Trip to CA

Friday - Tuesday: Scheduled a cab for 7:45. Set three alarms for 6:45. MB woke me at 7:40. Did make it out the door, only forgetting my coat. Had to come back for it. Easy flight to CA. Playing NST in a spot where, no doubt, others had before me. A good workshop, and new connections with the CA contingent made. Drive up the coast was lovely, but left jacket at the hotel. A sandwich in San Francisco. A few hours with Grf. Moses and the Hummingbirds. Vodka? Then off. A curvy road through the hills. Made it back to the airport late, but not too late. Ate bean burritos at the Taco Bell in the Las Vegas airport. Slept well on the flight.

Email list cleaning, and a busy day before departure

Thursday: Up around 9:20. Email, shower, cats. Focused morning. Down basement, then over to Crln's house. We talked for about an hour, and then down to business: cleaning and combining several email lists. They made me some eggs. They put a little of Christine's new CD on, but it was skipping. Sounded lovely. Work complete, I headed back home. Put away laundry. Off to work.

Coffee. Continued my machine migration. Became quite miffed when our IT guy said that we were not going to be given the system disks that came with the machines. What sort of penny-ante BS is that? B gave me a set. Got a little work done, but only a little. Christine called, leaving today, but we didn't find a way to meet. Left at 7:40.

Class: One participant, but engaged. Went late. A first. Home. Called Wendy Cook and made arrangements for dealing with a house guest that will be here while I'm away. Called Gf and Nc about plans for the trip. Did some stuff on the KKC website. Drove to KKC and dropped off house keys, seeing Brc in the kitchen cooking. Home and made a bed for the guest. Packing. MB returned home. Some food in the kitchen, hanging out with her. More packing.

The quest for deodorant

Wednesday: Up around 9.. A little before, actually, and then not sleeping waiting for the alarm. Email. Cats. Shower. Down basement for extended set of practice. Hung a bit of cloth on the wall behind the drums. Headed out. Drove around on Storrow. A lovely day.

Got some pizza for a breakfast sort of thing. At work today, a line of new Quad Intel Macs was lined up like a small army. New machines all around. Copying my files was going to take 5 hours, so I decided to put that off until the end of the day. Continued bug hunting, although today most of them were being somewhat illusive. Took a walk out looking for deodorant. I have a particular flavor of Tom's of Maine that I've been using for years, and now stores seem to no longer carry it. A similar thing happened to the previous product I was using. My armpits exist in some minuscule corner of the market, it seems. Some interesting developments with 300 Somerville Ave. Met Shawn at 7:35.

Off to Arlington. Went to get a coffee. Stopped in at another pharmacy looking for the deodorant. No luck. Was going to buy a different flavor, but no cashier was in site. When we got to Starbucks, the insides had all been torn out. No tasty coffee drinks would be in the offing from this establishment. Two missions thwarted, back to the studio. We worked with a metronome tonight... Something that should be standard practice from now on. Very interesting seeing where we push and pull the tempi. Gave Shawn a ride home, talking about relationships.

Back home, and hanging out with MB, eating some noodles. She'd had her nails done at a new salon. Christine called, and we made some vague plans for tomorrow. Grf had called before as well, but didn't really leave a message. Took out the garbage. Email. Purchased 6 sticks of Tom's of Maine Woodspice deodorant from drugstore.com.

Back to life

Tuesday: Up around 10. Email. Cats. Shower. Down basement. Guitar. Longer practice than usual, trying to shift a bit to the morning, and get to bed a little earlier. Laundry. Talked to my friend Gf's wife. He's doing better, but years of vodka have made his liver quite unhappy. Ate some eggs for breakfast. A sunny day out. Drove around on Storrow to work.

Switched back to bug fixing for the day. Swatted a few, and added support for a new selector in some add-on glue. MB had packed me a lunch, so I almost didn't move from my desk all day. Fussed around with the somewhat annoying time-tracking software that I've been using. Stayed late, which proved to be good in terms of keeping up appearances with B. Shut my machine down when leaving, since the power was due to be cut.

Back home around 10. Made some soy-meat/mushroom spaghetti sauce, and noodles. Steamed asparagus. Garlic bread. MB didn't come home until I was cleaning up. She'd already eaten, phooey. Ate while she made lunches. Guitar, working out a variation to the anchor exercise. Laundry folding. Down basement and email and so on.

HHDL Wheel of Sharp Weapons, day 3

Monday (CT for HHDL teachings): Woke at 6. Sitting, shower, packing. A quick morning with no breakfast. Bye to mom. In to NYC by 8:30. Parking. Some coffee and a pumpkin muffin. We slurped and ate as we walked to the venue.

A somewhat compressed session, and then a ritual performed at the end. Very powerful. Walking around, and some lunch. Phone calls about a property we may buy. On the road by around 1 PM.

