Kathy and Zack

Saturday: MB got up around 7 to go get breakfast with the ladies. I slept in. Up and morning practices. Shower. Got breakfast at the hotel around 9:30. So-so, and quite expensive. (A gratuity and "delivery fee" was included, even though it was a self-serve buffet.) MB came and found me a bit after 10. Some hanging out. We got dressed for the wedding around 11, and met the rest of our party at 12:15.

Over to the Church. Massive. The wedding was held in the front atrium, that I jokingly called the "mud room." It sat 200 people. Sweet and very religious service. Afterwards while people were gathering for pictures I explored a little. The main hall was gigantic. Later I was told that there are two services every Sunday, with 2000 people at each. There's a separate auditorium for the kids that easily seats several hundred.

Back to the hotel, and I changed into slightly more comfortable clothes. The reception was in a conference room at the hotel. A DJ introduced the bride and groom and coordinated the traditional first dances. The food was served, but the line was quite long. I took my leave to do some personal practice and guitar work back in the room. MB came and found me. Back to the table and some Hors d’œuvre's. Dancing started up. I wondered in and out. I was not really feeling like dancing, as the whole thing was looking really uptight and 'white' to me... but eventually I found myself jumping around to Stevie Wonder. I turned around and an unrelenting shutter-bug, was pointing a camera at me. I grabbed it away from her, and she said "I was taking a movie!" Looking at the camera, I saw that indeed it was still recording. I pointed it at her and said "Come on dance for me." She got really embarrassed and said "no, no, I can't" and went and sat back down. I hit the stop button and left the room.

Wandering around I found my way to the pool. A young black boy in the pool looked at me and said "Are you the manager?" "No. How's the water?" I replied. Went back to the room and got changed into my swim trunks. Took a dip. Quite a number of young black boys played in the water. It was hard not to feel out of place, but I smiled and bobbed at the side. Sunning for a bit, although clouds had come out. Back to the room and showered. Guitar.



MB came back to the room and said that people were planning on going out to dinner. My stomach started to feel really pretty bad. I decided to bow out of dinner. A bit later MB left. Email. Personal practice. Guitar. The TV remote was not able to access the pay-per-view movies, and the technician sent by the front desk was unable to fix it. MB's mom had given me some antacid, and this seemed to help a bit. I found some foodish stuff in the hotel's "sports bar." Ran into the crew coming back from dinner. They had gone to a sea-food restaurant, that of course had nothing vegetarian on the menu. I was happy how things worked out.

Back to the room, watching YouTube with MB. We trade the Slim Jims in our goodie bag for "Fruit by the Foot."

To NC

Friday: Up at 7. Shower and Gus treatments. MB up too. Down basement and morning practices. Set the laptop backing up. Drums. Finished packing, and then we piled into MB's car and headed for Logan.

Waiting in the US Airways line. Eventually someone said we had to go wait in the "US Airways Shuttle" line. Fuckers. The TSA guy in the security check-point was trying to alleviate the boredom: "If you send your laptop through the scanner without taking it out of your bag it will be disassembled by tiny robots." MB and I got some horrible little egg sandwiches. Somehow my boarding pass went missing in the shuffle. Luckily they were able to print me a replacements at the gate. Slept some on the flight to LGA.

Bought a horribly expensive vegetable wrap at the airport. Had to sit on the tarmac for about half an hour waiting to take off. Small plane. A guy sitting across from us was wearing a shirt decorated with a large American flag and bits of the constitution. When we landed he said "You can spot me because I'm wearing an American flag shirt."

Met MB's folks. They seemed to want to take us to have ice cream, even though we just wanted to go to the hotel. Lots of hiyas. MB and I went to our room and had a nice nap.

Dress for dinner, and down into a large hall in the hotel. A slide-show and some speeches. Aviation instrumentation as a Christian metaphor. Kindly, they did have a vegetarian option for dinner. MB went out for some more food with her brother and his wife.

I went back to the room. Some emailing and personal practice. Watched TV with the sound down and closed captioning on. MB returned. Hanging out. Some evening practices while MB worked on Moving Force and some other guitar work. The day is almost done.

Draining Gus' Head

Thursday: Up around 9. Checked email. Back to bed. Good sleep, but strange dreams. Up again. Gave Gus his treatments. The right side of his head is definitely swollen. Shower. Down basement and morning practices. Drums. Loaded guitar into the car and headed out. Another hot one.

