The Big Monkey

Friday: Woke around 9. Shower. Opened the windows letting some air through, taking advantage of the warm weather. Put the garbage cans around. Down basement for morning practices. Lay down, and almost napped. Set up the 'mushroom kit' that K gave us for Christmas. Decided to eat my lunch for a sort of breakfast, since it was getting on to be that time anyway.

In at the office, mostly chased other folks bugs around. Did swat a few of my own as well. Talked to Al for awhile about how to best resolve a bug of his I was encountering. Talked to MB about evening plans. Left work at 8:15.

Back home, picked up MB. We went out and saw The Big Monkey. Such a tragic film. MB and I looked quite a pair, tear streaked faces and mussed up hair, as the credits rolled, and people tried to get past.

The weather turned colder. Back home, we were going to have a snack but then decided against it. A package I sent to a friend bounced back. Too bad. Lots of emailing. Soon bed, he said hopefully.

Aerial

Thursday: Up around 9:15, after the alarm, but not too bad. Shower, breakfast with MB, cereal and coffee. Down basement for morning practices. A warm (for late December) and rainy day.

In at work, and a long day at the office, getting the system to juggle the stream manipulators between two operating modes based on various factors. Ran into many bugs, not of my creation. The issue I'd had yesterday seemed to be caused by the version of the thirD-party hardwArE driver that was installed.

Of the new Kate Bush album I said: "Ebullient expressions of enthusiasm are in order!"

Left work around 11:30 PM. Back home just about the same time as MB. The recycling was picked up today, but not the garbage. We sat around eating Boursin and crackers, and sipping Miso soup. Leo in particular seemed attracted to the herbed cheese. Soon bed.

crash in the feeder

Wednesday: Slept in again. Need to break the late night cycle. Brief email. Shower, breakfast. Down basement. Swapped the mouse on the iMac for one from work. Headed out. Mailed off a package to MB's parents.

At the office, completed my update to the trunk. Spent the rest of the day working with some specialized hardware. The code that Dv had written before he left was crashing on my machine. When I returned the hardware to his machine, it seemed like it failed.

Back home at 8:10, watched "Beautiful Mind" with MB. Great film. Quickly back to the video store, arriving 1 minute before they closed. Found a file on the iMac for MB. It would be good of me to go to sleep soon.

no one on the line

Tuesday: Slept late again. Dim memory of MB leaving. Brief web, then shower. Wrote a note to MB's parents thanking them for a gift. Breakfast. Down basement for morning practices. Spent a little time after completion doing some computer stuff.

In to work. A rather frustrating day, completing the build I began last night. Most of the problems were caused by files that used to be auto generated, that are now checked in. Also, bugs in the SCC software. And bugs in the development environment. Did get a bit annoyed at one point. Between consulting with Chrs, Alx and Dnl, by the end of the day, things were building and running again. So good. B and Dnl were talking about cars by the water cooler. Headed home around 9:30.

No one showed up for the conference call. Spent some time with my feedback game. MB returned home and I went up to the first floor. She'd been down to Franklin to teach a BD course. We packed lunches for tomorrow and heated pizza. Watched episode 8 of Twin Peaks. Clean up, MB to bed. Soon to follow. First a little guitar.

last guest leaves

Monday: Slept longer than I had planned, but much needed. Woke around 10:30. Said good morning to mom. Web. Shower. A little cleaning in the basement, putting away the borrowed crib, and so on. Over to KKC. Said hello to Hln and Geshela, who were eating lunch in the living room. Geshela asked me to get some Christmas lights, and I agreed. Had to empty the bowls before filling them. Was in a bit of a hurry today, and spilled a little.

Back home, and my mom was just getting ready to leave. Her friend L was over sitting in the kitchen with MB. I ate some leftover quiche and chatted. Mom left with L to go tour the MFA. Down basement for a brief sitting. Some computering.

Drove out to the mall to buy Christmas lights for KKC. Found ones that would server our purposes at the third store. Fifty percent off... I bought many boxes. Over to the center to drop them off. Hln was driving a car, which surprised me. Said hello to Hln, Geshela and another monk in Geshela's room. He said "Yesterday full price, today half-off... maybe tomorrow free?"

Back home, hello to MB. Put away clothes. The cats didn't help. Then down basement for the rest of my day's practices. By the time I emerged it was a bit after 6 PM. Ate some leftovers, hanging with MB. Off for a brief trip to the office.

Stopped at the video store, and picked up a few titles. At the office, I was the only one there. Confirmed that my fix of Saturday, had actually fixed things. Yee Ha. Updated my branch to the trunk. This took about an hour and a half. Left the branch building and headed home.

Some time online. MB came down and we made a 'nest' (of pillows, not of wood shavings) and watched an episode of Twin Peaks. The cats are little heat seeking loaves. Some guitar and soon bed.

If you too strictly adhere to a schedule, you let the past dominate the present. Why should something you set down yesterday, prevent you from doing what is necessary in the moment?
If you allow too much freedom in your day, you allow the present to dominate the future. A life lived without structure is directionless.

a cranky chef

Sunday: Up around 9, hearing my mom's voice calling, and then MB telling her not to wake me. Very brief sitting. Shower. Downstairs, and helped MB with the breakfast. The whole gang was there (except for Ad), but only half of us wanted eggs. Some gifting. Cleaning up. Mom heading right into lunch preparations. Bb and Mrc gave Kr Br and Baby Z a ride to the bus. More gifting. Good restraint this year. Clean up. I decided it would be best for me to work my practices in at this point in the day, so, off to Arlington.

I completed around 2:20. Picked up my cell, and I could tell that I had just missed MB's call. They were going for a walk on Boston Common. Good show. I walked up the street in search of coffee, but everything was closed. Called Wnd, who was at KKC. I drove over there, and we found an open donut shop. Drove to a slightly more picturesque location to consume our goodies, and had a nice conversation. Dropped her back at KKC, then headed home.

I arrived just as everyone else got back from the walk. Headed into dinner preparations. MB helped by making stuffed zucchini and an apple pie. Mom helped by making a salad. I made vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, mushroom-miso sauce, and baked butternut squash. At one point I tossed everyone out of the kitchen. My mom thought I could have been nicer about it, and she was probably right. I brought up some corny jokes about mushrooms. We ate about 6:30 PM. A lovely meal.

A last bit of gifting. Then pie and ice cream. Hugs, handshakes and goodbyes. The party, now down to just MB, myself and my mom, sat in the living room. We decided it was best not to do anything ambitious like go out to a movie. Conversation. Some email. Posted MIDI versions of Invention 1. Soon bed.

quite a full eve

Saturday: MB woke me around 7:30. Sleepy, but up. Shower. Packed my car with guitar and other stuff. Left a note and headed out around 8:30. Found a bank in Medford. Picked up some breakfast at a fast food place. Gas, tipping the guy at the pump. Then to Arlington, taking an odd route. Got keys at Shawn's house, then to the practice space. Morning practices. Took a walk out and bought a few things at the CVS. A bit of guitar practice. Headed back home, finding a trash barrel for the fast food debris en route.

At the ranch, some socializing, then offered to give some folks a ride to Harvard Sq. Br, Kr and baby Z arrived there about 1 PM. They went to the Harvard Book Store. I headed off to do some shopping. Quite a lovely day for it. Lots of people, but not mobbed. Eventually wound up back at the office, and deposited my loot in the car. About 45 minutes of work, working out a very good hypotheses as to why a certain operation hasn't been functioning. Ran out of time before I could test my theory. Picked up Br, Kr, baby Z and Ad at the book store. Gave them a quick tour of the office. It turns out that Ad will be working in the same building as I do. This is a really quite an unlikely happenstance.

Back home, and lunch: Ziti with a delicious store-bought sauce my mom has found. Gave my mom some grief for telling me where to take noodles from out of the serving dish, but kept it playful. Then, some cookies that all who stayed home had spent the day frosting (MB had baked them in the morning). Clean up, Bb pitching.

Around 5, MB, my mom and I headed to OCBC for the Christmas service. MB did a long reading. Quite a lot of music, most of it very good. A funny little moment for me was watching the percussionist play "Little Drummer Boy." He was looking at sheet music for where to put little cymbal accents in (two quarter note hits between vocal phrases). I can't imagine this guy didn't know how the tune "Little Drummer Boy" goes. In his page turning (putting a drum-stick between his teeth in order to free up a hand) he managed to get out of sync by a measure, and put his little cymbal hits in the middle of a vocal phrase. Wouldn't he have been better off just listening? Irv's talk was heartfelt and on target.

Back home briefly, then out again, Bb following me to the Japanese restaurant in Porter Square. An enjoyable meal, MB and I skipping a main course, but having plenty of Edamame and vegetarian sushi. Mom tried Saki for the first time. Baby Z woke up at the end, and cooing ensued.

Back home, hanging out with Br, Kr, baby Z, mom and MB. Everyone but me and MB went to bed. Some milk and cookies. She went to sleep. Now Santa has a little work to do.

a day of going here and there with family

Friday: MB wanted to get up at 5:30, but the alarm didn't go off. I woke up at 6:38, from strange dreams involving cats, and let her know she had over slept. It wound up not being a problem. I got up as well. Shower. MB left around 7:15. Morning practices right as Kr and Br rang the doorbell, around 9:05.

I made breakfast: eggs with mushrooms and cheese, toast, soy sausages, coffee tea, and ate with them. Hanging out talking. Bb and Mrc arrived around 10:20. We sat and talked in the living room until 11:15. They headed off to the Museum of Science. Some last minute things. Cut finger and toe nails. Mom called and a brief conversation. Headed to the office at 12 noon.

Worked for a few hours, trying to track down the same bug that had been eluding me for the last couple days. No luck, but puzzled a couple of other things out. Problems in the aspect that Dv is working on, with no clear resolution. Friendly conversation with Dnl. Left at 3:05 for South Station.

The train my mom was on was posted as 40 minutes late. I wandered around looking at people, and the large miniature train diorama in the middle of the waiting area. Did some shopping. Mom arrived at 3:55. She rang my cell phone just as we spotted each other. Gave her a ride back to the house, and got her situated. She was going to make a salad. Headed back to work. Not much change from where I left it before. Returned home, leaving at 5:20 and arriving at 5:45.

