PL. XXXIII. "The greater part of the scarabs were found loose in the town rubbish, there being but few in the late cemetery which we excavated." "14 with the sphinx, 15 with the crio-sphinx, 16 with Set, and 17 with Mentu, are probably all of Ramessu II."

Found "in the town rubbish", hmm... However, at one time they treasured these pieces. And we do now. I wonder how much a museum would pay for one of these small beauties now? Friday, July 4, 2008 A "Absorbing" 6:48am The heat is rising, I paused to shut windows and turn A.C. on. Now its low roar is sole music. Having had no fixed plans for our long weekend, we are being spontaneous. So far, it's worked well. Last night, we went to the wine tasting and enjoyed a nice selection. Feeling a slight buzz, we ambled to the restaurant nearby and devoured a green salad, split a swordfish entree in citrus and soy glaze and each had a whole creme brulee dessert. We laughed as we talked and plotted future actions, while savoring each bite. Then we took a walk down to the library, which will be housed in Old Town for only three more weeks. While Julia picked Sci-Fi books, I scouted the DVDs. I picked one on art, featuring Vermeer, Turner and VanGogh. I also picked a classic movie I'd never seen, Doctor Zhivago. Julia was surprised, "What, you've never seen that one?" I've never seen almost all of the old classics, coming from a family that eshewed movies as 'too worldly'. So there is an entire era of movies for me to catch up on. Omar Shariff began introducing the movie. I noted his similarity of voice and appearance to Zawi Hawass, and wondered if he was Egyptian. Julia thought Lebanese. We are both right. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he is of Lebanese and Syrian extraction. His rich voice reminded me of warm coffee latte, enhanced with caramel. I saw his moustache on a younger man when the movie began, and so I deduced handsome "Dr. Zhivago" was played by him. Brief plot summary: "A Russian epic, the movie traces the life of surgeon-poet Yury Zhivago before and during the Russian Revolution. Married to an upper-class girl who is devoted to him, yet in love with an unfortunate woman who becomes his muse, Zhivago is torn between fidelity and passion. Sympathetic with the revolution but shaken by the wars and purges, he struggles to retain his individualism as a humanist amid the spirit of collectivism." This movie is so absorbing, I did not notice over three hours had passed by. I have new understanding of Ayn Rand's background and therefore her books. The new government stole people's houses from them and their possessions. One fanatic in their army declared he had no 'personal life', as the revolution consumed him. An ugly world, we should ever keep history in mind so something like that doesn't happen here. The first mistake is to think it couldn't. Meanwhile, in this here and now, I appreciate our small apartment and our possessions: meaningful statuary, music CDs and a growing library. I am grateful to online libraries as well, having learned of a rather large one, holding over 300 books useful for research. I've updated several pages pages with info from those pdfs: 'Reconciling Theme', 'Set and Horus Blessing Pharoah', and '18th Dynasty Stelae'. Truly, knowledge is the greatest treasure, and we can give it away freely, never losing our own possession of it. 9:31am Thinking Omar Shariff might be an interesting person to sketch, I did a little web search and found a suitable photo: Also, I discovered an interesting quote: ''My philosophy of life is that I'm living every moment intensely, as if it were the last moment. I don't think of what I did before or what I'm going to do. I think of what I'm doing right now.'' He sounds thoroughly absorbed with life.