ginger cookies

Anyone familiar with mSQL? I recently hired a programmer to write a database for Inkspot which will contain publisher guidelines for writers to peruse. (Feel free to check it out...14 magazine/zine publishers so far, woohoo!) And he did a wonderful job, too (and I'm not just saying that in case Trei is reading this). But now, of course, I have a zillion little tweaks I'd like to make to the database and interface...sure wish I knew more about SQL. I bought "SQL for Dummies" at the World's Biggest Bookstore last week in hopes of educating myself. It looks wonderful on my bookshelf alongside "Teach Yourself Perl In 21 Days". Maybe someday I'll actually have time to read it. SNAILMAIL: Hey, got a package in the mail from Lissa and Phil Allcock yesterday. Of course I didn't read the part of the label that said "Box 2 of 2 - open only with all of UT present" and opened it right away. I've promised them not to open the other one when it arrives. Anyway, the box that did arrive contained a box of Walker's Chocolate-Covered Ginger Cookies! Yayyyyy! And a set of rather INTERESTING paints...more details later. Today is ADAM ENGLISH'S birthday, by the way. Unfortunately he is not online, else I'd send you all over to bug him about his impending decreptitude (says The Decrepit One). Go bug Rand instead. Poor Rand has been quite ill lately and could use some cheery words. And big news I should have mentioned earlier...Jodi has her own domain!!!! Check out http://www.musesmuse.com. She also has a new email address. Hm, I'll have to update the links throughout the UT site. Thanks to those of you who have been pointing out when UT links go bad, by the way. Unfortunately I am severely time-deprived these days and am swamped in Inkspot/Inklings work. Thanks for your patience. If you notice links in the filkers home pages section or cons, please sent them the Scott Snyder, who has kindly volunteered to help me maintain the links section of the UT site (what a sweet guy, eh? buy his new album!!!!).

california rain

It was raining when Jeff and I arrived in California. No surprise, considering all the dire El Nino predictions; both of us had come prepared with umbrellas and rain gear, ready for The Wet. Our friend Andrew picked us up at the San Francisco airport and we had a fine dinner at the Fog City Diner before heading back to Andrew's place in Santa Clara.

out of town

Going out of town for the weekend, but will checking in via
Blatherchat if I can...

california trip

No rain! Brilliant blue sky, sunny, cool. We checked out the Muir Woods first, a 560-acre "national monument" in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Never saw such huge trees in my life! Quite a few tourists standing around like me, gawking up at the towering redwoods.

Saw the Golden Gate Bridge, toured around San Francisco a bit. Lots of hilly streets...I would definitely not want to learn how to drive standard here. On the other hand, looked like a great place to have exciting car chases.

Visited The Exploratorium next. Amazingly fun place! I highly recommend this for kids and adults alike. My favourite exhibits were the Bernoulli Effect beach ball exhibit, and the Tornado exhibit. The Exploratorium is a lot like the Ontario Science Centre except the Exploratorium is much more hands-on, not as much stuff behind glass. In the gift shop, I bought a noisemaker thingy I'm hoping to use in Urban Tapestry children's concerts...a sort of hollow tube with a flared end that whistles tunes of various frequencies depending on how hard you swing the tube around.

Next stop was the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. The restaurant had some of the original equipment still in operation, huge vats of chocolate being stirred and mixed, tantalizingly within reach. I resisted my initial urge to jump in. Bought about a dozen chocolate bars in the shop, all different flavours...my favourite so far has been the White Chocolate Biscotti. Also bought a chocolate-themed Ghirardelli mouse pad. While munching our chocolate, we strolled by the harbour and watched the kites fly.

Had dinner at Hama Sushi, yum, then went to visit Apple Computers, where Andrew works. Checked out his office, drew graffiti on his white board, posted in the Blatherchat.

About 11 pmish, Andrew and Jeff dropped me off at the Holiday Inn, where Consonance was being held. A & J came up to the programming space on the second floor of the hotel to meet a few people.
Both Rand and Adam were surprised to see me (I hadn't told either of them, and the surprise aspect is the reason I've been mum about my California trip in my Blatherings). I also got to finally meet Alisa Schaefbauer, the only member of Puzzlebox I hadn't met yet (Puzzlebox = Paul Kwinn, Taunya Shiffer, Alisa). Alisa sings and is also an excellent keyboard player...I'm hoping she and I can do some flute-keyboard collaboration for FilKONtario.

