then she appeared

The last couple of days of vacation were pretty productive. I managed to finish weeding all the books. All my non-fiction is now organized and fits on the shelves I have, with no additional books in front of them, and with two shelves extra (Brian's stuff, and my puzzles and games). Very satisfying. I still have way too many books. I guess maybe every spring I'll do another weeding (as one does). I removed about 160 books; not entirely certain, but that's a close-enough number, bringing my two-time total to over 500 books out the door. Feels good.

I also cleaned up the downstairs completely and it looks pretty good now! We're planning on making some changes in the kitchen when we have some energy (ok, maybe that's just me), but for now things look good and work well. On Monday I didn't do a lot. A few chores for mom and for me. Read some. Napped some. Prepped a little to go back to work. I don't remember anything else remarkable...oh, wait! I remember, I was inspired by


Big Blue

my new CD palace (isn't it cute? I heart it), and started my music cataloging in earnest. I updated both my ipod and iphone, got through noting everything that's already on the 'pod in a spreadsheet, deleted duplicates, cleaned out orphans, basically got things in ship-shape. I need to finish cataloging the CDs, and then tackle the hard drive. But I have made a lot of progress, and feel confident that I have almost all of my music now sorted out and readily available for playing. Yet more progress.

My next project will be much easier. I need to get rid of some clothes. That doesn't need to take more than an evening after work, however. I need new stuff, and frankly until I get rid of old I have nowhere for new. Motivation! I have no emotional attachment to my clothes; I find it dead easy to just pile stuff in bags and bring 'em to goodwill, so this project should be very easy. Yay, easy!

This week back to work has been a little better. I've been calmer. I have weird physical symptoms this week, though. One of my ankles has swollen up a couple of times in the evening, which doesn't hurt or anything but is weird to see. My other leg has a really tight tendon or something that makes it very painful to get up. I have pretty much convinced myself that I need to go back to physical therapy. I am hugely grateful that my health insurance allows me 100 physical therapy visits per calendar year. I just wish the co-pays weren't $15. If I go three times per week that's $45, or $180 per month. I don't really want to have to afford it, but hey, it would be nice to be able to get out of a chair readily, right? And they can work on my back again. It still sucks. Man, I hate this getting old business.

So that's been the week. I started this morning, as I do every morning, by opening the shades for the cat so she can sunbathe all day. Today, however, the shade smacked the bedside lamp onto my bed, where the bulb shattered most spectacularly. Broken light bulb in my bed, on the chair, all over the floor! And I was running late to work, so I only had time for the barest cleanup. Had to spend this evening moving the bed, changing the sheets, sweeping everywhere, changing the pillowcases, etc. I have a rule: no glasses on the second floor. We use plastic cups, so if something gets knocked over the place where we're barefoot a lot (bathroom is on the second floor too) is still safe for our tender feet. Sigh. Not from marauding light bulbs, though! Tricky bastards.

Hopefully as I fling myself into my new sheets tonight I will not shred myself to death. Wish me luck!

I was a little more social this weekend than I usually am. Friday night after work Brian, Patrick and I headed up the Manchester NH to go see Jenn's husband's band. It's a country band, which isn't really my thing, but I like her husband and I've already seen them twice before, so it's sorta fun. Getting so I know the songs, even. The venue was kinda like a hotel conference hall; they'd jazzed it up (countried it up, I guess!) to be a little more country-friendly, and practically everyone had on tight jeans and big hats, but it still felt like tomorrow morning it would host the wedding of Trisha and Bobby (it's the second wedding for Trisha, and Bobby's third, so they don't want to spend TOO much).

It was supposed to be inside a restaurant, but to order food you had to select from a limited menu and do it from the bar. We were all starving, but that seemed complicated. Thankfully the band went on first, so we split right after. Watching the line dancing was making me feel a little queasy, anyway. We hit the restaurant on the other side of the building and noshed on prime rib egg rolls and some other stuff. Was good.

The next day, Saturday, Patrick and I went to see "The Woman in Black" at Quannapowitt Players. Normally he can only manage to drag me to plays when he's either in them, writing them, or dating someone in them. This time was none of the above, and yet it was still fun. It didn't have the amazingly hot Russian guy from The Bear, but hey. Not every actor is an amazingly hot Russian guy. Damn it.

Sunday was supposed to be some kind of Star Wars musical something, but Brian didn't feel well so we bagged out on that.

Monday night I hung out with Stephen and Val, ending with our watching possibly the worst baseball game I've ever seen. 16-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays? Seriously? Ugh!

And now I will need a month or two to recover. We introverts need battery-recharging time. Whew!

