The Mandelbear's Musings

Back in the early days of 2012 we decided to skip Baycon this year and go to Clockwork Alchemy. Best-laid plans? That was before we decided to move to Washington. So we day-tripped the 30th anniversary Baycon instead, to have a better opportunity to say goodbye to people.

Baycon doesn't seem to be in the best of shape. It's gotten noticably smaller over the last few years (we can perhaps blame the other cons in the area for some of that, but I don't think for all of it). I dropped Colleen off in the morning, did some shopping on the way home, worked at home for a while, then left for the con myself in late afternoon. Little to no daytime programming I was interested in; the few concerts didn't start until night-time. I stayed for the open filking on Saturday, but was thoroughly wiped out by the time I got back home.

So I only sang three songs over the weekend, and don't remember most of them. Bigger On the Inside was the last one. Tiny circle.

Some good conversations, though.

I mentioned shopping. REI is having a sale; I picked up an Agility Sling Bag and a Hood River hoodie. The Agility bag, whose name appears to be Angelique, is apparently a redesign of the Mini that I've been using since last year; it's a little shorter and more rectangular rather than tapered. This makes it much easier to get my netbook in and out -- it has a padded sleeve that it fits perfectly into. There's also a nice organizer panel. And it's almost exactly the same size as the Belkin computer bag, and fits perfectly inside Chami. And there are several different ways of attaching it on the outside, as well.

I toyed with the idea of getting a rolling duffle (Ross has 'em for cheap) for gigs, but realized that it would be too narrow to hold the music stand desks. I'll probably get a smaller duffle for use as a carry-on or secondary bag, because the Hartmann and Colleen's SwissGear are already allocated. I used the Hartmann on my last trip North, but could only get away with that because Colleen wasn't going.

Did I mention that I'm a luggage addict?

In other news, I set up phone interviews with Zillow and Tableau, and paid the security deposit on the new apartment.

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It was a very good weekend. Unexpectedly good -- I will confess to having been nervous about it. Perhaps justified, since I really didn't know what I'd be heading into, in the wake of Naomi and Callie's breakup. What I did know was that I'd be staying with Naomi and working on seeing whether it was worthwhile trying to perform at Conflikt as a new duo called Lookingglass Folk.

Naomi was more doubtful than I was, but in any case all our doubts were gone by Friday night. LgF is on its way.

Let me back up a little. Thursday morning I finished the last-minute packing, then went back to the old office in San Jose to do some catching up with my former coworkers, and go out to lunch with one of them. I found them celebrating -- the first "development and demo" kits ready to ship. So, Yay! A product that I worked on is out in the wild.

Travel notes:

I was traveling with Flame, my Ovation, rather than my travel guitar -- the plan was to leave it up in Seattle so that Talis could practice with it before the con. Uneventful -- Southwest is very musician-friendly -- and I discovered that both Minnie and Chami can fit nicely under a seat. Good to know.

This was also my first trip with the Belkin computer bag, which nestles nicely into the top 2/3 of Chami (the carry-on rolling backpack). My CPAP fills the bottom third, and there's room underneath (alongside the handle tube) for the other assorted electronics.

Naomi told me that the Belkin's name was BJ. More on that in Sunday's notes, if you're into that kind of thing.

People notes:

I had breakfast with Callie on Friday morning, getting back while Naomi was still asleep. I think... no, probably better not to go there in a blog post. What I think about it doesn't matter much anyway.

I also met Naomi's new housemate, A, and her new (to her) car, Talis. I'm never quite sure how much about people to put in a post. Low self-confidence?

Tech notes:

This was also my first trip with Cygnus, my new Thinkpad X120e. It was fantastic! The keyboard is a dream to type on, especially compared to the Dell netbook I've been using for the last two years. I got quite a lot done, both re-editing lyrics for the new two-person scripting, and an assortment of other housekeeping tasks inspired by having to configure a new system.

At this point almost everything in my home directory is set up using git, making it easy to keep in sync and to work even when disconnected. At this point about the only things I really need the home system for are email and DW posts, and of course audio editing.

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A moderately productive day at work, I'd say. And fairly productive at home -- I figured out how to squash both comforters, my clothes, and my meds into my Travelpro suitcase. Even with vacuum compression bags and the expansion zipper, it's a very tight fit. But it'll work. I hope.

I also took a walk, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 miles. A little on the cold side.

The YD's Undesirable Boyfriend finally took the plea bargain he was offered months ago -- he got a month in jail and two years probation. Probably the first sensible thing he's done all year.

