What did you do today?

[Knuckledragger]

Drove across the state. Got on a boat. Got off the boat. Drove to cottage. Hooked up the gas and water. Discovered that the oil burner is once again not working. Utterly failed to get the Blackberry and Macintop to tether. Drove to a known wifi hotspot to download the new version of BB Desktop. Going home and faceplanting. No Scotch in the cottage. \

[jinp6301]

hes a monkey

[Voltron]

Lawyering. Marketing. Whatever it takes. Good Monkey.

[Aura]

monkey lawyer, though.

sock monkey lawyer

[Aimless1]

M.D. - good news, no heel spur. Achilles injury manifesting itself in the heel.

Muffler repair.

Found out my Kindergarten grandson has taken up spit balls as a new skill ... in class That should be fun for his parents.

[Augsburger]

When does your tutorial class begin?. I am monitor control panel challenged you know....................

What I have manged to learn though is very cool.

[Knuckledragger]

Got the @%$#& heat working.

[Salt Peanuts]

Got the @%$#& heat working.

Yay!

Technically yesterday, but I had to stay late at work for a function at work and got fed spectacularly mediocre pizzas instead of good pizzas I was expecting as they got them from a different place then usual. Got home and tried to play around with Lightroom 3B2 as I've never used Lightroom before, but was too tired so I gave up shortly after.

[n_maher]

Started yesterday, will continue today - assembling the Taig Micro Lathe.

[luvdunhill]

Moving. Congratulated myself on negotiating $1 per box flat rate... Fortunately for me, they never put two and two together when there was also 8 8 foot bookcases also on the quote yup, something had to come off those shelves...

[aardvark baguette]

Started painting the basement laundry area. Tore down the crappy wood shelves, pulled out the old dryer, and the detached exhaust pipe from previous tenants that sprayed a thick coating of lint on the poorly painted cinderblock walls. The pipe to outside was completely blocked with the stuff. I'll be ordering a new washer next week, possibly a dryer too. (mommy and daddy are getting tired of weekend laundry service for me)

Now that the majority of the walls have a new coat of white paint it no longer looks like something out of Silence of the Lambs, or Jacob's basement. Bare walls would be fine, but the way they had this amazingly thin coat of paint with bare cinder block orifices peaking through, it was seriously creepy. They must have cooked in there, as there are grease stains on the ceiling

[laxx]

Got my eyes checked, a haircut, paid some bills, got a good lunch with an old friend. Now getting ready to swing by 3 lounges to say hi to people. =T

[Salt Peanuts]

Had to initiate an item exchange with Amazon - it was odd that the initiation process required no human interaction. Hopefully, the exchange goes smoothly.

[Aimless1]

Went to "visit" my mother-in-law. Spent the afternoon listening to music while my bride helped her mother with her taxes. Just got back from dinner with two octogenarians...my mother-in-law and her sold surviving sibling, her brother. I'm always amazed at how long it takes octogenarians to finish a meal. Each bite is truly savored as though it will be their last. Maybe I need to learn from them.

[swt61]

Started yesterday, will continue today - assembling the Taig Micro Lathe.

Wish I were there to lend a hand. I actually love assembling tools.

Moving. Congratulated myself on negotiating $1 per box flat rate... Fortunately for me, they never put two and two together when there was also 8 8 foot bookcases also on the quote yup, something had to come off those shelves...

Can't wait to see the new place Marc!

[mypasswordis]

i'm insulted. my basement might be filled with the recently alive, but it's nicely painted.

I guess you could put two and two together and cook the recently alive. They might take up less space, especially if you eat them. But then you might get grease stains on the ceilings.

[mulveling]

A good day, today. Very nice.

All Friday I got far too caught up in my work (even though nothing in particular was pressing) - and was cranky and on edge all day. Today I was able to let go, relax, and enjoy the weekend. Got a wakeup call at 1PM from Tom - that's actually earlier than my typical rise time on weekdays Took my girl Leigh down to a full spa/skin treatment with a gift certificate I got her a year ago - it had expired but she's friends with the lady who works there. While I waited, I enjoyed a gas station lunch in my car with the Sunday paper and the "First Wave" XM channel via my free 3 month trial.

On the way back I stopped at "Sounds Good" - a local record shop - and gathered quite a nice score. Much 80s, but good stuff all around. I don't normally get out there much since they're only open on Saturdays. Leigh was a real trooper, as the ordeal lasted a few hours. She went nuts when we found a "Black Flag" LP. Can't wait to go though these records. In fact that's what I'm about to do - tubes are warming up right now and just last night I discovered that a (hastily/poorly assembled) 50-ohm loading box (as opposed to 100 ohms) might eek some more quality life yet out of my old Benz phono stage...

