typical: wake up, walk to coffee with di and seth. saw most of the dogs. dozens.
left the house around 9:30 to go to the shop to pick up prints, then headed down to the holiday inn at the merchandise mart for the IAEA conference.
i talked with my slide show to about 400 people and it went great.
sold out of all the prints i brought with me.
left the conference around 3:30. glorious, perfect day. sunny and cool. flew home along 90/94 listening to 'faith' by the cure.
at home, i got to knocking the cement base out of the torn-apart fireplace. unravelled some yarn for diana.
went to dinner at prairie moon for dinner, then home again where i did more smashing.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
friday
did some stuff during the day, can't remember too well, while i sit here filling in the blanks on monday morning.
at 4pm, di and i headed out of our house and onto the highway to try to get down to sugar grove, IL, for the wake of joe kovalich, an old uncle-figure for di and her brothers. joe and his wife ann have been close friends of di's parents since before diana was born, and di's childhood memories often include visits to the farm, where ann still lives.
joe died last week at age 89, of lung cancer. he was strong up unitl about a week before he died, and went quickly.
in a rainstorm, we arrived just before 7pm, as the visitation was ending, moments before the memorial service began. we sat with di's parents and younger brother, doug. everyone lost it when joe's grandson patrick, now an active marine, presented the colors to ann, while in his formal blues. great service, though.
afterwards, we all went back to the farm, were i met a number of relatives, including patrick, who is going to iraq this week. age 22. married.
diana and i left before long, due to our long drive, then decided to call midwest greyhound adoption, the group from whom we got seth, who's kennel is just down the road from the farm. around 9:30 we stopped by there, and helped carrie bandage the broken legs of three dogs who have just come in from the track. goddam, these guys are beautiful.
drove home in the rain, arriving home just before 1am.
at 4pm, di and i headed out of our house and onto the highway to try to get down to sugar grove, IL, for the wake of joe kovalich, an old uncle-figure for di and her brothers. joe and his wife ann have been close friends of di's parents since before diana was born, and di's childhood memories often include visits to the farm, where ann still lives.
joe died last week at age 89, of lung cancer. he was strong up unitl about a week before he died, and went quickly.
in a rainstorm, we arrived just before 7pm, as the visitation was ending, moments before the memorial service began. we sat with di's parents and younger brother, doug. everyone lost it when joe's grandson patrick, now an active marine, presented the colors to ann, while in his formal blues. great service, though.
afterwards, we all went back to the farm, were i met a number of relatives, including patrick, who is going to iraq this week. age 22. married.
diana and i left before long, due to our long drive, then decided to call midwest greyhound adoption, the group from whom we got seth, who's kennel is just down the road from the farm. around 9:30 we stopped by there, and helped carrie bandage the broken legs of three dogs who have just come in from the track. goddam, these guys are beautiful.
drove home in the rain, arriving home just before 1am.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
thursday
walked up to get coffee this moring. it was clear and cool, great day for a light jacket without any chance of overheating. returned aqua teen hunger force movie, which we had watched sunday night, and the flying scotsman, which we watched as we went to sleep last night. back home, i sorted out emails and prepared to ship the first two things i donated to the 'we has posters' auction for clay from gigposters. greg arrived to work on the drywall, and we agreed about how far he should be working towards perfection. budget vs. reality, old old house vs. not wanting to have to stare at cracks in the walls.
filled the car with recycling and headed south. first stop was skokie millwork, to order more trim for the 'caps' above the interiors of the windows. i'll post photos in a couple weeks when i have something to show. spent an hour trying to find a trim sample which was close to a particular part of trim we have through half of our house (now that half has been torn out). no luck, but i think they can make me the right thing without having to manufacture new knives for the shaper tool (which would be an additional $250).
from there, i went to TBM. loaded some more of the torn-out floor tiles into boxes which i could throw away in the dumpster. loaded 330 lbs. of paper into my car. got some films, and some ink. sorted prints which are going into inventory. shot photos of the cyclocross posters and the 'beaver dam' print demo posters, to be added to TBM.com.