The Older Daughter got a 92% on her latest math quiz. Very proud of her. Math's always been her weak point, but I've long suspected that it's due more to lack of self-confidence than to lack of ability.

As for links... Is Sitting Too Long a Major Cancer Risk? Probably.

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Sometime Thursday morning I found myself wondering how in blazes it had gotten to be December. I think I left most of my brain somewhere in August. If you happen to see it wandering around looking lost, could you please return it?

So...

Thursday was windy and cold; I decided to do my walking in Trader Joe's and Fry's. Bought a Belkin "Mini Laptop Carrying Case" which comfortably holds Cygnus plus most of its accessories, and even a clipboard and a fair amount of letter-sized paper. It fits nicely at the top of my carry-on suitcase, Chamie, and provides easier access and more protection than the shoulderbag. In a separate expedition yesterday I got notebook dividers and "book rings" -- the case won't hold a regular binder, but I can fake it.

I also installed Colleen's new scooter batteries, which are a huge improvement. It's annoying that the old ones lasted less than a year, but since they came unboxed from a local store they might conceivably have been used.

Friday I did take a real walk, somewhere over 2 miles, and last night we went out to the office holiday party. That was tasty. Chantilly, in Redwood City. It's on our anniversary list.

Quite a few links in the notes, though nothing stands out immediately.

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I took Plink (the travel guitar) to work yesterday to show off. The new bag is very comfortable, but won't hold both my songbook binder and my shoulder bag at the same time. It might work with a thinner, soft-sided binder, or I could just leave Minnie piggybacked on Chami for travel. More experimentation is clearly needed.

I checked out Ubuntu's new look, with a copy of Oneiric Ocelot installed on a Thinkpad at work. I could get used to a lot of it, but not all -- it has a Mac-like top menu and click-to-focus. Might be just the thing for Colleen, though, and I can see using it on my netbook where screen space is limited.

I also gave a Jingle (XMPP audio) demo and a presentation on Git at work -- both went over well.

So... a fairly productive day at work, but no walk and nothing much done at home besides spending almost the entire evening in the living room next to Colleen rather than holed up in the office. Oh. Right. That is "something". Still getting used to the idea that reading LJ in the living room is qualitatively different from reading LJ by myself in the office.

A couple of links in the notes.

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Yesterday was ok, though ultimately not really satisfying. There's always too much to be done, and I don't do most of it. But...

I went out for a drive with Colleen; we bought ripe jalapeno peppers at the produce stand, than looked at the new Whole Foods on Blossom Hill on the way back. Dinner consisted of guacamole, rice, cauliflower, and bay scallops. We also had bagels and lox for breakfast.

Saturday I saw a tennis racquet bag at Sports Basement, and came close to buying it for Plink (the travel guitar). It would have room for the songbook and even for Minnie, my shoulder bag. Six inches or so of Plink's neck would stick out, but that could be handled with a padded sleeve. Tempting.

I also made hotel reservations for Orycon. I'm a little reluctant to go, because it's been an expensive year for travel and next year looks likely to be almost as bad. We'll see.

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So... a pretty good day. There was some good music-making in the morning, most of which I missed because I had a meeting to go to at work. I came home for a (longish) lunch, and Tempered Glass got a good rehearsal in while Colleen was out running errands. I went back to work after Callie and Naomi left for Tahoe, (several hours late).

In the evening I chorded out and scripted all but one of the songs we worked on over the weekend (I'll do the scripting on the last one this morning) and got most of my packing done.

I ought to explain song-scripting. Tempered Glass's signature style is to bounce the lead around among the three of us. (We don't always do that, of course -- we have plenty of songs with Naomi and/or me on vocals and Callie on flute -- but we do it a lot.) Naomi's the one who usually scripts the voice changes; then we tweak it in rehearsals, and I make the scripted and chorded lead sheets using custom LaTeX macros. It works.

Packing involved using Chami for the first time, and also the first time using my new Eagle Creek cube organizer. That does a fine job of holding five days' worth of shirts, socks, and underwear, and packs neatly in the Travelpro suitcase with a pair of hiking boots and the med bag. Underneath, alongside the tubes for the collapsing handle, I put a mic stand base, a folding music stand, and Cyrano (the stuffed rhino who doubles as my CPAP pillow). It's a bit tight.

I finally got to bed around half-past midnight.

Many of the day's links are about Google's purchase of Motorola Mobile. That promises to be interesting; it's pretty clear that the big win will be Moto's patent portfolio.

