Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

One of the biggest reasons I love tennis is its global reach - all those hard-to-pronounce names with all that history behind them. Tiny little countries like Slovakia with many players in the top 20, both on the men’s and women’s side. And Croatia - which just exists for the first time now as a country - with lots of top names as well.

Indians and Pakistanis playing together. Arabs and Israelis playing doubles - and winning. Brits and Morroccans and Mongolians, oh my!

It’s not just a game between England and America any more. A Swiss at the top of the men’s game, a Spaniard second, Argentinians and Slovakians, and 2 Americans (Blake and Roddick) in the top 10. No Brits there, but Andy Murray, a Scot, is coming up fast.

And I’ll get to see them all when they come to the Masters out near Kings Island, starting August 10!

What a lavish and lush and powerful and well-sung and well-staged production! Aida is so full of color and great music - and all of it was perfect on Friday night!

The triumphal procession was breathtaking - the priests massed up the steps, filling the stage did literally take the audience’s breath away - you could that intake of air all over Music Hall. The love triangle that affects an empire, the powerful prayers to the old gods - that temple scene is incredible.

Of course, I still want to re-write it so Aida and Radames can just slip away down the Nile to Ethiopia. But otherwise, it was just perfect!

We’re going to have another great restaurant in the ‘hood. All of us have really missed Simone’s - such a great gathering place, great music, great food. Better management would have helped.

As the new owner, Travis Maier, says “You have to pay your taxes and you have to pay your suppliers.”

He’s got that right, and it sounds like he’s got a lot of other stuff right as well - the restaurant will bring Spanish tapas to Walnut Hills, with a focus on food, atmosphere and service.

Great-grandson of Frisch’s founder, Travis has been cooking since age 6 - he’s now 23, and has already worked in several restaurants, including one in San Sebastian, on the Atlantic coast of Spain. So he knows whereof he cooks!

Good luck to you, Travis! The neighborhood is ready.

Saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again on Wednesday, with a friend who hadn’t seen it yet. I noticed more details this time, had just as much fun. Really enjoyed the special effects, especially all the different patronuses whizzing around the Room of Requirement.

I loved the scenery - and it was fun to mention to Diane in advance when one of my favorite lines / scenes was about to appear - as when the Inquisitor is towed away by the centaurs. Watching house elf Kreacher in all his negativity was interesting - knowing how different he will be in The Deathly Hallows. Everything changes and grows - for good and for ill - in Harry Potter’s world.

Which is probably one of the reasons I like it so much there!

A quirky love story, that’s what Once is. I saw a review in which it is billed as a musical. Not so, unless one expands that genre wide as can be. Full of Irish rock, scenes in Dublin that had me homesick, tenderness abounding. And not the ending you’re going to expect.

It’s at the Esquire on Ludlow - go see it! It’s fun - more like a how-did-this-band-get-started video in some ways. Love is always lurking on Dublin’s streets, night or day - and you can sure feel that in this movie.

So simple, so easy - Rescue Remedy Spray and Rescue Cream are available at every health food store in the country - and probably in some regular stores as well.

They are homeopathic remedies - which most countries in the Western world use at a very high rate. As we would use Tylenol (with all its side effects), Australians, for instance, use homeopathic remedies, specific to each presenting problem. It’s hard even to say they’re drugs, since there’s so little in the way of active ingredients, there are no side effects (true - google or wiki homeopathy), and good results come quickly.

Homeopathy was created? discerned? in the middle of the 19th century, Bach created his flower essences early in the 20th, building on that knowledge and experience. The Rescues are from Bach. They are more expensive than most health food store remedies - running $10 or $12. So not expensive compared to drug prices.

Feeling stressed? anxious? frightened? or facing a tooth extraction as I was a couple of months ago? Two quick sprays under or on the tongue - as often as you’d like. A tang of alcohol, which is the carrier - these are tiny spritzes, so no real amount of alcohol is ingested. No drugged up feeling, just calmed and centered. And the Rescue Cream is just the ticket for any skin irritation or problem.

