Happy Birthday, Nika!

I started the morning thinking about how cathartic it's been writing this blog. I suddenly realized that the word catheter, which has the same prefix, is also a mechanism for release. That made me think about the name Cathrine. I'm glad I'm not named Cathrine.

"Empire Falls" by Richard Russo, and "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, were great reads. The former won Russo the Pulitzer Prize. The latter is one of the best love stories I've ever read. A book that's so good I refuse to watch the film. I've read both of their new books while in the clinic. Russo's "That Old Cape Magic", and Niffenegger's "Her Fearful Symmetry." Neither will win a Pulitzer or, hopefully, be made into a film. They are so bad, so excruciatingly boring, it's hard to believe they were written by the same authors. It's as if Ridley Scott immediately followed "Blade Runner" with "A Good Year." I should have just quit in the middle of both of them, but I've always had a hard time doing that. I almost gave up on "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx, but she hit her stride around page 82 and it turned out to by one of my all time favorites. As far as I remember, the only books I couldn't finish were "A Confederacy of Dunces" and "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." I just didn't see what all the excitement was about for "Dunces", and I had the feeling that "Tattoo" had lost something in the translation from Swedish. All just my opinion of course. Sticking with the book theme, if you haven't already seen the movie "The Road", and are planning to, read the book first. Preferably in one sitting on a day when the weather outside is really nasty. Heavy stuff.

And thank you Christel, Patrik, and Marc, for picking me up for dinner on Friday. As always, a good time was had by all. BUT, as much fun as I had, the highlight of my day, and I'm sure you'll all agree with me on this (okay, maybe not all of you), was lying face down on a therapy table while a young brunette stuck electrified suction cups on my bare ass. Ugh, therapy goooood.

Go Vikings!!