The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

I chatted with my folks on the phone today (they're doing fine, just busy), and I had a funny moment when talking to Dad. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, just a routine checkup, but we got on the subject of cancer.

Dad: Cervical cancer can be treated pretty easily now, as long as they find it quickly. Not like that other cancer women can get...what is that one...?

Me: Ovarian?

Dad: Yeah. I guess women can have that and not even know it until it's too late.

Me: It's a bad one. I've tried to learn about the symptoms so I can recognize it if something is seriously wrong.

Dad: What's that other one that's so bad?

Me: Pancreatic?

Dad: Yeah. That's what Patrick Swayze died of.

Me: Yeah, that was sad.

Dad: You know, I felt really bad about that. I liked Patrick Swayze. I never saw "Dirty Dancing," but I liked that one...which one was it where he's a bouncer and comes in to run a club?

Me: "Road House"! It's one of my favorites! We watched it the night we heard he'd died.

Haha! It just cracked me up to hear that my 86-year-old Dad digs "Road House"! We talked about a few of our favorite parts (Dad said, "Boy, he could really take care of those bad guys, couldn't he?"), and it just tickled me. This was almost as great an epiphany as when Dad told me, "You know, if I hadn't gone into the National Guard, I always thought it would be neat to run an office supply store." I told him, "So that's where I get it from!" and we laughed. We agreed, though, that we'd never turn a profit, because we'd constantly be buying out our own stock.

There are certainly worse tendencies to inherit from your parents. I'll take the quirks of loving "Road House" and office supplies over nasty traits any day!

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I'm amazed that our hummingbirds are still here. I think this is the latest they've ever stuck around. The boys left a couple of weeks ago, but the girls are still coming up to the feeders, trying to bulk up for their flight south. I'm guessing they'll be gone in the coming week. I hate to see them go, but I look forward to their return every spring!

In the meantime, our barred owl has been very vocal lately. I hear him often at night, and Ken got to hear him the other night, too. It's such a spooky sound...I love it! Now we need to get the coyote howling at the same time. Ooooo!

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Does anyone else watch "Hell's Kitchen"? Ken and I love it. It's a little bit of "Iron Chef," with a whole lot of the foul-tempered (and foul-mouthed) Gordon Ramsay thrown in the mix. "It's RAW!" "Feel that...it's STONE COLD!" [throws pan in the trash] "Come ON!" Last night, someone was blubbering about how they couldn't take it anymore, and I asked Ken, "Had they never watched the show before they tried out for it?" Would I want to take that kind of abuse? No way. But I wouldn't try out for a show like that, knowing that is how the Big Guy operates.

We also watched the premiere of "The Good Wife" with Julianne Margulies and Chris Noth. I thought it was quite good, and although I'm not committed to watching it faithfully, I'll definitely tune in again. Neat premise--woman's politician husband gets caught in a sex/money scandal and goes to prison, woman goes back to work as a lawyer. Very topical!

It's nice to see some of our favorites begin the fall season, even though this means the end of our summer movie watching. So many movies, so little time!