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July 23, 2000 |
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I woke late that day. I'm simply not a morning person. I normally burn my
sleep hours during the week and catch up on the weekends. Thankfully,
Pam normally lets me sleep in. She gets up in the
morning, closes the bedroom door, and does her morning ritual. I heard her
chatting through the door. I then distinctly heard a fumble, a crash,
followed by some cursing. I had to wonder what had happened.
She had dropped her phone. Her only phone with a headset jack.
Yes, I understand that it has only been a few weeks since she had been
introduced to the concept of talking on the phone with a headset, but
apparently this has become something that she now could not live without.
It's funny what people find as basic necessities. I suppose one of the
silly ones for me is internet access. I've grown so accustomed to it.
Naturally, the first thing I tried to do was to fix it. I'm an engineer,
it's instinct. I opened up the phone to find that the headset jack had
only been attached by the solder to the integrated circuit board, and the
prongs to the headset jack were very close. I had my soldering iron and
some solder with me, I might've tried it. The chances of my reattaching it
to the circuit board at its original strength AND soldering it properly
were pretty slim and it looked like there was possibly some damage to the
circuit board. It was time to get a new phone. She had another phone in
the place, so it wasn't as bad as if she could not talk on the phone.
Unfortunately this is the kind of thing that gets her very frustrated.
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It was getting to be dinner time by now and we decided to go to I love sushi. I was a pleasant afternoon and the sun was still out. We sat at the sushi bar, near the door. These might have been the same spot where we sat a number of times before. It always fascinates me to watch the sushi chefs. It's just so artful the way they arrange the rolls and the sashimi, some of which can be quite elaborate. During dinner, we saw this one particularly interesting dish, which seemed like a shrimp head tempura. It's mere speculation though.
The afternoon rolled on pretty pleasantly. We ordered another spider roll before we called it quits. It was a good dinner, I've never been disappointed by them. Pam decides that she simply needs ice cream. Did I mention that she has a sweet tooth? Well, I wasn't sure where was the nearest ice cream place. I speculated that it would be the Ben and Jerry's at the Galleria, so that's where I drove. She pointed out a Dairy Queen on the way, so that's where we stopped.
I got a butterscotch dipped vanilla cone, and she got a chocolate cone, of course. It was a little chilly out, but she insisted that we sit outside. Ironically, I'm not the one that frequently gets chilly; she is. Still she wanted to sit outside to enjoy the remainder of the sun. They had a number of tables outside, some which were still getting some sunlight. That's where we sat.
I kept teasing her and making lewd noises while she ate her cone. Anything to play around with her. Not that I did it while anyone could hear, of course not, but still enough so that she got embarassed about it. It was pretty fun.
We went back to her place and unloaded her purchases from Target. I then proceeded to setup her new phone. She was still familiar with her older phone, or actually her answering machine, so she was running them both simultaneously… one as a phone, the other as an answering machine. I suppose it would take her some time to adjust. I set the time on the new phone and started it charging. It would take a little while still.
I had been meaning to take some pictures. A friend of mine,
Anil, had taken some pictures from a nearby park, Kerry Park, a number of
years ago. He did have exceptional camera equipment, but I was
hoping I might also take some good pictures of the Seattle evening sky. We
grabbed my camera and went looking for the park. I had remembered that it
was on Prospect St; it really wasn't that far away.
We drove through Prospect Street, but could not find the lookout point that I remembered so many years ago. I continued to drive a block up Queen Anne Hill, and doubled back, and then I found it. It was as noteworthy as I remember. If you're looking for it, Kerry Park sits between Prospect Street and Highland Drive. The lookout point is on Highland Drive. I got my tripod and camera and took some pictures. Let me know if you like them. Still, I thought to myself that the pictures would be much better at night. I told myself I would return.
I was sure that I had mentioned coming here at one point to Pam, although she doesn't seem to remember. She was impressed with the view of Mount Rainer. Naturally, I was much more interested in seeing the cityscape and the Space Needle. Still, I took pictures of both.
We had talked about seeing a movie, and my vote was for Titan A.E. It's has been ages since I had seen an animated film in the theaters, especially one with a darker side. It had been playing for some time and it was not going to stay around much longer, so I figured that I would watch it at some point. I managed to twist Pam's arm and she agreed to see it. It was at the theater a few blocks away, playing at about 9:30pm. Perfect!
She was gracious enough to pay for the movie. [Thanks!] We wondered in and she again had to get sweets. Now I can certainly understand picking out the sweets that you know you like. However, picking out random candy on the premise of experimenting seems a bit odd to me. Naturally, she did this again, and wound up complaining about the candy. [Sigh!]
The movie was good. Although, I generally like films that portray that humans have not become more polished as time progresses. Civilization is an illusion, it is just like most upper management that is far removed from the inner workings. Although, admittedly the management where I work is very good. Can't get much past them.
I won't review the movie, because it won't do justice to the general feel of the film. It certainly has a darker feel than most animation, similar to movies like Heavy Metal and Rock and Rule. The story is rich enough to keep you interested and perhaps forgetting that you're watching animation instead of live actors. Through the movie I kept wondering who was the voice of the female lead. For some time I thought it was the voice of Ming Na Wen. I stayed through the credits to find out. It was Drew Barrymore. I'm not particularly fond of Drew Barrymore, so I suppose it was a good thing that I didn't know during the movie.
I was curious to find how Pam enjoyed the movie, she answered with a quiet snore. I'm not surprised though, she sleeps through most movies. We walked back to her place after than, and I left shortly after.
July 23, 2000