Cafe press… I hope.

I cleaned up Carolyn’s old dell today. It’s faster than my little Dell and will do conversions better, but it’s 40G HDD was packed. I backed up then dumped a lot of data files, including the old versions of the ancestry stuff, but worse, the ancestry program had put four different versions of itself on there! It didn’t overwrite previous version, just put new ones on…and Java had done the same thing! between the two of them, they had taken up almost two Gig! ARGH.

Anyway, got the disk cleaned and while it defragged, we headed out in search of canned cat food…not something we want to run out of these days…and I think I found myself a camera at Costco. Just a little more than I’d hoped…but it’s got a panorama function which I’ve really lusted after. It’s a  Sony , I’ve got 90 days to decide, so I’m charging up the battery and I’ll put it through its paces in the next few days.

As for the computer…it’s running pretty well this evening. So..tomorrow, I’m diving into Cafe press land! Wish me luck!

Ah, life in TauCeti land.

After a near-sleepless night, I finally gave up and started the backup process on my laptop. I’ve had Acronis disk imager (or whatever it calls itself) for some time and never used it. I decided it was time. I put it on my laptop, hooked it up to the terabyte and began the complete backup so that when the computer comes back with a new touchpad, I can just stream my computer back on. I’m going to try putting win7 on clean and just reloading, but if that screws up, at least I’m no worse off than I am right now.

An hour later, it barely registered on the progress bar. Oh, dear. This was going to take a while so…I headed outside to start putting together the water feature. Carolyn and I dug the basic pit for the water reservoir on…Thursday, I think. It was actually pretty easy, but the pit is only the start.

The main pit, where the green valve box that will contain the float and pump is 18-24 inches deep, then there’s  a shelf about a foot higher where I planned to put some concrete pavers as footing for the main “stone” that Bret moved out front for us. Both the main pit and the shelf had to be leveled and squared up. I put a layer of sand down to both smooth out the base and to really level the area under the “water feature.”

Then I used the white padding sheet that had wrapped the big plastic liner for the big pond for shipping (I never throw anything away) as a basic padding under the liner, then put in some extra of the “real” black padding that was left over from the big pond to pad under the water feature. The problem is, this soil is REALLY rocky and those little rocks can poke through the liner, if there isn’t something to buffer. Hence the sand and padding.

Then, I spread the liner over the top…and realized I really should go in and find out how the backup was doing.

Nine more hours…Oh joy. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked it to verify…Ah, well…

Back outside and I worked the liner in and put down my pavers. Now, to get the stone into place…without ruining the edge of the liner….hmmm…I stuck some of the black padding in the hole between the edge of the pavers and the dirt edge, then found a piece of backing board from my old armoire (did I mention I never throw anything away?) and used it as a “bridge” across the plastic and softsoil and got the stone in place…

Then went in after Carolyn, because there was no way I was going to get that thing extracted from the dolly without help! It’s heavy!

Time to put the plumbing together. Naturally, we had an odd wad part and Carolyn made a store run while I did a little tilling and raking. It’s drying so I can start getting these weeds and grass out. By the time Carolyn came home, it was almost 11 and time for lunch…and I was dripping sweat. Time to go check the computer.

Still chugging. I did a bit of updating on my little Dell that will be my work computer while Sparkle is at the HP doc. Its Thunderbird was a mess and I needed to get it operational so I could  have email.

Sparkle’s still chugging, so it was back outside to get the plumbing done. This actually went fairly smoothly.  I’m sorry, I didn’t get a pick of the actual valve box before we started piling rocks on. Oh, well.  Anyway…this is getting too long. Here are the pix I took along the way. We need more rock, but it’s running and it’s going to make working out there a lot more fun!

OK. Fun’s over. I’m getting back to work.

When last seen, work included making new versions of the backlist with TOC and fonts. This is now a process I’ve done numerous times, right? I should have it down pat. Right?

