Happy Birthday Mr. President -- Greg Louganis' Documentary
Today President Obama turned 54. Happy Birthday, Mr. President. I read an article that spoke to how he's aged since assuming the role of president. Little wonder. It's a tough job, to say the least. In fact, I often wonder why anyone wants to run for president... Jokes on Jimmy Fallon about GOP candidates for president were pretty entertaining. The field is pretty light -- and it's hard to imagine Trump being taken seriously (though clearly he is). But honestly, I'm not trying to be political here. (You all know where I stand, as I don't make it a secret.)
Today is also James Tupper's birthday: He turned 50 today. For those who don't recognize the name, James is an actor and was on Revenge, playing David Clarke.
Marilyn and I just got done watching Back on Board: Greg Louganis (on HBO). Greg has always been inspirational to us, since back in the 80's (1984 and 1988) when he was winning gold medals (four gold, to be exact). This was an amazing documentary and I was really crying by the end. He's an amazing man! And he deserved better than he got! Being gay and ethnic he wasn't treated the way other gold medal winners were treated. For example, he never got a Wheaties box! They told Greg he didn't meet their wholesome standards -- based on the rumors that he was gay. Isn't that AWFUL???
(ASIDE: Mom used to collect Wheaties boxes at one point. These were never opened, but kept intact. I don't know why she liked having them so much, but as I recall we dumped them after she died...) You know, if I ever WAS a fan of Wheaties, I'm sorry. And I certainly think they were terrible to treat Greg as they did.
The documentary was beautifully done. Really excellent. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. It ends with Greg marrying his gay partner, so it's really emotional. Just a great ending.
I stayed home from work today. I wasn't feeling that great. In the morning I did IT via the phone with Donn. Then at noon I went to lie down and fell fast asleep! Marilyn phoned me on her way home for lunch TWICE, and I never heard the ringing. But something woke me, as I was just getting up and about as I heard the garage door open. Anyway, I did fix her a tuna sand for lunch and some hot tea. And we watched some of "The Waltons" before she headed back again to the office...
I spent the afternoon cleaning house. I decided to tackle my bedroom. I completely cleaned out two large drawers of my tall dresser. The top drawer is full of a variety of items, many of them keepsakes. The second drawer is where I keep all my medicines that won't fit in the cabinet in the bathroom. (Yeah, I have a TON of medications to store...) I tackled some piles of things and so on. In the process, this impacted the living room (I moved some things out there into my bedroom) and my bathroom (again, moving things into my bedroom and tidying it up) and even the kitchen.
I did a load of dishes and picked up the kitchen. I'd told Marilyn I would make 'bean-oa' (refried beans with quinoa) for dinner, so I wanted things ready for that. We've always liked eating refried beans, but we really love them with the quinoa added! It just nicely thickens it, but also adds additional flavor (we like the taste of quinoa). Refried beans are already a healthy food, but when you add quinoa (the 'super food'), then you make them an excellent food to eat. We just have them in a bowl with a little 'green sauce' (Tabasco Green Jalpeno Pepper Sauce, which we've been using for years and LOVE) for added flavor. And sometimes I heat up some taco shells and we fill the shells with the mix. Yummy!
I finished the last book in the "Wayward Pines" series last night. Then I was SAD. Marilyn knew immediately that I was sad because I actually hate finishing up a book I'm really enjoying... As for this series... Well, it's very, VERY far out there. It really requires you to let reality GO in order to enjoy it. The writing is good and the characters are interesting and it's a very... um... DIFFERENT story. Clearly fascinating enough to keep me reading through three books (but recall that I was really SKIMMING at one point -- not a good sign). I guess I'd recommend it, with certain reservations. Don't expect to come away saying 'That could happen' -- because you're more likely to do what I did, and make a list of all the reasons why it COULDN'T possibly happen. Hahaha. And even by the end of this series of books, I wasn't sure if I actually liked the protag. He's a very flawed character. Anyway, if you have specific questions for me about the book, I'll be glad to answer them. I don't want to spoil, that's for sure. (smile)
Christine sent our airline reservations for our trip to New York (leaving Portland on September 6 and returning on September 9). My one request was that we be seated together -- which apparently is next to IMPOSSIBLE these days. But she said we could discuss it at the airport. (If there's an additional charge, I figure Marilyn can use her festival credit card and just pay it.) We go from Portland to Chicago and change planes heading there. Then reverse the process coming home again...
Anyway, the trip isn't that far way now.
I suspect I'm forgetting things to say, but that's okay. At least I blogged. I'm really going to try and keep blogging daily again. Yeah, it's pretty boring stuff, but oh well. Hahaha.