MB was there. We got ready to go over to Ad's apt. Packed a card table and some folding chairs into MB's car. Eventually everyone was set, and we left. Mom keeps talking about getting a cat, but 'not letting it on the counter.' People that do not understand cats should not have them as living companions. A pleasant dinner party. Ad made salmon. MB and I had tempeh 'ribs.' Salad, orzo, asparagus. Then quite a dessert spread with pumpkin pie, cheese cake. Cultural referents were flying like bats. Headed home about 10:30. Br and Kr stopped in and picked up the boom-box and a bunch of CDs. Z likes heavy metal and polka music. Strikes me as the opposite of the 'Mozart effect'... but what do I know.

two cats on the chest

Thursday: The alarm went off around 9, but I ignored it. I remember two cats lying on my chest, and thinking I didn't want to disturb them. Then without warning, it was 1 PM. Up out of bed, shower, and down basement for "morning" practices. Made the bed for K and B. Set up the mini-crib thing we're borrowing from David. Headed off to work.

... But first, went to the barber (long overdue) and some shopping. The barber's hands smelled like salami. We made small talk. Another barber in the shop had a red eye, and the fellow cutting my hair said "You're going to be dead soon," which isn't exactly the sort of thing I like to have said when someone is working about my head with sharp implements.

A very brief day in the office. Discussion with Dv. Trying to track down a bug, but fixing other things along the way. Calls from MB.

Back home by 6:35. A family gathering (MB's uncle, aunt, and cousins, plus her cousin's hubby and baby). Walked out to the pizza shop with uncle and male cousin. Trivia about the neighborhood. An enjoyable meal together, after putting another leaf in the table. Clean up. Spoke with Bb about how the top decision makers in business often don't see how workplace safety, though requiring some up-front expenditures, can save a lot of money in the long run. I pointed out that this has a direct parallel in the attitudes towards preventative medicine. Bb Mrc and Ad left, and MB, Kn and Br (with baby Z) sat around talking a bit more, then they retreated to the basement. MB and I set up my mom's bed for tomorrow. Some guitaring. Soon bed.

physiology of mushrooms

Wednesday: Another late night, doing some musicing. Slept in to around 10. Then shower. Looked at menus for the weekend with MB, and down basement just as M arrived for housecleaning. She was sick, and I was perhaps not as friendly as I might have been, not wanting to get sick myself. Put some new strings the my little traveling guitar for David K. Headed off to work.

Coffee, a bagel and a muffin. Another Holiday Basket was waiting for my nibbling pleasure in the reception area. I have no decision making authority when it comes to who we do business with, but I still get to enjoy the baskets. Fixing features broken by my rearchitecting. Talked with B and D about some work I need from D. More coffee late in the day. Stayed until 6:40 or so.

KKC, and the first in a new series. A fast paced and information packed class, despite the translation back and forth. I gave up taking notes past a certain point. After, a little socializing. Hln is in her new robes. Drove out with Wnd looking for an open Starbucks. Passed two, but they were both closing. So, a donut shop for decaf. Enjoyable conversation about the physiology of mushrooms. Drove to a grocery store and picked up some wrapping paper and tape. Couldn't remember the other item I was to get, and MB couldn't be reached by phone. Dropped Wnd off at KKC. Called mom on the phone about Christmas plans. Back home, no sign of MB. Hanging out with the cats. Soon bed.

Workshop buddies

Tuesday: Typical morning after a late night. Victor said recently "I don't drink, but I do stay up late." After breakfast and morning practices, tidied up the basement a bit. Played some guitar.

In at work, forgot to take my lunch. Looking into some mysterious bugs. Not clear if they are my fault or not. One major problem with software is things often "happen to work" through unintended side-effect. Then if the order of operations changes in a way that the side-effects no longer occur when they need to, entire systems can be rendered non-function, even though nothing changed that would obviously have such a far reaching impact. This sort of issue is inherent whenever an interface hides the complexities of the underlying implementation. Which is a goal of all good software design. Got some pizza and a coffee around 9 PM. Left at about 9:40.

Back home, and my support call with my workshop buddies. Better attended than the previous week. MB had gone to bed when I emerged.

Headstock

Monday: Up late, and then, MB got up around 5 AM. She left for work around 6. Didn't get back to sleep for a while. Finally woke up around 11. Fed cats and put on some water to boil. Shower. Breakfast. Headed over to KKC to fill water bowls. The place was silent when I arrived. Hm showed up a little later to make Geshela his lunch. Tsunmala was there as well, talking about the wheel that I helped put together. Headed back home. Email, and being a bit lazy. Down basement for morning practice. Loaded guitars into car. Headed to work. Talked to MB on the drive, deciding we'd take two cars to Victor's. Let someone know yoga has been canceled.

Parked, walked to the bank and tried the wire transfer again. Picked up our little cards from the printer. Coffee. A short day at work. Found and fixed a bug that was causing a spike in CPU use just as the streaming process was beginning. Started looking at some features that I managed to break with all my code changes. Printed out directions to Victor's. Left at about 7:50.

It took longer to get to Victor's than I thought it would. I got a little lost and had to look at a map. Arrived about 8:30, but it turned out we weren't actually meeting until 9. Got a phone message saying something about the bank routing number was wrong for the wire transfer. Good thing I'm not applying the "3 strikes and your out" rule here. In getting the room set up my guitar took a spill, resulting in edge of the headstock being dinged. This left a residual feeling of "something bad happened" for the rest of the night, even though I wasn't really upset about it. Showed Victor some of my recent compositions. MB and David arrived a bit later. Some talk about The Endurance. Eye of the Needle. Askesis. Improvisation. Recap of last meeting. Playing staccato. Invention 1. Within you. Left around 10:30.

Back home, made some quick soup. Tea. Then, MB and I put together our annual Christmas letters. She headed to bed. Email/web.

Bearings

Sunday: The alarm went off at 9, but I ignored it. MB woke me again at 9:39. She left for OCBC as I was hurriedly getting ready to go. A very brief sitting. To KKC about 5 minutes late, just as the opening part of the teaching was underway. Sat next to Wnd today for what seems like the first time in forever. Got up for some tea at one point when there was a lengthy discussion in Tibetan underway between Geshela and Damchoe. After teaching, socialized a little. Drove off with Wnd to get some lunch. Stopped at Home Depot to try to find a bearing for the wheel. They don't carry them. To Union Sq, and Mexican food. The owner said he was expanding into the place next door. Took a walk around looking for some dessert. Didn't find any, but it was a nice day for a walk. Gave Wnd a ride back to KKC.

Back home, MB was still out. I puttered around a little, then went down basement. Played some with the feedback game. I heard MB return upstairs. A little later, I went up and said hello. We talked about our evenings, and she got a call from the BD organizer at the Middle East asking her to give a mini-lesson, and dance tonight. She took the gig. We carried her tires back around to the shed. She had something to put down basement. Then, transplanted morning practices for me. When I came up for air, MB was getting ready to leave. I watched the rest of my gory movie. Then played some guitar. MB headed out. Email. Walked the DVD back up the street to the video store. More guitar, working on some composition.

MB returned around 11. I warmed up various leftovers from the weekend, and fried some eggs as well. A hodgepodge of a supper, but tasty. After cleanup, organized mail. Email. Soon bed, though MB says she is going to stay up late working.

Land of the Grey Feedback

Saturday: Difficult getting up. Showed MB my efforts with the Christmas letter from last night. She set to editing it down a bit. Shower. Made a PDF of the result and mailed it to the printer. Took a walk out and picked up some milk. Quite pretty out today. Email. MB went out to mail some gifts off at the PO. Played around with a bio-feedback game that I picked up. The game is a bit dippy, but the concept intrigues me. Down basement (dry today) for morning/afternoon practices.

Spent some time working on the recordings from the Athenian Corner, eventually producing a CD image, and burning three copies. Some tea with MB. Cleaned up the little table next to the couch in the living-room, sending out thank-you notes from my b-day.

Some guitar. MB headed off to the Kasbah. Eventually, I walked up the street, dropping a note to KK in the mailbox, picking up a DVD (Land o Dead), and a few slices of pizza. Back home, watching and eating. Then, decided to go in to the office for a bit. Drover over to H Sq. My code from yesterday seemed to be working well, the system trace showing fewer context switches. Now, I need to figure out why I'm spiking at the start of the process.

Back home, doo-wop groups on PBS. Quite annoying, actually. MB had bought jelly sticks, which Gus franticly tried to get at. Tea. Talking about Glint.

A friend sent me some links, which I started exploring today.
Here's one I particularly enjoyed.

Water in the basement/Syriana

Wednesday: Up around 9. MB was working from home today. Shower. Made some eggs, toast and soy sausages for MB and me. Breakfast with the wife. Email. Down basement. Put away gear from the recording session. Found that there was water seeping into the basement along the east wall. Mopped, and kicked on the sump pump. Morning practices. On emerging, MB had left to go get her snow-tires put on. Headed off to work.

More exploration of the performance characteristics of the new scheme I've put in place. Tried different duty cycles. Did some in-depth profiling, and decided to try to reduce the number of context switches going on. Took a walk out and tried to send the wire transfer again. This time I was told that I didn't have all the information I needed. Picked up a burrito. Back at my desk, listened to the recordings from last night. Pretty good. Headed off at 8:45.

Back home, and then with MB out to see Syriana. Excellent movie, though not a 'feel good' flick. Back home, enjoying talking about the film. Work on our Christmas letter, and gift buying.

Recording at the Athenian Corner

Tuesday: Slept in a bit after MB headed to work. Shower. Bought a replacement mouse for the iMac on ebay. Fed cats. Ate some breakfast. Brief sitting while coffee water heated. Down basement. Long call with someone I met at the sauna trip, who may be a good business connection. Put together a few things for the recording session in the evening. Unloaded the summer tires from my car. Headed off to work.

Went to get coffee, and ran into B and Cs. I had forgotten about the programmer's lunch today. Gave B a run down of the work I'd been up to over the last couple days. Fixed a couple of subtle bugs in my new code that had been dogging me for a while. Walked out and tried to send a wire transfer, but it was too late in the day. Listened to my friend Moni's new CD with her band Naghma. Good stuff. Left work at 8:30 or so.

Arrived in Lowell a little after 9, just in time for MB's BD set. When the band took a break, I went and talked to them. We decided to give recording a shot, even though the conditions weren't ideal. Cst showed me a student Oud that he seemed eager to sell. MB and I sat and ate spinach pie and salad while the band played their next set. This older gentleman Fdy is an amazing violinist. After the show he started telling me about how someone from the Pentagon was asking him to be in a documentary about the Battle of the Bulge. I took down my rig, and we headed out, around 11:45.

