Crafts, Nice Korean, sake, long wait through pretty lousy derivative New York bands for pretty darn good, if derivative, Chinese one.

Learned a bit about Hampshire not paying bands shenanigans, ugh, jerky place.

Sleepy drive home down slick roads, listening to the tape Zack gave me.

Made pecan pie, brought L. snacks at work, went to protest, our mayor lacks a soul. Really astonishing sunset.

Came back, walked the dogs, had some pie, nom nom nom.

L. just left for Northampton where we will rendezvous a bit later. Dogs are milling about restlessly.

Friday off is off to a nice start, talked to my mom about whales in Maui, finances, etc., walked dogs, washed some pots and pans.

Am going to spend some time relaxing now, uploading photos, reading about Hawaiian cuisine. May make a pie later, may not.

Later, there's a prolibrary protest & a craft fair & Chinese postpunk bands.

Old lefties, humorless, overinvested in hagiography, no technique. Would be nice to think we owe them something, but, honestly, they're no Chuck Berrys. Let them sit by their quiet pond.

Crappy Pappy, Wiccan Chicken, Arclight Sphincters, whatever, it was pretty fun. Do the skip/slip.

Before all that, multicourse beer tasting dinner, pale ale with grapefruity hops FTW.

Happy Armistice, everybody.

11:11, eve of 11/11. Should be sleeping.

Long slog of work, band practice, leftovers, laundry.

Too sleepy to type. Nighty night.

Seriously, sinus headache all day, ridiculous.

After work, party for the Franklin County CDC (always makes "Harper Valley PTA" tune pop into my head, also have to correct myself for thinking it's the Center for Disease Control each time I drive past).

((()))

Sick of this headache.

Another sinus headache, feeling a bit sad about the many, many things that worry and upset me that I can do nothing about.

On the plus side, made pretty tasty pasta supper.

Been sleeping a lot the past few days, having some very unpleasant dreams. The sleep is worth it.

At work dealing with another vendor fuckup. Maybe some time off later in the week, bleh.

Could use a nap.

Yesterday, worked for a while, went to NH for lower vice taxes, went to Brattleboro to find an ottoman, got lost after when a bridge I was expecting to cross was closed, ended up on a dirt road, stopped to let 3 lovely deer cross the way. Finally got home, out to dinner & a show, came home, fell asleep on the couch watching bad scifi television.

Today, slept on the couch for a long while, took a long walk with L. & the dogs to a mead sampling (L. prefers the cassis, Peretz the Winter Warmer), got cookbooks in the mail, started reading Hawaiian one, decided to make shoyu chicken & after a little out & about did so.

Also, we've been watching Dexter.

Came home; made a quick dinner; went out into the dark, rainy night to see music.

On the way home, a tiny mouse ran quickly across the highway in front of my car, hope it made it someplace warm & safe.

Making this for laughs. Game's on, fire's burning, fed the pups.

Peretz just had a bit of a hard time clambering atop the blankets piled on the couch.

Enchiladas were aces.

Pizza for dinner, pizza for lunch, la, la, la, la, la.

Later, enchiladas & baseball.

Soda pop, soda pop, oh, soda, soda, soda. Soda pop!

Feeling a bit foggy, scratchy throat.

Show last night was a relaxing good time, went to Pint karaoke after, very much enjoyed L.'s renditions of 'Richard Cory' & 'Josie', didn't partake myself, scratchy throat.

Planned to take this AM off work as working late imaging a machine, etc. Didn't really work out, got sucked into troubleshooting on web server, etc.

Etc, etc.

Party last night was something of a gas, put on my best creepy, L. her best Ewok. Our set was a bit rushed, how it goes.

Dark by five, blech.

Last night, instead of going to party, fell asleep. Woke up about half an hour ago. Good times.

It's a rainy Halloween, may go for rainy Halloween dim sum.

Trying to work out tactics for this evening's performance. Had too much to dream last night.

Have spent most of today wanting to be asleep. Am going to go out to a party in a little while.

Also, Toste's here, hurrah. We've been eating pie.

Week has been way too much, now resting, had some pie, watched some baseball.

Lots of performances lined up, trying to get an art project started, weird.

