Another week gone by

Been a bit since my last post; been pretty busy.
I'm working on a project that is due for completion day after Thanksgiving, and I was essentially given 10 days, including 2 Saturdays and 2 Sundays, to get a job done that I told them as early as 2006, takes me 14-working days -not including weekends- to complete. *sigh*

I DJ'd on Friday and last night.
On Friday the attendance was pretty good since Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa were scheduled to perform at midnight. Well.. they were late.. and I estimate a good 30% of the people had left by the time they got there and performed at around 1 am. Of course it could not go without another incident: I play off of my laptop but the facility has 2 CD decks available. I had not tested the CD-player other than putting a CD in it with the sound down to see if it played, and it does spin the record. Well.. when it came to crank the volume.. of course nothing comes out *sigh* Had to swap the players while Julio was tapping his foot and whistling in the middle of the dance floor.

Last night we had our annual milonga here in-town, for which they collect money all year round, rent the space, and this year I even got paid a bit. Including me, there were 30 people. Lame. I was so wiped from the previous night and having had to get up early on Sat to go to work, still, that I had a hard time staying awake. My back was killing me too when I danced and my heels have been bruised for a week now from the physical labor. I only danced 3 sets and they were all with my cat sitter; sort of payment for her services.

Went to Lowes today.. I was blogging about my experiences during my last Lowes visit in June on my old blog. The place SUCKS. Ok so I go there for the ONE thing they've got that Home Depot doesn't : Cedar/Cedarwood colored caulk/silicone. I ended up buying all sorts of things, of course, as I usually do.. blades, drill bits, and the sorts. 160 dollars worth. And again, as last time, I get NO HELP what-so-ever. You can't even see associates lounging about as they do at H.D. I would have bought a 260 dollar cordless nail gun, but since I received no assistance and there were none to be readily taken on sale, I took off. They had ONE cashier-assisted register open, and that was at the help desk. Four self-help lines were in-use and I had to succumb to use one of them. I hate them. I pay good money for my tools and crap and expect someone to ring me in and to bag the shit for me. I don't want to do it myself. And then, of course, the machine has to think that you didn't ring something up or didn't put it in the bagging area or some other crap like that, and it's bitching at you non-stop. Sucks to have to rely on idiots and/or crappy organizations/companies.

Relief is just around the corner, though. I'm scheduled to complete my work by Wednesday on this project, and on Thursday I'm cramming my ass on an airplane for an all-day travel excursion back to the East Coast to be with Ms.Spain for 12 days. Finally good dancing and TLC.

Ta.

Thursday night blues

I've a bad headache.. it's likely from my neck.. I watched "We were soldiers" last night and whenever I watch movies in bed (which is the only place where I can) it cranes my neck.. I guess last night was too much being 3rd or 4th consecutive night watching some movie late. I also took to using an older cervical pillow I haven't used in aged.. could be that too.

I had a CVSA today with a Police Department as part of the application process. CVSA stands for Computerized Voice Stress Analysis, ie lie detector test. It was a bit stressing and I did fail a few questions but once I explained them and re-answered them I passed. So for now I'm still in the running but I'm still only at Step 2 out of 12.

Ok.. things have changed with the next weeks Portland Tangofestival.
Ms.Spain found the time in her busy schedule to fly across the country and to come for 2.5 days. This means I will, after all, be attending the Saturday night "Elegant" milonga I in a previous post cursed and thanked not having to attend. But this year it will actually be really nice 'cos I'll be going with a "date".

I stopped by K&G men's superstore today and bought two new suits. My old black suits have all been through the drycleaning a few too many times. One suit has the inner lining held together by 20 safety pins, another has shoulder and armpit seams tearing open, and one suit is discolored and dishaped from accidentally having gotten washed. Rest of my suits are either a horrendous style that I've (maybe) never worn or they're now too small considering how fat I've gotten. I'll probably take 3-4 suits to the Salvation Army end of the year to receive a bit of a tax credit.

I purchased the ticket already too to go back to the East Coast to Ms.Spain's for Thanksgiving for a week and a half. Although neither of us wants or needs to "celebrate" the mass murder of Native Americans, it's the perfect time to visit.
In fact, I don't arrive until after 10 pm on that Thursday having to spend the evening on a 4 hour layover in Atlanta.

I've been working and learning a new architectural design program the last week. It's been quite frustrating and I've cursed more than a few times. But the nice thing about this one is that it's 3D, and some of my current clients have cubes for eyes and can not visualize anything on paper in 2D *sigh*.

