Harpschord-y types: If there is a harpsichord that "needs work"--specifically something in the action is swollen and needs filing, causing the keys to stick, is this something I could fix myself--and is it worth spending $500 on a single-manual Zucherman if I need to do this type of work on it?

Hello, friends--

Carolyn Jean Smith, Melika Fitzhugh, and Lisa Gay hope to see you at our concert next weekend!

Renaissance Music 
from Spain & Portugal
Performed on recorders, harp, and vihuelas

4PM, Sunday, November 22, 2009
At the Taylor House, 50 Burroughs St., Jamaica Plain
 (Corner of Burroughs and Agassiz Park)
Suggested donation: $10
For directions, visit www.taylorhouse.com.
Please join us for a reception following the concert.

And save the date for our spring concert:
Polyphonic Favorites: Featuring our best-loved composers, Josquin and Ciconia
3 PM, Sunday, April 11, 2010
At the Loring-Greenough House, Jamaica Plain

Please forward this to your friends. Our website is www.quilisma.us.

--The Quilisma Consort

Interesting observation.

So, Today my head is being migraine-y. Headache isn't horrible, 2 bouts of aura.

Just got to where I can read without my head hurting. But this is the interesting bit--evidently I can't actually read. In that, my brain is not parsing quite correctly and I have to go quite slowly and carefully parse each word, otherwise I get random words that mean nothing, or even the correct words meaning nothing. Not a problem for writing though, I'm not having any trouble writing this post.

ETA: very transient phenomenon, I'm having no trouble reading now, just 45 minutes later.

Since it's been over a decade since I last dyed my hair....I'm thinking of dying it black for halloween. But I want to do a temporary dye this time. SO anyone who does that suggest a good black dye that will wash out within a month, not make my hair all brittle but also not all gooey (so not a spray-on type)?

Yes, I remember what happened the *last* time I dyed my hair black, but that was over already dyed (red)hair. I should be OK this time. And if not, olive drab hair was kind of interesting the first time..

Happy belated birthdays to Frank, Alix, Sophie, Ezra, Laura, CJ, Bill, Ron & Mary.

October is nuts.

OK today's plan:

LOTS of laundry (want to do all the throws/blankets/linens in addition to the usual piles of clothing). SO:

During load 1: housework
During load 2: practice
During load 3: goof off
repeat until out of laundry or daylight.

It's been a while since I checked in with what I've actually gotten done. So here we go.

Acquired 2 new LiVirghi Praetorius recorders--a G-alto and a Bass. Woohoo! Need to take the cap from the bass into vonH to add a bocal since end blowing the bass trashes my right wrist.

Sewed a case for the set (including the tenor I already had). Need to make a waterproof cover (I don't have that type of fabric in my stash) but in the meantime I have a nice cotton ATB case (with quilt batting). The cover should have more batting or fleece or something because the quilting in the case is not quite enough--still hear a clunk when I put it down, and with $6000 in instruments in there I want it protected well!

Almost done refurbishing Mel's vihuela case. Ripped out the disintegrating 30-year-old foam lining and put in black velvet. Still gluing in a black satin ribbon around the edges of the velvet. Almost finished making a quilted pad out of black velvet to pad the body of the instrument a bit more. Should be done by next week. Yay!

Had the electrician out to deal with the short. Got an estimate for various things we want done. Need to decide which of these things we will actually do and get back to him. The list in probable order of importance:
1. Replacing a stretch of original wiring in the house--why it wasn't replaced when they updated everything else I have no idea.
2. Replacing the dead stretch of bare wire buried in our garden that takes the power from the house to the barn and garden shed (currently disconnected because of a short).
3. Actually connecting the ceiling fixture in the pantry to some method of turning it on (the electrician confirmed that the wires in the fixture actually are live....but there's no switch or anything. Gotta love it.)
4. Installing ceiling fixtures (and the wiring involved) in the dining room and music room.

Had the pest control dude out today because of a woodpecker trashing shingles on our barn. Turns out it's *not* a bug infestation but rather a territorial thing, and the fix is to hang reflective dangly things (wind chimes? :-) to scare it away. While he was here, had him go through all of the barn, garden shed, and house. We do have a few issues--powder post beetles in the barn, possibly carpenter ants in the barn, one carpenter bee nest in the eaves of the house. He says it's too late in the season to treat these now, he'll draw up a list and come out in April to deal with all of it. Damage isn't too bad, fix is straightforward, I asked for whatever he can do with least environmental impact, and I'll try to remember to get the name of the chemical from him. Inside the house it's boric acid based, which is fine, he uses something else outside tho, and since we're killing bugs it's going to have some impact on other bugs in the garden. But I can't have these things eat my house & barn away.

