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It was a great concert from this singer’s point of view. Mr. Hatfield proved just as voluble to the audience as he did at our two dress rehearsals. His enthusiastic conducting style, especially during his spiritual arrangements, is quite infectious. Several high school choirs joined us for the finale “Living in a Holy City.” According to one of their teachers, a Bell’Arte Singers member, a couple of students admitted being moved to tears. Of course, having a bunch of students there, also brought out the parents, relatives and friends to hear us. I’m looking forward to the 2004-2005 season.

Personal notes:

• This is the first late spring concert I can remember where I haven’t been sweat-soaked. I didn’t have numb feet problems because I wore sandals and my back was less sore because we could move and sway to the music. In fact, we were encouraged to do so.
• I could have used three or four more rehearsals for a few of the songs. Then I might have had enough time to learn the pieces well enough that I could add body percussion (finger snaps, thigh slaps, hand claps, etc).
• Remember to bring the black “dress” belt from the dress pants I wear at work the next time we are all dressed in black.
• Today feels like a “down” day. Probably because I’m a tad tired — we didn’t get in until about 2 a.m. after the post-concert party.
• Pretty well everyone seems to have handed in the fifteen pieces of music they were given. Now I have to sort it and return some to the various lenders and file the rest.

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Some ***hole spammed this blog with about 400+(!) comments — all pointing to the same site. It was easy enough to get rid of the offending comments via MT Blacklist. The other mildly annoying problem was purging the 400+ emails sent to my yahoo address, one per comment. The sheer volume of comment spam implies that there’s a script out there that does this dirty work. I updated my local blacklist from the master one.

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The Singers had their first evening with Stephen Hatfield last night. As well as being a composer, he has fine conducting, speaking and educating talents as well. After working all day, an evening rehearsal can be rather fatiguing. However, Stephen entertained and encouraged us and told us the story behind several of his compositions. I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the concert!

Here’s the program:

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I finished putting in the laminate floor in our small (approx. 20 ft²) ensuite bathroom. Every board needed some sort of trimming.

Some observations:

• Neither the bathtub nor the vanity are perpendicular to the wall opposite the doorway so both the start and end boards had to be tapered.
• The directions suggested the use of a handsaw or circular saw. As I had to trim every board, this would have taken a lot longer if I hadn’t used my table saw and jigsaw.
• Gluing (per the directions for a “humid” area) didn’t work. It added enough extra thickness to the tongues so that the laminate wouldn’t “snap” together tightly and lay flat. Only the first join was glued. )
• Quite a lot of hammering was required on the S-tool to slide five feet of laminate about 1 cm under the door frame.
• Until I figured out that I could use a thin putty knife as a kind of shoe horn, I strandled five feet of board trying to slide same under the doorframe because I had to add my weight to the board to press it over a slight bump in the subfloor near the door frame.
• Work would have been much faster if I had my table saw and jig saw in the bedroom.
• A disc-shaped lid from a larger size Glad plastic container was perfect for making the round outlines required for fitting the flooring around the toilet flange.
• The vinyl and aluminum transition moulding worked quite well between the broadloom and the floor.
• Self-stick tiles would have been much quicker and easier.

Now “all” I have left to do is clean up the toilet, fit new accessories (flusher, toilet and tank bolts, etc) and re-install the toilet. I also have to cut, fit, finish and install baseboards (quaintly called skirting boards in the instructions) and quarter round and applying clear caulking around the toilet and the tub area.

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Here’s what we’ll be singing (in alphabetical, not program, order):

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There was beaucoup de la pluie and thunderstorms yesterday. Just as I was going to write something last night I found the “hubbo” server was down and another thunderstorm was brewing. That particular storm took out the power to my son’s work where the “hubbo” server resides.

I kept busy by tidying up my garage workbench and by preparing for laminate floor installation in our ensuite bathroom. I dismantled and took out the toilet right down to the flange, then the carpeting, underpad, baseboards and rug nailer strips. My advice is: don’t ever install wall-to-wall broadloom in a bathroom. Barring any major problems I hope to have the floor and toilet back in today. (It seems to be a long walk to the main bathroom in the middle of the night.)

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Usually after the cleaning lady leaves, the house “smells nice.” Not this Tuesday: My wife called the chimney sweep company and he removed a dead squirrel, cleaned the chimney and replaced the broken top chimney tile and added a new screened cap. Now we just have to “foop” up the “carrion” flies with the central vac.

In other house maintenance news, my wife was home when the “we’re paving in your area” man came to call. We had discussed it as something to do so she decided we needed a new asphalt driveway. An interlocking brick driveway was another $4k and she felt that weeds and snow shoveling would be a problem. Our driveway will be compacted sand and gravel for about 4 weeks, whence they will come and lay asphalt.

