All of me, why not take all of me�

There are certain things that suck the life right out of you, as some of you already know, and that is the process of applying for government funding to commence or complete certain projects that might be advantageous to the public at large or at least interesting enough that universities can hire students and technicians to earn some of the public pot. People who apply for these purses practise what has been termed �grantsmanship�, and someone who is particularly adept at it is called a �good grantsman�.

A couple of years ago Hubby had an idea for building a new musical instrument, one that would have an alternative keyboard and a MIDI interface so that it could be programmed to play any and all divisions of the octave. He has been writing music for quite a while, influenced by his studies in ancient Greek theory, that utilizes quarter-tones, but the tuning by the players is at best approximate, depending largely on their ears and the flexibility of their instruments.

The vice-principal academic and the research officer at his university were all excited about this proposal, and he spent a great part of his last sabbatical writing and rewriting an application that, if granted, would have been worth a couple of million dollars. It was not successful and was put on the back burner. This holiday he has been doing it all over again, for a different granting agency and for a much smaller amount. It turns out that in the intervening time, someone else has embarked on the manufacture of a very similar instrument to the one he envisioned, and that lets him off the hook in the development area and lets him concentrate on research.

For this application, he needed to submit biographical and professional materials, including recordings and reviews of his music. Not a very organized guy at the best of times, most of the mail that he receives never gets filed in the proper place and usually ends up in boxes when the dining room table needs to be cleaned off for company, for example. I got suckered into going through boxes looking for reviews, and ended up filling one up with material for the recycling. There were unopened envelopes from various book clubs, receipts, even a cheque I had written for the sports centre which they never got because it turns out Hubby never delivered it--it somehow ended up in one of these boxes--all going back two or more years. I did find some publicity photos of myself which are sadly outdated, and an envelope of pictures my mother-in-law sent that were taken at Christmas at her house two years ago.

So, in keeping with my desire to share my life with perfect strangers on the internet, here I am with my dearly beloved at his parents�s house.

As an addendum to all that, Hubby didn�t get home from the office until 6 a.m. He slept for a couple of hours on the couch, showered, then went back to the office to finish up the application and hand it to the vice-prin and research officer, then sat in registration for a couple of hours. I don�t know how the guy does it. I sincerely hope he doesn�t get sick; classes start on Monday.

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from zuzus-petals :

YOU ARE A TOTAL HOTTIE! -Zuzu

from harri3tspy :

Best of luck to hubby. He has my complete and total sympathy. I don�t know what he�s applying for, but as a former professional grantsman, I do know that the bigger the governmental organization, the worse the grant application. The City aps were bad, the county worse, the state ridiculous and the NEA? Abso-frickin-ly insane.

from bindyree :

How nice to put a face to the moniker. Thank you for posting your picture! :)

from tcklyrpharsn :

I ain�t no perfect stranger! Good luck to A on the application... my job now consists of grant/foundation research and applications, so maybe by next year I�ll be a good grantswoman and can provide tips. That�s what I�m hoping, anyway.

from ladybug-red :

I�m just now catching up - great picture. You (as always) are looking lovely and Hubby is quite the handsome gentleman!

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