Busy weekend. L. won a costume contest as a frenetic Mexican wrestler, went to a pumpkin carving party, band practice, did more Halloween errands, went to a show, blah, blah, blah.

Woke coughing and sneezing violently, must be another workweek.

Halloween errands, etc.

Would really enjoy some good pizza, am not going to get it.

Raining hard.

Last night, went for ride on haunted mini train.

Sorting through odds and ends of workweek, ready for it to be over & it will be, quite shortly.

L. has a pork pie.

Pie, pie, pie. Still some 3 berry waiting at home.

Need to figure out a Halloween costume.

lord ganesh
Originally uploaded by peretzpup

Feeling obstructed. Partially sinus trouble.

Gave my parents directions to Makapu'u beach by phone. Not as nice as being there, still nice.

Could use a snack.

Been working in the Greenfield office mornings this week. They've been running a bunch of biomass boosting articles, makes me feel sickish that I am in any way assisting them.

Folks got to Hawaii AOK, hopefully they're having fun.

Spending a lot of time feeling very sleepy, looking forward to weekend.

Way too many upcoming shows I want to go to, we'll see.

Unpleasant afternoon at work, most of the time spent repairing a workstation (shudder), also an increasingly bad what I hope is an allergic reaction. Just rinsed off, hopefully, it'll go away, had enough of sick.

Parents are off to Hawaii, lucky so and sos.

Sneezing like crazy this morning, still have a cough, but it no longer hurts.

Plugging away at administrivia at the Greenfield office.

Could use a bagel.

Earlier, Peretz regaled us with systematic confusion of all classic sitcoms with The Jetsons, charming dog.

Exhausted.

For some reason, assigned myself a dull, time-consuming and thankless task at work.

Came home, made sausages and spaetzel with gruyere.

Home before midnight, doesn't sound like much, but it is.

Amazingly jam-packed almost four day trip, so much so that I've kind of lost track- visits with old friends (including biscuits with gravy and a demonstration of the three sectional staff), Monticello, Richard Thompson (enjoyed him outlandishly more than I expected, probably the result of pretending he didn't exist for the past 12-15 years), Bull Run, fancy pie, visionary art, Japanese groceries, etc., etc.

Stayed last night at a Quality Inn. I suppose, in all fairness, they didn't specify which quality. It certainly had one.

Brr, it's cold in here.

Forgot to mention that we are staying in a hip, modern hotel. Just went out to buy some bourbon. On my way out, hip mom with a Betty Page do entered with wheeled carry on followed by her small duplicate who said, "This is amazing!" Shared my elevator ride back up with a guy dressed almost exactly like me, blue hoodie, brown work pants, he prefers Adidas.

Feet hurt.

Last night, after nice Ethiopian around the corner, walked down to Pennsylvania Ave trying to find caipirinhas (place was closed), did reconnoitering of White House.

This AM, walked back to White House in light rain. Took entertaining tour with security theater preshow. Taxi back to hotel in now heavier rain.

Brief rest.

Burger next block up (quite good), then walked to Metro station, train to postal museum, toured postal museum, train to Smithsonian, walked to Lincoln Memorial in still more rain, taxi to caipirinha place, caipirinhas, train to Portrait Gallery, a long hard look at the Portrait Gallery, short walk to nice Chinese, train back toward hotel, missed cross street coming back, ended up walking longer than we needed to in the ever present rain.

Feet hurt. More tourism tomorrow.

Still not feeling so hot. Had a pretty productive day despite that, also looking forward to going to the first show I've set up in a very long time.

Dogs are pretty hyper, one jumps off the bed, the other jumps up. Both have bones.

Wow, busy weekend.

Interesting video fest in town Saturday night, caught the tail end of the Ashfield Fall Festival yesterday, got some amusing free stuff from the tag sale as it wound down.

After all that, came home, feeling poorly & fell asleep. Got up after several hours & watched Monster Camp, a documentary about LARPers.

Back at my favorite Saturday afternoon activity, patching servers. Got started early, hoping I'll get done early, festivities galore await to the north.

Also, car is all fixed, yip, yip.

Last night, made a stew. Perfect stew weather.

Dropped car off at mechanic, got home early, yip, yip.

