Eanna

2007-04-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

The kitchen is officially done.

Less bang than whimper; the guy from Handyman Connection finished the tile backsplash on Wednesday, but not before going over the sloppy paint job Wolfe Homes did around the windows with a razor blade. I've hired another outfit to replace the two windows with the warped frames, so that should be completed in mid-May. I faxed off my letter to WH today - and will follow-up with a copy by regular mail - including my "adjusted" invoice that accounts for my hiring others to finish their job. We'll see what happens. If they follow form, it'll be months before I even hear back.
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I made a veggie-rice salad for K&R's barbeque last night, and was pleased that it all got eaten by the end of the evening. (We were all pleased that the dust storm stopped long enough to fire up the grill.)

The ingredients: "forbidden" rice (small-grain); halved grape tomatoes; grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and gold bell pepper; cubed Italian-style baked tofu; green olives; and a bit of dijon mayonnaise to hold it together.

2007-04-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of my three-day weekends (I work a 9/80 schedule, every other Friday off), and for a change I don't have much of anything I have to do - though I'm sure I'll start thinking of stuff Sunday evening- so I've been fooling around in the kitchen.

Yesterday I made a pasta salad: grilled red pepper and asparagus, raw brocolli florets, halved grape tomatoes, green olives, and hunks of edam cheese over those snail-shaped pasta, tossed in Shiitake viniagrette and sprinkled with almonds - yum!

Today I'm making use of some of the frozen huckleberries I bought online to make a childhood treat - huckleberry pie! Made a horrible mess of the kitchen in the process of making the crust - it's about 82 F indoors, too warm really to be making a pie crust, let alone one using Canola oil - but I had fun making a mess. And soon there will be pie. Huckleberry pie!

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K & C dropped by this morning and we spent some time in the back porch. They have a baby Sonoran desert tortoise that they'll be looking for a home for maybe in the fall. It would help keep the weeds in my desertified backyard under control, though of course I'd have to fence off anything I didn't want it noshing on. And it's an easy-maintenance pet that the cats probably wouldn't eat. Well, it's something to think about - I don't have to decide now because the tortoise is still too young to adopt.

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See, I can too write a pleasant post!

2007-04-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express how I feel right now. Music cannot express how I feel. Pushing a grand piano down six flights of stairs, now that would express how I feel.

This whole kitchen remodel business has disintegrated into a story of diminishing returns that I haven't had the energy to relate these past three months, and next week I plan to part company with my contractor as they guy I hired to finish their damn cleanup work takes over.

However.

If you've been following this blog since the beginning of this sorry saga, you'll remember that, back in October, I had the same outfit replace the remaining single-glaze windows in the house with double-glaze. Even to my untrained eye the installation looked sloppy, and getting the project supervisor out to look at it has been a major effort with minor response. Today I had a glass guy - hired separately - come in to assess the mess. Not only was the installation bad, the frames are starting to warp, which is why the windows in the guest room don't close properly. Meaning that re-installing them isn't going to help; it's replace the windows or live with it.

So I'm going to have a real glass company install new windows, and I'm writing a letter to my contractor requesting that they refund that part of the job on my final invoice, and we'll see where that gets me. I hope I don't have to take them to small claims court, or Channel 12, or whatever. @#$(*$! I am so tired of fighting to get this work completed.

2007-02-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

I was astonished to come home today and find a realty sign in my neighbors' yard to the north. They only just bought the place a couple months ago, a nice older couple from Missouri who gave every impression that they planned to move in once their son finished fixing it up. I wonder what happened. It can't have been a fix-and-flip; I know what they paid for it (thanks to the brochures the local realtors drop off every month), and it wasn't below market for this neighborhood, so they can't be making any money off the sale.

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I don't normally do New Year's resolutions, because -- well, I don't know why. I just don't. But I made an early resolution in December, in the spirit of getting-in-shape-to-hike-the-canyon, that I would add a third gym class to my routine, on weekends when I didn't go hiking. The idea is to establish good habits, so that when summer rolls around and it's too frakkin' hot for outdoor activities, I won't be sitting on my butt at home.

Well, Fitness Works has already thrown a monkey wrench into the works; they've cancelled my Monday BodyCombat class and now I have to figure out a new schedule. This Monday I drove to the other gym down in Higley for their Combat class later in the evening. The instructors were fine, but apart from being twice as far away it's a very large and noisy room, hard to see the instructor without craning your neck. What's more they blew out the speakers after one too many attempts to "pump up the volume". It was kind of weird, because the speakers weren't totally gone - it was more like aerobics to the muffled tune of the lous party your neighbor down the street is having.

So that leaves me with a Combat class on Thursday, which I could swing if I can get out of work a little early, and do Pump right afterward. The only other option is Sunday morning, but that would mean dropping my RPM class, and I really like the instructor; he's really clear with his instructions going through the routine.

Well, we'll get things sorted out. My schedule's going to be wacky through March anyway.

2007-01-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

I just got one of those fake eBay phishing emails, but the Subject line was, and I kid you not, "[SPAM10] IMPORTANT MEMBER SERVICE INFORMATION" .

Some script kiddie needs to take off his training wheels...

2007-01-22T21:26:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the original Ren & Stimpy show? Do you remember a song called "Happy Happy Joy Joy"?

Sara Lee is now using it in their commercials.

It is truly the Apocalypse.

2007-01-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

Egad.

I blew off last night's freeze warning, because at worst all it ever means is that we're going to dip a bit below freezing and get a light frost overnight.

This morning at 7:00 is was 24 degrees outside. My backyard fountain was frozen solid. Still was at 10:00; I think it's thawed a bit since then. Peaseblossom has found a nice sunny spot on the floor here in the office, and the twins are up on the desk being extra cuddly.
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Friday was my alternate Friday off, so I spent a couple hours at REI basically ensuring I'll get a big member dividend at the end of the year. The major purchases: new hiking boots (because the ones I bought in New Zealand 3 years ago are coming apart), a 38 litre backpack (because my dinky daypack isn't gonna cut it on my Rim-to-Rim), and a warm 3-in-one jacket (for my trip to Tierra del Fuego in December).

I've started making bookings for my big end-of-year trip, not because I'm anal but because it's hard to find a flight from Phoenix to Punta Arenas that isn't insane in terms of price, layovers, and arrival time. This first leg has been an interesting exercise in how much extra I'm willing to pay to get a decent night's rest before the tour starts. There was one itinerary that went via Toronto(!), reasonably-priced but had an 11-hour layover somewhere and arrived at 3:30AM. Most of the cheap ones were like that.

Then there were the cheap flights that didn't exist. Orbitz is good at those; they'll offer a screaming deal like $752, then when you select it you get a message that says the flight is no longer available, or the fare has suddenly changed to $38,753. Do the search again, and the flight reappears at the original price. (Same thing happened when I flew out to Concertino last year - smokin deal that evaporated when I clicked on it. Feh.)

Ultimately, the site that found me the best deals was SideStep, which searches a bunch of legit travel sites. I also got some advice on TripAdvisor on how much time to allow for customs & immigration in Santiago (a lot). What I'd really like to see out of a travel search engine is an option for maximum and minimum layover times. For example, I don't want to miss a connecting flight because there wasn't time to get through C&I, dash to another terminal, check in again, go through the security line again, and run to my gate. I also would prefer not to spend 24 hours sitting around the airport, if at all possible.

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Well, it's 1:30 and the pond is mostly thawed, except for a thin sheet of ice on top. I re-set the solar panel (I'd put it face down this morning), and the pump is still working fine. The cats had a hissy brawl while I was working on this post, and are now back to their original positions.

2006-12-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

This week has certainly gone by fast! The week between CHristmas and New Year's Day is the end-of-year plant shutdown, a kind of mandatory vacation. Last Friday I went over to Keith and Carrie's for an informal Yule dinner, with curry as the main dish and a persimmon pie that I made. Saturday I spent trying to get the house in order before picking up Mom and Cliff from the airport in the evening. Sunday we stopped at the Golden Buddha for a quick dim sum on our way to seeing the fabulous new Nutcracker production at Symphony Hall. It was Mom's first experience with dim sum, and also the first time she'd seen the Nutcracker live.

On Monday we went to the Phoenician for our traditional Christmas brunch. The spread was quite impressive; IIRC more variety than the last Christmas we went there, two years ago. The dessert room was definitely more extensive. The weather was wonderful so they opened the door out onto the patio, where we were seated, and the music from the little jazz ensemble inside floated out. This occasionally mingled with the strolling guitar/violin trio we had outside, lending an Ivesian (Charles Ives, not Currier &) atmosphere. The grackles provided additional entertainment, stealing sugar packets from the bowls on vacant tables. The three of us left suitably stuffed; it's also traditional that this is our only meal for the day. That evening we took a walk around the nieghborhood to look at the lights. The lighted reindeer are popular this year; some people had whole herds in their yards. Tuesday we took a walk over to Park of the Canals, which I haven't been to in eons despite its closeness. Then we pretty much hung out in the back yard like lizards in the sun until it was time to run them out to the airport.

Of course, when the rellies come to visit there's always some friction over how you've decided to raise the kids. Mom and Cliff considered Savannah nosy and spoiled where I find her clever and charming - well, up until she jumped up on Mom's shoulders and I had to get out the first aid kit to deal with a scratch. Someone got a timeout on the back porch.

Wednesday I braved the mall to do my shopping for the Holt end-of-year party. The crowds weren't bad at all, but if it looks like I bought all my gifts in one store, well, there's a reason for that. And yesterday I thought it would be fun to take a 12.6-mile hike in the Superstitions. I don't know what it was like in town, but it was foggy all day in Peralta and East Boulder Canyons - Weaver's Needle wasn't even visible until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

Winding down towards the end of the year - what happened to all those chores I was going to get done?

2006-12-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest photo of the kitchen, looking pretty good; a lot of stuff is waiting now on the counters, which the former was supposed to complete last week. The painters showed up today and did half the walls - actually I think someone forgot that the work order was for four walls not two - despite the fact that the drywallers never levelled the saggy windowsill. I finally managed to get ahold of the guy in charge this evening. Sometimes you just have to have a cow on someone's voice mail.

The kitchen isn't quite that yellow - I took this by incandescent light.

2006-12-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

It's so cute when Frodo and Savannah hiss & growl while playing with each other. It's like they're using bad language they learned from Peaseblossom, but they don't know what it means.
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Here's my first installment on my Fiji trip, which writeup is my project for this week. We'll see how that works out... NOTE: Blogger photo upload is not working right now. Check back tomorrow; I'll try to upload them again.

Day 1 – Thursday

I order a taxi to the plenty early based on past experience, and sure enough it arrives half an hour late. I get to the airport in plenty of time anyway, since there’s no line inside at international checkin. No further glitches either on the first leg of the flight or the transfer at LAX, though I thought I remembered a pizza restaurant on the far side of security. (That might’ve been Air New Zealand – they depart from a different terminal.) Did you know that more people can fit into a 747-600 than into the departure lounge?

