Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Happy Birthday, Maure!

Dan- Alcohol is good for Kidneys? Cool! Carry on then:)

I hate working Saturday mornings. Only really, really strange people
eat at a Chinese restaurant early on Saturdays. All of the sensible
people are still in bed, or out at the parks, or doing something that I
wish I were.
  

    
Mazel Tov, Neil! (And it's even another nice-looking award.)
  

    
Maure - Happy birthday!
Neil - Happy Nebula!
Dan <- Happy Go Lucky!
  

    
There goes the only thing I ever had that Neil didn't!
  

    
Oh! oh! Martha! you've had the experience of seeing your work adapted
by me for the stage and Neil's never had that! (He has had your
excellent reviews, but that's different)

...

ok, I'm reaching here...
  

    
He's had a thousand times more excellent reviews than I've ever had!  But
that's okay.

I've had a lyric accepted by Chris Ewen but so has he.
  

    
Thank you for the birthday wishes. :)

Neil,  congratulations! 
  

    
Many Congratulations, Neil!

And Happy Easter, everyone. 
  

    
Martha, I was actually referring to the excellent reviews that you
wrote, but I'll cede the point that he's had more excellent reviews
than most people on the planet.

I think I shall continue my ego bolstering over email though. Still
using your Well account?
  

    
Um, no, all these posts are forged!
  

    
OK, all this is late, but:

Happy Birthday, Maure!

Happy Pesach!

Happy Easter!

Congratulations, Neil!

Um, Atlanta was a blast.  I slept for 2 days, and then sang 7 services
in 4 days.  In a state of near catatonia, was taken to Easter brunch
at Jackie's Bistro in Evanston for what was possibly the single best
meal I have ever eaten.

I do not want to go back to school.  ;-)

Mary (convinced that steak with Bleu Cheese is served in Paradise) 
  

    
*sticking out tongue at Martha*
I meant your Well email account.

I mean, I make all my posts, but if I have a Well email account, I've
never used it.

I think I'm gonna go pout in the corner now.
  

    

I don't think you do. I believe they aren't part of the Engaged accounts.
  

    
Mary -- Come on!  Everyone knows bleu cheese is served regularly in
HELL!

Glad you had a nice Spring Break.  This was a trip with your choir, I
take it?  Ah, I miss those.

Happy Easter, everyone!!!!!

And having been away from my computer all weekend, the first thing I
checked (once this @#$@^! machine stopped crashing long enough) was the
Journal, and...

<center>HE GOT IT!!!!!</center>

Congratulations, Neil!  And it's cool that you got to be there after
all.  Is there anywhere we can read this "proper speech"?

And you are looking <i>wonderful.</i>  That's great to see.
  

    
Christy -- Jonathan and Jane do indeed rule. You can listen to
Jonathan's  radio show on the BBC radio 2 website -- they keep each
show up for a week. 

I look (and feel) a lot better than I have for months, let alone
during the meningitis time.

Davey -- for the silver Sharpie -- thanks and good lord...

Martha -- I'm sorry. You should write some stories and win some awards
I don't have now, then. You can do it on your head...
  

    
And the trouble was that I scribbled a speech, and then didn't give
it, but I didn't give it with the notes in my hand. I have no idea what
I said (wasn't listening). Maybe they were taping...
  

    
<stagewalker>, Engaged accounts come in the complete and essential
varieties. If you have a complete account, then you've got email. Just
FYI. 

Happy Monday after Easter all! 
  

    
Neil--Congratulations again, on the BSFA.  You rock.  

And I agree with Christy--you do look well.  I'm glad to see it. 
Chicago June 7--9?  Keep us posted......

Christy--no, that garbled post in a Bleu Cheese-induced haze was
terribly unclear.  I went to Atlanta with 2 Mountain Dew-fueled
madwomen for the pure joy of watching Keith Johnston, the lead singer
for Janah, stop dead 2 steps onto the stage, drop his jaw, and say,
"What the hell are *you* doing here?"  The whole band was amazed.  We
drove 21 hours down there (there was *a lot* of stopping--see Mountain
Dew reference, above) to watch them play for 45 minutes.  Believe it or
not, this band is worth it.  And we got to see Bill's 2-month old
baby, Adam, so *that's* all right. And the weather in Atlanta was
awesome--75, sunny, all the flowers blooming--it had snowed here 2
weeks ago today.