Wrong. Trust me to always find a new and interesting problem.

I take my WordPerfect created html file into Namo, like always. I clean up the html code, extracting all extraneous code (like default font calls) like always. Fix my images’ centering…all the things that get screwed up in the conversion from WP. I also take some stuff out of the header at the top. Something I’ve done before. Some CSS code that becomes unnecessary. I believe this is where the problem begins…but I get ahead of myself.

I take said html into Calibre and create my epub file. Bring it up in the Calibre reader. Everything looks fine. Bring it up in Sigil to insert the font codes. Check it out in Sigil. Everything looks good. Save down, bring it up in the Calibre reader to check the fonts. Cover comes up. TOC comes up. I punch a random section on the TOC…and out comes … FIREFOX. Say what?

Back into Sigil to open up the epub file (which is really just a zipped file with a bunch of txt and image files and some navigation files…we’ll get to those files later.) On the navigation pane for Sigil, there’s the normal list: text, style, images, fontx, misc. I expand the text button and…where there s/b 50 small txt files…one for each section plus the beginning and ending material…there are only two. Count them. Two. The cover and the afterword file.

ARGH!

So…I repeat the process with the same html. Same problem. I try it without changing the file at all in Sigil, i.e. opening it in Sigil and just saving down. Same problem.

I try a new conversion on an html file I knew gave me a good conversion. No problem at all. Conversions, saves, adding fonts…all goes according to plan.

So…I’ve determined it’s not the upgrades I’ve just put in on both Sigil and Calibre. Then, I remember I took out a bit more on the beginning code of the html file. Something I thought extraneous. I went to WP, brought up the original WP file and created a new html file which should have been exactly like the one I started with. I cut and pasted that front code into the “bad” file. Tried the conversions…same problem.

Oh, joy.

I went up on the Sigil Mobile reads and posted a query. I put up a query on the Sigil bug reporting site…even tho I didn’t think it was a Sigil problem…Then made a new html file to begin the whole cleanup process over again. Now, this is the most time consuming thing I do in the conversions, so I’m not thrilled. I get the bright idea to try one more thing, cut and paste the body of the “bad” file into the new file.

Guess what? That worked just fine. Created the epub. Added the fonts. Saved down…perfect. So, I just ran my conversions and went to bed. (This problem took all day…except where I was putting in the wisteria…to solve. by the time I was done, it was 2am. Welcome to my world!)

This morning, Carolyn tells me of a post on her site suggesting a reason for the disappearing text. It became obvious she didn’t quite understand what I was grappling with…it not being physical text that was disappearing, but txt files…and so I proceeded to show her what was happening using the extant files. I opened them up in Sigil, and while we were talking, we got into just where the TOC and content resided in the zipped epub file….not to mention the hidden content in html files. Somewhere html hides some of the default information that an html editor can get at but which doesn’t show in the html file. Like default link colors and such. I know, cuz I’ve tried to manually kill the blue of the links…but I digress.

Just for giggles, I unzipped the bad file in Explorer and began looking at the “other files.” There are, in addition to a folder containing all those files you see when you open Sigil, a folder called “meta-info” and a file called mimetype. Inside the “text” subfolder, all the appropriate files were there…so the information hadn’t been lost.  Inside the “meta-info” folder was a file called “container.xml.” This I expected. This is the “guidebook” ebook readers use to sort their way through the maze. but there was also another file called calibrebookmarks.txt. Now…I’d put in no bookmarks. I opened the file and it read:

calibre_current_page_bookmark^1#body|0.000000

What’s it mean? No idea. However…I opened the good version of the epub file and guess what? No bookmark file. I think I found the smoking gun, but when I delete that file and rezip, the resultant epub file won’t even open in Sigil.

Bottom line, there was something hidden in that bad html file, something I did with my editing. Somehow. That made Calibre put the little file in there…probably something else as well, if I just kept digging. The good html file and bad html file look exactly the same.