Day 2 – Saturday

We land in Nadi (pronounced "Nandi") and pour out of the plane onto a covered walkway that leads to Immigration as mynah birds cavort in the bougainvilleas. A quartet (2 guitars and 2 ukes) entertains us with trad Fijan songs as we wait in line. Then it’s out, a quick stop at the bank to cash some traveller’s checks, and a transfer to the Raffles (no relation) Gateway Hotel across the street.

The horseback riding outfit that’s supposed to pick me up for a half-day tour never shows, much to my non-surprise. They seemed rather flaky by email and were charging a huge “single supplement” surcharge. After sitting in the lobby staring at an ad for an ice cream bar saying “Bite Me” for over an hour, I bought myself an ice cream bar and spent the rest of the day reading and testing my snorkel in the pool. Not simultaneously. I wish I could remember the brand of ice cream bar; it was really good.

Day 3 – Sunday
Captain Cook Cruises picks me up early for a day cruise out to the tiny island of Tivua. On the ride to the docks at Denaru I make friends with Barbara, a woman about my age who’s finishing up a round-the-world tour.

The ship is the Lady Ra Marana, a tall ship that runs both on engine and sail. Tivua is the stereotypical “desert isle”, all white sand, that you can walk completely around in about half an hour. The only visitors are the day tours plus anyone staying at one of two cabins, but it’s still fairly close to civilization just outside Nadi Bay. The snorkeling is meh; there are some fish and live corals, but having dived in Fiji before I know it’s just an appetizer for what awaits in the Somosomo Straight. There’s a barbeque lunch, after which we lie around in the sand. On the trip back to Nadi the crew entertains with music (incl. a rather bizarre version of “When the Saints Come Marching In” that sounds like a cross with “The Quartermaster’s Hall”) and our guide demonstrates how to shuck a coconut with nothing but a pointed stick.

2006-11-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

After Thursday's rant I'm feeling a little better, now that they have 75% of the cabinets in. There's thick dust all over everything, the house is still upside down, but when I get stressed I can go gaze at my new cabinets. I'm glad, though, that I decided to go to TusCon Saturday, because after all the rigamarole to arrange the guy a key, no-one actually showed up and did any work while I was gone.

I'm tempted to let the work continue while I'm on vacation; though I'm not crazy about the idea of construction going on in my house in my absence.

"Before" is at the top of this post, and "after" at the bottom. The sink/faucet is temporary; mine are on backorder.

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TusCon, as usual, laid back and enjoyable, and always a pleasure to see Emma Bull and Will Shetterly. And I got my "Eddi and the Fey" book bag signed! Woo hoo!

2006-11-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

I am stressing big time over this remodel. The entire kitchen/dining area is unusable and covered in dust, much of the rest of the house is unusable because I have kitchen stuff piled up there, I still have no sink, and the guy in charge of the whole project keeps giving me egregiously optimistic dates for when they're going to get the cabinets installed, which have been taking up half my garage since Tuesday. I really hate to ride contractors, but this guy's a flake about returning my calls and letting me know what's going on, it's almost as if he expects me to call him constantly. Anyone who's gone through a major remodel, is this typical? Did I pick the wrong company? A bit late now if I did.

So yesterday they demo'd the old cabinets and installed the new window. Today they pulled up the Saltillo tile where the new breakfast bar is going. My first reaction when I came home this evening was holy crap, when did the kitchen get so big? Probably after I picked out what I wanted for my cabinets. If I'm sussing the final layout correctly from the tealeaves of early construction, the whole TV viewing area is going to be not smaller but gone. The only other wall I can hang the TV is in the music room, and I have no frakkin' clue where I'll fit the yellow loveseat, let alone the exercise machine! Oh well, we'll take that as it comes. My main concern now is that with everything behind schedule they'll either want to work this Saturday, or I will be too exhausted from tearing my hair to make the drive to TusCon Friday night. I want my sink back, dammit! And my dishwasher, which is currently sitting, full of dirty dishes, in the garage.

Meantime, my kitties are greeting me at the door each evening, crying "WTF?" Peasie's eyes are doing much better on the new diet and she is no longer a conehead. However, she got a secondary bacterial infection on her chin result of wearing the e-collar so long, so she is getting ointment on her chin twice a day. She has mixed feelings about this as it is soothing, but she has to object on general principles.

2006-11-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Political Announcement

My opponant is a big meanie when he says that I'm a doodyhead. Because I'm not a doodyhead, he's a doodyhead. Doody, doody, doody! No returns!

This announcement paid for by the Committee of People Who are Certainly Not Doodyheads.

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When you vote on Tuesdsay, if your precinct uses computerized voting, please carefully check the verification screen to make sure the computer has recorded your vote correctly. If it hasn't, call a poll worker over to fix the problem. That's their job, to make sure your vote is correctly counted.

I'm not being paranoid about this. In early voting this year, there have already been precincts where the software has had chronic problems - to the point where poll workers have been heard to say "oh, that machine does that."

2006-10-31T13:23:00.000-08:00

My New Door

Yes, the new kitchen door is now in. Note the cat-accomodating sidelight to the right. The big grey rectangle behind the exercise machine shows where the original floor flan put the door. Yep, smack against the counter. And it opened to the left. Brilliant.

It turns out that when the guy told me my cabinets would be ready November 1, he meant they'd be ready in Spokane, so thank you for sharing that ultimately useless information with me. They should be arriving in Phoenix early next week, which means with luck they'll have everything but the countertops done before I leave for Fiji, maybe even before TusCon. I'm stuck with a jury-rigged plywood countertop for 2-3 weeks while they cut the avonite, but that's OK since I'll be on a small boat in the South Pacific for most of that.

And now, just because I can....

Aren't they kyooooooooooooooooooot?

2006-10-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

As I sit in my office writing this, large banging sounds are coming from the kitchen, where the workmen are knocking holes in the wall. One window is becoming smaller and moving to the right, a door is disappearing, and a window is becoming a door. The new cabinets are supposed to arrive middle of next week, so maybe the following week the real work begins.

It's a good thing I did my gearing-up for Samhain early this year. I managed to locate a new source for bouncing glow-in-the-dark eyeballs in bulk - namely, Oriental Trading Company - so I'm all set for treats. Decorations are up, except for the ones I had to take down so holes could be knocked in walls. Other than a (secular) Hallowe'en party I'm going to tonight, I'm not really doing anything big this year.

Been kinda draggy all week, after getting home from SJO close on midnight Sunday. Monday night I did my regular BodyCombat class, having propped up my eyes with toothpicks all day. Surprisingly it went really well; I feel like I've made a breakthrough in the last couple classes, where I'm more in the groove and less struggling to keep up. On Tuesday we had the blood mobile at work. My screening interview alone took almost an hour, mostly because of that "have you travelled outside the US and Canada in the past three years" question. I don't see why they have to look up every single city I visited in Peru, once we establish that yes, one was in a Malaria-risk area and yes, it's been over a year so the difference it makes is nada. The draining itself went quickly, and I felt good enough afterward to go to my BodyPump class in the evening.

2006-10-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

Trader Joe's has golden kiwifruit! Woo hoo!
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So anyway. I woke up twice last night from dreams that the kitchen remodelling had gone horribly awry. For example, with the addition of a sunken bathtub made of sand, or possibly graham cracker crumbs or hummus. I didn't get a real good look.

The real project isn't that bad, but the early stages are just dragging on for bloody ever. Since the remodel involves moving a door and two windows, I decided to use the same company to replace all the crappy single-glazed windows in the house with energyStar double-glazed. Supposedly they'd do all this while we were waiting for the cabinets and countertop to arrive. So, I arranged to work from home the day the windows were to be done, so I could make sure the cats were correctly herded while there were great gaping holes to the scary yet intruiging Outside in the walls.

The guys worked half the day, got half the job done, then left. One of the windows had arrived damaged, one was the wrong size, and there was a change of plans so they weren't doing the kitchen windows at all until the new door arrived, and blah blah fishcakes. This was three weeks ago and the delivery date for the door keeps getting pushed out.

I hope this isn't a harbinger of the entire project. I really don't want work being done on my house while I'm off in the South Pacific, and I really really don't want the kitchen to be torn up when my family comes down for Christmas.

Oh well. The cabinets are supposed to arrive shortly after Samhain. Hopefully things will pick up and turn around.

2006-10-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

Poop.

Moscow Cats Theatre is coming to MAC November 18-19.

And I will be in Fiji.

2006-10-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I've got blistas on my fingas!

You know that neat little feature Qwest has, where if a number is busy you can select for the phone co. to keep trying and it rings your phone once the call gets through? Cox doesn't have that feature. So I spent two and a half hours this morning hitting redial on my phone in order to make my reservation for Phantom Ranch next October. I was only able to book one night at the dorms - I wanted to spend an extra day on the bottom before heading up - but I'm feeling very fortunate to get through at all!

Yeah, I'm doing a Rim-to-Rim at the Canyon next year!

2006-09-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've got to stop watching local television, or this will turn into the stupid campaign ad tricks blog.

I've no idea which candidate said this, because I was brushing my teeth at the time, but the ad referred to the Arizona Official English Act as legislation to "secure the border". Buh? Really? There are illegal border crossers out there who turned around and went back upon discovering they couldn't get their utility bill in Spanish?

2006-09-27T19:28:00.001-07:00

2006-09-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

2006-09-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, this is disgusting.

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil apparently hasn't any real issues to run on, so he's inventing them. He's declared that a memorial to the victims of 9/11, created with bipartisan support and funded through private donations, isn't Patriotically Correct enough for him, and rounded up some supporters to get himself a little photo-op. The families the memorial is meant to honor were, oddly enough, not among those claiming offense, so: shut up!

Read all about it here, if you've got a strong stomach.

2006-09-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I dreamed of Liberace. Playing the piano. In street clothes, which was par for an otherwise unexceptional dream.
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I've recently discovered that there are a whole bunch of hikes up the Beeline Highway towards Payson, within easy driving distance of Mesa. Friday I tried out the Ballentine Trail, just off the Beeline 10 minutes north of Fountain Hills. The area looks a lot like Texas Canyon; lots of boulders and a good healthy climb. I was a bit stiff at the beginning from my BodyPump class the night before. It's still desert, but a good 5-10 degrees cooler than Phoenix.

The critical question is, though, how did my hiking shorts get so tight? Hm, time to replace those cappucino muffins at work with a nice protein drink.

2006-09-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

I had a very odd Tuesday.

It began with a Doctor Who dream, where the Doctor - who kept switching between David Tennant and the female Doctor in those Ryan Johnson fanvids done back in the 80's - developed super powers by eating cilantro, or possibly flat Italian parsley - the two look very similar. S/he then proceded to not use these super powers against the villain, which inaction s/he explained to me using a convoluted metaphor that I pretented to understand. At some point in the middle of this my alarm clock started dinging, and I shut it off without waking up, annoyed that it was interrupting the Doctor's explanation.

Fortunately, I didn't sleep too far after the alarm went off.

