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fr_defenestratoSO! The new Westell modem I ordered from Verizon arrived practically instantaneously. The old one was seriously fucked: with increasing frequency, it would just stop transmitting in either direction for 20, 30, 45 seconds at a time. I called V. on Thursday and the new modem was waiting for me when I got home Friday night. Set it up, ran install, had Internet in <5 minutes. Incredible. Almost makes me want to take back one mildly nasty thing I've said about Verizon. But not quite.
Also Friday night I Metroed from work to Montgomery Mall to buy a new canister vacuum cleaner at Sears. It's purdy. And it works, which is quite a step up from my old canister vacuum cleaner.
The Cheese Lord concert went well Saturday night (a benefit for the Washington Early Music Festival, which started in summer 2005 and then was held in summer 2006, after which they decided to go biennial). A small but resonant church on Capital Hill, right near Remingtons and the Shakespeare Theater offices. We were the last of seven early music acts, most of them instrumental. We did five pieces and they all went well; one pretty hoity-toity musicology type from Britain commented after the show that we sounded like five different groups because we so seamlessly changed our singing style with each piece. A great compliment! We ended the show with a "supergroup" number, a boisterous Spanish Renaissance piece rendered larger than life by all seven groups. We got a (slow but eventual) standing O.
After the concert and reception, Lord Dan the Elder & his husband Roy had a bunch of Lords and friends over at their new house—an OMIGODFABULOUS place on 12th, just off U. It's a 3-story townhouse, prolly turn-o-them-20th-century but looking sparkling and new, lots of blond hardwood floors, gorgeous modern stairs, a gorgeous modern kitchen, a HALF-kitchen (!!!) at the back of the third floor, adjacent to the roof deck where we all hung out into the wee hours of Sunday drinking decent if not lovely red wine. There is also a shower on this deck where pretty much nobody in any other building can see you, or at least the bottom half of you. I'd use this shower every clement day of the year. Yikes, their house is spectacular.
It was also fun watching some folks get good and drunk whom I'm not used to seeing good and drunk. By the end of the night's festivities most everybody there had ventured into conversational territory I'm sure they would have regretted the next morning, if only they
remembered going there :) In a rare interlude of political discussion I managed to get in a recitation of my Richard III Revisited sonnet from March, which went over pretty well.
Slept late yesterday, got up and did my major grocery shopping for the month. Last night was the annual Cheese Lord business meeting and dinner, where we sort of treat ourselves to an elaborate, expensive meal in recompense for our otherwise gratis work all year long. We convened at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church. Wow. Foie gras (I know, I know, shut up) with pomegranate, goat cheese crepettes, phyllo rollups with parmesan and nicoise olives, chilled asparagus, heirloom tomato soup, some unidentifiable but tasty vegetable in a sour sauce, red snapper in a lemongrass emulsion... and then a frankly, rankly disappointing piece of beef, the quality of which made me regret not having piped up in advance, as did Lord Broccoli, our first vegetarian lord, to get a non-meat option for the entree. Next year.
Anyway. Then some nice cheeses and an amazing little blueberry shortcake for dessert (along with a chocolatey moussey something that I tasted but wasn't into). And then a very nice 20-year-old tawny port, and coffee. It was just lovely. Our bill (for 12 lords) including tax and gratuity, was $2,973. And that's with Lord Dan the Elder having brought all the red wine for dinner (we had only to pay a per-bottle uncorking fee).
Also Friday night I Metroed from work to Montgomery Mall to buy a new canister vacuum cleaner at Sears. It's purdy. And it works, which is quite a step up from my old canister vacuum cleaner.
The Cheese Lord concert went well Saturday night (a benefit for the Washington Early Music Festival, which started in summer 2005 and then was held in summer 2006, after which they decided to go biennial). A small but resonant church on Capital Hill, right near Remingtons and the Shakespeare Theater offices. We were the last of seven early music acts, most of them instrumental. We did five pieces and they all went well; one pretty hoity-toity musicology type from Britain commented after the show that we sounded like five different groups because we so seamlessly changed our singing style with each piece. A great compliment! We ended the show with a "supergroup" number, a boisterous Spanish Renaissance piece rendered larger than life by all seven groups. We got a (slow but eventual) standing O.
After the concert and reception, Lord Dan the Elder & his husband Roy had a bunch of Lords and friends over at their new house—an OMIGODFABULOUS place on 12th, just off U. It's a 3-story townhouse, prolly turn-o-them-20th-century but looking sparkling and new, lots of blond hardwood floors, gorgeous modern stairs, a gorgeous modern kitchen, a HALF-kitchen (!!!) at the back of the third floor, adjacent to the roof deck where we all hung out into the wee hours of Sunday drinking decent if not lovely red wine. There is also a shower on this deck where pretty much nobody in any other building can see you, or at least the bottom half of you. I'd use this shower every clement day of the year. Yikes, their house is spectacular.
It was also fun watching some folks get good and drunk whom I'm not used to seeing good and drunk. By the end of the night's festivities most everybody there had ventured into conversational territory I'm sure they would have regretted the next morning, if only they
remembered going there :) In a rare interlude of political discussion I managed to get in a recitation of my Richard III Revisited sonnet from March, which went over pretty well.
Slept late yesterday, got up and did my major grocery shopping for the month. Last night was the annual Cheese Lord business meeting and dinner, where we sort of treat ourselves to an elaborate, expensive meal in recompense for our otherwise gratis work all year long. We convened at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church. Wow. Foie gras (I know, I know, shut up) with pomegranate, goat cheese crepettes, phyllo rollups with parmesan and nicoise olives, chilled asparagus, heirloom tomato soup, some unidentifiable but tasty vegetable in a sour sauce, red snapper in a lemongrass emulsion... and then a frankly, rankly disappointing piece of beef, the quality of which made me regret not having piped up in advance, as did Lord Broccoli, our first vegetarian lord, to get a non-meat option for the entree. Next year.
Anyway. Then some nice cheeses and an amazing little blueberry shortcake for dessert (along with a chocolatey moussey something that I tasted but wasn't into). And then a very nice 20-year-old tawny port, and coffee. It was just lovely. Our bill (for 12 lords) including tax and gratuity, was $2,973. And that's with Lord Dan the Elder having brought all the red wine for dinner (we had only to pay a per-bottle uncorking fee).
