The Oscars

Yesterday, Mary and I had a really nice day. We dropped Marco off at a Birthday party/sleep over and headed to town (Nuremberg). While there we shopped for shoes, drank coffee and of course went to the bookstore. For dinner we went to the most popular Mexican restaurant in the area, Enchiladas. It wasn’t real Mexican (there is something missing in the spices) but it was really good in its own kind of way. After dinner we walked down to the movie theater to see The Reader. It’s interesting how things happen. We didn’t know much about the plot of the movie, only that Kate Winslet was in the movie and that she won an Oscar for it. Earlier in the day Mary, Marco and I sat on the couch finishing the book The Boy in the Stripe Pajamas. Mary is great with teaching Marco the big things. She chooses not to thrust him into it but to ease him into it when he’s ready. We live in Germany and the reminders of the Holocaust are everywhere. In the Museums (we avoid those areas), in just about every big city, everywhere. But we managed to get to this point of his life without too much trauma. So Mary chose The Boy in the Strip Pajamas as the vehicle to introduce this to Marco. It was amazing to listen as the two of them read the book out loud. It’s a great book for everyone, worth the read. Anyway we start our day with the ending of that book and the subsequent discussions with Marco and then we end our day with The Reader. I’m assuming that anyone reading this Blog has seen the movie. It was a sad but great movie. What a difficult story to tell.
Kate Winslet was simply stunning in this movie. However Actors do their thing she was just great. And she made that movie great. The storyline was there but her acting took it from a good story to a great movie. Now go to the Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz. We watched her Barcelona movie the other night. It was so bad I decided to go to bed instead of finish the thing. I hated it, no plot, poor acting and just bad. Now maybe Ms. Cruz was really good in her part but I think the Oscar should go to the person who made the entire movie better. She wasn’t going to save that thing. It’s why I hate anything with Judges. Gymnastics, Diving, Boxing and the Oscars. Generally the best person wins but my gosh they are full of “What was that?”. Many times it’s like the judge is watching something else. Kate Winslet, I didn’t see many other movies last year but you deserved the award based on that performance.
Yesterday I also got in a swim. The swim called for a 1000 yard swim. Just execute the swim it’s for endurance not time. 8 weeks ago if I were asked to swim 1000 yards it would have been a daunting task. 8 weeks ago it just seemed like a long way to go in that long pool. Yesterday 1000 yds (meters actually) seemed easy and short. It was done almost before I knew it had started. I think that shows the kind of shape I’m getting in to. Hopefully I’m not too close to the peak of my fitness. Maybe there’s more to come.

It’s a good life….
Dave