Monday, April 25, 2005
Archaeology Part I
This weekend I pulled all my old wine-making equipment out of the pantry and garage and passed it on to Ben, and old friend of mine who's back in the Valley after a sojurn in Tucson. I used to be quite the mead-maker back in the late 80's/early 90's; I even won a second place ribbon at the Arizona State Fair for my rose petal mead. Since I'm now off alcohol due to theat old acid reflux thingie, I figured it was time to pass things on, and he'd always had an interest in learning my recipie. I didn't realize how long it had been since I last made a batch until I pulled out three full secondary fermenters labelled "Imbolg '99". Hello!
I finally got around to stringing Tom's Yamaha that he loaned me to learn how to play a standard-width neck. My Epiphone Songwriter has a wide neck, which is partly why I bought it, but that means some awkward fumbling when I borrow someone else's guitar, and Jeff has asked me to consider playing on his Taylor for the Stardust County recording - he had a hard time recording the Ep on Blues For Dumuzi because of the smaller soundbox. So I've strung the Yamaha with the new Taylor Fingerstyle strings, and holy cats! The strings ride a good 1/4 inch above the fretboard! I'm going to wind up with either a serious injury or an incredibly muscular left hand practicing on that!
In other news, I revved up the word processor and I'm writing again, as in fiction, for the first time in eons. And it's fun! And I believe I will keep doing it as long as it keeps being fun.
1 comments
This weekend I pulled all my old wine-making equipment out of the pantry and garage and passed it on to Ben, and old friend of mine who's back in the Valley after a sojurn in Tucson. I used to be quite the mead-maker back in the late 80's/early 90's; I even won a second place ribbon at the Arizona State Fair for my rose petal mead. Since I'm now off alcohol due to theat old acid reflux thingie, I figured it was time to pass things on, and he'd always had an interest in learning my recipie. I didn't realize how long it had been since I last made a batch until I pulled out three full secondary fermenters labelled "Imbolg '99". Hello!
I finally got around to stringing Tom's Yamaha that he loaned me to learn how to play a standard-width neck. My Epiphone Songwriter has a wide neck, which is partly why I bought it, but that means some awkward fumbling when I borrow someone else's guitar, and Jeff has asked me to consider playing on his Taylor for the Stardust County recording - he had a hard time recording the Ep on Blues For Dumuzi because of the smaller soundbox. So I've strung the Yamaha with the new Taylor Fingerstyle strings, and holy cats! The strings ride a good 1/4 inch above the fretboard! I'm going to wind up with either a serious injury or an incredibly muscular left hand practicing on that!
In other news, I revved up the word processor and I'm writing again, as in fiction, for the first time in eons. And it's fun! And I believe I will keep doing it as long as it keeps being fun.
1 comments
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The cactus wrens are reclaiming my yard from the curve-billed thrashers.
Ten years ago, when I bought this house, there was a breeding pair of cactus wrens in the big palm tree out front. They and their broods were saucy; when I was ripping out the burmuda grass back yard, they loved to bathe in the pools of dust that the procedure produced, and stood nearby scolding me whenever I worked in their bathing area. One year, when Mesa suffered a plague of grashoppers, they raised four fat chicks to adulthood, stuffing them with grasshoppers. One spring, however, I got a pair of curve-billed thrashers in the back yard, and that was that. They drive out cactus wrens - look like they outweigh them too. Although I enjoyed the thrashers, I've missed my wrens all these years. I'd heard thrashers were mountain-habitat birds driven down to the Valley by drought, and it seems that's true, because this spring the thrashers have vanished, and I've been hearing the distinctive racket of a wren.
This morning I had the back door open and heard a hell of a racket on the patio. There was a cactus wren on one of the chairs, telling off a toehe while the cats watched through the screen. Pleaseblossom's tail was poofed like a bottle brush! I'm hoping this guy sticks around and attracts a mate.
