Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Yesterday’s late afternoon and evening rain surprised everyone including the weatherman.  I was walking home at the time the rain started, but it started out as scattered droplets.  I was on my way home from a rather long walk and a visit to the Corte Inglés.  I was looking for the special on Chinchón, my favorite anise liqueur, and a bottle of orujo that was distilled from Martín Códax wine.  The Chinchón was still there and I bought the next to last box they had.  The box included two glasses, as well as the liqueur and the price was three Euros less than usual.  Score!

We ate lunch at the Kaplan Café yesterday.  Susan prepared a pasta with chicken tomato, pine nuts and goat cheese.  At 3:00 Olivia came over to give Susan a Photo Shop lesson.  That is when I decided to take my walk.  Since the big gift-giving day is still a number of days away the stores are still filled with people and so are the streets.  I did a bit of window-shopping before I popped into the Corte.  Given the fact that the weather has turned cool and I am actually getting to experience weather instead of the usual from home to car to parking lot to mall to car to home” experience I am used to in LA, I am seriously considering buying a pair of gloves.  It has probably been a good forty years since I last wore a pair of gloves.

We spent part of the evening watching the movie “Hans Christian Andersen” starring Danny Kaye and featuring a score by Frank Loesser who wrote the music for “Guys and Dolls”, as well as other Broadway musicals.  It was a pleasure to listen to songs like Thumbelina, No Two People, Anywhere I Wander, and Inchworm as sung by Danny Kaye.  Here is a link to one of the songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXi3bjKowJU.  It was obvious that with the exception of shots of the approach to the port in Copenhagen, the entire film was shot on movie sets.  That fact was very obvious.  As you well know, all movies are shot on location and I am wondering if knowing that has made me all the more aware of the sets in which the action took place.  I wish I could go back in time to know what I thought or noticed when I watched the film when it first came out.  I think I paid it no mind.  I think the phenomenon is somewhat like magic in that when you know the secret whatever you are watching becomes less magical.

Rachel called us in the evening.  She and Melissa are doing quite a bit during her visit to Seattle.  On Monday they did a helicopter tour of the city and in the evening they did a three hour duck tour.  They have also eaten out several times.  Rachel returns home today and has a 7:00 AM flight that will have her back home by 11:00 this morning.  I have included a couple of Rachel photos in this post.  After our chat with Rachel we read for a while and then it was time for bed.