Today: the wrap-up of the Stern Grove Festival, and the first weekend that I wound up making it there. ( Read more... )

I did not even try to keep track of the set list. Someone, or several someones, will have; the results will wind up getting posted on This Might Be a Wiki's page for today's show, at some point. There were many high points. I wound up headbanging for a bit (and got dizzy and had to sit down). With waist-length hair, this is a bit of a Thing. They played Spider at one point; within a 5 minute window of that, I realized that there was a spider in my hair. I found this absolutely hilarious, and blew the spider out unharmed (I was unharmed, and it was just a really good day). There were a lot of good songs. Josh had wanted to hear "Dr. Worm". He got his wish. At one point a bubble was flying overhead; I blew at it; it swirled and separated into two bubbles. This was entirely accidental but got me some approval from those around. At one point one of the Johns mentioned that they were growing woozy from the secondhand smoke. Indeed, there was quite a bit of it, this being Stern Grove Festival. They played "We Live In A Dump". I like that one a lot. There was patter about how they are from New York, and thrive on New York hostility; California is way too mellow and loving.

They peered up into the far reaches of the grove, and saw that there were people going about as far back as could be seen. This picture is from early on, before the crowd actually arrived and got things crowded.



John addressed us as Ewoks, and mentioned that he had never considered old growth redwood forests as being a potential hazard for concertgoers before. We were Ewoks for the rest of the show.

They said they were done, and trooped off. There was applause until they returned. They played another set.

They ultimately closed with "Triangle Man" -- perfect end to a perfect concert.

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I got off to a late start, but I did get launched, and opted to skip some of the optional steps I'd thought of. JD had been running a fever, and therefore declined anything like a rally or vigil.

I brought along both laptops (the old creaky full-size laptop Thalia, and the netbook Disaster Area) though I only wound up using Thalia.

I called MissKat partway there, and we chatted cheerfully until she had to go see to her lobsters.

It was good to see JD and Ryan. I got there just as they were ready to put the cookie dough in the oven, and I snagged pictures of the process. ( Docadmin chicanery is a go. )

And we weren't even drinking.

The local Barnes & Noble dug one of their four brand-new, not even shelved yet copies of The Demon's Lexicon out of the back for me (after doubtfully staring at me when I gave the title, inquiring whether it was spelled 'Dem-' or 'Daem-', checking the B section of the YA paperbacks, checking the B section of the YA hardbacks, and pretending not to notice me checking the R section of both just in case), and cheerfully offered that perhaps the author could do a signing there, until I regretfully informed them that sarahtales was actually overseas.

I may wait until JD has departed to begin reading, as he may not take kindly to assorted shrieks. I should also wait until normal daytime hours, as my upstairs neighbors can only be antagonized so much, and I fear this morning's Sausage Incident was enough for one month.

I got confirmation about the internet problems. With a judicious use of ipconfig /all, I noted the wireless appliance's IP address, popped that into my browser, and met the appliance's status/login page. The status helpfully gives the air quality and SSID of the connected network; it was one bar, connected to PacificaNet4. Moving the appliance around did not help much. Ugh. 1 bar. That about fit my mood, too.

I woke up groggy, and things did not really improve much over the morning. My brain was out of tune, what with the lack of internet, and I may not have eaten a proper breakfast. Moving hurt. Thinking about moving hurt. The closer we got to time to leave and go do things, the more I was aware that all was not right in the department of my brain. I could barely focus, and needed to do things very strictly one thing at a time, very strictly monofocus. I was also somewhat cranky from lack of sleep. That is really a bad combination. ( Despite all this and more, we made it to dinner. ) It seems that "It's Complicated" has attained an enviable status, as the linguistic semi-equivalent of "Um ... friends!" of the new generation of internet children. (It differs in that "um-friends" are often acknowledged relationships that one can explain without recourse to a whiteboard and a whole playbook full of characters, but just that this status should not really be conveyed to the present audience (or can be shared with the *present* present audience, but not your mom. (Not mine. Yours.) "It's Complicated" implies that while you might be happy to explain the scenario to present company, it would require a Long Story (or two), and perhaps the sort of diagrams that have to include yarn in various color-codes to model the full dynamics of the whole situation.)

sithjawa. My trusty GPS delivered us to the correct hotel housing Consonance '09 (not without commentary at the GPS), and I spied willskyfall and sithjawa in the parking lot. Introductions were made all around, involving usernames.

We had not actually decided on a specific venue for supper, but JD had done some Googling and had found that there were many possibilities in the area. He put forth the idea of "drive until we find something that looks good"; sithjawa and willskyfall suggested that the closest four-star-reviewed thing they'd heard of in the area was right across the way.

