Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Aieee, the pain!

Thursday, June 8, 2006
12:36 p.m.
There was no update in Elganland yesterday, for Elgan had gone out. Hubby, Little Princess, her BF and I went to Montreal to hear Hubby's vi0la concerto being played by a dear friend of ours at the 34th International Vi0Ia C0ngress. Vi0lists are a different breed of instrumentalists. They are like Canadians: polite, generous, play well with other musicians. A whole convention of them must be a rather quiet affair.

Anyway, the concert went quite well. We got to reconnect with some people we hadn't seen for a while, and Hubby was able to do a bit of schmoozing. The woman running the c0ngress is an old friend of ours. Hubby had brought copies of the piano reduction for the concerto to either give away or sell, and she said, "Where's the part?" So he promised her he would deliver it the next day for the table they were setting up in the concert-hall lobby.

There was a party afterwards in the backyard around the pool of the bass player who is our friend's boyfriend. It was cool, and I was underdressed, so Hubby lent me his jacket. The mosquitoes came out and found my unprotected ankles. At the last minute I inquired what was on the menu, and was told that they were barbecuing meat on the grill, and our hostess was able to telephone her boyfriend (who was out picking up supplies) to get some salmon for the vegetarians. The salmon would have been delicious if it had been cooked through. I was not drinking beer or pop because I was cold, and finally got my hostess (who was concerned at my lack of fluid intake) to make me a hot cup of tea. Other than all that, I didn't have too bad a time.

Getting to the party was another story though. I almost got out of the car and found my own way back to L'ville. Hubby was following the bassist in his car and ran a red light. I was livid. I think I put up with a fair bit. And then at the party he asks me to try to have a good time. Oy. It wasn't until it was time to leave and a young man, also a vi0list, and I got into a conversation about pedagogy, that I actually started enjoying myself. Oh well.

This morning we had to prepare those parts to send on the bus. My old printer used to print back-to-back copies no problem. My new one gives me grief every time I do it. My old printer had an external paper tray which one could load with several sheets. My new printer can only be manually fed one sheet at a time. I ended up wasting an incredible amount of paper (which is now in my scrap-paper drawer, I never throw it out until I have to) trying to make back-to-back parts. Needless to say, we missed the 10 a.m. bus. Hubby got the package ready for the 1 p.m. one. But he was late for his tennis game. My heart is aching for him.

However, yesterday morning before embarking on our Montreal adventure, I did manage to dig the compost (two years' worth of it) into the backyard garden. I don't really dig it in. I just dig trenches (or troughs), throw in a layer of detritus, and cover it over with dirt. It is interesting to see the kinds of things that make it into the composter: bits of plastic bags, plastic-coated twist-ties, egg shells that haven't been crushed; and it's also interesting to find what has decomposed and what hasn't, especially when you're digging through brown crumbly stuff and you come across the bright orange sludge of last year's jack o'lanterns. Anyway, I'll let that sit for a few days before I put in my tomato plants and basil seed. I've made the mistake of planting right away in the past and having animals dig up all my hard work to get at the rich-smelling stuff underneath.

Today, I am sore beyond description.

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