Just finished celebrating the arrival of our first significant snowfall with a cheerful viewing of Quintet.

Yesterday, a pleasant xmas complete with low key gift exchange, bourbon molasses pecan pie, spicy pork tenderloin &, for me, anyway, a very early bedtime. That equalled me waking embarrassingly early & a trip to the predictably ugly scene at the postholiday presnowtorm megagrocery for butter & eggs.

Dressed in orange eating organic oranges. Postapocalappalappalappalappa.

Wakka wakka.

Happy winter, still not much in the way of snow. Slept through the eclipse, enjoying sleep very much lately.

Twee music on, settling into work.

Dogs are getting upset that L. won't help them test their beddytime catapult. They're convinced it's safe.

Working out xmas dinner menu.

Just stepped outside to find a strange, loose beagle pooping on our front walk. Tried to get him to come, but he ran off across the street.

Peretz wonders, "Who was that strange beagle?"

Raining hard. In Nashville, apparently, snow.

Now we are a crack social media team.

Going to go see the new Harry Potter, xmas tree dressing, microtonal guitarist. In that order.

Peretz is wet & smells like mushrooms.

Oh, maybe we're canceling all but the movie, OK, sounds good.

Spent the weekend food poisoned, thanks to holiday party raw vegetable tray at Union Station, I think. Blech.

Feeling a bit better, not yet up to latkes, sadly.

Flurries all day, elderly neighbor taken away by ambulance, freezing cold blustery dog walks, quiet typing to twee music.

Think January tour is off due to various band members' financial woes. Blech. Maybe in the spring. Should set up some more shows anyway, hm.

Watching a documentary about Veit Harlan, making me want to make movies, strange.

Took T. to the airport through some pretty apocalyptic weather, bit surprised we weren't blown under a semi or some such.

L. got me chocolates, I got her some Brazilian psychedelia, happy happy, happy hanukkah, xappy xanuxxax, zappy xanax, etc., etc.

Anyway, wishing I were in pictures, that I could turn into pictures, all the words, well, genug iz genug.

Made chicken fricassee served over buttered egg noodles in honor of our first accumulating snow, sort of anyway, spent much of the earlier part of the day with my mind oscillating between work, something rich & savory to serve over egg noodles, and the apparent likelihood of snow despite its total absence from the weather forecast. It all came together nicely.

Nice visit with the kid, we got him a good way along on his college applications, weird, right? L. took him back to his island this AM, took the new car, safety first.

Never enough noodles.

Coffee, Macy's parade. Been a hectic week, T from airport Tuesday, kid from Bridgeport ferry yesterday.

Spent last night in a bit of a fog, made nachos.

Currently, line dancers/cheerleaders are entertaining the multitudes to the strains of "Cotton Eyed Joe", the Rednex version, yep.

Peretz has finally settled in on the couch, awaits the Snoopy balloon with an affected nonchalance.

Just fixed broken stove burner by removing piece of popcorn which had somehow flown into tiny metal tube between burner and igniter, doesn't seem physically possible, but there it was.

Yesterday, neighborhood kid offered to rake up our yard for ten dollars, did a fine job, knew those neighborhood kids had to be good for something.

Playing with Hulu Plus, so far, only good thing about it is that it will play a whole series without human interaction, that said, I fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons & woke to a crashed Roku.

Been talking tour plans with band, hope it comes together.

Second rock show in as many nights, en route a young buck leapt across my path, wet & drizzly, happy for fog lights.

Slowly getting into the swing of these English composition tutorials, full of bad advice.

Last night, Jewish food week continued with kasha varnishkas, between the kugel and the kasha, ate a bunch of bagels and bialys. Think I'm boring the missus. Oh, well. Maybe I should make some corned beef or something.

Decided Friday I needed to go out & take some photos, so, at L's instigation, we headed out to Natural Bridge State Park yesterday, really lovely marble quarry, crazy light. Found a farm store I didn't know about on the way out, decent pie, have frozen pizzas from Zuppardi's, honey crisps, awesome. Would like to be touring about the countryside, finding more stuff like that & writing about it properly.

Heard earlier in the week from my friend Chris that their dog Cecil had died, sad, about the same age as Peretz, gives me the willies. Amazing little American Gentleman, would leap from a bed onto Chris's back and run up to his shoulder for a treat in his younger days. Smelled terrible.

Working on some English composition tutorials, they give some really terrible advice on rewriting sentences, dogmatic, no sense of style, happy to destroy sense. For the Canadians, sigh.

Even aside from the photos, been trying to make myself use computers & networks for stuff besides work more, working on a new website, soon it will be winter.

Happy Armistice Day, celebrating 92 years without any more WW I.

Went to the shop for kibble, lots of old guys in military uniforms, navy caps, etc. Poor old guys, hope they're OK.

Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand & frown, Peretz says.

Last night, went to see a Sublime Frequencies film in progress about music in Niger, some strong stuff, made me feel a little lightheaded. Before that, made a noodle kugel, also baked some drumsticks marinated in a curry marinade, breaded with panko, pretty yummy.

Also, I'm a little dog dressed up like a reindeer.

Dark by five, delightful. This AM, amusing post DST confusion as I wondered why it seemed like I'd been doing something for an hour when the wall clock indicated it had been two.

