I went to my pulmonology appointment this afternoon. It was in the three-square-block area of Beverly Hills which consists almost entirely of old, narrow-halled buildings filled with expensive wood and tile trim, and also (seemingly as an afterthought) the offices of various medical specialists. There are two pharmacies on the edge of this zone ( Read more... )

This morning I bragged about how close I was to getting a fully integrated Yahoogroups-like forum system working on the USGL website. I've been working on it more or less continuously since then, pausing only for essentials like eating and watching The Family Guy. And while I've made good progress, it's not quite there yet. The big problem is ( Read more... )

The Rite of Venus went beautifully at LVX Oasis on Saturday night. I was worried about it up to 20 hours before curtain time, but at our last rehearsal on Saturday afternoon everything suddenly came together, and the performance itself was just astonishing. Congratulations to all involved, but especially to magdalena_lvx, whose vision and determination are ( Read more... )

I had planned to be at the Minerval initiations at LVX Oasis tonight, but yesterday morning I started to get that slightly-too-tired-and-grumpy feeling that usually signals an oncoming flu, and sure enough, by late last night it had settled in, and today I'm feeling feverish and achey. laurellady has it, too. Fortunately madelineusher doesn't, as she flew up to visit ( Read more... )

I just received a phishing email, allegedly from Bank of the West's anti-fraud unit. You have to wonder why someone would take the time and trouble involved in such a scam -- crafting the web of hidden URLs and redirections, the official-looking HTML email, the obscure and protected servers -- and then send out the email with the subject line " ( Read more... )

I just heard from my sister, who sounded like she'd been enjoying a pleasantly lazy afternoon -- I guess she did get the easy-delivery gene from our mom. Little Kylie has successfully achieved the "labor and heroism of incarnation", and I'm now an uncle for the first time. Mom and daughter are both happy and healthy. Hurray for Ann and Kylie! ( Read more... )

Word just in from Northern California is that my little sister (who will forever be nine in some part of my mind, as that's how old she was when I left home) is in labor, right on time, and all going well so far.  Any good mojo that my friends could send her way would be most appreciated.

Be the hour auspicious, and the gate ( Read more... )

I'm currently a few hours less than two days away from the LVX Oasis production of the Rite of Sol, and still mostly sane, which is a good sign.  The cast changes continue, the most recent being the sad news that laurelladyis dropping out due to illness.  Given her health, we had planned ( Read more... )

We're back from our visit with my family, which was a whirlwind overnighter which we're now referring to as "the taco raid"; my mom made her famous tacos (with both flour and corn tortillas, in accord with Quetzaldilla's dictate) and birthday cake for my brother and sister's shared celebration. My sister is eight months pregnant, and it was nice ( Read more... )

My father died nearly ten years ago, and I still find myself thinking at least once a month "You know, I should really call dad tonight". He and I were never especially close, and seldom saw each other after I left for college. I suppose it's hard for the fact of someone's death to sink in when he provided so little evidence of being alive ( Read more... )