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Wow! Lots of links here. That's partly because I spent my lunch hour reading LJ and nomming on hardboiled eggs and spring rolls. The eggs came from home -- I discovered that wrapping them in a microfiber hand-towel keeps them satisfactorily cold until lunchtime. The spring rolls came from the Big Beige Building, one driveway down from our complex. They only have them on Monday and Wednesday. They have shrimp and chicken, and come with a very spicy sauce. Nom.

Also during lunchtime my Amazon order arrived: two Otterboxes of different sizes, and an AmazonBasics Electronics Travel Case. As it turns out, the latter is a little too wide to fit at the bottom of my Antler rolling backpack (Chami, for short) because of the handle tube. And it's only able to hold my USB optical drive by stretching a little. But it fits nicely beside the handle tube, with a music stand and some extra space on the other side. It also holds an external USB hard drive; the Zoom H2 recorder and its gorillapod fit in the vacated CaseLogic HD case.

It's not clear whether Chami will get her pet otter; a lot depends on which one and what goes into it. The 3250 can hold my collection of chargers as well as being the perfect height for a footrest when playing guitar, so it's going to go someplace when I travel.

And it turns out that a recently-hired coworker is the brother of someone I worked with at Zilog a quarter-century ago. Small world.

So it was a pretty decent day, in spite of not having a walk in it. On to the links!

Many of the links are from Greenhaven: A Pagan Tradition, courtesy of ysabetwordsmith. One of her articles there, Cyberspace as an Out of Body Experience, refers to The World Inside the Crystal! How cool is that?

More in the notes.

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Not a good day. No. Some hugs from people I only see at Westercons -- that was very good. But...

I hate the Fairmont. Not having a room there helps, but creates problems of its own, especially for Colleen, who needs an accessible toilet and, these days, an assistant.

Let me back up a bit.

The day technically started around 2am, when I finally got to bed after our trip to the ER Thursday night.

Colleen had an appointment in the Fracture Clinic at 11:15, so I called in sick and took her in. More x-rays; the bone pieces seem to be in the right place this time. Sleeping with the sling on apparently helps a lot. She has an appointment for next week.

If you're keeping score, that's 2 ER visits, 3 clinic visits, and 4 x-rays so far since Sunday. And she's on her second bottle of percocet now, but probably won't be needing much more of it at this point.

In retrospect, I should have ended my experiment with a reduced dose of SSRI last Wednesday. The stuff seems to work mainly by increasing my supply of cope, and I could have used a lot of it this past week.

We had lunch at home, and took advantage of my sick day to go to Westercon, in the Fairmont hotel in downtown San Jose, somewhat earlier than I had originally planned. I hate the Fairmont; we stayed there during Worldcon a few years ago. Old, underwhelming, and overpriced.

We got to the con around 2:45; I got Colleen unpacked and drove off in search of a usable handicap parking spot; I eventually found several open ones about a block from the hotel.

After getting registered and spending some time greeting people, I sat in on the "What Is Filk?" panel around 4:30 just to have someplace to sit down. Unlike most convention hotels, the ballroom floor of the Fairmont has essentially no seating outside the function space. Did I mention that I hate the Fairmont?

Around 5pm we went to the bar, which is a sunken area in the middle of the lobby. We eventually found the wheelchair lift -- not a ramp -- in what appeared to be a converted closet. It took two tries to find a chair I could sit in comfortably. I had a glass of Hendrick's, which was predictably overpriced.

So was the in-hotel Chinese restaurant, where we went for dinner with the YD. The food was distinctly underspiced. In between, Colleen attempted to find an accessible lady's room, which eventually required getting someone from the hotel to go in and open the handicap stall in the one first-floor lady's room, which had been locked from the inside. Possibly because it wasn't flushing properly.

Did I mention that I hate the Fairmont?

At this point my back was hurting and I was bored silly; I left, and got home a little after 8pm. Went back for Colleen 9ish, and the YD around 10:30. By which point I was both sleepy and depressed. Oh, and getting Colleen's scooter was complicated by coughing while bent over (which reactivated my back spasm), and scraping the back of my hand on the seatpost of the scooter picking up the battery. I dealt with the latter by tying my handkerchief around it. Useful things, handkerchiefs.

No, not a particularly good day.

On the plus side, the combination of Chami (rolling backpack) and Minnie (sling shoulder bag) worked surprisingly well. Though it's pretty clear that Chami is not sufficient luggage for a weekend trip, she does a good job as a convention rolly. I ought to rig something that works as a top handle when Minnie is on board, though. (Although this, and the slight top-heaviness I noticed, is less of a problem when Minnie is slung over Chami's "shoulder" rather than attached around the handle. I'll try that today.

