Ploting with Nayano

Woke around 9:30, dozing... Web, shower, down basement for morning practices. Called my friend in Florida to plot and scheme. Breakfast smoothie, and fed Oscar. Pulling things together for the day. Sunny and cool again. Stopped to buy sunglasses and an iced tea. Long way.
Arriving a the office, Mk was extolling the virtues of hope, which I commented was rather out of character for him. Bug fixing. Bought some gear. Shawn text messaged saying he was running late, and hadn't reserved the studio. Met him at Porter a little after 8:30.
Back to my place, and rehearsal in the basement. Not terrible, and I felt the unusual sonic environment was a good change of pace. Gave him a ride home, and returned his video equipment. Home again, watching some videos and rewiring my MIDI rack. MB returned from her language class. Hello. Watched the rest of "Curse of the Golden Flower." Goodnight. Down basement. Seem to have fried a circuit on a surge protector. Now to complete the day.

MB returns

Tuesday: Was up late last night working on the recording project. There's nothing that quite puts me into that timeless creative space like recording. If someone would bring me food, days could pass, and I'd stay at it until I fell over. Woke around 10: 30. Web, shower, downstairs and a smoothie and yerba. Fed Oscar and gave him some pets. Down basement, morning practices, drums. Began a back-up of the Mac mini. Email. Off to work.

Drove across town. Walked to the barber shop and got a haircut. Picked up a tofu burrito. Fairly productive day, hunting down a couple bugs, and working a bit more on documentation. Stayed until around 9. Drove the long way around heading home.

Back at the ranch, hung out for awhile watching vids. Made a big pot of pasta and sauce. MB came in while I was watching Lost. We ate some while she told me about her various adventures in Seattle. Sounds like she had a really nice time. Some more Lost. Making plans for another trip. Now some guitar and to complete the day.

Dead flowers

Monday: Slept in soundly. Wonderful. Web. Shower. Breakfast with Oscar (I had eggs, he had cat food). Down basement, email. Installing software on the Mac mini. M showed up to do some yard work. Morning practices, drums.

Locked the house. Had forgotten a jacket. Locked the house. Had forgotten some equipment to return. Finally off. Lovely clear and cool out today, driving around on Storrow. At the office, tracked down some bugs that seemed to have already been fixed. Worked on documentation, and porting an example add on to take advantage of a new feature. Stayed until 9:30 or so.

Back home, threw out some dead flowers. Fed Oscar. Headed out to the video store, then for a few groceries. Back home and some frozen lasagna, while watching "Lost." A little guitar now, and to complete the day.

Recording with Christine

Sunday: Woke at 9. Shower. Fed Oscar. Basement for brief practices. Headed to KKC. I'd missed the first few minutes I guess. A transmission, ending in half the alloted time, which was perfect, since I was going to have to miss the second half. Scooted out just after noon.
Back home, got directions. Picked up a temporary replacement bit of audio gear.
Picked up Christine near the Mt Auburn Cemetery. Cool and clear today. Recording project "The Rose." She did an excellent job. We also did something brief for Cath, ending with time to spare.
Picked up Shawn in Porter Sq, then over to the health food grocery store near the Charles in Cambridge. Got some food from the salad bar. Over to Cath's, for another one of her wonderful wine and cheese parties. I brought a lovely goat cheese with honey and nuts... mmmm. Many interesting people. A shift occurred listening to Christine's story of beginning to incorporate meat into her diet. She is such a dear friend of mine, my heart can almost not hold it. Goodbyes. Dropped Shawn back at his place. Home around 11:35 PM. Conversation with AE. Now to complete the day.

Casting a circle

Saturday: Had a mellow morning, enjoying a smoothie, shower, morning practices and so on. Drums, and then headed out to go to Newton for a pagan ritual sort of thing I'd been invited to. This was pleasant, and I made some good connections.
Heading home, I stopped for a couple of slices of pizza. Almost went to a chain "health food grocery store", but decided it looked to busy. Had a long phone conversation with AE, about some weighty philosophical issues, like how humans come from apes.
Headed out to Lizard Lounge, and caught the last half of the first set, and all of the second set of Ziaf's last performance of this North American stint. Eating tater tots. Great seeing Christine, Shawn and other friends. Cirkestra wrapped things up.
Back home, and began working on some backing tracks for Sunday's project with Christine. The gear failed me, so evening practices, and to bed.

Please place your bones in the nearest receptical

Friday: Woke again in the basement. Feeling quite a bit better. Upstairs and hello to MB. A shower. Yogurt. Food for Oscar. Back down basement. Morning practice. Drums. Cleaning up the sickroom. I wish the last act of being alive could be to clean up one's body. It always has seemed a shame that others have to care for your remains. This is the flip-side of "you come into the world alone, you die alone": Others created you, and others will lay you to rest. Hmmm, watching too much Six Feet Under, I guess.

