Bye Bye July

Sunday, July 27 2008
24:09

Let's see. . .last show was good, a big turnout and very enthusiastic. Pizza and drinks afterward's at CG's. Then a completion meeting at bobandjax's Tuesday night. A considerably less-bleak outlook in several ways than the same time after last season.

Friday, stopped by my friendly neighborhood gastroenterologist's to have a camera stuck down my throat. They gave me some good knockout juice, because I don't remember any of it. Maybe they faked it! Anyway, the report was fairly good, they did have to do the expando thing on a stricture, but overall I think it looked pretty good. I was mostly sleepy / headachy / heartburny for the rest of the day after that, MB did a good job taking care of me while still doing work and a yoga class in the evening.

Saturday – slept in, then went and bought a bike. They'd sold the XL version of the one I liked best, I tried out some others but that was still the winner, so it's on order, should be here in a couple weeks. Forgot to call the other cycle place and tell them to keep the deposit I put on that bike. Then I mostly puttered around the house while MB was off at part 2 of 3 of the yoga class weekend. After she got back, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant downtown-ish, to see/hear some of MB's friends from the local bellydance crowd, a dancer plus a 4-piece live band. The band was great! really, really impressive. I think the woman playing dumbek and riq was the most impressive. The food there was absolutely delicious, and really cheap too. We figured the cost on the veggie sampler was per person, but it was the total! Anyway, that was fun (MB got up and danced for a bit) and then we got home around 11:30 and went to bed.

Today – slept in again, MB off to part 3 of 3. I spent the day inside again, listening to music and doing some shopping online. Oh, bought a new computer yesterday – it should be here late this week or early next week? It was $$ but it will be so nice to have a nice, clean, fast computer again. And QUIET. God, why did I buy such a noisy computer last time. I also splurged for a 24" monitor. Anyway, today I ordered some powered studio monitors, nothing too fancy but they'll let me listen to mixes on something other than headphones. When MB came back, we worked up a quick, tight-schedule plan to do both things we wanted to do tonight – check out a wacky brass/marching band from Providence that were playing in Fremont, and go see The Dark Knight. We figured we'd go to the venue and see one or two songs from the band, but as we were finding parking we saw them trouping along the streets, so we parked and then chased after them. MB called an old friend of hers from RI that knew one of the women in the band, and then between songs, ran up to her w/ the phone and said "Say hi to Judith!". I think she was a bit taken aback at first but it was a pretty cool moment. Anyway, then we hotfooted it back to the car and over to the U District to see the Batman movie. Which was great. I think I'd still like to go see it on IMAX, though it looks like I have all of August to do that. Anyway, after that, back here and getting ready for bed and such.

Yesterday and today, I've begun working on Shostakovich's Prelude 22 in g minor. What a wacky piece of music. My part will be every 6th note of the melody, eventually, but I'm taking the tack right now of just learning all the notes.

ahh

Sunday, July 20 2008
22:39

The weather turned a bit cooler / cloudier this week, though with quit a bit of sun still. This weekend was gorgeous. Today: slept in, put some new strings on the main bass, and played for a bit, getting the expected big old blister on my RH middle finger. After MB got back from a bellydance thing at the Seattle Center, we headed out to see Hellboy II. Pretty good. Funny. After that we walked around the U-District for a bit, finally finding a good looking Thai restaurant. Nothing special, but not bad. I've always thought that was a pretty shitty neighborhood (meaning the area right around 45th and the Ave) – yes there's all kinds of great stuff there, but it's just nasty and dirty.

We stopped at HD on the way back to get some caulking and spackle – the former to fix the dislocated shower drain cover, and the latter to fix the dent we put in the wall when moving my couch back last weekend. Both processes had some hitches – the silicone was actually white, not clear, so it looks fairly ratty through the drain; the touch-up paint I have for my walls (which, I'm pretty sure, are the same as those in the hallway) was too light a shade, so the hall wall actually looks worse now. Hopefully the builders can help out with that. After that, some guitar practice, working on Cultivating the Beat, and the symmetric-scale arpeggios that Jaxie brought back from Spain.

