21-Dec-99 Charley's B-Day
I got way behind last week. I really wrote the entries about the 10th through 13th over this past weekend. I'm really writing this one on the 21st, if it matters.
When I'm my most alert and productive at work I spend the least time on the internet. In other words, I get behind on reading other people's journals. I've been surprisingly alert and productive at work lately. Therefore, I'm almost as far behind in reading journals as I had gotten at writing.
Last week was uneventful except for Friday lunch time. A bunch of people at work have been getting together to sing holiday music at the company Christmas party. I've been part of that for the last three years. This year the company Christmas party consisted of the company bringing in lots of pizza last Friday. We (the singing group "Naturally Singing") went around to all each floor of the building, and the cafeteria in the other building, and did a few songs in each place. We were singing in the elevator (great resonance! like singing in the shower!) so the music burst forth when we hit the next floor each time. I guess we didn't embarrass ourselves. When I went over to Anne's cubicle later in the day she introduced me to someone else in her area with “This is my dad. He was in the group singing earlier today.” I'd like to think we were the difference between it being a party and just sending out for pizza.
Firday Arlene & I went out to dinner at a new Thai place in Highlands. It's where Boston Market used to be. It has been crowded since it opened. It's nicer than the place in Newton Center and way nicer than the Thai place in the strip mall by four corners, but Erewan, in Waltham, is still head and shoulders ahead in atmosphere.
Saturday we went walking in Cutler Park. We read on the massbird mailing list, which we had just joined, that people had seen a flock of redpolls there. We didn't get the redpolls, but we saw lots of goldfinch and cedar waxwings. Around the corner (if woods have corners) at Nahanton Park we saw about thirty tree sparrows, a dozen juncos, and robins. The robins just kept coming in -- five or seven in a tree at first, then two or three more would fly over the road, then another two or three, and so on. We didn't see any going the other way, so we'll say there were thirty or forty of them.
We went over to the Embassy theatre in Waltham to see Dogma in the late afternoon. We both thought it was a lot of fun. George Carlin and Chris Rock were perfectly cast, though it was hard to see Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris Rock as anyone but themselves. So I guess I mean that Chris Rock was perfect as Rufus, if you want Rufus to be just like Chris Rock, and I did.
Sunday all I did was get caught up on bookkeeping. There's a lot less paper on the computer table than there was on Sunday morning. I guess you just have to lose a day keeping up once in a while. In the evening Anne came over and we went to the Indian restaurant in Newton Center.
Today was Charley's birthday. We continued the Asian food theme by all going to dinner at Fugakyu in Brookline. It's a very elegant Japanese place, appropriate for special occasions. We were seated upstairs looking over a railing onto a big screen where a projection TV was showing scenes of rural Japan -- samurai games, a dance festival, collecting aquarium fish, hand papermaking.
It's been staying light later in the afternoons this last week. Today was the shortest day of the year, so you might think it has the earliest sunset of the year. Not so. It's not symmetrical. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the sun is setting three minutes later than it did on December 9. On the other hand, it's rising nine minutes later, so the day is six minutes shorter. We've lost more daylight in the morning than we've gained in the afternoon. The latest sunrise doesn't come until January 4 or 5. After that we get more daylight on both ends of the day.
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