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.

Picked a good day to take off, snowing hard, very pretty.

Show last night was something of a gas.

Need to go get kibble, considering making chili.

Am going to sing for a bar crowd in a bit. Grilled some sandwiches, listening to Richard Thompson & the like, trying to find a space in which to operate.

Finding that the proliferation of mobile devices induces a certain passivity, on my part anyway, sorry about that.

Tangy pickles, creamy cheese.

Came home, rested a bit, started laundry, made some spicy soup with leftover chicken, hoping to help L. with her cold.

More resting, cheesecake, folded laundry.

On the sidewalks there is a thin coat of snow or ice.

Went out to get some slices for lunch, people sitting next to me were talking about topics in the population genetics of some variety of beetle.

Still drowsy despite Dr. Pepper, where's the truth in advertising?

In the event, recovery took the form of a 15 hour nap, feel a lot better.

At work, occasionally going out to watch the snow fall.

While we slept, somebody set fire to something like 4 houses & 4 cars in and around downtown Northampton, a couple people dead, crazy gets old.

Made me rush down to deal with RAM upgrades in servers, figured reporters would be wanting their servers up & running, ugh.

Still recovering from two week sprint, maybe cookies.

Enjoying some much needed downtime, listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, eating gulab jamun, etc.

Find myself thinking more than I'd like about how tedious it is to be employed by an organ of journalism, helping push forward things that are among my least favorite in our sad little human world, should probably find something else to do, sigh. Halfway wishing I had the wearwithal to start producing tasty food professionally, where my interests and those of the world at large meet, pretty much.

One moment, everything things flat, like a sheet of paper, an inept singer; next, everything is alive with detail and interest. If I got more sleep, I like to imagine, there'd be more of the second.

Warm rest on the couch really does seem do be doing Peretz a world of good, barely any shakiness at all on our afternoon walk.

Had some really good grilled cornbread earlier, served with a veggie chili a tad too acidic, sadly.

Peretz seems to feel a bit better, poor old dog.

Waking up with toast topped with fancy jarred Italian specialties.

Once again, winter storm is a flop.

Watching The Harvey Girls, opened presents.

Peretz has a hurty hind leg.

Happy Xmas.

Been quite something of a week, boss away at work, art show most of the rest of the time, looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

If you haven't been by One Chevalier this week, a glimpse of what you're missing, courtesy Ted:



Can't stop sneezing.

Another solstice, brighter days ahead.

Hellish day at work, stomach hurts.

Xmas festivities begin tonight, preparing with Ginger ale

So, no snow for us, vast quantities for Eastern Mass. Wonder if the kids are going to stay on another day?

Got a good deal of art done yesterday, may try to do more today, hurray.

Just talked to my mom about pricing dispute with surly liquor clerks. It's beginning to look a lot like xmas.

Henry's here, off being interviewed for a sysadmin job right now, seems decent, really hope he gets it.

Cold as a witch's tit, but has warmed enough that I should probably walk the pups.

L. is in Woods Hole awaiting the arrival of her pup. He missed his noon boat, kids.

If Henry gets done with the interview thing reasonably early, we're going to VT for pizza. Kid's got a show in town later.

OK, frosty dog walks.

At a show at Tork Clock, suddenly feeling very sleepy.

Left work early, Peretz threw up all over the living room, made an apple crisp for the holiday potluck at work tomorrow.

Dream this morning: blond realtor lady is in the house having fits & throwing drinking glasses against the wall. 'How do you like that? And how do you like that that?'

Woke from that with allergic coughing fit, still feel itchy.

Yesterday, servers & servers & servers, then snow & rain & ice & gave a little html tutorial & c. & c.

Dogs were very interested in the crusty, yet softer, snow this morning.

Just after that last post, 'Fox in the snow ' came on & set me woolgathering.

More coffee & an oversized cardamom roll setting me right, on the couch with dogs.

L.'s about to head out for Hudson girls' night out featuring Diane Cluck.

Took hazardous wastes to dump, got some mei fun & an xmas tree, loaded in firewood.

Last night, pretty dreamy improv show @ Feeding Tube, had forgotten those stark industrial corridors. Came home & fell asleep on the couch with Peretz, who seemed to feel a bit unwell. Cold is hard on his old bones.

Listening to Pandora station 'Twee City'.

Making latkes.

