freezer

My son has lived and breathed Midwestern Music Camp this week. Twenty years ago, I was at that same camp, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. A lot has changed since then, including Murphy Hall, but the overall flavor remains the same.

It feels like last year that my siblings and I were here in Lawrence, hanging out with great friends, and doing as much band and choir as we could stand. Strangely, at least for the younger camp, they don’t do choir anymore. They’ve substituted with some awesome courses in music theory, methods, and jazz. Very cool stuff!

The best part of that camp experience, for me, was the friendship and time spent getting to know fellow campers. The dance was hilariously fun. The concert didn’t suck. But getting to spend time as a kid with minimal responsibilities… that took the cake for me.

I upgraded to a reasonably current release of WordPress. It was surprisingly painless to do. Yay!

In other news, music camp is in full swing, work is nuts, and I’m running around in circles.

Whee.

I always harbored the belief that there is a limit to bad smells. At some point, either it just can’t smell worse, or my nose becomes desensitized. I was wrong.

The men’s bathroom downstairs here at work has risen to new levels of stankitude.

I wish it were because someone ate too much cheese. I’m pretty sure that the rain is forcing smells out of the earth below us and into our delicately decorated bathroom.

Must… scrub… sinus… cavity…

It’s the first day of spring and boy are my arms tired.

I’ve been craving a nice, sunny day, and hoe and be lulled, we get a peek at the seventies today. Yay! Soon it will be biking weather again. I need the exercise. Yikes.

Last night I stopped at Target and bought a hand held mirror so that I could check the back of my head. Doing your own haircuts is amazingly cheap… it’s also fraught with peril… particularly if you don’t have a hand held mirror to check your work. Happily I’m blessed with friends who politely fail to notice large chunks of uncut locks on an otherwise buzzed head. Also, Yay!

I’m working on an afghan that will be about 6′ x 4′. I’m thinking about doing an extra twelve squares to make it closer to, well, square, but I’m not sure I have enough yarn. I could buy more yarn, but I probably couldn’t buy more patience.

I’ve been both a busy and a not-so-busy beaver of late. In case anyone didn’t already know, I’ve traded my software programmer hat for a PeopleSoft systems administrator beret. If I keep it at a jaunty angle I think it doesn’t look so terrible on me. The transition has been a slightly rocky one, but I’m really enjoying the work. I’m still available when developer questions come up about the stuff I did… I hope they know my brain’s getting foggy in that whole area now.

Within the next few months (well, by the end of July, I guess) I expect to move to a new apartment.

The legal process of divorce is on hiatus, but life is continuing, and I’m glad of it.

Spring is starting to uh… spring… and I’m hoping to start riding my bike again. We shall see.

It’s been a while since I’ve written any public posts on this blog. I figured I’d lay out an update and see where it leads.

Last weekend I got the keys to my very own apartment. My son and I, with help from friends, moved a lot of furniture and unpacked a lot of dishes and various other things. I’m excited about the new place, even if I’m not super excited about being back in an apartment. But hey… new carpet! (*gag*)

My new job is exciting and really fits me well, I think. It’s a bit strange at the moment because I don’t have one (or even two) big projects brewing… I only have work to do as it pops up for now. That’s strange after being on biggish projects for the last several years.

Time to get back at it. Happy Tuesday!

I’d heard about so-called honor killings before, and I recently heard about the one involving Dua Khalil that happened in Iraq a month or so ago. I’m disgusted by it. I’m disgusted by the cell phone movies of it that include the many people recording the event with their own cell phones. I’m disgusted that we as a species have not yet evolved beyond this point.

For goodness’ sake, please read this post by Joss Whedon. He says it all so clearly and elegantly and I can’t hope to match… only to show it and hope that it is read… hope that it is heeded…

People… stand up… be heard…

Make it stop.

Here in northeast Kansas we’ve received more rain than the ground can handle in recent days. The Kaw River has been above flood stage for a while now, and that brought some things to the surface of my mind that normally only hide out in the dark recesses.

One thing I noticed as I watched the river yesterday was the tremendous turnout Lawrence provides for Mother Nature when She throws us a big, wet curveball. Lots of people came down to the riverfront area and watched the logs and whatnot float down, over the dam, and into the churning eddies below.

Many of those people were in awe.

Some of them, however, were interested in using their own methods for detecting the speed of the current. How a sports drink bottle is supposed to yield more information than the branches that were already running downstream I have no idea… Maybe someone could explain it to me?

People don’t appreciate our planet the way they should.

What are we teaching our kids that they turn into people who would make a bigger mess out of our planet than we inherited?

I’m really happy to announce that I’m once again an uncle to a brand new nephew! I’m really excited about it and I can’t wait to meet him and congratulate the new, nuclear family.

Happy Friday!

On Friday of last week I flew out to see my brother and sister in law in Connecticut. On Saturday we went on a sightseeing adventure through New York City. Here’s our NYC trip as I can remember it:

• Took the train to Grand Central Station
• Walked around and looked at the incredible ceiling
• Took the subway to eighty-somethingth street
• Took a quick cab ride to get over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Nearly ran through the Met to get to the roof
• Watched a firework display that went off at noon and looked at other works from the artist who did the firework display
• Saw a lot of the modern and Egyptian galleries
• Saw the enormous painting of Washinton Crossing the Delaware (whoah)
• Sat on the steps of the Met, eating a snack and watching a puppeteer
• Walked down to Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
• Walked to Rockefeller Center and went up to the tippity-top, gawking at the city
• Walked through Times Square
• Walked back to Grand Central Station
• Took the train home

Man oh MAN was that ever a great day. The weather was perfect, the sights and sounds were amazing, and I had a great time with my family.