Watching Simulated Murder

Sunday: Another day spent mostly at home. Breakfast again with MB. (Fried eggs and stewed apples). Down basement, morning practice, drums, and email. At 6, headed out, dropping off DVDs, and a check at Third Life. Met Victor at the Middle East. Yummy food. He asked a bunch of questions about what's been going on with me. Not sure what that was about. We talked about some ideas for how to proceed with the "free circle." Drove to Davis, found parking, and saw "The Departed" at the Somerville Theater. Good. Very bloody. Back home, eating leftovers from the Middle East watching "The Wire" and hanging with Gus. MB is out at a BD gig. Some leftover birthday cake.

First Snow

Saturday: A quiet day at home. MB didn't go to Third Life. She woke up late to meet Stc for lunch. Shower, Gus, basement. Snowing a bit. Took a walk out and went to the ATM. The breakfast place wasn't open, so picked up some eggs. Breakfast with MB, splitting the last soy sausage and the last bean treat. Looked at some possible evening activities. Nap on the futon. Down basement and personal practice. Rented some DVDs and picked up Chinese food. Watched "The Devil Wears Prada" Frank called and said they'd had to put one of their cats down. Its been a bad year for cats. Some guitar, then back down basement.

Party at Victor's

Friday: Woke, and getting up, when a call came in from a credit card company. Apparently I had missed a payment. This is strange, because I didn't think I had a balance. Gus. Shower. Email. Breakfast. Down basement. Drums and morning sitting.

My car wouldn't start. This is the same problem I've been having with it for several years now, that I hoped had been fixed last year. Rats. In at the office, continued working through problems with altering the representation of file data (single files versus multiple files). Creating a layer to make it look like multiple files. Left at 6:30ish.

Over to Victor's for a birthday party. Arrived at the same time as MB. A pleasant evening of socializing, though MB had to leave fairly early. Victor and I spoke briefly about plans for the free circle. Bridge gave us a rock and roll performance, complete with a low slung guitar, and hip gyrations. Yummy food thanks to Jane. Talking about gifting and re-gifting.

Driving back home, heard that the former dictator of Iraq had been put to death. Stopped for gas. Are these two events related? Hello to Gus. Watched "The Wire." Email.

Night off

Thursday: Email, shower, Gus. Down basement. Headed out... stopped for an egg sandwich at the donut shop. Put some windshield wiper fluid in the tank.

In at the office, Al had left me a note saying he had corrected a problem in my check-in. The SCC continues to give me headaches. Not terribly productive. Started working on getting an alternate representation to be accepted by the code-base at large. Left around 7:30.

Union Square: Walked through "Reliable Market" but didn't buy anything. Zero peoples. Some personal practice, then home.

Hanging with MB. She told me about a conversation she'd had with Sct at work. Leftover Indian food. Emil. Watched an episode of The Wire (third season). Tea and cake. Hanging with Gus.

Half masted staff

Wednesday: Slept in, MB running out to be a hand-model at a video shoot. A lazy morning: email, shower, Gus, down basement for sitting and drums. Talked to the cat sitter. Eggs and toast for breakfast, listening to retrospectives on Gerald Ford. Loaded the old iMac into my car, and my electric rig. Put away laundry. Headed out.

A quiet day at work. Completed some testing on my new "capture and export" implementation, merged with the latest code in the DB, and checked-in. Met Shawn at 7:30.

Over to Arlington, and a short but productive rehearsal. Ran through our existing material, and worked on Thrak. Shawn was a little under the weather, physically and psychically. Back to his place, and unloaded the iMac (his brother was buying it from me).

Sat at the top of the Somerville hill for a bit. Ordered some Indian food. Picked it up. Banking. Back home: MB was making Spanikopita. We ate some of the take-out together. She read to me a bit: A man outside a butcher-shop is saved from committing suicide by a man who makes sport of slicing pigeons with a meat cleaver. "The shit is not the shit. The pigeon is the shit." Tamped down the Christmas wrapping into a paper bag for recycling. Email.

Travel day

Tuesday (Day after Christmas, Hanover PA). The alarm sounded at 7, but we decided to sleep until 8ish. Sitting in bed. Shower. Drove MB over to the retirement village so she could hang with her grandfather. Back to the hotel, an found my mom eating breakfast. Joined her, and had some strange egg things on English Muffins. Packed the car.

Picked up MB, saying hello and goodbye to Allen. On the road by around 11:30. Drove solidly until 2 PM. Stopped for lunch at a fast food place. My mom hadn't had the veggie burgers there before and was pretty happy with the experience. Back on the road around 2:40. Hit traffic going across the GW Bridge, and then more in CT on the Merrit. Took some back roads for the last leg to mom's place.

Just as we arrived and were transferring stuff from mom's car to MB's, we heard a loud crash. A car had backed up into a truck and knocked a bunch of plumbing supplies out of the rear. A guy got out, looked at the damage, then drove away. I got his licence plate number, went and found the plumber and let him know what had happened. My mom knew exactly who the guy was who had done the damage. A real piece of work, from the sound of it: lying about his car not being functional, cutting down shrubs and trees to avoid getting West Nile Virus, barbecuing in the buff. A cop showed up and I answered some questions. MB mom and I had some tea and pie. Then back on the road.

Some rain. I got sleepy about the time we got to the Massachusetts boarder. We stopped for coffee (I ordered a coffee, and while MB was thinking the guy behind the counter suggested "Two coffees?"... I wanted to say "What, are you practicing to be a mind reader?"). MB took over driving. Heard a weird thing about a guy boning a pig on NPR, and an old interview with James Brown (who just passed). (TG asked "Did your musicians go along with your ideas, or did you have to convince them?" JB: "I paid them.")

Back home, Gus was fine. Unloading, and putting stuff away. Making phone calls. Email. And so on.

Canned Green Beans, Twice in One Day

Monday: (Christmas, Hanover PA). The alarm went off at 8, but we decided to sleep until around 9. Sitting in bed. Shower. Down to the lobby for some bits of food. Mom made the mistake of trying the fruit salad. Ick.

Over to the retirement village where MB's grandfather is staying. He'd had another fall, and so a slow parade of nurses came through checking him out. Visiting. His friend Nancy was there for a bit. We followed Allen (driving his electric scooter) to the dining hall for lunch. Some water was spilled. Mom cut up his ham for him. Mom, MB and I just had vegetables. Back to the room. MB and I played a little guitar. Mom started taking pictures and I asked her to please not. Allen complained that what we were playing didn't have any tune to it. So, I put my guitar away. MB played a little more. Opening presents. Allen got many boxes of tissues. We played a little more guitar. Allen asked how long I'd been playing, and, stealing a line, I said "evidently not long enough."

Back to the hotel. Raining. A nap. Around 5:30, we met mom and headed out looking for some food. One of the few places open was the diner. Mom and MB had salads. I got mozzarella sticks and cheese ravioli... with a side of second-hand-smoke.

We arrived back at the retirement village just before 7. Spent a bit more time with Allen, listening to Tony Bennett. He didn't know who Tony Bennett was, and didn't much care for the music. We should have stuck to classical music, I guess. He liked the Yo Yo Ma/Bach solo cello music we played earlier. Mom and I left MB an Allen to watch a movie. Back to the hotel. Personal practice. MB gave me a call around 10:10 PM. I picked her up, and back. Snacks. Looking at the entertainment choices at the TV. They had an odd assortment of CDs available for streaming. We could have ordered King Crimson's THRAK.

Two additions: Allen told us a story about when he was in the merchant marine, how after only four months of medical training, he was expected operate. The procedure he performed was on a "little Chinaman," and involved the removal of hemorrhoids.

On the drive here, we saw a small wooden handmade-sign that read "Hershey Fur Center." (There is a large cottage industry in fur and pelts around here, and this is PA... so). This led to some hilarity, and riffing along the lines of "I'd like a chinchilla with almonds, please."

To PA

Sunday (Christmas Eve, Norwalk CT): Woke around 9, MB jumping out of bed. Downstairs, and sitting. Shower. Made breakfast (eggs, leftover soy sausage etc) with MB. We ate. I took a very brief, but refreshing nap, on the couch. Packed the car. We headed off at noon.

An uneventful drive to Hanover PA. Sunny and not much traffic. Listening to Secret Museum of Mankind, My Brightest Diamond and others. A couple of stops. Arrived at the hotel (which came up sooner than we thought) just after 5 PM. Settling in.

We had an early dinner at a local chain-eatery, with a decent salad bar and a veggie burger on the menu. Then, over to the retirement village. When we arrived Alan was being tended to, so we waited outside his room for a bit. A patient alarm was going off, an it took quite a while before anyone attended to it. A woman wheeled herself to the door of her room and said "I need a nurse" in an indignant tone. "Help!" she screamed angrily. "Oh Margaret, please!" said a nurse in passing. "I know..." grumbled the old woman. Then again "Help!" and so on. We had a nice little visit. Alan is 97, and perhaps not as spry as he was a year ago, but hanging in there.

Mom and I went back to the hotel, leaving MB with Alan. Mom went to bed in her room. Personal practice in my room. MB called around 10:15 saying she and her grandfather were done watching their movie, and that I could come pick her up. So I did.

Snacks in the lobby. Now, up in the room. Perhaps some guitar.

Christmas Eve Eve

Saturday (Norwalk): Woke. Sometime. A good sleep, but the mattress was a little hard. Sitting in bed as MB showered. Shower. Eventually we all met downstairs and had some nice breakfast (eggs, soy sausage, coffee, little toasts, pumpkin and sunflower butters). Some quiet time. Mom called Koky and we said we'd be over in an hour. I practiced guitar a bit.

A lovely visit with Koky (my old 5th grade teacher. Now, 94). Some tea and opening little presents. Got her gas fire working (well, the remote wouldn't work, but found the manual switch). I showed her my new guitar and played a bit. Then MB and I played some music for her and my mom. Got a call from a fellow who was the head-master of LRS for a time, as well as the teacher of several subjects.

Back home and a bit more down-time. Eventually, the present opening got underway. Good stuff. I gave MB and iPod and a speaker system to go with it. Hopefully it will work nicely for her belly-dance gigs. Some good books. Kitchen stuff from mom.

Off for some supper at "Wild Rice," a new Oriental restaurant (sort of Japanese/Chinese hybrid). Mom has come to a new understanding of the horrors of factory-style animal husbandry, so she's mostly vegetarian now. Good for her!

Back home, dessert treats and hanging out. The three of us took a walk around the condo complex with Max the dog. Now, the day is winding down.