My dietary requirements were merely that they have something available without any shrimp, bananas, and walnuts. This seemed entirely like it could happen. (I am thinking that the banana problem may have upgraded itself to an allergy, if one sip of smoothie containing bananas will make every part of my mouth that touches it start to sting even after it is hastily spat out.) So we were off! willskyfall had shotgun on account of leg length, and sithjawa was in the back with the giggling boys. (In the parking lot headed in, they declared that no, actually, it was not possible for them to let go of each other at this point in time.)

Hot Pot City was great fun. We did not have the spicy hot pot. I can take certain amounts of spice; Steph is not a spice person.

Upon learning that it was our first time, the fellow who seated us demonstrated what we were to do. There was a burner in the center of the table, which had an arrangement of a foil-covered platter and a pot in the center of it. He poured water in the pot and spread butter on the foiled tray. At his direction, we headed to the buffet to choose our ingredients, then put vegetables in the pot and spread meats on the tray.

We were a little unnerved at first, that all the vegetables were going in together, but that passed quickly in the debate about whether this was too many cooks for the soup, and then the resulting discussion of how many cooks are too many, anyway, and the concept of a successful multi-cook gestalt. There were mushrooms, assorted greens, bean sprouts, more mushrooms, a tomato, some zucchini, and goodness knows what else. The meats were delicious. I had picked a skewer with chicken gizzards, and sithjawa and the Boy had some (after I explained to Steph what part of the chicken it was). There were ribs. There was some sausage. There were potstickers. There was crab in the soup, and there was IRC-related giggling on the Support side of the table. It's very good to be Out with fellow internet people. Things got alarmingly meta when "Live Your Life" came on as background music, as that samples O-Zone. Oh, internet. (Also, your mom.) Steph needs to write a filk of "500 Miles" involving a sex change rather further away than one would like to be driving. There was more general silliness than can be easily remembered.

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lots of big pics
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In the last 24 hours, I posted the following to Twitter:

• Tuesday, 0029: We had takeout dim sum for lunch today, and that was good. Mmmredbeanpaste <3
• Tuesday, 0857: I'm watching this on streaming video. <3 <3 <3
• Tuesday, 0859: All-star musical lineup!
• Tuesday, 0903: rahmbamarama brought down their cluster I think!
• Tuesday, 0906: crying and laughing all at once.
( read the other 28 )

Follow me on Twitter.

• 00:55 Channel is full of perverts, and I'm one of them. :D #
• 00:56 (it started with "degreening from the rear" and got worse from there. <3 ) #
• 11:25 @gameboyguy13 Who took you to a bar? #
• 19:13 Watching cspan. OMG, Kucinich. <3 #
• 22:36 I have achieved cherries. Laundry is happening. Support is on a massive board-cleaning. I may write tonight. Floor is ... better. Somewhat. #

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So SCO is bankrupt?

I'd only read 1/3 of this poem aloud before Heather made me stop. Via sraun.

That career meme:
( My results. )

TMBG is going to be in Tucson! Hmm... Except that's right in the middle of Prime Moving Time, dammit.

Wednesday: Took a look at the place that M found. Whatever the woman's motivations in picking out the spot, her instincts were dead on. The place seems fabulous, and a great fit. It's a coffeehouse/gym/art haven/stuff-shop/retreat kind of place, by and for the LBGTQ population. It's well-lit, well laid-out, has wi-fi (keyed), and has the most comfortable and sheltering aura of any place I've walked in to short of my best friend's room on a day when he's feeling especially protective of me. I'd be comfortable moving right the hell over there next time, but this is something for the group to decide. Group was small that night; I wound up half in IRC, half ripping Circle of Fire into shreds and rewriting it tighter and better, and half present for the plotting, gossip, and medical woes catchup session. Fruitz is a blessing -- I can be listening to my music without stressing out my laptop even more.

Happy New Year, by the way, for those celebrating.

Thursday night was again minus the traditional dinner, because that night has become not the best night. Negotiations are in progress about a good replacement night. I'm reluctant to suggest a work night, because of how early we have to get up in the morning. That'll become a little better once we get moved out thattaway, but it's still not an easy timing.

I wound up with the His Dark Materials trilogy in omnibus form, and commenced reading that as soon as I finished off Born to Rock. In the bookstore, I had found the books in shiny new release form, in connection with the movie coming out soon. I wandered over in search of Born to Rock. In the YA section, I observed an employee letting an older couple know that the book down there had the book that they wanted, but it was an omnibus with the rest of the trilogy. My ears perked up, and I wound up swapping the omnibus they were holding for the trilogy I was holding, and we all walked away happy.

hcolleen and I went to the little Turkish restaurant in the same plaza as Changing Hands. Their hummus is tasty. It's a great place to unwind from work.