Funniest things--wandering into Super Wal-Marts with Northerners and
all of us doing the Saturday Night Live routine--This Wal-Mart is
sooooo big!  And Debbie getting behind the wheel, adjusting mirrors,
seat, steering wheel, etc., accelerating to 70 on the Interstate, and
saying, "Gee, I *haven't* driven in a while."  There was a long silent
pause, and then she threw her hands up in the air and screamed, "Dear
God, how do you stop this thing!?" Road trips are good.

I also got to see friends I hadn't seen in 10 years, one of whom
writes for a webzine called.....um, er, ah....something Tart.  Oh,
bugger, I can't remember.  I'll post it when I do remember, probably at
4:00 a.m.

*Then* I came home, slept for 2 days, and began the madness that is
Easter wih a Passover seder at my church on Holy Thursday.  That was
really cool.

Got my Neverwheres in.  I think I'll read them a bit of Croup &
Vandemar as a teaser tomorrow, after we discuss Nalo Hopkinson's Greedy
Choke Puppy (this is, of course, working on the theory that they will
have read "Greedy" since I assigned it today).  I am hoping that the
large number of F's that I am sending home next week will have the
appropriate effect on theoretically graduating seniors.  We shall see.

OK, way past my bedtime.  'Night, all!

Mary (who still thinks P.J. O'Rourke is hilarious)
  

    
Mary,  sounds like a blast! I can just see Debbie doing that too. Is
it Sequential Tart?
  

    
God bless Maure.  Yes, it is.  Her name is Laurie Anderson, and she
does interviews. And I am a chowderhead.
  

    
Neil -- I have always said that I have the coolest friends in the
world -- and I still maintain that I do.  It seems, however, that yours
could give them a run for their money.  ;)

Barrett and Dan -- Judging from the length of Dan's username, I'd
guess he has an Essential account (no e-mail).

I'm staying home sick tomorrow.  Maybe I'll post then, too.
  

    
As quickly as I can manage:

DanW - EEK! I've only been that feverish once, and I don't recommend
it to anyone. I was so delirious that I walked 1/2 mile to the doctor's
office and didn't understand what all the fuss was about, as my temp
was well under 110... (<-- the brain kinda goes kersplooey above 103)
Hugs for your recovery - and should I be nervous that I can actually
envision you running around in a loincloth screaming 'WOMBAT!' at no
one?

tinymonster - The 'klink' in the song is an anvil, in Jim Cassidy's
dad's metal-shop. (I just asked) And there is no such thing as too much
Buffy...

To add to the list of things you'd hate to hear after a performance,
the boy's personal 'favourite' was "I couldn't understand the words.
What were you guys saying?"

Martha - Neil may have to share your Nebular status now, but you still
have the more poetic name. :)

Back from the void of moving hell... er, the hell being the part where
you lack an internet connection, lift heavy furniture, and load MANY
carfuls into (and onto) a VW Beetle, only to unload them and have to
find a place to PUT EVERYTHING, which is actually working out well as
long as I don't ever need access to more than 30 of my 600+ cds...

For those not knowing what game it is to which they should be keeping
score, I'm almost entirely moved in with the boy now (and HUZZAH! I've
got DSL now!). Rats are situated in a brand new wicker ball (now dubbed
the 'rattie fur ball of fuzziness'), being fuzzy. And I'm all kinds of
sore (not just mostly, but ALL varieties of sore) from lifting
furniture over the railing of twisty staircases.

In other (yet somehow still related) news, the Future Bible Heroes
were awesome! Boy and I showed up early to get a good table, were later
joined by two Jameses and a Jenny Jo, and then an Amacker made an
appearance and made many security peeps very nervous what with her
photo-taking-ness. The songs were fabulous, the humour was not quite
the same as it was at the Minneapolis show, but they picked on our
competitor store, so it was still great for us. The boy typically hates
live shows, but decided by the end that FBH were the exception, and he
wants to hear more of their music (yay!). And as a direct result of
running into her at the show, Amacker loaned me her vehicle (much
larger than the Beetle) to help move my stuff (which we did yesterday
afternoon).

Neil's circle of friends/sphere of influence is cool.

Yay us.

-squeaks, who was meant to be asleep an hour ago
  

    
I did just win a couple of prizes Neil never will, because for one of them
you had to be local and for the other one you had to be local and a girl.
  