Almost decided to drive north to 84, but then, took the safe route. Good time back to Somerville, arriving at 5 PM. Unpacking, vacuuming. Snacks in the kitchen with MB. Cats are fine. Watched an episode of "The Wire." Down basement and book organizing. Email.

HHDL Wheel of Sharp Weapons, day 2

Sunday: (Norwalk CT) Woke at 6. Sitting. Shower. MB was slow getting up this morning. Made us some eggs and toast. We headed off about 7:20.

Into the city without incident. Session 3 of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons teaching. Less sleepy than yesterday, but did have to go give back to nature the fluid portion of the coffee I'd consumed before the talk. At lunch, we walked to a nearby pizza shop, and fought the crowd, finding a table. Yummy. Walked a little through Central Park. Quite a robust smell of horse urine, I'll say. Light rain. Some ice-cream like stuff, and then back to the venue. Session 4. It was announced that tomorrow we will begin early, and have a single 3 hour session, ending at noon. Nodded off briefly a couple of times. Micro naps. Funny, because for the most part, I didn't feel sleepy. Things ran late tonight (they had announced this earlier), ending around 4:50. Hit the bathroom. MB didn't want to use the men's room for some reason, so she waited in line.

A Hummer crowded my space while I drank my Starbuck's coffee driving over the Henry Hudson Bridge. We missed the turn onto the Cross County Pky off of the Saw Mill. Didn't realize this for probably 10 miles. Turned around in Terrytown. MB napped. Back to my mom's by around 7 PM. She made us a nice dinner: wild rice, broccoli, yams, salad. We had some warm apple pie and ice cream. MB took a shower, while my mom and I walked the dog around the condo complex. A nice long talk with my mom about things big and small. Hanging out with MB talking about warts and nose picking. Now, quiet time.

HHDL Wheel of Sharp Weapons, day 1

Saturday (Mom's house, Norwalk CT) Up at 6 AM. Sitting, hearing MB stir upstairs. Shower. A quick breakfast of odd cereal mix, yogurt, tea. On the road by about 7:10. Drove to NYC, found parking, and to the line waiting to get in by about 8:30. Saw many folks from KKC. Session one with His Holiness the Dalai Lama ran from 10 to noon. Sleepy. Lunch with MB at a little Chinese place. Session 2 ran from 2 to 4. Very sleepy. Perhaps sleeping, perhaps dreaming into his words. Allowing myself to float in the sleepiness rather than struggling against it. Tried to visited the Tibetan crafts fair next door in the hotel, but too many people. Found a back exit. Walked around a bit, and ran into a friend of MB's from URI, who she hadn't seen in 10 years. Also, her husband of one year. Had some so-so Italian food. Lovely location on the sidewalk. A beggar asked for some change for food, so I gave him some bread. We saw a sign promoting 2 to 4 bedroom condo units for 2 to 4 million dollars. Headed home, MB napping. Back at my mom's, talking over pie and ice cream. We decided to make it an early night.

Cat lady and Crln. A drive to CT.

Friday: Woke around 9. Email. Called Crln and actually got her! Set up a time for a meeting next week. Left a message for a cat lady. Shower. Cats. Ate some breakfast. The cat lady called back and said she'd be by. Sitting. She arrived and I showed her around. Personal practice in the basement. Doing some more set up in the music room. Unloaded the trunk of the car. Headed out and about. Dropped off some flyers at Crln's house, meeting Tmy, her bf. Dropped a check at Third Life. Sue came out wondering who had unlocked the door. Left a message for a real estate agent.

In at work, and a steady day, filling in stub functions, some with new code, some with old code. Coffee. Ended the day working on some IO code. A call about the course I'm organizing.

Back home, packing. Ate leftover Chinese food. Headed out. Uneventful drive to CT, annoying MB with "Black Hole Sun" and listening to a mix CD of Southern roots music and the SatB CD "Tinderbox." Arrived at mom's about midnight. Soon bed.

Teaching yoga

Thursday: Woke around 9:30. Up, email, cats, shower, heated some coffee. Just eating cereal when Rhrd called. Good conversation. Down basement and morning practices. Chopped the lower 4th off a bookshelf.

In to work. Got the rest of the interleaved project stuff compiling. Wrote stubs and got things linking as well. Then spent a little time refining object relationships. Egg salad sandwich at my desk. Headed out at 7:25.

Third Life, and presented a class to one person. Wound up leading a sun salutation series at the end. This was fun, and a first.

Picked up some Chinese food on the way home. Hanging with MB. Hopefully to bed on the early side tonight.