Peasie went in for her first visit to the dermatologist that morning. Yes, you read that correctly. My cat is seeing a dermatologist. We're hitting this allergy with everything. She's going on an even more restricted diet, I'm treating all three cats for a parasite that might be causing the reaction, and Pease is on antibiotics for a month to clear up a secondary infection that's making the itchiness worse. I discovered tonight that taking the e-collar off makes pilling marginally easier, but holy cats she does not like taking that pill.

In the evening - Jack Hanna with animals at the Mesa Arts Center! My favorites were probably the bobcat, the African pigmy goat, and the albino kangaroo. The sun bears were pretty awesome too. The one downside to the evening was that a big "community barbeque" had been advertised before the show, and it was woefully undermanned and understocked. People who arrived at the advertised start time spent half an hour in line and got no food because it ran out. The people who run the MAC have really got to mentally pull themselves out of the little concrete bunker on First Street where they were stuck for decades and start thinking big. Big building, big crowds. Yes, I do get cranky when my dinner consists of a raspberry-cheesecake bar and a bottle of water, why do you ask?

2006-09-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Why the Web rocks:

Yesterday, I picked up some Hallowe'en decorations at the store - a string of "lighted folding bats", to be exact, to go along with the strings of pumpkin lights I already have. I was thinking it's too bad they don't make more Samhain-ish decorations, like pomegranate lights. Then it hit me, and a short google later I had found a string of pomegranate-shaped lights on alljudaica.com. They're Sukkot decorations - now I know. Makes sense, since the pomegranate is a Middle Eastern fruit. Now can anyone tell me why strings of lights shaped like basketballs, golf bags, and colorful insects are also marketed for Sukkot?

I took my first BodyPump (strength training) class on Tuesday. The class is held on the second floor of the gym, and my knees went wibby-wibby-wibby all the way downstairs afterwards. Alicia, who teaches both classes, says that people progress faster in BodyPump than BodyCombat - she also said that I've progressed fast in BodyCombat, which was nice to hear. I'm planning a Rim-to-Rim hike next year, so I need to get some strength built up. I'm hoping that better muscle tone will also help to stave off the weird knots and twinges I get from sitting at a computer all day.

2006-09-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

Crikey!

As expected, Animal Planet has been pretty much solid Crocodile Hunter today. I was sad to read the notice in the paper this morning; I really didn't watch Steve Irwin's show that much, but on my trip to Queensland last year we spent almost a full day at the Australia Zoo, and I was impressed by his conservation work.

In more frivolous news, Aliens Arrested in Roswell!

Flown lately? Enter your Stupid Security story here. Awards to be given: "Most Egregiously Stupid Award, Most Inexplicably Stupid Award, Most Annoyingly Stupid Award, Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award and Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award".

A little out of date, but I thought this Silicon Valley art project was cute.

Also cute, but do we really need Cats In Sinks?

2006-08-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Arizona summers are like northern winters: the plants die, most of the birds migrate elsewhere, and everyone stays indoors to escape the extreme weather. Main difference is, here we don't get a nice blanket of snow to cover up the mess that is the yard. All our sins, in the form of abandoned gardening tools, half-finished projects, and crispy hanging plants that we forgot to water one week in May, are naked for the eye to see. That's why I was out in the heat this weekend sweeping several inches of monsoon litter off the patio, ripping up dead tomatoes, and bailing swamp water out of the pond. I'm refinancing the house, which means an appraiser will be out here this week or next, and I don't want the place to look like a disaster area. Last time I did a re-fi the appraiser did a drive-by and valued my house based on another one in the neighborhood that supposedly looked similar. Bleh.

The re-fi is because I'm doing a remodel on the kitchen. The little galley kitchen I've got was fine when I moved in straight from my apartment, but it's gotten cramped over time and showing its age. What I originally proposed to the contractor was "well, I just want to replace the cabinets and countertop, maybe a larger sink.." And he's all "You need to get rid of this window and move the door so we can pull the breakfast bar out and put in corner cabinets with lazy susans..." And it was hard to argue with the guy because he was reading my mind.

I just hope the job doesn't take as long as the quote has. He's better now, but the guy developed kidney stones halfway through and was on interesting drugs for about a week. Holy cow.

2006-08-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Most peculiar.

Blogger cut out my link to this news article in my previous post. And the sentence it was in.

http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/

2006-08-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Quickie post tonight.

Meanwhile, we apparently aren't too concerned about the homeless blowing up shelters.

And finally, just because I like the headline: Zoo Rescues Dolphin Trapped in Speedo. Steve Zissou, where are you?

2006-08-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

This blog is in imminant danger of collapsing into nothing but my cat's acne and snarks about work, so I present the first in a series:

Compare and Contrast, Episode One

In this episode, we compare and contrast The Piano Tribute to Pink Floyd (David Ari Leon) and The String Quartet Tribute to Nirvana's Nevermind (Tallywood Strings).

Both albums are classical interpretations of the original rock tunes - well, that's stretching it a bit: the piano one frequently sounds like something you might hear on the "cool jazz" station where the Uncola guy does the call letters. Both make you dig through the fine print to find the artist's name, because the point of the album is not who's performing it now. One covers all the songs from a classic rock album, the other is a "greatest hits" homage.

First up, we have The Piano Tribute to Pink Floyd, TPTPF for short. This album is a real pleasure to listen to. I really enjoy the arrangements the artist has done; they bring out the beauty of the original melody, from the jazzy, saucy "Money" to moody "Dark Side of the Moon/Total Eclipse", which is my favorite off the disk. I had this in my car all last week and didn't get tired of it.

The cover of TSQTNN is essentially the cover to Nevermind with the baby missing, and that's what it sounds like. This isn't a bad album, but the arranger doesn't do anything with the arrangements and the players don't do anything with the notes. Leon sounded like he was having a ball; these guys sound like they're picking up a paycheck.

Next time, I compare and contrast original Amber vs. Amber Jr.

2006-08-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm off to San Jose tomorrow night for another round of recording. Tonight I'm sitting here like a tired lump after giving blood and eating a huge meal to make up for it. Tomorrow I will be telecommuting from home in hopes of getting some laundry and packing done. I so do not have my crap together. I haven't found a petsitter for Friday morning - I may just have to put extra food out and hope the Bobsy Twins don't eat all of Peasie's food, and vice verse.

Oh, and I finished the Whacking Huge Book of Amber, I'm just too wiped to update the sidebar.

2006-08-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hippos on a Helicopter

My wonderful Cox telephone service is down - reliable as their cable service, I see - and until the neighbors get home I can't get ahold of customer service, because their 24/7 web support center is only 24/7 for cable and internet problems. My theory is, Cox found out I'd ordered a cell phone from Verizon and got jealous. Yes, the last holdout has entered the cell age, surely a sign of the Apocalypse. Unfortunately, said phone is currently sitting in a box at the FedEx center in Tempe, since they don't deliver without a signature.

It's one damn thing after another.

2006-08-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Wallabies on a Unicycle

So today, at work, I was on the phone with one of those egregious voice-recognition automated menus, saying, "I want information. In-for-ma-tion. Information!!" And giggles arose from the cubes around me, along with Prisoner jokes.

I'm not up to actually writing anything tonight, so here's some stuff I found while surfing. (Yes, work has been slow lately.)

This bill, passed by Congress and on its way to the Senate, bans people who use the library for Internet access from accessing their blogs and other "social networking" sites. It's a poorly-conceived attempt to protect children from sexual predators on the 'net - well, no, it's yet another pathetic demonstration of lawmakers not understanding the technology.

This site is, quite simply, the realization of the Web's great potential. Yes, you too can put Stuff on your Cat.

And here, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, we have a scene between Titania and, ahem, Bottom. Whatever is the world coming to? (This week's sequence may not be work-friendly. Depending where, of course, you work.)

Here's a twist to your standard employee-fired-for-carping-about-the-boss-on-his/her-blog story - the blog was on the CIA's own network.

Emma Bull's newest novel is at the editor!

Neat facsimile editions of old books!

Speaking of The Prisoner, this story has since been debunked - well no, just the Christopher Eccelston part of it.

And Tom, if you're still wondering where your flying car is, it's in Australia.

2006-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

File this under "Suck".

I was picking up my towel and BodyCombat card from the front desk guy at Fitness Works this evening when he said, "Did you know that we're closing at the end of the month?" Yes, this month, being July, the end of which is a week and a half away. Not because of declining enrollment; the landlord wanted to double the rent. So now instead of having my gym a convenient mile away from my house, I now have a 7-mile drive to the east Mesa facility, which barely gives me time to gulp my dinner on nights I have classes.

It's stupid, because the old gym isn't in a trendy yuppified area where the property values have gone up or where renters with deep pockets are eager to locate their high-end boutiques. It's in a strip mall, next to a chain Mexican restaurant and a perpertually-empty storefront, with a charming view of the self-storage yard across the street.

2006-07-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

As you might have inferred from my last post, I did make it up to Sedona yesterday. It still got up to 98, but at least the morning was relatively cool. My first choice of hike, the A.B. Young Trail, panned out when I couldn't find a river crossing, so I picked up a guidebook and chose the Huckaby Trail, which is just off Schnebly Hill Road. (Haven't you always wondered what was up Schnebly Hill Road?) This is a nifty little trail that winds around for a bit, then takes you along a ridge overlooking Hwy 89, then drops you down to creek level in the canyon below the Midgely Bridge. BTW, have the signs for this bridge always read "Midgely Bridgely"?

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Recent news has me grateful that my religion doesn't have a Holy Land. If everyone involved weren't so caught up in desire for posession of a specific stinkin' piece of territory, we could set up the modern state of Israel in Florida, put Palestine in Baja or the Kamchatka Peninsula or something, and make the Dalai Lama mayor of Jerusalem.

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I have one of those newfangled "gradual" alarm clocks that's supposed to gently awaken you by striking a chime at progressively shorter intervals. The problem is, it sounds not so much like a chime as it does one of those counter bells you use to summon the clerk at the dry cleaner etc. Snaps me wide awake. I need to find a muffling method...

2006-07-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Can anyone tell me what the #$*%&*!! happened to cause all the traffic on eastbound 101 to come to a screeching halt this afternoon? Once I got on the onramp from I-17, it took me 50 minutes to get to the 7th Ave exit - the first exit off the 101. By then of course traffic had just started flowing again. The only thing that preserved my sanity during the wait was a show on NPR analysing The Beatles' Revolver.

2006-07-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

If I can drag myself out of bed early enough tomorrow morning, I'm going to play hookey and drive up to Sedona for a hike.

2006-07-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Breathe.

in.

out.

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I happened to be driving home from the airport last night on the 202 shortly after 9:00, when all the fireworks displays were going on. The 202 is elevated just enought that once you hit Tempe you have a clear view all the way across the Valley. I counted a minimum of three displays in the East Valley and one up north in Scottsdale. I may have caught a glimpse of one way off in north Phoenix, but I didn't think it was wise to be craning my neck the opposite direction I was driving. Especially when all the other drivers on the freeway were gawping at fireworks. Pretty!

Oddly enough, my shy "little" Frodo gave me the most enthusiastic greeting when I came in the door. He's turning into quite the sweet cat.