G lobal O rgasm D ay

Friday: Woke around 10:30, and then some more sleep. Email. Gus. Shower. Reheated some coffee and had a couple of quick fried eggs. Down basement, and a phone call with my friend Stcy. Sitting. I heard MB come come. Some tidying. Off to work.

Got more of my "capture and export" rewrite going. The thing that had been tripping me up was that an exception was being thrown in the non-real-time case. Headed home around 7:30.

Stopped and bought some booze and baked goods as last minute presents. Back at the ranch, MB had left some stuff for me to do. Ate some leftover Indian food. Emptied the dishwasher. Took out the garbage. Loaded stuff into the car. Packed. Left a key for the cat sitter. Listened to phone messages. One was from a friend of MB's grandfather. He's had a fall, and doesn't want us to visit. MB called and we arranged for a place to meet. A few last minute things, and then on the road.

Picked MB up near the church where were married. On the road. Rain. Stopped at a service area, but everything except McDumpings was closed. The donut shop was open at the next one, which fit the bill. MB had gotten some bean treats at the Asian market. We drove on, mostly in silence. Arrived at mom's around 1 AM. MB removed her banana nut loaves from the pans. Now, I'm filching internet from a neighbor. Happy G.O.D!

Lizards in the faucet

Thursday: Woke in a funny state, with Gus out of the room, but a feeling like MB was still in the house. She wasn't. Felt quite off balance. Or maybe more in balance, which registered as off balance? Email. Then suddenly feeling the need to be efficient with time. Shower. Gus. A couple of quick eggs and coffee. Down basement. Brief drums, sitting. Laundry. Took the long way around to work. A sunny day.

Of all strange things, a 'for loop' wasn't working. A full rebuild cleared things out. I detest stuff like that. It would be like, turning the faucet of the sink, and having lizards come out, but then, tapping on the pipe made them go away. Got some sad, over expensive, pizza. A man complained about the price, while I was paying. I chimed in saying I also thought it was too much. The young woman behind the counter agreed. Got a bunch of stuff working on the "capture and export" feature. Left at 7:35.

Over at Union Square, I lost my little suction cups, so had to pin the sign onto the fabric on the door. MB came to class, and two other people. It was balanced,so I did more partner sort of stuff than usual. Tonight had a nice flow to it.

After class, MB and I had some food at the India Palace, watching Indian music videos and sipping hot tea. Back home, laundry, guitar, emailing.

Wrapping

Wednesday: Up around 10. Email. Shower. Gus. Had some breakfast and coffee. Down basement. A sunny mild day. Loaded electric rig into the car.

In at work, continued getting my new code on its feet. My computer seemed oh so slow today. I don't know if its the shared compiles, or what, but eventually I turned off my compile sharing... it was just horrible. Tofu burrito. Met Shawn out back at 7:30.

Over at his space, a run through our material. This felt like a maintenance session. Not much progress, but important for keeping things in the body. Worked a bit on Thrak. He stayed to work on a video.

Back home, hand-drumming was going on, so down basement. It stopped, so I went to investigate. It had just been MB. Coffee, cheese and crackers and baklava. Some hanging out, and watching some of the "Young Glenn" slide-show. Down basement. Email, wrapping.

Coat-rack

Tuesday: Got to bed late. The black beast gave me some problems. Still awake when MB was getting up. She shut Gus out of the room, and so I got a bit of shut-eye. A relaxed morning. Shower. Breakfast. Gus. Email. Down basement for a long session. Put the final coat on the coat-rack. Changed clothes.

Headed into work, taking the long way around. Hit traffic, so aborted my usual route, and headed back across Cambridge. Stopped at Starbucks again, and was again a bit surprised at the snootiness of the staff. At work, debugging my new "data capture/export" code. Ate the lunch MB had packed. Later on got some pizza. When I went to leave, a demolition team was working on the first floor of the building, and it sounded as if the floor was going to give way and they were going to come crashing down into the garage. Talked to Wnd on the drive about some changes she's experiencing.

Back home, nailed some little feet onto the bottom of the coat-rack. Hello to MB. Was going to play guitar, but MB suggested we hang out a little. Checking in and making fun of Gus. Working on a DVD slide-show: a Christmas present for mom.

The Paw of Destiny

Monday: Slept in, but with difficulty. Battled the Black One, who wanted to drip snot on me, and poke me with the Paw of Destiny. Feeling a bit out of it. Email. Down basement and morning practices (in the afternoon). Drums. Stowed the new iMac box, and retrieved the old iMac box.

In to work, stopping at the Broadway market for some prepared food, and a coffee from Starbucks. The Christmas Blend doesn't taste like cinnamon, or nutmeg, which is thankful, but does make me wonder what makes it "The Christmas Blend." Some consultation with Dv. Continued my revamping of the "capture/export" function. Talked to my mom about our travel plans. Got a call from MB in the evening. Headed home.

Stopped to pick up Indian food. MB and I had dinner together, reading Christmas cards, and chatting. Set to wiping sensitive info from the old iMac. The fixed heating zone seems to be making an unfortunately loud humming noise when active.

OCBC and Wnd

Sunday: Woke around 8:30. Shower. Down basement and morning sitting. Made some breakfast for MB and myself: fried eggs & toast. Off to OCBC.

The boiler was out, and the Christmas wreath had gone missing. A good turn out none the less. A young girl sang during the offering. Quite amazing. Hellos and goodies afterwards.

Back home, hanging out with MB for a spell. Nice to have some quiet time. Then, in to work for a bit. Fixed a couple of compile errors. Got a burrito. Headed down to Norwood to visit Wnd. We had plenty to talk about, involving her recent escapades. We went out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. A funny older lady helped us scoop ice-cream, and recommended the jello.

Back home a bit before 10. Some more time with MB. Updated the KKC calendar, which took quite some time. Listening to the Secret Museum of Mankind. Evening practices in the basement. Very sleepy.

Alarm, iMac and Fluff

Saturday: Woke around 8 AM to the sound of our house alarm going off. It's quite a noise. In my half awake state, I thought "Oh, they're coming to fix that soon, so I can just keep sleeping." MB gave me a nudge. Out of bed, and the phone rang. Smoke alarm in the basement was going off. Checked it out. All was well. Probably dust. MB and had sort of a breakfast in the living room (I had some chamomile tea, and toast, vitamins and water, she had some oatmeal). Back to bed (MB heading out to do various stuff). Slept until 1 PM.

Emailing, and some fried eggs. MB called a couple of times to let me know what was going on. Down basement and "morning" practices. Drums. Shuffling through papers. MB returned home. A little later, we made some bean burrito sort of things for dinner. Then tea and cake.

Email. MB continued with her recording project. I headed out to the mall. Bought a new iMac for the house. Did some more low-key Christmas shopping. Bought a funny book of photos of nuns. The lady at the checkout said she hadn't always seen the humor in nuns, as she went to Catholic school. Stopped at the 24 hour pharmacy for some small items. Heard a woman repeatedly describing a particular concoction of which she was fond: "First you take a big scoop of the Fluff, and you dip it into the hot chocolate, and then when you take it out, it just melts in your mouth." The fellow listening seemed very interested. "I'm going to have to try that first thing tomorrow morning!" he said.

Back home, hanging with MB and Gus. Set the new iMac to coping data from the old iMac. It looks like I lucked out this time: no dead pixels.

Needham

Friday: Up, still a bit snotty. Email. Shower. Gus. Down basement, morning stuff and drum. Attended to financial matters related to an online study group I've been organizing. Ate some miscellaneous food substances and called it breakfast.

Off to work. More restructuring of the faster than real time export feature. Some slightly tense consultation with Al about some code that he changed (and slightly botched). Got what will probably be my last cup of coffee from Toscanini's, for at least 6 months.

At 6:30 drove off to Needham to visit a friend. Interesting time. Stayed until 10.

Back home, hello to MB. Some food. Watching a belly dance video while supplying back-rubs.

To Squawk and Back

Thursday: Woke around 10, and lazed awhile. Gave MB a call trying to make some plans about a student. Shower. Gus. Had some fried eggs for breakfast on cheese toast. Coffee. Down basement and morning things. Some drums. Headed off to work, taking the long way.

A fairly productive day, continuing my refactoring work. Somehow, everything we're doing right at this point, is making the program smaller. That's a really good thing. I'm deleting more modules than I'm creating. Coffee. At 7:30 I headed to Union Square.

Three people came to class tonight, including MB. Not sure if she really counts. I fell back to a typical evening session tonight, with yoga at the end.

MB and I then went to Squawk Coffee House. A man talking a mile a minute about many a crazy thing was the first act we saw. Then Dagmar. Good stuff. Some blues piano. A very talented young girl singing in sort of a swing style. A guy ranting on in a semi-pornographic way about his love affair with Ticonderoga Number 2 Pencils, made me edge for the door.

MB dropped me back at Union. I made a phone call to a student. Back home, continued my laptop restoration. MB headed to bed. I am typing this on my resuscitated MacBook. Hallelujah.

MacBook resurrection

Wednesday: Up around 10, feeling full of mucus. But, improving as I showered, and email. Much of it leaving my system. Close to healthy. Gus. Called the Apple Store and checked on the status of my drive. They located the record and said they'd call back. Down basement for morning things. Some drums. Packed my car with the electric rig. Was about to head out when the cleaning people arrived. I let them know there was only one cat now.

Across town, and some good work, refactoring some data capture objects to allow them to be used in a new context. Got a call from the "Genius" at the Apple Store and set up an appointment. Headed over there around 1:30. Dropped off my laptop. Went and got some coffee, which took longer than I had expected. Eventually went back and picked up the MacBook, it having been restored to its former 120 GB glory (supposedly). Did some shopping. Back at work, continued my project. Going smoothly. Burrito. MB called around 9:30 PM, and we went out and I drank some coffee while she had some veggie chilli and a corn muffin. I walked her back to her car, then drove home myself. Warm out today, and rainy.

At the house, the cleaning people had done a nice job. Unloaded the car. Set my data restoring onto my laptop, fingers crossed. Some emailing. Soon down basement.

Bridge's School / Fixing Zone 2 / Phone

Tuesday: Woke just after 6:30. Up, shower and so on. Gave myself a needle jab while giving Gus his saline... on the index finger of my left hand. Luckily it didn't interfere with playing. Down basement and brief sitting. MB and I headed out at about 7:35. We stopped for some breakfast at the donut shop and were on our way again by 7:45. I made a bad decision about one route, and took one wrong turn, and we didn't wind up at Bridge's school until 8:45.

