Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Thanks for your good wishes! According to Mom, Dad will be in the hospital, on the orthopedic floor, for another five days, and then there's 21 days of special exercises and recovery at home (no rehab, unless unforeseen problems develop). Dad had the other knee done over a year ago, so they sort of know what to expect.

As for "Earthsea", I've yet to hear from anyone unfamiliar with the books who watched it (for all I know, it might be just fine as a completely separate fantasy film, if you're not expecting the characters and plot to reflect anything of their namesakes in the books -- just as I actually enjoyed the Marc Singer movie "Beastmaster", once I accepted that it shared nothing with the Andre Norton novel, upon which it was supposedly loosely based, except a title and the idea of a character who mentally links with animals and works with them as a team). But the Sci-Fi Channel is always re-running things, so if you're still interested in watching it for fun (though not as a primer on LeGuin's books), I'm sure you can catch it.

Peace to you and yours in this season, as well.