response 376 of 1000:

Apr 26 13:40 UTC 2002

It's Friday and not raining despite predictions and Jim and his housemate have
just about finished digging their 100' trench and we have a chance of getting
the conduit into it and filling the dirt back in and moving a truckload or
two of wood chips from the driveway to the path-to-be over the trench not only
before the truck comes to drive on in Monday but before the housemate's
parents come for his sister's graduation dinner Saturday.  Perfect digging
weather!

response 378 of 1000:

Apr 26 14:16 UTC 2002

        The Austin Lounge Lizards return to the Ark tonight, April 26th.
They are fun!  They were at the AA Folk Festival and did another Ark
gig in October.  Fun music done by people who are very musically 
competent makes it all the better.

response 380 of 1000:

Apr 26 20:32 UTC 2002

My mother loved studying in Iowa.  She grew up in NYC and liked the change.
People were very friendly and it was safe there too.  Austin is one of the
nicer college towns.

response 382 of 1000:

Apr 27 01:32 UTC 2002

Austin is an interesting town.  On a map it's just a dot in the middle
of nowhere, but actually, it's a border town.  To the east of Austin is
the American South - damp, flat, wooded with undersized trees, formerly
the domain of cotton plantations and slave owners.  To the west is
American West - dry, hilly, covered with sage, formerly the domain of
cowboys and ranchers.  Add the strong hispanic influence, and you have a
three way culture crash whose geographic epicenter is Austin.  Plus it's
the state capital, attracting all species of movers and shakers, and the
home of a great university, attracting all species of thinkers and
scribblers.  Food's great.  Music's great.  Population growth is
astronomical with all the usual problems that that brings.  Weather's a
bit on the hot side.

response 384 of 1000:

Apr 27 04:48 UTC 2002

Re #382: you forgot to mention that to the north  is the Edwards Plateau,
which is rich in caves.

response 386 of 1000:

Apr 27 05:48 UTC 2002

IHB I helped an elderly gentleman tonight.  He wandered into the store,
completely "lost", and I talked to him until the police arrived.  My
co-workers and I figured Alzheimers.  I'm going to call the police in several
hours to see if they were able to locate family.

The cop praised me for feeding the gentleman and remaining calm and caring
through it all.

response 388 of 1000:

Apr 27 13:33 UTC 2002

re286:  you should have convinced him that he was THE KING of
MICHIGAN.

response 390 of 1000:

Apr 27 17:59 UTC 2002

IHB I was at the aforementioned Austin Lounge LIzards concert, which was
great!  (Although the new Brit in the group kind of throws me for a loop!)
Had a wnderful concert, with a great homemade dinner afterwards.  All in
all, a great start to the weekend.

response 392 of 1000:

Apr 28 07:33 UTC 2002

IHB I saw Paul McCartney in concert last night at Madison Square Garden.
Wonderful concert.  Paul was in good form, and was clearly enjoying
himself on stage, and had a terrific young band backing him, and they
jammed on extended versions of songs like "Band on the Run".  And of
course he did old classics like 'fool on the hill', 'let it be', 'hey
jude', 'Yesterday', "getting better all the time", and a
number of others.    Even did "I saw her standing there" while clips of
the young beatles being trampled and chased by screaming female fans,
circa 1964, played on the jumbotron.   Almost surreal in a sense to watch
those famous clips, and hear Paul's voice singing, and then see him
standing there on stage playing the guitar just like on the screen.  Paul
also did moving tributes to john lennon, george harrison and late wife
Linda.  In tribute to Linda, he sang 'Maybe I'm Amazed' and 'My Love",
which were written for her.  In tribute to John Lennon, he sang an
emotional "Here Today", a song he talked of having written for and about
Lennon shortly after Lennon was killed.  And in tribute to George
Harrison, he brought out an antique ukelele which he said had been a gift
from Harrison to him years back (apparently Harrison really liked
ukeleles), and played a really tender, moving version of
Harrison's "Something"  

McCartney has only toured maybe four or five times since the sixties, and
I saw a show on his last tour which was like ten years ago.  I thought
this show was even better.   I'm glad I got the chance to go.

response 394 of 1000:

Apr 28 14:34 UTC 2002

I had a very nice weekend. (I work sunday-thursday so my weekend is 
over). I spent a good chunk of Friday doing yard work which was kind of 
nice. I just bought a new cordless electric lawn mower but (duh) forgot 
to plug it in so I had to use my old non-powered reel mower. But, all 
my flowers are pretty and I weeded some of the beds so they look 
awesome. Plus it was nice to spend a day puttering around outside in 
the sunshine. 

Then, I had a good friend come over and we got all snuggly on the couch 
while watching movies which makes it the second weekend in a row I have 
had the kind of friends over who like to get snuggly on the couch (Last 
weekend it was TWO friends!). Yesterday, I went and visted the folks 
for a bit and then spend the whole rest of the day being LAZY. I even 
took a nap. :)

 

response 396 of 1000:

Apr 28 16:07 UTC 2002

YEAH!  The crib is up and set and most of the baby's things are put 
away.  Now all we need is the baby.

response 398 of 1000:

Apr 28 17:40 UTC 2002

May 12th!  Just 13 more days left.

We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, yet.  The baby decided on 
modesty when we went to check.