Go figure. I hates hidden code. I really really hates it!

But in the end, what matters is: mischief managed!

Ja ne!

Okay, folks…this is just what was on my camera chip. Mostly, it’s lots of iris and clematis. There’s one of the new wisteria I put in today. I’m not going to take the time to caption. If you’d like to know something more about any of them, just ask, ok? I’ve got some file conversions I need to get at, but I knew I had these on the chip and wanted to share them.

Personally, I really like the slideshow, but it’s kind of hard to ask about specific images, so here’s the “image list”

[View with PicLens]

That little guy was tough! Watch and weep…with laughter. 

Yup. Rain. No garden party today!

So…up early doing cleanup/setup for an indoor party of the better part of thirty people! :w00t:  We’d decorated Friday with cut flowers and they were already on their last legs, so I got a bunch more iris and renewed the centerpiece in the dining room, brought in all the chairs we’d left outside (silly us) and just generally tried to make the place ready…including scattering my black cat plushy collection decoratively about (in lieu of the Real Thing who was trapped with Ysabel in Carolyn’s room), and cleaning the expletive deleted kitchen floor yet one more time. I honestly can’t remember all I did, I only remember I was running my tail off all morning and when people began to arrive, I just collapsed on the couch, waved airily, and said, “Make yourself at home.” Which they all did! Several settling right in around our water-lily table to make more charms. I’m so glad you all had fun with that!

Shortly after the house filled up, OSG called and, as I grokked from the one-sided conversation, asked that the four large boxes of party stuff down in the basement were to be brought up into my nice clean party area! H#@l no! I cried…a stand I was to come to regret. However, I had assumed those decorations were no longer applicable for this year. They were for outside and since we couldn’t go outside, surely she didn’t intend to strew things about our nice clean (and already stuffed) house, which I’d worked so hard to decorate with things that were, like highly breakable treasures! Naw…she wouldn’t. So, I blithely assumed the only boxed items at issue were cups and plates…but those were supposed to be supplied by Longhorn along with the food, so…no need for boxes upstairs. Right?

Ahem.

Then I realized I hadn’t gotten what few books I had remaining out for people to buy. I’d promised I would, so it was drag myself off the couch and down to the basement to scrounge for books, which meant moving lots of boxes. Before I knew it, dear Bret came down and helped me organize. This was more of an ordeal than makes good sense. There’s this part of me that can’t stand to keep copies when friends want them, but Carolyn insists, wisely, that I keep a handful of each title. I’m now officially down to two or three of each of the GroundTies books, and four or five of each of the Ring books…so, no, I am very sorry, but I have no more for sale….except for Ring of Destiny. That, I have two boxes of! This is because when Destiny came out, I tried to buy a box of each of the Ring books. DAW refused to sell me any of the first two, (even tho they had some in the warehouse) but sent me extras of Destiny. They hadn’t reissued the first two and wanted to keep the handful they had  so they could claim the books were still in print, but “out of stock indefinitely.” It’s an old ploy all publishers pull, but it’s been a pain in my rear for ten years. (Actually, longer than that. Warner pulled the same thing with the entire GT series, then never gave me a chance to buy the stock they had when I got the rights back, but sold them as remainders. Yet one more way publishers screw authors.)

Anybody want to buy a dead tree version of Destiny?

But I digress.

Anyway, I sent what few books I had upstairs, and before I knew it, I was ensconced in the basement, signing, as the sounds of OSG’s arrival with BBQ drifted down the stairwell. (I think I made a pass upstairs somewhere in here, but the details remain hazy, to say the least.) We were chatting away (it always takes me forever to sign for friends…not that I come up with anything that witty…I just keep hoping inspiration will hit.) Suddenly, OSG comes charging downstairs and through the group, a woman decidedly on a mission, headed for…you guessed it…The Boxes. Seems she wanted something in them after all. My poor brain, already taxed with following the conversation and trying to be witty, was totally bamboozled.  :wassat:  I do hope I spelled my name right…let alone those of the books’ new owners!