More of this:



Less of that.

Constant car issues are getting to me, lying in bed twitching. Latest: broken turn signal switch, ugh.

Stomach hurts.

On the way home from work: giant rainbow over river, thankfully, no fatalities.

:::

Need a beverage.

Painful cough persists. Ick.

D.C. plans are coming together.

Reheated Chinese buns on the docket for later.

So, if you've ever considered making Chinese steamed buns filled with smoked pork shoulder and spicy relish, I strongly suggest following through.

Also made some with a maple butternut filling, also pretty yummy.

Still sickish, but sleep is helping.

Still feeling yucky.

L.'s making sticky buns.

Going to go see a play about Lincoln & Douglas in Hardwick in a while, hope to pick up some smoked pork after to use in steamed buns.

Buns, buns, buns.

Rainy morning, dogs didn't want to get up.

So, crappy low energy coughy sickness continues. Made it out of the house for some nice Thai. Should probably make some chicken noodle & grilled cheese later.

Just learned that we've been assigned a White House tour, should be fun, haven't been to D.C. in a dog's age.

Peretz is looking at me sideways.

Home sick. Should go get soup.

Pretty cold today.

What I thought yesterday might just be allergies is definitely a cold. Sleepily fixing up workstations, after am going to try & enjoy an evening of music & such.

Could use a juice.

So, with all the this & that and here & there, Dim Sum Kippur was not to be. Maybe next year.

Did have some lovely pork kreplach. Thanks, hon.

Happy repentance, everybody.

Oh, lordy, that was a lot of driving in the rain with no speedometer.

Luckily, ingested providential H & O loco moco prior to embarkation.

Kids are back on their island. In bed with dogs.

Roasting squash for wedding pies.

Talent show last night was something of a gas, was sorry to leave early for Polvo, though that, too, was quite something. Love some well thought out rock music, hear it too rarely in these latter days.

Ended up performing with Ben at the talent thing, think it went well, hard for me to assess. A little girl sang the 'Star Spangled Banner.'

Shortly, I am going to remove squash from the oven, toss, then roast some more. Hope the butternut/delicata mix works out, counting on the maple syrup and butter to tie it all together.

Beautiful light.

Was feeling stressed out for a while about the 2-5 minute performance I am to give in a bit, threw out the idea of doing a soupy love song, thought for a while about doing a song I wrote in the car earlier about a seagull's doomed love for a doomed manatee, then realized I'd forgotten most of it. Started feeling tired & like I'd maybe skip the whole thing. Had a little cold coffee & now think I'm going to try to entice someone to join me in a microgestural danceoff while I do some vocal improvisation. Could be good.

OK, a little more serial killer drama, then into the breach.

Another stultifying workweek over & done. L.'s gone to the Cape to fetch the kid & his gal. Steaming some frozen gyoza for an afternoon snack. Love my stack steamer, I do.

Later, going to stop by Neil & Faf's prewedding talent show & maybe belt out a soupy number, then to Northampton to meet up with wife & kid & c. to see Polvo.

Tomorrow, going to make squash pies for wedding, then attend wedding.

Knee still a bit hurty.

It's muggy & yucky. Just now, walking Peretz, was getting swarmed by bugs. Peretz wanted to explore all the dark areas.

Tired.

Used stack steamer to make dinner of kale and squash.

Had my first job interview in ever so long by phone last night, pretty stress-free, seems like a neat place, we'll see what happens.

Knee still aches, had trouble falling asleep last night.

Playing a Halloween show with chums as Milky Death at the H&O.

First day back at work was a bit of a drag, 3 different locations, some unpleasant tasks, lots of catch up, knee becoming increasingly sore as I sat at my desk. Left early, going to go to a party with tasty food shortly.

After a day largely devoted to following the adventures of fictive British serial killers, am now enjoying the beginning of Return of the Jedi, the nonsensical Han Solo rescue plan has long been a cause for special delight.

L. will be home soon, got stuff for sandwiches. Also, my speedometer started working again, wonder how long that'll last.

Meant to go over to friend's house to see music last night, instead, fell asleep on couch watching British serial killer drama. Wonder if anybody's done a comparison of the number of serial killer victims in British TV dramas vs. the number of serial killer victims in Britain since 1990 or so.