Financial meeting/sleepy

Wednesday: Woke at 8:15. Not much sleep. Up cats shower down basement. MB headed out to drop her car off to be serviced. I picked her up (up over the Somerville hill) and we headed off to our financial planning meeting. Traffic, but not terrible. The meeting lasted quite a bit longer than expected. Left with perhaps more questions than when I arrived. Lovely day out. Dropped MB back in Union. Back home and made some sandwiches for us. MB returned. We ate. Did some fussing in the basement, sanding some holes I'd filled in the armoire and applying stain. Then off to work.

Fairly productive day. Fixed a bug in some UTF8 string copying code. Coffee. Continued on my interleaving project. At this point I almost have things compiling, but not linking. There are two largish stub classes I need to fill in. Sleepy. Got some crappy overpriced pizza. Headed home about 9. No rehearsal tonight.

Took a nap in the basement. MB was throwing a birthday party for one of her belly dance instructors upstairs, but I wasn't at all feeling social. Waited until the party cleared out, then went up and helped her clean up. Some cake. Video editing in the basement.

Primary election

Wednesday: Up around 9:30. Email. Put water on to boil. Cats. Shower. Breakfast. Down basement. Gave Rchd a call around 10:45. No answer. Called Crlyn, also no answer. Practices. Rchd called back and we had a productive conversation. Completing practices. Tidied up in the bedroom a little. Headed out.

Stopped at the fire station and voted. Very quick. Off to work. Beautiful day, driving along the Charles. At the office, handed off some wall-warts, manuals and floppy discs to the "vintage music gear" buff who bought a bunch of my old crap at the yard sale a few weeks back. Coffee. Wrapped up my work on internationalization, making a few tweaks and getting some changes from Ky. Then, back to the interleaved project. Some commiserating with Al about how slow XCode is. Worked until about 8:30. A rainy drive home.

A little rearranging in the basement, and then a good phone call with some of my teacher friends. Talked about promotion strategies and compared experiences. Catching up. Then me and Ncl talked about plans for FMU. Upstairs and hello to MB. Spritzers, cheese and crackers, talking about our days and the pursuit of a creative life. MB to bed. Down basement.

Make it all work without changing anything

Monday: Slept until about 9:30. Up and shower. Cats. Talked to the accountant. Coffee. Scanned some GCNE photos. Down basement. Lots of email. Turned out I couldn't talk to Richard until later. Some breakfast. Sorting through books and re-shelving. Couldn't get ahold of R. Headed out.

Over to KKC, and an enjoyable filling of the water bowls. Saw the monk from Mexico and Tny there. Off to work. Saw a van from a place that installs fireplaces.

At work, some consulting trying to figure out some mysterious behavior that has just cropped up with big documents. More work on my project related to the interleaving. Lunch at my desk thanks to MB. Later in the afternoon coffee. I talked to B about a detail of what I was doing, and he said some stuff that called the whole process into question. I've resigned myself to just doing what they tell me, but they can't even figure out what they want me to do. This is not really a good use of my time. Headed out around 7:30.

Back home, some more work in the basement. Realized I'd forgotten an appointment. Clearly my scheduling system, or lack thereof, isn't working. MB arrived having gone grocery shopping. Helped unload. We had a small dinner of potatoes with vegetables and cheese on top. Cleaning up. Guitar. Remembered this particularly evil moving anchor exercise that I'd tortured myself with on the Level 2. It's still a good finger twister. Down basement, and video editing.

Midway DVD Shoot

Sunday: Woke at 9 to the alarm. Decided sleep was more important than KKC. I'm made this decision many times of late, it seems. So, slept until 11ish. Up and email. Shawn called to firm up plans. Cats. Shower. Down basement. Wrote a check for the attic stairs for the basement. MB returned home, and shared an idea she'd had inspired by the Moosewood Cookbook. Jumped in the car and headed out. Dropped the check in the mail. Realized I'd forgotten my stool. Drove back and got it. Then to the rehearsal space. The door was open, so I was able to go right in.

A couple of spins through the suite, and then packed Shawn's snare and cymbal into the car, and headed for the Midway in JP. Hit traffic in Harvard Square. Then realized Mem Drive was blocked off. Finally made it across the BU Bridge. Once in JP asked some pedestrians how to get to the Midway. Directions firmly in mind, I stopped for some food at the donut shop. Ordering an egg sandwich, with no bacon, but add butter, drew a blank look. Then after some more explanation, it seemed I had communicated what I wanted. At the checkout I looked in the bag at what she had made for me, and it was a bagel with cream-cheese.

At the Midway, a guy named Gabriel was playing a fun, fast, slap-bass influenced style of acoustic guitar when we arrived. A couple of other acts. Good stuff. Then our turn. We sat close to the front of the stage so that Shawn's "Big boot on the floor in place of kick drum" wouldn't transfer to the mics. Not a terrible set. Definitely better than the Third Life gig. Debuted "The World Blind," which seemed to really connect with the room. A little fumble at the end of Chrysanthemum, but I hit the high notes on the upside-down part, so better than I had been fearing. People are curious about my guitar. Watched Bill and Ruby. Awesome. Then we headed out.