Making chili, will be a while yet. L's making a strawberry cake.

Went & observed solar powered/controlled sound installation in Turners earlier, pleasant, chilly, b flat.

Chilly floors make chilly feet.

OK, rainy day, Vashti Bunyan, settling into work. Cold, snow soon.

Playing a show later, little dog dressed up like a reindeer, kappa, chi kind of joint. Halloween turns blurrily into xmas. At a birthday party. Considered bringing giant bag of McDonald's cheeseburgers. Not going to, peer pressure.

Chilly fingers.

Trip to Syracuse: not bad at all, considering. Lovely Lake Ontario abiding tempestuous. Still a bit exhausting. Lousy food.

Halloween merriment: quite good. Highly exhausting.

Work proceeds apace, band practice momentarily.

Having ideas for less annoying travel/review website. More pictures, keep the rabble out, smash clichés with a hammer.

Lovely warm day, slept in, picked up some apache tuning work, made spicy Thai noodles, etc., etc. A++, would do business again.

Just got caught in a sudden downpour thanks to Pickles & his unlucky collar. Seriously, Hon, that stuff in the Cursed Articles Section is on deep discount for a reason.

Also, for the past couple days, seemingly anything I eat makes my stomach turn flips, better than anything I think doing that like in the good old days.

Anyway, feeling suitably dire & grim for Richard Thompson later. Also missing the last Phantom Brain Exchange, sad.

Spent much of the day fiddling with clickable electron orbital diagrams, click, click, ick, sick.

Sleepy day. Booked February flights to Hawaii. Did a little work.

Spending so much time typing away for work, not much left for this sort of business.

Funny crunched flattish time.

Enjoying my time within my little invisible temple of Diana, wonder how long it will last. In any case, days pass by with no significant feeling of agitation, aces.

Most of those Fokkers were Messerschmidts, footprints in the butter, etc.

Been working extra hours early this week in hope of being able to leave laptop behind while on trip to Jersey, would be novel, should bring a novel. Bar Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah. Maybe I should get the kid a cleverly made little mechanical statue of Ganesh to help him navigate manhood. Would've appreciated one.

Great suicidal dramas on the apartment cliff-banks of the Hudson under the wartime blue floodlight of the moon, I'd like to buy a vowel. Bom-ma-bom, a-bom-bom-a-bom, ba-ba-bom-bom-a-bomp, b-dang-a-dang-dang, b-ding-a-dong-ding.

Made a pilaf with Egyptian rice from the new Halal shop by the Asian market, interesting short grain.

Brunch with the kid, took him back to Northampton for teen social time, went & got some quality local apples.

Half watching documentary on Bob Moog while labeling photos, dogs are bored with it.

Later, birthday party at a remote curling rink, 10/10/10 dance party, etc.

Cold's about licked.

Last night, Deerhoof was a treat, Pearl Street = worst club ever, now they don't let you leave & return, disgusting dumb fuckers, Ecrasez!

Seems like an awful lot of activity coming down the pipe, hope I can get my work done.

Want to claw out the inside of my head, slept a lot. L. brought nice Thai noodles for lunch, nice pick me up. More noodles soon.

Gray day. Not getting much done.

Fucking head cold.

Getting a bunch done regardless, had a good time singing in a field over the weekend.

Scratchy, itchy, crappy, dopey, sneezy.

Beautiful fall weather proceeds apace.

Went to pub night at H&O earlier, free snacks, crowded. Met the guy who played the wolf in the Firebird in the rain, seemed nice.

Thirsty, damp, still raining.

Quite a remarkable downpour happening. About to finish batch of chemistry tutorials I've been working on, then on to the next.

Listening to 'Yellow Pills', earlier, on my pal Molly's radio program, 'Mr. Blue Sky'.

Why?

Multiday music fest starts today at our favorite local record store, playing the Saturday installment in Goshen.

Oh, wow, weekend. Saturday, perfectly lovely day at the beach. Sunday, band practice, played a show, slept like the dead. Zippy, boxy car, hurray.

Monday, oy, rainy, feeling a bit off, then more off, then less. Chicken noodle & grilled cheese to the rescue. Right as rain tomorrow, more rain tomorrow.

Shine on harvest moon, up in the sky.

Safely into fall. Bought a car Monday, supposedly going to get my hands on it today.

Working from home is interesting, featuring new and improved distortions of my sense of time.

Turns out, whale watch was available despite choppy seas, totally fucking amazing, big crowds of humpbacks, apparently friskier than usual due to the waves, lots of jumping & frolicking, still feel a bit giddy.

After that, South African snack, bought some sale brown beach towels with pink polkadots.

These are a few of my favorite flavors: strawberry, chocolate, vanilla. That last one's a killer.

Came home to find Pickles had caused significant damage to a door and frame, sigh, poor nervous pup, poor us.

Watching 10,000 BC, girls just headed across the street for some nice Thai while I stay and keep the dogs company. They're bringing back Crazy Noodles for me, perennial favorite.

Just noticed that Ask is folding up Bloglines on October 1, end of an era. They're dropping it in favor of 'building out [their] Q&A offering,' sad, whither Lycos? Go get it.