Both ceiling fans are now up and installed. I decided ours, in the master bedroom, would be a remote control job since the fan is over the bed and be rather awkward to change the speed or turn off in the middle of the night using pull chains. I didn’t have quite as many problems installing this one as I did the one in my son’s, primarily because it was easier to attach the box to the ceiling joists.

Today’s trip was out to Guelph to show my wife our son’s and daughter-in-law’s future home. The SOLD sign was already up. We walked around to the park and found we could go back up behind the backyards and peer over a couple of backyards towards the back of his house. My wife agreed my son got a bargain because the current owners hadn’t bothered to spruce up the place by weeding, trimming the hedge, cutting the lawn and painting the two peeling window frames at the front. I don’t know real estate but I figure that doing those simple cosmetic things could have raised the asking and getting price by $10k. I predict that the last weekend in July will be the hottest of the summer: it always is on moving day.

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The news is out. My son and girlfriend will be moving into a house of their own in Guelph at the end of July. He can hardly wait to have high-speed Internet access. Dad * helped out with his credit rating.

* Namely me. Knock me over with a feather if my dad ever did anything significant for us! Well and truly we have moved into a new stage of parenting which my parents never experienced with me. Not bitter — just an observation.

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Unfortunately we didn’t get to his memorial service. Two express lanes and one collector lane were blocked ahead of us; the traffic was moving at a walking pace. By the time it was 7 p.m. we were still stuck in traffic and at least 20 minutes away from our destination at the posted speed limits. We took the next exit and returned home.

Of course Art doesn’t care about our worldly concerns anymore. I believe he was my father-in-law’s cousin.

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Due to inherit a fortune when his sickly, widower father died, Charles decided he needed a woman to enjoy it with. Going to a singles' bar, he spotted a woman whose beauty took his breath away.

“I’m just an ordinary man,” he said, walking up to her, “but in just a week or two, my father will die and I’ll inherit 20 million dollars.”

The woman went home with Charles, and the next day she became his stepmother.

Men will never learn.

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My son and his girlfriend put an offer in on a house in Guelph yesterday. Being the accomodating Dad I am, I am taking the day off to do a “house inspection.” My qualifications? I grew up in a pre-World War I house. I have owned several houses dating from an early 1900s model with knob-and-tube wiring and balloon framing to 1980+ models. I have repaired roofs, windows, walls, appliances, furnaces, faucets, framed and installed windows and doors, shingled a roof, installed and plumbed an entire bathroom, painted myriads of rooms, cut down tall trees (hmmm, this one doesn’t seem to fit), etc. Anyway, if my son and I discover some problems he can always call in a “real” house inspector before the offer expires.

Let’s all give a warm welcome to my older son’s imminent entry to the Sorry-I-can’t-afford-it-because-I’m-paying-off-the-mortgage group.

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I bought a couple of ceiling fans, one for our younger son’s bedroom and one for ours. Today I took down the old light fixtures and wrestled out the ceiling junction boxes whose flanges were nailed to cross pieces. Perhaps those nailed JBs were strong enough to carry a ceiling fan; but, I didn’t install them. After much cussing and drywall dust I got the suckers out and then it was off to the lumber store for some replacements.

On the way I dropped off some empties at the new beer store just by the lumber store. I had to wait for 10 minutes while some lady bought $200 worth of “beer” clothes. Must be some party except she didn’t buy any beer!. While I was at the lumber store I also bought a couple of plastic covers to act as a vapour barrier. At the garden centre I found some small green fences to keep my lavender from flopping over on the miniature irises and some peony hoops.

Then it was another wifely errand to Wal-Mart to pick up some ribbon and safety pins for her upcoming school concert. Music director, costume designer, producer, the whole works…

After all these errands and making supper I only had time to install and secure the two JBs and clean up the mess. Actually, the fun part will be assembling and installing the fans themselves sometime this week.

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On Friday night, as mentionned, the Bell’Arte Singers presented a short concert for the Spirit Matters conference. I guess some spirit set the schedule rather than some AR organizer. We battled downtown rush hour traffic to get to the church on time for the rehearsal at 6. They were still setting up and doing sound checks so our rehearsal started 20 minutes late. As you might guess, the spirit also had trouble starting the concert and we were delayed about 45 minutes from the 7:30 start time. We sang (pretty well I might add considering the circumstances) to a goodly size crowd. Our short program included the Mi’kmaq Honour Song, Turn the World Around, La Lluvia, two movements of Between Earth and Sky and the Freedom Trilogy. Even if only 10% of the crowd becomes part of our audience in two weeks we might pay off some of our outstanding choir debt.

I don’t know what else happened after our concert — we left due to thirst and hunger. For me, the best part of the night was the eight of us eating and drinking. One factoid I learned is that today’s high school field trips include the hiring of a security guard to patrol the halls and keep the kids in their rooms. Music teacher choir members actually get some sleep on these trips though they do have to give up their weekends.

Rodrigo (This incredible man can play a fugue using just two different sounding shakers!) and his partner of Cassava Latin Rhythms accompanied us. We bought their group’s new CD, “Encuentros”: a great Latin-Salsa listen on the way home Friday night.