Brief sound check. A little time in the green room, and we were on. We played for perhaps 100 children in a smallish auditorium. Dev's guitar gave us some problems at the beginning, but then we settled in. A pretty good set, as far as I could tell. The kids were certainly enthusiastic. Victor lobbed one question about how guitars a built over to me. No comments (cloaked as questions) about candy eggs, this year. We wrapped up around 10.

Headed home. The guy from the plumbing company called on the cell. I said I could stay home longer to make up for the fact that I had to be out in the AM. Back home, cut the Gus monster's nails, and a nap. MB woke me saying someone was at the door. Very confused being half asleep, I thought the guy had come from Apple to fix my laptop. No. Took the fellow below decks and we inspected the patient. He purged the zone, but still no good. So, he headed off to get a replacement pump. I did some drum practice while he was gone. He was soon back, and did the swap, and Eureka, we have heat on the second floor again... and it only set me back $500.

In to work, stopping for gas, driving the long way. Talk with B and Alx about various things, and then finally down to it. Completed my update and house-cleaning, reviewed my changes, and checked this big chunk of work in. Left around 9:30.

Back home, briefly upstairs. MB came home just as I was heading down basement. Had a nice talk with Wnd about her L2 experiences. Hung out with MB a little while she made lunches and a salad. I ate some salad rolled up in a tortilla shell with some cheese. Tea. Back down basement and catching up with my friend Chln. Completing the day.

Gentle day

Monday: Slept in. Up around noon, still feeling pretty punk. Treated myself somewhat gently, doing normal morning things. Gus, Shower, Email. Talked to Wnd while I made some eggs over easy, toast and tea. Down basement and morning practices. Food in the bird feeder. A coat on the coat-rack. Headed off to work.

Did an update to the stuff Al checked in. More housecleaning, ripping chunks of APIs out that are no longer needed. Talked to B about how to help Al get on with it. Coffee. Only 7 days left before Toscanini's has to close for 6 to 9 months.

Back home around 9. Made macaroni and cheese while MB made a salad. Dinner. Some guitar. Down basement for evening things... have to get up early for the gig at Bridge's school.

Jam packed

Sunday: Woke at 8:20, ten minutes before the alarm went off. I'd been having a racy dream about a woman that looked like Britney Spears, but who (I suppose not surprisingly) was made of plastic. Up, shower, clothes, Gus. Down basement for morning practices. Off to KKC. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich and coffee. Got a jelly donut but didn't have time to eat it.

It was lovely being at the center this morning. It's one of Geshela's last times teaching before he heads to India for the winter. Sleepy. There was some discussion about the number of sentient beings at the end. I asked "how many positive integers are there" to Damchoe... I had to explain this concept. This is East meets West sometimes. We don't understand concepts that seem fundamental to each-other. I had to get up to get some tea a couple of times. Wnd wasn't there. Txted her. Had to turn down giving someone a ride in order to get back home.

Back home by 12:25. And Satsang with Wnd, El and Ali. Nice session, and some back-rubs. Wnd caught us up on her L2. There were out the door by 2:20, as planned, and MB and I were on the road by 2:25.

Over to Waltham. I navigated and drove as MB talked to her sister-in-law on the cell. We arrived at Bently College at 2:50, and found parking without problem. No problem fining the hall, and were assisted by a helpful woman. The program began at about 3:05. Music of Thomas De Hartman, up first, with a couple of pieces from his early life, then some much later in life, and then some of his collaborations with G.I. Gurdjieff. After a brief break (I got almost the last cup of coffee, and most of the cookies and cake were gone too. I guess people were hungrier than expected.) Movements. This was very interesting to watch. It's not really stuff that is designed for watching... it was designed to have an effect on those dancing. The, no doubt, long hours of work that went into learning these pieces, was apparent. Some of it was quite lovely. A bit of Crafty Face though. After the performance MB and I headed out quickly.

Back home, and some snacks. I scoped out Jane's art opening, and it looked like we might be able to catch some of it. We headed out and drove to the newly opened Institute for Contemporary Art. Unfortunately, there was a half hour wait to get in, and we only had about a half hour to spend on the whole deal, so... on to the Free Circle.

A little waiting outside. Chrs showed me some work that had been done on his 12 string (which he uses with only 6). Victor was able to park right in front. This was the last session of the Free Circle series. Victor went over the basics of the operation of the left and right hands, and the first 6 primaries. We did some circulating... which was surprisingly good. And the Free Circle was a wrap. The other guys showed up, and Guitar Circle New England was in the house, including Dev! (Dev had been up over 24 hours, working at the Symphony Hall, and had even damaged himself slightly. Be careful Dev!) We worked through some choreography for the upcoming "Bridge's School" show. We played with a few ideas for interactive things we could do with the kids. Worked on our repertoire. Wrapped up around 11 PM.

Back home, and some more snacks. Here's an idea: Relish filled Donuts. Or, tuna filled donuts for cats. Gus loves donuts, so I'm sure he would really love them if they were filled with tuna. Cleared up a few things about Growing Circle for MB. Email. Completing the day. MB is poking me and asking me why I am ignoring her.

MB's Cousin/Naps

Saturday: Darn cold in the house, and feeling sick. Threw on some clothes and went to see what was up with the heat. It looks like the pump for the second floor zone is kaput. Great. Made MB and myself some cheese toasts, warmed up some tea, and poured some juice. We ate this in bed. Then up. MB headed out to pick up her cousin, who is now working as an airline stewardess, and happened to be in town on a layover. Email. Shower. Brief sitting in the dance room. MB and M returned. Froggy voice today, the crazy robot gone. Made some breakfast for us. MB cut up some fruit. An enjoyable meal. MB's cousin is young and exploring her career options. Very wise. They headed off around 11. MB had a fund-raiser to go to. Put away laundry. A longer sitting in the basement. Drums. Napping in the basement (its warm). Watched some "24." Gus. MB returned. Some hanging out. The final season 1 episode of 24. Then we both took a nap in the basement. I made us some noodles for dinner. While things were cooking, called my mom, and talked about Leo and some stuff going on where she works. MB and I ate dinner. Clean up. Hanging out in the living room. Email.

Crazy Robot Voice

Friday: Gave a bit too strong of a yell, through head-cold-vocal-chords, to MB, who was heading out, and injured my voice. Couldn't speak in much above a whisper for the rest of the day, without sounding like a crazy robot. Not that I have anything against crazy robots, but trying to order a Jasmine Tea with that voice can result in some pretty strange looks from the coffee shop employees.

Made the bed. Email. Gus. Shower. Called the local vet and the vet hospital and let them know about Leo's passing. Ate some cereal and feeling lazy watched the season 2 finale of The Wire. Down basement for morning stuff, and drums. My drum practice is actually much more regular than my guitar practice these days. Why? It's fun. Some little tidying in the house.

Headed across town to work. They didn't have any Jasmine Tea, so I got some Spicy Chai (sans milk and sugar) and a sandwich. Continued work on my vari-speed project. It's about done now. The quality is much improved and I think it has a pretty good feel. Someone said that the FireWire port on his laptop had been used so much, that it was hanging like a wizard's sleeve. I said "high five!" (in a crazy robot voice). Burrito. MB called and a crazy robot answered. I left work around 10:20.

Hit traffic on the long drive. Stopped at the grocery store. Decided I didn't want to ask the guy stocking yogurt where the maple syrup was, in a crazy robot voice. Back home, me and MB put away the groceries, making jokes about Gus, who looked on with a puzzled expression on his face. I told her about the episode of The Wire I had watched (in a whisper). She's taking a shower as I type on the iMac. I still do not have a laptop.

Three on the Raft

Thursday: Slept in a bit. Feeling under the weather in several dimensions. Almost didn't go to work, but decided that getting out of the house would be good for me. Lots of laundry. Gus. Spent some time looking at photos. Down basement for morning stuff. And drums.

Stopped at the dry cleaners, dropped off my coat and a sweater, and picked up a bunch of stuff (mostly MB's). Ate an egg sandwich. Around the long way in to work. A fairly short day, debugging some of my recent reworking of a subsystem. Left at 7:35.

Over to Union Square. 4 people tonight. Led the Yoga Nidra again, leaving more space this time. A slight bit of snoring. A good sign, actually. Then some yoga. SR (the organizer of the space) came in just as I was leaving. Over to Wang's for some Chinese food. Watched The Wire, while eating. Tea. Wnd called and we talked about her experience at the course she just returned from. MB came home. Hanging out on the couch. Making the bed. Only three on the raft.

Leo ascends in flame

Wednesday: MB headed out. Around 9 AM, I got up to take on the task of packaging Leo for cremation, and cleaning up the sick room. I sewed him into the leg of an old pair of MB's PJs. He'd become pretty ripe. Into a bag, and then doubled bagged in plastic, with disinfectant between layers. Cleaned up the room, wiping down all the surfaces and mopping. Fresh air. Incense. Laundry. Dishwasher. Sweep. Mop. Shower. Clean clothes. When this was all put right, down basement for morning practices. And drums.

Drove out, stopping to buy a mixture of diesel and gasoline, and a bagel with cream cheese. Then, over to Brookline for a bag of heating coal. And, in to work. Continued on the vari-speed business, but it was a short day. Called Apple again, trying to see what was up with getting me going again. It sounded like there was a solution in the offing. Left work at 4:35.

Back home, packing drums, and percussion instruments into the car. Then the guest of honor. MB arrived, and we left not long after. Picked up F&M, and drove out Route 2, heading west to Wendall, listening to Alessandra Belloni. We reminisced about many stories involving Gus and Leo throughout their long history with us. Got a bit lost, missing the turn. Managed to raise Mrg on the cell, and he put us right. Arrived at his place around 7:30 PM. I said hello to his wife and son. Thr ran to me, almost knocking me over saying "Glenn!" I was surprised he remembered me.

We built a pyre with a thick layer of coal, then my little buddy, and then a bunch of wood. I soaked the whole thing with the diesel/gas mixture, said "Leo, you were a good little cat" and then Mrg lit it up. We drummed and talked, tending the fire. The little plastic cap off the end of the gas can got lost in the shuffle. Sounds of the bunt-pan. A near full moon. A smell like someone burning a chicken on the engine of a truck. A smokey truck. After some time, I realized there was a squishy bit that wasn't burning, I chased this around in the coal embers, until it was gone. This took some time. I think we left around 9:45.