Rainy last full day of vacation, supposedly 7-10 foot swells courtesy of Igor, will probably put the kibosh on whale watching plans for the second year running.

Karen's here, we're all drinking coffee, have some, won't you?

Awaiting Karen's arrival, oven ate the nice dinner I made, screwy locking mechanism, ugh.

Enjoying vacation very much despite nightly sinus headache.

Earlier, explored First Encounter Beach at low tide, quite something.

Poor butternut squash and onions.

Sushi the tortoise, lost and found again, where was I?

Off my game, out of the office, on vacation.

Quality vacation, even getting some work done amidst tasty seafood, seal watching, ocean bobbing, dog walking, etc. Even lining up more work, almost like I'm well adjusted.

Also have line on potential replacement car, yip,yip.

Have brats to grill later.

Honestly, what don't I have?

Hopefully, whale watch tomorrow, love a whale watch.

Cozy on the couch with Peretz, sunshower outside, place we're staying has a giant tub with which I may become reacquainted shortly.

Oh, & L's camera broke, lose one most every vacation.

Just did my last routine review of the paper's logs.

It seems like I've been writing this thing forever, but not as long as I've been doing that. Good riddance.

Went out & got a bag of snacks for the cape. No 19th Hole, no pecan pie.

Reorganizing.

OK, so, on the loose, pretty much. Not quite awake yet, but it feels pretty nice, most anxiety is residual rather than prospective, nothing a few days at the beach shouldn't fix.

Bit cloudy, Pickles is snoring.

Was thinking of doing some work today, but think I may say 'Fuck it' and go out shopping or something.

Taco night.

Full up on tacos, sleepy.

Last real day tomorrow, many imaginary ones to follow.

Having a hard time remembering which day it is, weird stretched weekend seemed to start yesterday, sick Friday, Saturday worked all day at meditation center, spent the evening awaiting calls from soon to be former workplace, maybe Labor Day picnic I'll be attending shortly will ram the fact of Monday home.

Honestly, though, expect time to stay all funny at least until the 20th or so. Though, so, though, so.

Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha, that gum you like is going to come back in style.

Spent some time yesterday researching wholesale sources of Lotte gum, still no line on the mangosteen flavor.

Been singing out a lot, going out a lot, more later.

Ugh, sick. Up on and off through the night with a fever. Blech.

Soon, I'll be free. Picking up of freelance work proceeds apace.

Nothing much to say lately, lots of working and thinking about work and being tired from too much of all of that sort of thing. Just played a show for a friend about to leave for Turkey. Still there.

Coming end of summer making me feel a bit glum, despite my love of fall and hatred of hot weather.

Found my passport.

Trying to get into the groove of my upcoming work from home sort of work, made a bit more difficult by icky cold onset end of last week, did a bit of catch up over weekend, made a bit more difficult shredding turkey for free community supper today, writing small program to generate all the base 7 primes up to 7 digits for my artist pal/co-turkey shredder.

Beginning to feel waves of distant freedom. Here comes the ocean.

Listening to Conrad play, playing phone sudoku.

You have completed the puzzle in 11:11.

Finally uploading vacation snaps.

Bit of a tummy ache. There's a show I want to go to.

Go to considered harmful.

Work has turned into quite the novel experience, produced fairly comprehensive network map for new guy, also showed him nmap, giant cavern where Recorder press used to be.

Anyway, almost like I'm already gone. Finding it easy to pick up side work. Whee.

Slow morning, strong coffee.

Yesterday, eggs benedict, swam in freezing cold ocean, took sunset boat ride out into Blue Hill Bay, lovely, lots of wildlife, ended with thunderstorm, groovy. After that, cocktails & bocce, hurray!

So, pretty good vacation.

Peretz is out this morning with 'rents, sounds like they're showing him a good time, good ol' dog.

'''

!!

.

Vacation, as with so much else, by the time I settle into it, it's more than half over.

Got fuzzy slippers, new front tires. Had a delightful fancy lunch. Saw otters and a beaver in a brackish pond.

Hazy now, lighting flashes from storm over on the mainland, hoping it clears out for Perseids.

Same old happy place, now featuring Internet.

Well, not on the cell networks, but still, available in 2 out of 2 houses we've been in, a first.

Popovers, sitting on rocks, dip in harbor, fried seafood plate, sitting on lawn by harbor, clear night sky, etc.

Peretz is curled contentedly on the too high bed.

Need new tires again.

Tired from training new guy, seems a decent enough sort, no hope of conveying sufficient information prior to departure.

Anyway, vacation, whoo-hoo! Hope to catch some Aurora this evening.

Sweaty Betty, lying in path of fan.

All the guests are gone, boss's vacation is over tomorrow, feeling a bit drained, haven't had any quiet time to myself since about a week ago, having some now.

Emily brought a giant inflatable representation of their dog Cecil's head, we played inside it Wednesday in Turner's, used it as a backdrop for show yesterday. Check it:



8x8x13= good times.

So happy to be soon stepping out of my current job role it's hard to describe.

Happy 17th, kid.

Overly busy but fun weekend, overly busy & not fun Monday.

Chris & Emily were here but are gone again, will be back Wednesday.

