to the store was just an excuse for a walk so no harm done.
That evening we watched four episodes of ‘Lost’ Season 4. We like this season so far. Last year we almost decided to give up on Lost when it seemed so ‘soapy’, i.e., written like a soap opera. But the writers have done a good job of keeping us interested this year with all the interesting plot turns.

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Saturday, 4 April –

This morning we went to the township offices to attend a public meeting held by state senator Jeff Piccola. We didn’t really have a dog in any political hunt, we’re just interested in hearing what he had to say. He’s a senior rep in our state government and chair of the Education Committee and seems like a pretty straightforward guy. There were about 15 attendees and questions ranged all over the political spectrum. We did have one blow-hard who thought his opinions were the only ones that needed to be heard but otherwise we enjoyed hearing Sen. Piccola’s take on things. We were also impressed that he has a great way of taking a question from someone who’s obviously for or against some topic and responding in a thoughtful and respectful way even when his position is the opposite.
Afterwards we went to a nearby restaurant, The Fieldhouse, for lunch. I spent the rest of the day finishing off the month of March on the blog and doing some reading on Rokon motorcycles. I don’t think that’s quite what I’m looking for but I’d love to have the opportunity to try one out.
That evening we watched three ‘Lost-4’ episodes.

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Friday, 3 April –

I spent today in the office, mostly working on estate stuff and catching up my medical and estate logs. The logs are proving very helpful. I’ve only had to spend a few minutes re-reading the logs to get back up to speed on where I had left things when I left for Florida and I don’t have that nagging feeling that I’ve missed something.
Labashi was out shopping for the afternoon and evening and didn’t get home until 2100. We were going to watch some ‘Lost’ episodes but instead watched an interesting Bill Moyers’ Journal episode on the banking debacle.

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Thursday, 2 April –

Today was another rainy day. In the morning I had a CT scan done of my kidney to follow up on an earlier CT scan. I’ll get the results next week. I then hit the nearby Starbucks for the papers and then Fuddrucker’s for a burger. Afterwards I went to Action Motorsports again, this time looking for a smaller dual-purpose bike. They had a used Honda Reflex which fit the bill for what I thought I was looking for but reminded me that I once had a bike like that and it wasn’t that useful; I’d be better off to lower the KLR 650 I already own and just use that.
Back home, I shot a video clip of Labashi’s daffodils and then uploaded it to the internet to share with family.
That evening I finished watching ’30 Rock’- Season One on Netflix Instant Movies and later Labashi and I watched the first two episodes of ‘Lost’- Season Four.

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Wednesday, 1 April-

Today I drove to Chambersburg for a tax-prep appointment for Mother’s estate. Afterwards I spent an hour or so at my brother’s house and managed to get some good video footage of my cutie little grand-niece.
Once back home I walked my six-mile loop course in a little under two hours.
That evening we watched ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ with Dev Patel. I thought it was good but not deserving of all the awards. It’s too manipulative of its audience (IMHO). I’d still recommend seeing it; I just don’t think it’s worthy of all the press attention and awards.

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