HAPPY FRIDAY, WELCOME AUGUST

Today we face the very first Friday, the very first day, in August. Sunday is the big day for KrissyKrissyKrissy's family. Here daughter, Natalie, gets baptized that day. It should be a splendid time for one & all. Tomorrow I have to lector at 5:00 for Mary. She called last week. I played my guitar yesterday. Unfortunately I never seem to practice for a very long period of time but it all sinks in anyway. Somehow I seemed to have completely forgotten to mention yesterday that besides Jamie(today) & Fran(tomorrow), tomorrow is also cousin Elaine's birthday. It was most certainly nothing personal. Recently a gunman went bananas in a U.U. church in Tennessee. Yesterday there was some other fruitcake on a bus in Canada who murdered one of the passengers. Yesterday I ate hamburgers & salad for supper. Later on I ate some pop tarts & an ice cream sicle. Oh, how interesting & enjoyable it is to be able to live around here! On the news yesterday, there was something really interesting about a new kind of brain surgery. Unbelievably, throughout the entire five_ish hour procedure, the patient/guest of honor is awake, though heavily sedated. They showed a patient who was reading a book during his operation. I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction, I'd inevitably end up going stark raging bananas under those circumstances!

LAST DAY OF JULY

Aunt Lauren called my mother yesterday. So did Uncle Frankie & Fran. I've never been able to stand the phone but it simply won't go away. I read some more of "Troilus & Cressida" yesterday. It's really hard to figure out, especially since I haven't officially studied Shakespeare in quite a while. I played some more Beatle songs yesterday too. The weather's really nice once again today although most people would complain that it's too hot. I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday. Unfortunately I've yet to go to Borders in Scranton. It's the best of the whole bunch of them. While roaming around the store, I ran into Jean who's quite the regular at the churches around here. She spends a lot of time at book stores too. There's a new book out, by Peter Kreeft, about Shakespeare, but I couldn't find it. It wasn't in the Shakespeare section or the new non-fiction, literature, whatever section either. For supper I ate a couple of Arby's roast beef sandwiches & onion rings. Happy birthday to Jamie, tomorrow, & Fran, Saturday. Alas, we're all getting older by the second. Last year Gino & I spent Fran's birthday at a Meat Loaf concert. Those were the days.

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE

We all found out about the California earthquake yesterday. I just got an email from Cathleen about it. She & her family are all safe from any major damage. She was more than a little taken aback, though, by all the aggravation. It entirely messed up her lunch break. They're really old friends of mine so I'm quite happy to see that all's worked out. On the bright side, though, Fran got a really good job over in Reading. It's only forty minutes from home. There was really good news this morning on TV about a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease. There's a medication out that seems to help quite a bit for mild to moderate cases. They're hoping really to be able to get things rolling no later than next year. I've been reading more of "Troilus & Cressida". Much debate goes on about the famous Bard's Catholicism. I just noticed that much circumstantial evidence suggest that he was a Catholic. His parents were recusant Catholics. The problem is in the lack of any official proof. Of course, Queen Elizabeth I would have opened a major can of whoop_ass on him if he had admitted it. Last night I opened a new box of Special K with strawberries in it. As soon as I opened the top of the box, the bottom flew opened too. There was a hole in the bottom of the bag so I ended up with cereal all over the table. Fortunately I managed to clean up all the mess. To my chagrin, things like that are always happening to me.

SHAKESPEARE

The weather's been very nice lately. Some people dread the heat but I truly enjoy it. Yesterday I started reading Shakespeare's "Troilus & Cressida" again. I got the idea a couple of days ago when I watched a segment of a news program that discussed the question of whether the Bard of Avon was Catholic. He was most certainly quite an expert on human nature but unfortunately practically nothing of very much significance is really known of him. Of course, I also made quite sure I practiced my guitar. It gets easier each day, especially the early songs. They've always been my very favorites anyway. Uncle Frankie showed up yesterday. As always, he didn't seem to have anything distinctive going on. I ate quite a whole lot of chicken tenders yesterday. It's always been one of my very favorite kinds of chicken. It's most probably disgustingly fattening but once in a while can't hurt. It's hard to believe that July is on the verge of ending. Yesterday, in the mail, I got yet another free copy of Patrick Madrid's Envoy Magazine. I used to subscribe to it & let my subsciption lapse. They're trying to woo me back. I've always really enjoyed it so I most certainly should start getting it again.

NICE WEEKEND

Saturday & yesterday went by uneventfully. On the entirely irrelevant side, Saturday was Mick Jagger's birthday. Today is Lee & Farrah Fawcett Majors' thirty fifth anniversary. It always pays to keep track of thins like that in case anyone ever wants to know. I recognize the names from the past but none from today's famous crowd. My lectoring went reasonably well on Saturday except that I made one little mistake but that always happens. I practiced my guitar & read some more of those Carmelite books over the weekend. Last night I watched an episode of the show about G.K. Chesterton. It was an interesting comparison about Christianity(western culture) & Buddhism, which represents the east that those liberals have always been so smitten with. KrissyKrissyKrissy sent out an e mail with the directions for Natalie's christening on it. It's next weekend over in Jim Thorpe. I got the directions printed out. It should be a really interesting time. I never get a chance to see the New Yorkers of the bunch lately. Amazingly, gas prices are still going down for some odd reason. It rained Friday night & for a little while on Saturday. Most of the time, though, the weekend's weather was really nice if a smidge too hot for most people.