autographedcat

I've really been sort of absent from these pages lately, and in large part that's because the last several weeks have revolved around kitanzi's work schedule, which has her at her office 12 hours a day five-six days a week, and as a result I've been trying to pick up most of the household chores. This plan has been hampered by the fact that I've been having more troubles with my back, finally coming to the point where I got myself referred to physical therapy in an effort to get it fixed.

For the last two weekends, kitanzi has actually gotten the weekend free, giving us time and energy to actually be social with folks. Last weekend, we headed up to Colbert, GA for ApheliCon 2, the second annual Aphelion Webzine barbecue, hosted by my old friend vila_resthal and his lovely new wife, Lyn. Attendance was light, as usual, but Lyn's delightful daughter Michele was there, along with Bill Wolfe down from Tennessee, and mrjaimie and his wife over from Marietta. We had barbecue and chili, discussed writing and science and art and politics and music, and I played my guitar a bit, at the command of the hosts, who insisted. (I also played them a bit of cadhla's amazing live album, and got at least a couple of converts, I think.) We stayed until about 10pm, and decided to drive back home rather than get a hotel room in Athens, which was a prudent financial decision, if it means I didn't really get down into Athens at all on this trip.

This weekend was full of people too. Saturday evening, we went to the monthly Gafia housefilk, hosted by Alice and though it was lightly attended, the company was great, with mrpsyklops, his wife and daughter, and also joyeuse13 and abovenyquist, and we had a good deal of conversation and played some good music and had a grand time.

Sunday, we met up again with joyeuse13, abovenyquist, and Alice at Oglethorpe University to see the Georgia Shakespeare Festival's production of Metamorphoses, a play based on the works of Ovid. Rather uniquely staged around the centerpiece of a large pool of water, the players retold several important stories from the Greek/Roman myths, all of which centered on the theme of transformation and change. All of the stories were familiar to me, but the presentation was so original that I found myself spellbound for the entire 90 minute production. If you are in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend you try to catch the show before it closes on August 20.

(Digression: I used to see a great deal of live theatre, but I've fallen out of the habit in the last few years. The last time I saw a play was, if I'm not mistaken, when I went with tigerbright, browngirl, and magid to see Copenhagen in Boston four years ago. That's much too long.)

In other news, I got kitanzi a copy of The Sims 2 as an anniversary present, and we've both become rather hopelessly addicted to the game. I remember I used to watch telynor play Sims 1 on her laptop (I even got her a couple of the expansion packs), but I never really 'got it". But now that I'm actually playing it myself, there's something strangely compelling and zen like about directing these imaginary people through their lives. Kit likens it to playing dolls for grownups, and that's certainly fitting. It certainly does eat up a lot of time.

And that's the news from Lake Unionhill. May all of your days be full of joy.