In slightly damp Flywheel, listening to We Love You. Didn't think I was going to make it out after yucky work day, healing power of corn, I guess.

Before show, talking to T's pal Max, out from Boston to see Bullock. Tried to sell me a car.

Tomorrow sleep in, then reformat some code, yip, yip.

Most popular work conversational opening this week, 'I know we're only supposed to bother you for emergencies...' Whee haw.

Falling asleep at desk, lack change for revivifying grape soda.

More thunderstorms coming.

Sinus headache, spinny, last minute request for a new user account, will it be the last? Free soup, chats, more tomato sandwiches.

Got hot, big storm, cool again. Early bedtime. Pickles is whining in the window.

Slowly realizing just how poorly I slept last night, headache, nausea, ick.

Burning massive quantities of ads purged from ad system over the weekend to DVD, ick.

At home, there are delicious, ripe, local tomatoes, wish I was there with them.

Went to Newfound Lake today for the first time since I was, I don't know, maybe twelve? A good deal more developed, still a lovely, clear lake. Was feeling tired on the drive up, found myself drifting off while floating, hoping it's the first wave of relaxation after five years of mostly not.

Brilliant distant lightning among the mountains on the drive home. Storm arrived in Greenfield with us, I blame the dress. Late night Magpie. Home with dogs. Groovy afterlake sensations in extremities.

Finally have a deadline for departure from Wernham Hogg, yip, yip.

Look at the funny monkey.

Busy morning, more aggravated with management than ever, hurray!

Going to go show the new maintenance guy some voicemail ropes in Amherst momentarily.

Nice weekend visit with Kid. Pizza, pizza. Pizza. Video games. Noise show. Finer things & c.

Kid's here, had my first regular old pepperoni pizza at the new place, kick ass.

At a friend's, Fox in the Snow playing on laptop quietly, about to go to other friends' for noisy noise.

Heat has ignored my admonitions, perhaps Pickles will have better luck with his Amazing Snow Machine.

Sticky in a cold room.

Later, little Alice's 2nd birthday in a steamy hot park, even later, maybe more fancy pizza.

Begone, vile heat.

Was given a whole lot of very high quality free food this weekend, hopefully the start of a trend. Smoked pork shoulder, aces, pals' new pizza shop, likewise. And the first of the summer corn.

Have a show to play in Northampton some ungodly hour Thursday night. Need to go practice for that momentarily. Airily, fairily.

Dip do dee.

Thinking about Rick James and the sad, sad state of our society and culture.

The next time somebody apologizes for the vicious genocidal racism of this country by claiming that everybody was like that back in the day, ask them why New Yorkers look a lot less like Iroquois than Mexicans look like Aztecs.

Got a lot done yesterday, had some yummy food, hoping today's the same.

Sleepy. After finishing up work work, did some yard work.

Another job interview yesterday, more enjoyable than the last, mostly IT folks in the room.

Tomorrow morning, L.'s going to the island for a couple days, kid's got a show, etc. Lots of music for me to listen to & play here.

Got some snacks for easy weekend dining, still need coffee.

The weather has finally improved, cool & crisp.

Spent the morning being bored by visiting management.

Almost nap time.

Still not fully recovered from all night work spree.

Did nonetheless manage to go to the beach, do yard work, fix/setup a couple wireless networks, practice with band, make burritos, play antique video games, etc., etc.

You'd think beach would've taken care of it, jeez. Maybe need more beach.

So this year it wasn't the solstice but the day after that was longest, arrived home from work yesterday only to have to go back immediately to fix dead server, got home again 5:30 AM, whee.

Feeling pretty funky, hanging with dogs.

Happy anniversary, hon.

At work, groggy, sore throat continues. Should probably go get some spicy soup.

In the midst of the sickness, got fed a really lovely solstice dinner by culinary friends around the corner, pretty fancy.

Looking forward to feeling better, trip to the beach, new pizza shop, sleep.

Stomach cramps, sore throat.

A bat got into the house, tried to catch & release, the dogs killed it.

They're still restless.

Dizzy & nauseated, ick.

A fan is blowing at me. Good white noise.

Just back from taking Peretz to the vet, how he hates it. No major issues, got him some tartar control chews.

Glad to see the back of another workweek. Got a lithium ion powered weed trimmer. The mind boggles.

Lots of stuff to do this weekend, hoping to work in some time with Kirby Super Star which I can now play on my Wii, huzzah.

That or watch more lectures on systems programming. Fun either way, everybody wins.

Permanent tiredness leading to little blogging, need a new gig.

Yesterday, made chili & cornbread for chili cookoff, wasn't actually competitive, but people seemed to like them both despite excessive salt in the chili. Had really good homemade ice cream in homemade waffle cone bowls also, should go to more of those sorts of parties.

What's for lunch?

Have a bit of a stomach ache.

Found runny dog poo in the upstairs hall this AM, so I'm not alone in that, I guess.

Would like to be playing more music.

Still sleeping poorly, allergic to something out in the world.

Really fun band practice yesterday, been making up songs about Pickles, should go vote against my town selling sewer water as coolant later.

Thinking about clichés and metaclichés in the arts.

Hot dogs and apple pie. Strawberries are in.

