Grateful to have been able to spend most of the day with The Family! Started off with a community brunch at the Ranch, Norm and I got some studio time in finishing up the instrumental arrangement of Germanium, got in a bike ride with the whole crew (now that everybody can ride a bike!) and then played a game of Risk after dinner.
Got a bit more work done around the house this evening as well.
Biking with the Franczek Family pace line
Very proud of my friend Eric for his performance in the Salt Lake City marathon today. It was only supposed to be a training run of 22 miles. It was going well, so instead of pulling out, he finished the entire 26.2 miles and qualified for the Boston Marathon!
Grateful for opening day of outdoor Farmers Market season! Enjoyed an empananda at the Caracas Empanadas cart and breakfast crepe at Ingrid’s LunchBox and a lap around the square with The Family.
Norm and Ian were awesome helping out with yard clean up. Sadly, years of neglect left the shrubbery in a hopelessly overgrown state. I attempted to hack a couple of them back to a reasonable presentation but sadly all will need to be replaced. These coupled with some tree trimming resulted in four trailer loads of brush. Good news in the mail today from the City Assessor’s Office: my 2012 tax assessment went down $27K.
First attempt at grilling beets was very successful. Sliced them just a bit under a quarter of an inch thick and then lightly brushed them with olive oil and grilled on low heat for about 15 minutes. The red ones were slightly over done and the golden beets were perfect. Guessing the reds have a slightly higher sugar content or maybe because they were slightly smaller, that they got done sooner than the goldens.
Backyard trees needed some serious trimming attention
Bison burgers and golden & red beets on the grill
Had a dream last night where I was having a conversation with Ian explaining the different ways things stopped; kind of a physics discussion. Right after waking, I began quickly making some notes on my iPhone. While fashioning the fleeting thoughts into lyrics, I came up with some great vocal melodies. This one will start off as Bromine.
The scale was overly kind to me this morning as well, I weigh the least I’ve been in over a year. Erik has been very motivated and excited to learn houw to ride bike and I was grateful he asked me to come watch him ride and to help him get better. After dinner, Norm and I got a rough mix of Selenium put together sans vox.
Erik learning how to ride his bike
Norm working on an instrumental mix of Selenium
Another productive evening in the studio. Norm and I got the basic arrangement for Selenium finished including a scratch drum track. I now have a version I can write lyrics and vocal melodies with.
Laying down a scratch drum track for 'Selenium'
Grateful to be scheduled for an interview! I meet with the interview team next Tuesday afternoon. It will be my first interview in six and a half years. Looking forward to it though a little bit nervous.
Got in a fun walk around the Square over lunch and made some good progress in tango tonight.
Got an opportunity to meet with the C-level I haven’t worked with yet to discuss the open position and officially applied. This situation has also been a chance for me to have some productive career discussions with my boss and a couple of the other C-levels I work with. I have been fairly direct and vocal over the last year and a half about wanting to take on more responsibility and more of a leadership position. I also appreciate that I can be engaged in a job search right now (internally) and be completely open about it to my supervisors.
Grateful for good fellowship and the arts. Enjoyable conversations with friends over breakfast this morning at Plaka Taverna (the old Cleveland’s Diner on E. Wilson) and for dinner this evening at Moe’s Tavern and Grill. After dinner we took in a performance of Luma Theater at the Overture Center.
Luma was pretty interesting, though tough to explain. I’d refer to it as a ‘circus of light’. The production actually got started a long time ago in a warehouse in Madison. It was encouraging to see see how big it had become and to have the production and its creator back on a ‘home stage’.
Plaka is nice little neighborhood cafe, good food, reasonably priced. Perfect diner coffee. One server was quite surly and the other quite pleasant, so I guess the service was ‘average’. I’d go there again, knowing I can seat myself. Surly guy walked past us three times before mumbling to “take any seat you want”.
Moe’s is a bigger place on State. Really good menu, great service and I’m looking forward to going back. There are a lot of tv’s (which I’m not typically a fan of) but there is plenty of seating outside their gravitational range.
Grateful for the fellowship of good friends. Got to spend an evening with a bunch of my comrades from the old biking/Ironman crew at a surprise birthday party. What a great time catching up and talking about what we’re up to and what we’re looking forward to. Its like rediscovering that forgotten pair of perfect jeans.
I also appreciate the added motivation of a willing workout partner. I was on the fence about biking this morning and my trusted wing man Norm gently nudged me off the fence and onto my bike. He even ‘pulled‘ a couple of miles for me. While I was dragging most of the ride it ended well and we had a satisfying lap up Ag Hill to cap it off. Good ride.
Also quite thankful that my lack of foresight during a near altercation with Porky didn’t end poorly for either of us. Based on Porky’s assertive behavior, I’ve concluded the marmot is likely female and has a brood developing under the deck. This complicates the eviction plan.
Grateful to be respected by the people I work for. One of the C-level folks I work with had a conversation about me to another C-Level that I do not work with. From what I’m told, ‘my’ C-level said very complimentary things about me to the other and the best part was that the conversation was with the corporate president present. The context was about my qualifications for a potential position with the ‘new’ C-level. All cryptics aside, it is rewarding to be the subject of positive conversation among the big dogs.
Enjoyed a small birthday gathering this evening at Johnny Delmonico’s. Really enjoyed the social aspects but I’m crossing that establishment off my list. Surprised and a little disappointed they’re part of the Food Fight group, especially for being on the higher end on their quality scale.
