So, how was your weekend, Mandelbear?

[mdlbear]

Pretty good, actually. Spent Saturday afternoon with super_star_girl, the Younger Daughter, and her eighth-grade science class at the Tech Museum in San Jose. The Tech Challenge was to build a device to fill sandbags with minimum human effort. (Wonder where they got that idea?) Only one other team member actually showed up; the two remaining positions were filled by kids whose teams hadn't finished their projects in time but were still hoping for some extra credit. They did fairly well: five bags in the three minutes available. The team on the adjacent pile, with an elaborate but balky Archimedes' screw lifter, didn't even finish one. (A team in the previous round did nine; we didn't stick around for the awards ceremony.)

Sunday the flower_cat, chaoswolf, and roaringmouse (who had spent the night with us at the Starport) had a Baycon meeting, the the Y.D. got taken to the movies, so I had the house to myself all afternoon. But instead of using the time to good advantage recording, I had some more coffee, went out for my walk, and went shopping for a new keyboard to replace our aging Roland HS-60. The clear winner on price and features looks like the Casio PX-310, with a street price of around $600. I'll pick one up tomorrow, since my dentist's office is right across the street from Guitar Showcase. It's a dangerous combination.

After dinner the Cat and I went out for a drive in her new van -- we likes it. Finally, came home and, yielding to a year or so of persistent pestering from the Wolfling, recorded her walk-on fragment on Bugs.

And for no good reason I can determine, both of us had the devil's own time trying to get to sleep. Even sex at two in the morning didn't help -- just seemed to wake us both up. Well, it was fun trying, anyway. I think I got about two hours' worth between 4 and 6. The Cat, as usual, got to sleep in -- lucky feline!