Knee seems to be improving steadily.

Considering brunch.

Went & did work, didn't stop for lunch in Northampton, got a sandwich in Greenfield. Also, my speedometer has stopped working, ugh.

After that, a quiet afternoon with dogs & British serial killer drama. Made a surprisingly satisfying dinner of white rice & soy/sugar glazed winter squash. Having a black cherry soda.

Knee feels much better with support.

Went & got knee support/compression thingie from the CVS, was able to walk the pups without extreme discomfort. 5770, here I come.

Going to go swap tapes in a bit, would like to get some lunch. Anybody wanna come?

Happy 5770 everybody.

One stiff knee. Icing it.

Jiggity jig.

Think I forgot the dog's water dish.

L.'s on the island, may stay until Sunday.

Peretz, Pickles & I are watching A Boy & His Dog.

Swimming & shrimp accomplished, rough seas have left me with a twinging knee, totally worth it.

L.'s headed off to the island, I've decided dogs & I will be happier if we get home tonight rather than tomorrow, so finishing up the last dribs & drabs of cleaning, etc.

Twinge, twinge.

L.'s spent the morning readying for her later departure to the Vineyard to catch the kid's show.

Now we're going to go try to catch our favorite beach near high tide. Maybe more fried shrimp after.

Attempted whale watching precluded by high seas. Ate sweet fried things & shopped for tourist crap instead.

Going to go observe high seas with pups shortly.

Rain was a no show, swimming was go go go. Amazing turbulent water. More seals.

Also, more fried shrimp. First I remember I've had fried shrimp 2 days running. In the future, we will all always eat fried shrimp.

OK, off to the theater.

Lazy morning. Supposed to be cooler today with a little rain in the afternoon, going to go swimming anyway.

Uploading photos of yesterday's beach adventures, crawling along on our 864 down/180 up old school DSL. Country life. Peretz is jonesing for his YouTube.

Walked the dogs along the nearby bay beach at sunset last night, got swarmed by tiny biting insects, Peretz spent most of the time trying to eat cracked shells, still pretty fun.

Forgot to mention the very large seals swimming near us at Cahoon Hollow yesterday. Quite something. Saw one cruise by inside a wave directly in front of us- jeepers!

Mmm, scotch.

Lots of swimming today, also malassadas with an intriguing touch of salt.

Also did some grilling, walked down to nearby cove with dogs in the twilight, red dappled sky.

Lovely morning. Took an accidentally long walk with dogs, they seemed to appreciate it.

Had Portuguese muffins & coffee. Going to head to a nearby beach shortly.

Last night, fell asleep on the couch watching movie about space vampires.

Peretz & I are now ensconced in our Wellfleet vacation rental. Wife, child & company lag slightly behind due to minor car issue & back to school shopping.

Pretty terrifying rains on the drive up, flooding, etc.

Could use a snack. Peretz is investigating.

Still raining, prepping for departure to Cape.

Show last night was a genuine blast, glad we made the time.

A little groggy.

Getting ready to head out to Troy for Boredoms.

Slow first day of vacation, made eggs & sausage.

Raining, at least I'm not sick.

Getting through last little bits of work before vacation, reclined at home, with coffee.

Last night, the dogs got into the powdered sugar, spent a fidgety night, still waiting for them to calm down.

Good ol' car is out of traction & back in action. Odometer hit 200000 today.

Want to be on vacation already. Peretz too.

OK, so, alternator replaced with junk alternator which also didn't work, thanks to jumps & help from friend & wife, got car back to mechanic. Hopefully will be fixed properly tomorrow with new alternator & probably new battery as well, ugh.

Before all the trouble:



Happy days.

Well, at least dear old car got us all the way to the beach before experiencing total electrical failure. Alternator, maybe?

Got in a couple nice swims before calling the AAA, waiting, riding in big truck, etc. Truck driver regaled us with tales of his fear of heights & his junkyard dogs. Mary was nice enough to fetch us home from the mechanic.

Donuts were cheap & delicious.

Been doing lots of music the past few days, played a show yesterday with Tim, "Sea of Love", "Effete Gentlemen".

