Blah, Sunday edition

Still headache and general blahness. The meeting this afternoon will be a trial, I fear, but with only nine days before hand-in it's not one I can miss. Bah.

Dear Blogger.com I see that you have updated your software to include automatic spellchecking. I am embarrassed beyond belief to state that Blogger is (for once) not at fault. The automatic spellchecker belongs to the new, updated version of Safari. I have turned it off.

Who would have thought that a web browser would require spellchecking? Apparently it does; presumably it costs nothing to add it in since the checking software already exists as a generic core routine. There are a few useful improvements in Safari, what makes me happy this evening is that the Home/PageUp/PageDown/End keys now, finally, work in the bookmarks page.

Eighteen down, twelve to go.

On the roosting of chickens

I've just found in the pile of mail that arrived while I was in New York, a lawyer's letter informing me that my landlady has annulled our contract and wants me out of the apartment on the 31st of this month, i.e. the day after tomorrow. I've spoken to G's brother who studied law, and fear that she is legally in the right: if the rent is more than three months overdue the lease may be cancelled without notice. I shall see a proper lawyer on Monday but have no great hope of achieving more than a grace period of at best a few weeks; and even that is entirely at her discretion. Damn.

I've got to stop thinking about this. There's nothing I can do before tomorrow morning, if I sit here and think about this I'll have a bloody heart attack. Good work, Udge! Well done.

[Updated] well, it's possibly less dramatic than it first sounded. According to G's brother the process dissolves into thin air if I can pay the whole arrears plus incidental costs plus lawyers' costs within a month of issue of the demand. Which in itself suggests that telling me on the 18th to leave on the 31st is not entirely kosher, but that's beside the point. G and AY have both loaned me money against future earnings, and I have enough to pay all bills that I'm aware of tomorrow.

Still leaves me being idiot of the year, though. Damn.

Strangeness abounds

I was in Munich for three hours yesterday, hand-delivering a CD—which turned out to be the wrong CD. Sorry, start again.

I solved the database problem and built new Mac and Windows installers, and all was just peachy. I then considered how to get the CD to Munich, and discovered that I could get a special last-minute deal on the train that cost only six Euros more than the courier would charge for next-day delivery. So I booked the tickets, and then discovered that the CD didn't run on Windows! First mistake: buying the tickets—valid only on one specific train—before I was sure that the CD was fully in working order. With the clock rapidly running down, I made a new CD and tested it on Windows. It worked. Packed everything together and ran for the train, watched Bavaria roll by for two hours, then to the office where I handed the CD over to Georgette.

Georgette popped the CD into her Mac, and discovered my second mistake: I had copied an old, outdated, Mac version instead of the new, fresh, squeaky-clean one. So I sat around drinking coffee and talking about their ideas for future versions, then took the train home again, looking at the moon for the better part of two hours.

So, this morning I have prepared ultra-new, ultra-fresh, ear-piercingly-squeaky-clean versions which I will upload onto Senduit for Georgette to download, after which she will create a master CD for duplication under remote control via telephone.

There are several issues arising from this experience. First is, I have to say, my sloppiness and overconfidence: bad workmanship compounded by not testing the product. It's not just here, I am making simple, sloppy mistakes at the architects' too: jumping to conclusions, not examining the results.

Secondly, what on earth possessed me to spend five hours on the train yesterday when I could just as easily have done the same Internet-and-remote-control trick? Was this not just a midlife-crisis-inspired desire to play the Knight in Shining Armour?

Seventh

Had an e-mail from my mother this morning, in reaction to an e-mail that she had just received from the leader of the operatour group.

The Mariinsky Theatre's Ring Cycle production which we saw in Baden-Baden two years ago, will be performed at the Met in July of 2007. Do we want to see it again?

A week in Manhattan, with the Ring? Oh, well, I'm not sure, let me think about that for a moment: YES!!!!!!!

I had mailed Sass about the possibility of me buying her a beer in Toronto in September, she expressed wonder that some people know what they'll be doing eight months in advance. I know what I hope to be doing (God willing) eighteen months in advance. Being an opera fan requires taking the long view: we must decide now, and make a downpayment next month.

A little nudge for any east coast-ish North Americans who might be curious: the Mariinsky Ring really is superb.

In other news I was standing in the kitchen just now, preparing a little tray of supplies for my midmorning break. A cup of coffee (still black) and a glass of water were on the tray, I opened the refrigerator and took out the milk - and watched myself pour milk into the glass of water, thinking as I did so "Something's not quite right here..."

In other other news the sky is already brighter, the days already longer than at Christmas. I noted with surprise yesterday evening, on the train home from a meeting, that the sky was not yet black at 5:45pm. Spring is not far away.