Mon Sep 26 - Addendum to last night: Choir was cut short/cancelled because only three of us showed up. So, sadly, my 90-minute drive north and then 90-minute return drive home was in vain. The three of us who *did* show up have resolved to make it our mission to get a better email/phone tree working every week.

Levi needed a ride home, so I had no problem offering him a lift. This gave us some extra time to get to know each other better, both before rehearsal started/was-cancelled and then on the drive to his place. He's written some original cantoral music before (Jewish music for services at temple), and the songs sound like they would be perfect for our small a cappella choir to memorize and perform. I'm hoping that I can get Lilya to teach us, or let us sing, her matriarchal Jewish cantoral prayer that she composed for the Bard of Caid contest. It's not that we're a Jewish choir, but we have at least half the current active members are, and in planning a "Winter Concert" (hypothetically, if we can pull it off) we're trying to ensure that it appeals to a wide audience and is not "just typical Christmas" music. I want to bring in "Carol of the Three Mothers" from our madrigals group in the shire, years ago, if at all possible.

Tina wasn't available for dinner, but Lisa was, which as she put it "just tickled me that you called!" So we met for dinner and had a great time catching up on life and things, then I made it home in one fell swoop.

Apparently Sunday had also been the "Historic Home Tour" for Dayle & Ken, and for Brian & Morgana... I had completely forgotten it was yesterday. Ken tells me that my spinning wheel in their living room got tons of compliments and was a big hit. Of course, I no longer think of it as "my" wheel—I thought I had gifted it to them. I'll have to check and see if I had forgotten to mention that to them, or if I had thought of that later, but yes Dayle, the wheel belongs to you now, if you'd like it. *grin* I'm glad to hear it was a hit.

As I was driving past the area where Lilya lives and where Saul lives (they live on opposite sides of the freeway, but the same exit where sometimes I stop for coffee), I dropped each of them a text message to their cell phones to see if anyone had a moment for coffee. No one did, at that moment, but Lilya was having tapas and sangria at home and invited me over when I was already almost home. Ah well, next time. Plus, I've never had sangria (it's an alcoholic drink, right?) and I'm a very "zero-tolerance" person when it comes to having alcohol and then driving. So we'll just have to make plans on a non-driving night for tapas and drinks.
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So work while partially sick was nearly impossible, although I did manage to not only get the new software installed but test run the (gack do we have to?) XP Themes running on my Windows 2003 Server lab machine. One of the new "features" of the latest release of our flagship software is that it can use "XP look and feel! yippee!"—to which any self-respecting developer would promptly bend over and retch and gag. Yes, all actual *users* and *developers* hate the XP themes on their computers, but big wigs buy the software and they think XP is "shiny and cool." *blech*

But since development and marketing =in-house= are pushing the look as a major feature, we have to *show* it in our training manuals.

Yes, boys and girls, we have to re-do every *single* screenshot/graphic in our books just to make Marketing preen and dance.

*heavy sigh*

Ah, well, suck it up and deal, hm?

And I've decided I'm fed up with my hair again, so it's time to make an appointment. I'd been growing it out to *see* the real color, and admire all the shiny bright white hairs mixed in with my brunette, but now I'm done admiring my white hair and it's time to cut and color. So I have an appt. with Michelle tomorrow, just a mile or two from my apartment, although I'm sure that's going to bum out Lora, who usually does my hair but who's a 90-minute drive (through LA traffic) away from me. I hope she understands. I'll catch her next time.
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So I managed to leave work a little early, to go home and rest, but also to get some laundry done finally. Normally I have only about 2 loads per week, but with all the linens I unpacked from all the boxes, there were *5* loads to do tonight. *gack*

But now everything's clean, if not put away, and I'm collapsing in bed for a bit.

I happen to have a very thorough selection of cable channels, plus a TiVo, so I also record a few shows for a few friends every now and then. Saul's headed over to watch tv with me for an hour, and we plan to "drown our sorrows in frozen dessert and tv" together... translate to godiva chocolate ice cream for him, peach sorbet for me (sorry Betty, it's not Schnapps), and the season opening episode of ER together. Then he'll head home and I'll pass out.

It's nice to have a friend to watch tv with, for a change. Dayle used to tease me about my isolated tv watching, but hey, what can I say? *wink*
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Recently Listening to: Poe "Haunting"