I suppose I should get caught up here...

In bullets!

• The gig on Friday night went quite well. The treatment we got was far different than what I think most of us were used to. The festival we played consisted almost entirely of acts from out-of-state. So the hospitality was kicked up a notch. We benefited from that. Coolers of beer/pop/water for the band (ah, just like the good old days...), a real stage to play from, with lights and decent sound, and the all-access green wrist bands for each of us. Far different from the weekly music thing that all of us have played for numerous times in the past.
• Performance-wise, we did very well, but not perfect. We could have used just one more rehearsal with the full band. Part of our problem stemmed from sound issues onstage. One side of the band couldn't hear what the other side was doing. And whereas the last band I was a member of (which will continue to be nameless) knew, simply by a look, what the rest of the band was going to do next; this band doesn't have that telepathy yet. Not to say it wasn't tight, or that it was sloppy. We just had a minor moment or two that probably no one but the rest of the band wished they could get back.
• We got a little bit of ink in the local paper the next day. People really seemed to like us! Our one thing that we did drop the ball on was length of our set. We ended about 15 minutes earlier than anticipated. And we heard about it from the organizing chairman. Sure, we could have repeated one of our first songs, as most of the crowd was filing in as we started our set, but that's just tacky. But we all agreed after the fact that we definitely need to work up more tunes. In other words, more writing for me!
• Moose made it into town about 11:30 Friday night. We stayed up past 2AM to catch up on things. She wasn't repulsed by the apartment (or has been polite enough not to bitch), so I think Operation Scrubdown was a success! And after three days, it's still clean!
• We've been out for beers, pizza (Howard's, for those of you in the know...), movies, and she's gotten to spend time with some friends and their babies. Tonight we ended up at one of our favorite hang-outs--the York Bar. We had the world-famous burgers, and she had her customary Ceasar, a particularly vile Canadian concoction. But the view was nice at least!

• In a new twist to end an activity, she also celebrated with a shot of Patron. Known the girl for damned near 15 years, and didn't know she liked Patron.

• Spent some time in symphony staff meetings. The summer concert is less than 3 weeks away. I haven't spent hardly a minute in working on preparations. I'll need to do that this week. Fortunately, having done this for the past 12 summers, there's not much that will catch me off-guard.
• I have a meeting with the bass player from that band with no name mentioned above. We've got a wedding gig over Labor Day, and we need to come up with a plan. Again, after so many years together, it'll come together pretty easily. But we still need a plan.
• I think I mentioned it last week (I'm too lazy to check), but Dad had another 18 liters of fluid sucked from his innards last week. He had a bit of the flu a couple of days later and was feeling pretty poorly, but he's doing better since the weekend.
• Part of the success of Operation Scrubdown was donating a hide-a-bed and about 10 boxes of clothes to Good Samaritan. Clothes that I wore when I was teaching. Twenty-some years ago. No need to call "Hoarders" now!

Probably some other stuff to report, but I can't think of what it would be. Moose heads out on Wednesday. Most likely going to a concert on Friday night. Probably some lake shenanigans over the weekend (that's going to be a little weird). Damn. Summer's almost over!