The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Last night, my church hosted a local artist and her "singing crystal bowls." What is that, you ask? The bowls were fiberglass and of different size that kind of looked like a cross between punch bowls and light fixtures. She'd use two probably hollow sticks and, depending on whether she ran them along the inside or outside of the bowls, it would make some kind of sound; some high pitched. She says they were made using spare material from a computer factory. (I guess how exactly they're made she doesn't even know as it's a trade secret apparently.) Her program had 7 or 8 musical compositions but she paused only twice to reposition the bowls so the whole show was less than an hour. After, our ladies group served pineapple upside-down cake and fruit. When I arrived, the musician needed a place to meditate before her concert but the emcee of the evening could only think of the ladies' room for her to go. I offered to unlock the sanctuary for her. She thanked

Friday night, my parents came down because my grandfather's birthday party was yesterday. The three of us went to Friendly's. I hadn't been there in awhile so that was different. My mother and I went in to get a table while my father parked. We told the hostess there was three us. She asked if the other person needed a kid's menu. Thinking about this question later, "Yeah we have a two year old parking the car." When my mother said this, I responded, "Well, this is Maine..." Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub at their motel. This may have been the first time I went hot tubbing since my move to Portland... The party the next day was in two parts. We were joined by my grandfather and his wife at Applebee's. Also in attendance were two aunts, an uncle and one of my young cousins. Most of us were set to order from their "pick two item lunch menu" when the waitress noticed us reading it and informed us that was just Monday through Friday. I

I don't know if I have a readers that I don't have email addresses for but I wanted all who still don't know to know that my book, Winter Storm , while may not be officially released until May 31st (This is unconfirmed by publisher just my interpretation of their comments to me.), seems to be orderable at Amazon . I will, of course, keep you all posted on further developments.

It has been so gorgeous out yesterday and today. I hope it holds out for the weekend. I spent all day outside yesterday and spent a fair amount so far today. Today I tried a take-out burrito place down town and had a Brazilian Burrito. It had chicken, rice, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon and pineapple. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Maybe the kitchen sink...It was so good but I was craving a margarita, to celebrate the news item below so I stopped by the "real" Mexican place on the way back here. The biggest news is that the author, the author being moi , copies arrived in the mail yesterday. Funny, yet aggravating, story. I saw a package for me from the publisher before I went to work yesterday on the little shelf under the mailboxes but left it as I was going to my volunteer job and then grocery shopping so I didn't want to carry it around town. I come back to discover the package is gone. I think maybe my neighbor brought it up as he's wont to do

This past weekend, I went up to see my parents. This time I got a ride up with my boss as she was going to go and visit her sister who lived nearby. (It was at this point I realized I forgot to pack underwear. Thankfully I knew my parents had spares for just such an emergency...) We got a later start than I thought originally but the trip was pretty fun listening to her CDs and sharing the memories the songs had for us. We stopped for dinner and we both had fish and chips but I had white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. That was very good but a very small portion if you ask me. Saturday night, we saw Elizabeth on TV. It was the 1998 version with Cate Blanchett. The cast was amazing! I thought was good. Sunday, I went to my mother's church for a change and then the two of us went to see a live production of Jesus Christ Superstar . I had seen the movie of course but I had never seen it live before. I loved it! I especially enjoyed Herod's dancing girls... We decided t

Only one person asked about the "surprise phone interview" I mentioned on Twitter but maybe some of you are shy. It was for a library director position at a private/boarding school up in Central Maine. I know what some of you are thinking, why am I thinking "big" and not trying for just an entry level position? Well, what they're asking for, I can do. If I get the job it'll mean moving again but we'll fall off that bridge when we get there. I have never had a unplanned phone interview before so I was caught off guard at first. I think got more comfortable as it went along but by that time, she was just asking me seemingly unimportant questions such as why I moved back to Maine and if I knew there was still snow up there. As always, we'll have to see but, in a way, it might have been a good thing they wanted a phone interview with me. Sometimes they are used to make the first round of cuts but sometimes they are the second... I'm going up to see