A long silence yields a collection of random thoughts...

Kris' sister, Tiffany, spent the weekend with us. It was good to have her visit; she's a fun person and brings much joy into Kris' life (despite the fact they don't see each other often). We had a lazy weekend. Kris and Tiffany gardened on Friday, and then did some baking in the evening. On Saturday, the three of us picked strawberries (twenty pounds -- more than we need). The women read during the afternoon, and watched Tom Hanks' Big. I spent four hours pressure-washing the sidewalks and driveway. I have a sunburned neck to show for it, too. In the evening we drove to Portland for Kris' birthday dinner at South Park. The food was good, but Kris wasn't feeling well so did not enjoy it as much as she could have. Also, she forgot her leftovers so she only got half a birthday dinner really. I'll have to take her to Benihana, which is where we usually go for her birthday. Today we played some miniature golf (the first time I've done that in eight years!) and then napped.

I've not neglected my reading over the past two weeks. I've read David Breshears' High Exposure, yet another account of the ill-fated 1996 Everest season. Breshears' book is most interesting early, when it acts as an autobiography of his boyhood and young-adulthood. It becomes much less interesting as he relates his discover of film and film-making. The last fifty pages, which relate his perceptions of the 1996 Everest season, are fascinating for what he is willing to say (and Boukreev and Krakauer were not). For example, Breshears is much more critical of Rob Hall, the leader of one of the expeditions, than the other two authors are.

I also finished this month's book group book, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. I liked the book, and am impressed with the fluidness with which Ondaatje writes. When he desires he is able to create a dream-like state of almost poetic beauty. Unfortunately, his gift with language and with writing individual scenes didn't extend to the global plotting of the novel. I found the novel not only ended abrubtly, but also lost its focus two-thirds through the story. Still, I like the book enough to read his most famous work, The English Patient.

Meanwhile, we've been hunting for a book for Kris: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan. Unfortunately, nobody in the Portland area has a single copy. Amazon is completely sold out. According to the customer service rep at the Barnes and Noble in Clackamas, there isn't a single copy available in the entire Barnes and Noble system. The customer service rep at Powell's at the Portland Airport indicated that about a week ago they began to be inundated by requests for the book. Why all this fuss over this book? I'm not sure. Kris says that Pollan recently made some appearances on NPR's Morning Edition (and I see that he was also on Fresh Aire with Terry Gross), and that people who heard his appearances have told her that he was simply astounding, a perfect pitchman for his book. Whatever the case, I'm interested in finding the book for her birthday. (Meanwhile, if I can get over my anti-Real Audio stance (I despise the application and its Microsoft-esque method of taking over my entire operating system), I may listen to the NPR interviews with him: here, here, and here. Also, a couple of samples of writing can be found here and here.)

Meanwhile, the conversion of our CD collection to .mp3 format is proceeding nicely. Athena's CD-player has been ripping nearly constantly for two weeks and I'm finally on U2. Of course, this is only the pop section of my collection, which represents maybe 60% of my CDs. I've got another week or two left before I've completely finished the project. If I can come up with a spare $100, I'll purchase another 40gb hard drive designated specifically for .mp3s and I'll put it in my Linux box.

We played bridge with Mac and Pam on Thursday and I lost again, of course. And, again, I did not play poorly (in my opinion). In fact, I believe I played quite well. I just didn't get the cards to bid on. Of the 1200 points I finished with (in three rubbers), about 80% came from defense, from setting my opponents. Bizarre.

I've been feeling sick over the past few days, run down. I have a sore throat and my sinuses are irritated and I'm very tired. Kris pointed out, correctly, that it's close to the time of year when my allergies begin to trouble me. D'oh. I don't recall them giving me problems last year, but they may have been because I was indoors for most of the summer, programming computers. But in the three years prior to 2000, I've been troubled from early July to early September. It's not unreasonable to suspect that perhaps my allergies (and they are undefined -- what is it that I'm allergic to?) might be manifesting themselves early for whatever reason.

Much more has happened in the past ten days, of course, and if I get the gumption I'll write about it. I'm attempting to learn PHP in greater depth so that I might use it in web design. If I'm successful, this weblog will be powered by my own scripts rather than by blogger.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Cold Fusion   ...we headed to the Viper Room to catch Cold Fusion's monthly set.

2004 — Moving   Mary Jo called tonight. She's moved out. We can get into the new house any time. Do you know what that means? That's right: lots of silence in foldedspace-land.

2003 — The Big Tree   One summer we discovered a paper sack at the base of the tree. We couldn’t believe what the sack contained: girlie magazines and lots of them!