heeeet

Sunday, June 29, 2008
23:09

Ah, summer at last! Sunny and hot this weekend. Yesterday after rehearsal, did the necessary task of replacing the headlight in my car. Somewhat of a pain, but I didn't waste nearly as much time figuring out all the broken little fastener bits like last time. Then had a relaxed afternoon, until picking up MB and KH at the ferry terminal – they'd gone over to Bainbridge for a few hours. It was pretty busy along the waterfront, so getting there and back took almost an hour! Later, out to dinner, KH's treat. Went to Lombardi's down the street. It was excellent. I can't quite remember, but I think the first/last time MB and I went there it was so-so. Everything was wonderful this time. I got chicken saltimbocca, which was great and the side veggies were done deliciously. MB had a seared ahi salad, and HK the halibut which she raved about. MB got peaches w/ ricotta for dessert, KH the panna cotta, and I got white chocolate gelato w/ balsamic-marinated strawberries! it was so good. And lots of it, almost too much. Anyway, it was good and interesting to meet KH.

Today, up fairly early to drive them to the airport – MB is in NH this week for work, KH going back to CT. Then a pretty lazy mid-day, listening to music and watching car videos on youtube etc. Then, over to Travgor's for a BBQ. The Lost Pedro gig on MI was pretty dreary apparently. But the BBQ was good. Perfect weather, and they have the perfect backyard for it. I imagine we'll all be back there on Friday! Not a late night given that it was Sunday, so I got back here around 10. MB's flights were delayed, so she just arrived in NH about 30 minutes ago – ugh! She'll have a rough morning tomorrow.

Picked up a little more sunburn this weekend probably, between walking to the auto parts store about a mile away, and the BBQ today.

Supposed to be hot tomorrow! Hope that it's as cool in the performance space as usual, relatively.

We began learning the Shostakovich prelude yesterday – rearranged now for 2 bass (left hand) players and 6 circulators (RH). The ACE folks were insane to do it with 4 circulators (it's all 8ths in 3/4 time)! I'm pretty excited to be working on this and CtB.

Longest day

Sunday, June 22, 2008
23:12

A good weekend. Friday, had a belated Father's Day dinner. C&A brought homemade blackberry pie, MB and I brought fixin's for dinner – spinach salad with walnuts, gorgonzola, and grapes; curried lentil soup; and squash ravioli. Mmm! It all turned out very yummy. We got to visit with C&A and my nephew for a couple hours while making/eating dinner, then they had to hit the road. Then we stayed a bit to chat with Dad and Sue.

Saturday was a "day off", no TTA rehearsal or anything. So I got to go to the solstice fair / parade, something I'd never done. I dropped MB off at the parade-prep place at 10, then went and found a parking spot near Gasworks. I walked back to the center of Fremont, where the crowd was getting ever-thicker, and got some coffee at Peet's. The line was very long but the seating upstairs was all free, so I got a nice comfy seat near the window and read No Country For Old Men for about an hour. Then I walked west through the fair area for a while, and once the parade looked like it was near starting I started walking east again. The route was pretty thickly lined with parade-watchers. I got a sandwich and ate that sitting outside – it was overcast but fairly warm. Then watched the first few floats go by – the 2nd had a really good, funky band on it with a horn section and everything. I have no idea who they were. Several of the floats were preceeded by a few topless, body-painted young women.

I figured it'd work best if I was near the parade endpoint eventually, so I made my way back towards Gasworks. Eventually finding a spot where I had a pretty good view of the street. MB and the belly dance troupe came by pretty soon after that. I tried to get some pictures, but I had to hold the camera up to get them and they didn't really turn out. Then I started heading west again, following them – but, there was nowhere to go. There was no room on that side of the street. Eventually I had to cross the parade route, mixing in with a bunch of people dressed in red going around hugging folks, and then was able to keep moving. MB called and said they were all done, and hanging out at the park. I got there and we met up and she changed out of her costume. Then we walked around the park a bit. It wasn't very crowded yet, mostly parade folks at this time. But people kept flowing in at a pretty high rate. We split a "fruitkabob" (chocolate covered strawberries on a stick) and some potato fritter / chickpea thing with chutney made by the Hare Krishnas. We sat on the grass for a while, just relaxing and watching people, then headed home.

Later we went up to Northgate to try out the Indonesian restaurant we'd tried to go to a few months ago (but it was too busy, so we went to the Thai place next to it, which was good). It was OK – the menu is really really meat-centric actually. So we didn't have too much to choose from. The egg-noodle with tofu dish was very good, but could have used more "stuff" eg some veggies. The spicy fried bean sprouts weren't so great. Not bad, but it was a damn big plate of bean sprouts. I can only eat so many of those! The iced tea was good. Then we went to the bookstore for a while, and then stopped by Target to get some candles for the show. We went to Oak Tree and got tickets for the 9:50 The Hulk, we were pretty early so we played the boat racing arcade game they had in the lobby – not bad, the really cheesy pseudo-American voice announcer was awesome. The movie was OK – it had some really good bits and some pretty stupid / blah ones.

