I got up at dawn, drafting affidavits and motions for work. Then I drafted the advertisement for my next chess tournament, which I will hold as soon as I solve the problem of inexpensive meeting space.
At nine a.m., my brother came over and helped me assemble my new computer table, and then set up the new computer. I am not particularly handy, so I'm glad he was here to help. Then my wife and I went one suburb north to McKinney, where a new grocery store called Market Square opened. It's one of those grocery stores that intends to be an event rather than a shopping excursion, with a food court filled with things one might really wish to eat,tremendous choice and variety of grocery food, and a cooking school area upstairs. The cooking school area doubles as a community room, so I'm checking into that for a chess tournament. I also sent out e mail inquiries to two other local places, trying to solve the "cheap space but not in my home" challenge.
My favorite section was the honey area. I love that one can find honey which dined on New Zealand clover. My very favorite honey was the "Virgin Guajillo honey", which came in a tear-drop shaped luxury jar and cost five dollars. I have no idea what "virgin" or "guajillo" means in this context, but it sounds so pointlessly elaborate.
I went to the chain software store to get all the various programs I'll need. I run my life on WordPerfect, but live in a world that is increasingly Word. This required me to acquire MicroSoft products. As often happens with business software, it made more sense price-wise to buy the home version, and then upgrade to the business version. I get bored of the mail-in rebate, the inconsistent pricing and the other difficulties of software purchase.
I had a moment of waste. I wanted a chess program. They had Fritz 8.0, which is probably the best home analysis program, and they had Chessmaster 9000, which is the one I am more used to using. I resolved this choice by picking both. Only when I got home did I remember that ChessMaster 8000, which is not that different, is on sale for ten dollars at a chess clearance place that sends me e mails.
I went to my office, and got some important work done on some additional affidavits.
Then I headed to Spring Creek Trail to take a walk. Although some holly bushes were still in berry, the first redbuds had also begun to bloom. I like this wooded sidewalk hiking trail, where I often see cardinals flitting among the trees.
I began installing the software, and downloading other things. I got bored waiting for the Winboard chess interface to download. Winboard is how I access the Free Internet Chess Server. I downloaded a progam called "Freak" instead, which is truly barebones, but then I could not get it to interface with the FICS server. I'll have to go back and download Winboard after all. I played using the on-line Java template, which was not bad at all. My play was still very spotty, but not altogether disastrous.
I fell asleep so early last night, having become thoroughly exhausted. I have a hectic, work-filled week ahead, including a business trip. I'm eager to finish loading in all the software on this computer tonight.