In to work, the long way around. A very lovely and moderate day with the sense of autumn around the corner, but not here yet. Looked into some more Leopard issues. Conversations with Al about a composite windowing implementation. Talked to B about cell-phones. Stayed until 8 pm or so. Feeling almost all better today, just a little tired.

Back home, tried to resurect some leftover Chinese food by stir frying it with some noodles. The vegetables weren't so good, so I just ate the noodles. More SFU. MB returned from a belly dance gig in CT, now she's packing for her Seattle adventure.

back to work

Thursday: Cat napped all yesterday. Woke in the basement after a few hours sleep. Some more video watching. Eventually upstairs for some yogurt. Fed Oscar. Shower. Down basement again and morning practices. Hanging out upstairs and watching a Jethro Tull DVD which had been sitting around unopened for several years. Ian, the salty old dog. Headed in to work, driving the long way around. Van blocking my spot, so parked in Rs space. About a half day, fixing part of the build process under Leopard, and fixing a bug. B and Al were having rambling and slightly heated conversations. With Al around you don't need caffeine. Fixed the little lamp, which I've had sitting on my desk for 10 years by cleaning off the contacts and installing a new halogen bulb. Drove home stopping at Sam's and dropping off a DVD and some exercise equipment. Seems like she's doing well with her work. To the video store again. More pizza. Back home, munching and watching. "Lost." MB returned from a night of dancing at the Athenian Corner, smelling like grilled steak. Guitar, working on an arrangement for some recording work I'll be doing with Christine over the weekend.

Sick day

Didn't go into work. Spent most of the day in the basement watching videos on the laptop. Took a drive out in the evening for some essentials: DVDs, pizza and soda. MB's friend was over pruning. I put out the garbage, which seemed like a major accomplishment.

Reentry

Monday: Woke around 10 feeling sluggish. Web, shower. Gave myself a half a day off to take it easy. Oscar. An egg and some cereal. Down basement and sitting. Drums. Some emailing. Drove to Union Sq and dropped a check at Third Life, and did a little more tidying. In to work. A quiet day, looking into a bug, and getting some other stuff building. Back home around 8:30. Setting up the new monitor with the Mac mini. Victor called asking for opinions about the direction of the circle. Evening practices. MB returned. Hanging out in the kitchen talking and watching some Bill Maher clips on youtube. Now a little guitar, and to bed.

Entering a new space

Friday: Up around 9. Thought about sleeping more, but no. Web. Shower. Smoothie. Oscar. Basement. Drums. Vacuuming the basement for house guest. Loading the car. Folding laundry. Headed out to work, driving around on Storrow. Hot out today. Stopped for pizza. At the office, playing with 10.5 alpha, and getting things building. Left a bit after 4. At the space, unloaded. No sign of R&A. Off to the market. A mad-house. Setting up. Evening session was quite successful. Afterwards, cleaning up, back to the house. A brief guitar performance for our house guest, she sitting on the floor between MB and myself. A microwaved enchilada. Shower. MB has taken the plunge, and will be visiting Seattle. Now to complete the day.

A successful intro

Thursday: I was up until 6 am, so slept in until 11 or so. MB was working at home. Shower. Fed Oscar and had a smoothie on the porch. Repaired the damage to the attic stairs in yesterdays accident. Down basement and practices. Drums. Emailing. Pulling things together for the evening. Drove out, stopping at the grocery for laundry detergent, bought tea-lights at the store of useless stuff, then made some photocopies at the office supply place. Back home, putting in a load of laundry, dropping off copies. Over to Union Square, and reconnaissance for a group dinner on Saturday night. Decided to go with the Chinese restaurant that I know. Back to the car, and remembered I'd forgotten something at home, and my shirt had an odd spot on it, so back home, then finally to work.
Quite hungry by this point, picked up a burrito which I ate at my desk. Looking into a weird crashing problem that only happens when a particular window is opened and closed in rapid succession. The crash is deep in the OS with no debug info to go on. It takes about a half hour of attempts to repro. Yuck. Left a little after 6.
Heavy traffic heading to Porter. Had to buy some blank DV tape. Picked up Shawn, then over to the evening. A little rushed getting things set up. Good turn-out. Quite a success, it seemed. Afterwards, Shawn Caro and I felt like going out for food. Called MB, picked her up and headed to H Sq. Japanese noodly goodness. Dropped Shawn back at his place (stop grabbing my ass dammit) then Caro. Back home, laundry, saying goodnight, and now to complete the day.

