Sorry for the late post. I'm on puppy watch, as my neighbor got called for jury duty today and couldn't leave young Stryder alone. It's a good thing Wally and I had the test run with Stryder yesterday...we knew everything would work out. I have to hand it to Stryder - he's the best puppy I've ever met. Even Wally was a handful, always chewing on something. You had to watch him all the time. But Stryder has been a very mellow pup, and very playful with his big uncle, Wally. Here are some photos from yesterday's get together:

I went to check in with the ENT doctor yesterday to make sure everything was going fine with my tonsil removal since the surgery. I was worried because I was still in a lot of pain, 10 days after the fact. As it turns out, the doctor says my throat looks fine and I'm right on schedule as far as getting your tonsils removed in your 30s goes. He sprayed a bunch of stuff in my throat - some novocaine to numb it, then some peroxide and such to clean it out, and had me gargle with some foul smelling stuff. It all deadened the pain for awhile, and later in the day, I felt MUCH better. In fact, I was actually able to sleep through most of the night last night, and didn't have to use the pain killers quite so often after my visit. I guess there is hope for a recovery afterall!

As you know, since I've been off work and recovering from surgery, I've been watching a ton of DVDs and TV. This morning, I watched "The Lady In The Water" by M. Night Shyamalan. I had heard nothing but bad things about this movie, and just two days ago, a friend in the industry told me he had watched it and hated it. I wish I had seen it earlier - I try to watch films before I've heard any buzz on them. I like to go in with a fresh perspective and get to make up my own mind about whether or not I liked the film. The truth is, I think people sometimes put too much thought into it. I know it sounds kind of basic and naive, especially for someone who works in the business, but for me, I can only rate a movie on whether I liked it or not, whether it moved me or not. I don't try to read into them for symbolism, and try not to have opinions on the directing, lighting, editing, etc. In fact, I tend not to notice those things at all unless they are extraordinarily good or bad.

Granted, I may not be the best judge of films or television. I often find myself interested in TV shows that will soon get cancelled, and often like films that few people have even seen. But I have to say, in general, I sort of liked this movie. I liked the IDEA of the movie, that a small community of people could be so like minded and willing to believe in something good that they could band together to make something miraculous happen, simply based on faith. It was a pretty fantastic movie in that sense - it seems so unlikely that would happen in this world of "I didn't see anything" society. But in general, I enjoyed the film. Once I got past the fact that M. Night was in it WAY too much.

The song for today is "I'm On Fire" by Bruce Springsteen. The song came off his famous 1984 album Born In The USA. I was in the 7th grade when this album came out, and I really didn't know who Springsteen was. I had sisters who were 6 years older than me, but they weren't the Springsteen types. I wasn't one of those people who went off my nut crazy for Springsteen, but this was a great album. And after I heard this one, and learned that the guy had actually been around for awhile, I started to go backwards and listen to his older stuff. I wouldn't grow to appreciate things like the river until I was well into my 20s. "I'm On Fire" was a great ballad, very simple and emotional, and though it was short (I think about 2:30 in duration) it seemed like the perfect length for the song.