whew

today is a resting day. i spent a week debating whether to keep this going as Mark's Sore Feet Blog but decided instead to be happy my feet were gradually getting better.

i've spent a couple of weeks designing the little website at work. a week ago monday i got carol zander to sign off as my internship advisor, then met with her wednesday. the deadline to get the contract filed was a little tight, but we made it.

the other big occupation has been the dead computer. the hard drive began making the clicking noise of death about the time jose and tracy were here, then died for definitively shortly thereafter. naturally i had neither hide nor hair of recovery disks. for some reason hp marketing figures it's better to have a recovery copy of the system on a separate partition, only what happens if your boot disk goes south? you're hosed, that's what. take it from me, you don't want to have to restore even two years' worth of music, art, homework, applications to play music and print disk labels and so forth.

i also underwent a physical. dr fred smith our godlike m.d. said he didn't see anything "shocking" on my readings. i feel like i've dodged a bullet.

earlier in the week scott and i and barb and fred saw carla bley at jazz alley. i'd seen her twice, which is apparently the only two times she's come to seattle to play (one time in duo with steve swallow--about the time they released their first duet record--and once conducting a big band headed up by Jim Knapp (then head of the jass program at cornish) playing her music. This time she brought a quartet, and it was amazing to hear what a telepathic degree of interplay they developed. even if billy drummond drowned things out once in awhile. later i discover carla and steve have been playing with the horn player andy shepard for years and the trio actually recorded an album last year. called "the lost chords." carla's written so many amazing pieces you can pick out any six or seven and have a great, varied, funny, touching set. in her playing (very compositional, subtly directive--this band's got each others' moves down col) and in several of the compositions she seemed to be exploring theme-and-variations (e.g., of "The Star Spangled Banner"--or "Three Blind Mice") pretty deeply. funny, that's what beethoven did too.

so that night barb and i talked and hit a breakthrough. she was worried i wanted her to contribute 50% of money. i was worried that my lack of enthusiasm about having kids had permanently damaged the marriage. so we forgave each other. and there is such a glow around us.