Back home, loaded MB's snow tires into her car. Some tea, and listening to some comedy.

Snow-tires

Wednesday: Woke around 9 as MB and friend headed out to a lecture in H Sq. Decided to get up. Shower. Fed cats. Down basement. Morning practices. After, put away laundry, put tires in the car. Car wouldn't start, so jumped.

Drove to the tire shop, dropped off the car and walked to work. The car will have its snow tires put on, and an alignment done. At work, ate lunch for breakfast. Coffee. Continued tweaking my code, and comparing to the shipping version of the program. Things are starting to look pretty encouraging. Checked in my code to catch a snapshot of its current state. Replaced a sub-system and added prioritization to a work queue implementation. Walked to the tire place and picked up the car. Quite cold out today. Pizza. More coffee. Left around 6:35.

Having hit some traffic, arrived just a tad late at KKC. Struggled to keep myself alert, and was mostly successful. Two cups of tea helped. We wrapped up 70 Topics today. One big lesson of the night: don't mix and match models. Allow each to be internally consistent, and work with it on its own terms. I guess this is a bit like General Relativity and Quantum Physics. Still, the human mind wants Unification.

Talked to Wendy about a retreat she has decided to do. Talked to Ed about possibly installing a water fountain. Took a ride out with Wnd and got some coffee and a donut. Back home, MB was heading to bed. A little guitar. Email. One enthusiastic response from a kindred spirt points in an interesting direction. Now, to take out the recycling, and soon bed.

It is my most grave misfortune to have Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" stuck in my head. That will teach me to listen to NPR. I'd consider lobotomy, but I'm sure this song will do the job on its own if I let it run long enough.

3 guys

Tuesday: Slept in a bit, having stayed up until 4 AM last night. Got up around 10. Shower. Checked email. Down basement for morning practices. Sleepy. Did some tidying. Put together my yoga gear. Headed out, but car wouldn't start (quite cold). A jump with the charger, and I was on my way.

Got a muffin and a coffee. At the front desk, a holiday basket had come in, and so I took a sampling of goodies to supplement my muffin, and become breakfast. Worked on a new throttling mechanism, based on my understanding of the competition's scheme. Had this mostly working by the end of the day. More coffee, and some pizza around 5 PM. Left for yoga at 6:45.

KKC, and yoga. My body was feeling a little beat due to lack of sleep, but a good session none the less. Sleepy at the end, of course. Stayed a little afterwards, and emptied water bowls. Talked to Wendy about sponsoring a water dispenser for the center.

Back home took a quick shower. Call with folks from the workshop. Just me and two other guys this week. Upstairs, and a quickie frozen dinner. Hanging out with MB talking about retreat centers, and her experience in Franklin, where she connected with a woman about giving some belly-dance lessons. Email. Working on the Christmas card.

Long day with the threads

Monday: Woke at 6 AM with MB. Decided to get up. Shower. She headed off to a doctor's apt. Breakfast. Went over to KKC. Turns out I was wrong about when Ngawang and Hln leave for India: 8 PM, not 8 AM. Filled water bowls. Lama Sonam was there doing a long recitation. Talked to a woman from South Africa who is visiting the center. Stopped to get coffee and a tasty thing on my way home. Sat around in a daze for about an hour, trying to decide whether or not to take a nap. Eventually the coffee kicked in. Down basement for morning practices. Winding. Laundry.

Headed to work. A lovely day out, and cold. Got an egg-salad sandwich and a coffee from T's. Came to the depressing conclusion that despite all my work, the new code didn't behave much better than the old. Did a bunch of research with Mk's help on how our competitor's product works in this case. Fiddled with my code, and eventually began to see how I might improve the situation. Ate my lunch for a dinner, sort of. Stayed late. Gave MB a call. She called back around midnight. Headed home about 1 AM. Stopped for some pizza. Detour on the road heading home.

Hanging with the cats. Email. Watching a strange battle between censorship and inclusivity in an online community.

Without

Sunday: Woke at 8:50. Really didn't want to get out of bed, but did anyway. Shower. Brief sitting in the dance room. Said bye to MB. Headed for KKC around 9:55, eating a banana and a power bar on the way.

Arrived about 5 minutes late for class. I sat on the left, next to Nick. After the general introduction, a sizable group of kids left from the back of the room. Stayed fairly present for most of the session, drifting off a couple of times. At the end, asked a question about how those with names get them, which involved a hypothetical person with the name "Stinky." Also pointed out that skunks don't have names for things. And did a pantomime of my hand talking. Really quite mad. Left fairly promptly.

Back home, spent some time with MB. Made and ate an egg sandwich. Email. Took a walk up the Broadway hill, returning videos. Talked to MB on the phone. No Circle meeting tonight, but we she and I will hang out with Victor and talk about some plans for a new project. Gave someone directions up to the banquet facility on Highland. Quite a nice day out. Sunny, and not too terribly cold. Walked up to Highland, then back around on Walnut. Wnd called, and we talked about what she's been going through looking after a friend of hers. I offered some advice, which was basically, communicate what is necessary, but otherwise, be easygoing.

Played a bit of guitar. Email and so on. MB left to go perform at a talent show at OCBC. I realized I was procrastinating going down basement. Eventually did go down basement for the rest of morning practices. Also did some mantra winding. Tidied up a bit. Ordered a replacement glass chimney for my oil lamp.

Ate some leftover noodles and a veggie burger. More guitar. The fingers of my left hand are feeling easily fatigued lately. Wonder why. MB returned about 8:50, reporting that things went well. The Spanikopita she made was fully consumed.

Victor arrived around 9:20. Tea and hanging out in the living room. We talked about a project that he's going to run beginning in January: A free beginner's circle, with a time slot just before our regularly scheduled Circle meeting. Our Circle meetings may be slightly shorter as a result. In the announcements for this course, there will be explicit mention made of the inner-work aspect of what we do. The three of us discussed the above from several different angles. It was agreed that this was a good idea, and if successful, would help support the work of the Circle. The only immediate action item, is that Victor needs to write the blurb, and get it approved by Robert and Curt. As Victor stood in the door to leave, I put on Igor's re-master of "Get Crafty." My comment was, the players back then had more precision than we do now.

Some more computerizing, and bed soon.

Elderhostel/Christmas fun

Saturday: Up around 9:30. Shower and down basement for brief morning practices. Then over to KKC.

Elderhostel. I drove with Jf to Davis. Enjoyable conversation: cosmologies. To Martsa on Elm, and picked up a large quantity of Tibetan food. Back to KKC. Unloaded food, got a rundown of what needed doing. I ran and got a fresh box of coffee from the donut shop. Lunch. Chatting with folks. Sat next to Bn and talked about his plans. Helped clean up a bit, then headed off.

Stopped at the Christmas Tree Shops, but found that they didn't have any Christmas Tree Stands. Or anything else I needed. K-Mart to the rescue. And bought a Christmas Tree, the proceeds going to Somerville Schools. It fit in my trunk better than I thought it would.

Back home, set up the tree with MB while listening to Dane Cook. Vacuumed out the back of my car. Fixed the lights on the front of the house, and re-hung the wreath (which I believe was upside down). Are we having Christmasy fun yet? OK!

Drove out with MB, dropping off a DVD at the store, filling up the tank (gave a fellow directions to Medford Street) and dropping a check off at Martsa on Elm. Got some cash from the ATM, and had a snack at the new little coffee shop next to the restaurant. Seems to be run by the same family. I got a spinach fritter sort of thing and a coffee. MB got a Tibetan butter tea and a cookie.

Back home. Email. Guitar. MB got dressed up and headed off to a BD gig. Down basement for daily practices part 2. MB returned, as the restaurant where she was supposed to perform, was closed. I made us some food while she changed: microwaved potatoes, leftover Indian food (spinach and potatoes) from my party (which had been frozen), and a quicky Indian dish: frozen mixed vegetables with instant curry powder, cream, chopped nuts and raisins. We watched a couple of episodes of Twin Peaks. Also had some tea. Watched a little bit of SNL. My primary experience of watching Shakira involved wondering whether she was lip-syncing or not. Regardless, this points to a sad state of affairs in "live" music.

snow-lightening

Friday: Woke around 8 as MB was getting up. Snow had fallen in the night. Deciding to be gallant, I jumped out of bed, threw some clothes on and did some shovelling so MB could just leave and get to work on time. Email, shower, then down basement for morning practices. I love the quiet that snow brings. Did some extra stretching this morning, as my body felt thick from too much sleep. Put on water for coffee, wrapped some presents. Breakfast of an egg sandwich with soy sausage. Put the presents in a box, which I then addressed. Headed out.

The roads were pretty slippery. Still haven't put my snow-tires on. Stopped at the post office and mailed off the presents. Drove slowly to Harvard Square. Almost there, I saw lightening and heard thunder. Quite unusual... thunder and lightening during a snowstorm. At work, spent some time doing design, and then, worked on performance. Interesting stuff going on with thread priorities. Snow kept falling and cleared by late afternoon. MB called and said people had tried to leave work early, but that traffic was so bad that they had just come back to the office. I stayed until about 7:30, and then headed home.

I found I couldn't make it up the hill from Mt Auburn St to Mass Ave, so I took the long way around. Slowly slowly home. Almost got stuck in an intersection. At the house, our neighbor B had given me a jump on the shoveling. I shoveled the driveway, and the walk along side the house. I was shoveling out a spot on the street for MB when she returned. We completed the job, she parked, and then we took a walk out. Ordered some subs, then to the video store. Picked up our subs, then back home, for an evening of nesting in front of the tube. The cats are getting old and smelly.

First session with Shawn since party

Thursday: Up a bit after 8, but lazed until 9 or so. Email. Shower. Fed cats. Down basement. On emerging, packed the car with my acoustic guitar. Car wouldn't start, so, ran extension chord down the block to use the battery charger. Another cold clear day. Strange dreams last night of a siege on a condo complex, escaping through windows, blurring the idea of 'inside' and 'outside' and then it all turned into a movie, with the most poignant music under the final credits.

Got some coffee, and ate the calzone portion that MB had packed for luch, for breakfast. Wrapping up the 'uber-disable' feature. Talked with Mk about threading again. Worked out a good strategy. Talked to B. Talked to A and Dnl. Took a walk out and picked some gifts out for my young friend Aa. Also bought a couple of CDs by this rather funny fellow Dane Cook (who grew up in this area). Got a veggie burrito. Worked until 7:45, then headed to Arlington.