Didn't sleep very well last night.

Still muggy.

Just surprised myself by correctly identifying and repairing the immediate cause of my car's a/c suddenly ceasing to work yesterday (blown fuse for compressor clutch relay), wonder if it will blow again, hurrah.

Absurd work busyness continues, we have a fresh new Internet uplink, etc.

Sweaty.

L.'s at her board meeting, going to go to another show in a while.

Keep applying for jobs, should probably be networking, ick.

Taking the day off, things have been hectic, mostly because of strange power issue at work Sunday morning, lots of stuff broken, ugh.

Otherwise, a pretty fun, if mildly stressful, weekend visiting with Toste, a little more activity than I was really up for, I think. Also, got a plastic grocery bag wrapped around my exhaust pipe.

Had fun playing show Monday night, not sure anybody else enjoyed it, oh, well.

Toste's here visiting.

Job interview yesterday, went more or less OK, not sure I'd be a good fit, benefits sound good, gag. Spent the day forgetting to eat, stupid, stupid, stupid.

Going to walk to town with houseguest in a bit for snack & records.

Nice visit with my mom, about to take her to the airport.

Yesterday, NYC daytrip included dance parade, dog watching in Tompkins Square to heavy drum accompaniment and a cavalcade of street foods, including this astonishing caramel frosting, need to reproduce.

Age of mechanical reproduction proceeds apace.

Need to go fetch my mom from the airport in a bit, flight was late leaving, the claim is it will still arrive on time.

Haven't been sleeping very well. Could use a quick nap.

Last night, couldn't sleep, drove Pickles away with incessant tossing.

Up early for reboots, car's brakes were feeling crazy soft, back in shop. Once I made it home (thanks, hon!), took a long nap.

Was feeling very hungry, made tostadas, feel much better.

In a funny, slow spin, feeling a bit nauseated.

Need out of current job fairly soon,it is making me feel crazy.

Got a loaf of rye bread yesterday and, while we were out, Pickles ate it. Poor guy still seems to feel a bit wobbly.

Graduation party, show. L.'s going to make cookies.

So my mom's coming to visit for a few days in a week or so at my instigation. She's been wanting Frank Pepe's.

Think we're also going to do a day trip to NYC, was thinking Broadway show, but have now realized there is a giant dance parade on the 22nd, so I think we'll attend that. Fun, fun.

Exhausting week, rain doesn't help.

Yesterday, back & forth to & from the Vineyard for some appalling teen choral music, overpriced chow, etc. Was nice to see people. Forgot my debit card at H&O the night previous, made for cash-starved island hijinks.

Work managed to intrude before we even got on the boat back. Spent most of today intruding more insistently.

Made some lazy green chile/cheese enchiladas. L. made a cake to replace the one swarmed by tiny black ants.

Another frost tonight.

Drowsy rainy day.

Just went through work email, giant flood of spam, free trial sample, gain 3+ inches.

Coffee, coffee.

Pleased to have workweek over with.

Was just out running errands in the beautiful spring day, got a gallon can of Kikkoman, seems like old times.

Back in Nashville, post-flooding, there is a water shortage. Friends there are hawking floodbeard merchandise on the Internet.

May go to Martha's Vineyard Sunday for a choral concert depending on what the kid has to say about it.

Peretz seems to be feeling better.

Have to lift Peretz up to my bed most nights lately, otherwise he sits looking sadly on a blanket on the floor.

Sweet old dog.

Watching Battlestar Galactica again. Streaming quality keeps degrading.

Pleasant evening, show at John Doe, slow to start, show was in basement, hung out upstairs.

Toward the end, Scott offered to show us his favorite possession, if our hands were clean, 1970 Skidmore yearbook, very artfully done. Tried to find out more about it via Internet, found the 40th reunion planning page instead, L & I had fun looking up the yearbook photos of the women who had put tales of their lives since 1970 on the reunion site.

We're kind of tempted to crash the party, it's in June.

Finally got a decent night's sleep. Been having some really unpleasant dreams, including one about Peretz having a hideous chest injury, inspected him closely when I awoke, crazy.

Really lovely day, went & had scrumptious fried flounder with L. for lunch, hoping for a restful weekend.

Feeling fucking awful, muscles hurt.

Left work a bit early, fell asleep on couch, woke around 8 to taco night. Aces.

Ball game Saturday was kind of a gas, challenging to pay attention high in the peanut gallery.

Sunday, had to go to work in the afternoon to plug in an ethernet cable. On the way home, felt so terribly sad it was a bit confusing.

Wonder why I'm so sore.

Heading out to Fenway in a bit, maybe have an extra ticket, wanna come? Lovely day for a game.

Yesterday, believe it or not, did some gardening. Even got a blister on my thumb.

Working on plans for escape.

Sunshower. Just went & got some taquitos in town, happy Earth Day, fox's wedding, etc.

Last night, impromptu group with Josh & Jess at the International Noise Conference, was a lot of fun, some people seemed to enjoy it.

The tiredness is worrying, too tired to worry too much about it.

Week hiatus due to feeling dismal, weak, I know.

Car is operational, had a fun visit with kid, lotsa music, etc.