Thankfully, I spent the next while downstairs and wasn’t privy to the goings-on above us. Seems that netting and pirate flags came very close to taking out the fairies I’d arranged on the mantle just that morning! I do believe I’d've had a heart attack right on the spot. :pinch: Fortunately, the calmer Carolyn was on hand to stop the proceedings and gently extricate said fairy wings before disaster befell them. I fear we might just have to face the fact that we really just have too much stuff to add party decorations into the mix, fun as those might be, and confine the piratical decorations to our persons and the serving tables.

After that, we settled into serious partying, with our living room doing a pretty darn good job of absorbing the majority of the group and the dining room taking care of the overflow. It works pretty well, tho sound does have a tendency to channel between the two rooms.   At one point, we had a lively discussion going in the dining room, and Carolyn was in the living room with a bunch of folks with (I later learned) a recording device to record the correct pronunciations of some of the Atevi (I assume) words/names. Oops. Next time, folks, just come tell us you want to record and ask us to keep it down, OK? We had no idea.

Eventually, we dug out the git-fiddles and started filking.  I’d made some song books which Neco had ibico-bound for me on Friday, and had a few with guitar chords (not all of them right! I give fair warning to those who got those five books!) I wasn’t sure how this would go over, but I needn’t have worried. This group knows how to go with the flow and have fun! They picked up the melodies very quickly (or did you guys fake me out and already know them?) and we sounded pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

(BTW…In the best filkish tradition of “copy!!!!!” I’ll get that file up on CC for free download sometime this weekend. I want to add a few more Cherryh-inspired/written songs to it, now I don’t have to print it out. Eventually, I’ll put up little MP3s with the melodies. You’ll have to put up with my singing, but that’s the best I can offer.)

Sometime midafternoon, we took a break for the final annual event: the murder of a piñata. This year, it was a poor, helpless little peglegged pirate. It had stopped raining for a bit, and so we took him out, strung him up by his neck in the hawthorne, and let Carolyn whack away at him with the lightning-bladed sword OSG gave her a couple of years ago. The sword, while decidedly cool-looking, was not the most efficient, but Carolyn persevered and ultimately, she took him out, right at the neck, spreading candy, doubloons and squirt guns all over the “patio” (which is really just the old driveway.)

Another successful raid, OSG! Well done!

Dimwit here glommed onto a piece of taffy…foolishly for one of my crowns. I was very careful, but the slightest tug pulled the thing off. There was a sliver of tooth in it and I suspect the cage wrestling face plant broke that bit off, setting me up for this. (another footnote: yes, guys, I got it reglued and found myself a fine new—and nearby—dentist into the bargain!) Fortunately, the tooth stub didn’t bother me at all, so the party went on unimpaired. (Actually, a little way into the evening, I just stuck the thing back on and it stayed very well until I got to the dentist on Wednesday!)

Then it was time for the first of our party to head for the airport. Appropriate farewells, the exchange of loot from one car to the other, and OSG headed out for the airport with parties who shall remain nameless in tow. Ten minutes pass…and a phone rings. A computer bag had been left! The bag is found, faithful OSG comes racing back, another departure…and a while later, another phone call…the power supply wasn’t in the bag.  Oops. That part went home the next day via snail mail.

Meantime, we’re back at filking…it takes a while to work your way through twenty songs! OSG returns and retires to the dining room where the non-filking overflow has accumulated. Or…so we had supposed. Non-filking, that is. Soon, there is altogether too much jocularity arising from that end of the house. My vocal chords need a break anyway, so I go to check it out…to be presented with a plate. Yes, a paper plate upon which, in the best filkish tradition, this motley crew has composed the following ode to Bren to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon.

Bren the Paidhi-aiji
Lives in Shejidan
And frolics in the Bujavid
with Jago, his girlfriend.

