Not huge amounts of stuff to report; life’s been life. Work, life, running kids places. Generally, it’s been pleasant to middling; no huge crises to deal with. Work has been surprisingly okay; the worst has been the ongoing challenge of having to be a loud squeaky wheel at people to give me things (like a stable test environment that mirrors production, and basic considerations like release notes when it doesn’t) the should be providing as a matter of course. It’s office and agency politics, and I hate that crap, but it’s apparently what I do now.

I still regularly pine for the days of being an analytical type again – system design/engineering problems are so much better to deal with than people problems; with computer problems, there’s going to be a(t least one) definitive solution, even if not immediately apparent. People, unfortunately, aren’t so cut-and-dried.

Otherwise…a few minor things, I guess:

I put some new plants and fish in my fish tank. I’m trying to grow water wisteria; I’m hoping it works; most of the stock I got is seeming healthy enough, but we’ll see. The fish certainly like knocking it around.

One night this week was “Literacy Night” at the elementary school. Part of this year’s effort was having all the kids read Beverly Cleary’s “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”. The evening program involved a makeshift motorcycle show (they reached out to parents with bikes to do a little show-and-tell on the paved part of the playground) and a screening of the television adaptation from ’86 in the cafeteria. The kids were largely bored with the movie (admittedly, it’s a little slow), though they liked the motorcycles. Also, a handful of moms with japanese racing bikes got into a bit of a competition to see who could rev the loudest. It seemed oddly fitting in the more redneck portion of the metro area where I live.

I also got lucky (HEY-YO!) yesterday and won a couple of tickets to Chris Cornell’s solo show at the local downtown theater for June from wnrn’s weekly VIP member list email. It’s a great station, which always hooks me up with a couple of good shows every year which usually more than make up for the donation I make every year.

Finally, the girls have been doing the dance thing – given the fact that yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day, Irish dancers are in high demand. The eldest and her company did a performance (during happy hour) yesterday at a nice drinking establishment down the block from the dance school (and as far as I know, no one got beer spilled on them); this weekend, they’re booked in the annual Irish Festival one of the gentrified neighborhoods downtown put on as a fundraiser for several local charities, but also as an excuse for people to wander around the neighborhood half-sloshed on Guinness eating potatoes and cabbage. It’s a good time. Hope the weather holds out this year.

…on that note, as they’re currently scheduled for Sunday, my friend Mikey’s song below is oddly appropriate, and for the moment, available for download for free (or name your price); so you have no excuse not to listen and enjoy:

Oh, and here’s some music randomly pulled off of pandora this morning, which totally justifies the title of this post:

1. “Little Lion Man” – Mumford & Sons
2. “You Shook Me All Night Long” – AC/DC
3. “Long Island” – that dog.
4. “The One I Love” – R.E.M.
5. “Lose” – Fastbacks
6. “Carry on My Wayward Son” – Kansas
7. “Talk Like A Pirate Day” – Tom Smith
8. “(I would walk) 500 Miles” – The Proclaimers
9. “Avila” – The Wailin’ Jennys
10. “Starlight” – Muse

Oh when we’re not doing all that stuff, Daredevil Season Two pops up on Netflix today, so that’s where I’ll probably be otherwise, as one would expect.