MDW

Tuesday, May 27 2008
23:58

A pretty feature-packed weekend: Friday night – release party for work, dinner at Las Margaritas in Redmond, then the Cirque du Soleil. The latter was amazing. What more can I say. Wow! One coworker (who is prone to such things) later complained about the ticket prices (which he didn't have to pay), saying "there was no plot". I just thought that was funny. Got home from that around midnight, I think. MB really enjoyed it too. Some of the acts had us on the edge of our seats.

Saturday – practice as usual. Then MB and I got ready, and hit the road around 2:30 for the Gorge. We followed my ritual of stopping at the DQ in Ellensburg for ice cream – she got a small HF sundae, I got a small Reese's Blizzard. Mmm! We got to the place at a little before 6. It was overcast – it had been sunny up until the pass, then cloudy from then on. Totally the opposite of what I'm used to. On the drive from Ellensburgh to the venue, there were sheets of rain visible in almost all directions, but it never rained on us. During the show it sprinkled a couple times, then started raining in earnest around 11. The New Pornographers were wrapping up on the mainstage. The view coming over the crest was amazing, even if it was cloudy. That maybe helped, the lighting bringing out some depth on the hills across the gorge. I'd never seen the wind farm over there before. Impressive. We listened to the NP for a few minutes, then walked back to the Wookie stage, for Crudo. They didn't hold my interest long. So, back towards the mainstage, where we got a spot in the main section, then waited for the next act – M.I.A. That was wacky. Cool and fun and noisy, with (from what I've heard, I couldn't understand any of the lyrics during the show) socially relevant lyrics. They invited people up on stage and had it totally packed for two or three songs. Modest Mouse were next. They were pretty good, it was great to see Johnny Marr playing guitar. Isaac is quite a nut. They had some technical problems, and tuning/notes wise were a little rough around the edges. The crowd was very enthusiastic. We were stuck in a blob of drunk/stoned frat guy types. Yay. When they were done, it was getting dark. We got some food – veggie yakisoba that was warm and yummy but ohmygod incredibly salty. Glad we brought water, as it was $4/bottle (beer was $12, something that didn't keep most of the people there from constantly having one in-hand). Then we found a spot on a high-up walkway that turned out to be a really good place to sit and watch REM. It was raining by this point, but we had jackets and it wasn't hard enough to soak us. REM put on a very solid, professional, rocking set. We left about halfway though, to beat traffic. They had to deal with a wet stage, wet gear, and eventually wet clothes. Hard to imagine playing in the rain. At least, well. There wasn't much traffic on the drive home. It was just long, and constantly raining (then not, then raining, etc), and I was pretty fried by the time we got home, at 2:30.

Sunday: slept in, yay! Then a BBQ at Travgor's. Collin L was visiting. It was a nice day, slightly cool but sunny, and a bit windy. Lots of good food. Igor's old Les Paul sparked what became several hours of jamming, with various people playing various guitars, a bass, and drums. Oh, and an "almond jar" shaker. We had to stop that at 10 to keep the neighbors at bay. It was pretty fun. I can only take so much blues, though. Let's make some new music. But, it wasn't really that type of thing. Sat outside for a bit after that, which was very nice. Then, MB and I were done and came home, while the remaining folks put on V. For Vendetta.

Monday: worked. The show was good, in a wacky way. No ChrisG, we got around his absence OK but surely that changed the vibe. Then, Curt skipped "My Precious Dream" (forgetting it completely) and went straight to the next bit – a circulation. That put the rest of the show (most of it) a little bit off-balance, but it wasn't bad I don't think. Just a little hairy. A large group out to the HL after that, goodbyes to Collin, and back home around 12:30.

High Ate Us

Thursday, May 15, 2008
23:23

Wow, I've been neglecting this. I never even finished typing up my impressions from the trip to Cabo. Spring has been a long time coming in Seattle, and may not quite be here yet. Well the trees have leaves and blossoms. But it was cold and dreary all through April and the beginning of March. Today was sunny and non-cold (maybe low 60s), but yesterday was dreary. The coldness appears to have mostly gone. It actually snowed in April, I believe. It never stuck to the ground, but we got sleet, hail, and big ol' snowflakes on more than one day.

The TTA season is going well. Our new home has its ups and its downs. In terms of the performances themselves, it's probably the best location we've had so far. The incredible pounding we have to endure before the show – due to a samba class upstairs – is utterly unbearable, however. This goes on for two hours before the show; we get a 30 minute break before our performance begins, but only 15 of that is usable for playing together, because the doors open at 8:15. Also, we have to disassemble and re-assemble a stage, two drumkits, and some PA bits before and after each show. Oh, and put up the light trees and re-aim the lights. And lots of other things the House Team has to do to get the place ready to accept an audience.

We've had the luck/opportunity to work closely with BR for the past several weeks, in rehearsals. Extremely valuable, to have a set of good, experienced ears there to listen and provide feedback. Good stuff. Alas, he's hitting the road soon so that's it for a while.