A good session with Shawn, though a little light on the playing side. Talking that needed to be talked. and some that didn't. I was feeling sleepy, so we called it early. I was playing acoustic guitar tonight, and he was playing a different drum kit than usual, so our tone was quite a bit different from the norm. Love the fullness of the low string that is achived with the Ovation going straight into a PA. Wonder why the electric doesn't have that same quality. Perhaps I should try heavier gauge strings on the electric.

Back home, MB helped me hang Christmas lights in the front of the house. A snow storm is predicted for overnight, so we put my car in the garage, and her blocking me in. Put out bird food, and fetched ice-melt from the shed. Made a fried egg sandwich. MB headed to bed. Email.

Take a nap

Wednesday: MB left around 8. Up around 9. Brief email. Shower. Cats. Basement. Cold and clear today. Drove to Davis Square and picked up food for the cats. Across town to work. Coffee, bagel and a small muffin from T's.

A long gone limitation of an OS data structure, that our code still is coded against, cost me about a half day's work. Eventually put in yet another patch rather than taking the bull by the horns. Left at 6:10. Got some pizza then headed to KKC.

First class back with Geshela after Choden Rinpoche's visit. I spaced out for a bit, but was brought back when he started asking questions. At then end I asked a question and embedded in his answer was "Oh, maybe you can take a nap." Sly fellow.

Had tea with Wnd in Medford, catching up on things. Then back to the center. I went grocery shopping on the way home. Then stopped by the new mall, but everything was closing. MB returned from an evening in Lawrence (and an earlier drum circle at our place). She helped put away the cat food. I made some scrambled eggs and pasta. Email. Soon bed.

Miles

Tuesday: MB headed off to work. Slept longer than I had hoped. Shower. Fed the cats. Down basement for morning practices. Tidied up a little after Tny (though he had already done a great job of cleaning). A friend called with some sad news. Ate some bread and cheese.

A chilly day, but we missed the storm that might have hit us last night. Drove across town to work. Worked on buttoning up some UI changes. Ran into a nasty bug, that I eventually came to suspect was not mine. Decided not to go to yoga. Updated my branch to the latest trunk version, set things building and left for the night.

Arrived back home the same time as MB. She'd had a night out with some girlfriends. I went down basement to have a conference call with my buddies from the workshop of a few weeks back. Fewer this week than last. Discussing some of the other retreats I've been on, and my approach to personal practice. When I emerged, MB was already asleep.

Ven. Choden Rinpoche audio CDs

Monday: Up around 8:30. Some lazing around. Shower. Tny called to say he was coming up soon. He did, said hello-goodbye and was on his way. Morning practice in the dance room. A quick breakfast of toast, butter and cheese. A little vacuuming. Headed to KKC.

Waterbowls. Hm and his little daughter were there. She really doesn't like me. It's so strange. Working around lots of flowers. New demarcations where candles are supposed to go. Then, worked on the CR audio recordings, for 2004 and 2005. Jf and Jn helped. Realized they didn't have any CDs, so off to Staples. Also got coffee and a jelly-stick. Spent about three hours gathering audio and burning disks. The result: 7 CDs containing roughly 50 hours of teachings in MP3 format. (Could have been compressed much smaller, but that would have taken even more time.) Handed them off to the translator. Wendy C gave me a pat on the back, and asked me to do more stuff. That's the deal! The translator promptly dropped the CDs. I joked "I trusted you!"

In to work, and immediately out to the pharmacy to pick up a few things. Finally settling down, looked at the performance of my latest stuff, trying to see if anything funny is going on with thread priorities or blocking. Also fixed some other bugs and did some further UI clean-up. Worked until about 9 PM, and headed home.

With MB on one line, and me on the other, we called her grandfather. I thanked him for the nice message he'd left me, and we talked about Christmas plans. I ate some leftover Indian food. MB and I watched this silly video that her friends made by cross-fading still photos of their trip here, and adding music. The pictures of the cats on the sofa were set to blistering electric guitar. Then, some guitar myself. Emailing. Bed soon.

Amitabha

Sunday: Slept until around 10. MB headed off to OCBC. Snow on the ground. She did a bit of shoveling. Tny called. Read a little from a fiction book a friend suggested. I decided a cup of coffee would be just the thing. Downstairs and breakfast. Fed the cats. Wrote yesterday's diary. Upstairs for morning practices.

Around 1:15 Tny wanting a ride to KKC. MB returned just after. I hopped in the shower. We all headed over around 1:20. I installed a new battery in a wireless mic, and ran sound for the event, which was quite lovely. It was interesting having MB around. Afterwards, I started some MP3 transfers in the KKC basement, then MB and I headed off (after waiting for some cars to move out of the driveway).

We got Indian food in Union Square. The waiter was a bit lackadaisical, but the dinner was delicious. Talked about J's growling stomach, among other things. Home around 7. Wnd had dropped off some frozen bean treats at our front door. No guitar circle tonight. Continued with my practices, in the dance room. Got a call from Wendy about recordings of last years teachings. I had been unhospitable when Tny called before and neglected to invite him up, so at MB's suggestion, I did. He paid us a visit, and we drank tea, and talked about retirement, and the life of Tibetan monks and nuns in India. He left around 10 PM. Listening to some tape transfers, trying to determine the order. Now, perhaps a little guitar, and hopefully an early bed.

Vajrayogini

Saturday: Slept in a bit. MB expressed some concerns to me, that pushed me into a dark place. Eventually down basement for morning practice. Tny had already gone out. Dropped a picture, and in trying to retrieve it broke something. I saw this coming, but why didn't I avert it? Not terribly auspicious, as they say. Let go of that, and got on with it. Upstairs a little after 1. Some Spanikopita and toast for breakfast. MB returned. Made coffee, but probably shouldn't have, as I didn't really have time for it.

Sped to KKC around 1:50. All the lights seemed against me. Arrived just in time at 2. Had decided to attend this event, despite misgivings. Then, gremlins in the sound system, and the misgivings returned. I did my best to stomp down the gremlins, and then made an exit, feeling flushed and shaken. Drove away, wondering if I had done the right thing.

Found MB walking down the sidewalk towards Union. We drove back home, and then walked together over the Somerville Hill. A sunny cold day. She had some errands to attend to, so I left her, and walked back. Some email, and morning practices part 2. When I came up from that, I decided to pay bills. Pulled them together, and to the upstairs office.

Took a walk up the street, dropping the bills in the post. Deposited pay and a random collection of small checks at the bank. To the video store and picked up a couple more episodes of Twin Peaks. Talked to Wnd on the cell about the event I had not attended.

Back home, MB had cooked some veggie burgers and french fries. A fire truck pulled up outside, then a police car and an ambulance. A neighbor across the street with a long history of physical problems, had apparently taken a turn for the worse. We ate our dinner, flashing lights in the windows. I had not gotten the right episodes of Twin Peaks, so I drove back to the video store, past the ambulance. Someone is having a medical emergency, and I'm worried about my entertainment. Swapped the tape. Back home, the rescue vehicles were all gone, and the street was quiet. You'd never know anything had just happened. I found this strangely spooky.

We enjoyed the videos, then spent the rest of the night hanging out. Some good and needed conversations. SNL. Something about flipping a cashew off a lighthouse. I made a bit more food.

Prj on its feet/Lines of Experience

Friday: Up around 8:30. Email. Shower. Downstairs. Spent about an hour formulating an email. Did morning practice in the dance room. Put away laundry. Down basement, and said hello to Tny.

Off to work, driving across town, drinking a bottle of water. Bought a coffee and a mozzarella sandwich. Today, I got my latest stuff up and running. Tried to do a throughput test on J's machine, but there were bugs. Debugged that stuff, and got a fairly reasonable test running by the end of the day. Left at 6:30.

Got very lucky in traffic on the way to KKC, arriving 10 minutes early. Good turnout tonight for Ven CR's teaching on Lines of Experience. Good stuff. Sleepy at first, then not. Afterwards, figured out how to turn off web broadcast for tomorrow's events. Much activity. Left with Tny and gave Wnd a ride to her car. Cold out tonight. Back home around 11. Hung with MB. Ate leftover soup and some toast. She headed to bed. Email. Another round on the same topic as this morning. A bit of guitar. Gave a dry run of a text. Soon bed.

Deliverd the Wheel

Thursday: Woke as MB headed out, around 8:30. Soon out of bed, and email. Down basement briefly, and said good-morning to Tny. Shower. Morning practices in the dance room. Hung the wreath mom bought us on the front door. Knocked on the basement door to see if Tny wanted a ride, but no answer. Headed out.

First stop KKC. Delivered the prayer wheel with all the mantras wound up inside it. It was quite fun, mounting it on its spindle with Geshela and Ngawang. Then, we tried to decide where it should go. Off to work.

A good day in the office. Told B and Dv about my "off" idea, and eventually won them over. Got my new reorganization to the point of running and crashing. Realized I had made a mistake in my understanding of the way that multiple inheritance works when you're dealing with an opaque C style interface (as I am, in part). (Basically, in these cases MI is a bad idea, since you need language support to correctly adjust the "this" pointer.) Had reworked that and hit one more minor problem, just as it was time to leave. My work day today was, to the minute the same length as my work day yesterday.

Got to KKC 5 minutes early. What a difference 5 minutes can make. Got the wireless mics all turned on and working, so few problems with the sound tonight. More transmissions. I wasn't as able to be present tonight. A bit sleepy. Wnd was off helping her friend Se. Talked to a woman from LYWA about the horrible image gallery software. Started a download of MP3 files from the recorder. Talked to Ed about Wnd. Gave Tny a ride back.

Said goodnight to Tny as he headed down basement. Fed the cats. Flopped on the couch. MB called to say she was on her way home. Ate some Spanikopita, and made some quicky soup. MB arrived and we hung out as I ate. Talked about moving to Denmark. Or maybe Holland. And, what goes into being depressed.

An email in the early afternoon left me in a state of mild despair for the rest of the day. But, I might not have felt this way, if I'd gotten more sleep last night.

Ornament/Donuts

Wednesday: Up around 8:45. Email. Shower. Fed cats. Avoided spending too much time with the computer. Down basement. At the end of the session, mom called. We chatted, while I fixed the place up a little for Tny (from FL). Upstairs again, laundry, kettle on, grabbed pillows and bedding for Tny. Breakfast. A bit of guitar. Typed up some notes from yesterdays conversation.

