2003-07-27 - 8:57 p.m.

Now playing: Some gamelan degung piece from _Lolongkrang_.

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The CEO's visit went fine on Monday. I hope he was impressed with our office and liked the people he met. He seemed to be a pretty down-to-earth guy, which is good.

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I decided not to go to Falcon Ridge this year as I think I've mentioned. Instead, I went to see Marly Hornik at the Iron Horse on Friday night, and Melanie went with me. Marly was great - she played all new material, and even remembered my name when we talked to her afterwards. The real story of the night though is how awesome Fruit, the band she opened for, was. They were really great and Melanie and I both enjoyed them. I bought two CDs - Here for Days and Live At The Basement.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to my friend Alyce's memorial service. She lived about 30 miles past FRFF. Of course I took a wrong turn off the highway yesterday and drove RIGHT BY FRFF. Boy was I pissed when I saw it...and realized I'd turned the wrong way. Still...it was a nice feeling seeing it, and I wish I could have stopped in. Brenda just called me an hour ago to ask when my shrink appointment was for tomorrow - that I was CRAZY not to go to FRFF just for the full-band Nields....oh well. Hopefully I can get a recording of it somehow.

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The Foreman grill I bought last week is working out well. So far I've cooked steak and chicken on it, and after some experimentation with times, I think I've got it down. The food is way better than it was from using the broiler.

Ummm...oh! I walked at lunch twice this week and rode the bike 4 times, 3 times after work and today after I got home from doing laundry. Go me! I'm riding it faster, too - I'm going between 5 and 10 RPM faster. Now the trick is to get back into doing it when I get up...but I guess it doesn't matter if I do it then or when I get home.

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Mom told me today that she has no cushion left and is living paycheck to paycheck. Gah, I have been there and done that for so long. I feel bad for her, and my first impulse was to give her some money, since I've BTDT and it SUCKS and there's no way to get ahead...but I'm thinking as soon as I give it to her, she'll spend it on something stupid like a trip. So, I need to do more thinking and figure out what to do. I suppose I can't really give a gift with strings...or can I? ::sigh::