The weather service issued a flood watch for the island over the weekend, but our much-hyped storm turned out to be rather wimpy. Thunder and lightning but little else. It's not rained for much of December; I wonder if that's normal?

Watched Blue Car the other night. It's sort of a Finding Forrester (or any other older mentor encourages a young person to find his or her own voice movie) meets Lolita's Humbert Humbert. Unremarkable and predictable, but then I guess there's only so much you can do with the encourage-a-teenager genre.

Drove up to Kilaeua to see Cold Mountain in the theater/community events hall there. Nifty space. Before the lights flicked off, I kept forgetting it was a movie we would be seeing and not the local children's theater group. The movie itself was good, a solid piece of work by all involved. Somewhat lacking in emotional depth but very thorough in its "any war is bad" message. Interesting to see the Civil War from the Confederate perspective; I've often only seen the view from the North, righteous and victorious.

The best part of the last few days: The Dogs of Babel. Finally, a really excellent read: evocative, poetic, emotional, haunting. Perhaps the most accurate portrayal of grief I've ever read. A beautiful book.