Hi, I'm Here, All Is Well
Jun. 24th, 2012 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomSorry for the radio silence the past few days, but last Sunday through Wednesday simply wiped me out, and then a few more things made Thursday almost as draining. Do you mind if I catch you up? Thanks.
As mentioned earlier, my van Garnet (named after the exterior paint color) needs a new transmission. Given the length of The List I already have for it (electrical system, already replaced both sets of brakes but not recently, A/C, possible necessary radiator work, etc., etc.), I have decided to retire the beastie. She's done me very well for about seven years, and she deserves a rest and a retirement with a little dignity. I hope to replace her with something similar.
Thursday, I ended up doing an online concert for ConTemporal. I felt very bad about not being able to make it, and so they hooked up the Con Chair's laptop to the sound board and Skyped me in. Took a few minutes to get it going, and I didn't get as much audience feedback as I like, but it seems to have worked well.
Friday was a catch-up day in every sense of the word. Bills, sleep, internet, sleep. The big edge I have is that I finally got some of my SocSecDis money. Literally couldn't have been timed better. It's not a lot, but my bills are being squared away, and that is effing huge.
Yesterday, my birthday (you may have noticed I never make a big deal about it, but this one was pretty good), Leslie and I went on a little pre-movie shopping trip to Target and CostCo. Got a new external hard drive (they have a Seagate 2 TB w/USB 3.0 for $99.99, if you can find it in stock; a similar 1 TB drive is $79.99). At CostCo, Les got an amazingly huge (53") stuffed bear for thirty bucks -- absolutely perfect prop for shooting photos with kids, and a big honkin' body pillow otherwise.
Then we met up with Anne, Gail, Marcus, Tom, Karen, Miranda, and Margaret, and saw Pixar's Brave. Very beautiful, excellent music, great characters, really good script. As is often the case, I'm in the middle of an Anne-Leslie spectrum. In this case, Anne had some issues with the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER scenes, until the big speech about SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. I thought, while extremely good, it didn't feel quite as epic as I thought it should have, not until the very end. Leslie said she could find no flaw. Similar sentiments around the table, all positive to very positive. We declare it is more than worth seeing, and take the kids.
Following which, we went to P. F. Chang's, and were joined by Marcus's friend Dana. Lovely meal. Crunchy green beans w/dipping sauce, crab rangoon, Vietnamese crab salad. My entree was the crispy noodles with beef (Anne got the same but with shrimp), and it was lovely, but Les's Mongolian Beef was better because of the char and slightly more aggressive marinade. Similar reactions around the table; Chang's does good stuff.
I got me a few presents -- a kitchen scale, Game of Thrones and the anime series Princess Jellyfish on DVD, and the Avengers Lego Helicarrier. Best thing? One of the view panels has a little game of Galaga on it. :D
Today, more catch-up: the past couple weeks of The Legend of Korra, some serious cleaning, a bit more computer work. I have beef which must become tacos, and laundry and dirty dishes which must become clean.
And how the heck is your weekend proceeding?
As mentioned earlier, my van Garnet (named after the exterior paint color) needs a new transmission. Given the length of The List I already have for it (electrical system, already replaced both sets of brakes but not recently, A/C, possible necessary radiator work, etc., etc.), I have decided to retire the beastie. She's done me very well for about seven years, and she deserves a rest and a retirement with a little dignity. I hope to replace her with something similar.
Thursday, I ended up doing an online concert for ConTemporal. I felt very bad about not being able to make it, and so they hooked up the Con Chair's laptop to the sound board and Skyped me in. Took a few minutes to get it going, and I didn't get as much audience feedback as I like, but it seems to have worked well.
Friday was a catch-up day in every sense of the word. Bills, sleep, internet, sleep. The big edge I have is that I finally got some of my SocSecDis money. Literally couldn't have been timed better. It's not a lot, but my bills are being squared away, and that is effing huge.
Yesterday, my birthday (you may have noticed I never make a big deal about it, but this one was pretty good), Leslie and I went on a little pre-movie shopping trip to Target and CostCo. Got a new external hard drive (they have a Seagate 2 TB w/USB 3.0 for $99.99, if you can find it in stock; a similar 1 TB drive is $79.99). At CostCo, Les got an amazingly huge (53") stuffed bear for thirty bucks -- absolutely perfect prop for shooting photos with kids, and a big honkin' body pillow otherwise.
Then we met up with Anne, Gail, Marcus, Tom, Karen, Miranda, and Margaret, and saw Pixar's Brave. Very beautiful, excellent music, great characters, really good script. As is often the case, I'm in the middle of an Anne-Leslie spectrum. In this case, Anne had some issues with the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER scenes, until the big speech about SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. I thought, while extremely good, it didn't feel quite as epic as I thought it should have, not until the very end. Leslie said she could find no flaw. Similar sentiments around the table, all positive to very positive. We declare it is more than worth seeing, and take the kids.
Following which, we went to P. F. Chang's, and were joined by Marcus's friend Dana. Lovely meal. Crunchy green beans w/dipping sauce, crab rangoon, Vietnamese crab salad. My entree was the crispy noodles with beef (Anne got the same but with shrimp), and it was lovely, but Les's Mongolian Beef was better because of the char and slightly more aggressive marinade. Similar reactions around the table; Chang's does good stuff.
I got me a few presents -- a kitchen scale, Game of Thrones and the anime series Princess Jellyfish on DVD, and the Avengers Lego Helicarrier. Best thing? One of the view panels has a little game of Galaga on it. :D
Today, more catch-up: the past couple weeks of The Legend of Korra, some serious cleaning, a bit more computer work. I have beef which must become tacos, and laundry and dirty dishes which must become clean.
And how the heck is your weekend proceeding?