I'm DJ'ng tomorrow night and turns out that the band isn't playing after all! Last time I had checked the schedule it had said the band is playing but now the schedule says no band. Yay! They always play 2 one-hour sets of the same crappy stuff.
I'll have to spend a great deal of tomorrow creating the playlist because now I suddenly went from having to play 3 hours to 5 hours of music.

Ta!

At the airport, again

So.. I flew in yesterday from Washington DC where I'd been for 8 days dancing and hanging out with Ms.Spain. Had many good dances despite the oppressive heat and humidity... was even kind of cool when you're both drenched and still you keep at it.. it's a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing to dance with someone when you're the only one soaking wet or vi ca verse.
Ms.Spain was a gracious hostess and then some and I can't wait to see her again in Denver in two weeks. Too bad I had agreed to share a room with someone else before she made up her mind about going to Denver.. I guess I coerced her in the right way during my visit to DC :P
She's become a dear, trusted friend in a very short time, and I'm blessed to be in her graces.
Muchos abrazos y besos!

I screwed up with my schedule a bit... I had thought I had all of today and majority of tomorrow to lounge around, catch up on errands, etc, before having to fly to Seattle for half a week... By chance I went to look for my arrival time to Seattle to co-ordinate my lodging and to my horror I saw the word "Friday" printed atop the "Departure" times... I had 4 hours to scramble to finish some last minute things and to re-pack to come to the airport. Luckily this flight is out of my own airport that's 15-minutes away versus the large one that's 2.5 hrs away. I had also not really unpacked as there had been no reason to do so; I had done 2 loads of laundry in DC and majority of the clothes I had packed were still good to go.. I just had to add a pair of workout pants, sneakers, and a suit.

I got to the airport a bit early again and just finished dinner at Quiznos's. To my great delight WidowPC had preinstalled all the hardware programs and device drivers on the hard drive, that I hadn't noticed before, and I was able to get my WLAN card to work in no time. I had relied on my Sprint PCS card for connection during the previous week and the speed was a measly 600 kbs (pretty fast for Sprint since I was in a major city). So now I'm enjoying the rare delight of free wireless internet. This airport, like I've mentioned in my other blog, is the only airport I've ever been to that has free WiFi and not merely a hot spot.

I also managed to get some dude's pocket knife impounded.. he was trying to sneak it through on his keychain until I pointed to an TSA-employee the knife. Most of the time when you stick yer keys in that little bucket it doesn't go through the X-ray... kind of like that one movie where an assassin had hidden two bullets inside a lucky rabbit's foot-keychain. Rest of the pistol had been a break-down ceramic one that is hard to detect. I forget the name of the movie now but somehow I feel it was John Malkovich who was the assassin/shooter. I walked into the terminal along side this guy and I almost said to him that he'd better return to his truck with that knife.. I just wasn't 100% certain it was a knife until I got much closer to him in the security line. When I flew to DC in June I had, last minute, shuffled some gear from one bag to the other to make sure I was under #50 to avoid 2x over-weight charges... and I had a utility knife with a nice holder and spare blades stuffed into one of my dress shoes that I had transferred to my carry-on from checked luggage.... they threw it away, of course.

I wish that they'd check the size of carry-on pieces like they used to and still do at London Heathrow... a guy just walked past me with a suit luggage and that thing was frigging huge.

Well.. enough for now..

Ta.

Last Day

It's Wednesday.. I'm catching an 6 am flight out of DCA back home for a bit. On Saturday I fly out to Seattle; it'll be my first visit to the city and I'm looking forward to it. Will be able to catch 2 milongas too, one of them China Harbor.

I've been here in DC a week come midnight. I've caught 4 milongas with Ms.Spain thus far, DJ'ng myself one of them, and tonight being the 5th and last milonga for this trip. I had such a good time with Ms.Spain in June that it was worth traveling back just for dancing.. and to see if anything else might work out as well. I'm still trying to coax her to commit to the Denver Milonguero Festival on Labor Day. After that.. in September.. who knows.. next festival after that is the TangoFest in Portland in October.

Finally saw the much praised movie "Cinema Paradiso" last night. Very beautiful film.. with an even stronger soundtrack; been listening to it this morning.

Haven't been paying too much attention to what I've eaten during my visit.. but that's what holidays are for, aren't they? I most certainly have put back on the 5 pounds I lost during the 2 weeks before the trip but oh well. Back on the horse when I get home.