    
Squeaks - I think that you should be nervous that you can even
envision me wearing a loincloth... period.
And to your boy... "ouch. Scary thing is... from a musician, I can
actually see someone doing that after a gig."
Oh... and while I know I've been saying that I was going to have you
two over for ever and ever and ever and haven't done it yet... now you
have to have ME over. I never saw the inside of your OLD place.
*sniffle... goes back into corner for a bit*

Martha - what'd you win? what'd you win?

In other news, the show has been extended one performance. The theatre
wanted to do a while weekend (5 shows) but our Picasso had conflicts.
Hard to do Picasso at the Lapin Agile without your Picasso. Still, nice
to be in a show popular enough to extend!
  

    


Dodge (hnowell)
Howzit! My once a week post. Here 'tis.

Got one wall of the living room painted last Sunday. Looked at it all week.
Didn't like it. See, I'd bought a gallon of very pale peachy pink paint and
painted the dining room. Beautiful. Perfect. Went great with the Cherry wood
furniture. Then I took the formula for that to Home Depot and they told me
that the formula was obsolete but THIS is the proper paint formula. Creates
the same color. HAH! Of course, I didn't get the painting done right away so
can't natch return the paint. It's Pepto Bismol pink. I kept hoping it would
dry paler. It did but not by much. So, last night I poured almost a quart of
base white into it and tried that out. Looks better. So, tonight or maybe
this weekend I'll paint the wall AGAIN. I've removed (again) all the pics and
furniture from that wall and put the flattened boxes down to protect the
floor. I'm hoping that 1 gallon plus 3/4 of a quart will finish the living
room because, you know, I doubt they could match the paint unless I paint
something and take it to a store that has those sensor thingy to "look" at
the paint and mix up a match. I think I'll do that from now on anyway since
obviously they can't match from the formula. Of course, the "stick" I stirred
this with - the only one I could find when I got the urge - I can never find
the ones they give you when you buy the paint - was the bathroom brush
thingy. So now my bathroom brush thingy is pink handled.

I also tried moving the Cherry little display unit into the dining room but
the massive cherry furniture does not go with the smaller display case. Makes
it look puny. A friend of mine wants to sell me a large antique china cabinet
which will go into the living room for more display space. Will need to find
another place for the little display unit.

Have back problems. Doc wanted me to go to physical therapist. Did Monday. My
insurance says I must pay (my part) $30 per visit. With 3 visits per week for
4 weeks that's $90 per week (ick) so I expected to get something from the
visits. Instead I go in Monday morning. All I've done so far is get up, eat
breakfast and get dressed. I'm feeling fine. No pain. No restrictions. So,
the woman does this poking and prodding and making me resist this way and
that and range of motions etc and I'm doing ok and she starts treating me
like a hypochondriac. Really. Her whole attitude was like, "Why are YOU
here?" There were no workout machines. They stuck me on a heating pad (15
minutes) even though I told them I was fine today, thanks. She walked me
through two standard back strengthening exercises, showed me how to do a
couple on the exercise ball, and gave me some mimeographed sheets of paper
and sent me home. See you Thursday. That'll be $30.  Now, when I cracked my
spine back in 1991 the physical therapist had this wunnerful gym and she put
me through an intensive workout and instructions. I felt like I was getting
something from it. Anyway, cancelled all the remaining appointments. Got out
my book from back in 1991 with BETTER exercises and decided to spend the
money on a really good new heating pad this week. On a big rubber exercise
ball ($25) and pump ($25) and on a really good pair of leather arch support
flats to replace the ones I've got, and on some back support thingy to remind
me to sit right.  I'm a member of a gym and can get the guy there to show me
the machines that I can do on light weights to help the back. Gently. I
usually swim for an hour. You know what gets me? I keep thinking somebody
will say to me that I'd benefit greatly from losing the weight (which I'm
working on in any case) but no doctor yet has told me that would be helpful.
They don't mention it. Wonder why. Of course, the fact the doctors I've been
to so far are more overweight than I am could be a factor. So. Will do on my
own. Hmph.

OK. That's my rant for the week.

Dan - glad you're better. I remember fevers like that. In the hospital every
night I'd get a fever and they'd turn the ac way down. Then in the morning
the fever would go away and I'd awaken freezing. It does weird things to your
head.

Mousey - good luck on the moving thing. I moved for a whole month in my car
then got a couple to use their truck for the big stuff. Still took 14 trips.
I'll never move again unless I can afford to hire someone with a big truck
and big strong bodies to come and do it for me.

Gotta go. Next week, y'all.