Illisidi on her balcony,
loved the Paidhi Bren
She made him tea and poisoned him
and froze him half to death.

It’s charming, folks, but you realize…it’s only a start. We expect more. MORE!

And next time, you have to sing it!

8am and the weather is glorious as we sort ourselves out for the canoe trip. This is always eventful. The Little Spokane is safe enough…with life jackets on, you aren’t going to drown, but there’s always, shall we say, ample opportunity for adventure. Its current is deceptively tricky because it winds back and forth, with lots of brush on the sides and lots of flotsam to avoid. So while the accomplished canoeist simply floats along with the occasional backstroke to avoid a collision with vegetation, those of us who are, shall we say, less accomplished, work a bit harder.

The first year, there were several overturns, Carolyn and myself among them. Last year, we had a truncated float down just the lower half and Sharon wisely didn’t let Carolyn and myself in the same boat, putting Carolyn in with OSGuy and myself with the guide, so I think we all made it down without incident.

This year, we had the full float and with all the recent rains the river was definitely the highest and fastest we’ve yet experienced. We didn’t have the sandy beaches for stopping to stretch (and for corralling runaway canoes) and the brush was overhanging everywhere.  Carolyn and I were once again scheduled to go with OSGuy and Guide, since the planned practice floats had never happened and we really didn’t want to dump each other again. We both think we’re smarter now and could manage, but we so hate making fools of ourselves!

Anyway, we wound up with only one guide instead of two, so we put Bret, who doesn’t swim and had never been in a canoe, in with the guide for safe keeping and Kim, who was going with Claudia again this year, generously loaned me her hubby for the trip. This turned out ideal for me since what I really wanted was a chance at the steerage end of things. Todd had more experience than I, but bravely took the front and let me have at it. He was wonderfully calm and endured my learning curve and we made it to the other end dry and only a little bent.

Which is more than I can say for those who went with the guide. We’ve heard so many stories about what happened at the first curve in the river, stories that get wilder with each retelling. All I know is we put in somewhere in the middle of the pack and one of the boats who put in ahead of us had overturned and its occupants were hanging in the shrubbery on the side as we passed. Now…there’s nothing we could do. Both parties were safe, if a bit cold and wet, and it takes special skill to extricate a situation like that … that’s why a group like this has expert “sweepers” bringing up the rear…in this case, OSGuy, the Guide and OSGuy’s good buddy Steve, who knows the Little Spokane better than he knows his own bathtub. Best to leave the overturned to the experts.

Anyway, we couldn’t help, so we wished them well…from the far side of the river…and continued on. What happened after we passed is beyond my ability to relate. But it must have been exciting. The next thing I knew, Bret and Catherine, who had not started out together, cruised by us, both quite, quite damp. Bret had started out with the guide, Catherine had been in the overturned boat. I guess the final mixup and landed the contents of the Guide boat and at least one of the separate cayaks in the drink.

But all came out well, and Bret, when he and Catherine cruised by us, was doing a whole lot better in the stern than I was! I was downright jealous. But I blame it on my oar. I couldn’t figure why everyone kept passing us. I mean, we were in no hurry, but I was rather dismayed. I thought I was doing something wrong because try as I might to bring the paddle out cleanly, it seemed there was always some drag. Finally, the guide caught up and informed me I had one of the guide paddles, which was substantially longer than the regular one. No wonder! He switched paddles with me and I was much happier after that.

Being slow had some hidden bennies, though. OSGuy-friend Steve was bringing up the rear and he stayed with us, giving us pointers. Of course, the worst collision we had with side shrubbery came when I listened to him! :lol:  He misread our angle from his spot across the river and kept saying, let the boat drift. I was thinking…I’m going to run into that shrub. I’m going to run into that…when he finally said to back paddle, it was far too late. Fortunately, Todd and I both just went flat…backwards and we came through the incident just fine. Another learning experience…and thank goodness for all those ab exercises I’ve been doing!