Stopped at a 24 hour convenience store for snacks. I had another bagel and cream cheese. It's the food of the day, I guess. Drove back, without much talking. Dropped F&M. Back home. Unloading. Showers. MB to bed. Tea. Typing.

Leo in the clear light meditation

Tuesday: MB headed to work. I had a sense that Leo was gone, and I felt that MB must know it also. Around 8 AM I went to check, and indeed yes. In keeping with Buddhist tradition, the body is not to be disturbed for a period after death. The belief is that one is actually in deep meditation for some time, even after the heart has stopped. So, I left him alone. A recording of monks chanting played in the room, looping a CD, but otherwise, the house was quiet this day.

A bit more sleep. Woke from having a dream that I was actually laughing in. It was a comedy routine that was a take-off on Sherlock Holmes, with the tag-line "The Dick with No Bite." Holmes and Watson were arguing over whether this was a good tag-line, or not. Watson's point of view was that most people wanted a little bite with their dick. Realized I was coming down with something. Down basement for practices. Paid a pile of bills. So many good causes with their hands out at this time of year. Drove in to work, stopping at the mall. Renewed my driver's licence. Funny to smile for the photo on the same day my dear friend passed on.

At work, a bit more on trying to improve the quality of the vari-speed, and work out a few remaining kinks. Didn't feel like eating much. Left early.

Back home, MB wasn't in yet. The monks were still singing. Down basement for practices. I heard MB come in, and went up to hang out. We were both feeling pretty wiped out, and emotionally drained from our friend's passing. To bed early. Woke around 2 AM, and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. My sinuses hurting, I think I have an infection. Neti-pot, a cup of tea, and ate the lunch MB had packed for me, sharing bits of cheese with Gus.

Leo transitions

Monday: Woke around 8. Email. Tried to get back to sleep, but did not find it, no thanks to Gus, who wouldn't settle down, and repeatedly poked me in the face. Lazing. Up around 10:30. Gave Leo some food, but he really wasn't doing well. Tsunma-la called and said Geshela could see Leo around 2 PM. Shower. Some breakfast. Down basement. Sitting, and drums. The vet called and said that Leo's cultures came back negative. Bad news in this case, since the alternative diagnoses was cancer. Played some guitar. At 1:30, took Leo over to KKC, driving with him wrapped in a blanket in my lap "Britney Spears Style." Tsunma-la, Ngawang-la, Helen-la and Geshe-la were all very kind to him and me. Geshe Tsulga gave me instructions about how to handle his body after death, and forbade me from having him put down. "As long as no shot, no problem" he said. Back home. The clinic was freakishly not able to make outgoing calls, and so, they couldn't get the prescription faxed to Porter Sq. I found this out on my way to Porter Sq to pick it up. Back home, called the clinic. Called Apple and tried to get my laptop deal straightened out. Finally realized I wasn't going to be able to pick up the meds today. Headed to work, stopping for an egg sandwich, which I ate while driving.

B wasn't in today. It was quiet in the office. I continued refining my vari-speed implementation. Completely scrapped the old damping logic, and used a much simpler scheme. Called Apple again, and finally got put through to someone that could help me. The situation turned out to be much more reasonable than it had seemed before, but the previous guy I had talked to hadn't known where to look for the tech's notes on the matter, and had just gone into defensive mode. My hard drive probably had been damaged in shipping, as it wouldn't mount when it arrived at the repair facility. The mistake the tech made when replacing the drive was that he didn't check its size. Since the drive was installed after my purchase, this was pretty understandable.

Back home, and Leo was much worse. He was trying to get to the litter-box, and walked headlong into the wall. MB and I decided to make the downstairs bathroom his sick room. We moved the little box out of it, and I put a pillow the the heating pad down for him. He crawled over to me and nuzzled my leg, stayed there for a couple minutes, then crawled back to the pillow. MB pet him for a long time. His breathing was growing shallow. She went to bed, and I went to write my diary. Around 2 AM I had a feeling that he had passed, but I didn't want to disturb him if I was wrong. Down basement and practice, meditating on my long friendship with this creature. Then to bed.

Two Circles

Sunday: Slept in, waking here and there, morbid thoughts about dear Leo floating around my brain. MB came home from being out and about. More sleeps. Up, and cat nursing. Shower. MB headed out to a BD event (a hafla with Zabeth). Down basement and morning stuff. Drums raise the spirits. Changed a light-bulb along the side of the house. Wrapped the generator in a tarp. Gave the coat-rack another coat (a process that I repeated a couple of times during the day). Spent some time with Leo, thinking about all the nice times we'd had together. Moved the cat magnet into the bathroom to give him less of a trip to the cat-box. Down basement and some sitting. MB returned home. Back upstairs to say hello and hang out a bit. MB took a nap on the couch. Back down basement. Off to guitar circle. I attended the free circle tonight, as I may take over leading some classes in the future. Some good circulation. Who's that at the door? Dev! Then Martin! And then on to the established circle. David showed up around 9. We worked on some stuff picking notes from triads, and slightly composed circulations. Then repertoire related to the upcoming gig at Bridge's school. Dev Victor and I make a big bass section, with two higher-end wooden guitars, and Dev's deep-body Ovation. My thoughts were with my little cat-friend as we played Asturias. The first time we played Invention 1 was possibly the best ever. Back home, and some snacks. Cat nursing.

Visits to Leo

Saturday: MB headed out very early and returned about 9 AM. A glorious sleep-in. Up, gradually. MB's friend Scy came over and paid Leo a visit. Coffee and chat. Cat nursing. Showers. A nice breakfast. The eggs tasted particularly good today. MB put nice little Clementine slices on the plates. Cleaning up. Down basement and sitting. Drums. MB headed out to the store. I went out also. Picked up some colored indelible markers at Staples, then to Home Depot for a gas can, a tarp, and four cans of spray paint. Back home, filled the tank of the generator. Sanded and wiped down the coat rack. Did a little staining of fill spots in the armoire in the basement. Helped MB make a CD for her belly-gram. F&M called and were coming over to visit with Leo. Gave the coat rack a coat (of spray primer). F&M arrived. Hanging with Leo. Picked up a pizza and salad. Ate while watching Anus McGillicutty. Also watched an episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse, and some of my friend Randy's music videos. MB came home from her belly grad. It was a birthday party with an Animal House theme. After some more tending to Leo, they headed out. M is thinking about moving back to Pgh. Cleaning up. A bit of guitar.

El Niño

Friday: Woke late morning. Shower. Basement for morning practice. Drove out and picked up cat nursing supplies. Freakish warm weather, yesterday and today. The Irish woman at the vet's said "As long as the snow stays away..." I said "It's all good fun until the ice caps melt." A woman asked for directions to Somerville Hospital. Back home and administration of supplies.

Off to work. Faxed in my proof of purchase for my 120 GB drive. Hopefully Apple will make good on this. A horrible thought struck me though: What if the guy at the repair place ripped my drive off, and is searching it for credit card numbers and so on. Most of my important info was encrypted, but not all of it. A pretty good day. Working on getting the vari-speed stuff to really be good, now that its more or less working. Talked to J and B about an idea I have for making it more usable. Got some pizza later in the day. Almost went to hang out with Wnd, but decided to keep working. Headed home around 10:30.

MB had just gotten in from a party, that was sort of like a tupper-ware party, except for cosmetics. Leo is not doing great, but seemed to have perked up slightly from the fluid I gave him earlier. MB went upstairs to get ready for bed. Leftover Chinese food, and The Wire. Goodnights.

Now, email and typing, a cop car raced past our house, sirens and lights going, in pursuit of some other car.

The missing hard drive

Thursday: Woke at 9. Slept a little more. Strange dreams about falling into a library. Up, email, shower. Sitting in the dance room. Brief cat nursing. At 10:35, headed out.

To Watertown for an eye exam. My first. Strange little office. I'm in good shape. Stopped for an egg sandwich on my way back to the office. One of my eyes was dilated. This put me in rather an odd state.

At my desk: My laptop, back from being repaired. On booting it: Horror the "I'm a brand new computer" routine. They had replaced my 120 GB drive with a 60 GB drive. Calling in dismay I was told to call back on Monday. Decided that wasn't good enough and called back. "If you can prove to us the computer had a 120 GB drive in it, maybe we can do something for you." was one thing I heard. Also "Installing the 120 GB drive voided the warrantee." and "It was a non-conforming part, so it was replaced." Good god. I had only returned the computer for a minor cosmetic repair. I actually became pretty angry. The anger left me feeling yucky for the rest of the day. Finally talked to a supervisor two levels up the food chain, and at least felt like I'd been heard. Got back to work. Got the vari-speed stuff working pretty well by the end of the day. Mom called. Pretty good news about her knee. Probably doesn't need an operation. Deposited my check. Coffee. Ate some of the chocolate that had been given to us by happy beta testers.

Left at 7:20, and over to Union Square. Spent some time making notes from the Yoga Nidra book. Led an interesting class to three people. Biggest challenge for me leading Yoga Nidra was going slow enough. Then some stretching and movements. People seemed happy, saying they'd come back.

After closing up, around 10:10, headed to Wang's for some Chinese food. Talked to Wnd about her upcoming workshop. Back home. Leo's not doing so well. Looks sick and vomiting. Ate food watching The Wire. Email. Printed out some receipts so I could at least prove I'd purchased a 120 GB drive, even if I couldn't prove it was actually in the laptop I sent in. MB returned from an adventure to a coffee house. Watch this to get the gist.

Later, as I was heading out to drop a check at Third Life, I noticed that the copper trellis for the climbing hydrangea along the driveway had gone missing. MB said she had read that people were stealing metal. Creepy. Drove to Third Life and dropped off a check. Down basement. Changed strings on my acoustic guitar, trying Mike Doolin's winding technique. The high G string kept slipping as I practiced.

Anything Goes (in)

Wednesday: Woke around 10:30. Some lazing. Email. Shower. Cats. Down basement and morning practices. Did some cleaning. MB called as I was pulling my stuff together. Headed out.

Drove over to the Fresh Pond area to my doctor's office. I saw a large woman in a wheelchair, smoking, with another large woman taking care of her. The followed me to the waiting room, where I overheard the woman in the wheelchair giving her helper instructions on how to go and purchase her a double cheese burger and coffee with extra cream while she was seeing the doctor.

The annual physical was uneventful. I'd never seen this doctor before (he's subbing for my regular doc, who is on three months of paternity leave. His wife just had twins.) This was the first year they examined my prostate. Oh, the joys of middle-age. Not complaining, mind you. Blood drawn, and hesitantly got a flu shot. We'll see how I do with it.

