Category: Family

Got to get over to Paul’s today

and email myself all of my songs….  I have a request for one of my tunes from one of the guys out at Jericho so I need to scrape them off the hard drive and send them over to myself.  I thought I had actually backed them up, but I was wrong.

Tonight, Thai food with Keith & rest of famille.

Today, arranging books.  I have figured out how I’m going to do that now; it only took me nine weeks.

Keith’s B-day tomorrow – Robert Anson Heinlein’s today

The four of us are planning to get together for his birthday. I already bought his present but it will probably arrive next week.

Had the folks over for beers last night; in attendance, Melissa, Ryan, Brian C, Jarmo and Rob of Nine, who was, unfortunately, not able to massage my printer into compliance as there is no driver for it. Drat.

After they all left, Swampy came over for a beer and told me that things are going much more smoothly than he anticipated and it was just really pleasant to have him here – and we discussed a couple of books, including Focusing and The Dosadi Experiment (which is basically a fast forward through Dune without the religion and with a kickass courtroom scene at the end). Then at nine my date came over. We sat outside next to the fountain until about the fourth time he slapped a mosquito (imagine that… a guy who gets bit by mosquitoes more than I do!?) at which point I said that I found it unconscionably inhospitable to contribute to his discomfort so, and besides, there was beer and a bathroom back at my place…

So I guess I’ve had a very sociable weekend already and it ain’t even noon on Saturday yet.

Today is the 100th centenary of Heinlein’s birth. How I wished he could have become a blogger. Okay, I don’t but it makes me laugh to think about how he would have talked about the last three or four sets of American governments.

I talked to Kira on the phone today.  She was purring.  Zeek!, thank heaven, is back to his old self and the bloody spot under his chin has cleared up.  His bloodwork came back okay so the 1200 vet bill Paul and I were looking at turned out not to be necessary.

Keith will come by today before work with more Aubrey/Maturin for me.  (more, more more!) and some other media for me to peruse (hopefully Fables III and IV).

I watched Denis Leary’s music video of Asshole last night.  I always liked the song, but the video was brilliant, IMO.

Facebook is extremely amusing, and I’m having loads o’ fun with it.  Mostly poking people.  I’ve gotten into a poking contest with two people; I know that sounds rude, but it’s harmless virtual primate fun.

Here’s a cool “matrix style” domestic argument, from Japanese TV.

brief report

Tonight I:

Spoke for the first time to the best prospect from Craigslist. He reads SF (including my litmus novel, Frank Herbert’s the Dosadi Experiment)! He’s a union man! He sings bass! He has long hair and a beard! He made me laugh my ass off! I am meeting him Friday night!

Arranged in my own mind – okay, started spade work with the CUC – to work on a social justice refresher course for my church (welcoming gays, lesbians, transgendered and gender rebellious people of all stripes.)

Spoke to my mother on the phone. Spoke (briefly) to my Kitty Kate on the phone.

Hung with one of my fave exinlaws. Being Swampy.

Sat in a brilliantly sunny patio and watched the world go by while so doing.

Pondered how to put a retraction in my blog about beer. Okay, deep breath, here goes. I like beer. It’s staying.

Wrote a song:

Give me five, give me ten
give me round the bend again
you will know when I blow through your town
Give me five, give me ten
give me round the bend again
As I impart the wisdom I have found

You may stray…. so far away
you may go where only God can follow
But your mind will find a thousand ways to shine
and your heart may ache and never yet be hollow

chorus

You may wait … for an important date
And find that life has gone by in the meantime
But it’s one short breath between your birth and death
so you might as well enjoy yourself between time

Chorus.

I need another voice, (verse!), but I’m quite happy as things stand. It amazes me how much I can do when I am happy.

Tim Readman at Jericho Folk

I got to the door too late to get into the open stage (sigh…) but the open stage folk and the headliner were awesome.  Tim closed the show with Blackleg Miner which is an old favourite of Dr. Filk’s.  He also sang his own songs mixed very well and in a very smooth, entertaining fashion, with old favourites, a capella, etc.  He also has that English accent that makes a girl melt.
It was a beautiful evening.  As is my custom when I go to Jericho, I ordered a Raven on tap, thinking about the other times I’ve consumed it, and walked to the edge of the patio and watched the sun go down.  Damn, but this is beautiful country.

