GinohnNews

G: Stacy took me on adventures as a b-day prezzie last Wednesday. We drove up toward Harper's Ferry planning on taking an inner tube trip down the river. The trip we wanted wasn't available unless one arranged a day in advance, which we did not do, since we decided late the night before, and we were calling on the way there. We found out we could show up anytime for a different tube trip, but not for another couple of hours, so we headed to Thurmond to a state park there where there was a reservoir one can swim in. They had imported a bit of sand and strung off a small area of water. It was only  about waist deep at it's deepest, but we had fun swimming and sunbathing anyway.

Then we went to Fredrick's historic district and found a sweet little restaurant called The Orchard. They had a lot of vegetarian dishes. We split a salad that had the yummiest little chunks of sesame seed encrusted tofu on it. The rest of the meal was good as well.

From there we went to River and Trail Outfitters for a little inner tubing. We were taken up river a bit and dropped off to float back from the starting point. They called it "Lazy River" tubing or something like that, and we found out why. We drifted quite slowly down, occasionally hitting a faster spot, but mostly almost having to propel ourselves to get anywhere. Sometimes the wind was blowing us back in the wrong direction! But we had a great time.

The next day Kevin, Greykell, Kat and I went up to Wilmington DE for an Al show. Kat has been learning to drive and she did almost all of the driving, and did a great job. We had a marvelous time.

Friday I seemed to have vegged out and not gotten anything done.  Saturday John, Chris, TVTom and I went to King's Dominion for John's company picnic. We did the picnic thing and then hit the rides. Volcano, Hurler, Hypersonic XL, Grizzly, Rebel Yell, Anaconda, and Volcano again. Chris dropped out and went to Starbucks after the Grizzly, and John dropped out at the end because he didn't want to wait the hour again for Volcano. But Tom and I did and it was AWESOME. It has to be my favoritest coaster I've ever ridden. But I get unsure whenever I go to Busch Gardens and ride Apollo's Chariot. And I have yet to go and ride Griffin...

Sunday I did (and led) a bit of yoga at Renee and Alex's. Then Renee and I rehearsed for a thing we are going to do soon. I'll let you know about it later. That night Mary Halbe and Mike Reinsel and Izolda came over and we all went to the Strathmore in Rockville to picnic and watch Over The Hedge outdoors. We had a great picnic, but the movie was just okay.

On Monday I went with Petra and Izolda to White Oak Canyon to swim at the waterfalls there. We stopped in Sperryville along the way and had lunch in a cute restaurant there.  After a long drive and a short hike, we came to the lower falls and got to swim.  We relished the beauty and luxury of it all. It was lovely.

We won't be updating for a couple of weeks. Take care!

J: Now that cinematic special effects technology is up to it, I would like to see Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination done on the big screen, or maybe not, I don't know. I usually don't like book-to-movie adaptations, but with TSMD, I'm torn. Made right, it could be such a cool movie (or quadrilogy), because it reads like a movie— a rollicking, dark, proto-cyberpunk, epic adventure; and it's such a great story. But there are SO many ways to make it badly, and I anticipate that Hollywood will stumble down one of those paths. Gully Foyle is a complex anti-hero, driven by intense hatred and revenge. He goes through tons of character development. Hollywood will more than likely turn him into a flat hero figure. I'll be really surprised if they don't totally change the ending.

Anyway, I shouldn't have looked, but the internets are right here, darn it. TSMD is supposed to be in the works for next year, according to this guy. Hey Mr. Bonaventura, maybe you could pick Terry Gilliam to direct, or Andrew Niccol, or even James McTeigue. Please, please stay away from Spielburg. Please?