headed down to screwball to burn a screen, load in paper, mix ink, and leave instructions for mat and sue, who are printing 1275 pieces, beginning at 5pm today. saw steve, and good old keith herzik, who i don't get to see enough.
from there, i went to meet diana and my parents and gramma ryan for my dad's birthday dinner, rescheduled from tuesday night (when i was puking). way too much pasta. i had a mojito and a cappuccino, but not at the same time.
home now. time to worry about the TO-DO list.
filled the car with recycling and headed south. first stop was skokie millwork, to order more trim for the 'caps' above the interiors of the windows. i'll post photos in a couple weeks when i have something to show. spent an hour trying to find a trim sample which was close to a particular part of trim we have through half of our house (now that half has been torn out). no luck, but i think they can make me the right thing without having to manufacture new knives for the shaper tool (which would be an additional $250).
from there, i went to TBM. loaded some more of the torn-out floor tiles into boxes which i could throw away in the dumpster. loaded 330 lbs. of paper into my car. got some films, and some ink. sorted prints which are going into inventory. shot photos of the cyclocross posters and the 'beaver dam' print demo posters, to be added to TBM.com.
headed down to screwball to burn a screen, load in paper, mix ink, and leave instructions for mat and sue, who are printing 1275 pieces, beginning at 5pm today. saw steve, and good old keith herzik, who i don't get to see enough.
from there, i went to meet diana and my parents and gramma ryan for my dad's birthday dinner, rescheduled from tuesday night (when i was puking). way too much pasta. i had a mojito and a cappuccino, but not at the same time.
home now. time to worry about the TO-DO list.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
wednesday, in the studio
paul showed up before i left the house today, and got started on th last of the trim for now. there's a lot left to do, but we're just trying to get the den, living room and dining room all 100% finished.
i took off late for mark's studio, where i'd be working on overdubs for the dianogah record today. decided to skip the run back down to microcenter due to the time.
at mark's, i did vocals on four songs, with varying results.
at noon, andrew arrived to add some violin. that went really well.
around 6:30 we all left. di is out with xan for dinner, and i'm at home, about to take seth out for a walk. trying to organize some printing at screwball tomorrow.
i took off late for mark's studio, where i'd be working on overdubs for the dianogah record today. decided to skip the run back down to microcenter due to the time.
at mark's, i did vocals on four songs, with varying results.
at noon, andrew arrived to add some violin. that went really well.
around 6:30 we all left. di is out with xan for dinner, and i'm at home, about to take seth out for a walk. trying to organize some printing at screwball tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
tuesday
hjhk j hjbjlh kj kh jf hfd f k kj kj ggghhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttgh
okay - woke and ran over to home depot at 9am to meet up with chad, to make sure i was getting the right mortar. we stopped and got coffee and headed to TBM to repair the brick wall behind the building. it had been hit by a truck at some point before i owned the place.
spent the morning repairing the wall, and did a bit of tuckpointing on the front of the building with the leftover mortar. by early afternoon, we were done and headed down to whole foods to get some lunch.
unagi bowls!
my stomach had not been well during the whole morning, but i think the unagi sent me over the edge. i started to feel pretty bad.
left chad and drove to microcenter to return the bluetooth headset i had bought last week which didn't work. waited 20 minutes in line to return the thing, then exchanged it for a different one.
headed up north to the new uncommon ground to meet up with pete the plumber to get the details on the seperator basin i need to specify in my revised drawings for the village inspector. pete, of course, had just left when i arrived.
on the way home i really started to feel bad. also noticed that the NEW headset i had just bought at microcenter was missing a main cable, and that i would now have to go way-the-hell back down to microcenter. put this off until tomorrow.
called my folks, asked to excuse myself from my dad's birthday dinner tonight. felt really sick.
went home, directly to bed. freezing, chills. my body felt like i had been punched dozens of times.
later, i got sick.
couldn't move all night, but was achingly back to normal when i woke in the morning on wednesday.
okay - woke and ran over to home depot at 9am to meet up with chad, to make sure i was getting the right mortar. we stopped and got coffee and headed to TBM to repair the brick wall behind the building. it had been hit by a truck at some point before i owned the place.
