March 11, 2007
Kathy and I got our eyes examined yesterday. The eye doctor told me my peepers haven't gotten any worse, which is great news for a guy my age. When I asked him what I might do to keep them that way he said without hesitation, "Drink at least one glass of red wine every night." I took him down the hall to where Kathy had her head in one of those chin-strap eye-test-day-for-night goggle deals and I said, "Honey, the doctor has something to tell you and I want you to listen very carefully."

From there we went to Costco and bought a whole bunch of mega-packaged groceries, then drove out to Betty Radina's house for lunch. And from there we landed at Deer Valley 30 to see The Ultimate Gift. Tickets were expensive ($9.50 each and a medium popcorn is now $5, up from $3.50). Our AMC movie cards gave us diddly ( 50 cents off an over-priced combo) so I think I paid back plenty for the freebee we took on The Departed a couple weeks ago. In fact, these prices are teetering on Not Worth It.

The Ultimate Gift, although highly recommended, was quite sappy with cliches piled on top of cliches (the girl from Little Miss Sunshine is dying of Lukemia and says precious, mature things to a young man who has lost his way.) Still, I found myself reacting to the movie and I actually enjoyed it, in spite of its predictable ending. And I must say, for a movie that was trying to teach the true value of things in life, they sure piled on money as a reward ("I know we gave you $100 million before, but since you gave it away, we're going to give you $2 billion.")

After the movie we drove over to El Conquistador for dinner. Great food. ($35 includes tip).

Came in this morning to work on my mother's funeral program. Both Bea and Robert Ray came out. Robert to work on Classic Gunfights, Volume III and Bea is helping me design the program. I had her add a subtle yellow background, because me mother loved yellow. In fact, every house she had, she painted it yellow, or had yellow trim. So that was nice. Finished at noon.

Mark Boardman and i are shooting back down to the theatre to catch Frank Miller's 300. Starts in an hour. Then out to Winter Range and back to Cave Creek for dinner with Chiz, the head dog at SASS.

Tom Chenal came by and told me his son, Robert, is shipping out to Iraq in April. He's a marine, one of Tommy's best friends. Scary.

Onion Headline de Jour
Philandering String Theorist Can Explain Everything

"Facts do not interest me much. Facts are for accountants. Truth creates illumination."
—Werner Herzog