Sheep Guarding Llama

Dominica is 24 today. But she didn’t manage to get off of work so she is stuck there all day. Tonight we are going out to dinner at Banfi’s at the Statler Hotel. They have a NY Sheep Cheese Tart that is just amazing. We are planning on just getting that, salads and dessert since you get too full otherwise. They have a really awesome grape dressing there as well for their spinach salad that I have been craving for forever too. I am really looking forward to dinner tonight.

I moved most of July over to the archives. Be careful trying to look at the 2002 archives, we are already up to 1/4 megabyte of text alone for the page. It really shows just how much I update the site. I hope that everyone is really reading this thing because I sure do but in a lot of work to keep the news on here for everyone.

I am still waiting for Nate and Bob to get that web site to me for their school’s music program. Sooner or later they will get that to me. But I think that they keep waiting until they see me in person and that could easily be another month before that happens since I am only here this week while they are in Albany at the NYSSMA conference and then I am working this weekend during the little time that they are back and then I head straight back to DC for Monday.

Overall, not a lot happened during the day today. I am posting now and Loopy and I are just about to run out for some lunch. I had a phone meeting about the upcoming weekend job in Endicott that took up most of the middle of the day. An hour and a half on the phone talking to people that I have never met before is a bit much for the middle of the day, let me assure you. I have to go in and work tomorrow which sucks a bit. I might not have to be there late but I won’t know until I get the chance to leave so I can’t schedule anything.

Happy Birthday to Joe Tocco! He is 17 today. We are expecting him and his band, Unlisted Side Effects to be playing at open mic night down at the Nines this Sunday night so come out and hear him if you get the chance.

Today I got up early and drove out to Batavia to meet Eric for a meeting at United Memorial Medical Center there. The meeting went well and we think that they are impressed. Unfortunately, their volumes are just way to low for us to be able to do much for them.

I got home to find that Loopy had gotten a new cable for the projector that allows him to hook up his line double to it giving us an incredible picture compared to a straight DVD player. A standard DVD player produces output of approximately 480 lines and we now are viewing 768 lines. So for all of you who have never gotten the chance to watch DVDs and LDs line doubled and on a 120″ screen – ha ha. I am writing this while sitting on the couch in the den as Loopy carefully adjusts the projector while Dominica is out partying with friends from work.

Loopy and I took a job this coming weekend working at Gentiva in Endicott. If you look through the archives, you can probably find when we worked there last. This time, I get to be in charge of the project. I have to go down and work there on Thursday night for a few hours and then Loopy and I will be there full shifts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It will make for a long weekend but weekend money is always helpful and it cuts the least into the normal business week. And another line for the resume never hurts either. It will be nice to have a Team Lead position on there for this kind of work. I am always looking for this kind of stuff.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Dominica’s birthday and she will kill you all if you don’t remember. She tried to convince me to let her open her present last night but I am not so weak. She will have to wait till tomorrow like anyone else.

Today I am being lazy and avoiding the world. After the last few weeks of being so busy, I am enjoying having a day off. I putzed around the house most of the day and watched movies once it got dark enough out.

Loopy returned home from Burlington this afternoon. After he got home, Min, Loop and I headed down to the theatre room and watched Thoroughly Modern Millie and MASH (that I finally got back from Natalie thanks to Loopy.) It is so nice to have an amazing theatre like this. I know that I keep raving about it but it is really exciting. You all have to get over here and watch some movies with us.

When I first got down to the theatre this afternoon I immediately fired up the stereo to test out the sound in the room. It didn’t sound very good so I took a look around and noticed that the left and right channels of the stereo were backwards and the left channel’s speaker wire was inverted which was causing a totally reversed and conflicting image that sounded pretty awful. I got that corrected right away.

My new Marantz MA-500 Monoblock arrived on Saturday and I finally got to open it today. Of course, like the rest of my week wouldn’t have prepared me for this, the packaging of the unit was punctured by some large metal object and the amp was partially crushed under the pressure. I decided to try my luck with it anyway and the unit is fine. Only cosmetic damage (which still sucks but we think that we might be able to fix that as well.) I hooked up the last two Monos and pulled Nate’s amp out of the system. We now have a total of 625 THX certified watts of power flowing into our little theatre and the sound matches really well. It is totally awesome. The new amps also eliminate the huge explosive pops that have been occurring whenever the preamp changes modes. Loopy and I think that this is because the Monos have clipping cut out circuits that protect the amps. However it works, the system sounds better than ever.

Min and I started the day by going to Sunday school at my parents’ church and then driving out to Utica to drop off Dexter. After driving out to Utica we headed back to Ithaca.

Today Min and I are spending the day dog-sitting Dexter. We spent some time at a road side farm market discussing Ithaca farm markets with the owner. Min’s ankle is feeling better today. She can walk ok. She won’t be too bad for long.