Anyway, we were the last in, then we had a lovely dutch oven cooked lunch, and headed home to catch up on the sleep we missed the night before. Then we met at the Steamplant Grill for dinner. (We don ‘t go hungry!) A special treat here was the menu, written by OSG. In negotiating for the large group, the menu had been necessarily limited and OSG made it all appropriately felicitous with Foreigner style names for the dishes and Shejiconi references galore. Well done, OSG!!! She’d gotten us the special waterfall room, too, which was really cool.

Afterward, we wandered about the building, which is a wonderful restored steamplant. The original function had been to create steam to provide heat to all the surrounding buildings…just like in my books! Too cool! All the original pipes and boilers have been turned into decoration. Its two huge “chimneys” are visible from just about everywhere within the city. Very easy to find the place! Anyway, they also have a beer brewery in a back room and the head brewer was there, so we had a nice chat with him about the similarities and differences between scotch and beer production.

Then the crew hiked down the hill to the beautiful Davenport hotel, a downtown “centerpiece.” It was built in the early 1900s, nearly demised and was resurrected in the last decade by a local couple. It’s a beautiful work of art which I highly recommend to anyone visiting the city. We had drinks in the stunning Peacock room, named for the stained glass over and around the bar, then headed home for a quick sleep before the final day of festivities:

The infamous Pirate BBQ.  Ooooooo

Ja ne!

Ja ne!

Whoopsie! meant to post this this AM.

For those who don’t know or haven’t figured it out…Shejicon isn’t really a convention. It’s a get-together of a bunch of online friends who are kind enough to invite Carolyn and myself in on the fun. In turn, it is our pleasure to open up our house to them for part of the festivities. The first of these was the Second Annual Tin Foil Hat Party.

Friday, the day of said SATFHP, turned suddenly beautiful, weather-wise. Enough puffy clouds to keep the skies interesting…and warm enough that the pizza party could take place outside as planned. Except we hadn’t been able to clean the tables or do last minute prep. So…Carolyn and I were up early, cleaning tables, deadheading flowers and doing some last minute things around the house. Always so much to do…if it weren’t for these get togethers, I think the house would never get cleaned! Then we met the crew for a fine lunch at one of the most amazing restaurants in town, Anthony’s, which overlooks the Spokane Falls. With all the recent rains, the falls were at their most glorious. Again, good food, good friends, phenomenal ambiance. Who can ask for more?

We then headed for the Manito Park Japanese gardens. Beautiful place, though their pond is sadly devoid of fishie life. The entire stock, some I’m sure pushing 100 years old, were killed by a diseased pet secretly released into the pond. Probably somebody whose fish grew too large for their own pond and they thought they’d “donate” it to the park. It’s very sad. Done in all innocence and a hundred years of nurturing destroyed practically overnight.

On a side note, I just happened to ask our pond lady what one could do with if they got too many fish for their pond. She actually takes them in, quarantines them until she knows they’re healthy, then donates them to a big pond at a retirement home. So there are options, thank goodness! I didn’t think to ask her about the Manito park garden because I had just assumed it had been restocked by now, but there were only a small handful of fish there.

Anyway, then it was home to get some filk practice in before the party.

One of the things I’d wanted to do was make wine charms for everyone, but I didn’t have time. My help-crew on Thursday helped me make the charms themselves…little pictures of book covers or sketches…a couple of our kittehs…decopaged onto little wooden lozenges we found at the craft store. I pulled out a bunch of beads, got some little earring hoops from the craft store, put them on the table and let everyone make their own! I figured it would either fall flat or be a lot of fun. I think maybe it was a success, since by Sunday night people were still playing with making the stemware charms (we wound up with about twice as many charms as people.)