[MexicanDragon]

It was yesterday, but I was exhausted and went to bed.

I went with the Mid-South Concert Band that I play alto sax in to a community band festival, of sorts. I got to listen to 3 other groups of varying levels. One were people of highschool age up through their 70s or 80s, and they did it for fun. Second group was the Vanderbilt Community Band, which really wasn't. It was comprised of students and professors. I figure it was something like their B or C concert band. They were good, but they were kinda "ringers". They played some pieces that were a bit esoteric and "new", which was probably performed well, but reminded me of some of the stuff that I saw John Sampen (classical saxophonist) do a year or so ago, and I, admittedly broadly, categorize it as more "noise" than "music." After that group we went to warm up and went on an hour later. We played about 8 pieces and had a really good performance. None of us were perfect, but i think we were all happy with it. Our group is comprised of former band directors/music majors/doctors/FedEx truck drivers/retired computer programmers/pastor's wife/former Navy band member/unemployed miscreants... largely, though, people who used to play and got back into it later in life. It's a decent group, run by a very good band director. We invite anyone who wants to play to come out, only requirement is being older than high school age, unless accompanied by a parent who is also a member.

After that show, we had 15 minutes before the next group, the East Tennessee Community Band (or something like that). We put our horns up and came back for a listen. This group, however, doesn't let in just anyone. It is an audition-based band and it shows. These guys were incredibly professional and very very good. They even got to have fun with a piece and "props" were brought along. At the beginning of their closer the sound of a fly was written into the piece, and as it was distributed throughout the piece, various members of the band would stand up and swat at them with flyswatters they had snuck onto stage past the eyes of the husbands/wives/children and other band members which events like this tend to draw. It was quite interesting. I hope some of my pictures turned out. I was shooting ISO 3200 or 1600, so I'm not expecting wonderful results, but maybe I got something.

It would be nice to play with a group like this, as the members tend to better understand "balance" and "dynamics" and many of the other things many of us were taught during our music careers, yet some (that are in our group, specifically) completely dismiss this in practice, and it has to be drilled repeatedly into the minds of adults who, really, should know better.

Spending 4-5 hours on a bus with 50-80 year olds (with 3 younger people up front), however... not as much fun as the "band bus" of old. Heh. On the way back, though, we stopped off for dinner. We had an hour. Choices in walking distance were Jason's Deli, Moe's Southwest Grill and 5 Guys, that we knew about. I figured there had to be more, so I kept walking. I found a pizza buffet place, but kept going still. I walked up to Carrabba's and smiled. I got a seat at the pasta bar, had a chicken fettucini alfredo with a quartino of Italian sangria. I love a good burger, but I wanted dinner, ya know?

It was an exhuasting day, and 3 hours of it was good.

**BRENT**

[Craig Sawyers]

A mix of doing some circuit board layout and running. For my sins (they must have been bad) I'm in the London marathon this year. Done it many times before, 8-ish but I've lost count, but I'm way behind with training. So 13 miles yesterday and 5 today - and still lots to do in the next four weeks. Plan for another 10 or so tomorrow. Permanently knackered.

You'd think I'd know better in my mid fifties, but hey, what the hell. At least I'm fit and well.

Craig

[The Monkey]

Brent, did the restaurant run out of biscuits at the last minute?

[tyrion]

[MexicanDragon]

Brent, did the restaurant run out of biscuits at the last minute?

Those bastards didn't even HAVE biscuits! They did have bread, however. Normally there is a litttle oil they put on a plate to dip it in... but guess what? That's right, they ran out of plates, bread plates, at least. Took about 20 minutes or more to get those from the time I walked in, but they eventually came. Good thing, too. I didn't eat breakfast and where we were at for lunch only took cash. Cash? WTF is that nonsense?

**BRENT**

[Craig Sawyers]

Cash? WTF is that nonsense?

**BRENT**

Rare commodity. Fill up stations and supermarkets no longer take cheques (in the UK anyway). It is only a matter of time that cash goes the same way.

Craig

[Salt Peanuts]

Built two raised bed frames. This turned out to be more difficult than anticipated due to a crappy, underpowered cordless drill that kept running out of battery. I'll be getting myself a better drill soon. Time to start researching.

[jinp6301]

Went from binghamton to baltimore on friday. got greek food and drank scotch.

saturday, went to the Smithsonian natural history and the air and space. got back and drank more

sunday, went to the baltimore national aquarium and took a 4 hr bus ride back to nyc.

tired