Ta.

Tango Trip #? - Who keeps count?

I flew out to the East Coast last night. I guess it's pointless to be too vague as any cross reference to myspace page of mine would reveal I was in DC last time, so here I am, in Washington DC.

I had such a good time dancing with Ms.Spain here in June that I decided to return for a week. We had talked about maybe meeting in the middle.. like in Houston; somewhere where we both could have taken a single direct commuter flight, but with her just having been out of the country for 10-days and being backlogged at work, we decided it best for me to take a connecting flight and to come all the way to DC. Lodging would be free for both of us as well, as I'm crashing on her futon.

Tonight would be the first milonga, at the Eastern Market. I dread it as the weather is oppressingly hot and humid and that place has no Air Conditioning.. kind of like Ms.Spain's loft, lol. She does.. but the machines either leak freon; are severely undersized; or the filters are clogged. Right now it's 82F and I had to lose my jeans.

I'm quite happy though not working but rather burning the cd's Ms.Spain obtained for me at my request. From artists I care for I only lack a few d'Arienzo and 2 Pugliese now.

Ta.

It's Friday but not an Aloha one

Been up in the mountains last two day.. Heading back up there in a few hours after a chiropractic adjustment and another of those Active Release Technique rub-downs.

My AC unit smells like someone is smoking right outside.. wonder if I'm burning the bearings, lol.

It's been hot here.. mid to high 90's.. even peaked past 100 just south of here.. and I'm trying to keep this wee dark house at 72.. it's usually 85 in here if it's 95 outside..especially right by 3 running computers; they put out some heat.

Pleasure trip. I'm making a pleasure trip purely for tango back to the East Coast next month. Found $99 tickets each way and with tax that's still under $240.00. This is only the second time ever I've made a trip purely for tango that wasn't for a tango festival, per se.

Trying to see if I can also get to DJ during this trip to assure high music level :)

My left arm and hand are constantly tingling. Been doing so ever since that first ART appointment I had on Monday. Quite annoying, it is, I can assure you. But he did pop the shoulder and that did increase the range of motion a little bit. He said that if by 4 or 5 appointments there isn't a noticeable difference then that technique won't work. At that point it better have worked since I will have paid enough to fly twice to dance with Ms.Spain and back (at the current web-only buy early enough in advance tix prices I found).

Denver milonguero festival is also only 5-6 weeks away.. can't be having a sore-ass shoulder again then.

I'll be driving to Wichita Kansas either just before my E.Coast trip or right after. Got a job there. The same builder wanted to do two homes on the same trip but they don't seem to get the homeowner to make any decisions.. or understand I have a 6-8 week lead-time.

Oh well. Got to take off.. Chiro in 40 mins.

Ta.

Saturday Morning Groggynes

So... I got them drugs.. some Norco for pain and Cyclobenzaprin for spasm. I've taken quite a few of the Norco's but only 2 Cyclo thus far. I took the first one at lunch on Thursday.. and I don't know if it was that or if the weeks just caught up to me, but I barely made the drive home, I was so sleepy. When I did make it home I hit the bed right away at 7:30 pm and slept until 6 am. Woke up only once shortly at 3 am. The next morning I felt like I was drunk for several hours.

Last night as I got back from the Milonga I took one at 3am and I slept until 1 pm. I started moving around just now and feeling that groggyness again.

So yea... went to the milonga last night. DJ Nick was playing... a lot of good stuff but also some weird tanda compilations and way too many alternatives. He did a 4 song set of alternatives and that completely sapped my energy.. I wasn't able to recoup after that. Dances? Not a single good one.. but I wasn't feeling all that great either.. was very tired.

I'm supposed to be working in Breckenridge next week but I so would not want to... another case of me not being able to say no. And another example of not saying no.. on the way to the Milonga last night I stopped at a house where they want to design a remodel.. it's already a nightmare and I haven't even drawn a single line. She keeps wanting impossible things and doesn't seem to hear or understand why she can't have some of the things she wants. "Can't we just do <><><><>"?. "Well no... because <><><><>". "Why not"?. *sigh*
Felt bad for the husband too.. she kept putting words in his mouth and putting him in a bad spot. Wisely he kept his mouth shut the entire time, lol.