Yesterday – rehearsal, though for the first hour Jax showed us the aforementioned bits and pieces, that was fun. Also, before that, some playing upstairs in the great hall. Sounds awesome, but it will be a whole new can of worms for us, hearing-wise. After rehearsal, I came back here and went to the bike shop across the street. I rode two of the more "comfortable" road bikes, and then one of the new "comfort" hybrids. The first bike was just too long; the second a better fit. Both of those were wonderfully quick, and light. But, I got a crick in my neck after about 25 minutes on the local roads. As soon as I sat on the hybrid, two things were apparent: 1. this is much more fun, and 2. this is soooo much better than my old hybrid. Lighter, and it's actually comfortable given the upright position, whereas before it was just sort of a "worst of both worlds". This bike shop is also really great, they were very helpful and attentive, turns out it was the owner that was helping me. So, I was going to go back to Greg's today and ride the Sequoia, just because, then eyeball some of the Trek and Specialized hybrids, then probably come back here and buy this one (a Cannondale). But, the local shop was closed today, and I ended up doing other things, so I think I'll just go to this place some time this week and get the one I liked. It's also about half the price of the road bikes.

Oh, so after that I got a new casserole pot for the kitchen so that MB could make some family-recipe mac & cheese, and helped her with that and her new signature "soy sausage spanakopita". Then we went over to Travgor's for Travis' birthday party. That was good, fairly low key, but good. A few folks came out of the woodwork to stop by. The mac & cheese didn't quite turn out as it was supposed to, but it was good, and there was lots of other good food, also had some wine, some pepper vodka, and some yummy Scotch that Travis got. Eventually those of us left settled in to watch the copy of Pale Rider that TM got. Awesome movie, it's so good. MB and I came home around 12:30.

Friday night – went down to Georgetown to see some friends of MB's from Boston play. They were pretty good, kinda kooky. Turns out the venue was the same little art gallery that Elektrochakra played at last summer. After that, we booked back up to Fremont to see one of Igor's bands, Supermodelumberjack, play at ToST (another venue that EC played at last year, huh). That was good, and we got out of there also just after midnight.

Next up: last show tomorrow. We expect the turnout to be somewhere between "a full house" and "ohmygod what are we going to do". Should be fun.

hot hot hot

Sunday, July 13 2008
22:54

I have a new hardwood floor. The replacement isn't quite done, but it's just touch-up work. The crew this time seemed to know what they were doing, which is very good. And the lumber is much higher quality, I think. So, so far I'm pretty happy.

It was hot today! after a lazy morning, and then breakfast of cereal and leftover apple pie, MB and I went to Greg's Greenlake to look at a bike for me. It was a pretty crappy experience. The sales guy was working too many folks simultaneously, and would neglect us for 10 minute stretches. In the end, I put down $20 so they would assemble the bike I wanted to try, in my size. So next weekend I'll go check that. I'm leaning towards a real "road bike", no more hybrids. It'll take some getting used to, but I think it'll be better in the long run.

Yesterday: gig at Good Shepherd. It was a long, hot day (rehearsal from 10-1 at Travgor's, then we met at GS at 4 to soundcheck and rehearse, had a one-hour break at 6, then the show at 8, and out of there by 10), but a good show. Not a large audience. Their "regulars" were all at a party, apparently. In the end, it was a fun performance for some of us but not for others, and it was a heck of a lot of work put into a one-off thing that wasn't actually a TTA performance.

Last week was entirely warm/hot and sunny. Glorious. The forecast is good for this week too!

The new floor event involved disassembling / moving everything that was on the hardwood – the sofa, stereo, tv rug, chairs, and media shelf. That took a few hours last Sat & Sunday (Curt helped move the heavy stuff on Sunday), we were able to store the big items in the empty apt. next door. Then, spent a few hours today moving things back in (me and MB undertaking it ourselves this time), and re-assembling. Did some slight rearranging in the process, it's better now I think.

Flickr is busted – no uploading happening right now, it seems. At least, not for me – via the app or the web. Hmm, others are uploading. Guess it's just a broken shard.