Headed off. Rainy and warm today. Drove across town. Got involved in another discussion about the design work that B and I had done the other day. Dv had argued B into changing the design in a way that lost the thrust of my input. His argument was for greater flexibility, in order to cover a rare case, at the expense of the common case. My point of view eventually won out. Worked through more infrastructure. Lift off of a new aspect of the project is immanent. Left work at 6:25.

KKC, and the CR transmission of Ornament and 70 Topics. There were some details of the audio set-up that I should have gotten to before had, but as it was, I had to fuss with things (with Damchoe's help) while the preliminaries were already underway. Alert at the beginning, slightly spacy at the end of the introduction. Then, wide awake. Time seemed to telescope, the colors in the room changed, and things became very still. What an interesting experience. After the teaching, I connected with Tny, and Wnd. Saw Brn, who is about to move to India and take monastic vows. Walked Wnd to her car. We have a lot of catching up to do, and no time.

Gave Tny a ride back to our place. Got him settled and fed him a piece of pumpkin pie. Chatted about health issues, hearing all about his cholesterol. He headed to bed. Some guitar. Helped MB get her Palm data loaded into her new PDA (via the iMac). Figured out how to set up a Wiki. Decided on a different collaboration tool, at least for now. Went out and got a donut with MB (from the cashier's private stash). More webbing, and soon bed.

Another application

Tuesday: Got up around 9. Email, shower, breakfast. Squandered time on the computer. Down basement for morning practices. Warm out today. Spoke with S. Paid my parking fine.

In to work. Spent the day working on the infrastructure for determining which add-ons can be used ahead of time. Lunch at my desk. Didn't connect with a women that needed a ride in time for her to come to yoga. Sent in an application to a workshop. Left at 6:40.

KKC, and yoga. Class was arranged a little oddly tonight because of the way things are set up for CR. We wound up facing each wall. Very good to get some yoga practice in. A little sleepy at the end. Talked with Wendy about the upcoming events. Not sure what I'm going to do.

Back home, emptied the dishwasher. Drink of water. Shower in the basement, then converence call with folks from the workshop of a couple weeks ago. Very enjoyable. One fellow was at a hockey match.

Upstairs, some guitar. Talked to MB about the gyrations her company is being put through. The parent company needs to make some losses look more acceptable to investors, so they are decimating MB's company and chalking the losses up as "integration expenses." Bean-counters... gotta love 'em.

bowls first/threw pen

Monday: Slept late. Much needed. Woke briefly as MB headed out, then more sleep. Then, email, shower, fed cats. Decided to go to KKC and do water bowls before anything else. Found my car had gotten a ticket again. Rats. Had to take down the bowls from the day before. CR's translator was in the kitchen when I arrived. In a lovely UK sounding accent she said "Twice the work!" I just smiled and got on with it. A woman came to just be in the room. I accidentally made a sharp sound with the broom hitting the floor, but she didn't startle. Ngwang asked me if I wanted to eat lunch, but I begged off explaining "Me no eat meat."

Back home, ate breakfast (cereal, coffee) Morning practices. The phone rang during, but they didn't leave a message. Tidied up a little. Off.

At work, began with a little research for the next phase of my project. Got pulled into a long meeting on modes of monitoring. Threw a pen at Dv, in a playful way. Stayed to write that up. And that's about all I did today.

Back home, hello to MB. Sat with the cats for a bit. Showed her John Cleese's eulogy for Graham Chapman. Looked at plane fares. Next April is coming into focus. Guitar for about 20 minutes. Hands are out of shape.

Blue Man

Sunday: Eventually decided to drive home, rather than sleeping in Maine. Coffee (red French press). Enjoyable conversation in the kitchen of the guesthouse. Packed up my car and hit the road around 3:45 AM. Stopped for some fast breakfast food (for which I was quite grateful) on the way. Otherwise an uneventful drive. Arrived back home a little after 6 AM. Checked email. Sitting. In bed by 7 AM.

Slept until about 10:30. Then slept some more. Shower. My old friend Grf called. Sounds like he's having some health problems. Talked about my 'float.' Ate some cheese on toast while chatting. Down basement for morning practices. Took a little nap. By the time I came up, it was after 3 PM. MB had made an apple pie. We ate a piece while watching "Twin Peaks." Guitar for an hour. Email. Around 6 we headed in to Boston.

Attended the Blue Man Group. The show has been tweaked a bit since last time I went. Good stuff. It was fun watching the outline of Victor do a dance with a neon fishing pole. After the show, chatted with Victor a bit in the lobby. Headed home.

Heated up Thanksgiving leftovers. Jim W stopped by with something for MB to sign. After he left, she and I ate. After cleaning up, more email. Now this. Very sleepy, so soon bed.

Sauna with NEFFF

Saturday: Slept until around 10:30. Lovely. But the day is shorter. So it goes. Shower and email, then breakfast with MB (eggs and soy sausages). We also made some orange juice. A bit of a mess, because I forgot to switch the juicer attachment.

After cleaning up, took Leo for a wander around the back yard. The little birds that were hovering around the feeder backed off a step. Stowed the tiki torches for next year. Stowed some birdseed in the shed. Some email. Took a walk around the block, then down basement for morning (afternoon at this point) practices.

Sent a song off into the internet space. Packed for my little adventure. Pulled some food together for snacks. Said goodbye to MB and headed out around 4:30.

North, up 95. A light snow falling. Uneventful drive. Called my friend A.R. to wish her a happy birthday.

Arrived at the sauna complex around 7:15. Quite a set-up: At least 4 or 5 individual wood-fired saunas, a large cedar hot tub, and a big enclosed swimming pool, all nestled in the Maine woods. The next 2 and a half hours were spent soaking, and sweating. Some interesting conversation as well. People ran from the hot tub to roll in the snow. One of the organizers scalded his knee.

Around 9:45 we headed back over to the main house. Snacks. Someone began passing around a pipe, and I took an exit from the room to avoid the second-hand smoke. Complications involving who is sleeping where.

Don't buy anything today

Friday: Slept in a bit, having had a spotty sleep, firmly pinned under two cats for most of the night. MB went out to do some yard-work, and I got up. Email. Shower. Downstairs and had some breakfast (cereal, coffee) with MB. We took turns reading a Guitar Player interview with RF from January 1986. Would like to have seen RF play an ocarina. Cold out today. Down basement for morning practices. Sent in my Mendoza '06 application.

MB and I watched the rest of "Sin City." A visually stunning film, if a bit substanceless. Ate some pumpkin kibbie. Headed in to work. Dropped off a video, and picked up another. Dropped off some unwanted books at the library.

At the office, one other fellow was around. I put in 3 hours or so, getting my new code up on its feet enough to run some data. Left a little before 10 PM.

Back home, MB wasn't back from her BD gig. I called her on the cell and she was almost home. So I waited. We walked to the store and picked up a few necessities. On returning, I heated up some leftovers, and ate while we watched the Twin Peaks pilot. Such a good, creepy, show.

Ryan Tassone in a message to ET challenges RF to prove his "Preternatural sensitivities" by way of the famous debunker James Randi. I wonder, could Ryan scientifically prove that his mother loves him? Life is not a controlled experiment.

Thankful for what we've already got

Thursday: A lovely relaxed morning, MB and I making sure to stay in bed until after the noon bell. "Love Cannot Bear" provided the soundtrack. MB had a notable emotional response to the affirmations in the liner notes. Then, a leisurely breakfast (eggs, soy sausages, etc). Down basement for morning practices.

On surfacing, and after a shower, we got to work on dinner. We were both in the kitchen pretty much continually until we ate, around 7:30. The menu included: mashed potatoes, steamed cauliflower and broccoli, mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce with orange zest, pumpkin pie and marinated baked tempeh. We had most of this stuff on hand. MB bought the tempeh a day or so ago. Quite a feast. After the main course I called my mom (MB doing some clean up thought I was talking to her), and later on we talked to MB's parents who told us about the state of the SC school system and how to make a bookmark from a blueberry. Pie and ice-cream. We watched the rest of "Airplane" ("I can make a hat, or a broach, or a Pterodactyl!"). A little guitar, having missed practice for a few days.

The Pilgrim's Thanksgiving was not a traditional meal. They ate what was at hand. And so, I believe that we should institute a new model. Stop shopping for food one week before Thanksgiving. Then, on the day, make do with whatever is in the house. Be inventive, creative, and maybe even a little thankful.

Future Starlets AAD

Wednesday: MB heading out, and out of bed around 8:30. Brief email and shower. Down basement for morning practices. Carried some furniture up from the basement, still re-setting the house after the party. Boiled water for coffee. Set up the humidifier. The fan in it wasn't working. I was giving it a gentle whack, thinking the bearing had probably just gotten gummed up, when I accidentally dropped it. After that, it worked perfectly. Breakfast (cereal, coffee). Wrote a check to Mark B for picks. On my way to work, dropped this in the mailbox.

Cold out today. In the office, realized that my assessment at the end of the day yesterday was completely off base. Things were not working, simply because there was an entire connection that I had not yet made. Did a bit of work on that. Decided I needed more coffee. Walked out. Picked up "Love Cannot Bear" and a Pork-U-Pine Tree CD. Drinking my coffee and eating a tasty raspberry/chocolate tart, with "Acceptance-Affirming" on in the 'phones, I noticed I wasn't listening. But I was enjoying the coffee and tart. At least a little. Good progress on my project. Headed out at 7:40.

Drove over to the Abbey Lounge to see Melisande perform. Ran into Crazy Eddie and Gene Dante, two of my cohorts from Project Eno. Their band was playing at 9. MB showed up after a bit. We watched Meli's set. It was enjoyable, but I kept being distracted by the hockey game on the TV right above the stage. Somehow appropriate given her country of origin. Stayed also for some of Gene Dante and the Future Starlets. Good stuff.

On my way home, stopped to pick up a movie and a couple slices (where "a couple" means "three") of pizza. Had an enjoyable "Lazy-Boy Friday Night" (on a Wednesday) watching "Sin City," eating pizza and leftover Chinese food. Down basement for some practices. MB called, and then returned later on. When I emerged she was asleep. Two cats now seek heat in my lap.

completed winding

Tuesday: MB's alarm went off at 6, but we didn't really wake up until 8 or so. She headed out. I felt pretty energized this morning. Still getting over sleep deprivation. Email. Shower. Down basement. After mp, completed the mantra winding I'd begun ages ago. Rainy day today.