Dropped stuff at the rehearsal space, then dropped Shawn back home. Stopped at the Somerville Castle on my way home, observing a lovely sunset. Gave MB a call. Saw her soon after. She made some salads, and I fried up the last of the leftover Chinese food with some scrambled eggs and rice. A little hanging out. Made a couple of phone calls. Headed off to Guitar Circle, dropping the DVDs at the store.

The free circle was wrapping up when we arrived. The woman from last week did not return. There were a couple of new gentlemen though. A bit of an odd session. One of the new people joined us, though he had a dobro rather than a guitar. Victor asked us about our practice. I showed some of "The World Blind" to the circle. Eye of the Needle. Third Relation. Circulation. A break and MB talked a little about her dance performance. Some work on embroidery.

Back home, snacks in the kitchen, now down basement.

Pigeon/Regrettable ceiling

Saturday: Woke about 9:20. Up, shower, cats, pulling gear together for MB's BD gig at the Farmer's Market. Packed the car, and we headed off, around 10:30. Set the PA up, said goodbye to MB, and headed back home. Morning practices in the basement. A nap. Woke around 12:30. Lazing, then back to pick up MB.

She was grimy and glittery from her set with the kids. Back home. Unpacking and thinking about a new set up for the music room. Breakfast hanging out with MB (eggs). Hanging out in the backyard on the hammock. Lots of acorns this year. Set up the generator and unpacked the attic stairs for the basement. Leo came out for a visit. A lovely day. Bound up all the cardboard with string.

Drove off to get some gasoline for the generator. Also stopped at home depot for some regrettable ceiling tiles. Back home, fired up the generator. Did some work on replacing the tiles in the basement that had been damaged when the electrical work was done. Nasty business. The electrician came by a little after 6. We tested the system. I paid him. I enjoyed working with him. A good find. More work on the ceiling. A very frustrating light fixture.

At 7:15 showered and then walked to Union with MB. There was a Brazilian festival going on. She did some flyering for her class, and I got a veggie sub. Then, walking back over the hill. Found a pigeon on ground. Called Frnk on the cell and he said he'd look after it. Carried it back to our house. MB got a shoe-box. Drove over to F&M's and put the bird in a cage. They have a big fat cat named Hugo which was very friendly. Home by way of the castle on top of the Somerville hill.

Decided to saw the shelf out of the new (used) armoire. The floor was already a mess, so a little more sawdust wouldn't cause much more work. Sometimes the best time to make a mess is when you're already in the middle of one. Then, vacuuming and cleaning. Some personal practice. Back upstairs and goodnight to MB. Frank called and said the pigeon had come around, and flew away. Watching "24."

The Plastinates

Friday: Woke to the phone around 9:30. Didn't get it in time. Back to bed. Shower. Sitting in the dance room. Cats. Down basement, and some email. Pulling together some stuff for the guy that bought the music gear at the yard sale a couple weeks back. Ate a food bar, and headed to work.

Coffee and an egg salad sandwich. Got pulled back into working on Internationalization. And more progress on my project. Drove home to meet the guy delivering the new generator. A big truck, with a hydraulic gate. I had been told I would have to help lift it off the back. Luckily not. Back to work. Dnl seems like he fixed the atomic stack problem. Still sending some love notes back and forth with the obstinate developer. Left around 7:10.

Back home, picked up MB and then to the Museum of Science for the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. Plastinated cadavers. While fascinating, and educational, there's also something a bit off about the "artist" that poses the specimens. He has quite an artistic flare, and at some point, it stops being about science, and becomes about his creativity. There was a Roger Corman movie about a guy who passed himself off as a great sculptor. What people didn't know was that his "sculptures" were actually just thin layers of clay around dead bodies. There's something like that to this exhibit. I felt a bit queasy and dizzy at one point. We left at a little after 9. Stopped for coffee and "particulate ice-cream" at the museum cafe. Then, off to the North End. I had a little navigating, as things have changed quite a bit in that part of Boston since the roadway came down. A lovely Italian dinner, punctuated by smokers. We'd just seen what this habit does to your lungs. Ick. (Cheese ravioli in mushroom cream sauce for me, and spinach ravioli for MB). Back home and some QT. Guitar. Down basement.