Only one link in the notes; I was busy with other things.

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Hmm. Not all that good, actually. Colleen didn't get her cast; instead the bone was reset and she got a new (heavy, uncomfortable) splint that immobilizes both her elbow and her wrist. Which, I suppose, is necessary -- she was seen by the sports medicine orthopedist who specializes in this kind of break, after all -- but makes her life really difficult.

The two good things about the whole trainwreck are that it prompted me to make her scooter more stable, and forced her to switch from a walker to a cane.

It was a productive but slightly frantic day at work, too. Lots of things getting done at the last minute, or slightly beyond it, with nobody in the loop whose job is making sure stuff doesn't fall through the cracks. I try, but don't always succeed. Still, I think we have a usable build in the factory; that's the important thing.

Looked unsuccessfully for Otterbox waterproof boxes at Fry's; that was also my walking for the day, because it was rather cold when I went out at noon. Of course, it had warmed up considerably by the time I got back to work, but since I had a meeting to go to I couldn't take advantage of it.

I shouldn't have started looking at otter boxes -- now my new suitcase wants a pet. I'm doomed. Came home to find that the box I have is actually larger than the one I was looking at. (This morning I ordered a second one, because it's the perfect size to serve as a footrest when playing guiter, and that way I'd have one for home and one for travel.)

I did get in some singing -- the Bears, QV and Wheelin' -- and some guitar geeking with Moira's brother Mark. He has written a book on guitar tunings, which looks quite useful (though I'm not sure how much I'll use it).

A couple of links under the cut.

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It was almost a really good day. We had bagels and lox for brunch, and had a great st/roll around the Rose Garden. We sat and read for a while, having remembered to bring reading material this time.

Then Colleen took the corner from the sidewalk to our walkway a little too fast, fell, and injured her wrist. We called 911 for assistance getting her up and got an ice pack on it, then I had a quick dinner of scrambled eggs while Colleen called Kaiser; I knew it was going to be a long night.

This happened at about 4:15; we finally made it home about 8:30 with a temporary splint on what turned out to be a distal ulnar fracture. For those who can't instantly decode anatomical notation, that's one of the two long bones of the forearm, an inch or so short of the wrist.

It could have been a lot worse. She didn't hit her head, or damage a leg, hip, or something else, and I managed to prevent them from giving her a splint that would have imobilized her elbow. As it is, she'll be in a cast for 4-6 weeks, and have a lot of trouble doing day-to-day stuff.

It's become obvious that she needs a wider scooter -- this one is great for portability, but it's dangerously unstable. The base is only 19.5" wide, but the chair arms are set at 23.75, so it looks like we can go to a 24" wide scooter without too much trouble. It should give her a little more leg-room, too.

I managed to stay calm and even cheerful through the whole thing, which was good if a little surprising. There were a couple of times when I overloaded, all when Colleen was trying to tell me something while I was concentrating. Minor, and I got past them easily. Colleen did ok modulo a couple of spots where the pain got to her; we came home with a prescription for percoset.

I found that Minnie makes a decent laptop tray, and that if I tighten up the strap she's actually pretty comfortable even with the addition of a water bottle, netbook, and paperback book. I've started unpacking my old luggage and redistributing their contents; I discovered in the process that my "electronics bag" is mostly empty except for a handful of cables and the travel router that I haven't used for a long time. So that can probably get consolidated with the Zoom H2.

I've discovered that Plink (the travel guitar) hangs nicely from a full-sized music stand; that suggests that it's probably worthwhile getting the folding one I've been eyeing for years at Guitar Showcase.

Some links up in the notes.

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Colleen and I went shopping; the nominal reason being to get some packing cubes for my new suitcase. The Container Store, in nearby Santana Row, was still having its "organized traveler" sale, so that was our first destination. We also added absorbant drink coasters to the shopping list when I found Colleen's phone sitting atop a thin film of water condensed off her iced tea glass.

I got an Eagle Creek "complete organizer"; basically a cube and two half-cubes that zip together and are able to hang up when unzipped. That plus my toiletry/med kit fill Chami pretty completely, suggesting that she's not quite big enough for a weekend trip unless I take the CPAP in its own case.

We also stopped, as we always do, at Sur La Table, where we were both instantly attracted to the Miyabi Birchwood series knives - you'll find them at the end of this post. Curly birch handles and Damascene blades. OMG gorgeous. We succumbed and bought the 3.5" paring knife. But they didn't have coasters.

