A breezy Sunday afternoon. We went down to Shipwreck to have a burger for lunch. Yummy fries today - I don't want to think of the weight I have put on since I got down here. Steve has taken me out for all my favorite on island foods. We didn't stick around for football today as the Kansas City Chiefs' game was not being shown. So he is off to the office for a bit and to get more Diet Coke in case we run out before I leave. He knows how crabby I can get with out my caffeine fix in the a.m.!

Steve still has the head/chest cold thing he caught when we were in Kansas City. He wanted to go out to dinner last night but I told him it wasn't fair to the Halloween partiers for him to be coughing on them. Besides I wasn't in the mood to watch a bunch of drunk Draculas and Playboy Bunnies tottering about. We watched The Prairie Home Companion and called it an early night. That movie was worth what we paid for it - a free Blockbuster coupon. I don't like Garrison Keillor, but Steve loves his radio show. The best part was Kevin Kline as Guy Noir - the private detective. It was better than the Robin William's bomb we watched last weekend - RV. Williams has done some real stinkers in his career and this one is the worst I have seen. It can't even come close to Chevy Chase's family vacation movies. My movie choice last weekend was The Break-up with Jennifer Aniston. It was an okay movie, but I was prepared for a comedy and it really wasn't funny, just down right sad and depressing. A woman doing dumb things to get a jerk to appreciate her, but he is too self centered to even realize, much less care, why she is acting the way she is. So, it certainly didn't live up to the hype. The only movie I have seen in the last 2 weeks that I liked was The Devil Wears Prada, which I saw on the plane on the way down here. Meryl Streep did a fantastic job as a bitchy women's magazine publisher. Much better than her dorky role in The Prairie Home Companion. I have seen more movies in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 2 months, other than the old ones I watch on TMC.

After the couple of depressing books I had read I needed a feel good book and found a copy of Barbara Park's The Graduation of Jake Moon in my bookcases. What a delightful, honest depiction of how a tween/young teen would feel about his beloved grandfather Skelly's Alzheimer's. Jake pretends he doesn't know Skelly when he and two other MS guys see Skelly get into the dumpster, but his feelings of guilt afterward eat away at him. All in all this is a beautiful story of a loving family who bicker and fight, but all love Skelly and do the best they can to help a once active and vibrant elderly man deal with an illness he isn't even aware he has. The graduation scene brought tears to my eyes. This is a must have book for every upper elementary and MS library. And, a gift to give to somone you know whose loved one has Alzheimer's.

Steve's dad has Alzheimer's and when his parents lived with us for a little while in Texas I was amazed by Steve's Mom's patience. Charlie was like a little child. He woke early and I would find him out in the dining area playing Solitaire. He would watch as I made my tea and bagel. I always asked him if he wanted a bagel and he would say no but when I turned around 1/2 of mine would be gone. So we kept the routine the same, with me asking and him saying no, but I made another 1/2 a bagel so he could sneak 1/2 of the first one I made. He didn't have a clue who I was or even who his son was most of the time, but he was always pleasant and kind. Now he is in a nursing home and knows no one. We bought him a Halloween card that plays music when you open it. Each time he opens it, will most likely be as if he hadn't heard it before. I imagine he will drive the nurses nuts with it, but it will entertain him. We hope, but who knows what is going on inside of his mind. I just hope what thought are there are good ones.

Sorry - not such a pleasant note to end this entry on. But, thinking about Alzheimer's has also caused me to think of my Gramma and how much I loved her, even when she didn't know who I was. I went back to Michigan to have my first baby and my mom told Gramma that I was her granddaughter and that I was going to have a baby. Gramma so innocently said, "Oh, I just thought she was really fat!" I have a picture of Gramma holding Mic at a week or so old. She had such a serene smile on her face. She didn't know the baby in her arms was her great-grandson, but I did and that picture still does my heart good. Not sure my current smile is as serene as her's was that day, but the memory certainly is making me smile.