IT WILL HAVE BEEN A LONG, LONELY, LONELY, LONELY, LONELY TIME

Another exciting thing I did this past weekend was to take a short walk to the local watch repair store and have a new battery replaced in an old watch of mine.  The people at the store were very nice and installed the battery very quickly.  Upon payment, I was presented with the following card:

Similar to the car wash or yogurt stamp card concept, if I buy six batteries I get the seventh one for free.

By my estimation I should be able to take advantage of this in about twenty years.  I may have to put this card in our safety deposit box so I don't miss out.  I look forward to coming back to the store for my free battery in 2030.

A GREAT RETURN

There wasn't much going on this past weekend so I made another trip to the library on Saturday and borrowed another book.  Since I read The Tipping Point in four days I wanted to get something that would last me a little longer (a thicker book).  I chose the autobiography of one of my favorite athletes of all time, ANDRE AGASSI.

Known for his once long flowing hair, flamboyant outfits and short marriage to Brooke Shields, Agassi was possibly the greatest returner in tennis history and ultimately retired in 2006 as one of the all-time greats.

This was a great book.  Too great in fact that I read it in three days.  So much for longevity.

I did learn quite a few things about Agassi:

- He beat the football great Jim Brown in straight sets at a local club when he was nine years old.  Agassi's father won $500 from Brown on the match.

- He started losing his hair at seventeen and actually wore a hairpiece for most of his early matches.

- He never really wanted to marry Brooke Shields.

- He went through depression and used crystal meth for a while.

- The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education has raised $75 million to provide education for disadvantaged youth.

- He HATES tennis.

The book is also full of anecdotes from childhood to adulthood and introspective details from many of his matches.  A very easy read about a very interesting life.

A GOOD TIP

This past Sunday I went to a place long forgotten in this age of Kindle and iPads: The Library.

I was thinking that instead of accumulating books that I would eventually "get to", it was better to borrow a book and in essence be forced to read it in an allotted amount of time.  It's also absolutely free so even if the book turned out to be terrible I could just close it and bring it right back where it came from.  We should all have a library card.

My first borrowed book...

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell is a psychological and social study of how change happens due to ideas and behavior acting like epidemics.  It's an easy read and not very long at under 300 pages.  Interesting stuff.  Available to borrow for free at your local library.

FLOWERS FOR MY LOVE...

 

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME...

Last night I went with some friends to the Dodgers game against the hated San Francisco Giants.  It was a beautiful evening and the weather was great.

The Giants got an early leg up on the Dodgers...

And the Dodgers tried to fight back with a homerun from Rafael Furcal...

Furcal actually hit his home run during this at-bat.  Sadly, it wasn't enough as the Dodgers lost 5-2.  This was not an unexpected result since the Dodgers WILL NEVER WIN ANYTHING as long as they are owned by Frank McCourt.  Do us Dodger fans a favor and sell the team Frank.

Fortunately for us, the evening wasn't a total loss as we were graced by the presence of the legendary JACKIE ROBINSON who just seems to get better with age...

FELIZ NAVIDAD... IN JULY

This past Saturday evening I joined my family at a little hole in the wall restaurant for dinner.  Take a wild guess on what type of cuisine we had.

We started off with sangria...

And followed it up with some tapas...

 

And finished it off with a big paella...

The food was good and I enjoyed it even though the restaurant had mixed martial arts on the TV the entire time.  This was an intriguing choice for ambience.  Must be a Spanish thing.

I also noticed the tablecloth that the restaurant was using on our table...

 

Yes, that would be a snowman, a candle, a stocking, a Christmas tree and Santa Claus.  In July.  It was ONE HUNDRED DEGREES outside.

And how about Santa's new look with the sunglasses and the dark beard?  Those Spaniards sure are a stylish bunch.

A FINE INVESTMENT

Proving that consistency is not always a good thing, it was again a sizzling 100 degrees out this Saturday.  I decided to stay cool and went to what my wife and I refer to as the "Cheapo" theater.  Others may know it as a second-run movie house.

Unlike someone I know who could afford to spend $20.00 to see the excellent INCEPTION, I decided to go down a more frugal route.  For the staggering fee of $2.00 I spent almost two and a half hours watching the excellent Swedish film THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO...

Based on the novel by the late Stieg Larsson, the film is entirely in Swedish with English subtitles and was shot in Stockholm and other parts of Sweden (in keeping with the Swedish theme).  A suspenseful murder mystery, it flowed very nicely and was quite unpredictable.  And yes, there was a reference to meatballs in the movie.  However, there was no mention of IKEA whatsoever.

It will be out on DVD soon and is worth checking out.