wiener mash
After work yesterday I went straight to Seattle Center to the SIFF Film Center and saw The Cakemaker, a fascinating story about a German bakery owner who has a long distance affair with a married Israeli and, after the Israeli man dies in a car crash, travels to Jerusalem to befriend the widow and her son without them knowing who he is. It wasn't perfect, but I really liked it, largely because of its unusually ideal presentation of the nuances of sexuality. I guess you can just read my review for more detail.
I biked there, and then home from there, and got home around 7:30. Shobhit had fried tortillas ready to eat dinner with some exotic Indian vegetable I could not remember the name of if you put a gun to my head. It was all right -- not my favorite by any stretch, but edible, and hey, he had dinner ready, right?
I ate while Shobhit continued having an old episode of M*A*S*H playing on TV. When we don't have something on DVD or streaming to watch, he's recently taken to watching old American TV shows on a cable network he apparently recently discovered -- MeTV, if I remember right. I asked him the other day why he has this sudden interest in these shows -- he'll even watch The Love Boat -- and he said there's just nothing else to watch. He's weirdly into them, though.
Anyway, an episode of M*A*S*H was on in which Hawkeye is forced to administer medical assistance to a wounded Korean soldier. I keep forgetting to mention to Shobhit, as he probably doesn't know this, that the series finale of M*A*S*H was the most-watched episode of scripted television in history, a record it retains to this day; it was the most-watched television event in history until the Super Bowl in 2010 surpassed it. I guess even MeTV only ever airs that episode "sporadically." Given the widely fractured media landscape of the 21st century, it seems unlikely that any episode of scripted television will ever be watched by more people -- nearly 106 million people is an insane number. (The U.S. population in 1983 was 234 million, which means 45% of the country watched it.)
I didn't watch any more of the episode than the time it took for me to eat. I then went back to the bedroom to write my movie review.
After taking a break for a few months, which seemed to have happened organically, lately I've spent a little more time helping Shobhit with Washington Post crossword puzzles again. I did that for just a few minutes last night after finishing with my review. Being Monday, it was unusually easy.
Shobhit asked if I wanted to share some ice cream, and I should have said no. I'd already had an unexpected bagel earlier in the evening. When I was waiting for the movie to start at the SIFF Film Center, a lady said she'd wound up with a bag of far more bagels than she needed at Eltana and asked the few other people there if any of us wanted one, or even a couple. I just took one sesame seed covered one, which was quite good.
And then I later shared ice cream with Shobhit. I guess I did pretty well limiting my snack intake at work yesterday otherwise, because amazingly, my weight was slightly down today for the third day in a row -- after peaking at 154 even on Saturday (yikes!). This morning I was merely back down to 152.7, but any progress is good progress. And besides, slow and steady wins the race, especially in terms of weight loss. If I can maintain this then it will be indicative of finally establishing new habits that can be long-term sustainable. I'd have been down much more, probably, without the ice cream, and particularly without either the ice cream or that bagel.
I REGRET NOTHING!
Well anyway, now I have to share with you a hilarious text I got from my sister Gina. I had posted a Far Side cartoon to her Facebook wall, which depicted a Trojan Horse-style wiener dog trying to infiltrate a medieval castle. Gina and Beth have two Dachshunds. And she would never post this on Facebook I don't think, but she texted me:
Love that cartoon! The other day I was laying in bed snuggling with Cooper. Beth asked what I was doing and I replied "stroking my wiener" and we laughed and laughed!
As did I, after reading that!
[posted 12:24 pm]