Playgroups

We had two playgroups today - one through Piedmont Hospital (Tender Spirits) that takes place at our church and one through the Virginia Highlands neighborhood association. This was our first time at Tender Spirits, and we've been going to the other one since it started in October. We had a good time at both. Gabriel hung out with Mommy at Tender Spirits but was more interested in the other kids at the Flemings' house, probably because they're all his age. In Vi-Hi, he ate his first non-organic food: Gerber sweet potato veggie puffs. He only ate one tiny little puff (about the size of a Cheerio), so it hardly counts.

We had a voice mail from Jack this morning. He said that he's fine and would maybe try to call later. He's going to be out on patrol for the next few days, so we guess he'll call after that. He sounded happy, healthy, and energetic. We're upset that we had the ringer off; we'll have to leave it on tonight just in case.

Speaking of people from other continents, Patty's in touch again with the British family with whom she stayed 15 years ago. It turns out that they had a place in Orlando for a while and have been closer than we thought many times. They sold the place after 9/11 but still have friends over here. We hope to see them again, no matter which side of the pond we're on.

We finished a movie the other night called "Yojimbo", which means "Bodyguard." We give it a 53 on our scale of 1 to 64. It is the movie from which "A Fistful of Dollars" was remade. It was an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's book Red Harvest and drew heavily on American westerns, so it was only fitting that it be remade as an American western. It was also an inspiration for George Lucas when he made Star Wars. It starred Toshiro Mifune, who was to Akira Kurosawa what Cary Grant and James Stewart were to Alfred Hitchcock. We love Kurosawa movies and have also seen Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Ran (which we own and is one of the most beautifully shot movies we've ever seen).