2006-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Bloggin' from Bloomington

Bit cooler up here than it was back in Mesa when I left this morning - downright chilly here in the hotel. When I opened my guitar case, my metronome was flashing merrily away, the on switch having caught on the tuner somewhereen route. Thank the holy ones it was in "silent" mode - I can imagine the panic if my guitar case suddenly started ticking - TSA would probably have blown it up!

Well, the vegetable garden's doing poorly, thanks for asking. Once again the spring growing season was too short and the summer heat hit nearly everything before it could set fruit. I do have one cute little eggplant and a couple peppers, and some tomatoes that cooked on the vine. One squash plant still survives and if I'm lucky will flower again in the fall. I seriously think that next year I'll let the veg garden go fallow, just plant a cover crop and that's it. The weather's been so fickle in recent years, it really takes someone keeping a close eye on things in late spring/summer, and I'm not going to be able to do that next year with production & promotion activities for Stardust County.

Peasie, I'm happy to report, is doing just fine; the cortizone shots cleared up her swollen face and she looks like a normal cat again. I'll just need to keep close watch on her; she may need additional shots periodically. Speaking of which, Savannah and Frodo went to the vet for their 5-in-1 boosters on Saturday. Frodo was a scaredy cat, but behaved. Savannah was a bundle of nerves despite having been there before, and kept jumping up on my shoulders. They both tolerated getting their shots well.

2006-06-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Good and Bad things about my trip to Minneapolis

Bad: The Bloomington Holiday Inn giving me a smoking room. The drivers for my network card disappearing. The spottiness of the hotel WAN in the bar.

Good: Ditching everything, going for a walk in the nature preserve next door, and seeing a pair of - egrets? herons? - one white and one brown. And some squirrels, and a big garter snake up in a tree. Actually getting something done in the meeting I flew up there for.

Bad: Center seat over the wing on the return.

Good: Catching the parking shuttle right before it left the curb.

2006-06-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

Fafblog is back! Yay!
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My doctor went into a mini-rant when I saw him for my physical on Friday, about how medicine should be about science, not politics. We were actually talking about my prescription plan - the one I bitched about in this here blog earlier this year - but I wondered if he'd also been watching last week's Frontline program about the history of AIDS.

What struck me about that show was the irony of this one congresscreature proudly saying that by refusing to fund any AIDS-prevention program that mentions condoms, he was resisting pressure to be "politically correct" - when in fact he and his ilk are just pushing their own brand of political correctness. Condoms work at reducing the spread of STDs. Needle-swap programs work. Educating prostitutes works. Yeah, abstinence works to a certain extent, for people who have that luxury. This kind of mealymouthedness has squat to do with science. Or morality, for that matter.

Look at it this way: Most people who are vegetarians make the choice not to eat meat based on moral or religious grounds. It's also no secret that some of the biggest health scares in recent years are the direct result of people eating meat, or raising animals for meat or other products (such as eggs). Mad cow, for example. Bird flu. Now, I'm a vegetarian, but it's painfully obvious to me, and I think to any but the most fanatical sprout-chomper, that telling people they shouldn't be eating chicken would not by itself be an effective means of stopping a worldwide pandemic of bird flu. Nor will you see me arguing that the USDA dismantle its meat-inspection programs because those immoral people who eat meat know what risks they're taking, and if they get trichinosis or e. coli, it's because of a lifestyle choice.

Why? Because that's dumb. It wouldn't work. And I don't believe in a vengeful vegan Goddess punishing naughty people with mad cow disease.

2006-06-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm back from synchronicity

Here's some pictures of my "Easter lilly" cacti, which decided to bloom yesterday and today. Too bad the blossoms only last a day.

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Wednesday I took Peasie in to the vet for a cortisone shot, which seems to be doing some good for her itchiness. While I was waiting, I got into a conversation with another woman, who was bringing her kittens in for their first visit. It seems her eldest two cats had recently died, leaving her with one adult cat, named Sierra. She'd just adopted the two brother-and-sister tabby kittens, and wasn't sure how Sierra would react to them. I'm thinking this whole series of events is oddly similar to what I went through over the past year; but it became really eerie when the assistant called my cat's name. "Peaseblossom?" said the woman I was talking to. "She's Sierra's mother!"

See, going on eleven years ago I was visiting the same vet to get food for Omega, and saw that they had two black cats up for adoption, a very young cat and her kitten. I was living in an apartment at the time, and I thought to myself, "I could pass two black cats off as one cat, and not have to pay extra pet rent!" Eventually I adopted the mother, whom I named Peaseblossom. I'd met the woman who adopted the kitten once, but that was long ago. Sierra's going grey, which is funny because her mother isn't, and she had an allergic rash when she was young which responded well to cortisone, so I'm hopeful for Peasie now.

2006-05-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Damn, I forgot how good it was to be in the studio and working on a project! It's been way too long. Jeff was out here last weekend to record the first tracks for Stardust County the CD up at Scott Hallock's studio in Fountain Hills. I'll be doing a writeup on the session over on my LiveJournal. The project is officially under way! We finished everything on schedule so we had Sunday free to drive over to Chris & Pat's for a quiche-and-pool party. All in all, a very fun, relaxing long weekend.
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The Water Channel?!
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Back down to earth this week. The rash on Peasie's face is just not responding to the treatments we've tried so far, so I took her in again and they're doing a biopsy. She is one unhappy, not to mention itchy, little conehead.
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The Water Channel?

2006-05-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

Rug Rat Redux

My neighborhood has wide streets, and oftentimes the neighborhood kids use them for bike riding, skateboarding, or pickup soccer games. Usually they're pretty good about clearing the street when a car comes along.

This evening, coming home from work, there was a bunch of 4-5 kids that just wouldn't get out of the way - kept walking right down the middle of the road. When they finally left just barely enough opening for me to inch through about 5 mph, one of them suddenly rode his bike right out in front of my car! Like, feet away! I slammed on the brakes and the little brats pulled faces and yelled at me like I was the one who wasn't supposed to be there.

In case you can't tell, I'm upset about this.

2006-05-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I finished painting the white parts of the porch; now I just have the trim to do. Also, I managed to clip Frodo's other paw. Hey, I take my little victories where I can get them. Also spent Sunday afternoon practicing. I've got a ton of music to learn for the July session in Cupertino.

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Maybe someone who's up on the latest political catch-phrases can help me with this one. In John Kyl's current campaign, when he says "families should be able to pass on their values to their children without government interference" - what is that code for? Evolution? Spanking? Polygamy?

Flouridation?

The rest of the ad is the standard blah blah fishcakes about border security, so no clues there.

2006-05-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, the most important thing is this: if you live in Mesa, be sure to get out and vote Tuesday on Questions 1 & 2. This city's population has exploded, though not quite so exponentially as Chandler, and this is really a pivitol time for how we want city government to be run, what services we want from the city, and how we're going to pay for it. Do the research first, because a lot of people who haven't been paying attention for the past 5-10 years are suddenly rabbiting forth like experts. I recommend rummaging through the Mesa section of the East Valley Tribune; they've done an excellent series of articles on how we've gotten into the current budget crunch.

What it boils down to, in the end, is this: Stuff costs money. If you want the stuff, you spend the money. If you don't, you don't.

Me, I think it's a little scary when Mayor Keno Hawker, a hardass fiscal conservative who tried to scuttle the Mesa Arts Center after it had been approved by voters, is suddenly grinning in front of the MAC in many glossy spreads (like the America West in-flight magazine) in a desperate attempt to attract business and tourist dollars to Mesa, 'cause that's basically what he's got to work with. Though I must admit as a loyal MAC supporter I also felt a certain amount of glee.

Oh yeah, speaking of tourist dollars to Mesa, I learned last weekend at Leprecon that next year's Lep will be at the Mesa Convention Center, just a few miles from my house. W00t! I may even go the whole three days! What would also be cool would be if they have an author GoH I happen to like, and if Gary brought in a filk GoH who was on that list of recommendations I made awhile back, that would be even cooler.

2006-05-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Progress with the cats... sorta

I managed to clip Frodo's claws this weekend without major trauma - a first! The secret is to carry the nail clippers with me everywhere and wait until he's lounging and in a mood to be fussed over. And also not wrestling with Savannah, who has to horn in on anything and everything, and is pretty much the reason I only finished one paw.

And last night I even saw Savannah licking Peaseblossom's face. Awww. A moment later, Peasie hissed, hauled off and smacked her.

2006-04-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

My first rattlesnake

OK, I'm going to try this one more time with a smaller image, and if Blogger still chokes I'm going to assume that it's scared of snakes.

This guy, hiding under a bush and waiting for the tourists to go away, is my first rattler! Well, first wild rattler. For years I've felt shut out of the cool crowd because all the hikers I know had seen at least one rattlesnake on the trail and I hadn't. Well now I have! This was Saturday, on the McDowell Mountain Preserve.

....Meh. Blogger is definitely afraid of snakes. Well, take my word for it, there was a rattlesnake, and I have a picture of it, which I'll try to post later.

2006-04-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Where are the cairns when you need them?
I spent a furstrating morning bushwhacking along a barely-marked trail through the Supes, which finally dead-ended in an impenetrable bosque. I could see the two guys who'd passed me earlier on the trail on the other side of Barks Canyon, but no idea how they got there so I turned around and headed back. (Ever since that time I got lost in Ramsey Canyon and ended up on the Fort Huachuca base I've been chary about cutting cross-country without markers.) Lost the trail on the way back, too, but since I could see where it picked up again in the distance I wasn't too worried, just annoyed as there was a whole lotta cactus on the hillside I was blundering through.

Well, the guys who'd preceded me turned back shortly after I did, so we caught up with each other in the parking lot. Turns out when you get to the wash you're not supposed to cross over to the cairn on the opposite bank, but turn right and follow the cairns down the wash until the trail re-appears on the right bank. Oh. "We did the same thing as you last weekend, and wound up sunburned in the middle of nowhere." OK, now I don't feel quite so dumb.
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Stucco on You
What is up with this popsicle stand? The place that screened my porch can't even get someone out to give me an estimate on the stucco job until the 20th. The guy who left a flyer on my door never returned my call. Turning to the phone book, I called a stucco place that doesn't do residential, but referred me to another guy who didn't return my call. Finally I got hold of a mom-and-pop place that came out the same day, said they could get it done by this weekend - then didn't get me the written estimate until last Thursday. WTF?
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Do I sound just a tad bit cranky?

2006-04-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

How I set out to stucco the back porch and wound up buying a Martin instead of hiking Bark's Canyon

I'm tempted to leave that headline dangling, because it's much more interesting than what actually happened. Suffice to say, I hired a carpenter through a handyman service to screen in the back patio, and made a certain amount of progress into stucco-ing the exterior wall before deciding I'd have to hire another handyman to complete the job. My hands are bleeding, my back aches, and I've had my fill of DIY jobs. Especially on a beautiful day like today, I'd rather be (A) hiking or (B) relaxing on the patio with the newspaper or a book.