Electricians

Thursday: Woke at 7:30. Ick. Not much sleep. Quick shower. MB left for work. Briefly down basement. Stumbled around until the electricians came at 8:30 or so. They seemed like nice guys. Showed them around. Moved stuff out of a closet and tarped part of it off in anticipation of their work. Tried to take a couple of naps, but found it difficult. Probably got 5 minutes of sleep or so. Gave one of the guys directions to Home Depot. Email. Guitar. Found myself being a bit lackadaisically. Walked out and got some milk. Talked to neighbor Bl, who said our house had had more home improvement done on it than any on the block. Breakfast. Off to work.

A so-so productive day. Continued my work forward after my back tracking of yesterday. An underlying object has gone from individual elements to one manager over multiple elements, but it still needs "individual elemement manifestations" in order to not have to rewrite tons of existing code. Talked to Dnl about a nasty Intel only bug we're having involving an atomic stack. Took a jaunt out. Raining. Picked up some stuff from CVS. Pizza. Worked until 7:20. Off to Union Sq.

I wouldn't have been surprised if no one showed up for my class tonight. But one fellow did. After the class, I closed up. Drove over to Wang's and picked up some Chinese food. Back home, fed the cats and watched more of "The Wire." Realized I'd completely forgotten a phone call I was supposed to have with Rch. MB came home. Some hanging out. Guitar. Down basement.

Slide scanning

Wednesday: Another sleep in. Vivid dream about someone drawing a miniature version of a house in very fine detail, and being a servant in it. Email, cats, shower. Quick breakfast of cereal. Played through the suite. Down basement. Emails. Practice. Off to work.

Dropped slides off at the photo shop for scanning. Why didn't I think of this before? A brief, but productive day in the office. Took two steps back, but now I have a plan. Found that the new version of our product has better performance with the obstinate developer's add-on, despite his paranoia. Burrito. Coffee at 7:25, with Shawn. Drove to Arlington talking about conspiracy theories related to 9/11.

A good session, working on "The World Blind" and then running through the suite several times. Gossip, but it was about each other, so that's allowed. Gave him a ride home.

Back at my place, hanging with MB, her telling me about the crazy people she works with. Little cheese toast triangles on pita. Made a DVD for her of bits of the Lowell gig.

House Paint

Tuesday: Woke as MB headed out, but slept a bit more. Realized that people might be looking in the windows, as the house was probably being painted. Email. Cats. Shower. Indeed, the house was being painted. Coffee and cereal. Guitar. Eye puffy. Had an idea for a suite of music to play for the DVD recording on Sunday. Hello to the painters. Emailing in the basement. Left a phone message on my friend Caro's phone. Headed out.

Stopped for gas, and then around the long way. Not a terribly productive day at work. Checked into some bugs in the code of the obstinate developer. Design work with Dv. Talked to Mk about video formats, and iMovie's weirdness. Continued hacking out old code having to do with the old capture implementation. Listened to Richard Pryor. Talked to Chr about graphics technologies. Pizza. Headed home around 9:30.

Back home, MB was eating mashed potatoes. Hung out. The company shipping my generator left a phone message. Also one from the vet. Tried to watch the "Holiday Candles" video, but myspace was having problems. Guitar, playing through the suite twice.

Last night the power went out.

Holiday Candles

Monday: Woke around 9, my left eye puffy. MB got back from Third Life, not long after. She was working at home today. Cats, shower. A quick bowl of cereal. Down basement. Spent quite awhile working on video editing. Sitting. Attached the additional shelf supports to the wall. Headed out.

Over to KKC, but the bowls had already been filled. Saw the monk from Mexico on my way out. In to work. Think I managed to talk the obstinate developer around to some understanding. Began work in earnest on my new "input format" project. Didn't talk to people much today. Got some coffee and an egg salad sandwich. Worked until about 9, then back home.

While I had sniffed Autumn in the wind before, today it definitely felt like it. Too cool to be outside wearing just a tee-shirt and jeans. Lovely, and sunny.

MB told me about a mistake she made when asking a student for payment. While from my perspective it was a minor error, it threw her into a bad place before her class. Such is human emotion. Made some egg-drop soup, which we ate together. MB made some juice drinks with strawberries on the rim. She gave Gus a 'wipe bath.' A nice evening together.

What is that, a seashell garland?

Free Circle

Sunday: Slept until almost 1 AM. A little boil sort of thing under one of my eyes is bothering me. Just as I was about to get up, MB came into the room in a startling way. Well, it was 1 in the afternoon, after all. Up, shower, cats. Bowl of cereal and coffee. Fussing around with Final Cut in the basement, trying to determine if I should scrap everything I've done so far, and re-capture everything. Decided to keep going with my current files. Morning practices. Back upstairs and checking in with MB. Made a check out to ReBekka. Drove out to make some purchases. Pizza. The world of capitalism is sometimes almost too depressing to bear. Had to visit three store, chock full of useless crap, to find some lamp oil. To Home Depot and bought some shelf brackets and leaf bags. Back home, found the brackets were of the wrong size, so back to HD, returned, and found the right ones. More video editing, then off to the circle, now beginning at 8:45 rather than 8:15. The Free Circle's first session was just wrapping up when we arrived. I knew some of the people there, including Sn (from Third Life), Bll (who was once in the NEGC) and CP (who was at the Roundhouse course last year). Just 4 of us tonight (me, mb, victor, david) Talking about the direction for the circle. Much work on Invention 1. Eye of the Needle. Bicycling. Third Relation. Back home, didn't find any pizza for MB. Down basement and typing.

