I’m taking a couple of days off for the Independence Day weekend, starting with Thursday afternoon, so I’m doing my Friday post now, on Thursday, because I have aspirations at least to stay off the damned internet. Whether that happens or not is up for debate, but it’s a goal, and the fact that I’ll be spending a bit of it doing some traveling and reveling outside with friends means I have half a chance at managing it.

And I could really use a break. This week’s been busy prepping for a big meeting we finally had yesterday up in DC with all kinds of inter-agency partners to set the stage for the next couple of years in electronic commerce. Sounds exciting, huh? Mostly, it was a commercial for the services we offer, and primarily, it was simply to establish some relationships – people are less likely to be awful and rude to each other if they’ve met face to face and shared the adversity that is hours of watching PowerPoints flash by while someone reads in monotone.

Mostly, though, I need a break because yesterday lasted over sixteen hours for me, including driving up and back to the DC metro in a crappy fleet 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid that’s been driven like it’s been stolen for the last couple of years, seems to have only a passing acquantance with scheduled maintenance, an EV system that’s on it’s last legs and whose dashboard has a tendency to light up like a Christmas tree with AdvanceTrak warnings and spongy brakes at regular intervals. Rush hour traffic was a pleasure in that shitbox, let me tell you.

So, I’m taking a couple of days off for the holiday.

Tonight, we’ve got plans to go out to Norfolk to check out The Doubleclicks at a venue I played last August – a pretty sweet comic shop with a gaming/performance space upstairs. The Doubleclicks are great performers (I caught them and chatted a bit at DragonCon last year), and some of my kids are huge fans.

Friday I’m taking the day off to recover from the trip (I booked a hotel – probably better than trying to get out of Hampton Roads in the dark, which I can never manage), and ideally, run through some songs with the *other* band ahead of the gig we’ve got booked for next Saturday. I’ve been a little anxious about this project for a while now, but after Monday’s rehearsal and some disucussion, I’m feeling better about it – things seemed to click nicely with the core group (this project has had a lot of enthusiasm, but relatively few actual musicians in it for a while), and we have a nice set. More to come.

Saturday, we’re planning on hanging with friends at a big-ass garden party on a cool farm outside of really good cell reception. Yay.

Don’t know about the rest, though I know I’m not going back to work until Wednesday.

That said, here’s the tunes I’d normally post here tomorrow, but I’m doing it today.

1. “All Messed Up” – The Donnas
2. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” – Guns n’ Roses
3. “We Are the Champions” – Queen
4. “Was Nicht Darf” – Varg
5. “The Headmaster Ritual” – The Smiths
6. “The Walker” – Fitz and the Tantrums
7. “This Is Our World Now” – Unleashed
8. “Middle of the Busiest Road” – The Badlees
9. “I’m Gonna See You” – that dog
10. “Uis Elveti” – Eluveitie