Paul has very kindly provided pics of the grad but I’ll be posting them later… stay tuned.

glad news, sad news

My philosophical buddy Avinash called and reminded me to be rational – it was a lovely conversation.  I met him while I was running the Simplicity Meetup group last year.

Katie has a job!!!! She picked it out, applied, interviewed her new boss as hard as he interviewed her, and I am very proud of her.

Lady Miss Banjola is a pharmacist! Dred her blisterpakking skillz!

I have come to the conscious decision to let go of some stuff and it hurts, but it’s kind of a good hurt, if you know what I mean.  I’m talking material stuff.

Sad news…. Cali, Tom and Peggy’s kitty, aetat 24, is v. poorly and not going to make it.

I-I-I-I phone

Godawmighty, the techsphere’s buzzing like a rhythmically whacked wasp’s nest about the Iphone.  Boingboing.net went so gaga they might as well be writing advertising copy for Apple, and someguy over there said ‘THIS IS THE UI WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR’.  They are aware, of course, how breathless and ecstatic they sound so they posted under the title “Jesus is Risen”.  o RLY.  Indeed, as RobofNine would say.
Just so, as mOm would say.

I just found the remote that came with my computer. Who knew, back in 1992, that computers could have remotes?
Saw Keith, read TWO (okay, most of two) Aubrey/Maturin books yesterday AND went to Shrek III.  Yes, Shrek III isn’t ‘as good’ as the first two.  But it’s still way funnier than just about everything else out there.  Would have been nicer if it had taken me less than an hour to get home, but oh well. That’s life with no car.  While he was here I unlimbered my credit card and bought (or so I believe, but I never got a frikking confirmation email) two books about … gee… can you guess???? Aubrey Maturin!!!!  One of them is a book by book atlas and the other is detailed illustrations of all those heaps of frikkin nautical terms.  I’ll probably break into them before I give them to Keith, but he’s jiggy with that.  Anyway, with any luck they’ll get here before his birthday, and if they don’t nae borra.  He’ll be 21.  Can you believe I pushed him out of my body 21 years ago??? it’s bizarre.  He’s so adult and calm and inspiring, and so easily pleased.

Day 1 of no beer.  At Katie’s grad I said I didn’t think I could live a month without beer.  Then I realized that this was the single saddest, and possibly stupidest, thing I had ever heard myself say.  After taking thought, I figured if I can pass most of the month of July without beer, I’ll be in good shape.  Dunno how I’m going to get through Tuesday though – I always drink a beer before I perform (One beer Only), as I find it prevents worry.  More than one beer, though, impedes performance.  Didn’t Shakespeare do a bit on that? It’s also bizarre to think that in my personal take on Ol’ Abe Maslow’s Cone of Consciousness, Beer outranks Sex. What am I, Homer Simpson??? Sad mismanagement in that, dear friends.
Off to the weight room now, I have an appointment with one of the infernal machines.

What news?

I learned last night that the closing date has been moved in two weeks; it’s now July 15th.

Sandra sent me pics of a fine looking woman sitting in her living room in Syria with two tame hyenas.  Brr. Those things are loony dangerous!  It would be like taming bears, no sane person would do it.  Anyway, I’d repost it but for some reason I could not copy the pic to post.

I am definitely NOT coming to Victoria this weekend, as I suspect I will be heaving crap out of the two sheds this weekend once I hear when is convenient so to do with Paul.

Sigh.  V. happy about Katie still, and why the hell not.

My telus webmail is down.  Normally I wouldn’t mention such a trifle, but I ran a personal ad.  And that’s where all the replies are going, and the Telus minion was both rude and uninformative as to when the webmail will be up again.   Gr.

Rereading Master and Commander as I don’t have any fresh Aubrey/Maturin books.

Today, the photo for my passport, and possibly some of the other paperwork dealt with.

Hey pOp

I read the first 21 pages of St Eve’s charge to the jury in the Black mail and wire fraud trial. What I read was really interesting, although being bird witted I ran out of steam and decided even if I hadn’t read the whole thing it was worth posting the link.

Scroll down until you hit the “Read the instructions to the jury” link.

Katie’s principal read out loud at the graduation that “Katie hopes that her grandparents are proud of her.” I’d say bursting with pride about covers it. Purpose sure is an amazing school.