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Over the weekend I finished up the arrangement on You Need a Friend, then went back and did some more work on the Overture, adding parts for electric bass and Native American flute, and cleaning up the dynamic markings overall. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. (Instant playback in Sibelius is a wonderful feature.) Also did a little tweaking to the piano part for A Mask and a Mirror, now that I've had time to practice it on an actual keyboard.
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Ten years ago, when I bought this house, there was a breeding pair of cactus wrens in the big palm tree out front. They and their broods were saucy; when I was ripping out the burmuda grass back yard, they loved to bathe in the pools of dust that the procedure produced, and stood nearby scolding me whenever I worked in their bathing area. One year, when Mesa suffered a plague of grashoppers, they raised four fat chicks to adulthood, stuffing them with grasshoppers. One spring, however, I got a pair of curve-billed thrashers in the back yard, and that was that. They drive out cactus wrens - look like they outweigh them too. Although I enjoyed the thrashers, I've missed my wrens all these years. I'd heard thrashers were mountain-habitat birds driven down to the Valley by drought, and it seems that's true, because this spring the thrashers have vanished, and I've been hearing the distinctive racket of a wren.
This morning I had the back door open and heard a hell of a racket on the patio. There was a cactus wren on one of the chairs, telling off a toehe while the cats watched through the screen. Pleaseblossom's tail was poofed like a bottle brush! I'm hoping this guy sticks around and attracts a mate.
-----------------
Over the weekend I finished up the arrangement on You Need a Friend, then went back and did some more work on the Overture, adding parts for electric bass and Native American flute, and cleaning up the dynamic markings overall. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. (Instant playback in Sibelius is a wonderful feature.) Also did a little tweaking to the piano part for A Mask and a Mirror, now that I've had time to practice it on an actual keyboard.
0 comments
Monday, April 18, 2005
So, I finally girded my loins and watched the Rankin-Bass Return of the King that I've had out from Netflix for over a month. I'd heard rumors about this version for years, usually delivered with a delicious shudder, and online reviews of the DVD led me to expect a truly cringeworthy experience.
Actually, it's not bad. Granted, it bears the same relationship to Tolkien that Disney's Snow White does to the Brothers Grimm - Frodo puts the Ring on, then wanders undetected around Mount Doom for days while Aragorn marches all the way from Gondor to the Black Gate?! - but it's quite watchable. And "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" is rather a catchy little tune. My biggest problem was that after an hour of hearing Casey Casem's voice come out of Pippin's mouth, I was expecting Eowyn to reach up and pull off the Witch King's rubber mask, revealing him to be none other than Mr. Angmar, the kindley janitor, who was trying to frighten everyone away from Gondor so he could recover the stolen jewels he'd hidden in the basement, and would've succeeded too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!
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Actually, it's not bad. Granted, it bears the same relationship to Tolkien that Disney's Snow White does to the Brothers Grimm - Frodo puts the Ring on, then wanders undetected around Mount Doom for days while Aragorn marches all the way from Gondor to the Black Gate?! - but it's quite watchable. And "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" is rather a catchy little tune. My biggest problem was that after an hour of hearing Casey Casem's voice come out of Pippin's mouth, I was expecting Eowyn to reach up and pull off the Witch King's rubber mask, revealing him to be none other than Mr. Angmar, the kindley janitor, who was trying to frighten everyone away from Gondor so he could recover the stolen jewels he'd hidden in the basement, and would've succeeded too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!
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Sunday, April 17, 2005
Last night the moon was a curious shade of pink, almost purple. And bright! It was only a half-moon, but lit up the backyard as if it were full!
The trouble with trying to adapt the European-based Wheel of the Year to the desert is twofold; first, we don't have the same seasons. It's not that we have the familiar four seasons at different times of the year, or that summer is stretched out and the other three smooshed together. The seasons are completely different. And they don't map nicely to the calendar from one year to the next.
