Aztech

Tuesday: Not as much sleep last night. Strange dream about Leo being alive, then both cats dying at once, and then coming back to life. Up and some email. Gus treatments. Had some eggs and coffee. Down basement and lots of emailing. Morning practices, drums. Did a bit of woodworking, attaching hinges to studs. Shower.

Headed up Broadway and over to Watertown. Dropped off a mouse amp, a 4 track cassette, and a 8 track reel-to-reel at the fix-it shop. Strangely the conversation turned to Monkey Urine.

Quite a lovely day out. Over to the office. Quite productive today, getting the program linking, and began the process of stepping through code and finding bugs. Lunch at my desk thanks to MB. Took the opportunity to vacuum out my computer keyboard. Stayed until about 10:30.

Back home, hanging with MB in the kitchen. Made some salad and quick pizza. Some guitar. Gus was in my guitar case looking content. Now down basement trying to make a freakin "ico" file.

have sleep

Monday: Slept a glorious 8+ hours. Stiff neck, but otherwise feeling quite a bit better today. Web. Gus treatments. Down basement and morning practices, drums. Email and web updates. Made a web page for the visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche is making to Kurukulla. Ran out of time to do anything with the furnace door. Put the shower curtain in the washing machine and applied a layer or clear tape to the rod to prevent the aluminum oxide build-up.

Off to work, across town. A productive day in the office. I got through the rest of the compile errors that I had created by disambiguating a central file handling API. Back and forth with Apple on some XML questions (helping RPT). In the evening, I went around shutting down computers that were left on. The power is being cut tomorrow morning for maintenance.

Back home around 11:30. MB had just returned from her language class. We had some snacks (I had some salad and wheat toast, she made some yogurt and fruit). Feeling a bit buzzy from late in the afternoon coffee. Guitar for 45 minutes or so: A new composition, and C Major modes. My left hand is hurting quite a bit.

furnace door, part 1

Sunday: Woke around 11, which should have been plenty of sleep, but, alas, I didn't get to bed until almost 6 AM... So, still haven't caught up. Computers are evil things. So of course I had to check my email. MB had given Gus all his goodies except for saline. She returned from doing some dance practice, and we had breakfast. I made a big omelette and she made yogurt parfetts. After cleaning up down basement for morning practices and drums. Some more web work... MB headed out to run some errands. Quick shower, then got down to business with the doors for the furnace. Pulled the old doors off. Measured etc. Discovered the base had a 3/4 inch tilt from one side to the other. No wonder the old doors had never quite hung right. While installing a leveled footer, I managed to harpoon my thumb with the Phillips attachment on the drill. Ow! Got the sides (where the hinges will go) cut and routed, and the doors cut. MB told me it was 6 PM and brought me a coke and some chips. I wrapped things up for the day, got showered and dressed, did some more cleaning in the basement, and then, off to guitar circle.

We didn't play any repertoire tonight, but just worked on circulating C Major in different patterns, and with various other side-exercises. MB said "I need some way to ventilate my ass." to which I replied "Most people just fart." In a discussion about "The only mistake is to not learn from your mistakes" Martin asked "What if you just keep not learning from a mistake over and over again?" to which I replied "Well, then you're just a big boobie." It was joke night, I guess.

Headed home, took a wrong turn and was funneled out towards Logan, but managed to right our course. Stopped for gas. Back at the ranch, eating yogurt and chatting with MB. Gave her left shoulder a massage. Carried old recording gear and a "mouse amp" out to my car. Some emailing in the basement, and now to complete the day.

php rss whoopee

Saturday: Up at 9ish. Groggy. Gus and Oscar got their goodies. Web. Shower. Said bye to MB. Down basement briefly. Headed out.

Stopped for coffee and a bagel. Arlington by 11. Rehearsal with Shawn. Wrist hurting a bit, but we played pretty well. New ideas for the drum part to EotN worked well. Shawn got some hardware to allow him to turn a floor-top into a kick-drum.

Back home around 2. Hello to MB. Feeling groggy, down basement with the intention of napping. Wound up spending quite some time learning about web implementation.

