Getting Things Done

I turned in the final, final copy of the Westercon 60 PR 2 to The Management this morning after a last-second update to a paragraph arrived after I sent the final draft out last night. I understand that the PR should go to the printer today. The plan is to get it into the mail before the bylaws-mandated May 10 deadline. It should appear on the Gnomeward Bound website soon, as will the individual pieces of information contained in it when I get them separated back out and sent to the webmaster. (In case you're wondering, the reason we're doing it in this order is so that they match, because we were fiddling with the wording right up until the last minute.)

( Busy weekend ahead )

Must rush now. We want to get out ahead of the traffic, which means I'll have to get some work done once we get to the hotel.

Quick Trip to Marin

Well, that wasn't too bad at all. A mile-long pocket of slow before I-238 in Hayward, another slow pocket at Ashby after merging from 880 to 80/580 (and getting a glimpse of the missing link ramps), and another, longer backup getting from 580 onto US-101. Overall, 50 miles in about 75 minutes is pretty good for the Bay Area.

It's been a while since I stayed at an Embassy Suites -- the last time was probably the Chicago SMOFCon, where I decided that was probably the best physical setup for a SMOFCon we've ever had. It's the usual set-up of a bedroom and living room, and it's very comfortable. Cheryl is relaxing a bit reading while I try to get a bit more work done before we get ready to head over the concert. The concert hall is about eight miles or so from here, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get there. But we do need to get me a little snack to eat before we go there, since I forgot to bring my fruits and nuts. (Oh, the joys of trying to keep one's diabetes under control through diet and exercise.)

Al Stewart in Church

The Al Stewart concert Cheryl and I attended was part of a series entitled "Stained Glass and Six Strings," a series of acoustic guitar concerts. It was held in St. John's Episcopal Church in Ross, and a beautiful building it was inside.

( Photo of the church just after the doors opened )

Opening for Al and performing with him, as at the Freight & Salvage concert we attended a few months ago, was Dave Nachmanoff. Alas, not wanting to use the flash on my camera, I was limited to the low-light settings while they performed, which meant most of my photos were blurry.

( The best of a bad lot )

After the concert, Al signed autographs and there were CDs and DVDs available for sale. I got someone to take a picture of Cheryl, Al, and me, but Cheryl saw how she looked in the photo and insisted I crop her out before posting it here.

( Al and me )

Al autographed a couple of DVDs I'd just bought, and we very briefly chatted with him. I mentioned that I'd always thought "Night Train to Munich" (which he performed that evening, to my delight) would make a fun music video.

After a late dinner at Denny's -- our choices being limited because it was after 10 PM -- we headed back to the hotel, where we tried to feed the Super 14 rugby match to one of the TV sets in the room. Unfortunately, while one set has the necessary input jacks, it doesn't have the TV/video switch on the set itself, and the hotel-supplied remote doesn't include the button, so we're forced to watch the match off Cheryl's computer directly.