So, having blown a day and a half on the never-ending project, I decided this would be a good time to head over to Milano's to pick up a metronome and look at their guitars. I've actually thinking about getting a standard-body guitar for awhile, since I'll be playing Jeff's Taylor for the album and my own acoustic, the Epiphone Songwriter, is a parlor guitar with a wider-than-standard neck. The salesguy had me try out a Seagull to start with, then handed me a Martin DCX1RE, which sold itself within the first minute. Super-responsive action, deep, mellow tone, and the price was really reasonable for a Martin. Jury's still out on whether I'll be taking it to Concertino or not. Don't know if I want the new baby knocking around inside an airplane just yet.

2006-03-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

Wow. That was almost worth buying another ticket. This huge prop globe rolled off the edge of the stage, halfway through the third act, and crashed into the orchestra pit. No people or instruments were harmed, and after the briefest of pauses the music resumed.

Best plot analysis overheard in the line for the women's room: "He's looking for salvation; she just wants sex."

Silliest question at the Opera Talkback: "Where did you get all those women?" [Referring to the opera chorus.]

2006-03-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

My brain = not the boss

I've been a season subscriber to Arizona Opera since, I don't know, maybe 1998? It's always been a treat that I look forward to all month. During that time I've only missed a couple of performances, and that only because I was out of town.

Last night, I just completely forgot. I forgot that this weekend was The Flying Dutchman, the season finale and biggest production. I remembered around 10:30 last night. I seriously doubt they'll let me exchange my ticket after the fact, which means I'll need to buy another if I want to see it tonight or tomorrow. Crap.

Stick my brain in a pickle jar and ship me to Sun City, I'm ready.

2006-03-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

What a way to end a dry spell!

I got 1.9 inches at my house, how about you? What amazed me was how dark it got at my house yesterday. Usually, with the skylights, I don't need lights on in the livingroom in the daytime, but it was practically night-dark during the biggest downpours. Although I kited out for errands a couple times, finding a major lake in the middle of Basha's parking lot, I mostly stayed in and did some web stuff. I've ported Stardustcounty.com over to Cox, so I can take down my earthlink site with an eyes towards shutting that account down at the end of the month. I streamlined things quite a bit and I'm pretty satisfied with the result. All the essential stuff is there, legible, and easy to get to; and there's room to grow the site when I want to.

Around 5:00 or so I was getting ready to snug in and fix dinner, when I got a call from Tom saying that he'd gotten a call from Pete & Donna saying that they were in Globe snowed-in, and could I feed their dogs? Folks, Globe's elevation is 3524 feet. I turned on the news at their house and sure enough, Route 60 was closed from Apache Junction east. It was snowing in Cave Creek and north Scottsdale. Around 10:30 I got another call from Pete; they had gone the back way out of Globe, across the Res, through Willcox and were now in Tucson on their way back to Phoenix. All I can say is, holy cow. This afternoon snow was visible on the Superstitions.
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Phoenix Folk Festival Mar 18-19

I got the schedule a couple days ago, and I will be playing next Sunday at 12 noon in the Boathouse. There'll also be an open filk circle at 3:00 under the big tree in front of the Clubhouse, if it doesn't snow. The Festival, as always, is held at Encanto Park in Phoenix, 15th Ave & Thomas, and is free of charge. It's a popular event, so you may have to park in an overflow lot (they have shuttles).
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Random thoughts on the Battlestar Galactica season finale (spoilers ahoy)

I like a series that isn't afraid to re-invent itself to avoid becoming stale, but it seems like BSG has dropped a bunch of threads, unresolved and before their time.

I know most of the people who read this blog are familiar with Elfquest. Remember Skywise? He was supposed to die in the original storyline, but the Pinis liked him so much they re-wrote the story so he lived - and did absolutely nothing to move the plot forward for the rest of that series. Think about it: what has Roslin done since she her cancer was miraculously cured? Anything that drove the story, that couldn't have been done by some other character? She just seems to be hanging around because the writers like her. Also:

Baltar's been doing apparently nothing but debauching for the past year, and no-one (hint: Zarak) has stepped into the power vaccuum?

One year on the planet and they don't have any permanent structures?

You can grow penecillin from moldy bread, and they don't have any antibiotics?

Well, at least one of the ships in the rag-tag fleet was the Stogie Express, so they have yet to run out of cigars....

2006-03-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

Some shiny stones found on the Web

A wonderful adaption of A Midsummer Night's Dream on comics.com by Brooke McEldowney.

New Zealand submit to their Google Earth overlords.
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It's a blustery day today. The dried Bougainvillia bracts, caught against the block wall, are swirling like a huge blender outside my office window. Savannah is fascinated.

2006-03-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week

"It's none of your business why I'm radioactive!"

2006-03-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

I finished up planting the second vegetable bed this weekend: Ruby Queen sweet corn, liana (yard long) beans, St. Nick Christmas melon, Sungold casaba melon, Revenue Hybrid zucchini, Red Kurl squash ("makes outrageous pies"), and butternut squash (seeds taken from a squash I bought at the Farmer's Market). I threw in some sunflower seeds at the edge of the bed for fun. We'll see what comes up. Some of the seed packets are getting rather old, time to do a purge.

The backyard is blooming, and the weather was so nice this weekend. Now that the planting's all done I'm looking forward to spending next weekend at home just enjoying the yard, maybe doing a little puttering.
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Some sad news - Udupi Cafe, arguably the best vegetarian restaurant in the Valley and the only place I know of I could get paneer shahi korma and badam halwa with pistachio ice cream, has apparently gone belly-up. I haven't been to the building to check, but in past weeks when I've called for take-out there's been no answer and a recorded message that the voicemailbox is full.
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Tom asked in a comment to an earlier post about the new blog name. Since I'm moving Stardust County news to my Livejournal, I thought a name change was in order. "Eanna" in Sumerian mythology is the home of Inanna, Queen of Heaven, one of the major dieties - so yeah, a little pretentious but it'll do until I think of something more apropos.

2006-03-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Whoo! Just got back from my first Body Combat session at the gym, and my arms are like noodles. It's a one-hour aerobic workout using punches, kicks, and blocks. Next time I'm going to bring my swimsuit and jump into the pool afterward.

2006-02-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

Talk about your ambiguous marketing - the cafeteria at work had a big sign saying that if you wore Mardi Gras beads today, you'd get a quarter off your purchase price. No, not 1/4 off. 25 cents off, as I discovered. Hardly worth putting the silly things on.
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Today was also blood drive day. I made my first donation after being deferred for a year after spending two nights in a "malaria-risk" area of Peru. The phlebotemist had to exert so much effort to get the needle into my arm (what, has the total lack of moisture in the air for the past 4 months toughened my skin?) that I was sure of a massive bruise afterwards, but there's nary a mark. The actual draining only took five minutes - drinking huge amounts of water beforehand must've helped.
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Today was also supposed to be the day that it rained for the first time since October. Around 7:00 tonight I went out into the backyard, and though I couldn't feel anything, it sounded like very tiny raindrops might be occasionally hitting the platic tarp I'd used to cover the mulched bed. It was hard to tell though, because at that moment a helicopter started buzzing the neighborhood and every airplane in America flew over my house on its way to Sky Harbor.

So, we wait another month.

2006-02-26T00:51:00.000-08:00

The new home for all my Stardust County news is now here on LiveJournal. This here blog you're looking at now will continue to be the home for my inane ramblings on other subjects.

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Lullaby for a Weary Lion

TTO "Lullaby for a Weary World"

I wonder how the lion can sleep
with all those people singing:
eeeeeeeeeeeeOwimoweh

Thanks to a new South African court ruling, Solomon Linda's heirs are finally starting to see their share of the royalties for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The story, including a good summary of the history of the song, is here and here. Read the original Zulu lyrics and translation here.
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Update: Blogger ate the latter part of my post, where I was badmouthing MSWord's web editing "feature". Massive XML scripts, renaming image files with user-hostile names like "image035.jpg", etc. Can anyone recommend a real HTML editor that doesn't think it knows better than you, but won't break the bank? I need to overhaul my website and it's going to be a PITA if I have to do it all in raw HTML.

2006-02-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

Cell phone security warning

Help me spread the word on this. If you or anyone you know has a bluetooth-enabled cell phone, you should be aware that it has a "feature" that lets other bluetooth users within 10 meters send you anonymous messages and video clips. This feature can be turned off, but the phone comes with it automatically enabled, and most users are unaware it's there. The reason you should be concerned is that increasingly perverts are using the feature to send anonymous threats and pornography; they're especially targeting women and children. (See this article in the New Zealand Herald.)

Like I said, you can turn this off. Check your user manual; not all phones come with anonymous messaging.

2006-02-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

And now for something completely apolitical

The mage-king Hermes Trismegistus was sitting in judgment as was his custom, when two disputants came before him: one a wealthy merchant bearing the sigil of the House of Hoff; the other a crabbed old man, richly yet eccentrically robed.

"Highness," complained the merchant, after salutory gestures had been concluded, "know that I paid this reverent sage 50 snickels to foretell the most propitious day for the wedding of my daughter. He did but lock himself in the toilet and refuse my entreaties to come out! At length I could wait no longer and left in great wroth, but upon seeing him in the street this morning did press him to accompany me here before ye."

The mage-king looked at the old man gravely. "This is behavior unseemly to both our august order and thy advanced years. What sayst thou in thy defense?"

"Long hath I practiced the Sooth," the sage replied, gesturing dramatically the while; "sensible as I am of its weighty traditions, yet I had not attained my degree of mastery without experiment and pursuit of the novel. In past months come I have by one of the wondrous flush toilets such as accommodate the palaces of the Doges of the East. As ye knowst, of such a device is a water-containing bowl; I do but practise to sprinkle certain holy herbs upon this water and, by means of prayer and chant, draw forth visions upon its surface."

At this much hilarity consumed the court, until Hermes called order.

"Surely thou knowst," he smiled, "that the 'porcelain god' be not a reliable source of prophesy, nor an artifice approved for the telling of fortunes?'

The old man drew himself up in incense of indignation.

"It's my potty," he declared, "and I'll scry if I want to!"

Rim shot.
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Things are moving on Stardust County. Have a tentative date for the first session in May; need to get confirmation from Tom and Lon and then we're go! There's been some rearrangement of the cast due in part to the hiatus, so I'm working that issue this week. I can't believe we're finally moving ahead! Heavens, we might actually finish the project!

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As usual, didn't get as much accomplished in the yard as I wanted, but made some progress. I turned one bed and planted tomatoes (Early Girl, Heat Wave, Red Grape), sweet peppers (red and brown), a tomatillo and a Japanese eggplant, all seedlings from Home Depot. From seed I planted corn (Early and Often) and bush beans (Royal Burgundy). I also transplanted the Brown Berry tomato seedlings to containers - they're not going to mature fast enough to put in the yard. Then I got my upper body aerobic workout by digging holes for an avacado tree (oh yeah) and a couple vines I got for the gazebo, and set up the irrigation system to take care of everything. Next weekend I do the other veg garden bed, and plant the emu bushes in the side yard.

