what i did over vaca

Right. I'm going to tried to draw on my olden mind and cover what I've done since, well, since, then.

We've moved into the house. That was December 31st after closing on December 23rd.

We hired a gentleman who I'll call "Shaun Witt" to patch our floors, sand-stain-finish, patch walls, tear down a small closet, smooth out some weird stucco ceilings, and generally do work. He didn't. He tore down a closet, patched half the floor (poorly, after Corey did half), did a shitty job on the ceiling and dry wall, and fucked up the floors. He did manage to tear down a closet. Well done.

We paid another huge hunk of money to have some professionals come in and strip the floor down to bare wood, again. They stained and poly'd and it looks fantastic. The evidence is above. The dark, hot fudge, jackassery you see is Mr. Witt's skills on display - that's the finished "it looks good" room. The professional wood finish is, well, the professionals. (Nothing has been doctored and no animals were hurt in the making of that photo.)

I'm in my last quarter at school. My final exhibition show is in March at the National Building Museum in D.C. (Graduation is June at the same locale, but I won't be attending.) I'm finished the day I walk out of the museum in March. It's been a good program, overall. Some real high points, lots of middle-of-the-road stuff, and some real low points - mostly due one horrid instructor. Horrid. Regardless, 25 classes, 24 A's and one B+.

I saw a woman at the bus stop the other night with an actual Discman. She was changing CDs. Wow. This isn't horribly important I'd just thought I'd add it for texture.

How about that GOP race?

My work is stilling going well. I really like what I do even if I had a week or two where I had to simply destroy (or attempt to destroy) people for incompetence. I try, I really do. What I've learned is that as a contractor I actually am not suppose to do that - I'm there to just play along. I hate that. Regardless, everything is going fine.

We've booked the summer vacation already for Stowe in last July. It cannot get here soon enough.

About three weeks ago I decided I wanted to take my music off my iPhone and use an older iPod for music. I don't have to explain myself. Anyway, I plugged in my external harddrive (who knows why...you see what's coming), 'selected' the music folder on my 'phone', selected all, and hit delete. "Do you want to delete all?" my computer asks. Hell yes! (click). (Enter the sound of my external harddrive that holds all my music clicking, zipping, and smoking.) It seemed like hours as I panicked and tried to stop what I had wrought...I finally yanked out all the cords. It was about 40 seconds, at best, but everything was gone (daddy gone). I stared at nothing. 25 years of my CDs which I don't have anymore. Loads of memories of good times and bad - gone. For about an hour I just consoled myself by saying that I'd just start anew from this point - not regathering the music...just new music. It's okay, right? I finally called my computer dude in Arlington, explained the situation, and he simply said, "Well, I can get that back, no problem." What?!? I'm not going to explain the process and how computers work, suffice it to say that he did recover it. It cost me a few bills, plus a new external harddrive, but it's back. 16,000 songs that somewhat track my life.

(As an aside, and sort of in my defense, the first album on both my iPhone and my music library were the same - Adele [zip it!]. So, as I was looking at my 'phone' and saw Adele, I assumed I'd selected the phone and not the entire 65 Gbs of my library.)

Christmas was nice. We had the Northerners down to celebrate and help pack out the old house. Phil, somewhere in his vast past, packed homes as some type of Johnny Tremain apprenticeship, so he instructed everyone (mostly Laurel) in proper wrapping and packing techniques. He claimed he'd never had a broken glass - and he's still 100% since nothing we had was damaged. Ms. M packed like a...packer, and cleaned, and cooked, and entertained. It would have been a nightmare without that help. Corey ripped out walls, patched floors, and Kt ran the drum sander (how badass is that?) to get the floors ready for Shaun's eventual fuck up. With three movers hired on the 31st, Corey came over and between the five of us we managed to get everything from point A to point B by about 4pm. X and L cleaned the entirety of the old house and we escaped by about 11pm.

I've been reading Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis, and The Long Walk by Sławomir Rawicz. I can't seem to do only one book - makes progress slower but what can we do? I've gone completely to the Nook tablet since before the new year. The Times and New Yorker are up-and-running with good software so I can unburden myself of most print items.

I saw Holly Twyford (again) in Time Stands Still at Studio Theatre. Excellent, as always.

We've run the birthday gauntlet since January 1st. Henry turned 16 (dinner at Greek Taverna with Cuban cake...go figure), Amy turned '18' with a visit to the Textile Museum and then drinks and dinner in D.C. Everyone took me for my 21st to Sunflower Cafe...very nice.

Nothing new on the music front.

Cats are well - and adjusted to the new place. No fighting required since the new 'hood doesn't appear to have any other cats.

I'm vaguely obsessed with Breaking Bad.

X and I have started lifting weights at the gym on weekends. One good session every week makes quite a difference. She's calling squats this week. She seems frail-ish sometimes; she's not.