Parked, and walked out through H Sq. Got a hair-cut the local barber (running into my old friend Laura Wilson), went to the bank, got an iced coffee and a muffin, which I consumed while doing a chess puzzle on my cellphone. Walked over to Arrow St and had a very good Shaitsu session with Ursula. Finally into the office. Spent most of the day trying to figure out a very weird crash, that seemed like a compiler bug. It was the sort of thing where, if I changed the code is any sort of subtle way, the bug would vanish... So, eventually I gave up, and just changed the code a little so it worked. I hate stuff like that. Maybe I'll revisit it next week. Bn tried to help. B, MW, JC and PS all talked about hardware in the office all day. At 7:30 I went out to wait for Shawn. Then, I realized he was away for the week. Got a coffee. Cream, no sugar. The incredibly flaming guy behind the counter said "Why don't you want any sugar, is it because you're sweet enough already? Come on say it..." I said "Yeah, I don't want any sugar 'cause I'm GD sweet enough already, OK?" and then he gave me a high five. Back to the office and eventually checked my stuff in. While things were building re-watched most of the Steve Jobs keynote where he introduced the iPhone. So masterful. I do think it's going to change the world, that little thing. And, this is just the start... In 10 years we will all have easy to use touch-screen mini-computers in our pockets... and they will make the iPhone look antique and limited... There aren't any more Beatles albums being released... This is as close as we come to that sort of cultural event these days.

Drove the long way around to home. Took an exacto knife and lanced the abscess on the side of Gus' head. Lots of pus and some blood. Really gross. Rubbing alcohol and antibacterial creme. Ate some noodles. MB returned home while I was packing. A little hanging out. Now down basement.

Definitely Summer

Wednesday: Web, Gus, Shower. MB returned from a meeting with some OCBC people (she's taken on a new leadership role there). Down basement. Guitar. Email. Morning practices. Drums.

Hot out today. Drove out and filled the tank, then to work the long way. Saw the new guy on my way to get an iced coffee, and he told me about his very clever work, while he puffed on a cigarette. Just about wrapped up my project today, adding some more ways that the system adjusts to edits and configuration changes. B said "Are you going to the beach?" At which point I noticed that I was typing wearing sunglasses. Mom called and we chatted a bit. Burrito in the late evening. Playing with an HD camera and monitor. C said he'd made an hour long version of "Slow Ride" for a trip to CA.

Back home, and MB was doing some stuff. We had a nice conversation about life directions. Now down basement, and to complete the day.

@>~>~~~ V ~~~<~<@

Tuesday: Slept in, since late night. Neck continues to improve. Web. (Apple released iPhone rate details.) Gus. Shower. Coffee, mushrooms & eggs for breakfast. Guitar. Down basement, and quite a bit of emailing, and some graphics. Still settling into the new mail program. Morning practices, drums. Cleaned the screen of my MacBook.

Headed off to work. Lovely summer day. Lunch at my desk (and a slice of pizza). More good stuff on the "generating stuff beforehand/new data path" project. Fixed some double redraws on context switches that had been there for some time. Feels like I'm down to the details. Heard B checking with Rpt about some stuff. Sounded good. Wnd came into the Sq, and we took a walk around. Coffee at Starbucks and wandering back. She told me of her plans to renovate her condo. Back to work. (In NYC, people have begun lining up for the iPhone, which will go on sale at 6 PM on Friday.) MB called... I optimistically said I'd leave in 20 minutes. Two hours later...

Headed home the long way around. Bridge work on Storrow forced slight detour. Now down basement and to complete the day.

Goodbye Eudora 2

Monday: Up, stiff neck still with me. Web. Gus (put on hot water). Shower. Breakfast (mushrooms/eggs). Down basement. Decided to switch to OS X Mail from Eudora (Eudora, while a great program in its day, isn't being developed anymore. Quite sad. There was some talk about an open source Eudora-like client being developed on top of Thunderbird, but after 6 months of waiting, and nothing beyond a .01 alpha release to show for it, the time had come to pull the plug.) Got the conversion process going. Morning practices. Spent quite some time moving my email, settings, and filters into the new program. Drums. The mechanic called to say my car was ready.

Packed a backpack with my stuff for the day and walked up and over the hill to Union. Got a piece of pizza and a coke. Paid for my car and drove it away. A lovely day out. In at the office, spent quite some time trying to debug a completely irrational behavior. Didn't actually find out what's happening, but did band-aid it enough to get down to my other business. Now mixed target groupings work pretty well. Stayed until 11 PM.

Back home, MB was still out. She called my cell just as I stepped in the door. Made some "Glenn-style vegetarian chop suey" (i.e. noodles soy-meat sauce and cheese). Eating with MB, then cleaning up. Some cappuccino and ice cream. Guitar. More fiddling with the email client. Now to complete the day.

