Counting

-0: Night before last's asshole party next door - to the south this time - resulted in yet another vandalism and graffiti spree. They attacked our tree-like hedgerow this time; it took me about an hour and a half to trim out all the damage and make it fit together. It doesn't look too bad. Anna and I also returned their couple-dozen beer bottles and cans to their front yard. I haven't gotten to any of the graffiti yet.

1: Their landlord isn't too bad and claims to be upset and will Do Something (tm) about it. Hopefully true.

2: Folklife is great fun this year. I mean, it's usually fun, but we've been there two of the three days so far and we're going back again tomorrow. That's a lot more than we normally do - we missed the Band Scramble, though; forgot to sign up in time. I hate that. But the jamming was fun.

3: I've been singing a lot. Including some at Folklife today. And it was pretty good. ^_^

-4: I sang tonight, and really kind of sucked. I was okay warming up, but it was all kind of downhill from there. I had problems with Caro, for fuck's sake. I hate that. I need to figure out how to do voice lessons now that Kathryn's gone back to work full time, but the person I've found recommended charges $50/hour and we don't have that right now. (She does some sliding-scale stuff, I'm going to see what she'll do, given our current circumstances.)

-5: The students living in the Budigan house next to Willie have a new game: break into his rented apartments, stomp around like idiots, yelling, and running away before they can be confronted. Hopefully one of them will get shot or something.

6: The 74 bus is currently the best bus in the world. You get on it in front of our house; you get off it at Folklife. You can also get off it at Dusty Strings, in Fremont. Yay! ^_^

7: Dixie's BBQ's base sauce has improved over the last year. It was pretty good before, but it needed The Man - his superhot additional sauce that you mix in - to make it really good. Now it's great even without The Man. Tomorrow, more beef BBQ! ^_^

8: Finally got ahold of laundry people for 5026. I'm worried about how they're going to get a washer and dryer through this one tight point in the basement. If they can't, I'm going to be so upset. But I bet they can't. Marf.

-9: Many, many, many great shirts, skirts, and other clothing at Folklife. This is a minus because I can't buy any of it. Stupid recession!

10: I've ripped all the CDs I want to have on my laptop. Yay! 2172 songs, 5.8 days (playtime), 9.53GB. Yikes!

Taiko drumming isn't the best thing ever...

Three days at Folklife is a new record, but it was totally worth it to go back again today; 1) Kokon Taiko were performing today, and they're always good (even if they were a little off form this year - I blame the confined staging placement; I think One World outdid them this year) and 2) Some very good koto music by a duet called Wusabi. I really like the koto.

Well, okay, also 3) running into lyonesse's younger self. That was kind of freakish - I mean, it was the kind of exactly the same person that makes you wonder whether you're suddenly mentally confused. It wasn't just her general appearance, but expressions, movements, way of sitting, way of dressing - it was downright creepy. It's one of those times when I had to keep looking to see whether she'd spontaniously decided to fly out and not told us! Oh, and cut her hair shorter. Which she's been known to do, so you never do know.

I also wanted to jam some in the Bluegrass open jam, but annathepiper and spazzkat wanted to get to the Taiko drumming really, really early, so I missed most of that. Bluegrass isn't my favourite, and I'm not qualified to sit (or stand) really in the first rung, but I'm pretty good at picking up a rhythm and going with whatever style is in play at the moment, and mostly, I was enjoying it. Ah well, I got some pretty good jamming time in yesterday, so that's not bad. (During yesterday's Irish jam, they tried to hand me a solo chunk suddenly mid-song, because they apparently thought I knew what I was doing despite never having heard the song they were playing before. That's good in that I can jam along with decent players on a song I've never heard, though. So I'm happy.)

On the way to the drumming, spazzkat spotted and pointed out an unbelievably gorgeous blue/white/silver Chinese dress outfit that I would kill for, but sadly, no monex. Stupid no monex. But at least we didn't spend loads. Now if my allergies would kick down a bit - I think this is one of those days I'd have been totally incapacitated before Allegra, but just have nasty post-nasal drip now - things would be great. (It means no singing. I hate that.)

Oh, and if anyone's wondering, Dixie's has kicked up The Man again - I could taste a lot more Dave's Insanity Sauce in it, or something with a similar taste of smoke - and I didn't realise until it was too late. I had to leave half my beef BBQ sandwich uneaten. Criminal! When I first had it a few years ago, I could handle two teaspoons in a beef brisket; now half a forkload is plenty! (Maybe too much. This was 2/3 a forkload. And it's a small fork!)

It did clear out my sinuses for about half an hour, though. That was nice. ^_^

We also sat through a performance by the Seattle Mandolin Society, but their playlist is really dull, and they don't really put any energy into the music - the best they manage is "slightly perky" - so it was kind of a snoozer for me, though Anna and Paul both liked it better. For Anna, it was nice just seeing a lot of mandolins, and particularly a bass mandolin, and for Paul they used to play a lot of that music at Busch Gardens, which is where he worked during the summers back in Virginia.

And, of course, all sorts of clothing I wanted to buy but didn't, and some lovely journal covers that I wanted, but were all too expensive this year. Hopefully 2004 will involve more cash!

Now. What to do tonight... I think "be lazy" is on tap, after all that walking. ^_^