Stuff floating around in my head:

On the chores side of my brain: How awesome is the hand scanner thing at Stop & Shop? Since I started using canvas bags, I've been increasingly annoyed at the baggers. They try to toss in plastic bags at every turn. Things need to be separated from other things! Ice cream needs to be kept isolated from everything else! Soap needs to be sanitized for my protection! Cat food needs to be safely placed all together in one plastic bag, just because! But with the scan-as-you-shop thingie, I can bag my own stuff straight off the shelf! No hidden plastic! Organized the way I want it. And I can check the price right then. And keep track of how much I'm spending, and review what I've already bought. I love love love it. After I finish, I just go to the self-checkout, scan my scanner, and then pay and leave. The clerk didn't even look at anything. No putting stuff into the cart, then taking stuff OUT of the cart, then putting stuff BACK INTO the cart, then taking it BACK OUT OF the cart to go in my car. So fast, so convenient, I don't know if I can go back to the old way now!

On the entertainment side: I've got four current TV faves. In at number one, "Lost" is so damned good this season it's almost painful! Seriously, finally the plot is interesting and weird and fun. Also enjoying "New Amsterdam," even though every time I read the name I hum Elvis Costello to myself. The lead actor, Nikolaj Coster Waldau, is hot, kind of quirky, and his mild Danish accent is disturbing in a smoldering kind of way. It's a completely silly plot, but it's still fun. [I'd pay good money to know why every immortal ends up fighting crime, though. Is there NOTHING ELSE TO DO with all that time? Seriously?] Also, how damned good is "Breaking Bad"? God, I never realized how nuanced an actor Malcolm in the Middle's Dad was before this show; not that Malcolm ever gave him much to do other than run around in his undies. But in this? Awesome. It's seriously a one-man show. And, finally, "Dexter" on network is still compelling, even without the cuss words. Michael C. Hall is just crazy-good.

I'm also really sad that Jeff Healey died. While my musical tastes normally run to the somewhat alterna, I really dug his voice. And he was so 80s cute, back in the 80s. All that mullet! Anyway, I've vaguely followed his career over the years and liked his jazz stuff. And now he's dead at 41 from the same cancer that took his eyes when he was a toddler. That's just tragic.

And I've been a little bit into Amy Winehouse this week (I know, I know, but damn, the woman can really belt out a tune!). I'd never put "Rehab" and "that chick that popped out of nowhere last year and everyone talks about all the time because she's a mess" together before, seriously. Had no idea what she sounded like. I hope she manages to pull herself together. She seems like she's on a flameout trajectory, though.

And, FINALLY, baseball's almost back! 25 days to go. I know they're playing now, but I just can't get excited about spring training. Part of the fun for me is the race, and if the games don't count, it's not baseball!

OK, brain empty now. Back to work!

How have I missed seeing Greg Pattillo before now? He's amazing! This is the first video I saw, but they're all pretty impressive.

I started playing flute in fifth grade, and of course being a child of the 70s I listened to Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson did stuff like this when he played — not beatboxing, but growling and singing and spitting out notes and stuff. This guy takes it to a whole other level. If I could have done this when I was playing, I would never have given it up!

I get mad pretty quickly, but I usually get over it fairly quickly too. Often all it takes is a meal. Today it took a song on my car radio, "Is There a Ghost" by Band of Horses. It's got exactly three lines of lyrics, repeated over and over:

I could sleep
I could sleeeeeeeep,
I could sleep
I could sleeeeeeeep,
When I lived alone...
Is there a ghost in my house?
When I lived alone...
Is there a ghost in my house?
I could sleep...

Makes it easy to sing along! I wonder if someone bet him that he couldn't write a song with just 14 words. The video's really cute, too.

Their MySpace page has a couple more songs, and they've got a bunch of clips on YouTube. Turns out I already know and like "The Funeral" (it reminds me somehow of Jeff Buckley) and just this minute started liking "No One's Gonna Love You" (warning, live noodling). And hey, they're at Paradise in Boston on Wednesday!

That never happens to me! I always notice a band two days after they played in my back yard. I probably won't go, but it's nice to know at least I have the option.

I have just hit my Christmas songs saturation level. I made a smart playlist of any tunes in my collection that I'd identified as Christmas, and it turns out I have 636 Christmas songs. Which I've had playing for two days. I guess all that streamripping from Shoutcast a couple years ago really paid off. Although I just hit Dolly Parton singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" after hearing the Carpenters singing "Do You Hear What I Hear" and realized that I just couldn't take. One. More. Song.

Note to self: Must edit that playlist! Gaaaah! I have lots of GOOD Christmas stuff, honest.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, and now back to normal life.

New Kate Bush CD released today! Yow! I had no idea. I used to follow new releases religiously (I habit I got into when I was working music retail), but lately less has been appealing to me. I got some stuff off of iTunes a couple of days ago (couldn't resist that damned "Doorbell" song by The White Stripes), but I've been in a music funk. Instead of buying my usual 40-50 or so CDs a year, I'm probably down to 10.

But Kate -- I was hugely disappointed with (read: HATED) The Red Shoes, and not particularly fond of The Sensual World, but her first five albums are still always on my 'Pod. I might be willing to give this one a chance. Yay! Kate!

I scored 79.227% (Hardcore Music Nerd) on the following test. How'd you do?

http://www.couplandesque.net/culture/musicnerd.htm

I am proud!