Today, going swimming at Hammonasset. Will pick up the donuts en route.

Now the kitchen ceiling is leaking, ugh.

Put together an IKEA chest of drawers, went to lunch, walked the dog, shaved. Pretty good for a day off.

Might go play/see music later, might not.

Dogs are bored.

In many ways, not a half bad day- got a pie, wrote a song, made strange Chinese pancakes, practiced for show, watched a children's movie.

On the down side, killed another camera.

Watching Never Say Never Again, silly.

Earlier, had to fix work photo processing process.

Sauce turned out yummy.

Silly, process, yummy. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Doing my once a year or so making tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes. No more farm share corn. Sad face. Table continues to amaze & delight.

Earlier, amongst all the work back & forth, bought tickets to see Boredoms at EMPAC. Posted about it on Facebook, now everybody & her brother want to go. Looking forward to seeing everybody & her brother.

Wow, cooking's a lot easier with a big open surface.

Weekend of way too much activity over, settling into shortish workweek, then another, then vacation.

Want to make some Chinese steamed buns.

Yesterday was a bit of a whirl, it's best emblem our short ride on The Orbiter at the Cummington Fair. Have finally stopped feeling woozy.

Joints hurt.

Under blanket with dogs.

Drinking coffee with wife & computers at new kitchen table, was going to put on Chelsea Girl, but couldn't find it. Just listened to a side of the great girl groups in lieu of.

Need to do a bunch of work, go to surprise party, etc., etc.

Last night, a lot of hard rain, still dripping.

Went & bought that kitchen table, took it home, reassembled it, went & got some stools from the unfinished furniture place on the south side of town. Haven't had much time to play with it yet as just after I got done with all that, L. got home & we headed to Northampton for zine fair.

Pretty hopping scene, that. Lots of nice work, bought some. Byron bought one of each of the zines L. brought (a lot, dating back to 1995 or some such). Brian sucked me into helping him activate his new cell phone. He said, "I keep getting your wife & Joel's wife confused!"

Like living in bad novel, sheesh.

Wrapping up the week's work, going to go see if I can't buy a kitchen table after.

Endless week, endless weekend, another endless week, been pretty tired the past couple of days.

Yesterday, talked with my mom about how much she likes "Fairest of the Seasons", should be listening to more music.

Didn't make it to Transperformance, late in the day at work tried to figure out if I could cadge some free tix, turned out I couldn't, got stuck late at work fixing a server, L. called to tell me they were sold out.

So, instead, came home & made a warm potato salad with andouille & c., boiled corn, sliced up a beautiful golden heirloom tomato. Watched an extremely low budget movie about time travel, am going to read some more of a scifi novel I got for vacation. Don't worry, I have more.

L.'s upstairs working on her comic book.

Humidity finally broke, picture of contentment.

Went to a birthday party, spent most of my time there feeling strangely out of sorts, still tired from all the driving around, I guess.

In other news from the tired front, this morning I was supposed to go to work in Greenfield for a while, but drove straight to Northampton instead, then realized what I had done & returned to Greenfield, sheesh.

Really, sheesh.

Just came up to go to bed & discovered somebody had made me an administrator of their website, must have that administrative look that inspires confidence. Should bottle & sell it. Or, better, soda.

Soda pop, soda pop.

Last night, fell asleep to gossip about what an egocentric jerk Zachary Quinto was as a youth.

Morning return trip uneventful, gale force winds failed to materialize, bit of a disappointment in a way.

About to go fetch the pups, excited to see them.

On the bus to the closed South Beach to check out high seas. Still drying off from swim in protected waters.

Earlier, went for bagels & coffee with kid. He should be practicing for show later now.

Feeling salty.

After a heck of a lot of driving around, much of it in unpleasantly heavy traffic, am settled peacefully in an arm chair in C.B.'s Vineyard Haven apartment. L. has gone out for beverages. Awaiting mine anxiously.

Before fetching kid, went to New Haven Ikea & purchased this & that for the home, also very inexpensive cinnamon buns.

Weekend plans have been pushed forward a day, need to go fetch the kid from Bridgeport ferry, proceed to Woods Hole ferry.

Need to take the pups to their spa shortly.