Stopped for a veggie burger, which I ate overlooking the reservoir. In to work, and continuing on from my progress of the previous day. Hooked up the vari-speed stuff, and began debugging. Coffee. Ate the lunch MB had packed for me, for dinner. At 7:30, met Shawn at the bench.

We decided to have our rehearsal at his studio space tonight. Some fussing around to get his kit in order, and the PA functioning, but no major problems. Phase one of the evening involved running through all our performable material. Not bad. Took a short break, and got a soda at the CVS. Phase two: Thrak. Shawn has improved in his ability to play the combined polyrhythm, and we developed a preliminary arrangement.

Dropped Shawn off, back home. Hello to MB. Sorting through snail mail. Garbage and recycling out. Email. Spent some time looking for a copy of of Pat Boone's cover of the Judas Priest. Couldn't find it, but did find his cover of "Crazy Train." Good lord... now that is truly evil music.

Off goes the laptop

Tuesday: Slept in. UPS guy came to pick up cans of cat food for testing. Worked on copying over some vital stuff to the iMac from my laptop, before sending it off for repair. Shower. Cat nurse. Down basement and morning practices and drums. Decided not to do a job that I had been planning on. It was too late in the day. Cleaned up the basement desk.

Stopped for an egg sandwich on the way to work. A dreary day. I wonder if this sort of weather effects cats in the same way it does humans. At the office, scheduled pick up of my laptop. A solid day of work, ripping out a lot of code from a low level system that was no longer needed, and refactoring a higher level object so it could be subclassed by two different drivers. Got the refactored code working. Got a burrito. Later on, some coffee. Called MB. Email. It's late. Soon home, and evening stuff.

Phone calls

Monday: My alarm went off at 8:30, even though I thought I had set it for 9:30. Email. Tried to get back to sleep, but no luck. Up, shower, cat nursing. Quick breakfast (cereal and coffee). Gave a call to a friend, and realized I was calling an hour too early, as she is one time-zone over. Drums. Sitting. Then the call. We talked about time management. Some emailing. Off to work, driving the long way around.

Parked the car, and went up to the office, but then right back out. Got a haircut, doing what I could to make conversation, although this is a skill I'm not particularly good at. Coffee. Worked solidly through the evening, getting my 'backwards' stuff working, and then trying some different rates as well. A box arrived to take my laptop back to Apple, to have them replace some plastic that is prematurely yellowing. At 5, a call with some of the senior North American Crafties (Victor, Tom, Curt, Tony) to talk about a potential course for next year. Victor has some action items. I mostly just listened. Ate the lunch MB packed for me.

Back home around 11. A soy-chicken-puck, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Said goodnight to MB. Completing the day.

Cleaning gutters

Sunday: A nice sleep in, MB off at OCBC. Shower. Cat nursing. Breakfast with MB (waffles, eggs, soy sausage) We didn't have any maple syrup, so we used cherry preserves and agave nectar. Down basement and morning practices. Checked out the Christmas light situation. Found that the strings we'd used for the front of the house were all kaput. Cleaned out the gutters along the sides of the house. Swept off the garage roof. Talked to neighbor Bl, who gave us tips on avoiding parking tickets (His specialty. Interesting, since he doesn't own a car.) With MB, raked leaves up along one side of the house, more or less completing the job. It was almost dark by this point.

Inside, and some nice time hanging out. A snack sort of meal eating recombinant leftovers. MB found some eye goop for Leo. MB headed off to the Free Circle. I did some vacuuming listening to "Under Wraps" (perhaps the oddest Jethro Tull album: all synths). "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell (the music for the new Bond movie) has a similar melody to "European Legacy" and so "Under Wraps" had been floating to mind. Down basement and updating the KKC website. Headed off to guitar circle.

Arrived as the Free Circle was ending. Quite a bit of talking for us, seeming to be at a transition point. My preference would be less talk and more working on the hands. Don't feed the rat any cheese, I say. So, then, a little playing: EotN, Bartok, Invention 1. David had a bit of a laugh, the image of an evil clown emerging from a repeated open string on Askesis.

Back home (MB had run an errand) some snacks and coffee. Cat nursing. MB returned. Chat. Down basement and more KKC update. Drums, playing with attaching stuff to the hi-hat stand.

The LF Foundation

Saturday: Up slightly earlier than recent days. MB headed out to run some errands. Shower. Cats. Down basement. Emerging, and breakfast with MB: Coffee, eggs, toast, a grilled muffin, soy sausages. Cleaned and vacuumed the carpet in the music room. Cleaned out the leaves on the basement steps. Secured the rose trellises in the front by driving some screws through them and into the siding.

Headed up to NH to visit friend Chln. Stopped for gas. Arrived about 4:45, finding her walking back to her place from the mailbox. A decadent birthday plate of chocolate cake, strawberries and whipped cream. Brainstorming and drawing. Left about 8:30.

Back home, and supper with MB: soy "buffalo wings" and a funny salsa mayo dip that I had to make twice ('cause the first batch landed on the floor). Watched an episode of The Wire. Cake and tea. A bit of an SNL rerun, with a fun segment of Beck being backed up by a fork-and-spoon-jam on dining-room-table.

Raking leaves

Friday: A nice sleep-in. MB was recording in the war room. Shower (quietly), downstairs. Playing kitty doctor. Made plans to do some yard-work with MB (she was on break from her recording project). Down basement, and morning practices.

Had a quick egg sandwich for breakfast while MB was in the backyard. Up on the roof, and pulling leaves out of gutters, while being careful not to fall off the edge. Raking. The sun went down, and I declared our work for the day complete.

A little hanging out with MB, then off to work for a bit. Coffee (with free goodies). Got a call from my mom. She has a diagnosis about her knee, but needs an MRI to confirm, which can't happen until Monday.

Back home, and watching "Cry of the Snow Lion" (a movie about Tibet's history under Chinese occupation), while eating leftovers. Then tea. Too hot: Ouch! More kitty doctoring. Now, down basement.

Thanksgiving

Thursday (Thanksgiving): Woke with the feeling I'd forgotten to call someone. Also, realized I'd forgotten to send an important email at work. Shower. Cats. Down basement.

Cold and rainy. Drove out. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich. Thanked the fellow behind the counter for working today. At the office, sent my important email, then worked for a couple hours. (When work is being done on threads, its often best to simply use a message passing interface to them, rather than trying to sync up.)

Back home, MB was cleaning the cat box and so I couldn't get in the kitchen. Put away laundry. Down basement for email and some drums. Then, cooked a fun little Thanksgiving meal: Herbed potatoes, butternut squash in molasses, stuffing (with nuts, raisins, onion and celery), pan fried tofu cutlets, mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, and salad. Quite yum. Ate with MB, then clean up. Moment of prickliness on my part talking about how to do the Caravan DVD. Called my mom, who is having problems with one of her knees. Pie, ice cream and coffee.

Drove out with MB and saw the new James Bond movie. I thought it was fun, but she didn't like it so much. Back home, more taking care of Leo, and some more coffee. MB to bed. Down basement.

Old cats

Wednesday: Slept in a bit. On waking, arms pins and needles, Leo the cat next to me. Gave the cats their meds, which at this point, is fairly involved. Down basement for morning practices. Brief drums. Made a couple of phone calls and sent some email. Contacted the manufacturer of the cat food that possibly caused Leo's stomach problems. Contacted Apple about getting the inner plastic of my MacBook replaced. Set up a heating pad for the cats to sleep on during the day. Headed out.

Mailed a check to my old friend RS, and his friend SC. Stopped at the grocery store to make sure that we could sufficiently gorge ourselves tomorrow. Mostly bought vegetables. In at work, continued debugging some rather puzzling behavior in my 'backwards project.' In down time, also loaded more music into iTunes. Went to the pharmacy. Got some pizza at Pinocchio's. Stayed until about 10:40 PM.

Back home, hanging out with MB. Put away groceries. Fed Leo some baby-food. Tea. Installed recording software onto the upstairs iMac for MB. Web surfing. Soon down basement.

Leo comes home

Tuesday: Woke, the phone ringing. Thinking about getting up. Decided on a bit more sleep. Heard my mom stirring about, so then up. We had some breakfast (cereal yogurt etc), and a nice time chatting. Shower. Gus. Spent some more hanging out time with mom. Then, I helped her pack her car. Her dog led me down the street to sniff and pee upon, a Very Important Tree. Waving goodbye.

Down basement, and morning practices. Brief drums. Talked to Chln about how to move forward with our collaboration. She asked me for some to-the-point feedback. The feedback I gave her was essentially "often you need to let people figure things out for themselves." There was some irony there. Laundry. Off to the kitty hospital, and retrieved Leo. He's doing a bit better. I liked the doctor that had been treating him. She showed me the ultrasound images they'd taken.

Dropped him back home. Snacking. Headed to work, it already growing dark. A brief and somewhat distracted day, getting some of my backwards code up and running (backwards). Tofu burrito. Headed home around 9 PM.

Call with workshop friends. People are doing well. The fellow from Texas has reemerged, and has a few found interest in Buddhism and meditation. Hello to MB. On the raft, with the two cats and the two people. Goodnight. Feeding Leo, and washing him up a bit. Reading Rolling Stone Magazine's take on the mid-term elections. Down basement.

Dinner with mom and MB

Monday: Slept in. MB wished me a good day on her way out. Mom's friend came over around 10:30 and began helping her in the kitchen. Up, shower, Gus. Downstairs and hello to mom and friend. Then down basement. Morning practices, still feeling a big charge from practice last night. Drums. Off to work. Dropped some books in the mail. Egg sandwich at the donut shop.

Driving around on Storrow, a man was driving aggressively, far too close to my bumper for the speed we were traveling. I slowed a bit to allow myself room to change lanes to get out of his way. He tried to cut around me to the right, aggravated by my slowing down, but then saw I was also shifting into that lane, and sped past. I heartily gave him the finger.

In at the office, a last minute tweak. Strange behavior, only happening on my machine. Some talk with Al about the integration work he's doing. Back to my reversal project. Left around 7.

Up to the kitty hospital, and spent a little time with Leo. Managed to get a little food down his throat, but I was practically force feeding him. (If I put the mushy food in the back of his throat, he would swallow it.) Back home, and enjoyed a lovely dinner with MB and my mom (arugula/apple/goat cheese salad, tofu stir fry, sesame noodles, walnut cake with whipped cream.) Mom fretted that she'd cooked the cake too long. Laughing about "Life of Brian."

