My conflict (in the way of a 2pm meeting in Cambridge) evaporated, so I'm willing to travel further than I thought possible. But iGrrrl has a 1pm meeting in Chinatown. So come early, come late if you must; leave early if you have to, but we'll be around for a while. I hope that doesn't confuse the Dim Sum (or "cart place", as tf-mom called it) people too much.

So, what else? Rusti (17 pound Jack Russell terrier) had a few encounters with Silas (cat who must be almost 17 pounds by now; he's getting quite rotund) over the past few days, and she's refrained from trying to chase him, with only a low growl on the part of the cat. So maybe we'll have toleration if not friendship sometime soon.

Last night toxicfur cooked a crunchy breaded pork chop recipe she found in Cooks Illustrated (I think that's the magazine; it's really interesting, including reports on experimental testing of recipes and tools). In the process of making veggies and whatnot, we fed both of the dogs a fair amount of cheese and broccoli, in small bits. And then Rusti didn't really want her dinner. And rediscovered that grazing, and bringing each piece of dog food out onto the floor where she can socialize while she's doing it, is kinda fun.

I hope she doesn't have a tummy ache.

Music is coming along; rehearsal number 3 is tonight. We finally have a practice CD that's not full of skips. I'm not sure how you take a good digital file and burn it to a skippy CD, but they did it. I already had two recordings of the Byrd Mass for Four Voices, and ordered one of the Palestrina Missa super Veni Sponsa Chrisi back in the January From Hell. So that left a handful of motets, some of which I know well, and others I don't. Anyway, fixed now.

I do hope the director doesn't drive me nuts. I'm trying to not get too engaged in the process. Just sing what's in front of me, as well as I can, and let the rest take care of itself.

The first real-life friend (other than toxicfur) to read my nano brought it back from the February school vacation week (she's an 8th grade English teacher) with enthusiasm for the characters & situations, and voluminous marginalia. So we're getting together on Wednesday to talk about her reactions. It's always kind of amazing when somebody actually likes something I've created. And I'm hoping for some useful suggestions for the re-write. If I ever get around to it.

There's a National Novel Editing Month that I've never really gotten into, because I don't actually have much of a clue what it is I'm supposed to be doing to/with the manuscript and the cloud of other ideas that surrounded it, that might add up to 50 hours in a month. Rewriting would take longer per word accomplished than the original writing, since I've already got context that it needs to be consistent with. It's easier to just make stuff up as you go.

And speaking of writing, I'm tentatively looking forward to WFC IX, the IT narrative.

Today it's sunny, which is a nice thing to go with the 8" or so of snow on the ground. Perhaps I'll take some time at lunch to go for a stroll. I dunno how awful the commute was on Friday afternoon, but it's often the case if there's significant snowfall during the day that they can't really plow and the roads are harsh. So I worked from home in the morning on Friday, and they closed my place o business officially at noon.

I was amused, calling the info number in the morning, that they informed me that the place was opening two hours late, "today, February 13th, 2008". This on Feb 22; the recording had been there since the last storm.