Bird News

Drive Cable from Hell and Other Stories

This week, my computer decided it didn't want to boot. I try to remain calm in these circumstances and I think I did a pretty good job of it considering that I couldn't get it to boot for two days. (Don't worry people, I had my data backed up like a good little bird... but still.. the horror) I remained pretty collected about the whole thing. Luckily, Curtis came to my rescue just before I might have begun to consider freaking out. It turned out that my drive cable was loose. Stupid cable.

Last night, after Curtis saved me, we went to the house of blues for the cd release party of The Big Pill. It was one of those random nights- we had free tickets from a friend so we went. What a high energy scene. The place was PACKED. The drummer is what we would call a cengulator.

I am really enjoying L.A. Possibly too much! I just joined yet another 10-woman vocal ensemble. What are the odds of that? Nevenka performs folk music from Eastern Europe. I was invited to come check out a rehearsal or two and I couldn't say no. So far no one has asked me to leave so it's looking like it's official. Come see us perform on September 25th at the World Festival of Sacred Music.

Parties don't happen if you don't invite anyone

I discovered that simple fact today. I sort of wanted to have a fourth of July party, but I didn't invite anyone. Funny how that works! I was invited to a few myself, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave the house today. Our current lack of toilet paper didn't even motivate me! Tomorrow I'll leave the house. Yeah. Tomorrow.

Despite the minimal number of homosapiens in our house, Steve and I managed to have a party here by ourselves. It has been great. We witnessed about 12 simultaneous fireworks displays from our balcony view. Many are still in progress. It has been especially interesting tonight because Los Angeles is foggy. We took a short walk in our neighborhood (I guess I did leave the house a little bit after all) and saw a pretty fantastic local display as well. We watched as the pyrotechnics were launched into the mist. A few seconds after the fireworks exploded we would start to see them descend through the fog. The visual lag almost neutralized the discrepancy between the speed of light and the speed of sound (but not quite.)

In other news, I have been singing in Petra Haden's a capella choir to help her promote her recent album, "Petra Haden Sings the Who Sellout." We had our first full length performance on Friday at the Ford Amphitheatre.

After one day of relaxation. (or, more accurately, zombieness) I undertook a "training" hike yesterday to the San Antonio Ski Hut on Mt Baldy. I am gearing up for a 3 day backpacking trip to Mt Whitney along with about 9 other women for a good friend's bachelorette party. Yesterday's hike included the schlepping of our backpacks up a 3 mile trail that gained 2200 feet in elevation. It is a really beautiful hike. The view is tremendous and the foliage seems other worldly to me; agave plants and other cacti mixed with pine trees and snow!

It's tough when you're really good

There's no sense in trying to hide it. I play online scrabble a lot. I'm really good at it so I can only play with other people who are also really good. Otherwise, they get mad. However, sometimes even other really good people get mad. Like my opponent in the image to the left, for instance. This opponent has a higher rating than me but couldn't accept the fact that I played 3 bingoes within my first 5 turns. He/she resigned and put me in his/her noplay list and accused me of cheating! Talk about a buzzkill! I was on a roll. If you want to learn how to make real bingoes like this, read Word Freak. Then you'll get it, you unnamed sore loser opponent!

In other news, I have been a bad bad blogger- neglecting this journal like someone who has been in the process of moving for, like, 6 months! Well, those days are over! We moved and we're finally getting settled into our new place. So far, life in L.A. is pretty good. More on that later!