Month: May 2007

Played a little hooky last Friday and went out to the Arnold Arboretum with friends for a few hours. It was a good trip, and I’m glad I went. The rest of the weekend was eaten up with helping my brother pack up stuff from his condo and get set up at his new apartment up in Ithaca. It’s a minimum of a six hour trip, so by th time we got packed up and on the road Saturday, we had no chance of arriving in town with enough time left to do anything but crawl into the camper and sleep. So that’s what we did. Sunday he picked up his keys, and we got the truck and the u-haul unloaded, and spent some time picking up supplies and essentials for the new place. Finished out the day with enough time to crawl into the camper and sleep. So we did. Monday was brunch, a last trip to the drugstore, and then the trip back to CT, where I quickly picked up my car and headed back home, spent a few hours settling back in and went to sleep.

On the upside, I did listen to the entire audiobook version of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise, complete with the table of 700 hobo names.

I also had time to read the entirety of Dream Park, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in 1981, which means it came out the same year SIL was founded (And a few other groups, some more immediately drawn from the novel). For someone who is hip deep into LARPing, I suppose I should have read this a _long_ time ago, and now I have. You should too if you haven’t. I need to get the sequels at some point. (Side note, I find it *very* interesting that the image on the cover has little to do with the story, in which neither dragon nor futuristic clothing and scenery features prominently. I surmise that the cover art is there entirely to draw in the unsuspecting browser in the bog standard book store which crowds fantasy next to sci-fi on the shelves. This book, which an uneducated shelver might place in either section [or even mystery…] may appeal enough to fanciers of either fantasy or sci-fi, so was deemed to need a cover that would draw the eyes of both…)

I just found out that children’s author Lloyd Alexander passed away just under a week ago. The NYT obit at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/arts/19alexander.html does an excellent job of summing up his works and achievements.

Note to self: get the full set of Prydain Chronicles (somehow, only the 5th book escaped from childhood to now).

In other news, if you’d like to come over to my place tonight for boardgaming, let me know! Fairly open invite, but give me a heads up so I can be prepared.

Ankle update: Still tender, but good for everything but sports. Been walking on it without anything but the occasional Tylenol for 3 or 4 days now.

Weather update: sunshine has arrived along with television season finales. Good timing.

Work update: AAAAH! Phones! Hundreds of phones, everywhere! Goodbye students, hello slogging through rollouts. Desperately hoping for something more interesting/rewarding to do.

Gaming update: keeps going. Room for more with summer here. Minor boardgaming and LARP planning happening.

Social update: need more. Anticipate hearing about an upcoming event. Contact me if you have ideas or want in.

Music update: Still love singing. Lots of work to get ready for concert in under three weeks. Glad to be with a group that enjoys, rewards, and displays hard work. Sometimes stressed by it though.

Weekend update: spending much time on the road helping my brother pack up and move back to Ithaca. Must hide opinion that he is dismantling his current life piece by piece and trying to go back to an earlier time. If it works for him, that’s cool, but expectations are low. Glad to help out though. It’s his life and he gets to set the direction.

Other updates: will come later, out and about I go.

Tuesday night while playing squash, I rolled my foot over and twisted my ankle. Ow. In my defense though, it was the last game of a 5-game match, and I was up 10-4, and it was my serve, so I probably would have won. Stayed home yesterday, but did go to rehearsal. Up and about today, but taking it easy, as there is still some pain.

And while there are still a few weeks before people’s schedules completely fill up, I’d like to point people to http://noneabove.org/sf/ .

June 2nd, 8 pm., three great a cappella groups, $10.