End of November Notes

This has been a very busy, often crazy month. Lynette has been in Kentucky since early October, helping her sister Amy in looking after their mother, who is very sick and has been in the hospital most of the time. Lynette and Amy, and Amy's daughter Leigh Ann, take turns spending the night with their mother, either in the hospital or at her house on the few days when she is at home. It is a grueling routine that has nearly exhausted all of them. Claire went back a few weeks ago to help out, which they all appreciated.

I travelled to Kentucky in the middle of the month to spend a week with Lynette...we had a few nice times together, and I was able to run a few errands and help them out a little. It was very cold there - in the mid-twenties at night.

Emily was in Kentucky for a few days, too, and our visits overlapped, so I got to spend some time with her, which was very nice. She and her friend Abigail will be visiting us in California in mid-December. Lynette is coming home next week, which I am looking forward to very much.

Jackie and Martin are in London, on their annual visit, seeing Martin's family and friends and doing some touring. I hope they are having a good time.

Jayne and Bernie went to see their son Kirk and his family in Tucson for Thanksgiving.

I came home from Kentucky a week ago today, and then flew to Reno the next day to spend some time with my brother Alan and his family. They live nearby, in rural Walker, California, and like to spend a few days in Reno each year. Their daughter Sally is a student at the University of Nevada at Reno; she took us on a tour of the campus, which is quite impressive. Their other daughter, Molly, is taking college classes online from their home in Walker. I enjoyed my time with all of them, including Al and Priscilla and Al's daughter Romi, who came to Reno with her husband John for a couple of days while we were there. Romi is expecting her first child in February.

My brother Mike and his wife Kim, and their sons David and Aaron, spent the holiday with Kim's parents at Avila Beach, at a time share her parents have there. Mike said they had a very nice time.

Last night Joe and Marsha Grieco called and invited me to go to dinner with them, which I did. We went to El Portal, a very nice Mexican restaurant in Pasadena. It was nice to spend time with them, as always. They told me that their friend Brian Doyle Murray reported that his father-in-law came across this blog and read about the lunch I had with them a few weeks ago; I was delighted to see that I have a real reader out there. Brian's wife Tina is a lovely, charming lady, and I hope her dad checks in here now and then.

I am half-way through John Updike's latest, the Widows of Eastwick. It is fun to read, as Updike usually is. I just finished a book about William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the time they spent together in the English Lake District before Wordsworth got married to Mary Hutchinson. Coleridge was very unhappy in his marriage, had a crush on Wordsworth's sister-in-law-to-be, Sara Hutchinson, and spent as much time as he could away from his family and with the Wordsworths and Hutchinsons. William's sister Dorothy kept a very comprehensive journal during this time, and it was the source of much of the material in the book. I found it very interesting.

I am excited about Lynette coming home, and Emily's visit, and Jackie and Jayne's return from their holiday trips.

Yesterday was my birthday

I had a great day. I drove down to Laguna Niguel, to the Ritz-Carlton hotel there, where Charlie and Nancy Walker had a nice birthday lunch for me. We sat at a lovely table overlooking the ocean. Charlie ordered a bottle of champaigne and they toasted by birthday. It was a delightful couple of hours.

Then I drove to my sister Jackie's house, where she and her husband Martin hosted a birthday party for me. It was also an early Thanksgiving dinner; they will be in England on the actual day, and my sister Jayne and her husband will also be away, so Jackie made turkey and dressing and had all the usual Thanksgiving stuff.

The guests included Jayne and her husband Bernie, my daughter Claire and her friend Tami, my niece Jill and her son Dane, our friend Jean, my nephew Kenn and his family, my niece Tiffany, her partner Caroline and their two-year-old son Elijah.

After dinner they put some candles on a pumkin pie for me to blow out (with help from Elijah), and then they all gave me birthday presents. There was much good cheer and family affection. My brother Mike called from his home near San Luis Obispo to wish me a happy birthday. On the way home I returned a call to my other brother, Alan, who had called from his home in the eastern Sierras with birthday wishes. All together a very good day.

The day before, Saturday, my friends Joe and Marsha took me to a museum in Santa Monica to see an exhibit of paintings by the watercolorist Milfred Zornes. It was an impressive and most enjoyable show. We were joined by the Grieco's friends Brian Doyle Murray and his wife Tina (I have also known Brian for many years, through the Griecos); it was good to see them. We had a nice lunch on the patio of a comfortable restaurant adjacent to the museum. It was a beautiful, clear, balmy day, and lunch on the patio was a treat.

And today I had another birthday lunch, with my friends Richard Del Belso and Erika Callahan. I had worked with them both for many years when I was at Warner Bros., and have enjoyed seeing them frequently since then. Our lunch was at Nippon, a Japanese restaurant near WB that we had been to many times over the years. We were all very happy that Barak Obama won the election last week, and had a good time catching up with each other and sharing our opinions about lots of stuff - movies, tv shows, et cetera. Both Richard and Erika had been to London recently and agreed that it was fun if also very expensive.

I am excited today because my daughter Emily will be coming to town early in December, and her friend Abigail will be coming with her. I will also be seeing Emily later this week, as I am going to Kentucky on Saturday, to join Lynette, who is there to help care for her ailing mother. Emily is also going to Kentucky, this Friday. Lynette's mom's chemotherapy seems to be having some good effect, as she is feeling a little stronger. We are all glad about that. I will be there for a week. Lynette has been there for about a month now, and plans to be there for at least a few more weeks, depending on how things go with her mom.

That's about it for today.

Dan