Catching up with a bit of the news, and reading the Ottawa Citizen, and I see that Karl Malden has died.

Karl Malden Dead at 97

While he's remembered these days for the American Express commercials and all, he had a lengthy Hollywood career and has been in some terrific movies such as On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, and of course Patton. I will always have fond memories of him in The Streets of San Fransisco tv series, with a very young Michael Douglas. A terrific actor, and a terrible loss to the Hollywood community.

Rest in Peace, Karl Malden, 1912-2009.

Back at work this morning, but only doing a half-day, as I have an appointment with a diabetic nutritionist at the Diabetes Clinic in the afternoon. Temperature is all right outside, but it's a bit too humid for my taste, and the day threatens rain once more.

Had a pretty good Canada Day yesterday, and got in a bit of relaxin' and a bit of reading. Just started in on Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job and am loving this one. Like all of Moore's books, this one has the biting humour and sense of "main character is in deep", but keeps me entertained all the way through.

Yesterday afternoon, Kathy, SteveB, and I went out to see some jazz. The Ottawa International Jazz Festival is on in the city right now, and there are a series of free concerts going on. Caught Coeur de Pirate and had a wonderful time at the show, and found the music quite good. I love good piano music, and Béatrice Martin is a really good pianist.

Here's a link to one of the tracks that we saw live, although this is a studio session piece.



After the jazz stuff, we went and had an early supper over at Kelsey's. I was playing things smart, and had a bowl of chicken soup (with very few noodles, I might add), and a steak, salad, and the vegetables of the day. Came home, and we sat around and chatted for a while, and had a nice relaxing evening playing a game of The Princes of Machu Picchu. (Both Kathy and SteveB love the game, and wanted to play a three-player version of it. Who was I to argue?) The final scores were:

              Victory     Gold    Multiplier    Final      Spanish
               Points                           Score      Victory
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JohnK           19         26         2          19           38  
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Kathy           21         29         3          24           63
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SteveB          16         21         1          16           16
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It was a pretty good game all told, and the three of us were able to prevent the Spanish victory, although it was a close thing, and we managed to pull it off on Day 9 of the game. For a long time, Kathy and I struggled to get things done for some reason, but the around Day 6 everything turned around, and taking Priests and Virgins came relatively easy, and Sacrifice cards were flowing. Kathy picked up the win because I chose to take the last Virgin off the board on the 3rd Round of Day 9 instead of adding another Farmer to the corn fields, and thus I sacrificed the victory. If the Spanish had won, she would have had a clear-cut victory, so this was much more satisfying, oddly.

Overall, a pretty good day, and a nice way to celebrate Canada Day.