FKO, as always, rocks
Toronto is fast climbing the list of large cities I'd like to live in, almost rivaling Vancouver, and in no small part due to the wonderful concom at FKO. It's really become one of the highlights of my con schedule, and getting to see and hang out with Dad again was marvelous. Being pounced by fleetfootmike was the icing on the cake, and the jam that we had Friday night with anach and peteralway with Urban Tapestry encouraging us on was one of the definite high points. I got to introduce born_to_me to my beloved kabuli at a nearby Afghan restaurant, and Saturday night got to submit sexybass (aka Dad) to my own version of "Gone Filkin'" (TTTO AC/DC's "Gone Shootin'"). Definitely did not want to leave, and one of these days need to figure out a way to spend some serious time in Toronto. Oh, and managed to escape Steve's Music unscathed, although there were 3 guitars I was lusting after -- the Gretsch double-cutaway, a Gretsch lap steel, and a sweet little travel guitar that would be perfect if Toyboat ever needs to fly (single-coil electric pickup and a Shadow piezo under the bridge).
Before I go any farther, huge congrats to Jan DiMasi, Mike Whitaker, and Kristoph Klover as new Filk Hall of Fame inductees. Well deserved by all three.
Monday was a day of recovery and watching the Cubs home opener, which they won very nicely. We tried to get the carpet cleaned up, which it has needed for a while but was complicated by the cast on the foot. However, the water tank for the carpet cleaner finally gave up the ghost and we're waiting for the replacement part before that can go any further. I can tell that the cast is getting to me by how badly the cleaning bug is hitting me. As soon as it's off I'm going to go nuts in the living room, with the carpet, and then hit the basement like a house afire. The basement needs to be completely done by Memorial Day...my mother and sister are visiting and we agreed after the last visit that it would be best for everyone concerned if they had their own space, so I'll finally be semi-finishing the north half of the basement and setting up a den area that will be very helpful for music nights.
Today I'm on the train heading back into the office...I want to touch base in person on some things, mainly insurance and expense issues, as well as get my ID for the new job taken care of. While everything seems to be coming together both for a gracious exit and a smooth start, I just want to make sure it stays that way. My main concern right now is getting a laptop from the new job before Monday, since I don't want to have to deal with Cisco's VPN client on my desktop. I absolutely loathe the way that it hooks into the OS. My hope is that I will have insurance issues taken care of on Monday, can get a doctor's appointment then, and can get released to go into the new job the rest of the week.