Busy Summer Finale

I got a quick start this morning and didn't have time for much of anything but breakfast and calling Uber. The driver going to South Jersey Radiology took 9 minutes. The one going to the Oaklyn School took 7. I was slightly late both times, due to my leaving late for the gynecologist appointment and to heavy road work being done on Cuthbert Road near the Westmont Acme and right in front of the Oaklyn School on Kendall Boulevard. The drivers were really sweet, too, especially the one going to Oaklyn. 

Got a little mixed up and went into South Jersey Radiology downstairs before I remembered the gynecologist is upstairs. Thankfully, I didn't wait more than 5 minutes before they called for me. I'm not going to go too far into the actual procedure because it's kind of personal, but it did go much better than last year's appointment did. Two sweet young interns, probably no older than Betty Roberts on Remember WENN, took my vitals. I was able to tell them about how last year's appointment went, and they must have told the doctor. He did mention he was concerned about my blood sugar levels and suggested injections or weight-reduction drugs. I'd rather just stick to watching my diet and exercise. Since it's downstairs, I even made my mammogram appointment after I finished.

It took me a minute to figure out which door to go into, but I did finally make it to the Healthy Kids orientation. At least it's only one day this year, and not as close to the start of the school year. Everyone was also sitting with their co-workers at their respective schools. I was glad to see we had most of the same teachers as last semester, considering how much turnover we've had at Thomas Sharp in the past year. The head of the program had us write down what we'd get if we could get one thing from Amazon for an entire year, then had to guess who said it. Most of the remaining two hours were spent discussing the basics of the program and meeting the new assistant program manager, a much younger man who looked just out of college. We even had free pizza, salad, and soda for lunch (once the delivery man could find his way around the road repair on Kendall Boulevard).

Since it's only two blocks down West Clinton from Oaklyn School, I stopped at Common Grounds Coffee House next. Just got myself a nice, refreshing matcha latte, oat milk, no sugar. It was too nice of a day to take Uber home! Besides, the school is only a five minute walk from East Clinton. I strolled home with my latte, enjoying the dry, sunny day and fresh breezes.

Next up was renewing my child safety and development certificate. I thought I did this in May, but I guess not. The website for NJCCIS said it would take two hours. It barely took me an hour, especially since I'd done all this before. The certificate won't show up for another 24 hours, so I'll send it to the head of Healthy Kids tomorrow after work.

Went into Match Game '76 while eating dinner. Sweet and smart ingenue Donna Mills made her only appearance this week, and big George Kennedy made his first. No wonder Kennedy became a semi-regular later in the series and during the syndicated run. He got most of the answers right during the entire week. Brett couldn't help pointing out the contrast to Dick Martin, who was on the week before and barely got anything right.

Watched Remember WENN next...and I started with a pivotal episode. By the start of "Mr. and Mrs. Singer," Hilary hasn't heard from Jeff for several weeks, and she's worried. When he does finally get through to her, he tells her he has something important to tell her, then gets cut off. That "something important" turns out to be Mrs. Singer...Czech refugee Pavla Nemcova (Karen Travers), who claims she married Jeff in London. Hilary's devastated, until the others help her expose Pavla for the gold-digger she is.

"Nothing Up My Sleeve" debuted during the tail end of Seinfeld's run and was one of the most heavily advertised episodes of the entire series. Allan Ballinger (Jason Alexander) is a mentalist and magician appearing with Hilary on Magic Time. He charms a vulnerable Hilary, but Maple has her own reasons for thinking Allan's act is more con than illusion. Meanwhile, Mackie keeps trying a magic trick of his own, with less-than-magical results.

Finished the night listening to two classic albums from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Jazz Impressions of Japan is the third of four Brubeck albums of the late 50's and early 60's revolving around different cities or countries. In all honesty, only the first three songs, "Tokyo Traffic," "Rising Sun," and "Toki's Theme," really sound all that Asian. There's still some good stuff here, notably "The City Is Crying" and the melancholy "Osaka Blues." 

Quiet as the Moon came out much later, in 1991. It's actually the soundtrack for the This Is America, Charlie Brown episode "The NASA Space Station." Now I wish Brubeck had done more Peanuts specials. There's some lovely work here, from his arrangement of "A Bicycle Built for Two" in the opening to the charming title number and the eerie "The Desert and the Parched Lands."