Three Days

Sunday 6/24/07: Driver back to LGA complained about the "out of towners" then gave me a Turkish spinach/egg/potato pastry. Again avoided delay by getting on an earlier flight. No checked baggage is the way to go. Took the T to Sullivan Sq. Decided to walk home. Some guys drinking beer in front of a "Spa" yelled at a passing minister "Yo preacher man, Jesus is coming!" I smiled and continued walking. Mellowing out, watching Six Feet Under with Gus. Took a bike ride to Blockbuster to drop off the DVD. Back home and hanging with Oscar. MB arrived not long after. We ate some pizza and salad, then off to guitar circle. Victor, MB, Glenn and Chris. Lots of C Major. A little Driving Force. Askesis. Back home. Cappuccino while MB made lunches. Down basement, catching up on email, and other electronic endeavors.


Saturday 6/23/07: A lovely day in NYC.

The temple of cheese:


Friday 6/22/07: Standard morning, packing. Took a cab to work. Brief day, doing a merge from the trunk. Did some complaining about some code-misconduct that I had found. Left around 5. T to Logan. Problems with air-traffic, but managed to get on an earlier flight. Riding the bus from LGA, witnessed fisticuffs between two women.

Learn to Talk / The Country of Blinds

Thursday: Slept in a little. The phone rang, and I decided to answer it. Not worth it. Shower, Gus. Made breakfast (scrambled eggs and mushrooms), and fed G and O. Tried to call the vet a couple of times. Finally got through and ordered some Gus supplies. Called the mechanic and set up bringing my car in. Down basement, some video editing, email, made some travel plans. Morning practices and drums.

Headed out, stopping at the video store (the chain, since the independent one closed) to drop off a tape. Then to the vet to pick up the Gus stuff. Boisterous. Across town and in to work.

The the "activity monitoring" problem I'd ran into last night, which I had thought would be a quick fix, blossomed into a larger concern. Some consulting with Dv and B. I eventually hit on a solution, which was to stuff the data into the web anyway with a flag to say that it was a no-op. Crazy, but it works pretty well.

Left work around 7:20, walking towards the T. Ran into Shawn and got a coffee. Drove to Arlington. A somewhat shaky feeling rehearsal. We hadn't been at it in awhile. We recorded our efforts to a hand-held-recorder to get a sense of where we are. Interesting how even this casual act of capturing the moment uped-the-ante. Gave Shawn a ride. Called Wnd on the cell, who was feeling a bit off after a meeting with a financial planner. Also talked to mom, who had experienced Shakespeare in the Park being rained out.

Back home, unloading, and some quick noodles and an egg. MB drove in her car over to the mechanic. I dropped off my car and MB gave me a ride home. Some hanging out. Now down basement, and to complete the day.

Dentist and Food for Oscar

Wednesday: Woke at 7:30 to the cell alarm. MB was sleeping in the next room. Up, shower, quick breakfast of cereal and coffee. Fed Gus and Oscar. Down basement and morning practices. Email. Headed out at 9 AM.

Drive into Boston was easy. Arrived at dentists office on time. A minor issue they want to check on in a month and a half. Otherwise normal cleaning. In to work, hitting some traffic just as I neared H Sq.

A good day in the office. Fixed several bugs in my new code, and got the basic updating aspects functioning. Walked out in the rain. Bought an umbrella and got an egg sandwich and coffee. Later in the day a quick burrito. Stayed late. The AC system wasn't working and the building grew hot. RN asked if this had been a pattern. No. Left around 10:30.

Stopped at the grocery store near my house and picked up a number of items, most notibly lots of food for Oscar. Talked to MB on the cell as I strolled the aisles. Back home, unloading the groceries. Put out the garbage but Chrs (next door) said that the pick up wasn't until Friday because Monday was "Bunker Hill Day." Who knew. Some chatting with MB. Snacks. Down basement and a little video editing. Now guitar and to complete the day.

Oscar and Vinny together again

Tuesday: Not much sleep last night. Gus lay in bed with me for awhile. Treatments for him. Shower. Nice breakfast listening to NPR. Down basement, video editing and morning practices. Drums. Headed out. Had to go back in to find my sunglasses. Quite bright out today. Around the long way.

Some more wrestling with the thorny problem I'd identified yesterday. Lunch at my desk. Talked to B about the issue, but was interrupted. Walked out for a coffee and a pastry. Then got to talk to B. We arrived at a solution, and I headed in to implementing it. Got at least a proof of concept running by the time I left, around 10:20.

Back home, MB was in the kitchen. Cooked a frozen pizza. Gus and Vinny appeared on the back porch, as if they owned the place. Gave 'em some food. Good conversations with MB. Some life issues were decided for her today, at least for the near future. Now to complete the day.

Earthtones

Monday: Said "bye" to MB as she headed out. Woke a bit later, and up. Email. Cereal and a little coffee. Fed cats. Food in the bird feeder and reset the lawn watering schedule. Came over all sleepy, so, nap on the futon. It was afternoon when I awoke. Still recuperating a bit, I suppose. Shower, Gus. Down basement and morning practices, then drums. Email. Headed off to work. A lovely day out, the long way around.

