I greet you, dear reader, from the suburbs of Atlanta, GA, while I eat my breakfast this fine balmy (and pollen-laden) morning here in the Capital of the Peach State, which I will likely get to see very little of over the next couple of days, unless one counts the interiors of hotel rooms and anonymous office park conference rooms as tourist destinations. Knowing there are whale sharks just a few miles from here that I won’t be able to visit because working hours cross over pretty much completely with aqaurium operating hours is more than a little heartbreaking.

But that’s today. Yesterday was half a day at the office and another half inside the domestic airline system, which was relatively mundane, all told. Boeing 717 seats (especially the middle one on the right side) are kind of tight, but my rowmates were both pleasant (and small, so my shoulders didn’t bump into them too much), so it wasn’t that bad. Sunday was likewise the usual, aside from my facilitating a surreptitious plan for breakfast in bed for the mother of my children, and a nice lunch out with friends.

The rest of the weekend was a bit more interesting, stressful in the sense that I wrote a really big check on Friday afternoon which will lead to my house looking much prettier (and maintenance free) on the outside in the next couple of weeks, but probably reducing stress long term thanks to increased property values and significantly less maintenance. Also, it’s going to be green – which is calming; just ask the hallways of various hospitals and psych wards (though my house will be much less institutional, one would hope).

The big fun, however, was on Saturday. I had a gig. Once again, Scott and Kirsten of The Blibbering Humdingers, Cary NC’s premier wizard rock ensemble, were kind enough to let me sit in on bass for a couple of sets at a show in Northern Virginia, where we rocked the nerdy t-shirts off of a room full of dedicated fans in the company of other fine acts such as Jared twg, Hawthorn and Holly, and The District 13 Cowboys. We all had a great time, I once again managed to sound somewhat proficient on the bass guitar (even on tunes I’d not actually played before), and there’s slightly-more-than-idle talk that we might do this all again soon (in a really, really cool venue!) if all the details can be worked out.

(in this photo, we’re doing an unrehearsed song I’d never played before, so of course I’m glancing down at the ipad to catch the chord changes. Rawk.)

And that’s what I’ve been up to. Exciting, huh?