A side porch of cats

In the classic paradigm...

... it's made of glass.

(at the risk of explaining the joke. The object in question is a slipper)

It's framed, and everything

Anyone thinking about being upredictably lyrical, see me. Nobody cares about density and scale any more.

Hell of a pothole

Arriving at Brandeis early to grade theory homework — since I picked up the wrong pile of papers and took it home yesterday — I noted a new feature to the parking lot that has removed three parking spaces from commission. It seems to be an already-patched pothole.

This is what happens when you build parking lots on active volcanoes.

Also, we had a lot of rain.

Scratching the cats on the side of the head

More barable

The bare spot continues its inexorablenessossitudinousnessness.

Croci have yet to emerge. Being as they are snow-covered and all.

You have to look REALLY close

... but the maple trees lining the driveway were steaming this morning.

That's only significant because I have a piano étude named Steaming Trees. Except it's in French.

The birds

I had the back window open for the cats to gaze, and boy were the birds loud this morning. Sign of spring? Sign of singing, for sure.

So I investigated. Just a short way down Summer Hill Road is a stand of trees where all the birds returning from winter revelries tarry for a while, and where I always hear the first song sparrow of the spring. As I did today. You'll hear some cardinals first, and then the song sparrow.

I hope they know more than the weather guys do.

Instrumental invention

 This week we see the result of the "invent an instrument and write a piece for it" assignment for undergraduate composition. I had a small group session where Vincent invented an instrument made from a branch, soda cans, needles, and string

Emily's instrument is corrugated cardboard and a golf tee*,

and Travis wrote for a Stewart's Root beer bottle. Plenty of photos exist of those.

Wednesday is the day they perform their pieces. It's going to be very cool.

* we suggested the title "Corrugated Communitee".

Exactly one year ago

I took this picture.

HDR morning

Reduced salt used in Lincoln

Don't I know it.

Meanwhile, Q exits and more slop comes for Wednesday, Woo hoo! Many choruses, especially on drive time radio, of Sick of Winter, Where is Spring? Meh. It's not 2012 any more.

Varieties in liquid refreshment

With my traveling to residencies done for the next two months, it was time to start making the fridge more of a long range thing — and Beff's here for her two-week vacation on Friday, woo hoo! So I made fresh squoze lemonade and limeade, and did some faux sun tea. I will thirst no longer.

MY NAME IN LIGHT-emitting diodeS

The music building at Furman U has a hugeass video display near the entrance with calendars, campus maps, and other informational things. Thus did I get to be tops, being second fiddle only to Overcast with rain (which happened to be that day's weather).

I know Keith Lockhart is their guest this upcoming week, which may have something to do with the Boston Pops Tickets.

Also. There was a regional band thing going on there on the day I was in residence. Lots of big guys with checkered shirts and beards — meaning I mostly saw the lower brass.

High Cotton

For my final trick, I was taken to the High Cotton Restaurant in Greenville, a foodie type place. It was determined that our food had taken too long, and as compensation, dessert was on the house. Here's one of them. It appears to be bread pudding that's been pierced by a UFO, while a Jackson Pollock looks on.

The plane! The plane!

I've never done this before. Here are pictures taken from the plane, skirting the North Shore, as it is in its final descent yesterday. Joy of joys.

I believe this last one is Nahant.

Perks of first class

I got a roast beef sandwich on ciabatta bread along with some lukewarm soup. I didn't eat the brownie. Note the salt and pepper shaker. It's starting to look like the extra bucks is totally worth it.

Economy cabin got NOTHING. MWA ha ha ha.

I was able to cross my legs.

The sound of the plane that far front is very whisssshhhhh.

And the cost to me was only $8.49 per minute in the air.

Never seen these before

A SKY priority ticket, and, drum roll..... A first-class boarding pass. Why? I booked my return flight a month later than I actually intended to fly, and nobody noticed. Until I did at 6 this morning.

Thus did my net honorarium sink to less than 10 percent of its original value.

My first oyster

I hate oysters.

I had one tonight presented this way. It was great.

Revision: I hate non-deep fried oysters.

Make your body happy

And it's identical to the $2 bottle in the vending machine right outside my room.

Talk to the hand part 2

Talk to the hand

For the record, they used a lot of Zephyr Script.

At Furman

Also at the Hyatt

Hotel splendor

Hyatt Regency Greenville. What a view.

Yeah it's a big airport

Where this has been

This t- shirt has been unwashed in my carry-on for maybe 3 years? Well, now it's extra padding.

Why all the window seats face in

This is the view out

Crocus pocus

My first crocus picture from last year is dated February 21. Seeing as the ground there is covered with about 4 inches of snow, I doubt I'll see any there tomorrow.

So I recolorized the picture, just for you.

Around again

Progress on piano quartet (made it to 6 minutes, and the commission is for 5), and the 2-mile walk around and over the Assabet. The ice recedes out from the current.

Meanwhile, Beff goes through LaGuardia hell™. She made it nice and early for her 9:30 flight, only to find out that there is no 9:30 flight ("this happens more often than you would think," they told her). She was "rebooked" for the 11:30 flight, due to take off at 3:00 after some maintenance.

Meanwhile, later Beff called to advise me to check any suspicious credit card activity, since she had to pull it out to buy wi-fi and all, and there was a nice charge from LAGUARDIA USA, LLC for an amount several dollars above what her receipt for breakfast read. Not to mention, the subtotal on the receipt was $1.50 higher than the sum of her three items. Ah, ain't travelin' great?

At posting time, her flight was scheduled to take off at 2:30, meaning even though she misses a scheduled meeting and two lessons to give, she at least gets to lead the clarinet choir rehearsal tonight. Possibly reading through, for the first time in history, my new clarinet choir thingie.

Where he's not supposed to be

Cammy supposes that a piano quartet is more comfortable than the many padded and plush things within a few feet of him.

Here he is passed through Photo Sketcher.

The shunned path

I forged a path to the gazebo for Sunny, who usually likes hanging out under it when it is sunny. It is, so far, shunned.

Meanwhile, it rains.

Valentine's Day gifts

As far as Valentine's Day gifts go, this is one of them. From Beff. Shipped from The Pickle Guys. It's quite similar to last year's gift. For those who can't see what's inside, it's pepperoncinis and tomatilloes. I like the tomatilloes.

or, as PhotoSketcher sees it,

Historical cuteness

From December 2005, and hosted by Imageshack.

Note to the weather

Howdy. Just reminding you that the day we put the Adirondack chairs out for the season is March 15. Thank you for your time and consideration.

My Imageshack experiment

Apparently I have an Imageshack account. I don't know why, or how, or when I would have signed up for it. But as an imageshack user, I got an e-mail about their new mobile app, SkyPath — apparently named after a generic airline magazine.

So, however many months after the fact, I stuck some pictures up there and am wondering if I can reference their URLs here. Watch this.

Yeah, it worked. That's Cassis in February, 2011. Bye.

IZ A

The Blizzard of 2013 did to Elizabeth Warren what Scott Brown couldn't.

You can see her bouncing back, though. Think of the Blizzard of 2013 as Republican congressmen on the finance committee. Then, stop.

This rosemary

... ain't gonna make it.

Color of the day

Sunrise is earlier every day, and I spied this as the cats asked to be let outside.

Barable

The first post-blizzard, post-winter weather advisory patch of bare ground emerges where it always does — just in back of the stand of pines. In time and with warmth, the patch expands and eats up the entire world. All we can do is sit back and soak it in.

As to all the other assorted schmutz on the snow. Wind advisory the last two days.