2012 — 27 June: Wednesday
Today's lunchtime treat1 will be introducing Brian to the "Royal Oak" and its ales on our Hooksway route. But not before I've woken up. Mind you, that shouldn't really take too much longer — it's already 08:45 or so.
R.I.P. Nora Ephron
I guess if you're going to be remembered for one scene in one movie, there are worse ones:
In 1989, when she was working on the script for "When Harry Met Sally", director Rob Reiner challenged her to tell him an awful truth about women he didn't know. Sometimes we fake orgasm, she said. Not with me, scoffed Reiner. [Nora] Ephron insisted. When the famous Meg Ryan-Billy Crystal deli scene was first screened, Reiner reported that the women were in fits, while the men sat in silence.
"I'll have what she's having". She was a witty, witty woman. I bought the collection of her earliest essays in April 1977...
Ho-hum. Better load some breakfast.
Later that day...
... some 68 miles later (by road) and 6.7 or so (as the elderly trio trudge up and down one of our two hilliest routes), I'm back just in time (16:06) to make a much-needed cuppa after taking an equally-needed shower and before piling the next load of laundry into the machine. It's all "go" you know, some days. The rain stayed away, but we'd hoped to present Brian with clearer views than turned out to be the case. Quite humid, too.
The relatively sedate traffic kept my speed down, too, so the mpg for today reached 47.5 — every little helps.
My cheap little...
... 5-port hdmi switch arrived while I was out. It's nicely-built and works perfectly. However, its dinky little remote control isn't pre-fitted with a battery and — worse — the user leaflet makes no mention of what I'm supposed to fit. I can tell from the bit of plastic that slides out that we're looking at a typical CMOS PC backup type of cell, but it would be nice to know the exact make, model, and voltage. There's a manual push-button that lets me cycle through the five inputs. That will do for now. Oh well, let's hope the supplier checks2 his email.
It's a bit irritating to find that switching hdmi signal sources with this little Chinese box works perfectly with my Pioneer 60" Kuro screen where the DVDO Edge scaler was a lot more "iffy". And nearly 20x the price, too, dagnabbit. It's also irritating to see Aaron Sorkin's latest TV drama ("The Newsroom") coming in for what's probably a great deal more than its fair share of vitriol from the critics in La La land. (Link.)
Even more irritating, as sleep time approaches, is the tactile evidence on the back of an elbow that at least one — probably winged — six-legged critter feasted briefly on me before I could send in the SWAT team. Grrr.