We got the Thirstystone coasters -- which we've been admiring for years -- at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It ended up being a long, tiring, but delightful afternoon. I think I got my walking in, though it was mostly too slow to be aerobic.

I used the new knife to make dinner -- it is indeed a joy to use. The handle is slightly asymmetrical, but not enough for using it left-handed to be problem. The blade is double-edged, and sharper than our ceramic knives (though of course it will require occasional sharpening to stay that way).

I also installed the new power strip. It's a Prime "Energy Saver" -- three of the outlets are controlled by the state of a "master outlet", which I put my desktop computer on. The slave outlets have the monitor and the speakers. Works perfectly. I also discovered that the WAP was not on the UPS, which explains why it went out immediately when the power went out a couple of weeks ago. Oops.

On the whole a very nice day.

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High-order bit -- I note with considerable pleasure that Vampire Mega-Byte is on the Pegasus brainstorming list under Best Classic Filksong. Along with "Ship of Stone", which would make it a difficult choice if they both came up on the ballot. I'd also like to congratulate pocketnaomi for her well-deserved mention under Best Songwriter. And mention that Quiet Victories is my Composer's Choice.

I never did get a walk in. But lots of puttering. And I finally found the missing wedding invitation -- on the floor near the door of the (home) office. The fact that the color is close to that of the flooring is no real excuse -- I must have stepped over it a hundred times. Bah!

After several days of floundering around at work, a Jira ticket was dropped into my lap (by my boss, who was just promoted into that position last week and needs to get rid of some of his), so I spent the afternoon happily hacking. (There's a song* parody in there somewhere, I fancy.)

The new Antler rolling backpack has a name: Chamois (pronounced "Shammy" in case it wasn't obvious). My sister the mountain goat was very insistent. (It's true that a goat has horns rather than antlers, but don't tell Chamois that -- she's still a little uncomfortable about being out as "A Doe in Velvet".)

Lots of links; the most noteworthy one being Motion to Vacate Prop 8 Ruling Over Judge Walker's Sexuality is Denied. The rest are mainly of interest to various kinds of geeks, with the puredyne "instant USB-bootable creative desktop" being kind of a crossover between the music/video geeks and the computer geeks.

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Yesterday was a good day. Colleen had bought a slab of lox at Costco ($20 for 1.5lb), so I went out in the morning and bought bagels for her and the YD. The Glutino gluten-free bagels, which we keep in the freezer, are the best I've tried so far; I've had some grocery-store bagels that were worse.

Colleen and I had the little bit of left-over fish for dinner, rolled up around cream cheese, onion, and capers. (There was also a salad consisting of heirloom tomatoes, half an onion, an avocado, and fresh mozzerella, with basil and oregano from our front yard.)

We went for a st/roll in the early afternoon; our usual route down around and through the Rose Garden, and back via Goodwill and Cash & Carry.

I then spent over an hour in REI looking at shoulder bags and rolling carry-ons. Found several that I liked; I may go back for the 19" rolling backpack. The sling bag... I don't know.

And I did some puttering -- mostly a matter of: see something out of place, put it where it belongs, repeat.

And finally, I'm pleased to announce that I finished splitting and uploading my concert at Baycon 2011, only two weeks after the event.

Oh, and I called Mom and, finally, my brother. Who is moving to Logan, Utah with his fiancée, which puts him close enough for the occasional visit and gives me a good excuse to go to Conduit next year.

So, yeah. Good day.

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A lazy morning (you can tell by the number of links), but a good afternoon and a reasonably productive evening. Went to the Stanford Shopping Center with Colleen, in part because I knew she'd enjoy it, and in part because I wanted to get a look at some luggage - a carry-on bag one can sit on. The seat's way too small and too low for more than a few minutes' sitting, and the bag is one huge deep compartment that would be impossible to get anything out of without massive re-arrangement. So, no. Amounted to a decent, if rather too slow, walk.

Colleen found body butter on sale at the Body Shop. They still don't have replacement bodies, though. Come on, people!

On the way home we stopped at Cosentino's and got fish for dinner. Red snapper, three fillets coming to about 1.7 pounds total. Maybe overdoing it -- 1lb would probably have been enough. But tasty. Also string beans done Szechuan style in the wok with red pepper, garlic, and ham. A very nice Beringer moscato to go with it.

