8 January
Ah, the weekend.
This is the absolute best way to come back from vacation, I'm telling you--two days of work and then two days off before getting back into the five day grind.
Of course, I am going into the office today, but that's because I choose to. I had so many things to FedEx out last night that I preferred not to kill myself to get them into the 8p pickup and instead worked steadily until 10p and I'll run in and FedEx them this afternoon.
When I got in on Wednesday night, the first thing I did before collapsing was open my parcels that were waiting for me, but I only sent my thank you notes this morning, because I am a bad person.
However, now that I've said thank you, I can tell you what I got!
Kate gave me a Dar Williams cd, End Of The Summer, that includes one of my favourite songs the I heard last year, "Party Generation", that always makes me cry. Actually, the three Dar Williams songs that I know, "Party", "The Babysitter" and " The Christians and the Pagans" all make me weep like a widow.
Dawn sent me the DVD of Blazing Saddles, which is a real treat after seeing the balls torn out of it on A&E the other day. Also, my father is in this movie--sort of. His scene was cut, though you can just glimpse him in the background of the hanging scene. He would always get these residual checks for $6 or whatever, which we thought was amusing since he wasn't actually in the film!
Never got me two things, which was very thrilling, Every Living Thing by James Herriot, a book that I managed to never know that existed, even though I certainly have all of the other Herriot books, and Feeding Frenzy by Stuart Stevens, which has been on my wishlist (and previously my saved cart) for over a year, so I'm thrilled to get to read it at last!
So, Christmas part two went very nicely, thank you!
Actually, Christmas part two also included several presents that I got for myself, Stuart Davis's cd Noman Est Numen because a truly great song, "Stephen's Exhibition" was included on a mix tape that I got this past year (MP3 here) and I really wanted to hear what else he could do. I also got the two official Billy Bragg bootlegs, No Pop No Style and The Mermaid Avenue Tour (and if you liked Mermaid Avenue I really recommend the latter, because the live versions are so different than the album versions!) and am expecting two more, Roy Zimmerman's Comic Sutra (he's gotta get an online presence) and Paul Bellow's Juliet Pauses, the title song of which is possibly my favourite song that I heard last year. Well, third after Dory Previn's "Lady With a Braid" and "Beautiful Stranger", and I don't mean the Madonna version, I mean Pete Atkin's.
But the best thing that I got myself is a five year journal. You may remember my search for one a couple of years ago, and I did find a substitute, but it really just wasn't good enough and I didn't write in it for longer than a couple of months.
After I mentioned being unable to find one, a reader (can't find the email or I'd say who!) pointed me towards Levenger. It took me a couple of years to decide to spend that much money on a real one, but 2000 is the perfect year to start a project like that, so I sucked it up. And it's a beautiful volume--the picture in the catalogue is what (I believe) Diane would call "stationery porn".
"News, news!" cried the curlew.
Savoy is accepting nominations for the 1999 Whitman Awards, with actual prizes in the offing. And sites must nominate themselves, so as to be certain that everyone who gets one actually wants one.
So get over there and start self-promoting, baby!
And I know I'm a little late with this one, but congrats to Heather on her incredibly cool news! Great ultrasound, too, as they always look to me like those underwater pictures of the Loch Ness Monster--people say "There's the foot, and there's the penis, and there's the spleen, see?" and I nod and try to look intelligent, but it just looks like a grey blotch to me.
That ultrasound couldn't be clearer!
Today's horoscope:
Appropriate tools make playing more fun. Get the best mitt, golf club, pencil, racquet, goggles, etc. for maximum enjoyment.
One year ago today:
Strangely enough, seeing Leno means singing along with Bear the next morning!
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Last Updated Sat 8 January 12:03:09 2000