Opening some presents. Good fun. I showed mom how to use the iTunes music store, and then we watched some Sacha Baron Cohen clips on youtube. Mom to bed, some hanging out with MB, now down basement.

Leo goes to the clinic

Sunday: MB woke me a couple of times. Finally up around 11. Downstairs, and some oatmeal and coffee, hanging out with my mom and MB. Shower. They headed out to do some shopping, and see a concert.

Down basement. Leo the cat was not doing well. Called the clinic to see about taking him in. Morning practice. Friends arrived for our second "class reunion." A lovely session, with 4 of us on hand. Ended things a little sooner than I would have liked. Whisked Leo off to the hospital. They were very nice, and he was admitted. Back home, no sign of mom or MB. Had a little food. Fixed the front door lock. Cleaned up the kitty infirmary in the basement bathroom.

Mom and MB returned. They talked about lovely music, and a sweaty cellist. Some socializing, then MB headed back out to the free circle. She told me later that this wound up being held in an alternate location near the Charles Playhouse. Spent time with my mom, talking about the Caravan performance, and such. She just had some toast. I ate (frozen, then microwaved) Indian food. Took her dog Max for a brief walk in the back. Mom decided to go to bed early, around the time MB returned. Email. Now, down basement.

Caravan Sans Martin

Sunday: Moved Leo the cat down into the basement bathroom. Then back to sleep. Back to check on Leo. Morning practices. Shower. Someone had puked in front of our house. Hosed it off, while checking in with my mom, who was driving up from CT. Drove out, dropping stuff off at the dry cleaner and picking up a couple things at the music store. While paying, MB called to say that Martin was quite ill, and could not participate in the show. Such a shame. And quite a little poser for us, as he was pivotal to several parts of the show.

Back home, mom had just arrived. I made some quick food, leftover Chinese and cheese toast. Shawn arrived. I ate, then changed strings on the electric. Down basement and ran a couple of things. Packing. Gave my mom directions to the space. And then off we went.

Connecting wires and so on for about and hour. A huddle to work through details, and figure out how to rearrange things to cover for Martin's absence. Shawn sang in the Embroidery, and sang a song at the end of the first set. I sang the drunken philosopher's song with Alex, who looked into a book for his crib notes. Victor played bass on Eye of the Needle. The twinkles got reassigned. Jessica led in during the Feynman piece, and so on. The show went quite well. About 28 people showed up. A splended time was had by all. Plenty of fumble fingers on my part. Getting excited, still causing problems. I almost tanked Bicycling, but we recovered somehow. "The World Blind" sounded great. The success of the event can be attributed to MB's skill at social organizing... That and a generous audience, and some semi-skill performers willing to be a little foolish.

One thing I noticed tonight: My new guitar allows me to be more expressive, which gives the music the opportunity to more fully express itself. The music being more fully expressed, inspires others to be more expressive. We are in a different world. Change one part, and you change everything.

After the show, cake (for my birthday!), cheesecake (per RF's recommendations) a brief circle, lots of undoing what we had just done a few hours earlier. Wnd gave Shawn a ride.

Back home, unloading. Nursing Leo. Ordered a pizza from the only place open. Over there to pick it up. And salads from a fast food place. My mom joined us, and ate pizza crust. Freezing cake. Down basement, and straightening books on shelves. Email.

Caravan dress rehearsal

Friday: MB woke, the internet was not working. Seemed that the modem couldn't latch a signal. Talked to RCN. They said they would send someone in a week. Back to sleep for a time. Up later, cats, shower, feeling groggy. Down basement and very brief drums. Morning practices. Loaded up my car with all the stuff I'd need for the evening's rehearsal. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich. Read an article on Jeff Daniels.

In at the office, they had done some work cleaning the carpets, but the blue tarps still hung from the ceiling. A meeting was going on in my office. Got a bit of work done, continuing my little backwards project. Walked out and picked up programs from the printer. Briefly walked through Tower. It's being liquidated. There was something depressing about it. Met Shawn at 6:15. "Drama?"

Stopped at his place to pick up his sticks, then to Third Life for rehearsal of the Caravan performance. Things went pretty well, although I have a feeling some of the last minute choreography isn't going to be remembered. Very bright projector. New battery for my electric guitar. Broke a string in Branding Iron. Unfortunately, had to pack everything up. Gave Shawn a ride home.

Back to my place, Leo the cat was sick. Sequestered him in the downstairs bathroom, and administered fluids. I think perhaps it's bad cat-food. MB and I cleaned up. I had some leftover Chinese food. MB and I both felt pretty wiped out. Now, down basement.

Three Peeps

Thursday: Slept in a little after another late night. Email. Cats. Shower. Down basement and some more email and morning practices. Drums. Guitar. Up a level and had some coffee and pasta. Chilly grayness continues outside. Picked up leaves from the ficus tree.

In to work, and continued on my stream reversal project. Some discussion with Dv and Al about how to merge our code together. And so, of course, griping about the horrible SCC that we are now saddled with. Left at 7:30.

Over to Union. A good class tonight. Three peeps, one from the first level, one who has become a regular, and one person who came to an intro. Some cell calls. Picked up Chinese food. Home. MB in the shower. Food. Emailing and stuff. Now down basement.

Dragonfly

Wednesday: Up, feeling less of the devil bug on my shoulder. Email. Hanging with the cats for a bit. Shower. Had a lovely breakfast of eggs and such. Emailing about someone who is asking for something back that was left at my (then) apartment, 13 years ago. Down basement, a few moments of drums, morning sitting, guitar.

In to work. Stopped at the old recording co-op that I used to be a part of (where the vocals for the first Sabot CD, and all the rhythm tracks for the second, were recorded.) Trying to reclaim some equipment. No luck, but it does look like the studio still exists, so there's a little hope.

In at work Al back from Africa. Talked to him a bit. Talked to Dv about a data presentation interface to the third party hardware subsystem that he helps to maintain. Worked on doing a bit that allows data to come out in reverse order, even though most of the system thinks its going forward. Burrito.
Found a wonderful band: My Brightest Diamond. Check this out. Jeff Buckley returned in female form? Talked to Crln briefly.

Back home, hello to MB. Reading. Down basement. Guitar. Email, and more email. Now completing the day.

Devil bug knocking/phone calls

Tuesday: Woke feeling like the devil bug was scratching at my door. Oh, that's just the cat. Email. Back to sleep. Shower, cats. Reheated some coffee. Had a nice phone-call with Kty from MD. Breakfast, and down basement. Morning sitting. And off to work. The drearys continue.

At the office, the tarps and ick was still in the main space. Didn't write any code today. All design. Realized some previous design work I'd done was mistaken. Coffee. Reassured RPT that some code of his I'd moved around was the correct version. Late in the day, got a burrito. Headed home around 9:30.

Hello to MB. Made some tea, and put away a pile of DVDs and CDs that had been staring at me for weeks. Down basement. Long conversation with Nc from OR and then Chln. Finally around to guitar. Now, completing the day.

Raining indoors

Monday: Woke around 9:30. Email. Back to bed for more glorious sleeps. Up, shower, cats. Breakfast of cereal and coffee. Strained my wrist slightly trying to open a very stubborn jar of preserves. Down basement, drums and morning practices. Took a long time today. Off to work.

Pretty productive day, putting more polish on my "data transcription" project. Did the thing to bump out the EOFs to avoid fragmentation. The drop ceiling is all torn out with wires and tubes hanging down. They're working on the climate control. Then, the roof started leaking and streams of water poured down from above. Some of my colleagues arranged waste baskets to catch most of the flow. Later in the evening the building manager showed up to hang some tarps to consolidate the dripping. Headed home around 10:30. Stopped for some not-so-good pizza. The garlic shaker had big holes and dumped garlic granules all over my slice. Bad pizza shop! Did a grocery run at Porter Sq. Dropped a copy of Zooter's CD off at F&M's.

Back home, unloaded groceries. Hung out with MB in the kitchen for a bit. Watched this video, and laughed so hard I couldn't breath. Down basement and guitar for an hour. Email.

Caravan rehearsal

Sunday: Woke at 7:30, MB heading to rehearsal of the Caravan at Third Life. Up, shower, cats, down basement. Arrived at Third Life at 9 AM. Ran back home to pick up DI boxes. Interesting seeing the show come together. Things got off to a bit of a slow start. I stayed until noon. Back home, and a mentor session with Wnd. Good questions.

A couple of slices of pizza for lunch, watching 24. Some reading. MB came home around 3. Nap. Up, then some coffee. Reading. MB headed out to pick up something from Bn. Gave Crln a call. Sorted through my wallet. Food, listening to a debate about Iraq. Emptied the dishwasher. Now, down basement. Guitar and completing the day await.

Trending

Saturday: Woke around 9. Email. Cats. MB got back from doing some dance practice. A little breakfast. Another hour of sleep. Shower. Down basement, sitting. Talked to Chrln on the phone for about an hour. Productive.

Upstairs, a grilled cheese and coffee for lunch. reading. Around 4 MB headed out to do a BD performance for a birthday party. I drove up to visit Chrln. A good business meeting. Headed home, stopping in for some quite poor fast food. MB is out at a BD gig. Now, down basement.

Cultural Learnings

Friday: Woke around 9:30. Didn't get much sleep, but felt nicely rested. Email. Cats. Shower. The house cleaning people arrived. Fed cats. Down basement, and had a nice conversation with Tracey Lynne. Noticed people, kids probably, have been throwing balloons filled with day-glo paint at the house, but not aiming very well. Morning stuff. Sending out receipts for some payments received. Off to work. Stopped at the bank to deposit some NET checks.

In at the office and a food bar. Worked on completing some ancillary subsystems for the data transcription engine I've been working on. Went out for a break and to get some food. B was out of the office today. Worked until 6:45.

Back home, couldn't turn down my block, because a cop car was blocking traffic. Eventually they left. Picked up MB, and drove to Union for Bi Bim Bap and sushi. Told her something about my preparation for the GC Level 3 in '03. Took a walk. Headed to Revere to see Borat. Quite funny. Back home, made the bed with just-washed sheets. Set up the schedule on the thermostats. MB said goodnight. Some coffee and a cheese sandwich.

Well rested

Thursday: Woke feeling well rested and not unhealthy. A welcome change. Cats, shower, down basement, some drums, morning stuff. Off. Cloudy, then, a lovely day.

