sorta busyish weekend after all
Got some things done this weekend. I think I fixed the drain on the kitchen disposal. Once I took the drain apart again, I didn't understand how it was meant to work. Neither side of the trap had a solid attachment to anything, just friction fit with rubber washers to the disposal output on one side and the pipe out through the wall on the other side. Both washers were old; one was worn, and the other was stiff and shrunken (i.e. not making any kind of seal). There must have been enough gunk lining the pipes to keep the joints from leaking before. If we'd had a clog and used a plunger on it, it would have blown those "seals".
Then I spent some time diagnosing network problems. My iBook had problems last weekend that I blamed on Comcast, but anniemal was having problems all week. When I finally took her iBook I found it wasn't on the same subnet as our WiFi router. I don't know how that could happen, since it supposedly got its IP address from our router's DHCP. (We occasionally see signals from neighbors' routers, but they all seem to need WEP/WPA keys that we don't have, so it shouldn't have picked up an IP for someone else's home subnet.) But with no default route, and no DNS, it certainly wasn't going to talk to the outside world. Then my iBook's networking was screwed up too - no DNS; and our router (taking DHCP from Comcast) wasn't finding DNS servers either. Connecting my iBook directly to the cable modem didn't work either. anniemal had been on the phone with Comcast support earlier, and they told her she had a virus. While that's possible, it's unlikely because (a) it's a Mac, (b) it's behind a hardware firewall, (c) her browser has an extension that disables Javascript except for specific websites where it's been enabled (so visits to stray/malicious websites get a locked-down browser), and (d) she doesn't open stray email. And the problem I found (and which they were nowhere near looking for, even though it would have been a good place to start), a screwed-up network config, is not something a competent virus would do. You can't add a compromised computer to your bot-net if you break its networking. The eventual solution from Comcast was to turn everything off, and then turn on components one at a time and let them boot up fully - the cable modem, the WiFi router, and then the laptop(s). That's all well and good until the next power hit, when the modem and router turn on together (and the laptops don't go down at all). We had flaky power Saturday morning (some clocks blinking, some rode it out), and that's probably when my router lost its DNS config from the modem, and my iBook began to lose it (but not all at once) as things dropped out of its local DNS cache. Another strange thing about Comcast's diagnostic assistance to Annie is that they changed the passwords on some of our accounts. I had to reset the passwords on my account (the primary account) and her main account, and the password on my secondary account changed and changed back (a scripted connection's authentication failed, and then worked later). Of course, they never mentioned this.
On the less-frustrating side, I got a couple of DVDs in the mail from Lady Annabella (Carol) in the Pennsic choir. Her Sights and Sounds of Pennsic XXXVII had a lot of scenes of processions to the opening ceremonies, a bit of a battle, the food court, Wolgemut and Teribus busking in the merchant area, a short bit of a woman playing a hurdy-gurdy (possibly jelazakazone's friend? Hard to tell whether she's pregnant, with that hurdy-gurdy in her lap...), some fighters sparring, day and night views from the shuttle buses, Midrealm Court, and the Known-World Choir concert. A lot of that is stuff I've never been to (even after 5 Pennsics), and having some video will certainly help me communicate to others what Pennsic is like. (That's partly why Carol makes the videos, too.)
It was pretty late in the summer before we finally got our CDs of the KWC concerts from past years, and (since the same person is doing them) we're not going to hold our breath waiting for this year's CDs, so I was really glad to get a recording by other means. The camera was at the back of the performance tent, so the sound is not as good (and there's more background noise from I-79, passers-by, and aircraft), but there's video too. We mostly sound pretty good. Most of the myriad things I hear going wrong from within the group don't make it off the stage. (There's a place where 1/3 - 1/2 of us were lost (well, confused, because an entrance was a beat late - do you count it out where you're supposed to be, or add a beat that shouldn't have happened), and it's not at all noticeable to a first-time listener.) Overall, tuning is good. Some entrances are rough, and people are unsure, which is what you get with a large group of amateurs with widely-varied abilities and experience, thrown together with few rehearsals. And balance is always a KWC problem, since there are relatively few men in the group. (That might be better from the mics that were on stage.) We can usually get some women to help out the tenor part, but the basses are on their own. I was particularly interested in hearing the solo quartet; I suppose I'm hypercritical, but the audience really loved that piece. The choir has an enjoyable and educational experience, and so does the audience. And that's what Pennsic is about.
The 2nd DVD is from a couple of concerts of the Clayton (MO) Silver Strings, a group that Carol plays in. The membership requirements are [1] playing a string instrument (6 violins, 1 viola (Carol), 3 'cellos) and [2] having (at least a little) silver hair. (Hey, I could join!) Making DVDs (and music) may be Carol's hobby, as my Mom's is photography. You don't get old until you stop doing things. The DVD's have nice photos on the labels, too.