At the office, continued my "rerouting for early generation" project (which has grown a bit). Gave a little input on some design work that B Al and D were doing. Lunch at my desk. Just before 8 PM I headed to Starbucks. She was late, but eventually Ert showed up. We talked graphic design for about half an hour. Back to work. Left around 10:30.

Back home, MB was still out. Fed the cats. Down basement. MB returned. Some talking about possible work changes for her. Neck rubs. Back downstairs. Video editing. Now some guitar and to complete the day.

Open

Sunday: Got to bed late, and so, slept in. Up, and breakfast with MB. Banana pancakes. Down basement and email. Morning practices. Drums. Spent some time leaning about splines in Photoshop. Back upstairs and a snackish sort of lunch. Tried to call my mom. Had a good conversation with MB about several aspects of our lives that have been lurking in the background for some time. We played guitar for an hour or so. I showed her the first couple of bits of the Moving Force lead. Down basement. Email. Updated the KKC calendar. Evening practices. Some snacks. Burned a disc for MB of her recent audio recordings. Soon bed.

A Week and Two Days

Saturday 6/16: Woke feeling quite a bit better. Upstairs and hello to MB who was heading out to do a photo shoot. Shower. Took a walk down the street. Lovely day. Picked up milk and some other stuff from the corner store. Breakfast. Put away dishes. Folded laundry. A phone call with some friends. Watched various stuff. Mowed the lawn. MB called to say she was coming home from her language class. Headed out and returned DVDs and picked up another. Took a drive. Back home MB was getting ready to head out again. Alternated guitar practice and watching "The Blues Brothers." Strange sounds coming in from outside.

Friday 6/15: Sick day. Major accomplishments of the day included making a little breakfast for myself, then later in the day ordering a pizza, which I picked up along with some DVDs. "Six Feet Under" "Lost" YouTube, DVDs from TI. MB and Sm watched a movie upstairs. Phased in and out of sleep.

Thursday 6/14: Woke with a soar throat. At first just thought I'd been snoring, or not slept well, but felt progressively worse as the day went on. In to the office. Definitely sick. Spent the day doing monkey work. The monitoring company called saying the alarm was going off. I checked my cell and found a message from the cleaning people. I'd forgotten they don't have the code. MB returned from TX. Called off rehearsal for the evening. This pretty much killed the recording session we had planned for Saturday. Headed home on the early side. The Prez met me waiting for the elevator, and asked how I was. I said I was coming down with something, and let him ride down in the elevator before me. Back home, hello to MB, no I'm not mad just sick. An early bed.

Wednesday 6/13: First standard morning in some time. In to work. The cleaning people called to say they wouldn't come today. Got some code I'd been working on (early generation of particular data streams) and discovered a large whole in our plans. Told B about this. MB called to say she was delayed in TX. Back home, made some white sauce and a salad. Wnd came over for dinner. MB had made some yummy cheese loaf and Spanakopita, which we enjoyed.

Tuesday 6/12 : Early morning flight back to Boston. MB had left for her trip to TX. Fed Gus etc. Thought I might sleep, but no. In to work for a while. Hard keeping my eyes open. Back home around 7. A solid night's sleep.

Monday 6/11: Transferred to a hotel closer to the airport. S picked me up and we had a nice dinner at a veg. Chinese restaurant, then a trip to Lake Erie. He had to pick up some plans at house to the south, so around, then back to the hotel. Not much sleep.







Sat - Sun 6/9-10:


Friday 6/8: Up early and off to the airport.

Land of Dragons

Thursday: Up around 9:30. Quick web, Gus, shower. Down basement for morning practices. Heard MB come in. Drums. Said hello, and had some oatmeal and banana bread. Energy drink
and off to work, the long way. Lovely out.

Harvard graduation in full swing today, so lots of traffic. Worked through the rest of my "stamp representation" project, and got things running. Walked out for a run to the pharmacy, Radio Shack (always annoying how they try to pry personal information out of you...) and picked up some pizza, which I ate at my desk. Updated my branch to the trunk and rebuilt everything. Found an interface to use, and tested the equipment I'd bought at RS. Left at 9:15.

Stopped at the Wine and Cheese Cask on the way home, and bought some sparkling water and chocolate. Back at the ranch, supper with MB, leftover Italian food, salad, bread, talking about her conversation with SF, and the goings on at OCBC. My stomach started to growl.

We listened to some funny stuff upstairs, including this mp3 of a spoof audio tour someone perpetrated at the Boston MFA. My stomach wasn't any better. Packing, and preparing for the trip. Goodnight to MB. Now to complete the day and get some sleep.