For example, last night I marked the end of the baking season my making cookies for the last time until October or so. They're excellent cookies, BTW, and won't last long. It is now officially too freaking hot to run the oven. Today I marked the beginning of artichoke season. And AHR mechanical called me for my twice-yearly checkup of my heat/cooling system, which means swamp cooler season can't be far behind. Swamp cooler season, for those of us who observe it, lasts until monsoon season, which can start anywhere from July to September.
In the meantime, it's still just cool enough that I can crack a few windows and let fresh air in for a little while longer.
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The trouble with trying to adapt the European-based Wheel of the Year to the desert is twofold; first, we don't have the same seasons. It's not that we have the familiar four seasons at different times of the year, or that summer is stretched out and the other three smooshed together. The seasons are completely different. And they don't map nicely to the calendar from one year to the next.
For example, last night I marked the end of the baking season my making cookies for the last time until October or so. They're excellent cookies, BTW, and won't last long. It is now officially too freaking hot to run the oven. Today I marked the beginning of artichoke season. And AHR mechanical called me for my twice-yearly checkup of my heat/cooling system, which means swamp cooler season can't be far behind. Swamp cooler season, for those of us who observe it, lasts until monsoon season, which can start anywhere from July to September.
In the meantime, it's still just cool enough that I can crack a few windows and let fresh air in for a little while longer.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005
I got off the stick this evening and picked up again on Stardust County - with only 2 songs to finish this is no time to be running out of steam! The first hour or so was rough going, but I've finally got a good sounding part for the second guitar on the choruses of You Need a Friend.
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Definitely needed some distraction after getting home from work. Mr. Loose Cannon unexpectedly went off right before quitting time and cc-d a lead who's new to the project and doesn't know the history; I had to do damage control without looking like I was pointing fingers. Ugh. Don't know if I succeeded. Guess we'll find out tomorrow morning.
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I had a mildly odd dream last night, in which Seanan McGuire had become an Icelandair employee and so could fly to Reykjavik any time for free. In the logic of dreams, this meant we both wound up in Ottawa.
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Saturday is Astronomy Day! Click on the link for doings in Arizona. One club is doing a sky viewing, open to the public, in Thunderbird Park.
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Definitely needed some distraction after getting home from work. Mr. Loose Cannon unexpectedly went off right before quitting time and cc-d a lead who's new to the project and doesn't know the history; I had to do damage control without looking like I was pointing fingers. Ugh. Don't know if I succeeded. Guess we'll find out tomorrow morning.
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I had a mildly odd dream last night, in which Seanan McGuire had become an Icelandair employee and so could fly to Reykjavik any time for free. In the logic of dreams, this meant we both wound up in Ottawa.
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Saturday is Astronomy Day! Click on the link for doings in Arizona. One club is doing a sky viewing, open to the public, in Thunderbird Park.
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Monday, April 11, 2005
Activity for Today:
It appears I got off easy. A quick Google today revealed that Kohler also makes (or rather made) a "high-pressure" toilet that's been known to explode, embedding chunks of porcelain in the wall. Wowzers!
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- Select a song lyric containing the word "love". Wherever the word "love" appears, replace it with "lunch". Example: Hunka hunka burnin' lunch.
- Compare and contrast. Does your new version of the song make more sense than the original?
It appears I got off easy. A quick Google today revealed that Kohler also makes (or rather made) a "high-pressure" toilet that's been known to explode, embedding chunks of porcelain in the wall. Wowzers!
1 comments
Sunday, April 10, 2005
I'm a little uncomfortable posting about this, since I've always believed you don't earn karma points for things you boast about, and I'm saving up for that toaster oven in the afterlife. However, this is something I'd like to pass on.
A lot of people treat their income tax refunds as windfalls, "extra" money to splurge on a little luxury for themselves. So why not use some of that money to splurge on a donation to an organization you believe in? This year I'm giving my Arizona refund to Red Cross and Oxfam, two international aid organizations with experience and good track records; Oxfam in particular has been highly rated for spending little money on overhead. (Some poorly-run charities have been known to spend up to 90% of their funds on fund-raising - definitely something you want to take into consideration.)
