Back from dinner with friends from out of town, had some lovely brisket & waffles, talked of the overwhelming monumentality of Gettysburg, played with cute baby who now enjoys gnawing on solid foods with a particular fondness for salty focaccia.

Fed & walked dogs.

Earlier spent some time reading a very under realized scifi novella titled either War on Venus or War of Venus depending on whether one chooses to believe the cover or the page headers. Generally both proofing & plotting quite slapdash. Gotta love Ace Doubles.

Going to settle into some more scotch & Dr. Who now. Comforts of home.

Not having heard back from my mechanic, walked to town to ask him what's up, turns out I hadn't heard from him because parts situation still a bit uncertain. Can probably be fixed on Monday.

After that went & got some 18 year old Talisker, Peretz & I are sipping some now in our smoking jackets toasting my long dead terrier of the same provenance. Pickles, meanwhile, already three sheets to the wind off that rotgut he hides under the couch, is playing golf in the next room, muttering to himself.

Went & talked with mechanic, still don't have a quote, but sounds like it can probably get fixed on Monday & will be comparable in cost to getting the rear struts replaced a while back.

Making some red beans & rice so I'll have tasty food to eat throughout the weekend.

Henry & Co. should be showing up around 7, am going to go out to eat with them at the usual place.

Quite the vibrant, sunny day, wish I felt a little more up for it.

Lots of sleep has left me less tired but still nervous about car. Going to go try to locate mechanic momentarily.

Not quite sure what to do with myself in dog-rattled, empty house.

Tired & useless, have been since I got home.

TV with dogs.

Oh dear, oh dear, car failed safety inspection, needs all sort of front suspension work, ugh.

Can't get an estimate from nearby friendly mechanic as he's off at the hospital awaiting a baby.

Drat.

Sipping some nice scotch, watching The Big Sleep. Pretty damn idyllic. Earlier I had a praline.

Was going to make a muffaletta sandwich, thought better of it, got take out Thai instead, sandwich later.

Despite how much of it I remember, always surprised by the quality of this movie's dialogue.

Have been deluged with edible gifts from New Orleans. Thanks, folks.

Did a number of onerous chores at work today, hate mucking about down in the real.

Can't quite figure out what to eat for dinner.

Got home, made some chard with bacon & onions to accompany cheesy pasta left over from yesterday. Walked the dog, sat around & watched some Doogie Howser with the wife.

Recharged, headed out to show despite crick in my neck. Talked about Austin BBQ with another tall guy just back from a conference there, talked to Cooper's mom about fancy scotch. Learned there's an Islay tasting in Northampton Saturday.

Faded pretty fast, here I am again.

While still alert, said to the tall guy, 'Reckon there's crawdaddies in that crick?'

Off to dreams of glorious violence.

Wonder if I'll ever have a job where I can take a couple days off without having to dig out from a pile of shit on my return.

So that's today.

Brain Exchange later, should build up energy between now & then.

Pretty low key day, H & O lunch, a lot of people wishing me a happy day on Facebook & the phone, L. made a red velvet cake. All very nice but feeling a bit overtired & glum, also my eyes itch something terrible.

Back to work tomorrow, the mind reels.

Us shabu shabuing:



Went out with Peretz to find package for neighbor on porch, took package to neighbor's house, found package for me, lovely Italian sweets, thanks, Mom.

Not sure what else is on tap today.

38, how ridiculous.

Having some coffee in bed.

Got the call telling us to come with the kid to meet with his girlfriend & her family a little earlier than expected, we were a little slow to get going, left girlfriend & family waiting in a Lexington parking lot for about an hour. Had to jump their SUV for some reason.

After that, we went & fetched Tasha from her lonely perch & went to look at glass sea life & flowers. After that, went out for shabu shabu & sushi, reestablished my geek cred ripping my zipper open with corner of table, spilling a glass of Coke all over the place, got hot bubble teas after.

Doesn't seem like that much, took an awfully long time, guess we were at that natural history museum for kind of a while.

OK, TV & dogs. Hopefully the house'll warm up.

Feeling rotten.

Snow turned out pretty wet & depressing.

Now that I am old & fragile, should really learn to be kinder to my larynx. Squeak, squeak.

Supposed to get a bunch of snow today. Half foot or so.

Wondering if steam from hot shower would push me along the path to being able to speak normally again.

Quite a busy day, shopping, work, out to dinner, went to two shows & sang at one of them. Do jumping! Do jumping!

Scratchy throat & headache, hoping tomorrow will be more restful.

Shopping included buying the Abba edition of Singstar.

Going to fall asleep watching Japanese cartoons.

The kid missed his boat, ended up walking around Falmouth for a while, looked at a really depressingly bad attempt at a bookstore, so few books that they were almost all shelved cover out.

Late boat also meant glorious seaside sunset. Took pictures so it would last longer.

On the drive back, talked with the kid about music, global warming, the coming Singularity, etc.

Got home around 9, went out with the wife to the 99, slowly learning that I detest that place.

L. got me a new TV for my birthday, it's hanging on the living room wall, opens the room up nicely.

Last night we watched some Chilean martial arts movie streamed from Netflix in HD to put the thing through its paces, then L. went to bed & I watched Charlie Rose talk to Marc Andreessen, very enthusiastic about the iPhone & generally, that one.

Going to drive down to Woods Hole after I get out of work, fetch the kid from the boat & all that. Planning to fetch more local soda en route.

Pickles has a digestive disturbance.

While cleaning up the latest results of that, Peretz was busily warning me away from 'the miasma that overhangs 19th century philosophy.'

'Clean air! Clean air!' he says.

Need to make some rice for the sick pup & clear the snowy walk. A little more coffee first.

Drove home through glorious snow, still snowing now, supposed to change to rain at some point, sigh.

Made stuffed shells for the first time in over ten years, like most things I haven't made in over ten years was vastly easier than I remembered. Happy to have used up the ricotta.

Read through the first couple parts of the Kierkegaard. Think I last read that in 1990, strange how much of it I remember. Also read a bit of Lacan referring to Kierkegaard (the companion volume, not the thing I was actually reading). Objet petit a, father I am burning, the proper interpretation of the transference, etc., etc. Old news.

Here's to you, Regine Olsen.

Woke this morning after three days sick, terrifyingly alert, the beginning of 'Highway 61 Revisited' blaring in my head over & over. Between that & Colin's mention of the dialectical position of the merman the other day, all signs point to its being time for me to reread Fear and Trembling.

Wonder if anyone's done any interesting comparative studies of Abraham & Kronos. Imagine so, the tracing & retracing of the Athens v. Jerusalem figure as overdone as it is. Probably even slash fiction.

Repetition, repetition.