Pizza arrived and since I laid it out, I, without hesitation, grabbed one piece of each I’d asked for…pepperoni and Canadian bacon and pineapple. YUM! All the other options seemed, um, rather alien. :lol:  Way too many veggies! I thought perhaps I was surrounded by vegetarians! No problem. More pepperoni for me! So I headed out for the pond to let other people at it. Between one conversation and another, not to mention a turn about the garden, it became quite some time before I made it back to the kitchen. I’d eaten very lightly earlier, leaving plenty of room for pizza. But all “my” pizza was gone!!!! Horrors! I thought I was surrounded by born-again vegetarians! What was going on?!? I was now going to starve because there was nothing left but veggies and fungi!

So…I whined. A lot. Honestly…I thought I was being funny. I’m so embarrassed. I think people thought I was really upset. Truly folks, I wasn’t. I mean, sheesh, the worst that should happen was that I drop a pound!   Sorry for any disruption my childish behavior caused. (Slinking off with tail between legs.)

Then it was tinfoil time. A most important part of the festivities as it helps us avoid mental takeover by the aliens hiding in the shrubberies. (They only come out on Fridays, you know.) Glow sticks artfully strewn about the haberdashery enhance the protection. This was OSG’s bright idea last year and it was great fun the second time around as well. Thanks, Sharon!

All in all, a grand evening with lovely weather, ending with the lighting of the lantern pondside and a moment of silence for the friends and loved ones who have passed away in the last year. Then, we all dispersed to get some sleep before Saturday’s Great Whitewater Excursion.

Ja ne!

It’s Monday morning, the house is miraculously clean, and I’ve the warm afterglow of a wonderful weekend with good friends, and the slight blues of knowing it will be a long time before I see any of them again. I have a touch of third-day stiffness from the canoe trip, but it’s the good sore of having done a nice amount of out of the norm exercise. Shejicon is like a family reunion with only the absolute most interesting family members attending.

I should have been keeping a running diary of the events, but I really just haven’t had time. When not actively partying, I’ve been rather obsessively cleaning, trying to get all the little details done that I see in my head. Fortunately, in addition to my darling Claudia, more helpers showed up on Thursday to help clean and prep the place…and in some cases, help me with some serious round-tuits that have been preying on my mind for months.

Tracy…thanks so much for getting those plants repotted! That’s been hanging over my head for a year now! I was afraid we were going to lose those Christmas cacti and we love them so much. Catherine, you were just everywhere, helping everyone. Sharon the younger, bless you for getting all those song books put together and our darling Bret—whom we have known even longer than Sharon—your designated manly man muscle was a godsend.

In addition to rearranging our living room to accommodate a filk circle, Bret risked life and limb to move our “rock” out from the garage to the front yard. This is a very heavy concrete “basalt” pillar plumbed for water. We had it strapped to a dolly, and had been dreading working it out to the front, cuz it’s pretty heavy. Well, Brave Bret took it around on my new path above the shrub nursery…and hit a newly filled spot that had gotten soaked with our recent rains! It collapsed under him burying him up to his ankles in mud and tipping the dolly. Somehow, he and Carolyn righted it and got it out front. I was blithely oblivious in the house! Thanks, Bret. Above and beyond.

Everyone worked like trojans until the last minute, when they ran off to get ready for the Coeur d’Alene dinner cruise. This is an ideal setting for getting to know one another. You aren’t bound to a table, but can freely float and after, you can wander the decks, chatting.  The weather was wet and chilly, but the inside lower deck was warm and dry, the food was yummy, the company outstanding, and for those wrapped against the chill, the upper deck provided misty panoramic vistas.

It was magical. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

More later!

‘cuz I’m running so late! Gotta get my songbooks done.

But I had to give a huge thank you to our darling Claudia, who just put in two monstrous days’ work helping get the place ready for this weekend. This becomes even more important with our Wednesday workcrew currently grounded somewhere in outer Mongolia! Ah, the joys of modern air travel.

Super kingsized hugs, C!