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March Fools Day is the day in 1961 when JFK established the Peace Corps. I served in Thailand from March 1975 to July 1977. More on that later.

Today started with a trip to Fry's to get a replacement power brick for my laptop. I keep the original one in the laptop bag, and it still works, but usually I run it on battery, as God intended, and charge it from a spare power brick at home. That one died. I wanted a 60W Toshiba, but all the retail ones these days are 90W and above universal (they come with a set of plugs, one of which will match your laptop).

Fry's was on the way to the photo shoot. Miki, the model, is one of those women which prompt cries of outrage from the average and larger-than-they-want-to-be-but-it's-not-PV-to-admit-it women on LJ and FB and Twitter...ad nauseum of "nobody looks like that! These must be Photoshopped!" Here's Miki, the only photoshopping I did was to adjust the contrast level and maybe crop the background.
Cut because I care )

I got some good shots, and since this one was lingerie and not nudes, They are all mostly work-safe. It wasn't a very good shoot compared to the last two, for a number of reasons. The host did several lighting setups, all of them were difficult to shoot in. I won't bore you with the details. The model kept changing poses and expressions faster than the lights could re-charge and she sucked at taking directions.

I won't be doing any shoots for at least another 2 weeks, what with rehearsals and Consonance con.

Home, processed the photos, had dinner, threw a load of laundry into the washer and drove to Foothill College to see their production of Little Shop. Nutshell review:
The girl trio was spectacular. They sounded like they had been singing together for years. I asked after the show, and they hadn't. The whole production was way over-choreographed. The guy playing my part lost his character a third of the way through - he went from somewhat believable NY Jewish shopkeeper to Red Skelton in two easy steps. He managed to get cut from one of the musical numbers and some of the choreography, and they slowed down the two numbers where he has tongue twisters. They had a large cast, our director has chosen to make one guy play many parts, which I think is stupid and a Big Mistake, this show had a different person for each part, which meant they had some serious vocal power as an ensemble chorus. The female lead was very good, the male lead was okay. The band was excellent, but the sound system wasn't. All the cast were miked, and whoever was on the audio board had it cranked up too high. Toward the end there was feedback. We also had some mikes being bumped backstage at the start. The set was good. Costumes were iffy, except for the stunning red sparkley dresses the trio wore at the end.

Home, here I am.

Plans for tomorrow:
Janice's 70th birthday party at noon at her condo's community center
Rehearsal at the theater. My first time on stage there in 14 years. Or backstage probably. I doubt if we will rehearse on the Little Princess set. Sunnyvale has a big dressing room/rehearsal room backstage.
howeird: (Slarty Animated)

Plan A actually happened, I went to all three dealerships at the appointed times, test drove several cars, got usable prices for everything I was interested in, and made a decision. It was not the decision I had expected to make.

10 am Toyota
Read more... )



11:00 - Trader Joe's, got natural peanut butter (chunky) and hummus. Diabetes doc said those were good for snacking, and I like them. They were out of almond butter (there's a shortage, he said) and no sign of their killer fondue mix (seasonal, coming back in October, he said). This is a new store, in the space formerly occupied by Borders Books. It is a really great space, but a craptastic location on account of the parking lot being designed by the same folks who do bumper cars. To their credit, TJ's had two or three "security" midgets in reflective jackets helping direct traffic and pretending to make it safer for pedestrians.

11:30 - lunch at PF Chang's. I had the Mongolian Beef, which was superb, but the steamed rice was short grain and dry, and the cucumber salad was soggy.  Egg flower soup was hot & sour base with a little bit of egg. However, the service was lightning fast, and they got my order right, so I left a big tip.

1 pm Honda
Read more... )

2:15 - Starbucks, used my free drink credit on a frapuccino, set up the laptop and played on FB. While I was there, Tim from Ford called to confirm my 3 pm appointment.

3 pm Ford
Read more... )

Home, did a spreadsheet with the Toyota numbers, and at $5/gal, 10,000 miles a year (I have 52,000 after 6 years) it would take 5 years (50,000 miles) to make up the price difference between the Prius C and the Yaris. And I enjoyed driving the Yaris more.

That done, it was time to go to the Storytelling meetup in Campbell. A very nice woman named Lori hosted it in her little art studio, and 7 others showed up. All but the last latecomer told a story, the theme was travel. The meetup organizer started with an intro, and then people got up to sit in the tall chair in front of the semi-circle. Most of the folks have no idea how to tell a story, but they all said interesting things. I pulled an old story out from the 70s, and it was well-received. If they have another when I am free, I'll go.

Home at about 9:30, printed up some checks in case I have to write one tomorrow. Got the title from my Corolla out in case I'm selling it tomorrow. Went online to the Toyota dealership and found three Yarises which were a color I could live with and the features I want. All of them list for $1k more than the one I got the quote on, but that's okay. I figure I can suck that much out of them. Even without the trade-in I can still pay cash.

Plans for tomorrow:

Call Celine, tell her I'm coming in at about 11.
Buy a car
Sell  car
Coffee with Janice at 5:30

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howard stateman

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