After dinner I fixed the internal DNS for thestarport.org (broken after the move to a new server at Dreamhost), did a little work on its index.html page, and got printing going on the YD's desktop machine. (But didn't have the right drivers, nor does Windows 7 appear to have generic postscript drivers. WTF?) Got the laser printer working with a built-in driver that was close enough. And Windows 7 doesn't appear to let you connect to an arbitrary SMB workgroup! What's with that? Or browse for IPP printers. IDIOTS!

Lots of links this time, including a rare post by Colleen and an article on Selfishness and Narcissism in Family Relationships that I think describes several of my friends' family backgrounds. The parent site is mainly about anger management, which I'll probably find helpful.

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I've been having pretty productive days recently, but no walks. I'd better do something about this tomorrow.

I've started looking for a rolling carry-on suitcase that includes seating. Grumble.

A couple of links under the cut.

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I was feeling lazy and unproductive by late evening, but that just suggests that an underslept Bear is an unreliable reporter -- it was actually a pretty productive day. I did quite a lot of work in both the Starport's intranet and Tempered Glass's lyrics directory, and went out and explored Lowes with Colleen. And cooked dinner, of course. And ripped half a dozen or so CDs.

And the YD's report card shows remarkable improvement!! Only one C, one A -- it's about time. (And an F which is apparently due to the school's (Winblows-based) computer system dropping data from half the class.) Go YD! Of course, she also turns 18 on Thursday. I feel old.

I also tried out the SwissTech shoulder bag that I got on the cheap at Target a couple of weeks ago. It's frustratingly close to excellent. If it were an inch taller, had a detachable strap, and had double zippers it would be wonderful. Well, at least I know what I want.

Today's link, and it's a good one, is cadhla's new song, Jenny and Karen. Go read it. That's where today's userpic comes from.

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Saturday morning started with a great call from Callie, out for a walk, while I was working on my "done yesterday" post. I reset my mood from "good" to "cheerful". It's worth noting that I picked up the phone before it woke Colleen -- a year or so ago I probably wouldn't have done that. Progress.

There was gentle rain and a rainbow -- almost a full arch -- on the way to the YD's modeling class. Pretty. I like rainbows, and not just because my Dad was a spectroscopist, though there's always a touch of bittersweet nostalgia attached to rainbows these days.

When I got back I actually did a little computer work, cleaning things up in my Private directory and adding a Makefile to commit and upload snapshots. I <3 git.

The afternoon was meant to have been a shopping expedition with Colleen, but it was drizzling, and Marty came over to sew and socialize just as we were getting ready to leave. Just as well; the drizzle turned into a downpour as I was heading back to the car. The trip was mostly a washout, too, but I stayed cheerful and had a good walk.

The New Balance store, where I'd been hoping to get some badly-needed new shoes, is gone now. Nobody has anything like the Keen hiking boots I've loved two pairs of to death. Doesn't anybody believe in ankle support anymore? Sur le Table didn't have the little cast-iron pots I was looking for (though they did have a good selection of French presses -- I'll probably go back and snag one). And I left my 30% off one item coupon for Borders at home. Grumble. It expires tomorrow.

I made chili for dinner. The YD was very put out because I'd fogotten that she wanted latkes. We'll have those tonight, I guess.

I spent the evening in the living room watching Fantasia with Colleen. I don't generally watch videos I have to pay total attention to; something with little or no dialog is easier to tune out. Has anyone seen our Animusic DVDs? They've been missing for quite a while.

I also re-filled some of Colleen's prescriptions, and spent some time going through Kaiser's health pages. The site is poorly designed for systematic reading, and has a stupidly short timeout. Fine for public terminals like the ones they have scattered around their buildings, but no good for a single-user system at home. Most of the pages I was interested in came from The Healthy Mind, Healthy Body Handbook by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein, so I did the obvious thing and ordered a copy from Powells.

Good day anyway.

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A pretty good day, I guess. Just above neutral. Some good fast walking around the Stanford Shopping Center, though I didn't find the kind of shoulder bag I've been looking for. Toccano has a nice one, but it has no organizer compartment. Eagle Creek has two: one's about an inch too small, and the other's a couple of inches too big. I know where that leads. And both EC bags are rather expensive. Who knows? I might end up learning how to sew.

I also went in to Macy's and bought a Cuisinart burr coffeegrinder for about $60 with tax. Colleen will keep the old blade grinder for spices. No large French presses in evidence, though.

And we had gorgeousgary for the evening, out from DC on a business trip. I sang the two Bears and Inherit the Earth.

Oh, yeah: links -- Droid trumps iPhone for Time Gadget of the Year | Electronista -- how about that?