A couple hours later, up and MB had put out some snacks. Then, we took off on a drive. The first futon place was closed. Over to H Sq, and found one open. Dropped the new futon home, and to home depot. Some lumber, hardware and mulch. Rented a truck and drove the stuff home. Dropped the truck back. Over to Inmann Sq and Indian food. There was a lot of rice on the floor under the table at the booth where we were first seated. When I pointed this out, the seated us elsewhere. Then, rather than cleaning it up, they just put some less fussy people there. I think there was some tension in the wait-staff. Food was pretty good though.

Back home. More web stuff in the basement. At 11:30 MB and I watched SNL. So-so. Arcade Fire. One funny bit about very awkward people interacting in an office... that somehow disintegrated once they started drinking and acting "crazy." Got MB some saki. Down basement and more web stuff... learning how to manipulate and display rss feeds with php.

burning hairlines

Friday: Woke feeling energized, after some lazing. Web. Gus. Shower. Reheated coffee while feeding the cats. Some cereal. Guitar. Wrist is definitely feeling better, but not 100% yet. Down basement. Email, and web design. Morning practices. Drums. Cleaned out the drawer of the basement desk.

Headed off to work. The highway looked busy, so I retraced my steps and went up and over the Somerville hill, and across town. The good news of the day was that I hit upon a solution to the "two in one" files issue that I'd been dealing with before (a writer not getting the full compliment of datum). I created a link between reader and writer allowing for cache coherence to be maintained. Lunch at my desk thanks to MB. A disappointing fig. Took a walk out and got some iced coffee and pizza. Stayed until midnight.

Back home. For some unknown reason, the smell of burning hair was heavy in the air around the neighborhood. This smell is not very different from the smell of a steak cooking on a grill. They're both burning protein, after all. More email and web design. MB got in from dancing at the Kasbah around 1:50. Some hanging out, now to complete the day.

Fixed internet

Thursday: Woke at 8, the doorbell. Alna, picking up her cleaning supplies. Back to sleep. Up again a bit later. Shower. Gus. MB was working at home. She'd made some oatmeal. Coffee. Bowel of cereal (having forgotten about the oatmeal). The RCN guy showed up. He found the problem with the internet quickly. I watched eating my cereal and drinking coffee on the front steps. Down basement for morning practices. Drums. Some tidying. Goodbye to MB and headed out. Another beautiful day, driving the long way around.

At the office, took a step backwards in my project. Spent the rest of the day focusing on a smaller, but more crucial set of problems. MB had made me a lunch. Some consulting with Dv and B about "UI focus." Burrito later on.

Back home a bit after 10. MB was having some food. Guitar for an hour or so. The left wrist was cranky at first, but felt better near the end. That's encouraging. Some time with MB. Down basement. Email, soon to complete.

Ratatouille

Wednesday: Up around 9. Email. Gus treatments. Shower. Fed the cats. Bowl of cereal. Down basement for morning practices and drums. Internet still not working. Set up a service call for tomorrow.

Took Gus to a vet appointment. His kidneys are not in great shape, but the antibiotics have improved his state otherwise. He's gonna have another week of them. Dropped him back at the house. Drove the long way around to the office. Good thing I took the back alley way to get to the garage, since there was a crane blocking the street. The disappearing window had been fixed. Spent some time fruitlessly researching an aspect of the Mac Carbon/Cocoa APIs. Walked out and went to the pharmacy, then got an iced coffee. Spent the rest of the day working on my "n-way-stream" project, that had never been fully completed. Feeling woozy.

Around 8, headed home. Picked up MB. Our thoughts are with our neighbor today, who is having surgery. Over to Revere. Ratatouille. Two thumbs up. Saw an opossum while driving away from the theater. Back home, chatting about life issues over sparkling water. Doing some internet work, leaching off a neighbor's wireless. Soon to the basement to complete the day.

opossum

Tuesday: Slept in a bit, but up late, so probably a wash. Web. Gus was waiting, so treatments, and MB had already fed G and O. Put away some laundry from the trip. Shower. Down basement, morning practices and drums, feeling somewhat hobbled by my sprained wrist. Email. The internet went down. There were guys outside working around the telephone poles, but I don't know if that had anything to do with the failure. Made a pb&j sandwich for breakfast. Folded up the tent, which I'd been letting dry. Vacuuming in the basement.

