Figaro is doing better today after a few days of not moving very much. He was pretty lethargic for 48 hours and didn't eat or drink. I had to force some water into him last night with an eyedropper but this morning he was pretty active and he came downstairs for breakfast with his sister.



I am preparing to proceed with the master bath upgrade. I expect some sketch proposals from my design consultant on Monday and my loan funded this week. I still need to get an estimate from the contractor and have my "team" review the sketches and make suggestions.



I am thinking about a new project for the house - a homebrewed PVR using a fast PC with a big hard drive and some Linux-based database and video playback software. If I can get around to it it should be really fun!

I received an interesting email today - a woman from a video production company in the Valley (no, not THAT kind of video production company!!) emailed me requesting use of some of my images (Santa Prassede's Zeno Chapel mosaic, the "Blue Colosseum", the Sistine Chapel ceiling image and a few more). It seems they are doing a documentary on the Vatican and want to use my stuff.



I asked her to send me a fax of the release and tonight I emailed her a few other low-res scans of some stuff she might like. Along with those I commented that I was willing to give permission for use in that production only - I needed to retain rights for my own uses, though. We'll see how well that goes down!



I also had a fun date with the new person yesterday. I like her; we may have something going here.

The plan:

Lose weight (use "the book."). Ride the mountain bike twice a week to the Coaster and then to the office and back. Buy a new road bike in the spring. Finish the book in time to have a book release party for the summer party this year. Finish the entry way paint scheme and put one more piece of art on the wall. Play the office holiday/year-end party for 2004.



John sent me every one of his photos from the Rome trip a lot of them are not useable but are still good memories.



I had a good coffee date on Sunday and we agreed to meet again this coming weekend.

Thanksgiving was a huge success. Everyone had a great time. We deep fried a turkey this year, went down to the pier and ended the evening with some limoncello.



I've bought some art for the entry way and have been pondering how to mount it on the wall, since it's about 6 feet long by 4 feet high and weighs 100 lbs. I'll be painting the wall it mounts on a silvery gray color, too.

Today we had a "Thank You" lunch from the marketing department for our big rock and roll extravaganza. They presented us with 5 custom engraved metronomes, each with a brass plate that says, "You can't always get what you wnat" a song we played and dedicated to our customers. I was very touched. They are a good group or folks. It's a nice metronome, too.

So.. been a while, eh?



In the interim I've gigged on the boat again this year, taken my folks to Rome and had a fun Halloween here in the tract.



Boat Gig:



Once again this year we played the Motorola BCS User's Conference Evening Boat Cruise. Picture are at Rock and Roll Photos. It was a train wreck as far as I'm concerend but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it so I suppose that's all that matters. The big boss came up to us after two or three songs and told me he'd gone below decks and told everyone to come up. Turns out he had "enjoyed" the show a lot and he kept telling us. Over and over. And over. Our payment this year: a pretty cool Mot brnded USB memory stick (64 MB).



Rome:



I took my parents and my aunt and uncle to Rome and I think they had a good time but for me it was slightly mixed results since I felt obligated to show them a good time and it wasn't as good a time as I had hoped. Pictures at Rome, October, 2003 Photos. We had a great time with the Italiani, though, so that was worth it, anyway.



Halloween:



The street likes to do things for Halloween and Christmas. This year was no exception. The guy up at the corner had his coffin and graves and scary guy in a jumpsuit and the guy next door had his smoke machine and lasers and I had the 400 watt PA blasting sound effects at full volume for 2 hours. The neighbor with the smoke machine said he could hear up at the end another street, which is at least a quarter mile away. Pictures later.

Rehearsal was good last night except my playing wasn't up to snuff. We came up with a really fantastic way to begin "Keep on Rockin' In the Free World," which we have determined is our encore song. We're gonna sing a slow tempo harmony-rich a cappella version of the chorus, hold the last note and let Vinh count us in to explode into the rocking version of it. It sounded great. I gave everyone the notes they were supposed to sing and we actually pulled it off, Vinh and Chris, even. I couldn't play "What's So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding) at all tonight and everything else when i had to sing was a little loosy goosy, I'm afraid. Oh well, more practice on my own during the week, I guess.



I had to avert a family crisis today since my aunt was wavering about whether she wanted to stay in the apartment or not. Mom sent me an email outlining the situation but I didn't understand so i called the house and talked to Dad who filled me in. Then I called Eleanor but she wasn't home so I left a message. She called me when John came home from work, we talked about it for while, I assured her everything was going to be fine and so now she's back on board. I swear, as I told Dad on the phone, the email I sent inviting everyone to Rome was entitled "A Rash Proposal" for a reason.