Random Thoughts on a Cold Day

• Keeping up with email can be wearying even for extroverts. As much as I like stimulation and contact with friends and acquaintances, it's not the volume of the emails, but their noise that wears me down. A couple of the lists to which I subscribe have some loud and persistent voices that object to lots of things, often with righteousness and justice on their sides. I've got to admit that sometimes I just need a break.

• Why do they advertise movies with dogs that way? I finally viewed "Marley and Me" on cable and was surprised to discover that the movie is based on a book and about more than just a difficult dog. There was a story about a real family that you could care about. You wouldn't know that from watching the previews, which were a complete misrepresentation of the movie. The same thing happened a number of years ago with the Tom Hanks' film "Turner and Hooch," which was actually a good detective story, but was advertised as a movie about a slobbery dog.

• Where is the sun when I'm ready to go for a walk? I've been getting up at 5:00 AM everyday since arriving in Washington last Saturday. But it takes me a while, actually a long while, to gather myself and to slog through the emails, till I'm finally ready to face the outdoors and a walk, say, around 2:30 PM. By then, the sun has circled halfway 'round the front of the apartment, and it's not blazingly bright like it is at 9:30 AM. I suppose I will have to adapt my schedule to get outdoors by 9:30 AM and come back to do the emails. This is when I miss the caffeinated coffee that I gave up back in the spring of this year, in preparation for General Convention in July. Two pots of decaf do not equal a cup of regular coffee.

• A container full of chocolate macadamia nut caramels is a dangerous thing. My brother Jon says that a bag of chips, regardless of whether it's the one ounce individual snack size or the two pound party size, is a one serving bag. The same could be said about a two pound container of chocolate macadamia nut caramels. It's a one serving container, and I'm in trouble because I don't want to share either!

• Christmas specials at the liquor store. I discovered something new on a visit to the liquor store to purchase a birthday gift for a scotch-drinking friend of Herb's. There were many variations of liquor and liqueur filled chocolate candies in gift bags and boxes for sale, obviously packaged as Christmas stocking stuffers. I like it--some gift ideas for the hard-to-buy-for folks on my list.

• Condiments at the Sterling's restaurant in Kennewick. I had noticed the quart size bottle of Vietnamese chili sauce on the table of our booth, as well as three kinds of Tabasco sauce plus Worcestershire sauce, but didn't realize what was actually in the peppery looking shaker until it was too late. I shook its dark contents generously onto my clam chowder only to taste soup that was too salty to eat. The waitress very kindly brought me another cup of chowder and explained that the concoction was a steak condiment.

• Rain is the new Bruce Lee. Korean singer, dancer and actor Rain is the new Bruce Lee. We saw him in the very graphically violent film "Ninja Assassin" on Sunday night. Rain is a gorgeous twenty-something Korean man, with piercing eyes, charisma to spare, and a great body built for martial arts. I look forward to seeing him in future American films and hope that he has a long career. It was a bonus to see Randall Duk Kim as the tattoo master in "Ninja Assassin." I first saw Duk Kim at the American Conservatory Theatre performing the lead in Shakespeare's Richard III back in 1975 in San Francisco.