Having a pretty OK day off, though I didn't manage to sleep in.  Dog walks, nice lunch, applied weather stripping to rear door, etc.

Also making applesauce & kielbasa with sauerkraut.

Done with work for a couple days, feel a little dazed.

Made spicy dinner, latkes tomorrow. Chappy cholidays.

Big snowstorm yesterday, walked to the Recorder in the AM, worked from home in the afternoon, ordered in Chinese, lovely.

Losing track of time.

Having fun playing with Droid despite splitting headache.

Cold night, L. made a nice fire.

Oh my, oh my, that was one long show in one cold warehouse, lucky we brought snacks. For the rest of the winter, every show: mulled cider.

Feeling a bit flushed.

Should really get up & go to bed, unmotivated. Peretz is dreaming.

Made breakfast sandwiches, yum.

Icy front steps.

Work, shopping, show.

It's snowing.

Just went to the co-op for eggsbreaddonutsbagelscoffee, ran into lady who used to live 2 doors down on Conz with Chloe the dog who was never the same since her man died working in the bake shop, ran into Starpoli who wants some help with a website, sent me an email about it this morning, 'must be in spam,' I said & sure enough it was. Maybe we'll get together tomorrow.

Trying to get back into Inherent Vice, set aside since seaside vacation, L.'s downstairs frosting a cake for later bday bash.

Ordered a Droid.

Have the day off.

Keep having strange anxiety dreams, car crashes, dogs running loose, etc. Not really feeling particularly anxious.

Might go back to sleep.

Fell asleep on the couch listening to special twee Pandora station. Soggy morn.

Experiencing some funny time compression.

Need to get on with organizizing that Xmas in December thing,

The other night, falling asleep, got to thinking about my rich inner life. Ugh.

OK, dogs need feeding.

Still burning photos.

Yesterday, joined Greenfield artspace, Xmas in December plans slowly becoming less inchoate.

Need to take T. to the airport later.

Heavy cloud of sleep.

Peretz is restless.

Genuinely delightful Thanksgiving feast at the H & O followed by viewing of amusingly terrible G.I. Joe movie at the Brock/Stromsen household. Came home & fell asleep on the couch.

Dreary drive to work through the slate gray drippiness, would like to go home soon & I will. Pleasure universe.

Kugel's in the oven.

Had the kid here overnight, nice to see him again so soon.

Just had to take parchment paper with bits of cake affixed away from dogs.

Need to remember to bring copy of Norstrillia to dinner party for Chris.

Depressingly eager for my meager one day off. Dull city calling Funkytown, come in, Funkytown.

Burning old photos to dvd.

Eager/meager, Becky Beaver.

I'm one drowsy daisy, sleep was pretty seriously disrupted by agitated dogs climbing in and out of my blanket. They hate it when it warms up overnight while raining.

At some point need to get stuff for Thanksgiving kugel.

Going to meet up with T. in town for burritos in a bit.

Where's the excitement?

One long, stuffy headed weekend, T & the kid both in town, meals, shows (great to see Gerty Farish again), IT tasks at work & elsewhere, comped meals & cash in hand for IT tasks, might be I made a profit off the weekend, odd.

Back at work with stuffy head, free cider in the break room.

L. got back with the kid,we had some frozen pizza then went to a nice show at the record store down the way. Very pleasant.

Making another pan of butter mochi to share with friends at show this evening,the whole house smells like coconut.

Really should walk Peretz. He says, 'Yes, you really should.'

Been a big week for extreme discomfort. In addition to all round sickness, twisted my ankle yesterday. Somehow got a lot done despite being mostly bedridden.

L.'s about to leave to fetch the kid, has turned into a pretty day for a drive, anyway.

Cough, cough, cough, limp, limp, limp.

Another day home sick, did a surprisingly large amount of work regardless.

Cough, cough, cough. Peretz is bored with it. Bored.

Bored.

Sick, sick, sick. Sinus headache turned into something a lot worse while at work yesterday, came home early, fell asleep.

Mostly sleeping, coughing, sneezing since then. Was woken about an hour ago by extremely disgruntled Peretz. Just took a very hot shower, will soon move on to other challenges.

Got that pizza I wanted, also some frozen ones for later.

Went to see some music, show ran a little slow, but still nice.

Came home through the foggy night, watched The Amazing Adventure, am now watching Miller's Crossing.

Sinuses are going haywire.

Want some decent pizza, damn it.



Maybe tomorrow.