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My weight has crept up to 200 lbs; DO NOT LIKE. I probably need to be stricter about the low-carb thing. And take my walks, even though I still have trouble finding the time. tetralizard sent me a link to Timpany Center, a nearby theraputic pool that does drop-ins. *Waves at cflute* If I don't have time for walks, I certainly don't have time for that, however.

I had to cut my walk short yesterday because my right knee was complaining. I'm in better shape than a lot of people my age, but not by much. Some looking around at Office Max and REI yielded the decision that the REI "boarding bag" looks like the best bet for my new shoulder bag; it's light, and has enough pockets and dividers inside that I might even be able to abandon the wallet. Though the Timbuk2 travel wallet looks like a good replacement for my current one: the card slots are wide enough for photos and business cards.

(The idea behind getting a larger shoulder bag is that it would have room for the netbook if necessary, but could go mostly empty most of the time. It's a nice theory...)

After getting back home I had a bit of an anxiety attack, probably from thinking about the mess I've made by not signing up for long-term care insurance 20 years ago. We'll be talking with an agent next week, but given my age and Colleen's health it's probably too late. As usual, it apparently took a couple of hours for the anxiety to build up to where I could notice it, and several more hours before I was able to trace it back to the cause. But relaxation, deep breathing, and herb tea with valerian got it under control.

I was in no shape to go out again, though, which caused some friction with Colleen, who was rapidly going stir-crazy and had been hoping to go to Yamagami's nursery and look at plants. In the end she took the scooter out to the front yard and deadheaded roses.

I made shrimp scampi and rice for dinner, and did some practicing late in the evening. Yet another thing I need to force myself to make the time for.

( raw notes )

Another good day - a three mile walk by myself by Los Gatos Creek, and a st/roll up and down the length of Santana Row (the local high-rent residential/shopping "street") with the RollyCat. It was especially fun seeing some of the surprised reactions she got, though I'm not sure why. Aren't there lots of grinning middle-aged ladies with striking silver-and-black hair out riding around on bright red scooters?

OK, when you put it like that...

And I found the small shoulder bag and laptop bag I was looking for all last week. That leaves only the briefcase that goes with my guitar gig bag still missing.

Fun music link: Saturday, thnidu posted about Monsters of Shamisen with youtube links.

The group `Monsters of Shamisen` was formed in the spring of 2006 when two California based Shamisen players Mike Penny and Kevin Kmetz met with Sapporo based virtuoso Masahiro Nitta. The promise of this group is to offer audiences the most exciting and innovative examples of modern Tsugaru Shamisen in the world. Using their collective musical backgrounds Monsters draws inspiration from a wide variety of music including classical peices, American bluegrass, Irish folk music, and even modern pop/rock. To see this group live is to experience one of the most unforgettable fusions of not only East and West but also of past and future.

Last weekend I went looking for shoes. I'm trying to replace my Keen hiking boots, which are comfortable, give me good ankle support, look good enough for everyday wear at the office, and are wearing out. I'm on my second pair, and I'm starting to fear that they've been discontinued.

I did, however, find a pair of Merrell slip-ons on sale at REI that were sufficiently cheap ($65 or so) and fit well enough that I decided to give them a try. Glad I did. I've worn them on a couple of walks now with no problems. And they look like dress shoes, so they'll be perfect for travel. All I have to add is an ankle brace or two.

Along the way I picked up two different shoulder bags: an Eagle Creek sidekick at REI, and a smaller, vertically-oriented Eagle Creek bag at Any Mountain. I've been using a sidekick for a good many years now, but it's undergone major revisions; this is essentially a whole new bag now. At first I thought it wasn't going to hold all my stuff; the front compartment (where I keep my wallet, checkbook, changepurse, and business cards) has gotten wider but lost its internal pockets. But things still fit, and fit better, if I put the cards and changepurse next to the wallet and checkbook.

The back compartment has acquired pockets for camera (looks like it's actually designed for glasses, but I don't need to pack those), cellphone, and pens. The pile of stuff that I used to keep in the front zipper pocket -- things like the backpacker's chopsticks, titanium spork, tape measure, and dental floss -- pile nicely in the bottom because the camera and phone are out of the way. The outside flap pocket is gone, but I can now use the front zipper pocket for other peoples' cards.

It's a little smaller, and sleeker. Good bag for everyday, though possibly a little too small. There still isn't room for everything I used to carry in the old one, but I wanted to cut down on the weight anyway.