Flywheel is once again open, pretty neat, bit too much of a rock club, playing there this PM for INC.

Henry & Nancy had their baby middle of the night midweekend, welcome Stella Francis!

Overworked, car still in shop, fighting off a cold, bleh.

L.'s been feeling like crap also.

Spring is, however, proceeding nicely.

Cold fingers, been watching birds learn how to live.

Strange hot days, cooler now.

L.'s off hanging with her hard to schedule things with chum, I had sandwiches & pecan pie for dinner, also exotic soda, what could be better?

Last night, after tending to show at art space, was so tired I blacked out while watching a cartoon, just rewatched it. Less tired today despite very minimal sleep. The power of pecan pie.

Listening to a couple French guys make neat sounds with a piano soundboard. Show took too damn long to get started but it's lovely now.

Weird hot day, work less distressing than normal for lately, lovely now.

Work continues nightmarish, my car's in the shop, needs a new steering rack, sounds like. Slept like all that was the case, stomach ache.

Our pal K. has adopted our pal Lyle, formerly Tubby of Memphis and/or Augusta.

All work and no play makes etc., etc. Maybe I should find a nice caretaker position, somewhere remote.

Saw my first bumble bee of the season while sipping coffee on the back porch this AM.

Could use a beverage, dry hum of machines.

Over the weekend, got a Wii, thanks, Mom, whee. L. made me an Easter basket, made me think about my old purple bedroom. Also we went with K. to check out potential adopt-a-dog. Go, Tubby!- we're rootin' for ya.

Soup 'n' game shortly.

Another hellish week, had about enough. Today, our web dev resigned, good for him.

Weather is remarkably pleasant, we're off to Mexican dinner & a show shortly.

Loverboy had it right.

While I've been away:



Also, we got a cute little TV for K., who seems to like it. L. made delicious salty rolls. Trying to do vacation planning. Just sent off another job application. Dogs are sick of rain, sick of me, sick of their rainy day projects, and in Peretz's case, sick all over the carpet in the hall upstairs. Red planet take me home.

Waiting around at K's new place for refrigerator deliverers. Fixed her Roku.

Could use a snack.

Just back from a rather disappointing trip to the local department store, didn't like their selection of ice crushers, they didn't have the replacement mixer paddle I wanted, etc., etc.

Came home to learn from Internet that no one makes ice crushers that I like. May have to hit some antique shops.

So no practice after all, Andy had to go visit an in-law in hospital.

Show, though, good show. Could've done without the nearly dying on flooded roads driving home, can't have everything.

Inhospitable uncle. Fried chicken for dinner. Cookies from yesterday.

Twitchy, witchy. Ed Emberley on how to draw Fleetwood Mac with thumbprints and Flair pen.

Got an antique typewriter.

Oh, dearie, another workweek, didn't really exit the previous cleanly, stuff keeps coming up.

Phone is making disturbing beep tone in server room.

After work, band practice, then quiet improv show at Hampshire. Lather, rinse, etc.

Morning of futzing about with servers thanks to Microsoft's nth iteration of crappy embedded database, ick.

Beautiful day, purple flowers blooming in the yard, Pickles has broken out his sun hat & water wings.

Hideously busy week at work, no sign of settling down.

Been thinking about stuff to write, also advertising models. Not actually writing much, obviously.

Neil wants a scifi script for one. One Hell Planet coming up, eventually, maybe.

Also, my hosting provider has broken my website, spent the early AM in support limbo, maybe they'll fix it later.

On the advertising front, the question foremost in my mind is "Why has no one tried to address the degradation of trust & consequently value caused by the chaotic sleaziness of web advertising?"

A few days of sleepy blur, could use a few thousand more.

Should really walk the dog before the heavy rain starts.

Going to do taxes in a bit.

What a crappy blogger I am getting to be, how do you stand it?

Working from home, made some matzoh brei, and on and on and on. Possibly I need to be worked up about something or other to get the symbolic systems moving- cheerful, alert, not the least bit worked up.

Band name is 'egg, eggs' BTW, mixed reaction from the guys, but I still think we should go with it.

Finally came up with a name for the new band I think I can live with, we'll see how others feel about it.

Back at the daily grind for the moment, after that, no more being in the office this week, hurrah.

Speaking of, could use some coffee.

Had some comp time coming, decided to take it this week. Having a nice day off - laundry, recycling, lunch with L, yard time with pups, etc.

Wishing we were in Hawaii.

Bar Mitzvah went swimmingly, afterbrunch also a lot of fun, at least until the Katz family showed up. Long story short, we're probably not allowed back at the Grange any time soon.

Pickles is in his cups, birthday hat sideways, fur everywhere, keeps busting stuff up, then having a sad, reflective moment mumbling through the first bit of the Mourner's Kaddish. Next event, no open bar.

Need to take Peretz to an ATM to deposit checks.

Pleasant morning working from home, listening to Vashti Bunyan, etc.

Setting up remote administrative workstation for Greenfield folks, running network diagnostics, AOK.

Hoping for a restful weekend.

Happy birthday Peretz, T.

Peretz wants everybody to come to his Bar Mitzvah this coming Saturday, 10 AM, Temple Kelev Shalom, brunch to follow at the Grange, shrimp dumplings with special spicy sauce, etc.

