A long weekend in San Fransisco, visiting Chuck and Erica, married, employed, and doing very well in the middle of their lives. Their tiny backyard was a botanical splendour, orchids and diverse exotics love the winter there ( Read more... )

Vermont is so nice this time of year, things fell in place to visit Bryan, Ceredwyn and kids, and get 4 gallons of maple syrup. They've got goats now, plus the chickens, with an economic forecast more doomful than mine. But he's still touring around, promoting IT for colleges. Also visited 6 flags new england, before they close for the year, to see ( Read more... )

What a year for the renfair, descending in tandem with the local economy.  It's still fnu, attendance was mostly tolerable, but few patrons were buying the luxury items aka knick-knacks that the crafters offer.  Some got by fine, but others saw sales drop deeply, the worst ones down 75% from last year, not that last year was anything to smile about ( Read more... )

As if one tradeshow wasn't hard enough, i just had to do two back to back. It was a necessary marketing tool to stay in business, and quite a logistical enterprise.  Chuck flew in from san fransisco, to austin for Erica's gig, then cinci, detroit, st louis, then home.  George and the haunter crew drove to st louis for transworld ( Read more... )

Long have I heard what fine tourney combat was to be had at Candlemas in Kentucky, and it did not disappoint.  Maybe 800 bouts among the 50-ish fighters, many good ones, and that's a lot of bruises.  Not too many for me, considering.   Finn was right about the calibration standard being higher. ( I stayed with him and Tamara, who will likely be ( Read more... )

what a trip. . . culture shock . .   even the winos in the gutter were comparatively happy, thin and fashionable ( Read more... )

so i went and saw sarah brightman at the palace.  yay ( Read more... )

ok, here i go integrating into the technocracy.  lj seems to lean more to actual substance than the other popular networking sites, though the vast ocean of trivia that may come with it may be too much to bear.  but change is good.
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