I think I need a real good massage to try and release my trapezoid/rhomboid. The muscles are hard and swollen like a coconut. Even with the Norco I don't at all feel like sitting here in front of the computer.. at least not to work. When I work I have to scootch forward and squint at the screen to make sure I start the line from the right spot, etc. When I'm writing I can sit back and just watch the screen from a distance. Keeps the shoulders more relaxed.

I hope Ms.Spain is getting some good dances. She's in the Mid-West enjoying a Tango Festival. I miss dancing with her.

Ms.Belgium had a water pipe burst above her living room ceiling and ruin most of her condo; bummer. I guess she didn't have specific renters insurance either.

I haven't heard from Ms.Vegas since the Denver Tango Festival. She left me a voicemail the day she made the trip saying she had just heard a song that reminded her of me, but I never caught the title of the song.

I might drive up to Boulder tonight for a Milonga there. It is the early-arrival milonga for the Gustavo & Giselle workshops to be held there next week. Some people are coming clear from the east-coast for the classes, although I don't see the point. Hoping for one or two good follows to show up, though. Maybe that one really tall girl that lives in Boulder will be there. She almost never drives down to Denver and she's getting to be really good. Maybe she moved though as she got done with college.

Waiting for my breakfast to arrive. I debated whether to clean the pan and to scramble some eggs (that would just have gotten stuck to the pan I ruined) or to order a meatball sandwich and two personal sized pizzas from Extreme Pizza, and E.P. won.

I'd like to go see a movie today but I don't think that'll happen. If I go to Boulder tonight I have to get a move on right after breakfast. I'm to pick up a friend from Denver on the way if I decide to go.

I'd also like to go to the Renaissance Festival; Haven't gone in 5 or 6 years, but I don't want to go alone. Got no one to go with me, though.

Ta for now.

.

The day after

I will have to make a specific post about stuff I like/enjoy/love to counteract my complaining.

DJ Ruddy played horrible music. Music too modern.. sets where all songs weren't similar in the least.. Concert songs (where the vocalist drowns out the music and beat). The whole night he played 2 T 1 M 2 T 1 V - the standard pattern.. then toward the end he threw in a set of 1 M 2 T 1 M! Well I went to tell him that he missed the Vals set and he said that he doesn't follow any format (what the fuck was he doing earlier?) but plays according to what he reads the floor to be doing/wanting. He then played, supposedly intentionally, a Vals set right after the Milonga set.

Ms.Kenya noticed right away that I had changed my cologne and was disappointed :) She seems to really like Burberry: Touch. Two other follows noticed the change too and seemed to like the new Herban Cowboy: Dusk better than Burberry. We danced quite nicely last night and spoke of Tango Crushes.

I forgot my dance-sneakers behind but luckily had a pair of the super thin very uncomfortable ballroom shoes in my truck, which still are better than street shoes. But they allow my ankles to roll excessively to the outside (I supinate) and after few hours the bent pinkie-toe bone was hurting like hell (it's not a case of bunions or hammer toe or anything like that - a bone has shifted and is now in an angle in order to help stabilize me - It's quite sore and my podiatrist says that one day the bone might need to be cut, pulled straight, and screwed back together).
When I get a new pair of sneakers I have the cobler grind an angle in the heel that helps keep my ankles from rolling to the outside.

I barely made it back home last night.. I was nodding off several times and got pretty close to hitting a concrete wall that directs traffic on the I-25 near C/S downtown from one side of the highway to the other, while they pour the driveway and finish the bridge over it - that'da hurt a bit.

I woke up with a very stiff and sore left shoulder/neck. My chiro gave me a long sheet of scoliosis exercises that he wants me to do daily or 2x/day that I haven't had a chance to do any yet. I crashed immediately upon getting home last night and this morne I'm sore and that always detracts my attention from doing anything constructive. I'll do them tonight.

Ms.Spain and I traded a few text messages as I was driving to Denver last night.. she makes me smile.

I was looking at the DJ list for the month of July at the Merc... I'll go next Friday but then skip rest of the month. Looking pretty sad. I should maybe ask to be put on the schedule myself, but I prefer to be asked versus asking to do it - and I have a feeling I will not be asked anytime soon. I feel that the proprietor may have heard me bitching a month or two back and took it personally.. I was, of course, only bitching about the music the DJ was playing or the music that Extasis was playing, which never changes, or both. I also did make a pretty loud comment about El Pulpo just as he was about to begin his performances when he was in-town and at least 6 people heard me, that I know of. Ever since I saw him the first time in Portland in 2002 I've thought him a complete asshole.

Ta.