Maybe some leftover curry.

Pickles is feeling better, finally made that curry.

It's cooling off.

Back porch morning glories, pale blue & white, after long lying dormant, have now gone bananas. There were 9 blooming when I was out with the dogs around 7:30 this AM, by 9:15, L. counted 13.

Week has been seeming a bit endless, probably just the heat.

Went home last night thinking of making a vegetable curry, when I got home, it was too hot to face cookery. Went out for nice Chinese instead, green boba tea & c.

Pickles seems to be feeling poorly.

Very hot & in the latter part, very humid, but all in all, a damn fine weekend. I vote yes for more shows in the park, Bunnybrains + little children at play = good times.

Pretty lazy day today, slept in while L. went to help make the Free Harvest Supper, went shoe shopping & to see District 9, came home & boiled some corn & made sandwiches, watched some Lost.

Peretz has a new plan wherein we buy 4 adjoining condos & Pickles supports us by running a B & B in one. Pickles wants his chef's hat & apron. L. wants none of it.

Me, I'm on the fence.

From time to time, I notice myself disappearing into things, nobody home. More than from time to time, really.

Agitated and blank, blank and agitated, just plain blank.

Tired, fan noise, tired.

Tomorrow, performance art in the park.

Spent the morning providing technical solution to social problem, in this case attempting to paper over poor business continuity planning.

Yesterday, ordered vacation reading, the new Pynchon, two Iain M. Banks novels, would like to be reading them by the seaside already.

Thinking about kitchen redesign.

Turned into a bit of a hectic day at work, nothing too serious, would've been more fun without the ongoing headache.

Home to pasta and tomato sandwiches, Advil, TV. Good times.

Home sick. Spent the morning with a sinus headache so bad moving my head slightly led to pretty extreme dizziness. Feeling a little better now, did some dishes, doing laundry, getting tired way too easily. Resting again now.

Truck just drove by with a low, loud whine.

Should listen to some music. Wish it would rain.

OK, listening to The Cars' version of 'Little Black Egg', things are looking up.

OK, definitely some low level head cold excitement underway, itchy eyes & throat, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. Could use some soup.

Last night, woke to passing storm parched & sweaty.

Peretz has finally given the new couch his seal of approval.

Woke sneezing & coughing violently, ick.

Yesterday, pretty relaxing & idyllic, day before, after making stew, went to friends' art opening, nice stuff.

Had a dream about the Bennington College website, strange banner at the bottom of the page about animated robots prevented actual use of the page.

New couch's arrival coincided nicely with the arrival of Lost on Netflix instant viewing.

Going to go out for late brunch shortly.

Itchy last little bit at work for week, itchy, itchy, itchy.

Want to go home & make a stew.

Flat & vague & diffuse, then suddenly, sharp & clear as a blood diamond.

Oh so dull have I become. New couch is a blast.

Seaside excursion mildly complicated by scattered thundershowers. Brisk, wavy beach. And cold.

Show at Brattle opened with comedy team, not half bad. Joe Pernice reads from his novel about Hitler moustaches, Joe Pernice covers the earth, Joe Pernice reads from his novel about Lou Barlow, Joe Pernice plays some originals. Chairs there narrower than I remember, must've done some improvements.

Thought the drive home would be cake under the high, full moon, but the damp made glare a problem. Also more construction than one could shake a stick at had one the urge to do so. Should've settled in Erving & wired for the dogs.

V, v, v. Swiveling so fast it looks still.

Employers are choosing to aggravate me beyond the usual. Anybody in need of a sysadmin?

Am told that new couch is in place awaiting my return home. Beach & music tomorrow.

Hoo boy, dbr & his very busy day.

Drove out this AM to meet pals in from out of town at the MassMOCA, toured museum extensively with pals.

Drove back to Greenfield to fetch L., set out on tour of favorite junk food spots of southwestern MA & north central CT.

Then went to show in Northampton, got home from that around one, stayed up talking to Chris a couple more hours.

Maybe I'll regret it tomorrow, but it's very nice to see them both.

Today, we went to New Hampshire and bought a couch. Also responded to yet another work emergency.

Tomorrow, Chris & Emily are visiting.

Going to fall asleep watching anime.