"Monique and the Mango Rains" Sunday

Yesterday was the perfect complement to my Saturday. Saturday full of "activities", Sunday full of "want to's". I took it very slow in the morning. As I shared yesterday, I took my November book club book to bed with me with my coffee in the morning and that pretty much set the tone for the day. I knew I would have to finish the book on Sunday.

So after my talking heads' shows, I took my shower and got ready to go grocery shopping (all I needed was bananas and gingerale - do I have to say again that I love being able to eat at the school dining hall?!), get my wash done at my parents (I have to take advantage of this option as the weather is still good for travel up and over Avon Mountain); and finish my book. But as I said, Sunday was a "want to" day, so on my side of the mountain - I stopped at Five Guys and got french fries and had "my lunch" in the shopping center parking as I ate my french fries and read my book. It took our first real cold snap day to get me in the mood for Five Guys. I do think the counter man was watching out for my best interest when he did not fill the bag the way it usually happens at Five Guys. A regular french fries can usually feed a family of 4 but I think he knew it was only me...so he cut back a bit. Still a bonanza for $2.38.

Once I finished eating, I headed in to an empty parents' house. I knew they were going to a family friend's daughter's doggie daycare/grooming shop for a pet Halloween party...The owner's mother was my mother's matron of honor at my parents' wedding in 1949 - both the owner's parents have passed away, so my parents stand in for parent type of things for her. But my goal was I wanted to arrive at an empty house so I could do my wash and read my book in a very comfortable chair in front of a picture window that overlooks a great backyard and neighboring schoolyard so lots of open space to let the fall sunshine in! Perfect place to read a great book. I know being an ex-PCV, I experienced it on a different level, but I think all readers will enjoy the book. So I got 5 pages from the end when my parents returned. That was perfect too - I could finish my book in my lawn chair reading chair at home.

Side bar about laundry - I probably should go down to the apartment basement to see if the laundry room got a face lift during the Oct 21 building clean up (which I did not participate in...due to my "that is why I rent" attitude of I will take care of what is inside my apartment walls, but building wide - that is owners' area.) During the winter I will be more apt to stay home and go up and down the 4 flights and do my laundry locally.

But back to the end of my day - stopped at the store on the way home and purchased my gingerale and bananas. Got home and headed out for my walk on a fall day with colors shining with the sun going down behind the hills and over the river - it was beautiful. I called sister #3 and chatted with her as I walked. Then home and I went directly to my reclining lawn chair in front of my window overlooking the river to finish my book. I will have to work on my discussion notes over the next few days to get ready for November 19. But the night continued to get better. Sister #4 called and I am leaving it to her mind-reading powers to decide what my mother really wants to do for Thanksgiving and the same charge for sister #5. Her call was perfectly timed between my "Port O Call" show (have I shared that I think it totally bizarre that I am taken with this boating show when the last time I was on boat like the ones they showcase I threw up from the minute I got on the boat through the 8 hours I was on the boat except for the time I spent sleeping on the front part of the boat or whatever that part of the boat is called?...) and Q&A - she was timing it to coincide with the Red Sox game start time. Q&A was very good - the filmmaker who did "No End in Sight", very interesting person and no critique of Brian Lamb on this interview:

CURRENT:
· Director and producer of No End In Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq, which is his first film.
· For over 20 years, he’s been intensely interested in film, and has regularly attended film festivals such as Telluride for over a decade. In mid-2005, after learning that no major documentary covering U.S. policy in Iraq was being made or was planned, he formed Representational Pictures and began production of “No End In Sight.”
· Founder and President of Representational Pictures, Inc.

PREVIOUS:
· Consultant to the White House, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Defense, and several U.S. and European high technology firms. He provided strategic consulting to the top managements of U.S. high technology firms including Apple, Xerox, Motorola, and Texas Instruments (1992-94)
· In 1994, he founded Vermeer Technologies, one of the earliest Internet software companies, with Randy Forgaard. Vermeer created the first visual Web site development tool, FrontPage™.
· In early 1996, he sold Vermeer to Microsoft, which integrated FrontPage into Microsoft Office.
· Visiting scholar and/or lecturer for several years at MIT and Berkeley, and for three years was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.
· Author of three books and many articles dealing with various aspects of information technology and its relationships to economic, political, and social issues.

OTHER:
Life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a director of the French-American Foundation, and supports several nonprofit organizations.

EDUCATION:
· BA in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley
· Ph.D. in political science from M.I.T. in 1989.
· Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at MIT

PERSONAL:
Divides his time between Berkeley, California & New York City.

I am glad that the timing of the "fall back" was not this weekend. It would have made it difficult to get my walk in yesterday while it was still light. So one more thing that worked for me yesterday. I love that.

Can't remember if I shared that my ex-co-worker who I went to the Italian restaurant with his wife and another co-worker for dinners died this weekend - almost a year to the day from when he was diagnosed with cancer. 60 years old. I think I should have known based on the fact that I saw my old boss from that workplace at church on Saturday. I had not seen him in almost that same year's time. The world holds all the clues to what I need to know when I put myself in the mindset and the physical settings to have them "appear" to me or to prepare me to see.

Will find out on Wednesday if sister #1 is headed to CT this weekend.

DWTS's on tonight. Life is good. But I better get moving. Have a good Monday.