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“Yesterday President Bush told Donald Rumsfeld that he was 'Doing a superb job.' I think the last time a president said that he was looking under his desk.”

Dave Letterman

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Due to the sudden apearance of summer (high 27°C, smog alert, high UV index) I baked tonight’s pizza in the BBQ. At one point I thought the pie had caught fire, but no, it was the accumulation of grease in the bottom of the BBQ. I hope the heat abates somewhat as we’ll be singing with the Bell’Arte Singers at the Spirit Matters conference tomorrow night. Fortunately the men don’t have to wear tuxedos.

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Memories of winter are still on some of the sidewalks and bicycle paths that I use to get to the GO station. It’s not a problem for walking/running but it’s annoying when I use the inline skates. Some of it has been swept up near the GO station just today. I hope they get around to the other dozen kilometres before winter begins.

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Actually it was a non-music night. I spent the rest of the daylight hours weeding and pruning until I answered a phone call from my aunt in Port Hope. She and her mom are travelling first class by train from Toronto to Moncton, N.B. From Moncton they will go by bus to my aunt’s uncle’s place in PEI.

I added a page to the company’s Intranet site from home partly via VPN and partly via SSL. I have to cut down on those “fun” IT, unbillable hours at work doncha know.

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The greeting card companies and the florists got together to declare the second Sunday in May as “Mother’s Day.” I don’t think my mom needs a “special” day. Maybe it’s selfish, but I would like to think that when one of us (four) calls her to say hello that is one of her “Mother’s Days.” I’m not sure what I would call the day if my brother phones her asking for a loan or I remind her that I haven’t done her tax return yet. These are probably not as exciting “Mother’s Days.” She’s our Mom and we love her. What more of Mother’s Day can there be than that!

The weather God(s) have worked everything out this year so that our magnolia tree is in full bloom on Mother’s Day this year — just the like the year I bought it for my wife perhaps fifteen years ago this day when the boys were small. It’s grown and they’ve grown.

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Hmmm, there are programming languages, APIs, and, sometimes they are both glommed together in a big gnarly mess. What might have taken me half a day in Perl with a couple of modules, one to web scrape and another to write Excel™ files, will take me considerably longer in VBA. Excel 2002 wins the prize for having the worst help system I’ve seen. You invoke it and it shrinks your Excel sheet in half and then it pops up the help window beside. The keyword help is almost useless as you try and thread your way through Range and Cells methods trying to do some seemingly simple task. At home I get more information “at my finger tips” from Excel 97. Anyway, I have managed to get my VBA routine working to gather one page of Environment Canada’s climate data. Now I have to scale it up to acquire and assemble several days', months' or years' worth of data.

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Did you hear about the dyslexic, atheist insomniac? He stayed up all night wondering if there really was a Dog.

Seen in Clean Laffs email.

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The Oakville Choral Society dinner and AGM took place at the usual spot last night. Of course I paid for one glass of wine what I pay per bottle for a “premium” batch of wine but I’ve complained about that before.

I learned some more names, like Judy, Maria, Paula, Debra and Eileen. I figure I have about sixty more to go! The MC, James entertained us with a it’s-not-really-a-demo game show software with a series of questions for the four sections, i.e., sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. For some reason, James and his tenors tied for first place with the basses. Oh, there was a few bits of business presented by the treasurer (who’d been informed the day before that the president couldn’t or wouldn’t attend). The main agenda item was celebrating the music director’s 25th anniversary with the chorus. (According to James' quiz, a choir sings at church and a chorus is a secular singing group.) A partly new slate of board members was nominated and elected including a fellow bass for president. Congratulations Anthony.

In other music news, we bought a Casio, 88 weighted-key electric piano at Costco. On the web I found the price in US$ was the same as we paid in Canadian plus the stand was included. Dealsville! Now I’ll have to get one of those USB midi cable setups.

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I installed and configured OpenWiki on the company Intranet site. Though there are all kinds of wiki software OpenWiki seemed to be the easiest to install and would work well with our present installation of SQL server. Now I just have to add a couple of FAQ’s and “release” it to the IT department to “play” with first of all.

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It’s been a busy time for those of in the Oakville Choral Society with two concerts and two rehearsals this week. Worth the effort though, as I believe the choir performed very well and, especially, “my” section of eight basses. There were mistakes here and there but the only one that showed was a muffed entry in the second concert. Perhaps, this was due to some confusion between two similar Hossanah entries in the Haydn Little Organ Mass and the Mozart Requiem. Anyway, I stopped singing for a bar or so in order that I could find my place again in the choral-orchestral tapestry.

I personally enjoyed singing as part of the double vocal quartet plus string quartet plus percussion performing the Ward Swingle arrangement of Mozart’s Rondo from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

Well done OCS and kudos to the director, Bev Stainton.