Friday, Jan. 28

Slept late again, until around 8:15, but did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast.



Mother came over around 10 a.m. and put together a salmon loaf for supper. She refrigerated it until time to put it in the oven around 4 p.m.



We didn't accomplish anything before lunch. After lunch, we all went to the greeting card shop to buy Valentine cards. I needed to use a couple of coupons before they expired at the end of this month, and it was a glorious sunny day for an outing.



At the greeting card checkout counter, the young clerk told me I could only use one of the coupons I'd brought along...a $3 one from earned points, or one for getting a free card when I bought two. However, the other clerk suggested that I buy the most expensive card with the $3 coupon, pay for it, and then purchase the other three cards with the buy-two-get-one free coupon. I was able to save $5.50 this way. I'm glad she suggested that, and I'll remember that trick hereafter. With the card purchases, I was also able to use a coupon for getting 200 extra points.



Back home, we didn't feel like doing anything constructive for the afternoon, so Mother and I watched a DVD of the Christmas opera, "Amahl and the Night Visitors." I'd ordered this DVD a few days before Christmas, when an online store was offering $5 off a single purchase. But a few weeks later, I was advised the DVD was on back order. Time dragged on, and finally I was alerted that I needed to request within 24 hours that I still wanted the order, which then would be kept open for 30 days. I did so, and within a week, I finally received the DVD, along with another back order DVD of "The Music Man."



Mother and I agreed that no matter when the DVD arrived, we would watch it, so we did today. The quality of the forty-six minute, black and white 1951 NBC TV Opera Theater production is poor, but it is still fun to watch. It took us back to my youth and teenage years, when we watched this opera every Christmas.



Information with the DVD says that the boy who played Amahl died in 2003 of pancreatic cancer. He was about my age. Other than one of the actors who played a king, the rest of the main cast still survive...a couple of whom are in their 90s.



The story is of a disabled boy, who has a problem with telling tall tales. He lives with his widowed mother near Bethlehem. She does not believe him when he tells her he has seen a large star "as big as a window," with a tail, and until she sees them herself, certainly doesn't believe him when he answers a knock on the door and reports that there is first one king, then two, then three standing there. The kings need a place to stop and rest, and the mother offers their humble cottage. Soon, neighbors bearing gifts of food arrive. They are prevailed upon by the mother to sing and dance for the kings.



Later, while the kings sleep, the mother cannot resist trying to steal gold from one of them. She is caught red handed, and the page who accompanies the kings tries to grab the gold from her, calling her a thief. Amahl comes to his mother's defense, attacking the page and telling him his mother is a good woman, and that he is the bad one with his lying. The mother is ashamed of herself and tries to give the gold back, but the king lets her keep it, saying that the Christ Child will not need earthly power or wealth to build His kingdom. In exchange, Amahl offers his crutch to the kings to take to the Babe. The kindly king touches Amahl's head, curing the boy's leg. The opera ends with the mother agreeing to let Amahl go with the kings to personally present his crutch to the Christ Child.



Didn't do much else for the rest of the afternoon before enjoying our supper of salmon loaf, served with Parmesan potatoes and English. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I settled in front of TV for the rest of the evening.

We watched a couple of movies, the first of which was the R-rated, year 2000 film about America's first famous serial killer, "Ed Gein." Gein, of Plainfield, Wisconsin, murdered and mutilated countless victims at his farm in the 1950s. Tormented by his parents in childhood, he grew up to believe he was being ordered by his now dead Bible thumping and cruel mother to kill people. He committed unspeakable acts on his victims, even fashioning bowls, lamps, and the like from their body parts and skin. He was also a necrophiliac, a cannibal, and a grave robber. It's said that many modern movies, like "Psycho," "Hannibal Lecter," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," are based on Gein's killings. After being caught, Gein spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.

The second movie we saw was a 2010, R-rated film "The Truth," starring John Heard, Brendan Sexton III, Erin Cardillo, and Daniel Baldwin. A couple is taken hostage in their own home, and things begin to get complicated...does the wife know the intruder? Has the husband crossed paths with him? Is the intruder really there just to rob them?