spent the morning repairing the wall, and did a bit of tuckpointing on the front of the building with the leftover mortar. by early afternoon, we were done and headed down to whole foods to get some lunch.
unagi bowls!
my stomach had not been well during the whole morning, but i think the unagi sent me over the edge. i started to feel pretty bad.
left chad and drove to microcenter to return the bluetooth headset i had bought last week which didn't work. waited 20 minutes in line to return the thing, then exchanged it for a different one.
headed up north to the new uncommon ground to meet up with pete the plumber to get the details on the seperator basin i need to specify in my revised drawings for the village inspector. pete, of course, had just left when i arrived.
on the way home i really started to feel bad. also noticed that the NEW headset i had just bought at microcenter was missing a main cable, and that i would now have to go way-the-hell back down to microcenter. put this off until tomorrow.
called my folks, asked to excuse myself from my dad's birthday dinner tonight. felt really sick.
went home, directly to bed. freezing, chills. my body felt like i had been punched dozens of times.
later, i got sick.
couldn't move all night, but was achingly back to normal when i woke in the morning on wednesday.
Monday, October 22, 2007
monday night, and all day
around 5pm, di and i went to the tile outlet on fullerton to find tile for the area around the wood stove. found something perfect - tiny green tiles. bought three boxes.
met up with john & christy and carrie & bob at a restaurant for a "local" meal of high-quality food from the chicago area. oh, man, that was awesome. salad, pork with a glaze, potatoes au gratin, dessert creme with biscotti. even though i spent the weekend with john, it was great to see him again and to get a good long visit with everyone else. they all rode bikes, since they live in logan square. it was colder and rainy.
on the way home, we stopped at TBM to bring in some of the plants from the fenced area out back, since there is a chance of frost tonight.
met up with john & christy and carrie & bob at a restaurant for a "local" meal of high-quality food from the chicago area. oh, man, that was awesome. salad, pork with a glaze, potatoes au gratin, dessert creme with biscotti. even though i spent the weekend with john, it was great to see him again and to get a good long visit with everyone else. they all rode bikes, since they live in logan square. it was colder and rainy.
on the way home, we stopped at TBM to bring in some of the plants from the fenced area out back, since there is a chance of frost tonight.
monday
woke, walked north to coffee, then back, with seth and di. 2 miles roundtrip.
paul was at our house, nailing our trim, when we returned. di and i ran dowtown to a quick doctor's appointment, then over to the field museum, so she could show me more of the behind-the-scenes stuff. the collection of birds is insane. spent some time with a pileated woodpecker, the skinned-but-otherwise intact body of a heron, a HUGE great grey owl, a screech owl, and dozens of others.
we spent way too much time browsing the gift shop.
on the way home, we stopped to pick up the new "chicago" magazine, which has a picture of a monk parakeet which diana had prepared for the museum collection, as well as some CDs.
at home, paul and greg were kicking ass on the trim and drywall patching.
paul was at our house, nailing our trim, when we returned. di and i ran dowtown to a quick doctor's appointment, then over to the field museum, so she could show me more of the behind-the-scenes stuff. the collection of birds is insane. spent some time with a pileated woodpecker, the skinned-but-otherwise intact body of a heron, a HUGE great grey owl, a screech owl, and dozens of others.
we spent way too much time browsing the gift shop.
on the way home, we stopped to pick up the new "chicago" magazine, which has a picture of a monk parakeet which diana had prepared for the museum collection, as well as some CDs.
at home, paul and greg were kicking ass on the trim and drywall patching.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
sunday, milwaukee to chicago
woke at ten, got the dudes up, and walked to anodyne coffee. XL iced soy 'frosty' (mint mocha). back to tom's, goodbye, onto the highway, where i now write this from the back seat, at 75mph.
we figured the most efficient use of everyone's time would be if diana picked me up near the highway so jason and john could load the gear into storage in jason's house without having to drive me back north. they left me at old orchard.
di picked me up and drove me home. i checked out the work paul and greg have been doing on the house - very very happy. discovered that the mawn clippings left in the yard waste bin have started composting themselves - generating heat and all - so i added more material from the waste bin to the actual compost pile.