2006-02-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

Poltergeist
This morning I was enjoying a good sleep-in when there was a sudden and prolonged crash and clatter, of the kind most likely caused by cats knocking a pile of fragil crockery off the kitchen counter and onto the floor. I vaulted from my bed, raced into the kitchen, and found - nothing. Same in every other room in the house. Not a thing out of place. So I did my yoga, showered, fed the cats, checked my email, and went out to get the Sunday paper. Not in the driveway. I checked out in front of the fence, because sometimes it doesn't get that far. Not a trace of it anywhere. Grumbling, I went back inside, called the AZ Republic line and requested a replacement. Then I turned around, and found the newspaper sitting in plain sight on the chaise in the music room.

Conclusion: I have a noisy yet helpful poltergeist who likes to bring in the paper.

Conclusion.1: I am losing my marbles. They say memory is the second thing to go...
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On the fungibility of oil
I just have to comment on today's Dilbert cartoon, because I've seen this argument before, and it's highly specious. There's no point in our conserving oil, because if we don't use the oil other (developing) countries will. This assumes demand is a constant. If Developing Country X isn't able to buy enough oil to meet its demand, it's because the price is too high, not because the U.S. got to the pump first. So if the U.S. suddenly stopped buying oil from Terrorist-supporting Country Y, Country X wouldn't be able to take up the slack unless Country Y lowered their prices - hence less money for terrorists, if that's your reason for conserving oil. More importantly, it makes the U.S. less politically beholden to Terrorist-supporting Country Y.

WTF, I'm not talking about piddlin' little Developing Country X, I'm talking about China! Damn straight. China's going to be entering the the oil market in a big way in the coming decades, potentially becoming a bigger consumer than the U.S. and putting us in Developing Country X's shoes - forced to pay more, develop alternatives, or make do with less. True, we may be able to develop more domestic sources of oil, but without an embargo or significant tarriffs, China's going to be the primary consumer of that too. This is the pragmatic argument, and more persuasive IMO. People don't agree on politics, but everyone feels a hit to the wallet.

Footnote: Personally, I find recent advancements in "alternative" energy sources one of the more exciting technological frontiers; but I'm not ready to trade in my Corolla for an Impala E85.

2006-02-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Me
Yesterday was my birthday. I broke out some of the gift certificates my employer now gives as bonuses instead of cash, and treated myself to dinner at Mosaic. 45 seems so much more... August than 44.

V-day assignment
Never touch the stuff myself, but here's my latest lyric-spinning assignment in belated honor of Valentine's Day.

Take a song in which the word "life" appears, and replace it with "wife".

Example: "You light up my wife"

The sincerest form of flattery
I've got Iran all figured out. They're just a bunch of USA-wannabees. First they say that no stupid ol' U.N. committee can tell them what to do. Then they rename a popular fast food in a nationalist snit. Hey Shirley, Jan, this sounds like a good basis for a (comedy) bellydance routine!

2006-02-13T19:55:00.000-08:00

Blogger mangled the first version of this post. Let's try this again...

This is going to be my only post on this topic, but - Does anyone else think of Donald Duck and Petunia Pig angrily brandishing molotov cocktails when they hear reference to the "cartoon riots"? Not that I suppose it matters to either side at this point, but the drawings that everyone's upset about aren't the by-comparison-innocuous ones that were published by the Danish newspaper. The Globe and Mail has that story, which seems to have flown under everyone else's radar, here.

One wonders what the reaction would be if something similar happened in the U.S. - say, an American political group sent American politicians cartoons of Jesus sodomizing a child, and some hoo-head spread the rumor that The Washington Post had published it. Most pundits say that the American response would be more enlightened. I disagree. Less violent, certainly. But more enlightened? Remember the boycott of Proctor & Gamble, because the moon on their label "proved" they were owned by the Church of Satan? Here's what I predict would happen:

1. A boycott of the newspaper by people who don't read it anyway.
2. A boycott of all stores that sell the newspaper.
3. A boycott of all companies that advertise in the newspaper.
4. A boycott of Starbucks, just because.
5. A nationwide crusade to raise funds for some unspecified activity to fight cartoons, simulcast to mega-churches throughout the country.
6. Cartoon-scandal themed 401 scam spam.
7. Viruses spread via emails with cartoon-scandal subject lines.
8. Anti-cartoon legislation springing up in backwater counties to be immediately followed by a challenge to their constitutaionality from the ACLU.
9. Calls from members of Congress to amend the Constitution to make cartoons illegal.
10. Pundits carrying on authoritatively about cartoons, when in fact the last cartoon they'd read was Lil Dot back in 1965.

The vast and noisy circus would suddenly be cut short and be forgotten within the week when an unchaperoned American teenager disappeared on spring break in a foreign country.

2006-02-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

The train has pulled out of the station

I meant to announce this in a long, rambling yet insightful post, but I've got a splitting headache this afternoon so must keep brief. Jeff and I talked by phone Friday night and we've made plans to have a first recording session out here in Phoenix in late spring. I'll need to find a local studio where Jeff can plug in his laptop and run the board, but the studio itself doesn't need to have any computer setup since he's bringing his own.

If you're in the cast, check your email.

More when I'm feeling better.

2006-02-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

Frodo is out from under the futon and getting bolder by the day; last night I had circle at my house and all three cats were running around making nuisances of themselves, chewing on the flowers, jumping up skirts, and horning in on the feast. He's still alternating between "Pet me pet me!" and "No don't touch me! Run away!!!"

------------------------------

Animal Planet isn't spending buckets of money to compete with the Super Bowl. No, they're offering twelve hours of "Puppy Bowl", a bunch of puppies romping in a pen made up to look like a football satdium. If that's not cute enough for you, this year they've added the "Kitty Half-Time Show". And you can buy the DVD.

------------------------------

On a more serious note - much as I try to keep things positive over on stardustcounty.com - the Stardust County CD has been lost in La Mancha for over a year now and I really feel that it's reached a crisis point. I don't want to work with a producer I don't have experience with and trust, and I certainly don't want to produce something of this magnitude on my own, but if this CD is ever going to get off the ground we're going to have to get into the studio soon. The only plan I can think of is to start recording some preliminary tracks locally at a studio that uses the same software Jeff does. I sent off an email to Jeff, but don't expect to hear back soon, as (figuratively) snowed-under as he is - commuting 200 miles every weekend and trying to sell the house. Hopefully by the time the Phoenix Folk Festival rolls around in March I'll have a better handle on how to move ahead, or not.

2006-01-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

Can anyone explain to me this blog? It's one of a bunch of blogs that do nothing but post big blocks of random text referencing each other. It seems to be a scheme to fake out the blog-search engines - artificially inflating their scores - but since there's nothing to see when you go to the actual blog it seems pretty pointless.

2006-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

The Mind Boggles
In a professional IT newsgroup I subscribe to, a newcomer (not a native English speaker) was pilloried today for using the words dude and bud. One regular was offended by his use of "street slang". Another said use of those words in New England could lose you your job. So, gangstas on the streets of Boston are calling each other "dude" now?

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Arizona Opera put on a wonderful production of Semele this past weekend. Wonderful coloratura singing (or is it bel canto in that period?) and hilarious pop art staging. Stephanie Blythe's Juno reminded me a hellava lot of Pearl Forrester. In a good way.

2006-01-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm vacillating right now on whether I'll be going to Consonance this year... it's always a fun filk convention, and I'd like to attend Cindy McQuillan's memorial. OTOH I'm kind of sick of travelling for awhile - I'd like to spend some time at home - and with next week's business trip to MSP I'll probably be even sicker of it by the time March rolls around. Not to mention that it's too close to the date now to use my VISA mileage.
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"You can see the sirens flashing in the background."
-- that's what one of Channel 12's newscasters said earlier this week. No, you can't see the sirens flashing in the background, not unless this is the "Girls Gone Wild" version of the Odyssey. Police lights flash. Police sirens make a woo-woo sound.

2006-01-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

To Dine or Not to Dine

Saturday night I went to a wonderful production of Hamlet at the Mesa Arts Center. Very sparse staging, but the acting was marvellous, and the acoustics in the Repertory theater v.good; I could hear all the dialogue from the balcony.
Beforehand I went to this great foodie restaurant called Bak'd. It's a sandwich-type eatery by day, but evenings they offer a prix fixe dinner by reservation only. You choose from a meat entree - or let them know you're a vegetarian when you call - the chef interviews you for any allergies or dietary restrictions - and the four courses that follow are a complete surprise. (How does sweet-potato-stuffed portobello on a bed of braised arigula and asian pears sound?) At $40 this is dirt cheap for a foodie place, and I'm betting they'll be packed as soon as word starts to get out.
Downtown Mesa is still pretty dead by 5:30. Some antique shops and a bookstore were open; closed by the time I left the restaurant. I remember back in '83 having a brief stint as a security guard at a store downtown, and everything pretty much closed down at sunset. The Dunkin' Donuts was the only place open past midnight. Mesans just aren't used to the idea of leaving the house at night to do stuff.

2006-01-21T16:15:00.000-08:00

There's a Middle Eastern grocery/deli in Tempe called Princess, just east of the 101 on Broadway. Best. Babba Ganouj. Ever.
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Spend a few hours this afternoon at the Songwriters' Gathering at Encanto. One of the 10-minute sets was a funny guy named Chris Frazer. His material reminds me a little of Ookla the Mok.

I premiered my new song, Merry Solstice, Rhiannon Evenstar, during my set, and it went over really well with the audience - better than I expected, since it's one of those songs that's a little too personal and off-beat to be commercial.
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"Bobby" now has a permanent name; may I introduce Frodo, here travelling incognito as Mr. Underfuton.

Amongst the other names I considered were Bommie, Twinkletoes, Pyewacket, and Kieron the Conqueror.

And yes, he is spending more and more time not under things.

2006-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

How did this happen? My evenings were supposedly open all week, and now I'm needing to make some time to rehearse for the Songwriters' Gathering on Saturday. I've written a new song that's kind of on different pieces of paper right now, with a mental note to transpose up a whole step and capo 2 on top of that. Having the whole song on a single (or two consecutive) pages with no transpositions would be nice.
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One of the problems with going out of town over December is that I wind up playing catch-up in January, which is also when I need to be starting seedlings for the spring vegetable garden. I can't use the spare room for seed starting right now because I've still got a chicken cat using it as his refuge, so I've got this setup jerry-rigged on the back porch. The outlet's not working, so I've had to rig an extension cord through an opened window, and I don't think the mat warmer is making much progress against the cold temps we've been having. Oh well, if they don't germinate this year I'll just go out and buy vegetable plants in Feb.

2006-01-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing more and more of Bobby these days; though he's still afraid to come too close to me, he and Savannah have been playing, chasing each other around the house in the evening. This morning he even cried for his breakfast - at a safe distance - then hid under the futon when I put his food down and continued to cry until I shut the door to the spare room. So I wrote him this song:

He is brave Sir Robin, come out from 'neath the bed;
He was not afraid to eat, no, brave Sir Robin!
He was not afraid to be fed with lots of tasty food,
Brave, brave, brave, brave sir Robin!

