impending brain explosion & dd

Brain Explosion Prevention Warning: Incredibly, this week looks even more work-stressed than the week before I left for the UK. To keep my brain from Exploding in a very messy way, I am hereby forcing myself to go into Anti-Social Online Seclusion to stay sane until next week. There is way too much going on in my life right now, and I am in desperate need of Time and Chocolate. :-( Lacking the former, I am going to resort to the latter (sadly, my UK chocolate supply has nearly expired).

Something in our office is killing all the plants. I think it's neglect. We were horrified to find that my mom-in-law's tree (xmas gift) had died and we hadn't even noticed. Jeff only realized it when he touched one of the branches and it immediately fell off. Doug's Chia head never survived, but we've put it on display in our front lobby area anyway...it kind of looks like Elmer has a buzz cut, with all the tiny atrophied chia seedlings still plastered over his skull, even sticking out of his ears. The last living plant in the place is the tree that Parki and Helen gave us as an officewarming gift last October. Some of the leaves are starting to turn brown, though, and we can't figure out why...

Sara and Annie and parents came over for dinner last night. When they left, our apartment looked like a whirlwind that descended upon it....do other people experience this with children as well? Fortunately, both Sara and Annie are past the "grab and destroy" phase, but still manage to move 90% of all liftable items in the place to a different location during their brief stay. Annie was scared of the blue dog on my piano...we ended up having to hide it behind our bedroom cabinet. Jeff introduced Sara to Wallace and Gromit (Helen and Parki gave us a W&G DVD for Christmas)...she loved it.

Dan Bennett, by the way, gets this month's award for "Most Unusual Photograph Of A Filker". See his homepage for x-ray pics of his neck while he was singing!

UK Trip Highlight(s) Du Jour Morningtown train in our children's concert As we've mentioned in our report, our children's concert was a blast. The main reason was because the audience (composed mostly of adults, ironically) was having so much fun! During our Morningtown Train song (I'm blowing a train whistle in the picture), several audience members leaped up (lead by Annie, I believe), and formed a human train that wove its way around the room several times as we sang, gradually picking up new "passengers" as it moved. During appropriate pauses in the chorus, everyone yelled, "CHOO CHOO!!!" We sang the last chorus a couple of extra times just because we couldn't bear to see the train end. :-) Thanks to Godfrey for the photo.

talis & simon

Many, many thanks to Jodi for putting the UT trip report into HTML format! I'll be gradually scanning and adding photos over the next few weeks.

I was sorely tempted to go to Ad Astra last night (local sf convention) to hear Charles de Lint in concert but resisted because of work and the fact that I'd likely have to pay a full day's membership fee just for an hour concert. Sigh.

Bought some DVDs yesterday...I hadn't bought *any* since my mom-in-law gave us a DVD player for Christmas. I bought Tarzan, Titanic, and a set of the three Next Generation Star Trek movies (on sale, woohoo).

Yay! I finally finished unpacking today and found a small package of chocolate from Talis that I forgotten about!! Yum.......

UK Trip Highlight(s) Du Jour Staying at Talis's and Simon's I stayed with Talis and Simon near the end of the trip. I'd hang out with Fox during the day, then crash at Talis's and Simon's at night. Just before going to bed, we'd have tea from Talis's library, chocolate (of course), and just talk. Sometimes Talis would be doing needlepoint while Simon twiddled with the computer. I enjoyed browsing through their wedding photos (and it was very cool to be able to point out people that I remembered meeting at the convention). I got to hear some rough mixes from the new album, and a never-to-be-released album. A couple of times, Talis and Simon would pull out instruments and start playing (did I tell you I'm absolutely nuts about the harp? I -do- so want to play harp someday...). It was a wonderfully quiet and restful period of the trip for me, much needed since at that point I had caught some kind of cold bug (which kindly waited until AFTER the convention to strike) and felt like doing nothing but sitting in one place. I mostly felt like sleeping, but didn't want to waste the last part of the trip unconscious! Typical pattern: (Debbie comes back to Talis's and Simon's place after gallivanting around Bristol with Fox) DEBBIE: I'm really sorry, but it'll have to be an early night for me. I'm really tired. TALIS: Of course, you poor thing! Would you like a cup of tea first? DEBBIE: Oh sure, thanks... (Debbie ends up going to bed two hours later after much tea, chocolate, music, and talking :-)) Looking forward to seeing them at OVFF...