Laura's Online Journal July 2005

Comments? Your movie reviews? I would love to hear from you! lauralu@mac.com

Enough about you, let's talk about me....

July 26, 2005

I had a great dinner at a brewery/restaurant in Baltimore with Zita, Lyla, Tracy, Norm. Nick and Lorella.

Nick & Lorella	Zita, Lyla, moi, Nick, Lorella, Tracy & Norm

July 17, 2005

This past week I visited the new home of my friend Gail, her fiance Chris and her birds.

Thursday I went to Baltimore for the 25,000 mile maintenance service on my car and to visit my aunt Zita. I had the dealership install a device to play my iPod through my stereo. What a great sound! I took pictures of some of Zita's rings. I like this one.

Last night I had a steak dinner at Austin and William's place. Great food!

Today we took our usual 12 mile ride this morning in what had to be the most humid morning so far this summer. It was made more miserable when a wasp stung Joe on his knee and then one of the "serious" riding clubs passed us going up a hill and almost crashed into us because the group in the back did not see the runner running in the middle of the road that we were riding past. One rider almost hit Joe trying not to hit the runner. After they all passed the group leader chastized the 30 some riders for not communicating with each other and not paying attention. But other than that it was a good ride.

In the afternoon we went looking for a new vacuum cleaner. There is one we had in mind but none of the 5 stores we visited had it. Poop.

Some more movie/DVD reviews
Dead Man
Another good Jim Jarmusch movie. The movie is the story of a man named William Blake who has killed another man in self-defense and is then hunted by bounty hunters and the law although it takes place in a time when there really was not such thing as law - the old west. Blake has a gunshot wound and runs into a American Indian who admires the works of poet William Blake and helps the wounded Blake out. The film is beautiful in black & white and the characters are all great especially Nobody, the Indian. Johnny Depp, of course, can do no wrong. (Well, Charlie and the Chocolate factory may test this theory)

Bubba Ho-Tep
This is the story of a nursing home terrorized by a mummy. One resident is a man who claims he is Elvis and he ended up there because he traded places with an Elvis-impersonator when he was tired of his fame. It is a really good low budget movie - funny in parts, touching at times, cheesy and a little gritty.

July 8, 2005

Before	After
As part of my cleaning I decided to retire this. Lynda and Graeme made this fancy jacket for Joe after he had bike accident a couple of years ago. It is made of bubblewrap packing envelopes and origami paper. Lynda had friends write things on it in different languages - Dutch and Chinese and Vietnamese, I think

Sunday Joe rode his bike out and I drove out with my bike to Leesburg Va. We then rode 10 miles out and back on a very scenic trail. There was a fair amount of wild life to be seen. As I drove out I saw a hawk carrying a snake and a deer and a fox. Unfortunately the deer and the fox and possibly the snake were dead. On the trail we saw chipmunks, cows, and llamas! And at some point we smelled a skunk.

After our ride we went over to a new restaurant in our neighborhood, a cafeteria type place where you pay by weight. We have been there 2 times and I finally tried the banana pudding that has been tempting me. The banana pudding was a disappointment. I'll have to make it myself or find it next time I go south.

Monday we went to see the new Star Wars movie and watched fireworks from our balcony.

I sent this picture to Lenore and Paula because Paula is thinking of buying the bike rack (which is actually Lyla's). Lenore noticed that my reflection can be seen. I noticed that my hips look very big.