Got a sandwich and coffee before sitting down to my desk. Working on some more nitty-gritty details on multiple pass of my new data transcription subsystem. Later some disappointing pizza. Left work at 7:30.

Over to Union Square and class. Just K showed up. I took the opportunity to fly without a chart.

Back home, and hello to MB, who was napping on the futon upstairs. Folding laundry. Email, standing in the kitchen. Some leftover Indian food, with Gus trying to steal butter.

Both Houses

Wednesday: Up around 8:20. Shower, cats, down basement. Headed out at 9:35. Lots of traffic on the off-ramp to Storrow, so tried to find my way through Boston. Got a little lost. To the dentist's office by 10:10. Experiments with sensitivity to cold. Cleaning. Got an egg sandwich at the bagel shop. Rainy day.

In at the office, and more tweaks and fixes to my recent data recording subsystem. Watching the election results. Quite pleased. Burrito. Down to meet Shawn at 7:30.

Back to my place, and practice for a little over an hour. Decided to call it early tonight. Watched some clips on the web. Gave him a ride home. Cleaning people didn't come today. MB had arrived when I returned home. She made some tomato soup/magma and cheese toast, which we enjoyed. Victor stopped by to pick up speaker stands.

Colrain and the last few days

Friday: Woke to Tony G on the phone. He convinced me to come out to the Roundhouse. Up, packed the car, in to work. Good progress. Headed out around 5 PM. Arrived in Colrain at 7:40. Stuffed peppers for dinner. Some evening music.

Saturday: Up early and then sitting in the cottage. Furry pancakes. C Major Arpeggios. AT work. Practicing walking in and out of green room to stage. Soup for lunch. Talking about what is necessary. Tom sings a song about our deities. Put together a pretty decent concert for the evening. Victor played the Paganini piece he's been working on.

Sunday: Up early again, and sitting in the cottage (no mice this time). Talk about the performance over breakfast. Upstairs and a sitting. At 10:15 RF arrived (I wasn't expecting him). A big circle with some talk. More pitiable attempts are circulating C Triads. Lunch. Robert was happy to eat some pumpkin pie and ice cream. Then, winding down. The final meeting (with dogs). Tom gave me back my checks. The money had been raised in a group effort, though the instructors were still not given full compensation. Goodbyes. Driving home in separate cars. MB too tired to go see Borat. A voice in my ear during evening practice "You Finished." Not exactly a happy thought.

Monday: Up and ran some errands. Laundry. In to work and getting a new transcription subsystem up and running. Burrito. Feeling sniffily. Zinc. Home late. Long and interesting talk with Cln. Posting assignments.

Tuesday: Up fairly early and then drove up to NH to visit Cln, stopping to vote. Interesting potential business partnership. In to work, and continuing to iron out bugs. Decided not to go to yoga. Back home around 8:30, some practice. Doing some stuff for MB's performance. Dems looking like they're doing pretty well tonight. MA has it's first black governor.

Paying bills

Thursday: Woke at 7. MB headed off to work. Shower. Cats. Coffee, breakfast of eggs. Down basement for sitting. A thought occurred to me about how to solve the financial mess the course has turned into. Called Tony to float it past him. He didn't like it. He talked me out of it. So, packing.

Headed to work, stopping for kitty litter, vitamin C and zinc. At the office, got a voice message from the Director of Level T asking if we should renegotiate with the proprietor to reduce our payment. I had to wait a little while to call Tom back. In that time I made up my mind. I was not going to let good people doing good work go without their pay. Having TG and SBC schlepp around the countryside for no money is unacceptable.

Back home, paying bills. Wrote a letter to be read at the inaugural meeting. MB came home, and I let her know about the change in plans. This caused some upset, and we spent an hour or so working through it. I almost was convinced to go to the course at one point.

Tony actually gave me the insight that set me on this path last night. He asked "Is this course necessary." The answer is obviously, to me, "No." This is why it's so expensive. We scheduled the course because we had a nice experience, and figured we could do something with the time. This is not the right way to plan a Guitar Craft course. There has to be a need. Something has to be asking to be born. Thinking about attending the course, I realized would feel like going on vacation. A lovely vacation, with good food, and strong practice on the guitar. But, my work was elsewhere. My work was, cleaning up the financial mess caused by booking an unnecessary course. And, coincidentally (as if these things could ever be coincidences) the amount that I could earn at my job while the course was going on, almost exactly equaled the deficit.

Eventually MB came around to my way of looking at it, or at least realized I wasn't going to be happy if she forced me to change my mind. She headed off. I took a walk to drop something in the mail. A little later, Victor called trying to convince me to come to the course. After that conversation, I headed back to work.

But here's a question: What could ever possibly be necessary about playing guitar?

Worked for a good chunk of time. Got a burrito. Cold out. Sensing the life of the course. Worked until about 10:20. Back home, practicing guitar. SBC called and said they were going to sell slots on Level T staff for $25 a head to raise cash. And she was still giving me the "Oh, I wasn't expecting to be paid. It's not about the money" line. Sweet of her. Made me feel like shite.

A bit more guitar practice. Checking email. MB called to say hello. She said that everybody wished I was there. I doubt she took a poll, but it was a nice thing to say. I've had a lot of that today, earnest people saying nice things that leave me feeling completely flat. It's very simple. There's a hole. I'm filling it.

It's only cash and that is all, why should I feel the way I do?

Wednesday: Fairly focused morning. Cats, email, some breakfast. Down basement and took care of some stuff, so I could get to bed earlier in the evening. Some tidying. Dropped some books in the mail. In to work.

Pretty productive day today, filling in the last of the big gaps in my stub functions. Close to having lift-off. Coffee. Met Shawn at 7:30 down at the bench. Finances for the Roundhouse course weighing on my mind. Well, its only money.

Back to my house, hello to MB, then in the basement in my little studio. Putting together a set for the Third Life gig that MB is organizing. Then recording our pieces. I was not playing well tonight. Interesting hearing the difference between acoustic and electric guitars on the same material. Gave Shawn a ride home. Some email in the basement. Some food. Took out garbage.

Car inspection, lots of email

Tuesday: Woke up thinking it was Wednesday. When I discovered it was Tuesday, it was like someone had given me 24 hours! A busy morning of email, guitar, cats, drums, being in the basement, more email. Dropped some stuff in the mail at the PO. Drove a snakish route to get my car inspected. Picked up a veggie burger while waiting. Ate while driving.

Pretty productive day at work. Ripped out a class I had written just a few weeks ago, that I realized wasn't really a good idea. Got everything linking, with a few stub functions to fill in. Email. Walked out and deposited my pay, and other checks I'd been holding for some time. Pizza, which I carried back to my desk. Phone conversations. Wnd said she has a date with a good friend of mine! More work. Headed home around 10.

When I got in, MB was on the phone with Christine. Coffee. A little hanging with MB. Guitar. Email.

Quiet day

Monday: Woke feeling pummeled. MB working at home. More sleep. A bowl of cereal, and coffee, fending off Gus. Emails. Shower. Down basement. A sandwich. Some guitar.

Off to work. A quiet day, and fairly productive, knitting some of my new code back into the larger structure. Worked until about 9:45.

Back home, and some fresh-out-of-the-oven Spanikopita with MB, she telling me about the book Gilead. Clean up. Some guitar with MB, working on C Major triads. Email.

Satsang

Sunday: Woke around 9 thinking I might go to KKC. Morning sitting took longer than expected, and so, I would have been late. Decided to take it easy and prepare for the meeting with my classmates at 1 PM. Shower. Breakfast. Cats. Tidying, and a few small projects in the basement.

MB returned from her trip around 12:30. We hung out in the kitchen. Wnd and Shawn arrived about 12:45. A very good first meeting of everyone local from the course last week. MB headed off to Kaya (where she had a BD opportunity). We wrapped up around 3:30. Cleaning up, and more stuff in the basement. MB returned around 6. I emerged and spent a little time with her before she left for the free circle. Time on the computer. Headed off to guitar circle.

A somewhat brief meeting tonight, with just MB Martin, Victor and myself. Played through the rep that we could muster without David. Called it a bit early, around 10:15.

Back home, more email, and more guitar.

Projects in the basement/Party in JP

Saturday: Rainy day, with no MB. Slept in, breakfast hanging with the cats. Watched an episode of 24. Shower, sitting in the dance room.

Spent a good chunk of the day doing little projects in the basement. Moved the drums back into the music room. Broke down the box in which my guitar was shipped. Covered some doors with fabric. Made a wooden sign. Had some food later on, listening to Rnd's oddness. Played guitar, working on the arpeggios for the course. Some other practice upstairs. Christine called.

Went out to a party in JP. I was dressed as a wall hanging. Dancing to classic rock. Talking about fractals. Avoiding second hand pot smoke.

MB to ATL

Friday: MB woke me as she headed out to the airport (trip to Atlanta on business). More sleeps. Email. Cats. Shower. Guitar. Some breakfast. Down basement. Got a message from MB saying her flight was delayed. Headed out, and mailed off CDs to Nordheim and Grf. Stopped in Union to drop a check at Third Life.

At work, a day that could have been more productive than it was. I was feeling sleepy, and having trouble focusing. Still, managed to get a good bit done. Got a burrito. Stayed until after 10. MB called to say she was OK, and had seen David and Claire.

Back home, CDs from Nordheim were in the mailbox. He's been listening to a lot of metal, it seems. Watched "24" eating leftover Chinese food.

Flipping the happy bird

Thursday: MB told me the rug cleaners had canceled. So, more sleep. Morning sitting in the dance room. Cats. Email. Shower. More puke on the rug downstairs. Lovely. Vacuuming in the basement. Pulled stuff together for this evening. Headed off to work.

Witnessed some aggressive driving behavior. I liberally made use of my middle digit. It was sort of funny, because I was feeling calm and friendly, even as I was flipping people the bird. Saw a man hanging signs (or the DVD release of Nacho Libre) and taking pictures of his work. I gave him my email address, thinking I might use his service at some point.

Work was good today. Still reworking some old code into a new context, and cleaning up some long standing deficiencies while I'm at it. Walked out and got a burrito. (The first place was out of tofu, so I exited.) Ali wrote to say she'd changed her mind, which didn't really surprise me. Left work at 7:33.

Three peeps in class tonight. A wide range of personalities. One fellow left quickly without saying much. Wonder what was up with him. K said he'd had a good session with a guide, which had helped him resolve some stuff with J. Interesting. Another fellow had some physical limitations which made some of the postures difficult.