It was great to see a bunch of people I hadn't seen for a while, and Jeff got to meet some of the filk folk as well (he said one of them told him that she was glad he came, that up to then she wasn't sure if he really existed! :-)). It was very weird being at a con without Allison and Jodi, though...corny as it may sound, I went through the whole con feeling as though part of me was missing.

The open filk was fun. And I got to hear Puzzlebox doing Homecoming, a song I wrote a while ago based on Ray Bradbury's short story, The Rocket Man. I'm always thrilled to hear anyone cover UT songs, and this was a special treat for me. I was also really impressed by some of the other local talent like Jeff Hitchin and Jeff & Maya
Bonhoff.

Crashed at around 2 am.

To be continued...

california trip, part 2

Had breakfast at TK Noodle with Rand. Came back and went to the Arranging Workshop hosted by Jeff & Maya Bonhoff, Barry Childs-Helton, Debbie Baudoin, Rand and Adam...very interesting stuff. After that were the one-shots, and I was a "Dangerette" while Paul Kwinn did Danger Man (other Dangerettes included Diana Huey, Beckett, Taunya, and Debbie, and Alisa...normally Allison and Jodi would be there as well). Unfortunately had to miss Carol Flynt's concert to rehearse with Puzzlebox (I played flute on one of their songs), but did catch concerts by Brandywine Bay, Howard Kaplan, Echo's Children, and Puzzlebox. All were excellent! And special congrats to Puzzlebox for a very successful First Concert. :-) Puzzlebox is working on their first CD, and it should be a treat.

Next was the Interfilk Auction, segments interspersed with concert material from Interfilk Guest Diana Huey (deftly accompanied by Shelby Bartellis), then Rand and Adam. Enjoyed both very much. In her concert, Diana sang a piece she wrote for Allison's and Jodi's birthday conspiracy late last year...really pretty song. Rand and Adam's concert was also great...I did miss Luis a lot, though :-(.
Rand played "drums" with a pair of straw drumsticks on a chair with such enthusiasm that bits of straw kept flying off the sticks, making first row seating hazardous.
My favourite of R&A's new songs is called "Tommy", and am happy to hear it will be going on their next album (due to premiere at Marcon).

At the auction, I bought an Ohio gift basket donated by Diana. I couldn't resist the lure of the box of chocolate-peanut butter buckeyes. :-) Jeff and I had the Ohio Valley soup last night...very yummy! To Diana: thanks also for my Milky Way gift...I had some for breakfast yesterday.

After the concerts, wandered about a bit. Got a chance to chat briefly with some folks I hadn't seen in a long while, like Nick Smith, Eli Goldberg, John O'Halloran, Carol Flynt, Mitchell Burnside-Clapp, Ingrid de Buda. Got to see Bob Kanefsky do his Amazing Bubble Trick for Taunya Shiffer's kids. :-)
Had dinner at TK Noodle with Taunya and some of her offspring, Alisa, Rand and Adam (unfortunately Paul got left behind at the hotel througha misunderstanding :-( ). Afterwards,
I did try to get into Heather Alexander's concert but arrived too late to get a seat. :-( Did catch part of Barry and Sally Childs-Helton concert, though.

Had a chance to play a flute duet with Seanna, Taunya Shiffer's second-oldest (very talented girl, and is also an artist!). Also got a chance to go through some flute stuff with Callie Hills (from Echo's Children), something I've wanted to do for a long time. Plus I got to meet and hear the Duras Sisters! I kept missing them through the con and finally went off to look for them. Debbie Baudoin had introduced herself to me earlier, very friendly sort. I hope their group and our group can eventually get together sometime! Anyway, I heard their new Harmony Heifers song and loved it. :-)

I was impressed by other local filkers as well (I'm assuming these are all local), such as Jeff Hitchin, Jeff and Maya Bonhoff (Syntax). Unfortunately I missed their concerts, which were earlier on the Friday night.

Crashed at around 2:30 a.m. I would normally stay up much later than this, but I knew that Jeff and Andrew were picking me up the next day and I didn't want to be in zombie mode. The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was Paul Kwinn quoting a vampire haiku (he, Rand, and Adam were trying to remember the name of some vampire movie which starred David Bowie and Susan Sarandon...I woke up briefly when someone (Rand?) blurted out the answer: The Hunger). I had a dream about vampires that night.

To be continued...