If you're not getting a refund this year, this post isn't aimed at you, so please don't flame me.
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I finally have a toilet that doesn't run! It's an Eljer Savoy, same model as the one in the master bath, and the plumber didn't charge me this time - out of pity, no doubt.
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Off to pull some weeds....
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A lot of people treat their income tax refunds as windfalls, "extra" money to splurge on a little luxury for themselves. So why not use some of that money to splurge on a donation to an organization you believe in? This year I'm giving my Arizona refund to Red Cross and Oxfam, two international aid organizations with experience and good track records; Oxfam in particular has been highly rated for spending little money on overhead. (Some poorly-run charities have been known to spend up to 90% of their funds on fund-raising - definitely something you want to take into consideration.)
If you're not getting a refund this year, this post isn't aimed at you, so please don't flame me.
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I finally have a toilet that doesn't run! It's an Eljer Savoy, same model as the one in the master bath, and the plumber didn't charge me this time - out of pity, no doubt.
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Off to pull some weeds....
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Friday, April 08, 2005
Hackberry Spring
Today I made my first hike from the First Water Trailhead north of Lost Dutchman Park. It's a nice area, and not busy at all on a Friday morning, so I saw a lot of wildlife: cottontail rabbits, quail, groud squirrels, something vaguely stoat-like with a reddish coat, quail, cardinals, and the usual Sonoran birdlife. However, despite otherwise very good directions from HikeArizona, I never found Hackberry Spring, which, considering it's a pipe sticking out from a cliff face, is probably no great loss. I went as far as a saddle on Boulder Canyon Trail with a great view of Canyon Lake before turning back.
Note to self: 5 miles on ankle-turning scrabble is nothing like 5 miles on flat, sandy trail. Pack more snacks.
P.S. It is getting too freaking hot to be hiking routes with no shade.
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Today I made my first hike from the First Water Trailhead north of Lost Dutchman Park. It's a nice area, and not busy at all on a Friday morning, so I saw a lot of wildlife: cottontail rabbits, quail, groud squirrels, something vaguely stoat-like with a reddish coat, quail, cardinals, and the usual Sonoran birdlife. However, despite otherwise very good directions from HikeArizona, I never found Hackberry Spring, which, considering it's a pipe sticking out from a cliff face, is probably no great loss. I went as far as a saddle on Boulder Canyon Trail with a great view of Canyon Lake before turning back.
Note to self: 5 miles on ankle-turning scrabble is nothing like 5 miles on flat, sandy trail. Pack more snacks.
P.S. It is getting too freaking hot to be hiking routes with no shade.
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Wednesday, April 06, 2005
So here it is: I called Kohler this morning to ask for some kind of compensation for having to hire a plumber to rip out and replace two defective toilets in a row - not that I was really expecting anything. The guy was a master of the duck and weave, to wit:
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- Misdirection - he kept yelling at me for replacing the flush mechanism on the first one myself. Hello? It was broken before I tried to fix it, and the second toilet had the same problem as the first.
- The old no-one-else-has-complained fallacy - he said that, since they sell thousands of this model a day, "to me this isn't an issue." There you have it, folks: customer satisfaction is not an issue at Kohler.
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
A Tale of Two Toilets
I live in hope that someday I'll have a functioning toilet in my guest bath. However, it will not be a Kohler. In fact, I'm calling Kohler tomorrow morning about how much I'm paying the plumber to rip out and replace two defective toilets in a row. Then I'm buying a damn Eljer, and to hell with the bold look.
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I live in hope that someday I'll have a functioning toilet in my guest bath. However, it will not be a Kohler. In fact, I'm calling Kohler tomorrow morning about how much I'm paying the plumber to rip out and replace two defective toilets in a row. Then I'm buying a damn Eljer, and to hell with the bold look.
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