My reading of Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban is going muy lentamente. ¿Por qué? Because now, with me working the split clinic schedule, my lunch has shifted from 11:30 to noon, and I end up having lunch with the Social Workers, instead of alone, and I end up spending what used to be my prime reading time, talking. Maybe I'll do some reading on the beach next weekend.

I started yoga class this evening not really in the mood for it. I even entertained the idea of taking a break from it next session. By the end of the class, I was completely into the asanas, and all thoughts of a break vanished.

I loved the film House of Flying Daggers. I think I loved it a lot more than Phillip did (but I'm not sure why). I loved it so much that I immediately searched the Seattle Public Library for director Yimou Zhang's previous "martial arts" film Hero. (I've recently discovered that Yimou Zhang was also the director of another film that Phillip and I both loved: Not One Less.) I was amazed to discover that our library did not have Hero in its catalog. It amazed me because Hero had gotten better reviews than House of Flying Daggers, was more popular in the USA, and it currently holds the record as the most expensive movie ever made in China. I kept trying various ways to search for it, and kept find all sorts of things other than the film, until I did a search for its star: Jet Li. I then discovered that the library did have the film, but under its original Mandarin title: Ying xiong. I put it on hold. There were several holds ahead of me.

On Monday, I got the email that my hold had come in. I picked it up at the library on my way home from work yesterday. I immediately realized why it was listed in the catalog under its Mandarin title: The entire DVD was in Mandarin. I checked it out from the library with the hope that it included English subtitles.

I put the DVD in our player yesterday evening, and navigated my way through the menu with the correct guess that "Play Movie" would be the first option. I pushed the "Subtitle" button on our remote and discovered that, yes, the English subtitles were there. Sadly, though, the written prologue at the beginning was not translated.

Hero is a gorgeous and beautifully written film, like House of Flying Daggers. Its compositions and vivid colors need to be watched on widescreen DVD. Like House of Flying Daggers, Hero is an historically accurate story (the King of Qin was a real person, who unified China's written language while preserving its many spoken languages) told in a folklore style (physics majors should avert their eyes). The two films have different feelings to their stories, somehow. I'm not sure what it is, but maybe Hero felt grander, more epic, and House of Flying Daggers more character driven.

I now have two films to add to my DVD collection wishlist. Maybe someday, I'll learn what that prologue says.

So far, it seems like the upgraded virus protection / security suite was well worth the two hour download and installation yesterday. There are some nifty new tools going on, and some of the less useful gadgets have gone away. (I'm still learning my way around the new menus.) So far, the program is acting like an overly eager doorman, and that's a good thing. I'm teaching it that not all automated email is bad. We like to know when new geocaches get published. We like receiving notices that the books we've requested are waiting for us at the library. Fortunately, it's acting more like a doorman than a bouncer - gently asking us if it's OK to let this suspicious character through rather than immediately tossing them out on the curb.

I took our Prius into the Toyota dealership yesterday morning for a month-overdue oil change and a tire rotation. I dropped the car off as soon as the service department opened at 7:00, and had a nice walk to downtown, where I caught a 14 bus home. I started writing a piece for Writers' Group, but just couldn't get inspired. I got a call at 9:00, saying that the car was ready. I walked to the dealership. There were no surprises, and our car is in great shape for our trip to the ocean in a couple of weeks. I drove from the dealership to REI, where I had an online order waiting for pickup.

I've had a $20 rebate from my membership at REI (from when I bought our GPS receiver) for a long time. The problem was that twenty dollars doesn't buy much at REI. Finally, I found a shirt in the REI Outlet for about $29. That's what I picked up yesterday. From REI, I drove to QFC to buy lightbulbs to replace the ones that had burned out in the kitchen.

I'd planned on hunting for some of those library geocaches yesterday, but the day turned cold and misty. The weather actually felt good, but it put me in the mood to stay home. I worked some more on my piece for Writers' Group, but I still could not find the inspiration. So, when Phillip woke up, I walked over to Broadway Video and rented the second disc of the second season of Lost. We watched the four episodes yesterday afternoon and stayed home.

Scott called yesterday while we were watching Lost, and told me that he and Beth were going to visit my parents, and Dave and Marji, today. He asked if we'd like to ride with them. I couldn't, because of Writers' Group, but Phillip accepted the invitation.

We skipped Hank's party.

I finished writing the piece last night, but I didn't like what I'd written. I had nothing else to read, though, and I knew the group would understand that sometimes written works just don't turn out the way we want.

I walked to church this morning. I have no doubt that, although I agree with what my church stands for, I have lost my connection with my church. I know, however, that finding another church like it will be difficult. After church, I rode with Barbara to her house for Writers' Group, where I realized that no only did I have a crummy piece to read, I just wasn't in the mood to be sociable. I did enjoy the group, though.

I walked home from Writers' Group. Phillip wasn't home yet. I decided to go look for some library caches. Before I left, though, I decided to check my email. When I logged on, an alert from McAfee popped up. An upgrade to our virus protection was available. So, I decided to downloaded the upgrade, and go geocaching afterwards. The upgrade turned out to be 37 megabytes large - a two hour download with our dial-up connection. So, I watched our DVD of Resident Evil while the download progressed. Phillip came home while both the download and the movie were going. The upgrade went flawlessly. Then I finally went geocaching. Phillip wasn't interested in going with me.

I had no trouble finding two geocaches. The first was at the Madrona-Sally Goldmark branch, a tiny branch that neither Phillip nor I knew existed, even though it's just a few blocks from our favorite Grocery Outlet. The second geocache was at the International District branch - a branch we've been meaning to visit for a long time, but have somehow never gotten around to. I thought about going after the Beacon Hill branch, too, but decided to call it a night instead.

It's been a rather lackluster weekend.