Today I worked on an extensive work document in the comfort of my home. My wife is finishing up an out-of-town stint for her sister's baby shower, so that I have been fending for myself. I wish I could report that I cooked myself a glorious quiche Alsacienne today, but in fact I went to Fishmongers' Cafe, and had seafood on a skewer.
In our back yard, the new trees, including the wonderful gift tree from a kind neighbor, continue to thrive.
But the purple coneflower looks decidedly peaked. Only the lantana looks in the first freshness. I took pictures of butterflies landing on the broad sea of lantana just behind our house in our postage-stamp back yard.
I gathered our dog Ted into the car and took her to Trinity Trail. There a yellow flower is in bloom, sometimes growing person-height. We took a vigorous walk, around the bends of fields and scraggle woods, until we could se heron and gulls upon the lake. Then we walked back again, refreshed.
Perhaps I'll go to the movie "Serenity" during my waning weekend, as I know that the film will interest me far more than the film will interest my wife. I am usually allergic to premiere weekends, though, so I am undecided.
I found a fellow who will duplicate my CD with a rather hip-looking design, at a price I consider advantageous enough to be willing to pay for duplication. But the fellow's helper just sent me a template to use in Photoshop, which I do not believe I have or know. I tried to download a free version from the manufaacturer, but it seems useless for anything but reviewing pictures I could review in other ways. I must read up on the right way to acquire and use this software, as I am probably the last kid on the virtual block who is not a dab hand at photoshop. I've gotten permission to use a nice design from a friend, and now I must figure out how to "make it so". I've been pleased that my netrelease continues to get a slow but steady set of downloads. One fellow released a "favorite selections" posting in the local forum, listing among many others three of my songs. I do not pretend to any skill, but it's fun to be heard. Meanwhile, my discussion group is up to 16 members, and musical exchange seems to be beginning to happen. I'm optimistic about the future, even if I've made 6 remixes this week of songs that I find completely unlistenable. I'm excited about a new visual tone-organ synth I downloaded, called Coagula Light, and another "paint a .wav line to make music" synth, called Sawcutter, but I am still in the learning curve of how to use each, causing me to alternate between "hey, that's cool-sounding" and "my goodness, how do I make this stop looping?". Slicer is much easier to use, but I am determined to expand my synth skills.
Today was a quiet day, but a good, productive one.