Captain Saturday to the Rescue

The office has been hectic this week. I took Monday off and that's the only thing preventing me from making a break for the sunshine. All I have to do is survive until Captain Saturday comes to the rescue. But before he and his sidekick, Sunday Boy, arrive in the Weekendmobile, I thought I'd quickly review last weekend's highlights.

Last Saturday evening, I attended a South Valley Symphony concert. They perform primarily in Gilroy, at Gavilan College, but for one night, they played at the Advent Lutheran Church in Morgan Hill. The orchestra is about thirty instruments strong and all of the musicians are volunteers, which is neat. It isn't the same experience as seeing the San Francisco Symphony perform at Davies Symphony Hall, but it has its own charm.

1. Concert Waltz #1 by Glazunov
2. Violin Concerto by Sibelius
3. Symphony #4 "The Tragic" by Schubert

Admittedly, I wasn't familiar with any of the pieces and the only composer I recognized was Schubert. Despite the lack of name recognition, I liked the first two pieces more than the third. The waltz was lively and drew the audience in for the violin concerto, which was dark, tragic and featured Dale King, the solo violinist, who was brilliant. Because of the small venue, he stood no more than twenty feet away from us. Actually, all of the musicians were so close that it felt like we were in the orchestra pit with them.

During intermission, instead of paying eight dollars for a glass of wine, like we would in San Francisco, we paid two dollars for bottled water and Reese's Pieces. Thinking about it makes me laugh. I enjoyed the small-town symphony experience.

On Sunday, after dim sum (which I refuse to give up no matter what they say), I took my dad to see Sahara. It was the second half of his birthday gift. The first half was the book the movie was based on. I gave that to him back in February, much closer to his birthday. Clive Cussler is one his favorite authors and I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing Dirk Pitt on the big screen.

The film itself was entertaining. It made no sense whatsoever, but was action-packed, dumb and funny. It's one of those movies where the hero just happens to be wherever he needs to be just in the nick of time or manages to escape certain death at the very last second, multiple times. What's hilarious about Dirk is that in his attempt to save the girl and the world, the girl ends up saving him and his trusty sidekick saves the world.

Steve Zahn, who played the sidekick, Al Giordino, cracked me up. He greeted everybody with a "Hi, how ya doin'?" Of course, he was usually greeting bad guys, so he'd follow that up with punch to the noggin.

On Monday, we drove down to Fresno. Did you know that Fresno State has a farm and a rodeo? That was news to me. The campus is huge, but most of its acreage is lawns and parking lots. When we arrived, we stopped at Uncle Harry's New York Bagelry and Coffeehouse. I had espresso and a chocolate-chocolate chip bagel, which was delicious. Before we left, we dropped in again for toasted sandwiches. With Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks so close, we were tempted to make a run for the woods, but the voice of reason and responsibility prevailed and we made our way home.

That was about it. This weekend will be shorter, but I hope to cram as much excitement and relaxation into it as possible without things oozing out the sides. Okay Captain Saturday, anytime you want to rescue me...

Now would be good.

Or now...

Please?