harp lessons and philip greenspun

I had another harp lesson last night. My teacher's great (Kimberly Rowe, who is also editor of Harp Column magazine). Current pieces I'm working on: My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose, and Greensleeves. It's been so long since I've taken music lessons; I'm getting such a kick out of being on the other end of the pointer (I taught piano for years). I revel in every detail...the lesson book that Kim put together for me, the pencilled annotations in my music, the practising (yes, even the practising :-)).

My custom-made harp case arrived from Colorado Cases, and I've come to a painful realization...there's no way that I'm going to be lugging around to conventions on a regular basis. Heck, the case wouldn't even FIT IN A CAB when I picked it up at the Greyhound Terminal! I had to pull it home by foot (fortunately it has wheels).

I was so excited at my first lesson with Kim that I ended up leaving all my music at her house. Her husband was kind enough to offer to take it to work (ArsDigita), which is much closer to my apartment. As I thanked him after picking up my music, I noticed a copy of Philip Greenspun's Web book on his office bookshelf.

"Hey, I love that book," I told him. "Philip Greenspun's great."

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "I work for him."

"You...you work for PHILIP GREENSPUN??? You're kidding, right?"

And then ensued a rather embarrassing episode where I went into gushing technonerdgirl mode, raving about how much I loved Travels With Samantha ("Well, would you like a hardcopy version? It just came out. Here, have a copy..."), one of the first photo-essays on the Web, etc. etc.

Kim's husband was very patient. :-)

Must go practice my harp now...

chicken livers

Today's blatherpic is the CD cover of "Squeeze Me! Beat Me! Love Me!", the newest release of The Porch Climbers, of which Graham Leathers is a part. Wonderful CD, lots of fun, highly recommended!

Worked all morning. Had leftover chicken livers and onions for lunch, something I never tend to make at home because Jeff hates liver. I also had okra. I didn't really know what okra was, so was intrigued when I spotted a bag of frozen okra in the local grocery store. It's pretty good, though I'm not keen on the goo. Is okra supposed to be gooey? I've never seen frozen okra in Toronto. Something else I've never seen in Toronto that I've gotten hooked on here in Philadelphia...Apple Cinnamon Jif Smooth Sensations Peanut Butter!! YUM!!! Had some Scott & Amanda chocolate for dessert.

Last night, I watched one of the movies I rented, a sappy tearjerker...Bridges of Madison County. Bawled through most it (Allison, stop gagging!). Some people hate Meryl Streep; I like her. Clint Eastwood was looking a bit too skeletal for the part, IMHO, but better him than a fresh-faced GQ-clone dweeb.

I'm reading an advance reader's copy of Stephen King's newest book, ON WRITING: A Memoir of The Cart. Wow, it's good.

catching up

Hey, many congrats to Cory Doctorow (Amanda's partner), who won a Hugo this past weekend in Chicago!!! He won the 2000 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. See Cory's website for details.

Hope you're all having a great long weekend!

I've moved my Blatherings over to a new server, but am leaving the Blatherchat script on the old one until I can figure out how to convert it. If you notice any problems, please let me know, thanks.

I've been spending most of it cleaning up the apartment, stocking up on groceries, catching up on my finances, preparing for the workshops I'm giving in Surrey next month, and Inkspot stuff. I also stocked up on videos: End of Days, Stigmata, Backbeat, and Bridges Over Madison County. End of Days was so-so (it would have been better if they had chosen someone other than Arnie as the hero), Stigmata was ok (the presence of Gabriel Byrne in both of these religious/apocalyptic movies was interesting and somewhat confusing for me), Backbeat was very good (thanks to Allison for the recommendation!).

Signed up for a massage at my gym. Administered by the tender/cruel hands of Regina, the massage was the most painful and at the same time relaxing I've ever had. Felt like screaming as she worked on particularly stubborn knots in my shoulders. Fell asleep twice in spite of the pain, so something must have worked. :)

Munched on chocolate from Scott and Amanda (thanks!), who sent a package of goodies lately (more details in future Blatherings). Practiced my harp lots. I'm starting regular lessons from Kimberly Rowe (editor of The Harp Column) next week. I had a sort of trial lesson a couple weeks ago, and was paranoid that I had developed all kinds of bad habits since I moved here (other buying more ABBA albums). Turns out that I'm not hopeless after all, but I have definitely been plucking at the strings too wimpily. After playing "properly" for an hour, however, my fingers were in agony! Augh!!! I am in desperate need of harper calluses; if anyone has any to spare, please send some!

Let myself play The Sims last night. I've started a new character, Karyn Kaiser. She's doing okay, just barely over the poverty level. She keeps complaining that I'm not letting her have any fun, so I upgraded her tiny television to a bigger one, and also put in a comfy couch. I'm trying to encourage a romance between her and Gomer Glotz, a neighbour. Gomer was a character I created a couple weeks ago but then got bored of. He seems to manage all right without me, though, and comes over to visit Karyn on a regular basis. He seems much happier than Karyn, in fact, which makes me wonder if my interference makes my Sims' lives more miserable! Ah, the complexities of being a world-builder...

Annie just called to say she got new purple pants for school.

Today's Blatherphoto: Scott M. carrying my husband. I think they make a cute couple, personally.

e-mail from Annie

Annie sent me e-mail today!

Here is what she wrote:

"sdggaaaaaaaaaadfgvcvgftggbnmjkzxdevgfrewqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqopqgoiilom"

Not bad for a three year old.

andy & christine bbq

Ok, my goal is to Blather shorter but more often. :-)

Had fun hanging out with Jeff on the weekend. I purposely stayed offline most of the time since it was our ninth wedding anniversary. Geez. NINE YEARS. Unbelievable. :-) Jeff asked me what I'd like to do on our anniversary, and I said I'd just like to have a normal weekend just hanging out in Toronto. We had dinner at Canoe for our anniversary...love that restaurant. It's fairly pricey, tho, so we tend to eat there only once a year.

The rest of the weekend: going to Fune with Scott Murray, doing some computer toy shopping: new Wacom artpad that works with my computer; maybe I'll start up my comic strip again :), portable Palm keyboard, bigger USB hub, The Sims. I hold John Durno and Paul Kwinn responsible for me buying The Sims. Much, much more on The Sims in a future Blathering. :-)

Dropped by Andy and Christine's bbq, which was lots of fun. Got to hang out with old friends. Celebrated by father's 69th birthday on Sunday, played with Sara and Annie. On the way back to Philadelphia, waited two hours at the airport (part of the time actually on the plane) before finding out my flight was cancelled. Rebooked for the first flight back the next morning, which meant I had to get up at 4:30 a.m., argh. I'm a morning person, but not THAT much of a morning person! My flight back the next morning was delayed as well. It's gotten to the point where I'm shocked if a flight goes smoothly.

I am going to shut up now. Too much to say, too little time. More tomorrow, I think.