Weekend plans

Have some stuff to do besides buy kitty litter and change the catbox. Need to go to the nursery and buy summer plants for the patio flower boxes. Four or five hearty things that like the sun. The salvia I planted last summer is all dead, but the aloe plants thrive. Will probably plant some jasmine, if I can find any.

Will drop some stuff off at Goodwill, sell some things on eBay, wash the gravel from the old aquariums and also wash the old tanks. Some of the old gravel will go in the new tank, the rest I'll bag and use in the planters. Not sure what I'll do with the tanks & heaters & stand.

Sunday the apartment is having its annual Sunday brunch, will do that noon-ish, may go for a bike ride, and probably will meet a friend or two. And I think I'll take my laptop to Starbucks, because I have a gift card worth about $50 to use.

And maybe this will be the sunny weekend I have been waiting for to photograph my sapphires, so I can sell a bunch of them on eBay. I want to try the bulk sales tool. At work today I actually helped debug and run a similar tool for taking a listing of 100 or so broadcast channels and slamming them into our video server program guide catalog for a customer. eBay's tool looks more user-friendly.

Mini-Review: Bobby Bare, Jr.

Bobby Bare is one of my favorite country singers. He's more a comedian with a rich baritone voice and pleasant guitar style. When the Saddle Rack was the big urban cowperson venue on Race Street in San Jose, he used to play there once or twice a year.. One of my biggest entertainment disappointments was being on my way to one of his appearances on my birthday, and an accident on 101 tied up traffic so badly that I missed his gig. Bobby Sr. had two careers - a mediocre one as a balladeer and a stellar one as a novelty singer. It's that second career I liked the best, but it's because he has a fabulous voice that he pulls it off so well.

Songs like Tequila Shiela and She's Doing Quaaludes Again amused me, but what made him a super-star was what I think ought to be the official hymn of the Church of Monday Night Football. I refer, of course, to his Drop-Kick Me, Jesus (Through the Goal Posts of Life).

On one of his live albums, he violated the "never go onstage with dogs or children" rule by bringing on his young son, Bobby Jr., to do a duet called Daddy What If. The kid did a good job, sounded like he was on leave from the Nashville School for the Terminally Cute, and the song was a real tear-jerker. So when I stumbled upon some web links which indicated Bobby Jr. now had a musical career of his own, I couldn't wait to hear his stuff.

I got two albums. The first was for a musical he wrote, called Brainwasher, and the other was his band's self-named Young Criminals' Starvation League.

In a phrase, he is TERRIBLE. He did not inherit his father's voice. Or any voice at all, unfortunately. He never seems to be sure what key he's singing in. Perhaps he doesn't know there are keys to sing in. Melody and form are also foreign to him. 'nuff said.

Bucking The Stars

After a long, relaxing day, I've taken the new laptop for a field trip to the local caffeination station. Glad I did - it showed me there are quite a few little things I had forgotten to transfer from the old laptop (the whole of the old laptop's files and settings is on the main PC at home).

Did most of what I planned:

• Dropped off old clothes and books at Goodwill


• Bought salvia, lavender, sage and star jasmine at the nursery and planted them in the patio flower boxes.
• Also re-potted three azaleas there


• Emptied the gravel from the two old fish tanks and tried washing and oven drying the first 5-gallon batch.
• It didn't work - dumped all the gravel instead, except for a few handfuls which went into the new tank.


• Mailed a DVD to a Peace Corps friend


• Picked up a couple of packages at the apartment office


• Relaxed out on the patio with the cats

Took myself to Sizzler for salad bar dinner.