Back home, hanging with MB. Did a quick run to the store to pick up some essentials. Cleaned the cat box. Email, and more email.

Ali G

Wednesday: Up and email. Shower. Cats. Down basement. More email. A bit of guitar. Cleaned some cat puke off the carpet. Paid a parking ticket.

In at work, took on looking into a bug that was assigned to B, while he was busy in a meeting. This gave me my gold star for the day. Then, reworking code that I wrote 9 years ago. Ali looks like she might be interested in co-leading with me. Had a long strange conversation with someone who I'd never spoken with before.

Back home, and hanging out with MB. Some noodles and veggies, talking about Madonna's adoption fiasco. Email, email, email.

Return of yoga and guitar

Tuesday: Woke around 10, MB gone to work. Email. Cats. Shower. Cats. Down basement. More email, and setting up some stuff for ongoing contact with course participants. Putting away laundry. Watching how I get sucked into house projects.

In to work. Coffee. Deval Patrick looks like he's going to win. My Doolin guitar was waiting for me in a box covered with UPS stickers. Shifting gears back into the "writing to hard disk" project. This is the second or third time I've written this code, it seems. Took a break to go buy some lunch. Ran into a couple of street urchins. They claimed to be 18, but I think they were probably more like 14. I bought them sandwiches. Back at my desk, and more work. J is out sick today, which is unfortunate, since he's not able to test my recent changes. Worked until 6:40, then off to yoga.

Wendy worked us pretty hard tonight. Lots of sun salutations, with variations. After class I had a long chat with her about the center's finances, and what I could use as additions to its programming.

Back home, and hanging out with MB eating leftover Indian food, and talking about the horrible state of our government. Hanging out on the couch. I invented a new Buddhist plot line: Once there was a baby. It was cute and pudgy. It grew up, ate a lot, and pooped. And then when it was old, it died. The end. Playing in iPhoto.

Back

Monday: MB woke me asking where her keys were. I had left them in the basement after moving her car the previous night. After finding them, she drove off for a meeting with the pastor at OCBC. I picked up some water, which I took to Third Life (replenishing supplies) and dropped a check. Back home, and slept in. Up around noon, and putting things away that had been used on the course. MB working at home. Down basement. In at work, and found and fixed a bug that had been eluding us for quite some time. Also fixed some behavior for the guys migrating away from our API. Got a tofu burrito for lunch. Worked late. Back home, and some leftover Indian food, reading about the atrocities of the 109th Congress in Rolling Stone.

Thursday 19 - Sunday 22

Thursday: Finally heard from R&A around 1 PM. They had forgotten I didn't have their cell. Preview session in the evening. No new people for the course, but some good contacts made.
Friday: Hanging out with J and TL, then pulling stuff together. Gave TL a ride to H Sq. Very short day at work. Picked up TL. Raining. To Union and putting the space together. Evening 1 of the L1.
Saturday: Up at 7AM. First full day of the course.
Sunday: Up at 7AM. Course completion. Taking down the space. Putting things back and cleaning. R&A came back to my place for a visit. My friends depart from the basement. Decided not to go to guitar circle. Out with R&A for a sandwich. Sat with R while he drank a beer. Late night.

Exceptions

Wednesday: Woke around 8:40. Down basement for brief sitting and hello to friends. Cats. Got back in bed, but didn't sleep. MB headed out to an appointment with a banker. Up, shower, and so on. Email. MB returned, working at home today. I put the hammock and tiki torches away. Printed some flyers, and dropped them back at the house. Put some CDs in the mail to a friend. Off to work.

Working on the add-on issue that had been reported by a developer migrating away from our API, I found there was indeed a problem on our end. Nice fellow. I spoke to him in an overseas phone call.

Took a walk out and got some cash, supplements, an rx, pizza and coffee. The coffee has gone up in price by 15 cents, but they're giving us promotional mints. I offered back the mints if they would give me 15 cents.

Turned my attention back to the difficult to debug problem I'd been looking at last night (a by hand binary search of possible throw locations, since "break on all C++ exceptions" doesn't work in XCode.) Mrk suggested simply setting a low-level breakpoint at the library routine. After some head-scratching, we managed this, and within minutes I had found my bug. My question is, why doesn't XCode just do what we did, as its implementation of "break on all C++ exceptions?" Very weird. Fixed a satisfying and long standing bug with a very important provider-dependent class, with this new information. Started looking at some sort of possible better behavior for the add-on issue. Came up with one possible solution, but it didn't do the whole job. About that time the USB on my computer started flaking out (because I keep hot-swapping between Intel and PPC). Headed home around 10. Still no word from R&A, who were supposed to have landed this afternoon.

Back home, MB had just returned from a shopping trip. Helped her put away groceries. Some soup and potatoes. Email. Now some guitar and completing the day.

Two Sleeps

Monday: Woke around 8:30, up, made a pot of tea and took it down basement to my friends. Morning practice. Gave Gus his treatments. Loaded some of the scanned photos into my laptop. Back to bed for some more sleep. Needed, but left me feeling cramped up for the rest of the day. Up, part 2, shower, had a quick breakfast of cheese and crackers. Said bon voyage to my friends, as they headed up to Salem for raw food.

In to work. Talked to the folks at the coffee shop about how they're going to handle being shut down for 6 to 9 months. Looked a bit deeper into the add-on issue. The sneaky guys added a debugger killer to the example they gave me. Made debugging a bit difficult. Made one small satisfying bug fix involving f8 getting stuck into the wrong byte offset. Wrestled for a long time with a mysterious bug involving registration ripple effects. A terrible debugger didn't help matters any. My friends called from downtown Boston, needing navigational help.

Headed home around 11. Realized I'd forgotten to bring the water boiler thing for my friends, so back to pick it up. Back home, and hello to MB. Not much in the pantry. Hello to friends. Had a lovely starch filled supper with MB of pasta and instant mashed potatoes. A bit of guitar.

Course is on

Monday: Up at the crack of 9:30. Talked to Richard and said the course was a go. Planning. Basement. Cats. Drove off, it already being quite late, to the vet for saline, then to KKC. Water bowls had been filled. Picked up my keys. Headed to a place of much stuff. Ate at Panera. A young child complained about their computer going bonkers. The photo shop called to say they were going out of business, and I should pick up my slides. Peir 1 also had no screens.

In to work, Rbt opening the garage door manually, in front of me. The main thing I did today was talk to B about cars, and answer a question from a third party add-on guy, who is migrating away from our API. Also walked out and didn't find screens, but did find some nice wall hangings. Many emails relating to the course. Call from my friends from the road. Headed out and finally found some screens at the Japanese store in the Porter Exchange. My friends had arrived. Drove back home and got them settled in.

MB returned home. After more settling in and conversation, hung with MB, who'd had a day of woe. Conversation about life stuff. Watched an episode of The Wire. She headed upstairs, and I went down, to hand with friends, and then do practice.

Brunch with Wnd

Sunday: Slept in a bit. Phone calls. Cats. Down basement, drums and morning things. Made plans to have brunch with Wnd. MB returned from OCBC, just as I was heading out.

Our first choice was too full, so went to the Bickford's. Nice in a trashy sort of way. Took a little walk around, then went shopping over in the land of too much stuff. And as usual didn't find much of what I was looking for. Bookends.

Back home and some hanging out. Cleaned out the small fridge I bought for my friends. Made some tweaks to posters. MB headed off to the free circle. I drove off and looked for some screens. Didn't find them, but bought a rug. I asked the youth at the pizza hut in the Target if they had slices, but what I should have asked him was "Do you have slices without nasal effluence?"

Stopped in Boston and dropped the posters. This experience was a bit like something from the movie Being John Malcovitch. Then to the circle, where we were putty in MB's hands. Martin doesn't appreciate having to jump like a frog.

Back home, and work on fixing up the basement. Put down the rug, etc. It was a late night.

Goodwill

Sunday: Up late (two episodes of The Wire), so slept in. Shower, cats. Down basement and had a long conversation with my friend Wnd, whose birthday it is today. Had some breakfast/lunch with MB (I had eggs, she, leftover Chinese). Back down basement, drums, "morning" things.

Worked in the garage, packing up the stuff that didn't sell at the tag sale, and noting down what it was. Made list of everything with price estimates. Loaded it all into the car, except for the stuff to be trashed. Printed some stuff. Stopped and made some copies at the local convenience store (where the instant numbers always are in motion). Drove to Davis Square and donated the whole lot of the stuff to Goodwill. Phone calls on the cell. A couple of slices of pizza. Flyers. Decided to head back home.

Hung out with MB for a bit, and before long it was time to go out. We drove over to Third Life, and saw an interesting performance of dance and sound. But first, a donut. After the show, back home (eating some little Japanese crackers). Watched an episode of 24, and then, down basement. Some drums and other stuff.

Shawn sent me this link. Who is that furry guy with a limp right hand?

Table

Friday: Slept in a bit, email, cats, shower, more email in the basement, drums, morning things. Quick breakfast, then off to work. Quite nice out.

Actually wrote some code today. Walked out and picked up a job from the printer's for MB. Tower records in H Sq is closing.Then in to Boston to run an errand. Horrible traffic. What should have taken an hour took two. Back in the office, resorted to booting off my PPC in target disk mode to debug the issue that was only occurring on J's G5. More code.

Home around 11:30. MB was already asleep. Ate some spaghetti watching "The Wire." Down basement, installed the hanger-rod in the armoire. Checked out my purchase.

Executioner in a bunny suit

Thursday: Woke around 10. Groggy but not as bad as yesterday. Email. Cats (Gus playing coy on the stairs). Down basement and promo stuff. Some drums. Morning stuff. Walked out and picked up a few things at the convenience store. Odd weather. Not sure if it wants to rain. Talked to someone about buying a massage table. Ate a strange breakfast of corn chips, leftover lentil soup and hot sauce. Got the small fridge out of my car. This video haunted me for the rest of the day.

Headed off. Got a little done today. Ate a $1 burrito, courtesy of the guy that dropped the napkins on my head. Found a class that does the exact opposite of what its name implies. Talked to Alx about this. Puzzled more over the problem building on this particular G5. No luck. Left at 7:30.

Over to Union Square. Presented my class to one peep tonight. Often I don't feel like giving this class, but when it works, as it did tonight, it's a profound privilege. This fellow took notes. Very encouraging.

Stopped for some Chinese food on the way home. Hanging out with MB, talking about the future. Email. Tucked her in with the cats.