Well, it beats having the "Bobby" song from Company running through my head.

Peasie is just generally annoyed and has resumed hissing at Savannah for no better reason than she's generally the nearest cat handy.
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This coming Saturday I have a 10-minute slot at the AZ Songwriters' Gathering in Phoenix. I haven't gotten the schedule in the mail yet, but Tom saw one at Fidd's last week and says I'm on sometime after 11:00 (AM). It's in Encanto Park in Phoenix. Usually they have 3-4 workshops and at least one showcase track made up of 10-minute mini-sets by local songwriters.
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I will have my online photo albums from my trip up by the end of the month. Yes, I will.

2006-01-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

For crying out loud...

This woman claimed that she wasn't abusing the HOV lane because she was pregnant, and the fetus counted as a second person. While I appreciate the consideration that the fetus showed for reducing pollution and conserving petroleum by carpooling with its mother and not driving to work separately, SHUT UP!!!!

2006-01-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

A couple more images; first the ship Tui Tai seen from Qamea Island in Fiji.

The second is a sea turtle munching coral on the Great Barrier Reef.

So what's been happening since I got back, other than trying to catch up on sleep? Well, I'd been thinking about this even before my trip, and finally decided to do it: I called Savannah's foster mom and asked if she still had any of her siblings. The idea is that if Savannah could play with a kitten her age it would take some of the pressure off Peaseblossom. Their relationship has mellowed, but playtime is still a point of contention. Well, she had one brother, and he's a chicken. He disappeared his first day in the house. Frantic, I finally found him behind the refrigerator. Since then I've been keeping him in the spare room, where he hides under the futon by day and rattles the door at night, whereupon Savannah runs to the door and makes "let's play" noises, and he hisses back. This afternoon I let him out, where he's mostly been moving from one hiding spot to the next.

His foster name is "Bobby", and I refuse to rename him until he comes out and displays some personality. So far I've only been impressed by his ability to disappear.

2006-01-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

A lot of people who go to Australia get their pictures taken holding a koala. How many get them taken frolicking with wombats?

I'll be posting a few more photos here as I get them sorted out and get re-adapted to Arizona time. Man, the back yard's a mess - all the leaves fell off the ash tree while I was gone.

Steve Irwin wasn't actually at the Australia Zoo while I was, but his presence was everywhere...

2005-12-27T16:06:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Airlie Beach, where the weather looks about like this, and I've got three hours to kill before we board the dive boat. I'm melting away in a internet cafe with really beat-up terminals, but the rate is by far the best I've found in Australia ($2/hour), so I'm not complaining. BTW, if you've been trying to get ahold of me via the earthlink account, I can't get into that account at the moment.

This morning we viewed some little platypi at Broken River Perserve up in Eungella. Some other wildlife I've seen on this trip include flying foxes, wallabies, 'roos, goannas, lace monitors, bush turkeys, loads of lorikeets and cockatoos, and kookaburras are everywhere. That's just in the wild - not counting our trip to the Australia Zoo just outside Brisbane. Tonight the tour heads out for 2-1/2 days diving in the Great Barrier Reef. We've had some changes to the itinerary because, at least in the rural areas where we've been visiting, everything shuts down between Christmas and New Year's.

Since I won't be there for the party this year, Happy New Year to Daystar Holt.

Back home in a week.

2005-12-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Bloggin' from Brisbane!

This is gonna be a quickie because I'm paying buku at the Holiday Inn's coin-op kiosk.

Fiji was fun; in fact I'm considering doing the same cruise again next year. I know, it's a shock, me going the same country two years in a row, but there you are. Itinerary was a little different from the one on the Tui Tai webpage, due to (1) a big celebration at Rabi Island, and (2) the anchor winch breaking twice. Our final night they resorted to sawing the chain off so we could get back to port! Anyway, awesome trip so far, details and photos when I get back, yada yada.

2005-12-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

Busy packing today, getting loose ends tied up before I head out tomorrow. Man, it's been a busy week! For you armchair travellers, here are my iteneraries so you can follow along. See you in 2006!

Tui Tai Adventure Cruises

Aussie Walkabouts

2005-12-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

Now that the trial is over, I can tell you what it was about.

It was a civil case regarding a private sewer system. After a cumulative two days of solid expert testimony, I now know more about sewage pumps and pump lift stations than I ever wanted to know. The outcome? Suffice to say the defendants could have saved themselves time and money by answering the phone and taking care of the problem.

During the trial, I was thinking it was too bad there wasn't a CSI-type show about what goes on in the jury room. There are and have been tons of shows about cops and lawyers, but in these shows the jury deliberations always occur ob scena, except for the odd one-off movie like Twelve Angry Men, which frankly wouldn't have given me a realistic expectation of my own jury service. No, a realistic jury show would have to be something more like The Office. I think the reason it's never been done is that you'd have to have an entirely new cast with each show.

Fun fact: Jurors at the Maricopa County Courthouse were once sequestered on all trials until they came up with a verdict. The shell of the old bunkhouse still exists at the Courthouse, though all the bunks are gone. According to our judge, they got verdicts a lot faster in those days.

Another fun fact: Your baliff is a great source of juicy details on the more interesting cases you didn't get assigned to.

2005-12-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

Why I'll never be on Planet's Funniest Animals

This afternoon I was standing on a stepstool installing new blinds in the windows in the breakfast nook (which have been blindless since the springs in the roll-up shades died and I ripped them out in order to paint the kitchen). Savannah leaped onto my shoulder to see what I was up to. Unlike many cats who jump up, scrabble for purchase, and wind up on the floor with half your T-shirt and a generous helping of human epidermus, Savannah is quite nimble and balanced quite nicely for a minute or so. Then she decided to walk out onto my arm and investigate exactly what was going on with that funny drill. This is where I decided she should get down. But it was adorable.

Unfortunately, there was no-one following me around with a video camera at that moment.

2005-12-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

This week I've been on jury duty. The trial I'm on is being held in the old Phoenix Courthouse downtown, which was built in 1939. The architecture is magnificent - spiral staircase, carved wood panelling, and so forth. However, the seating for the jury is apparently original and even the addition of new cushions doesn't do much for the comfort level. Our forebearers must have had butts of steel. The schedule's been kind of odd, with days and half-days off depending on the judge's and witnesses' availability. I told the baliff that I'm leaving the country on Saturday, and he said if the trial lasts that long they'll just make me one of the alternate jurors. It's unlikley though, at the rate we've been zipping through testimony.

During our breaks I've been reading Zelazny's Lord of Light, which makes for an interesting counterpoint.

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Trying to finish stuff up around the house this weekend, get everything in order for my trip. Hopefully I won't be in court this Friday and I can take the day off to pack.

2005-11-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

But for a truly pointless activity, you have to go to New Zealand.

2005-11-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

I woke up early this morning with the moon in my eyes - it was only a tiny sliver, but it was bright! Then Savannah burrowed underneath the covers and draped herself purring across my stomach. Made it very hard to crawl out of the warm bed into the cold room.
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Now, I know that the people who post the writeups on Hike Arizona tend to be gonzo hikers, so I make allowances when I'm reading the trail descriptions. Even so, the 14-mile hike from the Peralta trailhead to Canyon Lake looked like it fell into the challenging but fun category. My friends "Skeet" and "Judy", who asked me not to use their real names, accompanied me on this hike on Saturday.

For starters, I severely underestimated the time it would take to drop the one car at Canyon Lake and shuttle down to Peralta. It was after 8 by the time we hit the trail - our target had been 7:00. Still it was a nice morning if a bit humid, cool with shifting clouds. On the way up to the Fremont Saddle we met a hiker in a sombrero who identified himself as a Snowbird from Tennessee. It's a healthy climb to the saddle; we had a quick breakfast and started down the other side with great views of Weaver's Needle as we passed it. We were slowly getting more and more blue sky, but still nice and cool. After the Needle the Peralta goes through an area that was hit by fire long enough ago for the blackened trees and bushes to be sprouting new growth. Following that there's an area with a lot of quartz and what looked like iron-rich outcroppings (red). We passed Palamino Mountain, where we could see another hiker investigating Aylor's Arch, and stopped for lunch around 2:00, near the southern end of Boulder Canyon Trail.

This is where we met one of the 2 other hikers we saw on this trail, a woman coming the opposite direction from First Water. She warned us that the Boulder Canyon Trail was very rugged from there on, and very easy to lose (she had added some extra cairns along the way). Hilarity ensued as we discovered her warning was accurate. Miles of scrambling over boulders, criss-crossing the riverbed, and cairn-spotting. In some places the trail disappeared completely. We kept pushing on because I knew the trail got more civilized at the Second Water junction, and I didn't want to be stuck on this section when dusk started falling.

In fact, we were well past the Second Water junction and at the saddle where you can first see Canyon Lake in the distance when night fell. Coincidentally, this was the point where my past experience of this trail ended. Since "Judy" and "Skeet" were sharing a headlamp, and "Judy" had no depth perception after dark, it fell to me to lead the final 2 to 2-1/2 miles. Stumbling along a twisty, up-and-down trail that you can only see about 10 yards in front of you with the wind rising and the coldest night of the year so far coming on is a needlessly exciting way to experience the Superstition Wilderness. I became convinced that we were on the wrong trail and headed towards Tortilla Flat, except on the rare occasion when the marina lights popped into distant view. "Skeet" pulled a muscle, and then suddenly we topped the last ridge and found ourselves looking stright down at the parking lot. As we stumbled sorely to the car, a gentleman who worked at the marina asked if we were OK - he'd been watching our lights coming down all the way from the top of the mountain.

And I do this for fun.

2005-11-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

This post contains a minor spoiler for HP & the Goblet of Fire the movie, but if you're enough of a Pothead to care then you've already read the book so who cares.

I celebrated Thanksgiving this year by going out with friends for southern Indian vegetarian food and seeing the latest Harry Potter movie. It's visually stunning and has a great sense of wonder, which I think is sadly lacking in films these days. However -

Why the heck didn't Voldemort's lackey just wait until Harry was alone, conk him on the noggin and stuff him in a sack? I got the impression that Rowling wrote this great story, then said "Oops I left Voldemort out! Better horn him in with a hasty rationale!" Why go through all this elaborate rigamarole just to get the hero to the graveyard when a taxi would do? Honestly, it makes the villain look a bit like Vold E. Coyote.
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Every year that I try to celebrate National Buy Nothing Day, it doesn't work out. I don't deliberately target the Black Friday sales, but I have the day off, the stores are open, and if nothing else I always seem to need groceries on this day...