Let's see. . .I bought a TV last month. It's big. But, very thin, relatively. So it looks big but doesn't take up a lot of actual space. Ideally, I'd be able to mount it on a wall; however the room just isn't arranged for that, so it goes in front of the balcony doors, instead.

I still have many gaps and cracks in my floor. I don't think they've moved much in the past month though, which is nice. Actually, I think the building has stopped settling gravitationally (at least so rapidly), and now it is just flexing with the weather – some times the deadbolt on my front door lines up with the other side, some times not so much. The replacement bamboo will be a different brand. I got a sample of the proferred "model" a few weeks ago. Not bad, probably a better overall product than the current stuff. However I'm not sure about the color. And, if it were my money, I'd probably buy the much harder (twice as hard) "strand woven" stuff. It sounds like one option is for them to just cut me a check for the replacement cost; if it's a reasonable amount, I may take that and take care of it myself.

MB is in Boston this week. I miss her. On the flipside, it's good to have a little time alone once in a while, eg now I have some time to do things like this. It's not that she "keeps me busy", but when I have the time, I'd rather be spending it with her than writing journal entries. Anyway, she gets back on Sunday! woo.

OK, wrapping up about the trip – not going to go into much detail, it's all fuzzy now anyway.

Tuesday, April 8: Company trip to the beach at Chileno Bay. The party boat thing was pretty funky. Inside the boat (lower two levels) was fairly cold and dull. Up top it was pretty hot. MB and I sat inside on the trip out, we chatted with KC for a while, also stepping out to the bow when the boat went by the arch and the sea lion colony. That was nice. The beach was good, and there was a fairly small but reasonably interesting reef nearby. We couldn't really get to it until about an hour after we got there, because we had to time it between the waves of people coming off snorkel boats that were coming and going (one of which is a giant (prop driven) pirate ship). After snorkeling around for a while, we laid out on the beach. Then we walked around, down to there there's a rock outcropping between this beach and another one. Lots of little crabs and some other sea life were on the rocks. There was a rock a few hundred yards out that had tons of pelicans on it. Several were usually circling overhead near the shore, and one would dive in spectacularly once in a while. I'm not sure I'd ever seen them do that in real life before. From this vantage point, we could see the whole beach, and it was covered with orange blankets and the blue umbrellas they'd handed out on the boat. On the ride back from this, we sat up top, it was nice and sunny and windy but they were playing annoying music, and way too loud.

When we got back, we were pretty beat. We tried out the in-room Jacuzzi – not bad – then took a nap. We went to the Italian restaurant at the other hotel down the path for dinner. It was OK. Not bad. Better for the price than the fancy place at our hotel. On the way there, we walked behind the "stage" where they do their nightly variety show. What a spectacle. This time, since we were backstage, right as we walked by a very frantic dude dressed up as Superman ran by, looking like he was really late for his cue. We laughed. I don't remember what we did after that, I think we just had a quiet evening.

Wednesday April 9: Off-Road racing! This was great. It was marred by a few bits and pieces, but we had a lot of fun overall. I was half-surprised to find out that the cars were stick-shifts (really, an automatic baja racer? but I never bothered to ask up front). Upon hearing this, MB decided to be a passenger rather than a driver. I told them it'd been a few years since I drove a stick so they gave me a couple laps around the "parking lot" to warm up. I think there were 8 of us from our group there in total (and we were the only people there for this session). The cars are the real thing, RWD Baja racers with buzzy VW engines in the back and yards of suspension travel. One car was a single-seater, the other two were dual. Right off the bat, they had to take one to the shop, because they had to move the pedals for Jaime but they were stuck. But they let her go around as a passenger w/ Chris at no extra charge. There were one or two "off-track" excursions – just getting high-sided on the berm really, but around back so those of us waiting couldn't see. Eventually it was our turn, we got the white car which I think was the fastest. The yellow car (the single-seater) started off a bit slow and got slower from there. Anyway, it was tons of fun. I got off the track twice, both times on the inside of a turn. Probably not turning into the skid. It's really a lot harder to drive slowly. Once you're moving fairly well, the friction and traction are more consistent. The other thing I found, from looking at the pictures, is that you really get a lot more air than you think. I'd expect it to be the opposite, but we were 4-5 feet up a couple of times, and I never felt like we got more than a foot of air, while in the car. The suspension is amazing, it's a shaky ride of course, but landing from that high up in anything else would shorten your spine a few inches. The whole thing ended on a down note, as the yellow car finally crapped out on MikeB on his 4th of 5 extra laps, but then they later still tried to charge him for all 5 laps. I think he ended up splitting the difference.

After that, it was late in the afternoon. MB and I went to Nick San, a sushi joint downtown. The food was good. Another SNAFU here though: when the waiter came to get our orders, MB asked what I was going to get, and I said dish A. Then she ordered, and I changed my mind and ordered dish B. They brought me both dishes; but, as soon as I said, "oh! I only wanted one" they took one away (the one I wanted actually, but I'd already started on the first figuring that's what I was going to get) and said nothing more. I think I got the stinkeye from the chef, as they basically just had to toss a plate of hamachi it looked like. Oh well. They didn't charge me for it.