25th Anniversary of The Noise

Saturday: MB and I slept in. Gus began "knocking" at the door around noon. Actually, it quite freakishly sounded like knocking. Let him in, email. We had some breakfast (eggs with eggplant stuff, English muffins, coffee). Down basement for morning stuff. I made a CD for MB, for her performance in the afternoon. Put away laundry. Aftet curling, she headed out.

I went on a lovely bike ride, up 10 hills, along the Mystic River, over into Medford past the school and around, then through the Phragmites and back home. Did some work on the DVD project until MB came home, around 9:30. Hung with her as she got ready to go back out. Headed to the party for the 25th Anniversary of The Noise 'zine. Quite a fun time. Saw Joe K (who played in project Eno, and used to work at my co) Stcy K (who told us about sky diving) and the Smoking Scotsman (who I talked to about history, the lack of objective reality and standardized testing). Chrs and Shawn were there, and wanted us to play a game about naming song lyrics. Hly, but not Wly (who was apparently fishing). T-Max was channelling Mark Mothersbaugh all night, and came out and sang lovely renditions of "Mongoloid" and "Are We Not Men?" which I joined in on.

Back home, watched a little of "The Wire" with MB, drinking coffee. Then down basement, practices, and more work on the DVD project, completing making multi-clips from the two camera angles. Didn't get to bed until 6 AM.

Lightly attended gig in Lowell

Friday: Woke around 9:30, email, and shower. Cats. Down basement. Brief sitting, and then found Gus hiding in the closet, packed both cats into the carrier and to the vet. Leo has lost weight. They performed a special operation to remove money from my bank account. Dropped the cats back home, and packed for the show this evening. Laundry.

A short day at work, much of it spent waiting for builds to complete and wrestling the horrible source code control system. But, did actually get going on my next "new code" project. Jm rubbed a third party developers nose in a ruling from WS, in a way that I'm not sure was constructive. Lunch at my desk. Shawn arrived, and we departed at 5. It took us 40 minutes just to reach the Alewife T Station. Luckily the drive past that point was not bad, and we arrived in Lowell by a little after 6. Didn't get the normal exit, so had to nose around to find the place, but did.

Jnthn, whose drums we were borrowing, didn't arrive until pretty late. Setting things up. The PA was giving us a really tinny horrible sound. I got my headphones and deduced it was the graphic EQ. We pulled that out, and all was much better. The Church of Flying Dreams went on about 9, or so. A good set, though we had to avoid the GC material for the most part. We threw in Third Relation, just because. Improv, Third Rel, Ides, IBE, Improv, Dr Evil, Chrysanthemum, Lodestone, Branding Iron. A few near train-wrecks, but managed to pull it out each time. That's a nice thing about working as a duo... easy to recover. MB danced, but I didn't get to watch her much. Reconfiguring for the circle. I felt good about our set: I think it may be due to the new guitar, but I'm finding more space for nuance in my playing with the circle. Then Victor's jam band. Victor told a joke about putting one's penis in the pickle slicer. Twice. Had to wait a long time for Nachos. I am not a big fan of formless music, but I enjoyed parts of their set. Packing. Jnthn and MB chat. Drive back to Boston with Shawn mostly uneventful, except when a cop (without lights or siren going) ran a red light and almost smashed into us. Dropped Shawn. Stopped at the CVS for milk and detergent. Back home, parked MB in, unloading, email, coffee. Now down basement.

Planning for an Adventure

Thursday: MB woke me as she headed out. Vry Sleepy. Woke around 8:30. Email shower cats basement. Found I was 15 minutes late to pick up MB. Met her in Union Square, and drove to the financial advisor's office. Traffic. Late. Financial planning is all about projecting the past into the future. But if you want a life that is an adventure?

Drove back, dropping MB in Union. Home, and a nap. Took some books off the shelves I'm going to work on. In to work. Coffee. Fixed a bug or two (needed to chop tails) and looked into a file that was over 100 megabytes in size. Undo information. Reassigned to Alx. Talked to the new programmer about OpenOffice for OS X. Headed out at 7:15.

Looking for a copier in Union Square. Class at Third Life. Eln from yoga class came. She said it was "interesting." Drove and picked up some DVDs and a veggie burger. Back home, hello to MB. Eating food and watching the second season of "The Wire."

