November 2, 1998

Concerts and Chinese Food

The Suzuki method of teaching music is pretty well assimilated across America, now. Amusingly enough, the original students from Japan played their first concert in Seattle. On what would have been Suzuki's 100th birthday, they held a concert with more than 800 local students at the brand new music hall in downtown Seattle. Amusingly enough, how I heard about it was that my niece was playing in a concert in downtown and that we were going, and well, it was only the night before that I learned that it was $25/person.

And it was only when I got there that I found out that it was the centennial celebration of a man that changed how music is taught, and how people believed children could take up music. It was a really cool concert, though I really didn't get to see much of Emily, and amid 800+ kids, there really wasn't much chance of it.

But it was very impressive to see such a gathering of music, those whos support it, teach it, and most of all those that learn it, still. Made me remember so much about concerts, recitals, and all that. Amazing what one doesn't forget.

The new Benaroya Symphony Hall has exquisite acoustics. The entire hall, it's furniture, the flooring, the shape of the box seats, the balconies are all designed for good acoustics. So that nothing can deaden the sound. I'm going to have to see more things there.

Afterwards, the Rostyki and I went to Honey Court in Seattle to eat good Chinese food. It was really good, really fast, as we were there relatively early, as no one had had lunch, really. And there was plenty of nice food for everyone. The hot pot chicken and mushrooms, the crispy prawns with walnuts, crisp and sweet Chinese broccoli, fish maw and corn soup, and fresh squid tender and crisp. It was really yummy, and the Rostyki got to talk for a while as they haven't heard from brother David for a while.

That was cool.

The evening was a bit of an experiment with the surprising Yukon culture, which looked pretty flat in the morning, but with a light feeding turned into a frenzy of activity. So I made some whole wheat bread with it, which isn't supposed to rise as well, as I was hoping for something like a six hour proofing time. Instead, the dough tripled in less than three hours, so around 10 p.m. I was looking at dough that was ready to be shaped, proofed again and baked. Oops. So I did that thing. Didn't get to sleep until 11:40 or so, but it filled the house with lovely new bread aroma as we Bandicooted the night away.

The walk in the evening with Fezzik was pretty good, all in all, and he thought it was a normal weekday, as we hadn't gotten home until late.

So I had some of the sourdough bread for breakfast, and it was good. We went to Victor's and got mochas for the day. John packed in the morning, for the next few days, as he has business in Colorado. So I'm gonna be stuck with Fezzik for a few nights and days.

Utterly unmotivated. Mostly my imagination wanders, into other venues. For a while. It's a crispy brain so far as coding goes, so I'm wandering about in mazes of thought and conjecture and imagination. Should have some interesting things fall out in the long run. But I'm pretty dazed and confused at the moment. Not just work, but just all the small living things.

Turns out that Data I/O may have not been paying *anyone* at MINC's medical insurance when they were supposed to be, they might have just cancelled everyone's insurance at the beginning of the year, and not paid for any of them through the two months that they were supposed to be covering us. I found this out when Group Health billed me for my ACL accident, the checkup I got as I thought my insurance was about to expire, and all the lab work they did to make sure I was okay before I left.

Ouch. It was a pretty hefty sum. So John called Data I/O this morning, and I got to deal with them in the afternoon as they told me that well, maybe they cancelled all the MINC employees' insurance while they were being paid by MINC to keep it going. That's what really pisses me off. MINC actually paid Data I/O to keep our insurance up, so what the heck were they doing cancelling our insurance and *NOT* paying for it while they thought they could get away with it?

I'll get better with more sleep and a bit of time to just rest. I'm intellected out for a bit. So I heal by going deep into yeast and growing things mode. I have a couple of African Violets to take care of, too. With Fezzik and plants to take care of, it's easier to exist without a John. I guess I'll have enough problems without him, someday, without thinking about all that now.

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