Then, we walked back to the hotel, taking the "through town" route. It was a bit circuitous, and the long day and the heat were getting to MB so it wasn't a fun walk. But then we got home and relaxed and showered and chilled out for a while, that was good. One small problem: when the time changed, we didn't change the clock on the kitchen microwave. And then, the power flickered, zapping the clock in the bedroom (the one we did change). So, we set that clock back to the *wrong time*. Several hours go by, and MB got ready to go out for the "Ladies' Night" group that was going downtown. She waited in the lobby for 30 minutes, before finally asking the desk clerks if they had any idea where the big group of women was. . .he said they left an hour ago. So, that sucked. Meanwhile I was practicing guitar. She came back up w/ the news of what happened right as I was stepping out to go play Rock Band in the ballroom. So after we talked for a bit she encouraged me to go do that, so I went and played a couple songs. But, I wasn't having any fun, so I went back and we spent the rest of the evening together, including writing in our journals (for me, just notes about things – and that was the last I wrote in it while there).

Thursday, April 10: Uh. . .beats the hell out of me. Oh – skipped our morning "ATV" excursion, and slept in instead. Then what, I can't remember. I think we went back to Wal Mart. Yeah, that must have been that morning. In the afternoon, we went horseback riding. That was weird. There's a "farm" just up the road – really they look like a bunch of squatters and their animals in what is just some public land overlooking the dry river bed. The guys working the place had a real nutty "cowboy" thing going on. They didn't speak much English. They just put us on the horses and started down the creek bed. My sandals have a really wide toe box that didn't fit in the stirrups – he kind of tried to wedge them in, but without much luck. So, the first time my horse started trotting, I was basically standing on my toes and hoping I didn't slip out. When we got to the halfway point, he wedged them in for me better, but that also left my feet sideways-ish. It's been a long time since I've been on a horse. Beautiful animals. Really *big*, and they have a mind of their own. We basically just went back to the beach, then up it a half mile or so, past a few resorts, then back again. We had signed up for 2 hours, but we said that 1 was enough. Uh. . .I don't remember what we did after that. I think that night we went back to Alfred and Jodie's room to play some more games with a bunch of folks. We learned a great game, known by several names including "Oh Shit!". So I thik we were there fairly late doing that.

Friday, April 11: Let's see. . .I think MB spent some time at the pool, I wasn't feeling well so I stayed inside and read or something for a bit, then went out and joined her for a swim. Later, a bunch of us "rode the banana". That would be, in case you were wondering, a very large inflatable raft. It's really two bananas, side by side, each seating six people. When I say "seating", I mean you straddle it (sort of, those with long legs couldn't really do that), and grab a little handle, and hold on. Then the boat takes off and zips around the harbor at 20 mph. On the trip "out" to the arch (which means we go out pretty far – through areas where there's all kinds of boat traffic, and not too far from cruise ships, they don't seem to have any sort of "zoning" in Mexican waterways), DB and the other DB were in the "back" seats. Which meant they were basically falling over backwards, holding on for dear life. Out near the arch, a bunch of people on the right side fell off (we all had life vests on), which naturally lop-sided the raft and caused everyone on my side to fall off to. Somehow, except for Dan. I lost my goggles (and, I found out later, a contact lens), Jeremy spotted them a few feet down and retrieved them for me. On the trip back, he and I were in the back seats. It was insane. The best I could do was trail my feet in the water (at which point Jeremy shouted "BE CAREFUL, YOU CAN BREAK YOUR TOES DOING THAT", but I didn't have much choice) and hold the handle and pull myself down onto the raft as hard as I could, to keep from bouncing off. Jeremy gave out and fell in about 100 feet from shore, and Dan went in to get him but then they just swam in. When we got to shore, my ankle was hurting pretty good, but also I did something to my knee. MB had a big scratch, that turned into a couple bruises, from where someone kicked her during the chaos. Lots of muscles were sore already, and as the next couple days went by, my arms actually got more and more sore/tight, peaking around Monday at the point where I could barely straighten them out all the way. What fun! And it was cheap, too.

So I think we crashed for a bit after that. We probably did something else but I can't remember. Dinner that night was the whole group at Casa Mia. It's a huge, kitsch-y but cool restaurant. They had a margarita waiting for everyone as soon as we walked in the door. A really strong, sour margarita. So people got pretty loose pretty quickly. Dinner was yummy, I had pollo en mole, though I've certainly had better in the US. There was a band, it was accordion, guitar, and harp I think? maybe one more instrument, they were pretty good. Then an interesting dancer, she didn't come very close to our table though. MB went over and gave her a big tip. After something like 2 or 3 hours there, we got the bus ride back to the resort. MB and I just packed and crashed for the evening, I think a lot of people kept partying for a while.

Saturday: the flight back. etc.

OK, enough of that for now.