As we were getting settled into Vash in the parking lot outside Changing Hands, hcolleen commented about the magnetic sign on the side of a nearby car. I took a look. hcolleen was curious about the domain name, of course. I took a look, and something about that domain name struck me as familiar - www.masterpiecemassage.com - and suddenly I was leaping out of the car, flying across the parking lot, and shouting. I was right! It was karlita. After exchanging a hug and doing a happy little dance around, she wanted to know who I was. And then there was more hugging and giggling! There were introductions all around. warrior_priest got a picture with my cellphone, and I posted it immediately. It was the sort of event that someone of V's generation might describe as "cosmic", and I agree profoundly!

Friday: Morning: checking email, answering comments, reading. Afternoon: getting hcolleen's banking done, hitting IKEA to take a look at furniture (Myrrh's dad is going to be pitching in on a couch, especially given that relatives will be descending upon her soon and will need a place to sleep), hitting Lee Lee's for tea, LJ, shower, and now bed.

At IKEA, we started looking at couches. It started out subtly -- none of us was really feeling that there were three people involved in the process -- there was a silent fourth. When we started bounce-testing couches with gameboyguy13 in mind, we knew why. One of the things that IKEA does not necessarily test the happy raw pine basic futon frames for is the ability to be repeatedly bounced on, and the one that myrrhianna had is well-nigh totaled (a group effort, actually -- I helped). It'll be all right just sitting there, but it'll have to be used gently and with a mind to how it's fragile, and it won't survive the move. So the next couch we get is going to have to survive far more bouncing. (It wasn't as bad as the CLIMB-IT episode* with Dad, because that was a single moment of pure bad idea. This was just constant heavy use involving flopping and ROCKETBOY and some injudicious leaning.) We're planning as if JD will definitely be coming back this summer (and coming for Thanksgiving), because while it's still up in the air on his end, it won't cause any difficulty to be prepared and have JD make other plans, it would be inconvenient if we needed to prepare but didn't, and ... well, he's sort of like a little brother now, and he'll always have a place with us.

We had a great old conversation with an IKEA co-worker in the couch section. We wound up on the topic of Kitchen Disasters We Have Known, at some length. I thought we were going to try to take him home with us.

Curtains in the living room are going to be the next big debate. I like the leafy ones! I like blue, of course, but my taste in blue doesn't get to dominate the public areas. myrrhianna gets the master bedroom, because otherwise hcolleen and I would fight and be disgruntled no matter who got it -- we know we're too much like sisters, but we can agree that myrrhianna gets it, on the condition that we get to use her bathroom too, as necessary. The couch color coordination problem was solved, at length -- neutral/white couch stuff, and then COLORFUL FABRICS to make things work. Hooray fabrics!

I nearly got lost at Lee Lee's, because I wandered off. It turned out to be in search of pickled sushi ginger slices (mmm) and more vinegar-based dressing, and a few other random things. Perhaps they should leash me, as if I were an errant toddler?

I still need to make sure that HR got that paperwork faxed to the apartment complex.

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* Mama was reading a book on (I think) Woolly Mammoths to Tay-Tay and me. She had finished with the book-part, and had moved on to the glossary. "Climate," she started reading. "Climb it?" said Dad, in that bright and cheerful tone that our clan (especially the male members of our clan) substitutes for the phrase 'Y'all watch this!' Dad proceeded to plant his great booted foot on the arm of the couch, and pushed off from the ground with his other foot, intending to climb the couch as we children (I think we were four and two) did. Instead of the desired effect, of Dad standing on the arm of the couch, there was the sickening sound of a 2x4 cracking. When the catastrophe was over, Dad stood there, looking very silly and no little ashamed, with one foot on the floor, and his other leg up to the thigh inside the newly broken arm of the hideous orange burlap couch. The couch was broken like that for years before it finally was thrown out.

There was rain this morning. I woke up to rain and thunder. hcolleen peered outside to make sure no one was messing with the door, because that clearly wasn't rain!

I had a surreal dream involving Mad-Eye Moody, and JD, and the X-Files universe. (My brain insisted it was JD, but it was really Mulciber, because it had to be.) I think those two would fit in well in that universe. The part with the detachable body parts was WEIRD, and the snipers outside the blinds ... that was SCARY, and I woke up after seeing a laser-sight on me and diving out of the way like crazy.

hcolleen pointed out something that wasn't immediately apparent to US-educated yours truly: Harry's passed his OWLs. This means that he can up and quit school at any point in time without having the huge impact that a US high school student would have at dropping out before graduation. That makes Fred & George's maneuver a whole lot more understandable.

Users. *sigh* People you should not include in your bowling league's fit of dramatics: tech support. Seriously, guys. I should not have to support the results of two grown men electronically bitch-slapping each other.

Last night turned into a wacky adventure of sorts, with a Target trip turning into a Home Depot trip for in-depth color analysis. That and sightseeing involving the display toilets. And refrigerators and washing machines. Clearly, malerin should be somehow involved in the introduction of JD and 'bertos food.