Time passes like a kidney stone
But it passes eventually.
Things have been pretty busy here, and I haven't had as much time to catch up here as I would like, but I'll try.
Work has been busy. Not frantic, not insane (usually), not bad, as such, but pretty busy.
One of our paralegals (the junior one) was just acepted to law school, which means that starting in September, she'll be working part-time, and the rest of us will (without protest) take up the burden. She'll be a good lawyer.
We had a bit of a flood in my neighborhood a little while back (water main break), which caused significant trouble for some businesses in the area, and made me an hour late for work. The shallowest water within blocks was knee deep. Fortunately, my van did NOT leak, so it was more of an advanture than a disaster.
I'm still getting used to this new computer. It's blazingly fast, and pretty spiffy, but I've already found 3 guaranteed ways to crash Windows 7. :)
Also been having some fun with FaceBook. It's interesting what people 'friend' you there. So far all of my 'friends' are actually people I've at least met and talked with, but a few of them are pretty nebulous relationships. Not that I'm gonna tell Gordon Goodwin or Greg Adams I won't be their friend, but it feels odd to me.
And I'm getting ready for the release of Ray Feist's new book. Just finished re-reading the previous one in the series, and have lots and lots of questions... but I'm not willing to accept spoilers from friends overseas who have already read it. (It was released in Europe several months ago).
Musically, things progress.
The wednesday night band is still a bit shaky - the sax section is not entirely stable, and Becky and Ross have left, and we're trying to get replacements who will stay for more than a month.
There's also the problem (such as it is) that the band is made up of really good players, which means that scheduling a rehearsal means working around gigs. Our last rehearsal had to be canceled, as 6 guys had gigs. Our next only needs 2 subs so far, but it does make it hard to get the band 'tight' when we don't play together as often as we'd like.
Monday nights are getting better. We've had very few subs of late, and Marty says we're getting ready to record a new CD of Conley originals soon. That will be fun, and pretty interesting especially when you consider his newest composition, a nice swing tune called "Dershemania". I'm putting it into Finale so we'll have good parts to read, but it plays well, and drives right along.
I'm looking forward to getting the money together to be able to recover all of the old data off of my old hard drive. A lot of music, and some other work (2 screenplays, a half a novel, 3 web sites) was on there, and I want to be able to move forward on it. The music is my forst priority, though.
Other bands have also kept me pretty busy, an I've been playing Sundays in La Jolla pretty often. Even had a couple of paying gigs with them recently, which is really nice.
And I had a little bit of extra fun on monday night. One of the trumpet players just got a brand-new "Wayne Bergeron" model trumpet. I brought my trumpet mouthpiece to the rehearsal so I could try it out (it plays very nice), and while everybody was getting their gear out and getting warmed up, I played a few licks, some bits of songs, and some arpeggios up to Double-High C. (For those not brass players here, that's a note that very few trumpet players can play). I gave Joe back his horn, and went back to my trombone to warm up and tune up, and heard a couple of the trumpet players struggling (and failing) to get close to a double-C.
Forcing a Double-C never works. But it can be funny to hear.
Politics have remained frustrating, but fascinating.
DADT has been fought against, and may just be repealed.
Health Care Reform is also being fought, and may be signed into law soon.
Lots and lots of politicians are lying through their teeth at every turn, and are not being held to account by the media, save for occasional blips on MSNBC (thank goodness for Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart).
And the upcoming midterm elections are being fought by the usual blend of vampires, slugs and other lower life forms. The banks and insurance companies do whatever they want, because they're too big to be challenged.
I don't know if I'm really looking forward to these elections.
Things have been pretty busy here, and I haven't had as much time to catch up here as I would like, but I'll try.
Work has been busy. Not frantic, not insane (usually), not bad, as such, but pretty busy.
One of our paralegals (the junior one) was just acepted to law school, which means that starting in September, she'll be working part-time, and the rest of us will (without protest) take up the burden. She'll be a good lawyer.
We had a bit of a flood in my neighborhood a little while back (water main break), which caused significant trouble for some businesses in the area, and made me an hour late for work. The shallowest water within blocks was knee deep. Fortunately, my van did NOT leak, so it was more of an advanture than a disaster.
I'm still getting used to this new computer. It's blazingly fast, and pretty spiffy, but I've already found 3 guaranteed ways to crash Windows 7. :)
Also been having some fun with FaceBook. It's interesting what people 'friend' you there. So far all of my 'friends' are actually people I've at least met and talked with, but a few of them are pretty nebulous relationships. Not that I'm gonna tell Gordon Goodwin or Greg Adams I won't be their friend, but it feels odd to me.
And I'm getting ready for the release of Ray Feist's new book. Just finished re-reading the previous one in the series, and have lots and lots of questions... but I'm not willing to accept spoilers from friends overseas who have already read it. (It was released in Europe several months ago).
Musically, things progress.
The wednesday night band is still a bit shaky - the sax section is not entirely stable, and Becky and Ross have left, and we're trying to get replacements who will stay for more than a month.
There's also the problem (such as it is) that the band is made up of really good players, which means that scheduling a rehearsal means working around gigs. Our last rehearsal had to be canceled, as 6 guys had gigs. Our next only needs 2 subs so far, but it does make it hard to get the band 'tight' when we don't play together as often as we'd like.
Monday nights are getting better. We've had very few subs of late, and Marty says we're getting ready to record a new CD of Conley originals soon. That will be fun, and pretty interesting especially when you consider his newest composition, a nice swing tune called "Dershemania". I'm putting it into Finale so we'll have good parts to read, but it plays well, and drives right along.
I'm looking forward to getting the money together to be able to recover all of the old data off of my old hard drive. A lot of music, and some other work (2 screenplays, a half a novel, 3 web sites) was on there, and I want to be able to move forward on it. The music is my forst priority, though.
Other bands have also kept me pretty busy, an I've been playing Sundays in La Jolla pretty often. Even had a couple of paying gigs with them recently, which is really nice.
And I had a little bit of extra fun on monday night. One of the trumpet players just got a brand-new "Wayne Bergeron" model trumpet. I brought my trumpet mouthpiece to the rehearsal so I could try it out (it plays very nice), and while everybody was getting their gear out and getting warmed up, I played a few licks, some bits of songs, and some arpeggios up to Double-High C. (For those not brass players here, that's a note that very few trumpet players can play). I gave Joe back his horn, and went back to my trombone to warm up and tune up, and heard a couple of the trumpet players struggling (and failing) to get close to a double-C.
Forcing a Double-C never works. But it can be funny to hear.
Politics have remained frustrating, but fascinating.
DADT has been fought against, and may just be repealed.
Health Care Reform is also being fought, and may be signed into law soon.
Lots and lots of politicians are lying through their teeth at every turn, and are not being held to account by the media, save for occasional blips on MSNBC (thank goodness for Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart).
And the upcoming midterm elections are being fought by the usual blend of vampires, slugs and other lower life forms. The banks and insurance companies do whatever they want, because they're too big to be challenged.
I don't know if I'm really looking forward to these elections.