There is a line from a favorite movie that has always stuck in my mind. The movie is The Way written and directed by Emilio Esteves and starred in by his father, Martin Sheen. “The Way” follows Tom Avery, a California ophthalmologist who travels to France after learning his adult son Daniel died in a storm while walking the Camino de Santiago, the historic pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Rather than simply bringing…
July is turning out to be the month of theme parks for me. Disney, Eagle Gold Mine (a stretch…but sort of), Santa Monica Pier and today, Warner Brothers Studio Tour. We did the Universal Studio Tour and Park last summer so this will complete two of the three suite (Carolyn tells me that next year we have to do Paramount). It’s nice and warm here in LA, not oppressively hot, but still sunny and warm.…
There is no such thing as a perfect day, but there are days that are more pleasant than others. Yesterday was a pretty good day on this particular hilltop. It began with me having a kick-off meeting on a new case that I’ve just been assigned. By now I can tell if a case is going to be well-structured and organized or whether its going to be chaotic and all over the place. This kick-off…
News flash! That extra Zepbound injection on Monday has caused me to drop almost 4 pounds so far this week and I hit a new all-time low in the 250s. Of course I did a double workout yesterday too with an hour with my trainer and two hours in the Gyrotonics studio (yes, I am a bit muscle sore today). But nonetheless, ya gotta love this Zepbound stuff. I’ve been paying for my own Zepbound…
It was bound (pun intended) to happen. On Saturday, I fucked up my Zepbound injection. The drill is that to get the Lilly Direct special pricing, I get my Zepbound in refrigerated vials and Lily also send me hypodermic needles and alcohol swabs so that I can self-administer the injections. The process is to take the plastic cap off the vial, exposing the rubber top membrane. Then I open the alcohol swabs and clean the…
With Kim away in Wabash this weekend and me taking the family (Carolyn, John, Charlotte & Evelyn) up to L.A. for the weekend, there remains the issue of “What About Buddy?” We are very attached to this little 7-pound fur-ball that can’t keep his yap shut. Our Buddy program consists of flying in Natasha to sit for long vacations, taking Buddy to Colean’s doggy day and overnight care and local kids who are looking to…
Back in 1971 when I was living in Rome, one of my good pals was Tom Wohlmut. Tom’s father was a top executive at getting oil, effectively running Getty Italiana. Technically, John Paul Getty Jr., J. Paul Getty’s dilettante son was the President, but Getty senior leaned on Wohlmut as one of his trusted lieutenants. This is also the same period covered by the tragic events of 1971 when his second wife Talitha was found…
Tomorrow we drive up to L.A. for a long weekend while Kim is off in Wabash. In 2002 I lived in L.A. for six months and must say, was not so fond of the lifestyle as I thought I might be. It may have been the circumstances of my life at that time, but I have a hard time getting past the things about the city that didn’t appeal to me. First among those things…
As everyone in the free world seems to know, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey released in theaters today. It’s an epic adaptation of Homer’s poem, shot entirely on IMAX 70mm. Christopher Nolan is a British-American writer-director known for cerebral, visually ambitious blockbusters that mix big ideas with large-scale spectacle. You either love or hate his movies. Memento was his breakout reverse-chronology thriller (which I put into the hate category). His The Dark Knight trilogy redefined the…
My daughter Carolyn has a penchant for finding unusual and fun activities when she comes out here for her summer vacation with her family. This year is no exception to that despite this being the fourth year of coming out for the month of July. But we’ve done most of the regular activities within striking distance of our hilltop already. This year she mentioned that they had never been to the town of Julian, which…