jeff bohnhoff visit

My Dad's at my sister's, and is doing well. Sara and Annie are getting a kick out of taking care of their Grandpa. When Jeff and I dropped him off at my sister's yesterday, Annie immediately went into professional nursemode and got a kleenex box and a wastepaper basket, positioning them carefully near my Dad. The wastepaper basket was in case he had to throw up. :-) Ruth reports that he slept much of yesterday.

Jeff Bohnhoff is here! JeffB, Jeff and I had dinner at Babur, an Indian place on Queen Street. I knew my Jeff would like JeffB, but I didn't realize how much of a tech-head JeffB is; he and I usually only talked in a filk/music context. I was highly amused last night; it was clear to me that I could have walked away during part of last night's the conversation and the two Jeffs would barely notice. :-)

After dinner, JeffB did some guitarstuff, yay! He is one of the most amazing guitarists I know, and I could listen to him play for hours. My Jeff was doing phone tech support for his Mom; after he got off the phone, we watched the Toronto episode of the Simpsons (which our friend Ray had kindly taped for us). I find it funny that so much media hype was made of this episode even though Toronto was only mentioned in the last five minutes or so. But the Toronto- and Canadian- jokes were pretty funny. I crashed immediately afterwards (didn't get much sleep the previous night, after all); the Jeffs stayed up for a while longer talking.

JeffB and I are going up to Richmond Hill tonight to see Allison and Jodi. We haven't decided what we're going to do today...probably a mixture of some sightseeing, musicstuff and just generally hanging out. Maybe even collaborate on a song (we started talking about it last night; I'm excited about this!).

Guest Blather: Jeff Bohnhoff

Well, here I am at Jeff and Debbie's place in Toronto. They have the most incredible apartment downtown, within walking distance of anything you might want to do. Debbie and I have spoken in the past about their place, but I didn't realize how cool it was until I saw it for myself.

As always, Debbie has been a fantastic host ( a hilarious combination of attentiveness and total angst that she's somehow failing to be a good host). If I try to lift a finger to help, I have to battle with her to let me do it. It's quite fun actually :-).

Tonight we're going to an Urban Tapestry rehearsal. I'm really looking forward to it. Those of you who know Debbie in the filk music community know how wonderful they are. The rest of you would be doing yourselves a favor by getting their CD "Myths and Urban Legends". It has some very touchingly beautiful songs, and lots of really funny material. Debbie will be very embarassed that I said this, but too bad, she told me I could write whatever I want.

I've really enjoyed meeting her Jeff. In one sense I've felt like I know him from reading Blatherings, but in person it's been fun talking with him. I realize how similar we are in many ways. We both have ferociously multi-talented wives who are both writers and musicians. We both have jobs in the tech industry, but in school studied other subjects (he has a Masters in philosophy, I have a degree in anthropology). We like a lot of the same music, and seem to have the same sense of humor. I wish that we didn't live so far apart :-(.

I fly home early tomorrow (which is good, it's been a long business trip). I do wish I could spend a bit more time seeing Toronto. I think Maya and I will have to come back for a purely social visit soon.

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Today's Blatherpic:

JeffB playing my guitar. With any luck, some of his guitar playing skills will be left behind for me!

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