Drove across town to work, listening to the radio. A brief day at the office. Got my new code up on its feet just enough to run an little data. It seems like it is requesting the same block over and over again though, so more investigation tomorrow. Add-on support. Headed down to see Wnd.

Drove to Newton. The Mass Pike looked terrible, so I decided to take back-roads. Gave Wnd a call and figured out where I was going. It took over an hour to get to her place. We hung out, ate left-overs, watched a pretty grim (but fascinating) show on the Spanish Flu. She gave me some incense for my birthday.

Back home, MB was still out. I went down basement, and had a conference call with some of the folks from the workshop last week. Good to hear their voices. Most doing well. MB returned. She was upstairs practicing guitar when I emerged. I made the bed and folded some sheets and towels while she made lunches. Sorted through mail. It would be nice if bed came before too long.

putting away music gear

Monday: Woke around 8:30 as MB headed out. Web. Downstairs to feed cats. Spent a good chunk of time coiling mic cables and so on, putting the room where the music went on, back in order. Shower. Found my toothbrush had been thrown in the trash. Morning practices. Put things away in the basement. Email. Headed over to KKC.

I couldn't tell if the water bowls had already been done or not, so to be on the safe side, I took them down. Hln said later they already had been. Lots of laughter coming from the living room. Hln gave me a cup of tea.

In to work. Continued my 'feature removal' project, eventually getting things running and hitting bugs in my new code by the end of the day. Also found out what was up with an add-on that we are marketing under our name. Mac and cheese leftovers for lunch. Headed home around 8:10. Rainy out.

MB had just arrived when I got home. I gave her a massage, then we ate some more leftovers, talking about bananas and social action. Some concluding practices and bed soon.

40

Woke around 9. MB had to go to OCBC for a bit. Shower. Mom was up too. I headed down to the basement for some morning practices. Then, breakfast with MB and mom. Eggs, little toasts, soy sausage etc. Some unwrapping of presents. We listened to some music, and watched a bit of a DVD. I game my mom a ride to South Station and dropped her in from of the train entrance.

Over to KKC. Choden Rinpoche, day 2. I was a little less sleepy today, but still drifted in and out. The sound system was better behaved, except we had some interference with the wireless mic. Afterwards, home.

Leftover Chinese food. Got a call from Shawn saying he wouldn't be able to pick up his drums for a week or so. Decided to deal with them sooner rather than later. Packed them up. Noticed a little ding on my electric guitar that hadn't been there before. Drove Shawn's drums over to his house, and left them on the porch. Back home, some daily practices in the basement.

Guitar Circle: MB's friend Ivny was observing. Circulation. IBE counting. Askesis. Thrack clapping. Talking. Improvisation.

Back home, and some more food and cake, talking about the universal end game. Sleepy.

party

no breakfast, mp, setting up, dangling (MB rescued me), kkc at 1:50. Slightly late. trouble with the mic. Sleepy. Back home to get directions. Slept a little. Socialize. Back home continue setting up. Bn. MB and gang take off. Kit arrives. Jm and Jul. Jun. Shawn.

Jun
Bird Mancini
Shawn and Glenn
Shawn Glenn and Jun, plus Billy from Bird Mancini.
Shawn Glenn and Victor
Guitar Circle New England

F showed but didn't play.
RT wouldn't play.

MB returned and danced (in costume) to IBE and BI (and maybe another). Good stuff. Ngwangs eyes got big. Mta showed up for a bit and ate some food. RT entered with pizza and I said "Pizza man!" I floated and mingled as best I could. Mom seemed to have a good time. Victor was the last to leave. MB and I cleaned up the kitchen. Quite a night!

Floating

Friday: Saw MB leave, then slept in. Web and shower. M arrived to do house cleaning. Down basement for morning practices. Put away laundry. Went out to the grocery store and bought stuff for the party. Unpacked the perishable part of it, then headed out.

Drove to Guitar Center and picked up a couple of PA speakers and some mic cables. Parked at work, and walked to the Gnomon to pick up my b-day flyers. Then in to work finally. A very brief day. Handed out some invites. Continued ripping an old feature out of the program. Shawn gave me a call at 5:30. I walked out and met hum around 5:50.

Back to my place, we unloaded the PA speakers and MB arrived. We all headed off to Manchester NH. There, I spent two hours in a 'sensory deprivation' tank, and MB one hour. It's a bit of a misnomer, because your senses have plenty of input, except for the eyes. But it was a very good experience. A real chance to allow relaxation to occur. I thought I heard bird song near the end, but apparently I was hallucinating. Then, they put a little b-day creation that Shawn had put together over the speakers in the pod. Many friends and relatives wishing me a happy one. Very touching... feeling isolated floating in the dark, yet surrounded by so much love.

The three of us had a nice post-float dinner at an Italian restaurant around the corner (I had eggplant parm, a salad, and tiramisu for dessert. Yum!) Quite an evening.

Back home, Shawn assembled his drums in our dining room. We played each other some little vids on our laptops, then I gave him a ride to a friend's house in the city. Hit construction traffic on the way back, making it a long ride. Now, completing practices for the day.

Reentry

Thursday: Woke around 8:30 as MB headed out, but slept in after she left. Brief web. Shower. Unpacking and laundry. Eventually down basement for morning practices. Packed the car with my electric rig, and headed out.

A good but brief day at work. B said I had been missed, which was nice of him. Continued removing a feature that is no longer needed in the application. Consulted with Dv about adding a new feature for developers that need to analyze data as a pre-pass to processing. Left work around 7:20.

In Arlington, chilly out. Walked up the street and hooked up with Shawn. We got some pizza and then I got a tea and little cookies at Starbucks. Ran through our set a couple of times in the rehearsal space. The first run through was rough, but the second significantly improved. Ended at 10:15. Loaded Shawn's drums into my car and gave him a ride home. On my drive home, ironed out a few details about tomorrow's plans, and the line up for Saturday's party.

Back home, unloaded the drums, carried stuff from the dining room downstairs. Made a stage sort of area. Gave MB a back-rub. She told me about a health-care informational meeting that she had at work today. I made some directions to my place and sent them out. A few things left to do, then bed.

Day 3

Monday: Rain.
Woke at 5:50, but stayed in bed until 6:30 or so. Shower.
7 AM Session 1, physical warm up
8 AM breakfast (waffles)
Took a walk up the hill to the east. Looked in to the two teepees in the small field.
9:30 Session 2
12:30 Lunch (Enchiladas)
Downtime (a sort of nap and some daily practice)
3:00 Session 3
5:45 Half of team back to farm house.
6 PM Dinner (rice, salad, soup)
another half nap. Guitar practice
7 PM Session 4, ending around 10:30
Back to the farm house. Hanging out. Played some guitar while people chatted.

Day 2

Sunday: 5:45 Woke. MP. 6:30 gong. 7 morning session (warm ups) 8 breakfast (new age stuff) mp, cleaned toiletries bag 9:20 gong.

9:30 Session 2.
12:30 Lunch
12:55 To cars
1 Departed on field trip to ruins
1:30 Arrive
2:15 (aprx) leave
2:50 back at camp
3 Session 3.
6: Dinner
7: Some daily practice
7:30 Last gong of the day. Session 4.
10:30 End
Called MB
Hot tub. Like a noodle.

In Ohio

Saturday: Woke at 4:50 AM. Shower, and completed packing. Brief sitting, and the cab was at the door. Said goodbye to a sleepy MB, and then was off to the airport. Talked with the cabbie about being a night owl. An unremarkable flight to Detroit. I slept some. Also drank as much OJ as they would give me. Had the row to myself. A crazy color-organ psychedelic walkway was nearly too much on only 3 hours sleep. A bagel. In Detroit, while waiting for the next flight, I deleted some unused pictures off my cell phone. A puddle-jumper to Cincinnati. Some cross-winds while landing, and a surprisingly loud decent of the landing gear. Found the baggage pickup, and made contact with the woman that was riding with me to the center. My guitar was not in evidence. At the baggage desk I learned that it didn't make it onto the plane with me out of Boston. They said they would send it along to the center. Mgs and I got the shuttle to the rental car company. A pinched face woman wearing a pin symbolizing joyous children sat across from us. Got the car, and got on the road.

Stopped for some lunch at a food court. I got a vegetarian sub. Tasty, but my sunglasses were missing when we went to leave. Then I thought about the satisfying 'thump' the waste had made as I slid it into the trash receptacle, and realized they had been on the tray. Dopiness is its own reward. A short while later we were at the retreat center. We barely had time to get settled before the first session began. Talking with D.A. I found out that there are strange similarities between this center, and the Roundhouse where the NST weekend was held last week:

*Both facilities feature roundish structures. The roundhouse is round, this one has a main octagonal building.
*Both facilities were designed by women with a vision, who also founded the center. Traditional architects were not consulted.
*Both facilities were designed to bring communities together.
*The location for the main buildings of both facilities was guided by an intuitive sense of the energy of the land.
*Both facilities use a 'unique napkin ring' method for reducing waste at meal-time.

Not to state the obvious, but "It's a sign!"... I just wish I knew of what!

The weather was absolutely lovely today. Mild for this time of year and sunny. A light wind blowing fallen leaves about. I feel a great buoyancy at this place.

After the first session, during which time I made a nice connection with one of the more experienced participants, we had dinner. A pasta with vegetarian chili dish and salad. Quite good. I sat at the table with Bdi and others and talked about the temperaments present in different parts of the country.

A lovely soak in the hot-tub. With foot rubs under the stars.

Gave MB a call, leaving a message that I was alive and feeling fine.
The second session of the evening, ending with a lot of jumping around and drumming. Amazing the amount of energy I have at this point.

Back to the farmhouse. I was very lucky in my room assignment. I have one all to myself, and it has a little stuffed monkey in it and it's just wonderful. A quick shower. Morning practices.

The spleen is on the opposite side from the lungs

Friday: Woke around 8:30 as MB headed out, but lazed a bit. Web. Shower and defolliclation. Cats. Down basement for morning practices. Packed. Vacuumed. Completed packing. Recorded another quickie improvised loop.