we drove over near the bike path and rode bikes up to the botanic gardens, where we got a late lunch and walked around a bit in the perfect weather. heading south, the wind was a bit more in our faces, but it was fine. 13 mile loop, moving my total to 1735 miles since the beginning of the year. i had hoped to be much farther along by now.
we came home, went to the gym for an hour, went grocery shopping, and returned home again to watch "aqua team hunger force colon movie for theaters" which, while funny, wasn't anywhere as cohesive or awesome as the first four minutes of the film lead me to believe it might be.
very tired, 10pm now. okay.
we figured the most efficient use of everyone's time would be if diana picked me up near the highway so jason and john could load the gear into storage in jason's house without having to drive me back north. they left me at old orchard.
di picked me up and drove me home. i checked out the work paul and greg have been doing on the house - very very happy. discovered that the mawn clippings left in the yard waste bin have started composting themselves - generating heat and all - so i added more material from the waste bin to the actual compost pile.
we drove over near the bike path and rode bikes up to the botanic gardens, where we got a late lunch and walked around a bit in the perfect weather. heading south, the wind was a bit more in our faces, but it was fine. 13 mile loop, moving my total to 1735 miles since the beginning of the year. i had hoped to be much farther along by now.
we came home, went to the gym for an hour, went grocery shopping, and returned home again to watch "aqua team hunger force colon movie for theaters" which, while funny, wasn't anywhere as cohesive or awesome as the first four minutes of the film lead me to believe it might be.
very tired, 10pm now. okay.
saturday night
we stopped at ben's cycle shop, which was pretty awesome. stopped at the space where peter kursel was showing his paintings, and had a nice, though brief, visit with peter and his brother jeff.
coffee at alterra, my favorite of the few coffeehouses i've been to in milwaukee. jason burned his tongue on 300-degree tea. from there, we walked around the corner to the movie theater to see 'the darjeeling limited', which didn't grab me in the same way as the first few wes anderson films, but has, in a strange way, kept a certain 'glow' over my mood since the film ended. the closing credits featured a song in french about the champs-elysees, which i had learned to sing in seventh grade french class. i still know most of the words. haven't heard it in 22 years.
after the movie, we got on the road towards madison. jason drove with tom stack, and kip and i rode with john. into town, to a cool little basement-level bar under a restaurant. wood paneling, bad PA. bottomless pit did great - tim felt better after being sick last night, and aside from a PA malfunction, they played really well. we did fine - very involved with the "crowd" of 40 people. heather white and matt reedy didn't show up, even though they were on the guest list. robert and wika showed up, which was great, and they brought us a plastic green army men set, including tanks, which we spread out on the covered pool table, which were played with pretty continuously through the night by drunk folks. loaded out. kip rode home to chicago with chris manfrin, jason rode with tom, and john and i listened to jawbox most of the way back to tom's house in milwaukee around 4am. tom has a nice long couch.
coffee at alterra, my favorite of the few coffeehouses i've been to in milwaukee. jason burned his tongue on 300-degree tea. from there, we walked around the corner to the movie theater to see 'the darjeeling limited', which didn't grab me in the same way as the first few wes anderson films, but has, in a strange way, kept a certain 'glow' over my mood since the film ended. the closing credits featured a song in french about the champs-elysees, which i had learned to sing in seventh grade french class. i still know most of the words. haven't heard it in 22 years.
after the movie, we got on the road towards madison. jason drove with tom stack, and kip and i rode with john. into town, to a cool little basement-level bar under a restaurant. wood paneling, bad PA. bottomless pit did great - tim felt better after being sick last night, and aside from a PA malfunction, they played really well. we did fine - very involved with the "crowd" of 40 people. heather white and matt reedy didn't show up, even though they were on the guest list. robert and wika showed up, which was great, and they brought us a plastic green army men set, including tanks, which we spread out on the covered pool table, which were played with pretty continuously through the night by drunk folks. loaded out. kip rode home to chicago with chris manfrin, jason rode with tom, and john and i listened to jawbox most of the way back to tom's house in milwaukee around 4am. tom has a nice long couch.
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