The World's Blind

Wednesday: Woke around 8:30, MB trying to communicate with me, and not having much success. She left. Up, email, Gus, shower. Downstairs and some breakfast. The new cleaning people arrived. They got to work, and I went down basement for sitting, accompanied by the sound of the vacuum. I wrapped up just as they were done. Drums. Cleaned up the new desk area, and found a clever way to fix the edge of the counter. Also fixed a lamp. Upstairs, and noted a few things that weren't quite right. Minor, for the most part. Packed up with car with my electric and acoustic guitars and associated gear. Off to work.

Before going to the office, went to the bank. Deposited the loot from the yard sale. Opened a new special purpose account. Fixed some bugs. B asked me "are you still fixing bugs?" I said "I'm fixing bugs until you tell me I'm not fixing bugs." Also talked to J about the obstinate developer, who remains obstinate. Took a walk out for pizza, and the low-rent nearby pizza shop, which I've been going to for over 10 years, has been replaced by a high-rent pizza shop. Met Shawn at 7:30, and drove to Arlington. Hit traffic on the way.

MB was waiting for us when we arrived. The normal way in didn't work, so had to go around. Very good rehearsal, with MB mapping out some of our pieces. Really feels like she's a third member of our team. Looking at our set for Friday. A string on my acoustic was broken when I opened the case, so I played everything on electric. Fun! Worked with Shawn on my new piece "All the World's Blind." It's basically done.

Dropped Shawn home, then back over the Somerville Hill. Email, and worked on CD for tomorrow's class.

Managing entropy

Tuesday: Woke around 10. Email. Shower. Cats. Down basement, drums. Talked to a guy about the repair of some old tape decks. Talked to the vet about the cats. Sitting and so on. Packed up a CD player/burner that I just sold on ebay, and mailed it off. Coffee. Ran into my friend Ursula on the street. In at work, fixed a few bugs. Explained why reference counted objects should never be created on the stack. Fixed the UTF-16 strings files in P4. Registered someone into the course I'm helping to organize. Left at 6:20. Bad traffic on Storrow, so across town. Picked up Eln at Wellington. Told her about the course. Yoga class. I worked up a sweat, although I think Wendy was taking it a little easy on us tonight. Spaced out in the meditation. Dropped Eln at Wellington. Back home, baked the noodle dish I made last night, and wound up overcooking it. Changed strings on my electric and acoustic guitars. Electric was easy, but it was the first time for changing strings on the Doolin. The unwound strings are slightly problematic. Mike had found it necessary to solder the wire around the ball end, given the way the pinless bridge system works. I did too. This is a bit unfortunate. Soldered a bunch of strings all at once so I wouldn't need to always pull out the soldering iron to change strings. MB came home. Guitar practice. Down basement, email, and such.

Labor day

Monday (Labor Day): Woke around 10, gave Gus his treatments, and went back to bed. Slept soundly until 1:30. MB had returned from her morning of personal dance practice at Third Life, and was napping on the futon. Stumbling around, shower, and breakfast of eggs and eggplant mixture. Down basement. Drumming, then sitting. MB headed off to her BD class. Worked on a new ad. Paid bills sitting at the new desk in the basement. Shuffled some books around. David K was the first to show up for guitar circle. He let himself in, and I found him standing in the foyer. I said "Am I on time?" Martin and Victor arrived not long after. We were working on Hope when MB returned. Where is Alex L? Joshing around. Gus sits in the center of the circle. Lark's Thrak, Eye of the Needle (which Victor thought was quite good), Askesis, Third Relation. Growing Circle. People took a little break and Victor and I ran Chrysanthemum. MB showed us the "belly dance glute isolation workout" video. Discussion about the gig on Friday. We are to be there around 6 PM, earlier if possible. Bartok, Bach Inv. 1, Bicycling. And so on. After the guys left, I made a pasta dish out of some leftover this and that. Cleaned up, and ate some of the raspberry crumble that MB had bought me, and some coffee. Said goodnight to her. Down basement, researching attic stairs for the basement.

Newport

Sunday: Woke around 10. Up and morning things. Down basement. Called Alphonso about house cleaning tomorrow. Lots of noise on their end made it hard to talk. MB and I got on the road around 12:30. Stopped at the donut shop for egg sandwiches. Rainy and overcast for the drive down to Newport. Stopped for more coffee and chocolate at a natural foods store named "Bliss."

A day of socializing with old friends of MB's. Genevieve has a very large vocabulary, and is cute as a button. Also, two young adopted Asian girls were shy at first, but eventually began to play the "does this hurt?" game with me. We stayed until about 8:30. Stopped for expensive coffee on the way back. Today all prices were internally in terms of wind-chimes, and geegaws.