And when your kids are over the top with stress or excitement - they will appreciate the spray, too. Plus the cream for the summer boo-boos.

Try it! You’ll like it! I sure do.

WOW! I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at 4 p m edt, today, Sunday, July 22, 2007. I didn’t mean to. I had a rational schedule all figured out, and knew what other work I wanted to accomplish. I was planning to finish probably Tuesday.

J. K. Rowling is such a good writer - there was tension in the story until just pages before the end - 749 pages, and then an Epilogue titled Nineteen Years Later - so the book ends at page 759.

Read just 85 pages on Friday night / Saturday morning after I picked it up at 12:01 a m. Did what I was scheduled to do on Saturday and then… perhaps there was a Charm on the book!

About a third of the way through, I could not stand the potential pain, and so read the Epilogue, which made it possible for me to read the rest. And continued to eat, sleep and read Harry Potter - until just now.

What a writer. What a school. What a world.

There is a bachelor herd of deer in the woods already, much early than their usual September gathering. Four or five males, whose antlers are still growing. Two of them have a missing antler on one side.

One, who’s in his third summer, lost his right antler at some point last year, his first summer of growing them. I thought for sure it would come back normally this year, but not so. There is a sort of stubby knob there on the right, a few inches tall - but nothing to match the monarchical points on his left side.

The other deer, in his second summer, has a small full antler on the right - but nothing on the left.

Perhaps a collision with a car? or getting stuck in a narrow space somewhere in the woods? I have seen deer battle, but that’s in the fall, not in full summer. And how awkward to be so unbalanced.

A mystery to think about, as I watch the goldfinches swarming about the feeder, and the humming birds playing with their own speed and agility.

The fox I saw in the neighborhood a few weeks ago has stayed around! A momma, I expect - very skinny right now, so I’m thinking a female with kits still nursing. No way any self-respecting male fox could be skinny with the wildlife around here. And walking down the wall and trotting off across the patio, with the same high step - beautiful, remarkable, wonderful.

AND as I glance out the window - a momma doe with twin fawns. She is hitting up the bird feeder for her meal. The twins are trying out the veggies in the garden - eating the leaves off one of the hot peppers! One has backed away, the other is chowing down. One of the twins leaped straight up on to the top of the wall - showing off and being proud - and then walking around shaking out its leg for just a moment.

Looks like I’ll have to spray everything with Liquid Fence after I finish watering today. What a great ‘problem’ to have!

And now - the blue jays are letting me know it’s time for peanuts.

Since my grandson Patrick, at 16, is much too old to go to the big Hogwarts party at Joseph-Beth last night - I went by myself. And had a wonderful time! Lots of Harry Potters, Hermiones and Rons about - but several Sirius Blacks and an astonishing number of houselves as well - and a huge Hagrid.

The store had done a terrific job, setting itself up in different areas as Diagon Alley (including Weasleys Wizard Wheezes), the Three Broomsticks, Platform 9-3/4 and the Ministry of Magic - and showing everything on the Marauder’s Map. There was a Divination class - and the Sorting Hat was hard at work all evening. I didn’t get in the Sorting line, but at the end an 8 year old I was hanging out with got me a Slytherin button - I’ve always thought I’m like Harry - a Gryffindor with strong Slytherin skills.

There was heavy voting on whether Severus Snape is good or evil. (I already know from reading the book, but am not going to tell!)

Since I had a voucher (bought it in February!), I also got an Auror’s pouch - including a DA (Dark Arts) quill, polyjuice potion, directions for invisible ink and a one-way pass on the Hogwarts Express. I’ll use it as a bookmark until I’m ready to get on the train.

I bought myself a Slytherin winter scarf, Blood Pops and a bag of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. And then came home and read for an hour and a half.

A friend just emailed me that I’m on Channel 12, in line getting my book at 12:01 a m last night. Life is good!