Knitting stuff. Have lots of cotton dishcloths now. Made an armlet to protect the vihuela from sweat in the summer when I don't want to wear long sleeves. Have a ball of yarn from Mel to do the same for her. Almost done (like, 10 rows to go) with a lace scarf for me. Need to make the hat that's on my list soon, before it gets too cold. Made a nautiloid for Geoff, need to remember to have Jason take it in to work one of these days.

Why is it absorB but absorPtion? Is this a rule that applies to other words (I cant think of any off the top of my head, but I'm notoriously dreadful at pulling words out of my brain when I need them).

We have a tripped circuit breaker that wont untrip--even when everything plugged into that circuit is unplugged. So, short somewhere in a wall or outlet or such. Probably expensive electrician visit :-(

J's allergies are getting *much* worse, he was up half the night coughing/sneezing and then even when asleep his breathing sounded seriously labored. He has yet to make an appt to see a dr over this. Must nag (nag nag nag). I hate nagging...

Work is currently uninspiring (this goes in waves, so I'm sure that will get better, just some minor frustrations at the moment)

None of the house improvement plans have happened. None. We *really* need to at least get the attic insulation done.

I'm tired of being a grownup, can I stop now?

Meantones does outreach programs to schools elementary-high school. We do a wide spectrum of peices, from Renaissance polyphony to modern pop (Rockin' Robin :-), jazz (Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen), and World Music. We were thinking that it would be a good addition to include some kind of arrangement of movie/TV tunes that the kids would recognize. (Star Wars? Pirates of the Caribbean? Finding Nemo?). However, none of the members of the ensemble have school-age kids, so we're clueless.

What are your kids watching/listening to these days that you think would go over well as part of a musical medley?

J&M back from Europe, me back from Acadia. J&M brought back the snazzy LiVirghi Praetorius G-alto that I've been waiting for for THREE YEARS!!!!! Also brought back a F-bass which I like and bought. Woot!

Both are gorgeous instruments with a lovely tone and good response. It always makes me nervous to order instruments unseen like this, but LiVirghi does really good work, I haven't seen one I really dislike yet (closest is J's soprano).

J also bought a contrabass, which rocks, but I cant quite cover the holes--my fingers are too small. So I guess no contrabass in my future (not that I could afford one anyhow).

Now I need to commission a case for them.

So you have a Mobius strip. Some insane person takes that idea and creates a knitting pattern for such a thing and calls it a Mobius cowl (they're pretty cool). A whole bunch of people like that idea and create a bunch of interesting patterns and the item starts being referred to as a Mobius. What is the plural? Originally it would have been Mobius cowls, however the word cowl has been dropped from the item description and since Mobius is originally the name of a person I'm wondering what would be correct.

Watched a coast guard rescue today (because the road was closed and we couldn't go anywhere). A group of people were swept off the rocks at Thunder Hole. Saw 2 get pulled out of the water, but more than that went in. I dont think the others made it. And the two were in the water for at least half an hour. Hypothermia is a given. The park road is now closed. The surf is incredible, we've never seen it this high.

It was odd, I felt terrible standing on the road watching the rescue, like the evil rubbernecking tourist. But I thought about walking back down the road and sitting watching the surf, and it felt worse to go do that while people were out there dead or dying. Like horribly uncaring to go off and enjoy the ocean while this tragedy was happening. So I watched the coast guard boat out there searching and picking people up and keeping my fingers crossed the whole time.

http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2009/07/other-blankets-huge-chemistry-nerds.html
I may have to do one of these at some point. Most likely VEGF, it's relevant to my lab and the human form is 165aa long, so that's doable.

I decided that, given how much time I'm going to be away this summer, working on the garden was going to be impossible to keep up, so I'm taking this year off from garden stuff.

I'm quite surprised at how much is coming up and blooming happily even though I've been ignoring it.(well, OK, the weeds are also happy, but not as bad as I expected).

Even my railing planters--evidently the last couple years of petunia have seeded quite nicely.

The past couple years of putting in annuals has paid off well--daffs, iris, day lilies all very happy. And I think the peony will bloom this year.

This fall I *will* do a little--want to put in mor dwarf daffs and a bunch more iris/daylilies. But that's it.

NEXT year, OTOH, I'll get back into it.

Have iPhone. Suggest apps. :-)

OK, I now have accounts at LJ, Linked-In, Facebook, Dreamwidth and email via MIT, my lab, yahoo, gmail, and possibly through my web domain.

Can someone *please* write some kind of meta software that will tie these all together in some coherent fashion?

thx :-)

So *all* of the RSI stuff went away by the third day in France. We'll see how long it takes to come back...