Today, slept in while MB went to yoga. Then oatmeal for breakfast, and some time lounging around the house, reading etc. Then we headed to the Eastside, for a BBQ at Alfred and Jodie's. Dan and Dawnise also showed up. There was (almost) a snafu with the food as Alfred didn't remember (or never really picked up on) that MB is a veggie. So there was lots of meat as I predicted, plus a salad with bacon in it. But at the last minute he grilled some asparagus which was really good, and Dawnise made a good shredded-every-vegetable salad. So everybody was pretty happy with the food. The meat included venison, which was tastier than I expected. A&J's young ones were both cute and well-behaved and all that. After dinner we played a game like pictionary but where the scribbles are already drawn for you, you have to assemble them. I brought a bottle of honey pepper vodka, but only Dan and I drank any of that. We got home around 10:30.

Oh – on Saturday, I got a sunburn, despite never actually seeing the sun. Just a bit of redness on my face, but pretty funny considering it was overcast.

Ouch

Tuesday, June 18 2008
25:00

A man jumped from the roof of this building – 6 storeys – yesterday morning. We didn't hear him hit the ground, but we heard the fire truck arrive. The workers in the bank heard it (the fall) and went out to check on him. He was still conscious at that time, and told them he jumped. The EMTs got him all braced up (and cut off his pants) and took him away. He was unconscious by then. At the time, we didn't know what happened, though we surmised as much, because the EMTs kept looking up at the roof. Externally, the guy didn't look like he'd fallen 70 feet onto concrete – just very pale, with a cut on his thigh. He might have hit the plastic dumpster lid on the way down. Anyway, we got a memo about it today, apparently he is still alive.

Got the new mixer plugged in and everything tonight, works just great. It may take me some time to decide which routing configuration I like best, but at least I have options with this thing. Many of them. The 20-foot balanced cables were barely long enough to connect it to the computer – I was surprised by that, I thought I bought 25 footers but now I see that I bought 20s, and that's the longest they stocked, so I guess I thought at the time it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Hmm.

It's late, time for bed.

Sun!

Sunday, June 15 2008
23:40

Turns out I had a few things wrong in my last entry – my great-grandfather was doing his cowboy thing within Colorado – he was the foreman of that particular drive actually. And, the pictures were found in Lebanon, OR, in the house Frank had lived in until he died.

A good weekend. Friday night, went out to dinner with MB's aunt and uncle. Nice folks. They'd asked about a place to get good seafood while in town, so I recommended Anthony's on pier 66. They invited us along, their treat! It was very, very good. They each got Copper River salmon, MB had halibut, and I got swordfish. That was the first time I'd had swordfish, it's pretty tasty. The view was wonderful, and we had a good time.

Saturday: guitar in the morning. Then I spent some time working, playing games, and listening to music in the afternoon while MB was out doing first the HC meeting, then she had a belly dance class. She got back around 7:30, and made oatmeal raisin cookies for a party she was going to later in the evening. I mentioned that I loved oatmeal cookies, but without raisins so much, so she made me a batch sans-raisins! I headed off to travgor's to have some dinner and watch BSG, then MB headed out to her bellydance party. We each had a pretty good evening. I got to chow down on leftover Thai food, and brought the raisinless batch of cookies plus some pretty nice Scotch for everyone to enjoy. BSG was, yet again, amazing. I have no idea where it will go next, really. Some theories are flying about, but who knows. We may have to wait a while to find out, it looks like. Ugh. I got home around 12:30, then MB about 1. She had a lot of fun at the party, the live band was great.

Sunday: slept in while MB made the raspberry-almond-cornmeal tart again, this time noticing that she'd left out a step the previous time. We had some of that plus cereal for breakfast. It was looking pretty sunny outside! yay! I had a bit of a headache though, and at one point it suddenly got a lot worse. Had me freaked out a bit. It subsided, and a couple Tylenol made it disappear. I was pretty dehydrated when I woke up, think that was it. I don't know why, but it's just a lot dryer in here than it was in my old apartment. We went to IKEA – a long drive, but the nice day helped and it wasn't too crowded in there given the weather. A very successful trip. Turns out the table that I thought I wanted, and they didn't have anyway, wasn't what I wanted. There was a whole other table system that turned out to be perfect. I really don't like their website. It's just so non-obvious how you get a listing of what you want to see. In this case, I didn't even know that the Galant table/leg series existed. Because they consider it a desk! Well, OK. It's a 63" long, flat, rectangular table.

When we got back from IKEA – the desk just barely fit in the car, we had to have both our seats scrunched way up towards the front – we unloaded the car, then went out to get some lunch/dinner. Given the nice day, we went to the Hi-Life to sit outside. Well, it was actually a bit chilly in the shade, because it was windy and I was wearing just a t-shirt, so we moved inside a few feet. Very nice. MB got the spring ravioli and I tried the porkloin asado from their Barcelona menu. Very good. Could have used some greens of some sort, however. We took a detour by the park on the way home, watching some kids skateboarding in the "pool". Later, CF came over and we watched Control Room, which was excellent. There are a few people that were/are involved with the Iraq war who, in many different times and cultures, would be considered prime candidates for execution given their actions. I don't quite feel they deserve that, but damn close.