I don’t have pics because Katie danced off with her camera and Paul drove her home. It was an exceedingly pleasant and low key event. All the speeches were terse, whether off the cuff or scripted, the mike got handed round the room, and of course, the piece de resistance was the two musical teachers singing a Grad Parody of Man of Constant Sorrow, as sung in O Brother Where Art Thou.

Meshugas after I got home – the front door exit lever was broken. You could open it from the outside with the pass card but not from the inside with the lever. This freaked the hell out of Katie, Paul and Suzanne; Paul’s comment was that it was a fire hazard and needed to be corrected immediately. I had already stuck the after hours emergency number in my cell phone… so I left a message and by the time the folks left the door had been fixed. I may have had nothing to do with it but it certainly argues that the building is being properly maintained.
Oh, also pOp you should be hearing from Katie shortly, something about the Spike Jones and the City Slickers tape being trashed and how much she would really appreciate another one. I found some on the internet and Katie got all gooey eyed about it.

Gosh, you should have seen her, a vision in Gothic Black. Dax looked sharp too. I would have killed to have worn the shoes Suzanne did; extra high topped black and white sneakers with gel insoles. yowza. The venue was STUNNING, the mood electrically happy but mellow, the food rocked and did I mention the speeches were short? All in all a truly successful evening. Then we came back here and some of us drank beer (that would be me and Paul) and some of us drank Baja Rosa (that would be Katie, who was showing signs of snogging the entire thing, and Suzanne and Dax). And we listened to Man of Constant Sorrow from the soundtrack, and Bob Dylan, and Mika, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs ang Peggy Lee and Spike Jones and we watched the Triumph motorcycle ad. I mean, gather round the fire, folks.

Did I mention my bundle buggy spectacularly exploded as I was exiting the 135 bus at Hastings and Willingdon today? I got down on my hands and knees and grabbed all the washers and the spring, which had sproinged, as springs do, and then spent an unhappy five minutes crawling about on the sidewalk jamming it back together and wishing I had some lockwire. (Subsequent analysis by Paul caused him to exclaim that I should have asked for the fat stuff, not the skinny lockwire, and subsequent subsequent analysis caused him to say it really needed a cotter pin anyways.) We only had three feet of the skinny stuff, which isn’t enough for otherwise stabilizing it. I will have to get by without it for a while, I sure don’t want to go through that again although I did keep my head at the time and actually did a quick count on the other side to make sure I had all the washers. Do I sound absurdly proud of myself? Good.
I got a picture of Daxus wearing my fake snake coat. He’s standing under an exit sign. V. cute.

Food & Drink

So we said goodbye to Burnt yesterday.  Alas, poor Burnt, having to move with his new bride to San Francisco.  What a chore!  Obviously I envy him.

Yesterday was a hang with the kids and install software kind of a day.

Katie did two more of the outstanding projects yesterday.

I watched a documentary called the Great American Songbook.  I’m going to go out on a limb and aver that it was put together by gay men; there are four or five Garland clips and only two of Sinatra, and one of the Sinatra clips makes him look like he’s singing a love song for the ages to Jimmy Durante, who’s quite spectacularly ugly, and the narrator makes the point of outlining the orientation of every songwriter along the way.  Am I being politically incorrect?  I hope so.  It was a pretty good compilation though.

Katie here

Today I have some running around to do.  Keith is joining me and Katie some time this morning and then I’m going to Burnt’s farewell luncheon.  The alcoholic version of said farewell is Saturday, when Burnt and PhD are getting rid of all the alcohol purchased for their nuptials.  Ha!  First time I’ve been invited to a DO NOT BYOB in ages.  Actually since Anna and Paul’s party.

Then other running around.  I’m 48 and have never had a passport, a state of affairs I need to correct soon.  And I should go sign up for the car co-op, as having access to a vehicle would be nice and there’s one parked at the door.  And I need a printer.  It’s only money…..

The inspection on the house was yesterday.  Paul told me that his interaction with the incoming owners (we hope) was ever so civil (he had to beetle over there to provide garage keys so he actually got to speak with them).  We both remain sanguine that the deal will go.

Katie finished another project and called herself pleased about the pamphlet she wrote which I formatted.  Keith is coming over to write up a leaflet about housesitting – he’s wanting another job and is asking the universe if it’s too much to ask to sit down for the next one.