A Quiet Sunday Afternoon

Played tennis earlier.

Came home to the best pizza in a VERY long time. It's the ninja's work. It's one of those "semi-homemade" things. He didn't get the recipe from the website in that link, but his recipe is in that vein. He used a store-bought whole-wheat crust and a store-bought sauce. To mine, he added Canadian bacon, pineapple and spinach that he saute'd in olive oil. I don't know what he did with his pizza, but it was probably a lot healthier, probably had a lot of peppers and mushrooms on it...

Anyway, it truly was the best pizza I've had in many years. The ninja outdoes himself quite often. Probably part of the definition of ninja...

Now, we're sitting on the couch watching "The Cowboys" (the 1972 John Wayne film). This is a sort of "heaven" to me - this afternoon. This was the first movie that I can remember watching in the theater! Daddy took me to see it. It has stuck with me all these years.

A couple of quotes I dug up on imdb.com:

When John Wayne informed Bruce Dern that Dern's character would shoot Wayne's, he told Dern that audiences would hate him for it. Dern responded by saying, "Yeah, but they'll sure love me in Berkeley." 


Despite their political and social opinion differences, John Wayne and Roscoe Lee Browne shared a love of poetry. They sometimes quoted their favorite verses between takes of the film.


Now, the best line from the movie so far: (and, believe me there are too many "best lines" to count in this one!)

Ann Anderson (Wayne's character's wife of many years): I'll think about you before I go to bed at night"
Wil Anderson (Wayne's character):  "You do and you won't sleep." Delivered with that impish grin on Wayne's face. This exchange came shortly after she told him that she only wanted 2 things from him: to come home and a strand of blue glass beads. He said "you don't ask for much" and she said "I don't need much."

They just don't write 'em like they used to!

My accompaniment for this afternoon is a truly lovely Chardonnay. I know. Probably not the best pairing ever. But I had this bottle open from last night. Don't worry. I use one of these cool gizmos to seal my wine for up to 3 days:

This 'truly lovely Chardonnay' is one I bought recently for a party. The party had a too-large-contingent of teetotalers in attendance :(

The only thing left to complete this perfect day is the view when I look down at my keyboard...

New year, new energy

I love the Christmas Season for many reasons (not the least of which is "the reason for the season"!) I'm unashamed and unapologetic of the fact that I celebrate my Lord's birthday. However, that is not the reason for this post and it's probably the most "religion" you'll hear from me in this public forum.

Instead, I just think the timing of the Christmas season and the New Year's Day holiday and even Thanksgiving is fortuitous. It's a long holiday season. Love that bit. Lots of time for reflection and time off from work and all that. It's a very "positive" season what with all the gratefulness and the giving of gifts and the time with family and the making of resolutions and so forth.

All of these factors serve to make me feel rested and renewed. In turn, I feel ready to take on new projects and tackle old ones from different angles and find new perspectives for old problems.

The world looks different, brighter, friendlier and more exciting - all at the same time. To that end, I saw the above list of New Year's "Resolutions" yesterday. It sums up all mine very nicely!