OK, so, ancient brown station wagon has triumphantly passed inspection, survives to fight another day. In an interesting twist, it is no longer subject to emissions testing due to a change in Massachusetts law.

Just got done repairing amazingly borked imac filesystem, hurrah.

Nice weekend visit with the kid, went & saw interesting music, hung out, etc.

L. headed off with him to the cape midafternoon, leaving me to nap. After I woke up, witnessed some pretty egregiously reckless driving while smoking on porch (pickup turned onto our street doing at least 40, slammed into snowbank, nearly flipped over, sped away), chatted with alarmed neighbors, made statement to police.

As it got late, wondered what had become of L. Turns out she came home via New Haven to get me pizza, wonderful lady

Went out last night with L. & the kid in a really excessive rainstorm to see this. Pretty fantastic, made me wish I was producing the version of Sesame Street that would have those guys as guests. Maybe I'll get to it.

Decided to defer inspection of car until Monday, have a bunch of driving plans for weekend that I don't want interfered with by big red R on my windshield. Ugh.

Lots of nifty music to go see, hurray!

Enjoying a snowed in 39th. Have been so far unable to avoid work as much as I would like.

It's an interesting storm, big to unbelievably big wet heavy flakes intermixed with rain, sleet, etc.

Has been an excessively stressful workweek preceded by workweekend of same. Allergies have left the building anyhow.

L. got me a giant poster of Peretz, pretty awesome.

Still with the scratchy nose & throat. Cough, cough, sneeze. Watching TV with dogs while awaiting L.'s triumphant return.

Still thinking about yesterday's lovely pizza.

Fell asleep on the couch, had some really terrible dreams. Hockey's on, going to go back to watching anime about vampire monsters, I think.

L.'s off to the island for the 3rd weekend running, kind of wish I'd gone with, only kind of as I still feel a bit ragged & Modern Apizza is on the way.

Doing laundry, watching ski jumping.

Slept for a very long time, could happily sleep more. Been doing network diagnostics on behalf of people not interested in them, getting a bit sick of that.

Car won't be done until Monday, skipping island, quiet weekend at home.

Took some antihistamine, feel funny.

Car is at mechanic, thought it had a problem with cv joint, turns out it actually has a problem with inner tie rods. Ain't life grand.

Finished out workweek from home with amusing network diagnostics. Having what I dearly hope is just an awful allergic to something in the air.

Contemplating weekend island overnight, if I continue to feel like crap, will probably skip it. Would be nice to see people, though.

Woke around 4:30 from unsettling dreams with a migraine. Spent a blurry six hours or so, then found some coffee on my nightstand, thanks, hon. Working from home.

Somehow managed to snow pretty hard most of the day yesterday & only leave a couple inches on the ground. Pretty, too bright for me to go outside for any length of time.

Curling is on.

Feel like it's time to go over the top, there's a whistling sound & I'm blown to bits, some teeth over there, some bits of hair.

Some time I'm going to get something done.

Lovely, lovely snow.

Nothing as relaxing as winter olympics on the TV.

Weekend of winter olympics & cookery. Feel much better.

Amazingly, managed a nap.

Happy I worked from home this AM, apparently a brush fire on ridge behind the paper filled air intakes with smoke. Also, in an as far as I know unrelated incident, a homeless lady went into the Shell on Pleasant, bought a Coolata and some gas additive, then went out back & set fire to herself.

Excited for music later, should have more coffee.

Been watching episodes of Columbo from 1971, have aged better than I have. Crumpled guy gets the best of murdering stiffs every time, love a happy ending.

Just walked the dogs through the scant snow, better than nothing.

Pickles has climbed on top of me again. How vulgar, Peretz thinks.

Belatedly realized that I had a knee brace for my hurty knee, seems somewhat helpful.

Scratchy throat from yesterday's practice, totally worth it, great fun.

Peretz is thinking about barking at me while, in the kitchen, L. is fixing supper.

It's funny how much more rarely I find myself using my laptop at home since acquiring wacky computer phone. It's not that I use it in place of the laptop so much, as that it has taken over a range of activities, mostly messaging related, which would otherwise be entrees to further computer use. So, reduction of overall computer use, a bit of an increase in messaging related activities.

Need to do laundry. In a little while, band practice, seems like people might actually show up.

Also, maple cream + brioche bread = 100% win. Add coffee for bonus points, extra credit, etc.

Enjoying some needed downtime.

Went to Winter Fare, got stuff for stew, also brioche bread, maple cream, local cheese. Lap of luxury & c.

Going to go help Henry with joining remoteless Roku to network in a bit. Studio rent party later.

Morning of working from home, lunch with Henry, now in my room recharging with my electrical devices.

L.'s off to the island overnight.

New coffee maker, may make some coffee with new coffee maker.

OK, so sounds like my work schedule may in future involve a slightly less excessive amount of unnecessary driving, hurrah, make every day earth day & c.

Also on that front, keep trying to figure out how we might go about better insulating our old brick house, no options seem too inspiring as yet.

Knee keeps stiffening up at desk, v. annoying.