Stopped at the donut shop again for a wheat bagel and iced coffee. Drove the long way around to work. Hot and sunny. Gave Dnld $12. A box was sitting on my desk. I figured out what the problem was with the 3rd party driver, with a little help from Mk. Sent an email out explaining. The guy in France who I'd shamed yesterday (he'd been pestering me to find a bug in my code, and I discovered it was blatantly in his) wrote me an embarrassed response. I got my rendering stuff working, using the insight I'd had while driving home yesterday. Dv checked something in that caused the main window in our program to stop opening. Great. Some consultation with RPT. Headed home around 9:45. Heard a freaky story on NPR about a certain type of cheese that they have in Italy that is cultivated with live maggots.

MB had made some yummy stir-fry and rice, which we ate. I made a cappuccino which I enjoyed with some of the strawberry shortcake stuff MB had made a couple days back. Cleaning up. An opossum was eating cat food on the back porch. The internet still wasn't working, so called RCN. There's a service outage. Guitar with MB, EotN, 3rd Relation, Askesis. Showed her some more of IGBE. Telling her goodnight. Down basement to complete the day.

Dramatic Prairie Dog

Monday: Slept in a bit. Web. Gus. Morning practices, drums. Unpacking. Ate a little food standing in the kitchen. Shower. Headed out.

They've cut down one of the big trees on the street. Odd seeing the gap there. It used to form a sort of tunnel, connecting with another large tree directly across from it.

Stopped at the donut shop for iced coffee and a wheat bagel. Hot out today. Around the long way to work. Tied up some loose ends in communication today, and found that a bug that a developer had been pestering me about was definitely on their side. Did some work activating an existing feature with my new data path code. Stayed until around 11.



Back home and some yogurt with nectarines, hanging with MB. Feeling pretty wiped out.

Returning

Sunday: On returning from my trip, guitar circle. RSI/wrist problems. 7 people in the circle (including Dev). Various work with C Major in circulation. Askesis.

Three Potato Salads

Wednesday "our nations birthday": Slept in a bit. MB was up and about. Web. Gus treatments.

Downstairs and made us some breakfast while MB did her sitting. Fried eggs, coffee etc. Down basement for morning practices. MBs car tire was very flat. Next door neighbor B had put a sign on our door alerting us to this condition. Spent some time working with HTML and CSS. I'm pretty clueless. Morning practices. Unloaded camping gear from my car. Neighbor across the street was trimming the hedge. Said goodbye to MB and headed off to work, across town. Everything was pretty deserted.

Saw Crs arrive just after me. Held the elevator for him but he was going to lunch. A fairly productive few hours, regressing one bug (and finding it was probably B's) and fixing another. Met Shawn at 4:30. Over to Arlington and a concise rehearsal. Shawn sounded pretty good, but I made a bunch of mistakes. Overall we were pretty tight. Gave him a ride home.

Stopped on my way home at the Somerville Castle. Some kids were hanging out, and then they were getting hassled by cops. Bored cops = big trouble.

Back home, helped MB put the "donut tire" on her car. She had made three types of potato salad and banana nut bread. We made some veggie burgers and had a little salad judging. After we cleaned up, I went down basement and paid bills, and did some more web work.

MB and I drove over to the Blockbuster video and picked out a movie: Little Miss Sunshine, which strangely neither of us had seen yet. Back home, I called my mom while we put together little dessert plates. Mom told me about her recent adventures seeing Shakespeare and her experience learning how to paint with acrylics. MB and I had some banana nut bread, rice pudding and coffee while watching the movie. Two thumbs way up, but I think we're probably the last people in America to see this film. I changed the strings on my guitar while watching a little of "Young Frankenstein." "Ovaltine?" Goodnight to MB, now down basement and to complete the day.

Camping gear

Tuesday: Up around 9. Lazing. Email. Gus. Put on some hot water. Shower. About to make breakfast, but realized no bread. So: whole wheat crackers and eggs. Yum. Some guitar. Down basement, email. The vet called... Gus' blood-work looks like it is about the same as 3 months ago. Morning practices and drums. Laundry.

