Psychic Departure Bunny Lounge

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I have three draft entries but can't be bothered to finish them right now. It's been rawther busy in the last few weeks. I finally got around to answering questions in comments for the past three weeks. Phew.

Today it has been one year since the snipers started their spree. I never wish to be that tense again in my life. The events of this month last year probably raised my blood pressure permanently higher having to deal with that and the incoming (heh) wedding. I am so glad they caught them three nights before our wedding. Still, October is my favorite month of the entire year and last year's sucked until they were caught.

This year, however, October started out just the way it should: crisp, cold, Fall weather. Yum. Today isn't even supposed to get above 60 degrees! I am so happy. Delirious.

So what have I been up to? Well, not getting the garden ready, that's for sure. No, I am hoping to get all those rhododendrons/azaleas cut down to the ground this weekend and hopefully at least buy more fritillaria bulbs at Merrifield. I also need to transplant a few of the rosebushes into the ground now that the windows in that area have been replaced. I've been waiting to do that and now is the time. I want them to establish themselves before winter comes.

The roof needs to be examined to make sure hurricane damage is fixed asap. I don't think we have any, but some of the shingles might need replacing (hint hint, sweeeeeeeetie!)

I have been a busy bee. Let's see. What happened is that I've decided that the time to get motivated is now. Oh, not exercise, I will never be motivated to exercise much as I am allergic to sweat (makes me itch like the devil). I am talking about learning how to mix music.

See, alazka-who-is-now-tebello gave me some really nice equipment years ago but I have sat on my ass and not done much with the equipment mostly because none of the electronic pieces came with power cords. I sifted through the stuff, trying to figure out what power adapters were needed to make things run and how the items should be hooked together but it was too much to think about with the house buying and wedding planning going on last year. But this has changed. I didn't know much about power adapters before but I sure learned. I got the Casio adapter from eBay, bought the pedal and Drummer adapters at Radio Shack, and am still hoping to find one for the Akai S20 for cheaper than $55 (the price Guitar Center tells me it will cost to order it from the manufacturer). Speaking of Guitar Center, I must say that I am impressed. My earlier experiences with music stores and musicians was rampant with blatant sexism. However at Guitar center, although it is true that I was one of maybe 4 women in the store (and one was an employee, the other two were girlfriends tagging along with their boyfriends), I found the sales guys very helpful, even though I knew next-to-nothing (more than I thought, really). In fact, Ben turned out to be extremely helpful and just sent me a follow-up postcard asking how things were going with the equipment. He had sold me a small mixer so that I could hook everything up together, a Yamaha MG10/2 10-Input Stereo Mixer which was on sale at a very very nice price and some patch cords and told me things I could do and how to hook things together (luckily, I have all the documentation for the equipment except for the pedals which are straightforward). So I'm getting somewhere, although I really need the Akai to do anything interesting.

I also took a small scale silver soldering for jewelry class and I took to it. I really enjoy melting metal to metal and am nostalgic for the times I spent welding. In fact, with more practice, I should probably be able to solder our broken shower fixture together, not to mention make secure clasps and chains. I just need to buy a good torch and other necessary equipment, which means I have to save up about $250. *sigh* I want to do stuff NOW!

Speaking of lots of money, I must have these Dansko Jade shoes in blue. Must. They're cheaper on the web, so I might try them for size at Nordstrom this weekend and then order them. But I may hate them. Let's hope I do.

Yesterday, I went out to Takoma Park via Metro to meet up with Carolyn, Smita, and sweetie. It has been years since I rode the red line out that way and I was all eyes. I love looking at trainyards and noted the amtrack/marc/vre/CSX/metro yards as a good place to take pictures. So industrial! It was also interesting to see how that side of the city is also changing, growing, starting to gentrify a bit. I also noted one of the buildings at Catholic University as a good photo idea as well.

Long-time DC hipsters may remember a time when Cool Disco Dan's name was all over the place. Cool Disco Dan was a highly prolific tagger. He just wrote his name all over. Everything. And then he disappeared. Rumor has it he died in 2001 but there's no substance to that. However, although X-Rae seems to have taken his place, I did manage to glimpse one Cool Disco Dan tag on an abandoned train car between Brookland and Fort Totten.

It was a pleasant evening, good food and great cake made by Smita, and for once the long metro ride home was short because I was riding with sweetie and Carolyn. Amazing how time flies by when one has company.

And we even just squeeked over the 10 pm time limit so we didn't have to pay for parking, how perfect. :)

( 12:00 EH | urban living. )
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