After CF left to walk home, I put together the new table, and MB and I moved it into the office. It's totally perfect. Had a funny moment when wrangling it through the doorway – it wouldn't fit, and as I was trying to figure out how to angle it in, MB suggested "shortening the legs". Duh, of course. It has adjustable legs, and I'd put them out to maximum (because that's where I wanted the table height to be). So we shortened them, and it was a breeze after that, then re-lengthened them and put it in place.

I hope the beautiful weather keeps up.

Oh yeah – picked up the car on Friday. It's now "like new". Not bad.

June 2

Sunday, June 9 2008
24:07

A little over 100 years ago, my great-great-uncle Frank was a photographer. His three brothers, including my great-grandfather Stanford, were cowbowys. Frank took many photographs depicting their life and the lives of the other cowboys on the long cattle drives up to Wyoming and Montana. These photographic plates were found in an attic in Idaho in the 1960s, and made their way to a fellow named John Eggen. With the endorsement and aid of my grandfather, John Eggen printed several books from these pictures, including The West that Was and The Cowboys. Our family received several copies of each book, and I am very glad to have them.

Mr. Eggen had an agreement with my grandfather that the negatives would be donated to a museum in the event of Mr. Eggen's death. Several years ago, Mr. Eggen decided instead to sell the plates. I do not know where they currently are. My father managed to track down an email address a couple years ago, but he received no response.

The pictures themselves are in the public domain, the copyrights long expired. However, the plates themselves are simple property. Without knowing the contents of Frank Sherman's will, as far as I know, my family has no more right to them than anyone else on the planet – whoever has them in their possession owns the plates, and that is that.

I would like to make these photographs available to the public. I cannot do this. If I were to upload scans from Mr. Eggen's books, I would be violating his copyright. How this makes any sense, I'm not quite sure. But that is the way the law works in this country.

Meanwhile. . .a good, action-packed weekend. Friday night, went out for dinner with MB. We stopped by a joint on Fremont Ave recommended by BR – very cozy, and full. The guy we talked to said maybe 15 minutes, but given the fact that all tables were full and another couple was in front of us, we kept walking. Though, we did give him our number just in case. We ended up at the Asteroid Café – and, sure enough, right after we were seated, the first place called. Oh well. We stayed at the Asteroid. It was really disappointing. Very expensive, and not very good. MB ordered the special, black cod. It was undercooked, essentially a huge gelatinous mass on her plate, and over salted. I got spinach gnocchi with fresh veggies. The gnocchi were very good, the vegetables were all cooked just right and otherwise excellent, except that it was salted to death. It was borderline inedible (though, the way salt works, that meant that I couldn't stop eating it). So, scratch that place off the list.

Saturday – open circle. Mostly the house team plus a few perf. team, and one newcomer. He did pretty well. Good circulations. Then, a break at the coffee shop, and over to the Wilson's for reahersal. That was good. Igor hurt his back earlier though, and was stiff as a board and hiding the pain pretty substantially.

MB and I came back and took a long nap – three hours. Then, we walked to Rain City and rented Control. A sad movie, as I knew it would be, but beautiful. So well done. MB enjoyed it too.

Sunday – slept in. MB made French toast, mmm. Then some domestic work, moving boxes of stuff down to my storage space in the garage, while MB worked on her editing job. I made a run to the hardware store for some lumber to put down, so the boxes aren't on the concrete directly. Then, over to travgor's for CF's birthday. A lo-key thing, with some pizza and drinks, then a super yummy chocolate tart and some chocolate fig ice cream. Damn, I just realized I left the leftover ice cream there! I should've nabbed it instead of the wine, heh. Anway, we watched some of the 1968 Elvis "comeback" show, the acoustic "black leather sit-down" set, which was great. He was quite a guy. Then, the latest BSG. Holy crap. Then, back here for some guitar practices and emailing and now this, then to bed.

crunch

licensehole
Originally uploaded by Taylor Sherman

Ugh

Tuesday, June 3 2008
23:05

Got rear-ended last night. After I stopped on Market to turn left onto Russel, heading for the Hi-Life after the show, I heard skidding. I had long enough to think "what's that sound? . . . oh, shit" and look in the mirror to see two lights getting too close too fast, then bang. Nobody was hurt – MB was in the passenger seat, and the other car (a pickup truck) just had the driver. Seemed like a nice guy but he didn't really speak any English. We did trade insurance cards though. I made a claim last night, got the estimate done today. I guess tomorrow I have to call his insurance people and give a statement. Yay. Thankfully, the car is totally driveable, all the doors work, taillights, etc. The rear bumper is effectively toast, and the hatch is dented. A front headlight is out, I'm not sure if that is related or not (the "tab lights" over the plate in back got smushed, that might have caused a short that blew a fuse, but I don't know why that fuse would be the same as the left headlight's).

So that put a damper on the evening. The first accident I've ever been in, really. The show was pretty good, meanwhile. Large audience. Two people from work were there – Jeep, and Karen P. I tanked the first half of the IMR zithers, complete brain fart. Luckily the 2nd half was still in there, and I think it was about as best as we've done for that half, actually.