Day 58

Watched Le Plaisir yesterday.  Directed by Max Ophuls, it takes three stories by Maupassant and sets them end to end in order to form a completed movie.  The stories relate only to each other by theme.  They all address, in some way, the nature of pleasure (romantic pleasure, specifically).  For me the best sequence was the one in the middle story, in which a group of high class prostitutes attend a village communion service.  The obnoxious salesman on the train who tries to sell them garters; the starstruck mayor of the small town who insists they all sit in the best pew in the church; and most of all, Jean Gabin as the brother of their employer, who picks them up at the train stop in the cart he uses to haul hay and fusses over them with a mixture of brotherly pride and romantic ardor--these were some of the best moments.  

Tonight's menu: grilled shrimp with penne and broccoli rabe.  So I need to go to the store.  That's going to be the next task of the morning.  Then, the work.  Then, jogging.  Then, pick up the Binks.  He's getting his hair cut today.  And other sundry grooming elements.  The Maltese has no undercoat of fur, which means that he doesn't ever shed.  (Fur is the dog equivalent to the skin of a snake, or bird feathers; it's genetically programmed to 'molt' at certain times every year.)  Instead, his hair just grows.  And grows and grows and grows.  If it's not trimmed every few months he starts to look like an enormous ball of fluff.  Worse, it grows in front of his eyes, and he can't see.  And that makes it very difficult for him to help out as a caddy at the local golf course.  Or, work on his sculptures.

It seems more and more likely that the kennel where we take Binks when we go on vacations will close at the end of the month.  This is a serious problem.  It's taken him two years to get used to that place.  We're going on a ten-day trip in the middle of June.  That's a long time for the Animal to be outside of the home.  We cannot possibly take him to a new place--somewhere he's never been--for that trip.  We have to locate a new kennel before that and take him there once or twice to get him used to it.  Which is going to be tricky and unpleasant, probably, for all involved.

If anyone wants to take care of a dog for ten days in June, let me know!