A pretty day out, but coldish (40s F). At work, continued my excising of a feature that has outlived its usefulness. Some talking with Al, which always seems to be a little longer than strictly necessary. Found and removed a good bit of code that has been rotted and actually doing nothing for several years. Lunch at my desk thanks to MB. A flurry of emails involving someone with no way to get to the course from the airport. Left at 6:30.

Back home, and hello to MB. Stc and Rb showed up shortly, and we drove to dinner at the Tibetan restaurant in Teele Square. Good food. Rb is a funny fellow, talks a mile a minute. At one point, after a loud bit about "high colonics" and noticing the people sitting next to us were looking at us with a perhaps slightly vexed gaze, he said to them "Don't worry, I'm here all week!" And a bit about his 'jumblies' being visible through a bathroom window. Smoking like a chimney after saying that he thought that the lungs were only on the right side of the body. We were almost in an accident on the way home. Indeed, he drives like a maniac.

MB and I hung out a bit. I have a few more things to attend to, and then to bed, for an early rise and off to my yoga weekend.

raking leaves/b2a shuffle

Thursday: Slept in a little. Web. Email. Shower. Cats. Basement. Brought in recycling bin. Put away laundry, while eating a power bar. Raked leaves, getting up the bulk of them. Made some phone calls trying to obtain shuttle service from the airport no luck. Decided to just use a rental car. Made a reservation, but then wanted to check whether they took debit cards (since I don't use credit cards). The phone number gave me no access to a live person. I finally resorted to choosing the option "to report an accident" trying to talk to a live operator. I was put on indefinite hold. I hung up and found the information I wanted on the web.

Loaded car with electric rig. In the process, the strap on my rack came off and the corner landed on my toe. Yowe! Off to work. A decision was made in conversation with B and Dv. Looked over APIs with Dv. Talked with Dv and Eln. I spent the rest of the day ripping out a feature we no longer need. I've been working towards ripping out this feature for years. MB had made me a quesasilla sort of thing, which I ate at my desk. Tea. Mk said "This is the first time in my life that I said 'use freeze-spray' and it actually worked!" Headed out around 7:20.

Arrived in Arlington about 7:55. Walked to Starbucks and phoned up Shawn. We rendezvoused at the coffee shop. I got a coffee, although I'd been wanting to cut back on caffeine. A good rehearsal, running through our rep, and then working on a new rhythmic treatment for a bit of standard GC repertoire. I suggested a triplet shuffle in a 4/4 frame, and it wound up working quite well. Gave Shawn a ride home.

Back home, looked up directions to the place I'll be driving on Saturday. MB and I ate rice pudding, and watched some of the classic movie "Airplane." This film is some sort of comic zenith, I believe. And don't call me Shirley. Gave MB a little tutorial on how to use the somewhat complicated TV set-up that we have.

We had a good laugh about the "Animatronic Crafty Hand."

Leo helped in my diary writing by contributing the following with his posterior:
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ride sharing/hot donuts with Wnd

Wednesday: Slept in a bit, up briefly, then a little more sleep. Email. Ride sharing for the yoga workshop is becoming a problem. Shower. Fed cats. Down basement for morning practices. A little guitar. Headed out.

At work today, propagating my changes back out into the code-base at large. A decision needs to be made about how to keep everything working. Convert everything over to the new system, or just part? The problem is, if I don't convert everything over, I'll have to maintain dual strategies, and one of them will be difficult for me to test. However, if I convert everything, I might be signing up for a lot more work. Lunch at desk, thanks to MB. Got a call from my mom. Headed out at 6:30.

Raining out, and chilly. Over to KKC. I was expecting more 8000 verses, but it was 70 topics and Tara tonight. I just sat listening for most of it, though I asked for clarification at one point. Made a little announcement about my party. Cookies were distributed. Headed out with Wnd. We went to the grocery store, and she bought some ginger and other stuff.
Her Chai recipe:
Water, milk, black tea, cardamom, ginger, cumin, sugar. Then, over to the hot donut place. Long wait for service. Ate fried sugar blobs talking about education and rote learning contrasted with the inquiry based approach.

Back home a little after 11. Hung with MB for a bit. She ate the donut I brought her. Some more guitar practice. Down basement for concluding practices. Some email.

The iMac Graveyard

Tuesday: Slept deeply, waking around 10 AM. MB was working at home today, and she was talking on the phone. Shower. Fed cats. Down basement for semi-abbreviated morning practices. Laundry. MB got her car inspected, and needed a few things taken care of. Walked with MB over to the polling station (firehouse) and cast ballots in the local elections. The mayor was running unopposed. The most contested slots were for the alderman positions.

In to work. Coffee and muffin. A long day. Continuing reinventing code that I wrote about seven years ago, that has been dutifully functioning ever since. Some consulting with Dv about how this will fit into a subsystem over which he has dominion. Also some consulting with Dnl and B about a feature that Dnl is working on. Often times with a large code base, the path of least resistance is the only viable solution. Or, put another way, you have to pick your battles. Lunch at my desk. Horrible reports about the use of white phosphorus and napalm-like substances in Fallujah. Headed home around 10 PM.

A quick noodle soup, hanging with MB in the kitchen. She had reorganized some of the shelves in our office, but didn't know what to do with my stuff. Practiced a little guitar. Email. Some concluding practices, and then bed.

Reentry, after Colrain

Monday: Woke with MB around 8. Up as she left. Checked email. Shower. Fed cats. Down basement, and did about half of my commitments. Packed the car, including my Ovation, and headed out.

Dropped off the DVD at the shop, then to KKC. Some construction was going on there (the ceiling had been torn out in the living room.) Took down many spent tea-lights. Swept. Filled water bowls.

In to work. Didn't really talk to anyone today. Continuing moving some code into a lower level library. Lunch at my desk of pizza from last night. Feeling too sleepy to concentrate, so got a coffee, although I had thinking I'd try to cut back this week. Headed out around 7:20.

Stopped for a couple more slices of pizza (dinner) at "3 Aces" (en route, and I found parking). At Shawn's house, he had a fire going in the living room. We listened to our recorded efforts of last week. Mostly it needs tightening up at this point, but there were a few structure/content changes as well. We did a bit of playing, ironing out a couple of sections, and working on a new approach to one piece. Headed home about 10:10 PM.

Said hi to MB. Down basement. Glued a louvered door that had cracked at the bottom. Completed my daily practice. Back upstairs. Email. Said goodnight to MB. Now bed for me as well.

NST Weekend, end, and return home.

Sunday: Woke at 5:50 to the alarm. Shower. Morning practices in a cubby on the fourth floor.
7:00 Sitting. Afterwards, a helpful comment.
7:30 Right hand warm up with Tony.
8:00 Breakfast. Eggs, soy sausages. Talk about the performances. David asked Tony if he had any observations. Tony said "yes." Bekkie was most generous. Quiet came and visited. I noted that we ought get cleaning up. I did a little packing.
9:30 (orig sch for 9:15) Circle with guitars. Review of material (right and left hands, C Maj)
10:20ish New folks in library with Victor. Tony for rest of arpeggiations. I enjoyed the triads going up the top two strings.
11 AT work with Steph. Review of Monkey and more applications. Review of arm procedures. Walking, taking in the room. Lie down. I was pretty sleepy.
12 prep for leaving/cleaning meeting. We circled up in the main space. I asked Bekkie some questions about what to clean and so on. We put the library back to more or less the way it was when we arrived. I changed bed clothes in the room MB and I had been staying in.
12:45 Lunch set-up. Decided that we would 'circulate' the condiments.
1 Lunch. The cat came and paid us a visit. Yummy burritos. Selling picks and strings.
2:15 Final meeting. I played "Puppy Wrangler." Thanks all around. I found a way to voice the sentiments that had arisen in me the previous night while listening to Bekkie's story. And we were declared complete. One person said the weekend had been almost free of solicitation. I disagreed with the almost. Immediately after these remarks, Tony offered a "sales pitch" for some upcoming courses. The difference between a sales pitch, and a informational message, is the degree to which the speaker is attached to the outcome. In Guitar Craft, we don't care if you show up or not.
3:00 Goodbyes. I took a spin through the house. An awkward moment saying goodbye to the Kalkas, who, in all likelihood, will be parents the next time I see them. But, I know that they know that I wish them well, so, a little awkwardness doesn't matter so much. Ryan and Christopher stayed behind to be picked up by the shuttle.
3:30 MB and I were off.

An uneventful drive back in the rain. Stopped for gas and a coffee. Back in Somerville by about 5:45.
Unloaded the car. Unpacked. Down basement for some daily practices, while MB was unpacking. Pizza. Movie (batman). Thunder and lightening.

NST Weekend, second full day

5:10 woke, 5:40 woke again, 10 minutes before the alarm. Shower. Morning practices in the cubby on the top floor.
7: sitting in the library. Had a cushion under me today. A truck pulled up outside the library, and it was if its idling engine was in the room with us.
7:30 right hand warm up with Tony.
8: breakfast (waffles, sweet almond rice bake, apples). Good discussion about how hostility arises and is handled on guitar craft courses. One of the new fellows seems to do all the talking. It was announced that MB would be leaving the course for a little bit to attend a belly dance contest that she had committed to being part of prior to the course being scheduled. Alex suggested that we ring a bell on the hour to keep a connection with her.
9: Staff meeting at the cottage: Terry had noticed the personal practice time wasn't being used as fully as it might be. I suggested that someone give a little talk about how to approach practicing, and Victor stepped up to the plate.
9:30 meeting with guitars, A min on the A string. C Maj first position, and some C Maj triad arpeggios. Afterwards, showed Ryan and MB chords on a piano. IBE work with David and Alex.
11: MB headed off. AT (monkey at the table, whispered AH in lie-down). Asked a question about the breathing.
12:15 performance meeting with guitars in the library. Checked in on Askesis and IBE.
1 Lunch. A wonderful soup, bread and a cheese plate. There was some discussion of how to practice. I worried that it might have sounded like too much of a hard sell. The puppy-dog ate a whole stick of goat cheese off the cheese plate. And for some reason whenever Terry was going to talk, it would make fuss by tossing around hats or something.
2:15, Decided not to clean up after lunch and experienced some guilt. Walked up the drive and fixed mail box. Its posthole had become enlarged, and it was listing forward. I found a big rock and bolstered its footing.
3 PM Victor's talk on practice. I was very sleepy. I had heard a lot of this material before, but it was great to get it all again in one package. I hope the new guys absorbed some of it.
3:50 A sort of nap, arose feeling revitalized.
4:35 Review Bach with the laptop.
5: Boogie in bedroom on first floor.
5:15 meeting with Tony. I showed him some parts of pieces I've been working on that are giving me trouble, and asked him to help me smooth them out. He had some good suggestions.
5:35 Boogie, Bach, Askesis work.
6:30 quiet time. I did sort of a sitting.