Comes crashing down / Slots filled

Wednesday: Woke around 9:20. Web, shower. Downstairs and smoothie + feeding the Oscar cat. Down basement, and handling some course related stuff, emails and so on. Morning practices. Drums, feeling strong today. Did some work on the attic stairs in the basement, trying to square up the framing a bit. Then I decided, since I had most of the screws out, I should reorient it so the stairs faced the other direction. Then the whole thing, with a rending, splintering sound, crashed down to the floor. Little harm done, but decided this would be where I'd leave it. Cleaned up a bit. Upstairs and shower again. Paid bills. Got a call from the guy I was buying the CD player from. Yes, I'm on my way. Headed out. Deposited money. Missed the spot I wanted to stop for pizza, so drove to Medford and got a slice there. Beautiful cool day out. Headed up 93 to the offices of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, where I bought a CD player for $15 from a guy named Haung. Thank you craigslist. Around on 93 and in to work. Bug fixing and installing Leopard. Or trying to. Confusing conversation with Bn about his use of threads to amortize work. Took a break to register a participant for the course. Last available slot. Talked to mom, who told me of a kayak adventure that was bigger than she bargained for. Headed out at 7:30. No Shawn. He called me and asked me to meet him in Porter Sq, which I did. Arlington and CoFD rehearsal. Felt good to play. Not so accurate, but spirited, which often seems to be the case after a hiatus. After the rehearsal, gave him a ride back to his place (which is now on Somerville Ave). Then back home. Hello to MB. Left over Chinese food. Hanging out. Tested the CD player, which seemed to work fine. Out to the garage, and fixing the damage done in the AM to the attic stairs. Organizing and cleaning up a bit in the basement. Now this, and to complete.

running around, and yoga

Tuesday: Up around 9:30. Web. Shower. Downstairs and fed Oscar. Smoothie. Guitar (some sight reading). Down basement, email, morning practices. Drums. More course prep work. Attached the top section of ladder back into the attic-hatch in the basement. Phone calls. A sunny warm day, I headed into Union Sq. Made some arrangements with a local restaurant. Picked up a couple slices of pizza, which I ate. Headed to work. Got to work and realized I'd forgotten something. Back home. More emails. Back to work. Brief consult with Al (as these things go), fixed a bug. Left for yoga. Hit traffic on Storrow. Arrived a bit late. Wendy Cook had "saved me a spot" in front. Intense tonight. I'm probably just out of shape. Chatting with Wendy afterwards. Stopped on the way back home, and got a fast food veggie burger. Back at the ranch, a little hanging out and email in the basement. MB returns. Socializing in the kitchen. 100% pure unsweetened cranberry juice, yow! Faxing a cc auth to a company that doesn't like to ship to addresses other than your billing. Guitar with MB. Then just on my own, working through the 12 major keys on the fretboard, each in one octave. Soon to complete the day.

Attic stairs in the basement

Monday (labor day): Woke around 9:30, feeling surprised that I was well rested. Then I remembered I'd gotten to sleep at 2 AM. No wonder. MB was just returning from some dance practice at Third Life. Web, shower. Down basement and morning practices. Drums.
Had a nice breakfast with MB, eggs and soy-bacon. The Oscar. He was seeming less nervous being inside than he was last night. A little guitar, as MB prepared to do some audio recording (spoken word).
Began measuring the area that I was going to install the attic stairs into. The basement in this house is completely separated from the upper two floors. Because this was done after the fact, there's a large area under the first floor stairs that is largely unused. It's empty space above the door as you enter into the basement. My scheme is to put an trap door attic stair unit in this place, to make the entrance a little more presentable, and also to keep a ladder where its needed. Until around 4pm, I measured and cut the studs that would go into making the frame into which the stair unit would be installed. Took a little break, and had a smoothie on the back porch. MB came and said hello. We ventured out to do some shopping. I dropped her at the office supply store, and I picked up some fasteners at the Home Depot. Drove around the parking lot a bit waiting for MB. Finally went in to see what she was up to. We had a conversation about how poorly many people use their bodies, how you want to go correct their posture, and how this is a drive that is quite hard to ignore for an AT instructor.
Back home, and fabricating the extended stud. Then screwing them into the walls above the door. I got MB to help me hold the stair frame in place while I screwed it into the studs.
Then I realized that the stairs could not open because of the length of the middle section. Disassembled the stairs to trim this back. Started making errors, so I realized I was tired and stopped. Cleaned up. Called out for some food. Shower.
Drove out to Wang's and picked up some veggie dumplings and mixed vegetables with tofu. Picked up one bottle of Diet Sierra Mist and one bottle of Diet Sprite to see if I could detect any difference at all between these products.
Back home, food with MB. They'd only given us one fortune cookie, so I ripped it in half before reading it, so we each got a bit. The fortune was something like "You have identified the issue, now turn your attention to it." My half read "ed the issue, tention to it." A large, very well fed, Raccoon with a shiny fluffy coat, ate dry cat food on the back porch with his hands, picking up clumps and tucking them into his mouth. Guitar with MB. Then some guitar with just me. A little scrap-booking. Trimmed the middle section of the ladder out in the garage. Now down basement to complete the day.