Goodbye Amos

Today, Dena's Grandfather Amos passed away. I shall miss our many long wide ranging chats at holiday times and our rides back and forth to Berkley.
It has been really cool to hang out with someone who actually let the genie out of the bottle- he was a chemist who worked on the atomic bomb in Los Alamos.
I'd hoped to see him one last time, but that was not to be.

Off my trolley

This year I wanted to put a net over the fish pond to keep the leaves out. I took today off and decided that it would be a good day to build a wooden frame and stretch some netting over it. Problem was I didn’t have any wood and Dena had the big car so I didn’t have any ready way of transporting getting any. I thought for a bit, and concluded that the hardware store at ½ mile away really wasn’t that far. Alexander and I made it there in record time and loaded our shopping trolley with half a dozen, somewhat cumbersome 8 foot long planks and made our way to the checkout. “Do you want a hand out with that?” the lady asked as she rang us up. I thought hard, and decided that “Yes, please” was definitely not going to get me where I wanted to be 15 minutes from now, and so opted for a jolly “No thanks. Have a grrrreat Thanksgiving!” Sure enough 15 minutes later we had wheeled the wood almost to the house. I must admit one does get a few odd looks when you wheel a shopping trolley full of wood through your neighborhood with your 5 year old son. But it’s not anything like the looks when you walk back through your neighborhood alone with any empty shopping trolley!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Alexander’s School held Thanksgiving feasts for the pupils and Dena got to organize the feast for Alexander’s class. I got to carve turkey for 55 hungry children in my lunch hour. There wasn’t much left on the carcass after I had at it with the Sabatier chefs knife Andy gave me for my 21st birthday (a short while ago). All in all, it was a most excellent occasion and I think Alexander will recall it as one of his most special meals.

10 Years In California!

It just gets better and better!

So can I.

I can do this!

Pajaro Dunes

It’s 10 years since I moved to California! And 10 years since I met Dena for the first time. It seemed appropriate for us to take a long weekend at Pajaro Dunes (between Santa Cruz and Monterey) where I proposed to Dena 8 years ago.

At last a vacation! We are here for 3 whole days, and I am so glad to get a break from work and spend some time with my brain on idle.

As you can see Alexander can now fly a kite!

A Trip from the City with DJ Shadow

The last time I went to the UK, Andy and I hung out at his place one evening. It was one of those times that I will always remember. Andy and I have some quite varied (and to us interesting) musical tastes. With Sarah gone to for first half of the evening it was time to crank up the stereo (and what a stereo it is to crank) and listen to some of the stuff Andy had recently acquired. First up was a re-recording of “Einstein on the Beach”. Apparently when Glass first wrote the piece musicians really weren’t able to play it that well- They had never done that kind of thing before. Now that this kind of American Minimalist genre (Reich, Glass, Adams et Al ) has be become accepted today’s musicians graduate with an ability to play this kind of stuff under their belt. The new version of Einstein on the Beach was most excellent, and took me back to the time Andy and I were listening to Glass and his ensemble performing it in the Royal Albert Hall n years go. Now that was really something!

Another CD up was DJ Shadows Endtroducing.... This completely redefined hip-hop for me and since he had mashed up Tangerines Stratosphere I just had to get it. I made note of it on my phone only to delete the note 2 days later to save space.

So, here I was in the city, after meeting the amazons of our PR agency- a most enjoyable time. I didn’t have time for much, but figured a trip to the Virgin Mugger Store was in order. A quick call to Andy and Endtroducing... was playing in the car all the way back to Los Gatos. Most excellent it was too.

Week 3

Another 2 days in Plano and I am getting tired, not just from the 2 hour time difference, but also the fact that I am having to do a lot of people management, which I haven’t had to do for a long time. It’s wearing and challenging, but in same instant stimulating. So no complaints. I am as they say “in the thick of it” with this one.

Musical Day

After another 2 days in Plano I needed a break.... and as luck would have it I got one.
Dena took Alexander up to Bob and Marty's for Sat to visit with them, Gray, Julie and their kids.
I stayed behind to manage the cabinet person fixing our crooked shelving. I had to tell her what was broken and I had to ensure she returned with the shelves flush to the cabinet. (The latter being a subset of the former!)
In between, I spent most the day fiddling with music, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
When will you get to hear any of it?
I think next year is definitely the year!
[We'll see]