Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Johnnycakes

Lookout, DC, K-Torr be all up in ya.

Yesterday evening the Jeanners and I had a nice drive down to DC to visit with one J. Hubert, aka K-Torr, who is in town for a convention of folks who conduct choirs. It was a longer drive than usual (we were leaving from the very north side of Baltimore and heading down to the very south side of DC), but we had a good chat, and we got down to K-Torr's sweet-ass hotel suite at around 8. Headed to a nearby PF Changs for dinner and drinks and conversation, covering conversational topics such as children, therapy of various sorts, jobs, and marriage. It is always such a wonderful feeling to get together with someone that you haven't seen in awhile, who in the olden days seemed like such a unique, sweet person, and realize that they are still a wonderful, sweet person and that if they lived around the corner you would almost assuredly be calling them several times a week to go over to their house and play cards or watch a professional tennis match or borrow a wheelbarrow. Anyway, it was really good to see K-Torr. And he invited me down to attend a workshop tomorrow with one of the members of Sweet Honey in the Rock, and I ain't got nothing going on and I'd like to hang with Johnny again so I think I'm gonna head on down.

Other news:

The insulation folks came in did their insulatin' thing on Monday, and although they were able to make progress in several areas (basement, rear bedroom walls, rear bedroom floor), they discovered that anywhere where we left the plaster on the walls and drywalled over the plaster, there was not enough room behind the plaster for them to run their insulatin' hose down into the cavity to shoot their insulation wad behind the walls. So that means they couldn't/can't do the walls in our future bedroom or in the middle bedroom. And also that they won't be able to do the walls in the other half of the house, when that time comes. So we are now in the process of re-thinking what we want to do with the money that had originally been earmarked for that purpose. Not the end of the world, but definitely a snag.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Feisted Out

Today Jerns and I took a day off and headed up towards Gettysburg to visit Katie the North American Wanderer on her farm. We all drove to Fuller Lake and had a fantastic swim on a hot afternoon. A lovely little vacation-in-a-box. Meaning a short vacation.

Busy times coming up:

Tomorrow the insulation dudes come to the house and start (and hopefully finish) phase one (of two) of the insulation work. We've been working towards this day pretty much since we bought the place (almost 2 years ago!), so it feels pretty good to be getting them started.

K-Torr will be arriving in DC tomorrow. We hope to get down there for a dinner and nocturnal stroll.

Work's gonna be a little busy this week.

Bill Morrissey and Amy Winehouse died yesterday.

\

p.s. Feisted Out means that you've listened to too much Feist.

Friday, July 15, 2011

kd

Feeling entirely unmotivated today. It's my day off, and so far this morning, I have farted around on the internet, made a tasty eggs-n-fauxsage-n-biscuits breakfast, and talked to my mom on the phone. Also, took a concrete paver (that I made!) outside and leveled it. Eventually the rain boxes (barrels) will live on it. I will soon head to home depot to buy concrete to make more pavers, but, again, feeling unmotivated.

Yesterday I had a training session at a swanky boardroom-type room in a swanky office building on the harbor downtown. Jeannie drove me down on her way into work yesterday morning, so I had a few hours to sit by the water and read and contemplate. It was a really beautiful morning. It's too bad I don't spend more mornings out and about, it would be nice to get up early and run or walk or something, but really, sleep is gonna win every time.

Then after work Jeannie and I headed over to the house of one of her coworkers for an end-of-the-Americorps-service-year soiree. A good excuse to drink beer and eat meat and get eaten by bugs.

And after the party we headed back downtownish to the Meyerhoff symphony hall for the k.d. lang concert. It was a pretty good show. We were surrounded by mostly bluehairs (it was at the symphony hall, after all), but the band sounded good (some really good pedal steel playing), and k.d. has a pretty unbelievable voice. Plus, it ws nice to see a show and arrive 10 minutes after the show started and still have good seats, and not have to stand around for 4-8 hours before the show. I did not stick around afterwards to meet k.d. (but probably only because Jeannie wouldn't let me).

Things I am contemplating doing:
1. bath
2. nap
3. trip to home depot.
4. playing Civilization III

Probably gonna do a 2 then 3.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Appian Way

It's a hot day today. I am laying on my bed, the laptop resting on my belly, with a fan blowing room-temp air on my legs. I am deciding whether I should take a nap or go downstairs and put up some junction boxes for some wires that I ran through the walls the other day. I will probably end up going with a 30 minute nap followed by junction-box-installation.

It's in the upper 90's here, but it hasn't been hot enough to get the temp inside above 90. When it gets above 90 inside, I turn on the AC. Actually, I just turn on the AC whe I get uncomfortably hot, and usually that's around 90. If it's real humid, I might turn it on even though it's lower than 90.

Aren't you glad you read that?

Last weekend the J-Dog and I worked on putting in a new walkway in front of our house, from the porch to the street. The old one was cracked and falling apart, and then it got real bad when the landscaping guys drove the heavy equipment over it, so we had them pull the old one out and haul it away. And we've been living surrounded by an ocean of dirt ever since. But anyway, while we were putting in the new one we had to do a lot of digging, and tamping of dirt and gravel, and it was real chain-gang type work. At one point, I even tried to get Jeannie to join me in the singing of some spirituals, but she wasn't interested.



I would like to go on record, though, as saying that there is not much in this world that is as sexy as watching your wife dig a big hole.

Anyway, it took 2 full days of work, but we eventually got the thing done, and it looks pretty much like this:



And we're pleased with how it looks. Hopefully it will last.

Tonight: should we have breakfast for dinner or super-duper nachos?

Thursday: k.d. lang concert.

Later this month: k-torr in DC.

Early next month: The Geners coming for a visit.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Hey now, I'm an all-star.

During the past week, I've had three dreams where I was hanging out with rockstars. It's probably the recurring dream I've had the most, ever since I was a little kid. Back in the day, I would dream about hanging out pretty much exclusively with U2, but as I've gotten older and my musical tastes have broadened, so have my dream tastes. This week, I hung out with Tom Waits (he was sitting on a couch and he said I was a "pretty alright guy."), U2 (I think I was at a concert, but one where the band and I could converse back and forth), and Black Dub (again, I was at a show, one where the band and I could converse back and forth, and Brian Blade remembered who I was [from our real-life encounter at the 9:30 Club alley a few weeks ago]). So anyway, I think hanging out with rockstars is some very-deep-seated need that I have down in the core of my being, and I'm not sure what that need means or why it's there.

Also this week: battling ant infestation and figuring out how to build a walkway.

Went to a pretty great 4th of July party last night at Lesley and Scott's. I worked a long day yesterday and didn't really feel like going after work (actually I kinda forgot that there was a party), but Jeannie lured me in with tales of free food and drink, and socializing. All of which turned out to be true. Plus some pretty decent fireworks that we were able to sit close enough to to feel in our chests. Or at least my chest. I'm not sure if Jeannie was able to feel it in her chest, but she was sitting right next to me so I'm assuming she was. Anyway. Whatevs.

Tomorrow: gravel and sand and paver acquisition and babysitting at Chez Kilpatrick!