What I’ve been up to

As you might have guessed from my continuing absence, work has not slacked off yet. However, that’s not the only thing that’s been contributing–real life has also been hopping a bit. A short summary:

Sunday night Trish and I took Sarah to a sleepover, and then went to dinner and a show. Or maybe “a gig” would be more accurate.

Danny Michel was in town Sunday and Monday, and was playing at The Carleton–a newish venue here in town that I hadn’t been to, but which I had heard was an excellent place for grownups to see a show. It’s one of those places (like Hugh’s Room) where you can come in and have a good dinner, and then stay for a concert, with an added bonus that The Carleton is known for its nigh-fascist policy of forcing people to shut the hell up during the show. That last is kind of key in Halifax, a city where people’s sociability leads to a lot of chatter during most music shows. It’s also a key for me, since almost nothingOK, maybe “creation science” activists and people who take Ayn Rand waaaaay too seriously… makes me hate humanity more than people talking during a show I’m trying to listen to.

Anyway, the food was good…although priced a little higher than appropriate for what it was–a premium I am totally happy to pay for the rest of the package, but that was secondary to the room, which sounded great, and which was full of people who had come to actually see the show. And we had a chance to chat with Danny and his girlfriend Ilia, which was nice.

I should note that Danny totally filled the place. On a Sunday night. At $20 a seatOr a hell of a lot more if you had dinner., which is high for Halifax. On the same night as the ECMAs. During an ice storm. I’m just saying.

Is there any point in my saying the show was great? It was, but it’s not like I’m objective about this.

Monday night was another Danny show at the Carleton, but this time it was dinner before with my pal Drake, Danny, and Ilia. Good food, good conversation, and then another great show.

Tuesday was, of course, my birthday. My “twice as old as the centerfold” birthday. We had a lovely little ceremony in the morning, where I opened presents, and a special card Sarah made for me (“it has wings, Dad”). Every time I look at that thing, I kind of mist up.

After another day of working like a dog–this was the big deadline, happily coincident with my birthday–I headed out to the regular HGPA event. I did manage to avoid the HGPA tradition of losing large sums of money on my birthday (I lost $15), despite being given a supply of Guinness, and a truly astonishing Guinness chocolate cake slathered with positively decadent cream cheese icing.

Yesterday was complicated by “corporate” requiring my to move to Office 2007–a process that took an annoyingly long time when the installer has to run over a VPN connection. (Also, I still haven’t moved away from Outlook, and the upgrade broke Lookout–fortunately the Internets had the solution.) The delays this caused meant I needed to work into the night.

NOTE: Windows Search 4.0 sucks ass and must be uninstalled immediately.

Anyway, I am hopeful that things will settle back into to a more normal pattern soon, and service will resume at the usual rate.