Last weekend in August 2009

Hello again to all my friends and family members.

This weekend I did not go on a trip but had a wonderful time.

I'm in regular email communication with friends Sue, Suesan and Joe and my ex-student and friend, Elena, in Moscow, my friend Lynnaire in New Zealand - and now my friend Marie is back in town after visiting family on the East coast for a month.

It was Joe's 37th birthday so Saturday after supervising students at the college, I took him out to a movie and dinner in Burbank. We saw "GI Joe." Wow! It was great - a futuristic goodies and baddies movie with a wonderful plot, forbidden love, and both Moscow and Washington DC saved from destruction. There was violence but it was all part of the story and not just for the sake of violence.

Then we went to The Granville organic restaurant and had a great meal - sweet potato fries, lobster bisque, and Joe had seared tuna while I had rainbow trout. It was a truly delicious meal.

Today, Sunday, Joe persuaded me to go bike riding with him. I got my bike several weeks ago but had not been on it since buying it. We put both bikes in the back of my Volvo wagon and drove to Santa Monica beach, found free parking in town, and rode the short distance to the Santa Monica pier where we could get the bikes down to the bike trail.

The concrete bike trail runs along in the center of the sand for miles. It's two lanes, each wide enough for 2 bikes abreast going in each direction - and is shared by roller-bladers belting along on their in-line skates.

We rode along for miles - all the way to Venice beach and back to the pier again and then in the other direction from the pier and back again. Lovely to have the sand on each side and the waves breaking a short distance away.

It was very hot and I drank two full bottles of Smart Water during the ride.

We made our way back to the car and loaded the bikes again and drove home. We had done 15 miles on our bikes - not bad for me for the first time on a bike in many, many years. Joe confessed that it was the longest ride he has done also - so I guess I did pretty good.

On the way home in the car, Joe asked me if I had a bird cage I wasn't using. I did have one and told him he could have it.

After we got home I was exhausted and hot so had a sleep. I woke up just before Joe called. He asked if he could come over and get the bird cage and arrived at my place shortly afterward with two baby parakeets (budgies) in a cardboard carton. He'd been to the store and purchased then right before calling me.

We got the birds set up and he decided to call them by the names of two of his early girl friends!
Hmm!?

As he also brought his bike to my place when he brought the birds along, I had to walk his bike the short distance to his place while he carried his new "family members". They are very cute!

It's going to be an early night for me tonight so I'll catch up with you all next week.

Love,
Barry