Yesterday and today

Installed sablevm, a free Java VM, on my little ARM development board at work, and got my webserver to run on it. It took a little pushing and shoving: it turns out that it doesn't like class filenames that start with "./" in a jar file. Emailed login instructions to the rest of my group; I now have multiple users on a server you can hide under a postcard.

Went to Silicon last night for filking, which was small but good. Broke up around 11pm. Tomorrow evening will be taken up by concerts, so I won't get in nearly as much singing. If any.

Kepler's re-opening rally this morning (hopefully), after which I'll be stuck at home all afternoon waiting for the painters to come and power-wash the house.

Yay for Kepler's

The flower_cat and I spent the late morning/early afternoon at the Grand Re-opening of Kepler's bookstore. The opening itself was preceeded by an almost-hour-long rally of a sort I haven't been to since sometime in the last century. The Cat, who grew up in the area, met several people she knew from her childhood; one of my coworkers and a long-ago-former coworker were there, and no doubt a number of people I once knew but either didn't notice or didn't recognize.

It was without a doubt the most crowded I've ever seen a bookstore except for maybe start-of-the-quarter at college; lines for the two cash registers, at opposite ends of the half-block-long store, met in the middle and doubled back. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the front (to buy about $100 worth of books, a T-shirt, and a family membership), but it was a happy 45 minutes.

A great independent bookstore and the community spirit it inspired have won a gratifying victory over corporate greed, and I'm going to be spending a lot more of my time (and book budget) at Kepler's in the future.

The house has never been so clean

The painters are outside power-washing the house. The only thing I had to do was go around and make sure all the windows were closed. Some of them probably haven't been opened since they were installed; the ones in the kids' zone upstairs were all open to one degree or another. The only really challenging ones were the computer room, which required removing the corner counter insert so I could reach it, and the upstairs bathroom, which seemed to be slightly damaged.

The actual painting happens in about a week after the place dries. $4500. The color, a light green with dark-green trim, will not change. The neighbors made threats (which the flower_cat did not relay to me) when asked how they would like it if we painted it purple.