So I'm at this house show with all these college kids, weird how they keep coming, wave upon wave, nothing at all like the sea, each seemingly more bloodless & awkward than the one before but somehow never dwindling to nothing.

There is, of course, also nothing.

Show is pretty good.

Nice fresh coating of snow.

Drove to work through misty landscape, listening to the Smiths.

Groundhog Day. Can go either way.

Not too bad this go round, chaos at work, tasty pudding, right knee really hurts. Certainly nothing decisive.

Decisions are for when you can't see a clear path, not my kind of thing at all, really.

Forced to order coffee maker from Internet. Couldn't find one in store that used cone filter, urgh, wtf?

Did get that tasty pizza.

My ambition for today: get a new coffee maker. A while back, the carafe of mine broke, haven't been able to find a replacement & have been using this Sunbeam which, frankly, isn't very good at making coffee. Would also like to get some high quality pizza.

Henry's move in went pretty smoothly, after, took a pass on D&D musical comedy at MassMoca in favor of beer drinking session at H & O, pleasure universe. I got sleepy early & went home, fell asleep on the couch again.

Watching crappy British scifi with pups.

Yesterday woke clogged & dizzy, spent the day at home, recuperating.

Woke today, feeling fine, went to work, lunch with Cooper, then home for an appointment with the fine professionals from Comcast who arrived promptly, repaired our signal leakage & went away again. They did toss a sheet over our wireless router, causing it to overheat, can't have everything.

Snowing heavily in Nashville.

Here, cold as a witch's tit & at least twice as breezy. Henry's deferred moving until morning.

Just watched Yojimbo again for the first time in ever so long. Enchanting, & of course the plot is a perennial favorite.

Henry's here, going to get the key to his apartment in the AM.

Dreamt that work would be pleasantly surprising & it was, though not as foreseen. Finally penetrated that voice mail box I had my eye on, nothing like an afternoon inside a strange system.

After two days home, finally made it to bed. Yesterday, fell asleep on the couch again, watching Night of the Generals, odd picture, should watch it again in its entirety.

Oh & the chili coconut fried shrimp at the H & O, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.

Oh, oh, oh.

XOXOXOX.

There are those, of course, who think beauty all to which art can or should aspire.

Heavy soaking rain.

What's for supper?

Made it back fairly early last night to icy wet Massachusetts. Fell asleep on the couch wrapped in a blanket watching Blade Runner. Dreamt extensively of getting a drink and still feeling thirsty. Woke up thirsty, went & got a drink.

Busy week of cookery and movie watching and visits with friends and family, didn't really want to return from it.

Cold fingers, maybe the coffee's ready.

Went & got delayed T. from the airport, went & got more quality beer, stopped by seedy taqueria for some yummy tacos.

Crazy sleepy, need more coffee so I can make buns.

Having a pleasant, sleepy vacation with only slightly excessive work impingement. Car is maybe fixed.

T. missed her connecting flight in Memphis so will be here in the AM.

Very high quality sushi tonight, more steamed buns tomorrow.

In a motel in Wytheville. Just went downstairs and made myself a waffle.

L. sleeps on, dogs are going bananas.

Just as we set out from home, noticed car was overheating, stopped by mechanic who identified slow radiator leak, gave tips on driving with slow radiator leak, seems to be working OK.

Tonight, Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman, weird, huh?

Despite falling asleep remarkably early last night, still feeling groggy & bleary & c.

Hardly seems possible, but coffee doesn't seem to help.

Fell asleep on the couch. Woken by cell alarm from a dream in which picking up a small key had turned me into a marauding giant, shame. Smash, smash.

Had biscuits & eggs for dinner last night, something I feel I should do more often.

Head full of ideas, minimal energy. Did take advantage of early waking to potter peacefully around the house, should do that more often.

Should pick up snacks for trip, should determine cause of slow coolant leak in car.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

I notice that if I blog less, L. blogs more. Funny.

Made bbq pork steamed buns yesterday & shared them around. Head full of weird fusion cuisine.

Henry came up this AM, we went & looked at one of the new lofts downtown. Nice place, they're taking it, whoo hoo!

Went & got free beer tasting from the Pint after, easy living.

Yesterday after work, went for local soda & quality BBQ. Really, happy days.

Woke up with a sore back, went downstairs to tend to dogs' needs, bending down to hook them to lines, got a spasmy back.

Went away after a while, still stiff & uncomfortable.

Taco night, taco night.

Feeling extremely blah. Vacation can't come soon enough.

Despite plenty of sleep, feeling very sleepy.

Etc.

Yesterday, artspace meeting, croissant party, work, Dick Van Dyke inspired dinner. Went to bed quite early.

At some point in the night, Pickles came & joined me, Peretz never did. Turned out, come morning, that he'd taken advantage of the xmas tree's departure to snuggle up with the living room radiator. Clever pup.

Here I am again.

Feeling pretty wrecked.

Got in very late from New Year's reveling, got up pretty early & went & did some work. Came home, walked dogs, made raspberry pancakes. Went to Shelburne Falls to help some friends move heavy things into their new apartment. Came home again, made masa patties to top with yesterday's chili & eggs. Walked the dogs again, then spent some time falling asleep in front of the TV.

Going to go to sleep for real now.

Welcome to the Tweens.