tuesday

got out as early as i could, met sara at the skokie swift. we got coffee (chai for me), then stopped at TBM for the permits stuff and to load in things from my car. went over to the hardware store to get a couple things, then village hall to request our final inspections, scheduled for wednesday at 2pm.

back to the shop to clean, install various switch plates, mop, and wait for chuck the electrician, who eventually arrived and installed all the lights.

i took off around 1pm to grab sandwiches at kaufman's, and drove home to meet up with andrew. we spent the afternoon playing some stuff for next week's show. some covers, some new material he hasn't finished writing. playing with andrew is both extremely inspiring and completely defeating. it's great to hear him play guitar or violin, just casually, but at the same time i have no hope of ever being anywhere near as talented as he is, and it sort of makes me want to stop farting around and stop playing music entirely. the same sort of feeling i get from looking closely at horkey's work. anyway, i had a great afternoon.

ran out around 5:15 to head down to northeastern illinois university, to talk to a class about my prints. went pretty well. i gave them the long lecture. 50% were really into it. kim ambriz was teaching in the room next door.

left there, stopped at home depot, and came home to emails, dog petting, and visiting with my wife in front of the fire.

if these inspections go fine tomorrow (which they should), then all is going to be great really really soon. we'll be up and running, sara will be able to train, the mail order will be back up, and we'll settle in for a huge load of productive and satisfying work.

i don't have any reason to expect it, but if the inspectors for some reason decide that i need X or Y (pronouns i will use to describe actual valid concerns with the building), then i don't know what will happen. i need to be printing. we need the income. i need to be able to meet these upcoming deadlines.

now, to bed.

monday

went to TBM and finished putting up the trim, bought all remaining light fixtures, cleaned some of the tools, filled a hole in the floor, and a bunch of other random stuff.

left at 5, stopped at home, then went to kip's to load gear out of his basement in the bitter cold, into cars, and down to the practice space where we carried it up the four stories to our space. worked on some of the sings for next week's show.

home, emails, sleep.

sunday

spent most of the day drawing blue planet stuff for the BBC.

a story.

i just typed this up for a forum i post on, and though i'd repost it here.

a couple years ago, a really popular band was re-forming, and i was surprised to get a call from the singer, whom i had met years ago. he was asking me to audition for the band, which was really exciting.

i suggested that they talk to another mutual friend, who seemed to me to be the obvious choice. he said they wanted to try playing with four other people, though in the end they did go with the person i had originally suggested, the fifth audition.

before they settled on him, i did get to audition.

the audition was in a large rock club, during the day time.

i prepared the five songs they sent me, and thought they started out okay, though after the second or third song, the 'lead' guitarist's interest was obviously waning. we played them all, and some of them a couple times, though the guitar player kept sort of wandering off, away from the stage. soon the other guitarist/singer wandered off as well to talk to the manager, and i found myself working on the details of some confusing parts with the drummer, who had actually written the bass parts in the first place. he was very nice, very helpful. the 'lead' guitarist never said a word to me, i think, and i felt like he had some real disgust with me, for some reason.

anyway, i soon got ushered out with some sort of 'don't call us, we'll call you', and somehow the immediate knowledge that i wasn't the one for this band was not at all disappointing. i had spent a couple hours playing with one of my favorite bands. this is a very happy memory.

i saw them play a couple months later, with the obvious choice bass player, and they were great.

i can't listen to them anymore, though. they have sort of ruined themselves for me now.

saturday

i woke and headed north to get chai, return the movie, go to the bank, and go grocery shopping.

spent most of the day drawing for the blue planet project, or building the fire up.

2:30 i went to TBM to pick up jason's sub tube, and went to his house for a photo shoot with nathan for the record cover. played with arthur & clive a bunch.

came home, found ocho had torn apart the keyboard for my laptop. spent half an hour rebuilding it. the C key is permanantly fuxxed, but seems to work okay.

di and i went to darrin & cindy's for a potluck dinner, saw a bunch of folks we see once a year or less, then came home.

ok.