4 Things:
Model of what you want to be, should be specific
fuel
sense of where you are
tools

7:10 PM Dinner. Delicious spinach lasagna. Someone demonstrates that a powerful intellect can be a hindrance. MB returns around 7:40. Some questions about Victor's talk. I took on kitchen clean up, along with Alex and Tony. The dishwasher is also a doggy buffet. Did a little more Invention 10 review. At 9 we gathered in the main space, and Rebekka told us the most amazing story of the Roundhouse. Really a life story... I think we were all so transported that no one knew what to say when she came to the end. So, I gave her a hug and thanked her. I feel like its no coincidence that Guitar Craft has come here. We set the set of the next set for 10. A huddle in the first floor bedroom, and clapping the star pattern. We reset the circle and then after a circle in the library, we snaked on. Playing was difficult for me. The circle was large and so I didn't feel connected to the other folks in the circle, and my sound felt like it was disappearing into the space. Eye of the Needle was pretty terrifying as a result. At some point I decided to be bold, for the sake of the rest of the team, even if I sucked. Came in a measure too early on IBE, so we abandoned that take, and tried again. We played Invention 10 twice because the first time fell apart so badly. But there were good moments. The end of Eye of the Needle, Growing Circle, Astorias. A circle afterwards. A break and then
11: Circle meeting with Guitars. Tony introduced alternate picking and cross picking. And a circulation to close. Brushed teeth and so on. Downstairs and typing. MB, Martin and Ryan talking about Gurdjieff. Terry asked me about ideas for more courses at the Roundhouse. So, I guess it has been not so unsuccessful a venture, if we're coming back. I played The Circles for Martin and Ryan, which seemed to send them off to the land of nod. I'd like to follow, but I have more to do.

NST Weekend, first full day

Friday: NST Weekend, Colrain MA.
Woke with MB around 6:15, but didn't get out of bed until 6:30. A wait for the bathroom. Someone taking a long shower eventually exited, looking surprised that people were waiting. Shower. Some morning practices, before sitting.

7:30 sitting in the Library. Victor took us through the relaxation exercise. I wished I had brought a mat to sit on. My right foot felt squished. Some clattering around outside was a bit of a distraction. There are challenges like this on the course.

8: Breakfast. MB has volunteered to do breakfast set-up for the three mornings of the course. Poached eggs, English muffins, soy sausages, spinach, Hollandaise sauce. Very tasty. Even the coffee is great here. Victor discovered a spice in little set of hot peppers named "African Bird." I asked for three volunteers for clean-up, and volunteered myself for lunch set-up. Some time remained before the next session, so, morning practices back in the room.

9:30 Circle with guitars. The first primary, and the principals of the left hand. Healthy skepticism was evidenced. Good. Sometimes the only answer can be "give it a try."

11:00 Alexander Technique session with Stephanie. A general discussion about AT, and her experiences. Talking about 'startle' and a little work with releasing from it. Some chair work. I asked a question about getting in and out of a car. Then a lie-down.

12:00 Guitar Circle was scheduled, but AT ran a little long, so Tony suggested personal practice until lunch. Since I was on lunch set-up, I only had about fifteen minutes. Some more daily practices. At 12:35 I went and helped set-out lunch, and empty the dishwasher.

1: Lunch. Another winner! Hummus, baba ganoush, cucumber salad, tabouli, little pitas. I asked for the African Bird. Tony blocked out most of the afternoon for personal practice and meetings. I spent some more time on daily practices, then around 3 picked up the guitar in the main space and began working on first primary variations. The puppy romped through as I was taking a break and we wrestled a bit. Later on, I found that he had torn off and carried away the little padded door to my guitar case compartment. But, his heart is in the right place, without a doubt. I worked on first primary permutations, setting the metronome to 200, and playing one note on every tick, making each note as staccato, and on-the-beat as possible

4: Tea. Some lovely pecan cookies with a dusting of confectioners sugar. I asked some of the new people about their meetings with Tony. He showed up a little later. Questions were asked. It's interesting to me to see how things that seem mysterious and arbitrary, possibly even sinister, to folks just getting acquainted with Guitar Craft, are so completely practical once you've been around the block a few times.

4:30 Personal practice, while a few of those with more experience had meetings with Tony.

5:30 - Circle meeting. The right hand and accompanying principals were introduced. Tony used the 'shake my hand' technique for demonstrating the basic direction. The second primary was briefly touched on.

6:30 Quiet time. I took a walk out and about. Up to the end of the driveway, and then to the barn. I said hello to the goats and chickens.

7:12 Dinner. Another amazing meal. African nut stew with sweet potatoes (but no bird) on rice plus condiments and bread. Silence came knocking. One time it was brushed aside. The next time it stayed for awhile. Victor gave an interesting talk about approaching the wholeness of the course. I remarked on the necessary discomfort when holding who you are in contrast to what you might be. Tony said "Jim said it all: 'my right hand works, why change it?'" We almost ran out of time to eat dessert, which was a yummy apple crisp and ginger ice cream. Almost. Tony pushed the circle meeting later by 15 minutes so we might not offend our hostess.

8:20 Cleanup began. I began typing up the day to avoid a multi-hour diary session in the late night. MB did some drumming.

9:15 Circle with guitars. Circulations changing directions. A three against two, two (and a half) part diddy. A thrackish chord sorta thing with three parts. The new folks are doing pretty amazingly well. But, there's a lot of experience sitting in the circle. Circulation in C Major to end the evening. A performance challenge was issued for tomorrow. The GCNE will play a bit for Bekki tomorrow night. I showed Alex and Martin the bass to Intergalactic Boogie Express. Tomorrow's an early day, so bed soon. 1:03 AM.

En route to NST Weekend, Colrain MA

Thursday: Up around 8, but more sleep until 9. Shower, and checking email. Another cancelation on the course. Disappointing. Breakfast with MB. The eggs in the fridge had turned, so cereal instead. Down basement for sitting. Also culled some unwanted books from the shelves. Paid bills. Pulled together some information for the course, and printed some stuff out. Packed. Booked return trip for a couple of people. Set up details for the cat sitter. Eventually we got on the road around 1:40.

Dropped off keys at the cat sitters house. Stopped at a farm stand on the way out of town and bought some goodies, including a little pie for Tony. A very nice drive. The weather was lovely, and the trees were all colors. Stopped for gas. Got a call from Tony, who was traveling with Terry and Stephanie. One wrong turn at a confusing sign. Arrived at The Roundhouse around 4:20.

Bekkie gave us the grand tour. It's an amazing facility. 4 floors, full of cubbyholes, bunk beds, nooks and crannies. Impossible to do it justice. It would be fun to try to work out a floor plan. Packed to the gills with stuff, and more stuff... most of it really fun and creative stuff, but, stuff none the less. Decided cordoning off the video library wouldn't be worth it. Martin was the next to arrive, then Victor. Around 5:30, I remembered I had to pick up a couple of people at 6. Quite dark now, I drove back towards Greenfield, receiving a call from them en-route. They arrived at the pick-up location (a "Friendly's" restaurant) just after 6. Ryan D and Chris P. Asked them some questions about how they found out about the course on the drive back. Took a wrong turn, and then drove right past the driveway.

Back at the roundhouse, a brief meeting with Tony, Victor, Stephanie and Terry, about practicalities. Dinner at 7, with a very dramatic presentation by our host. Delicious food (egg noodles, mushroom stroganoff, bread, salad. sweet potato pie and whipped cream for dessert). Tony set the frame for the course. Bekkie gave her presentation on house rules and so on. A good bit of information: watch out for the electric fence around the goat pen.

After dinner, we had a little down time. Victor MB and I looked at the stars off the little porch. I walked a bill up to the mailbox. Then at 9:15 We assembled for the inaugural meeting in the 'sun room' area just off the dining area.

I helped one of the new folks get his guitar in tune. Our first guitar session began at 10:15, and ran until about 11:40. Beginning and ending with 'choose a note' clouds. Circulation exercises, in several patterns, using both the chromatic and diatonic (C Maj) scales. This session came to an end around 11:40. Tony declared a midnight guitar curfew.

Several of us moved furniture out of the small library, making the room available for tomorrow's sitting. I did a little sweeping, as Terry K played guitar. It seems everyone has gone to bed. The house is quiet now. 12:17 AM.

SnG rough mixes

Wednesday: MB elbowed me in the night. Guess I was snoring. Woke around 8, feeling pretty sluggish. She headed to work. Some web and lazing. Fed cats. Worked on the recording project with Shawn from Sunday, doing rough mixes. Not bad. Burned CDs. Coffee. Shower. Now, feeling pretty peppy. Down basement for morning practices, completed at high velocity. Called the cat sitter. Called the pharmacy. Did a little cleaning. Headed out.

Another very nice day. Dropped Dr. Strangelove off at the video store. At work, felt sheepish for getting in so late. Tracked down a bug that Dv had introduced. Walked out and dropped off a prescription at the pharmacy. Walked to the Harvard Coop and bought a map and some stationery supplies. I paid $29, and got back 29 cents in change. Picked up my prescription. Back at the office, worked at moving a class from one library/code environment, to another. Left at 6:20.

KKC, continuing on with the 8000 Verses. I've been getting a lot out of these sessions. I came across a wonderful exchange with Maitreya, sort of. Tny brought a book for me called "Enslaved by Ducks." After class, gave Wnd a run-down of the audio system. Confessed to Sn that I had felt a little peeved at him for parking on the street rather than in the driveway. Walked with Wnd back to our cars. Headed home.

Back home, MB was watching a DVD of herself belly dancing. I helped her with the sound. We watched for a bit, and then some other dancers. Then I played my project with Shawn for her. She seemed to dig it. Had a quicky dinner of veggie enchilada (microwaved) and cheese toast. MB showed me some of the drum stuff they'd been working on in the class at our house tonight. Ate cake and ice cream from a party that had gone on after the drum class. M tuned the dumbek. A plant that I got in Italy, 2001, that I've given up for dead twice, has come back to life with renewed vigor. Emailing about the NST course, and so on. Soon bed.