The vertical bag was an experiment; I still want something I can slip into my backpack next to the CPAP for air travel, and that opens from the top so that I can get at things without taking it all the way out. It's a little small, but holds the essentials.

(ETA: have verified that the sidekick fits nicely across the top of the backpack, with enough headroom for the CPAP if I'm careful not to leave too much stuff lying at the bottom. Would need to be checked before travel, since I do leave a lot of stuff down there. Have also verified that the sidekick will hold an Asus Eee, but only with major and inconvenient re-arranging of wallet and change purse.)

I looked at a couple of larger vertical bags: the Eagle Creek guide bag and something similar from REI. Both were too wide to fit in the backpack, and neither had a detachable strap with D-rings. Maybe in another year or so Eagle Creek will redesign the guide bag? At this point I can wait.

Still looking for decent-looking, all-leather, mid-height hiking boots with wide toes. The Keen were perfect, damnit.

... or maybe that would be "Rolly II", since it's a different rolly than the one I used to travel with. See, I have this Microsoft backpack now that works better than the old rolly (holds more, stands up by itself, well-organized -- very atypical for M$). But I now have a CPAP machine, and although I *could* cram it into the backpack, it's not very convenient there. Its bag really *doesn't* fit.

Meanwhile, I have this travel guitar, and a raincoat. At the Container Store a while ago I found a great little rolly that's basically just a 2-foot deep bag on a rolling platform. The wheels fold flat, and the whole thing crams down into something that turns into a little outside pocket. The facehugger, Plink, a fleece jacket, and the raincoat all fit. Plink sticks out a little, but...

Going through security was pretty easy, though they now check your ID on the far side of the metal detector after having scrutinized it with a flashlight at the start of the line. Stupid.

The Big Pile of Luggage[tm] in the bedroom closet has been Dealt With. It's nearly as high, but doesn't stick out as far, so at least it's an improvement. More than that, it's been Organized.

• Briefcases, messenger bags, and daypacks are now in The Big Suitcase, which is back up in the garage attic. The Big Suitcase was originally purchased for a trip to Japan where I had to carry some extra gear for a demo; it was cheap, flimsy, and probably wouldn't stand up to many more trips.
• Totebags, zippered totebags, dufflebags, and small shoulder bags are now in separate containers. More random luggage, actually. They're back in the closet, but stacked up neatly.
• Shoulder straps are now hanging up with the coats, snapped to a coathanger.
• Pants that no longer fit are in a couple of plastic bags. Some of them are in decent enough shape to give to Goodwill; others are better suited for being cut up for rags. A couple of size 40's in good condition have been kept -- I currently take 42, and I'm trying to lose weight. (Of course, that's what I said about the 38's, too.)
• A few items in really bad condition have been thrown away.

In addition, I've done a little more magazine and box recycling.

First the food. Last night was the $work holiday party, at a restaurant called Lavanda in Palo Alto. The open bar (Sarticious gin -- score) and hors d'oevres (wonderful olives, assorted dry sausages) were good, though served at the bar where they blocked the entryway and didn't give people enough room to circulate and converse. Good conversations, though. The flower_cat and I were at the LJ table: roanf, mr_kurt, saffronrose, finagler, fairyshaman, and only I think three people not on LJ. Service was slow, though, and the dinner only good rather than as good as one would have expected from the restaurant's reputation. The loud and soulless lounge lizard providing the "entertainment" didn't help.

Today, though, was much better. We'd gone to the Stanford shopping center only to find that our favorite restaurant, Bravo Fono, had vanished without a trace. Grump. We bounced around between various of our other choices (closed on Sunday) and streets that once had plenty of good restaurants and now held nothing particularly appetizing, and ended up at a place Colleen had passed a couple of times (across from one of her favorite fabric stores) and found intriguing, with a mix of Persian, Italian and "American" cuisine: Arya, 19930 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. (Be prepared for an all-flash site with background music: I never said their website was great.) The food, on the other hand...

They have a weekday lunch menu, but it was Sunday. So we had the "Mediterranean Platter" off the appetizer menu (fabulous dolmeh stuffed with lentils, hummus, borani "bademjoon"), the "Arya Salad" (greens, a couple of roasted bell peppers, pine nuts), the koobideh plate (chicken and beef, with basmati rice). Desert was a Persian ice cream with a hint of rose and pistachio. Made of delicious win.

The other parties in the restaurant (this is 2pm on Sunday, remember) appeared to be mostly families. Many of them appeared to be familiar to the staff -- repeat customers are always a good sign. We'll be joining them.

( The shopping: mostly lamps and luggage. )