Back home a bit after 10 PM, and completing the day.

Tagless Sale

Saturday: Was meaning to wake at 6, but let it slide to 7. An "early bird" was at the door wanting to see the music gear. After some bartering, he pulled his van up, and loaded a bunch of stuff into it, giving me around $100. Did managed to get a brief sitting in. Then for the next 8 hours, it was almost constant "yard sale action." MB headed off to an OCBC event, having made me a lunch and some coffee. Wound up selling an old Jethro Tull boxed set to a Middle Eastern looking man. Sold my mandolin to a guy for $20. Two very cute middle aged women showed up. One spoke only Portuguese, and the other only Chinese. Somehow they managed to barter with me to fill up 4 bags of stuff for a grand total of $13.50. A man and his son bought MB's very old laptop computer for $5 "To be used in the spaceship." I threw the gun that shoots foam rubber donuts in for free. One man asked "Do you have any antique military equipment?" Sorry. Talked to my neighbor Jack, about Korea and the history of the neighborhood. This is always what I talk to him about. In a lull I ate the lunch MB had packed for me. An overcast day. Bits of leaves kept falling into my coffee. Sprayed some primer on the trip around the garage door. The over-spray got on the fuse-box. Cleaned that off with nail-polish remover.

MB came back around 1 PM, and relieved me for a bit... but not long. A (I'm guessing) Haitian woman who just moved from the area bought a bible from us (then chided us for selling a bible) and insisted we sell her an old answering machine. I did, but not before salvaging this recording. Quite a little time capsule. A young kid bought my old G3 Mac (upgraded 601 PPC Power Computing machine). I tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted it so, OK! $50. They also bought a white cabinet which we had used to hold a bunch of picnic related products we'd been given as an extravagant, but not much used, wedding gift. (Those mostly went over the course of the day also.) A couple came and spent about 20 minutes playing around with stuff, but only bought a wind-chime for $1. I also gave them two copies of the periodic table of the elements for free. The guy looked great with the African percussion instrument thing on his head. His partner didn't like the way he looked when he put the fur stole on his head as a hat. I stepped over the line of good natured joking, when I said "Ah, she's hard to please." Think I hit a nerve. MB headed out to a belly-gram.

Later on the kid who bought the computer came back saying it didn't work. I told him to bring it back and I'd look at it. When he did, he told me they had dropped it. The thing was trashed. The metal case was so bent the video card wouldn't even sit in the card slot anymore. I re-jiggered that, and the Mac actually started to boot. This seemed to convince him that I had not sold him a broken computer, but he realized he wasn't going to have much use for it. He told me to keep it and sell it to someone else, or throw it away. The Mac, not surprisingly, didn't fully boot. I think the hard-drive was damaged in the fall. So, it's junk. I can maybe re-sell some of the parts and the monitor. Talked to Mrs. Tetamen. She talked about an incident where some cars on the street were keyed (scratched) and how her late husband passed away one week shy of their 49th anniversary. This conversation also, was quite familiar.

And then, it was over. I packed the much diminished pile of stuff back into the garage, and closed up shop. Then, I counted the proceeds: $380, minus about $50 of bills for making change that we'd started with. Not bad. Nice to see less stuff, and more room, in the basement. A few items found their way back indoors. Most of it is destined for the Goodwill now. Drove around town, retracing my route from last night, and taking down the yard sale signs.

When I returned home, MB had gotten back from her belly-gram. She'd accidentally whacked a couple of children in the head with her cane, but not done any serious damage. We had some food (leftover Spanikopita and some of the eggplant/olive goulash she'd made last night). And then, a much needed nap. Woke around 7 PM. She got ready for a BD performance she's giving this evening. My plans for tonight fell through. Ate a sandwich watching the Led Zeppelin DVD. MB headed out. Now, a quiet evening at home is in order.

Posting for the tag sale/Invasion of space

Friday: Had a sleep in, then web allowing the blood to recirculate, Gus trotted up the stairs at just the right moment to receive his treatments. Shower, down basement, drums and sitting. Made some little cover things for the unused washer hook-up in the basement. Off to work.

At the office today my office was full of people talking about hardware. I almost turned around and left, but went and talked to Alex instead. Another day in bug land. Egg salad sandwich and coffee, since I forgot to take the lunch MB packed. Posted the tag sale on Craig's List. MB had been trying to reach me to tell me about a Belly-gram she's doing tomorrow. Worked until 9ish. Drove the long way home.

Said "hi" to MB, who was cooking up onions (very unlike her). Drove around Somerville putting up flyers for the tag sale. Couldn't believe I blew through all of them. Back home. MB was still cooking onions, but now also watching a BD DVD. This had the same feeling as my office being invaded by hardware guys this morning. As they say "when it rains, it pours."