Jesus…I haven’t written since Sunday. I thought I hadn’t written since Tuesday. Where did the week go?

Instead of going through the day by day specifics, let me go through the Chautauqua week highlights:

• S and I hit Pittsburgh for the Pirates/Brewers game Wednesday, then we got lost in the terrifying city of Youngstown, Ohio, then we went to the largest candy store in the world (self-billed) in Sharon, PA, then we drove home. Pics to follow, but they’re already on facebook, you lazy bastards. I’ll remember the day as great. PNC Park is beautiful. S and I were early so we walked around, got food, and took pics. Then we settled into our seats, right next to the left field foul pole, and watched the game. The Brew were winning, then losing, then winning, then losing, then tied, then lost in the ninth. S was pissed, of course, but I still had fun. A couple college students behind us were from Cedarburg. The number of Brewers fans surprised me. After the game we got lost on the way to Sharon, leading to the accidental Youngstown visit. S played navigator with the road atlas and got us on the right path. The candy store, Daffin’s, looked like a giant Walgreens but had a ton of candy. They also had this weird room with huge chocolate turtles or whatever in the back. Creepy. We dropped about forty bucks on candy and drove home through the rain. Great day.

• T and I saw Transformers. My God, that movie was awful. I also saw The Hangover and Star Trek. Both were excellent. I saw the former at a horrible run down theater in a the kind of mall zombies take over. The projector went “tick tick tick” and the walls were covered with dust. Gross. I saw the latter at the Chatauqua cinema where a large man with a German accent talked so much through the first ten minutes of the film that I gave up and moved.

• I worked out every day. Monday and Wednesday I ran, not quite for an hour, but A) I hate running, and B) I didn’t have a way to tell for how long I had run. Otherwise I worked out in the usual style at either the center near the north gate, where they have televisions attached to the ellipticals and the weights in an adjacent gym, or the much smaller center near the lake where I watched water flow pass and listened (today, at least) to Mogwai. I ate some candy (see candy store post above) but only succumbed to ice cream once.

• The boys had a great time and were more often than not well-behaved. No, in fact, let me change that, the boys were wonderful. They’re sleeping now.

• I met this guy across the street named Gary. He talks like a 50s disc jockey, all breath and stretched-out syllables. We met when I commented favorably upon his Hold Steady t-shirt. I think he wanted to hang out more with me. But I’m an anti-social bastard. Sorry, Gary. You were cool, though. I’m glad our kids got along.

• M’s mom was fine until today, when she tried to push the idea that T should visit on his own soon when I made clear, earlier in the week, that we said he couldn’t until he was sixteen. No thank you. I went for a walk to cool down. She has a hard time respecting the decisions we make. She already raised her kids. Let us raise ours.

• I read a lot…Handke, mentioned previously, the first 50 pages of The Idiot, some travel essays, and the first part of a Ross MacDonald book from the “Archer in Hollywood” series. I can’t remember the title.

• Rain fell every day, but not all day, and I like the rain. Today I sat on the second floor porch, reading the NY Times, and eventually put down the paper and watched the water pour through the tall trees.

That’s it for now. Everything’s packed. I should get some sleep. Good night.