2005-11-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

Peaseblossom finally got her teeth cleaning on Monday. They had to take out two teeth, including one of her upper fangs that had gotten chipped and the gum infected. She's actually in good spirits, considering. Monday night she was acting pretty loopy from the anesthetic. After she'd finished rolling and wriggling all over the carpet, she went around "marking" everything in the house - that's "marking" with the scent gland on the side of her mouth. She even marked Savannah, which brought joy to my heart because that means she accepts her now as part of her territory - even if they do have a battle royale on my bed almost every night, and hiss has become a regular part of Peaseblossom's vocabulary.
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I can't believe it's less than three weeks till I leave for Fiji and Australia; I went for another swimming practice at the gym this evening. A month ago I quit Pure Fitness and joined Fitness Works, which is only a couple miles away and has a lap pool. I've been practicing with my fins and ankle weights, so I can get used to the extra weight on my feet. They also have a jacuzzi and two saunas. Tonight the dry sauna was so hot I had to flee after only a few minutes. Either they cranked up the heat today or, since I normally go later in the evening, they start it up during the day and it cools off at night.

2005-11-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

I was out in Massachusetts this week, another business trip. When I was getting on the freeway to head back to Logan Airport, I noticed a sign at the on-ramp saying "Breakdown lane in use", with a baffling list of days and times. The bell didn't go off until I was actually on the freeway, and saw cars zipping by on the shoulder. So Boston deals with traffic by letting people drive on the shoulder during rush hour! Somehow I can't see that going over here in Phoenix - it'd be a matter of minutes before some yahoo on his cell smashed into some guy changing a tire at 90 mph.

Since this was a quick turnaround, I didn't get to see much of the surrounding area except from the air. Even so, the fall foliage was spectacular, with lots of reds. One cold weather front was just just ending its sweep across the country, so it was solid clouds out the plane window for the first few hours out of Newark. Somewhere over the plains states the cloud cover disappeared, revealing snowy white farmscape.

Speaking of Newark, I'd like to take the persons responsible for the perpetration of the quaint and antiquated notion that an hour (or less) is still sufficient time to make a connecting flight and drop them in NWK or LAX or some other airport where you need to book it down a never-ending terminal, out past the security checkpoint to catch a bus or train to a terminal at the other end of the airport, go through security again... and don't get me started on international connections. ...I spent 2-1/2 hours in Newark because the only alternative connection was a scant 50 minutes.

2005-11-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional.
You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's" Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

2005-11-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

Whatever happened to...

....backflips in figure skating? A few years back, they were the New Hot Thing. All the competetive men had one, or were working on it. Surya Bonaly had at least one in each routine, even though they didn't count in women's competition. Then suddenly the backflip completely disappeared and it was all quad quad quad. What happened? There was no high-profile injury involving a backflip, despite the much-hyped potential, and I never heard anything about the ISU banning it. So WTF?

....recommendations from Amazon that mean something? Once I bought Harry Jenkins' Textual Poachers from Amazon, and it recommended a wonderful book called Nasa/Trek, a feminist critique of NASA as pop culture compared and contrasted with the society of women who write Kirk/Spock fanfic. Nowadays I buy a book by an author, and Amazon recommends every other book that author has ever written, as if I were incapable of saying to myself, "hey, this person writes good stuff", and typing the name into their simple search function. Buy Tales of the South Pacific? Here's every other book by James Michener! Purchase the complete extended-cut edition of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy? Amazon recommends every other edition of all three movies, as box sets and individually!
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Boy, I'm sounding like an old fart tonight. I'm just stupidly tired today, for no reason. I even slept through my alarm this morning. No gym for me tonight - I'm sacking out early.

2005-11-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I was really into Led Zeppelin - I didn't know the name of the band, but I liked all their songs, even though I could only catch bits and pieces of the lyrics on my AM clock radio. The remastered box set doesn't have lyrics sheets, so I was still in the dark - until this site.

Well, one song anyway.
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I had a business trip out to Cedar Rapids last week, another quick turn-around so that I didn't get to see much of the area, other than to admire the autumn foliage on the way to the airport in the morning. Yes, in Iowa they have trees that actually change color! I found the local TV news interesting, though. Well, not the news itself. Where Phoenix news runs commercials for oh, car dealerships and medical centers, in Cedar rapids the ads are for combines, big-time farm equipment, "limited-use" chemicals to increase your crop yields...
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I did a hike yesterday along Second Water Trail and partway up Boulder Canyon, probably 8-10 miles. Today I painted the west wall of the kitchen. Tonight I'll sleep real good, you bet.

2005-10-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

Blessed Samhain to everyone who celebrates it, and Happy Hallowe'en to everyone else. I'm having a quiet weekend of it at home this year, doing some cleanup in the yard - pulling up old tomato stakes etc., pruning back the palo verde that's been taking over the sidewalk, and planting some marigolds for the season. Last night I went to see the Flying Machine's Frankenstein at Scottsdale Center for the Arts - it was a very entertaining version of the story, with not much Mary Shelley in it.

Friday night I drove over to Andy Olson's place to record the Hallowe'en show that's going to be airing on Radio Free Phoenix Monday at 8:00 Arizona time. We've got a nice mix of spiritual, spooky, and silly music, and yes this is a plug. If you live in Queen Creek and have a good receiver, you can also pick it up on-air at KQCX 99.1 FM.

AVS gave me some digital photos of Peaseblossom's necrotic kidney (both in her abdomen and out), which I'm not going to post here. Just to demonstrate that this blog has some standards.

2005-10-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Pop Quiz

Is that guy singing that it'll be alright

a) shoulder to shoulder
b) shelter to shelter
c) pelvis to pelvis
d) Albert to Albert

2005-10-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

It's Savannah - in 3-D! Photo upload is working again!
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Peaseblossom's final results came back, and apart from a bit of an infection from surrounding the ex-kidney, she's completely clean - no cancer! And she's being a very good girl about not worrying at her sutures, so she doesn't even need to be a conehead.
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I had to make another quickie business trip to Minneapolis this week, and I can now say with authority that Batman Begins is absolutely incomprehensible with the sound off.

2005-10-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Peaseblossom is out of surgery, and the news is generally optimistic so I'm going to give a cautious yay. The mass they thought was an intestinal tumor turned out to be one of her kidneys, which had become enlarged to take up the slack because her other kidney was blocked (apparently some time ago) and had shriveled to practically nothing. So they've taken out the bad kidney and pending the biopsy on that, she may never have had cancer after all!

2005-10-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

I figure most of the people who read this blog - all 4 of you - know this already: Barry Bard passed away last Friday. In my minds eye I see him now on the far side of the Styx, handing out goodie bags to new arrivals.

Merry Meet Again.
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On a lighter note, another legend of Arizona fandom slipped away this summer, or is at least greatly diminished: the notorious Anvil of God, aka Phoenix Civic Plaza North. Occupying two city blocks and designed by someone who had never stepped outside during a Phoenix summer, the plaza hadn't a stick of shade on it. It gained notoriety during a big con sometime in the 80's, a Westercon I think, where the hotel was the Hyatt Regency, on one side of the Plaza, and part of the programming was in the Convention Center on the other side, necessitating a ten-minute trek in the blazing July sun in 100-degree-plus weather. Imagine your last hall costume, then imagine running that gauntlet in your last hall costume. One con-goer was rumored to have suffered first-degree burns from her chain mail bikini, just walking from one convention space to the other!

Well, those days are over. A large annex to Symphony Hall is being built on the Plaza, directly across from the Hyatt. I wasn't able to get a good look Friday night, with all the scaffolding etc, but at the very least it takes some of the edge off that long walk.

2005-10-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Every year I say that next year I'm going to stay in Prescott for the whole folk festival, all day both days - and every year life gets in the way. This year I missed all of the Sunday programming, but packed as much as I could into Saturday. (That included doing a little hiking in the Thumb Butte area before the festival got started at 10:00.)

The songwriters' circle I was in in the afternoon was fun, and I had an unexpected reaction from the audience. There are usually 5-8 people involved in these, all songwriters sharing their material bardic style, which means in a 90 min slot we each get about two songs. It's a very relaxed atmosphere that attracts a good-size audience. When my second turn came around, I started with, "I couldn't let the whole festival go by without singing a filk song." A good half of the audience applauded, and this is a folk audience! Very cool. I did Fangrrrl to great appreciation; the biggest laugh seemed to be on "My resume is longer than the Hitchiker's triology." Just goes to show how much SF has drifted into the mainstream. Or perhaps how perniciously filk has infiltrated the Arizona folk scene. Hey, I've been doing it for a good ten years now, and Lon Austin was singing both ways well before then.

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Peaseblossom went in to the vet today for what was supposed to be a routine checkup and teeth cleaning. No such thing. She has a mass of inflamed lymph nodes in her abdomen. We're waiting on the biopsy results, hopefully Saturday morning.

2005-10-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

I used to drop something in the kettle each December because I knew the Salvation Army did social work as well as being a religious organization. No more. If there's nothing to prevent a government-funded charity from discriminating based on religious belief, there's nothing to keep them from denying aid to a person in need based on religious belief. Or race, disability, marital status... anything you can think of.

They're not getting any more of my nasty Pagan money than they already have.

Ya know, while we're busily tackling the task of demolishing the wall between Church and State, howsabout we make our next task rescinding the tax exemption for religious organizations? It'll be a genuine boon to churches, driving out the charlatans who are only in it for the money, and make a sizable dent in the Federal deficit!

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My blog has finally come of age -- yes, I'm getting comment spam now, so I've turned on the word verification feature for new comments.

2005-09-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Savannah,

Yes, I know it's hard to curb your kittenish curiosity, but horning in on Peaseblossom when she's engaged on the litterbox is a sure-fire way to get yourself a royal hissing - or perhaps you've learned that now.

-Mom
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Here's a news article I haven't been seeing in the U.S. press - it seems those lurid stories of lord-of-the-flies behavior amongst the urban poor in New Orleans post-Katrina were largely untrue.

2005-09-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, when the company I work for was part of Motorola and Motorola had its own private gym right across the parking lot, I took Yoga classes for awhile. Ever since then I've been doing a brief sun salutation in the morning, and gotten quite good at some positions, such as the tree. Yesterday morning I discovered that it's almost impossible to hold the plank position when a 6-month-old kitten climbs into your nightie.

Yes, I'm trying to add another cat to the family again, and this time it seems to be working. I adopted Savannah (actually her shelter name was "Betsy", but I object to giving cats common human names) from Friends for Life at the Petsmart last Saturday. Peaseblossom is still pissed-off and hissy, but her attitude's been improving daily - as well it should, since she outweighs Savannah by a factor of about three and should eventually realize the kitten isn't going to beat her up. (Although right now she's trying to eat Peasie's bowl. I mean, the bowl.)

Photo to be posted when Blogger's photo posting service gets back on line. "There were errors during upload." How lame is that?

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This coming weekend I'm making the annual pilgrimage up to the Prescott Folk Festival, and my annual dinner at Prescott Brewing Company - yum! Unfortunately I spaced hotel arrangements until a couple weeks ago, and the Vendome was booked, so I'm staying in a chain hotel this year. Should be fun, and the weather forcast is great. I'm playing the Exhibit Hall on Saturday at 1:30, and joining the Songwriters' Circle on the same stage at 3:30.

2005-09-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

It was a small crowd at Fidd's last night [something about Joe Bethancourt giving a house concert with free food?], but we raised an amazing $121 in the tip jar for the Red Cross, so kudos you guys for pitching in!