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My days off lately feel busier than my days at work. I didn't even get back to the house until after 5, and didn't go online until about twenty minutes ago. But I still managed to miss the biggest news story in Williamsburg today: the Blue Talon Bistro in Merchant's Square, less than a mile from my house and two blocks from the Historic Area, burned down at 10 this morning. The fire also damaged Baskin-Robbins and the Peanut Shop. I never actually ate at this restaurant-- it was a little too expensive for my budget-- but the location has sentimental value for me, because it's where one of my favorite places to eat, the Cheese Shop, used to be located. (They moved about two years ago to a larger space on the main street; it's still a great place to eat lunch, but it's never felt quite the same.) I saw some footage on the local news just before I logged on to Gaia, and the place was completely gutted.

Anyway, while that was happening, my mother and I were at her hematologist's office. She has a form of anemia caused by her kidneys not producing enough of the hormone that regulates red blood cell production; so she has to go every two weeks for a blood test, and if she doesn't have enough of the hormone in her system she gets a shot of a synthetic replacement. But today, the machine they use for the blood test wasn't working, so the nurse gave her the shot anyway on the off chance that she might need it. I spent most of the waiting time reading selections in the new Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 anthology, which I'll report on at greater length in a separate entry (not necessarily today).

After that, it was off to do some shopping. I'd been having some problems with my cell phone battery not charging, so we stopped at the Verizon store to see if they could solve the problem. It turned out the connectors on the battery were corroded, and it's apparently a problem that usually wrecks the entire phone. I discovered I still had a $100 credit towards a new phone, so I got a new and improved model (with a cover protecting the battery from exposure) for free. It's charging right now, and I still need to program my speed-dial numbers into it; but it's a lot nicer than the phone I was using.

Then, to the movies! We saw The Queen, which focuses on the period after Princess Diana's death, and the tensions between the Queen and the royal family-- who wanted to remain silent and not make any public statements, believing that to be the dignified course of action-- and Tony Blair, who felt the British people needed their monarch to make a public statement. How much of this is certain and how much is speculation, I don't know; but the interweaving of news footage with carefully filmed re-enactments of events such as Diana's funeral certainly makes it feel convincing. But I was still kind of disappointed-- Helen Mirren is excellent as always, and most of the cast was good, but the film's a little too heavy-handed in its approach, and there's a metaphor involving a stag hunt on the Balmoral estate that's just ludicrous. So it's all right, but not as great as the reviews suggested.

Amid all this activity, I missed talking to Ustareth completely-- she was online when I was out of the house, and by the time I got home she was at work. So I probably won't linger as long at Gaia tonight as I would otherwise.