Headed out. Drove over to the Cambridgeside mall. Went to Sears and bought some cheap camping equipment for my weekend adventure. Funny bit in the elevator with this fellow who kept pointing out to people getting on that it was traveling in the opposite direction from their intention. Off towards work. Stopped and got an iced coffee at Starbucks.

At the office, spent the day on bugs. Was able to reproduce and fix most of the stuff that had been illuding me yesterday. Took a walk out and deposited my check. Looked in at EMS (outdoor supply store) but didn't see anything I wanted to spend money on. Picked up some pizza. Ate back at the desk. Pointed a but out to B. Took a walk out to try and pick up a print job, but they were closed. Stayed until 10:30, making a couple of check-ins.

Back home, no MB. Fed Gus. Down basement and some practices. MB returned home, having gone shopping. I came up and made us some soup. More guitar. Slit drum. Foot rubs. Down basement, now and to complete the day.

iPhone in person

Monday: Woke around 9. A little lazing, and a relaxed morning. Email/web. Gus treatments. Breakfast eggs etc. Shower. Guitar. Down basement and some more email. The DVDs from Cleveland arrived via UPS. Morning practices. Grabbed Gus and stuffed him into the cat carrier.

Over to Davis Square and the vets. A young child inspected Gus. I told Gus he wasn't winning any beauty contests. A very reasonable vet. Gus is now on antibiotics as well. Dropped him back home. Drove to the CambridgeSide mall. At the Apple Store, I spent quite some time playing with an iPhone. Very cool. Amazing. Revolutionary. And also, annoyingly limited in some ways. My credit card almost snuck out of my wallet, but I somehow managed to leave the store without making a purchase. I'll wait until I actually need a new cell-phone, I think. Went to a "nutrition" store to pick up a supplement. The guy gave me such a hard-sell I left without buying anything. Went to another place and bought what I was looking for.

In to work. A bunch of bugs had piled up. I spent the day working on my list. Unfortunately many seemed to be unreproducible. A leftover slice of pizza for lunch. Fruit by the foot. Later on, a burrito and coffee. There's a rather lively set of topics on the Apple iPhone discussion board. Stayed on until 11.

Back home. Gus treatments. Down basement briefly. MB returned home. Some hanging out, she telling me about her work-day, and office dynamics. Goodnights, and back down basement.

Unclaimed Baggage

Sunday: Woke at 6:30. MB showering while I went about my morning practices. Then I showered while MB did her sitting. Packed and left the room around 7:25. The bunch had gathered downstairs waiting to go to breakfast. Some chatting and goodbyes. MB and I back up to the room, completed packing, and a few minutes with the Moving Force. Downstairs, and took the shuttle to the airport, the very polite woman driver of the van referring to MB as "Ma'am" and me as "Sir."


We had a meager and expensive breakfast at the airport. We were delayed going through security by a large group of mostly Japanese young people, who had just participated in a Karate competition, but otherwise we passed through without incident. A short and sleepy flight to Reagan International in DC. We avoided eating any more airport food as we waited for our transfer. We saw the Pentagon and the Lincoln Memorial as we took off. A bit of turbulence as we neared Boston, but made it back safe and sound, around 2:20 PM.

At baggage claim, a sea of unclaimed baggage awaited us. We never found out where all these bags came from, where they were going, or who they belonged to. A sign proclaimed "Don't leave your baggage unattended." I dare say there were a few hundred people who would have liked to have followed that recommendation. Eventually our bags came out at another carousel.


Drove back to Somerville, and picked up some thin-crust pizza at the place near the public works department. Back home, Gus was still kicking. The cat lady had left us a lengthy report. We ate, and then took a nap. Later on, MB went out to pay the cat lady and retrieve her key. Unpacking. Made some coffee. Piano and slit drum. Down basement and email.

At 7 PM, MB and I played guitar for a bit over an hour. We worked on C Major triads, then played a bunch of repertoire, ending with a little work on Driving Force. Down basement and work on the last of the three DVDs. Around 10, back upstairs and noodles, hanging with MB, started the dishwasher. Gus is purring a lot. He seems to get sweeter, the more frail he becomes. He's just skin and bones now. Back down basement and more DVD work. Soon to complete the day.