As an MS person, I'm supposed to be obeying the law, which is something like "Thou shalt not exhaust thyself". I gave up on "thou shalt not take hot showers" a long time ago, but I do make an effort to take hold of the reins and not do ten thousand things all on one day the way I used to do pre-MS.

So, what did I do last week? Coded for 3 12-or-14-hour days, continued strength training, went for walks, sewed a pair of pants, went Tango dancing, had 2 string quartet rehearsals, taught violin lessons, played in church, cleaned my apartment, wrote 'cello parts for 5 fiddle tunes for NESI this summer, cooked, etc. Yikes. When my face fell asleep on Friday night after my last lesson, I immediately freaked out and put myself to bed. And realized that once I'm utterly exhausted it's extremely hard to get to sleep. Argh. I had to drug myself (or perhaps "herb myself" is more appropriate).

My mantra this week, in preparation for a trip to San Francisco, is "don't be dumb. give your body a break already." Ahem.

Life is rough when you love to work and your body loves to rest. Phooey.

My viola student has an orchestra piece called "Fiddles on Fire" and every time I see it I have to yell "Fiddles on Fire!" just because I like the name of it. I know she thinks I'm weird. :-)

On Monday night I finished writing the 'cello parts for a bunch of fiddle tunes to be played this summer by students at the New England Suzuki Institute. I now have new respect for arrangers of student music. It's one thing to write a decent 'cello part that sounds nice, won't be too muddy, and doesn't break too many voice leading rules, but on top of that to make sure that there are no complicated string crossings, no difficult finger patterns, and no shifting out of first position, PLUS writing a part that isn't too boring for the kids...yeah. As I said, I have new respect for those arrangers. Huh, I guess I just became one.

Here they are:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/~vbg/scores/nesi_2005

When I was in the drugstore getting craft paper so I could copy a pair of pants, I passed by the pantyhose display and noticed a new product: spray-on hose. Call me old-fashioned, but there's something scary about that. Waterproof? As in, "your skin can't breathe"? And what happens to the spray that didn't hit your legs? Do you then scrub insta-leg off your floor/wall/bathtub? Yikes. Although maybe it has some applications for home decorating. Or water sports.

I hate pantyhose as much as the next person, but spray-on stockings? I'll stick with thigh-highs.

First of all, YAY! I have a renter. He moves in on Sunday. God, I can't believe it will be May already.

Before he moves in, I have to fix the toilet. I had turned the water off downstairs because there was a leak in the basement. Originally I thought a pipe had frozen during the winter (and I wasn't looking forward to figuring out where the leak was). Upon closer inspection, though, I realized that the leak was actually in the intake pipe for the toilet, and was just dripping down the water pipe into the cellar. I didn't know if the fill assembly was also leaking, so I bought a replacement assembly just in case. Total for that and the intake pipe: $11.

This afternoon I took a break from my buglist and replaced the intake pipe. That fixed the leak, so now I have an extra fill assembly hanging around. Given the extremely yucky state of the current float in that toilet, maybe I should just replace it.

As I was getting friendly with the toilet, I noticed that I could still hear a trickle of water and, sure enough, every 30 seconds or so the toilet would fill again. Great. So I pulled out my official Toilet Flapper Tester (long-handled pasta scoop utensil), and pushed the handle down hard on top of the flapper. No more trickle out of the tank. Of course, a new flapper was the one thing I didn't buy when I was at the hardware store today....arrrrrrrgh.

Now we come to the important part of this post, which is a new law that I have decided to name after my dad, a fabulous Mr. Fix-it:

Bruce's Law:
The replacement part you need will be the one part you didn't buy.

Well, I did get half the repair done so at least I'm closer now. And fortunately it only took about 5 minutes. Woohoo.

Today I hauled ass through my buglist so I could make it to quartet rehearsal by 4:30, and then over to pick up my mom so we could make it to Merrill by 7:30 to see Jess sing with Chanticleer. It was at times beautiful, sacred, and silly, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We saw many people I knew when I was in high school (teachers, parents of classmates). Not many people my age at the concert, though I did run into a girl who dances Tango in Portland. It was fun to have a girls' night out with my mom. And lovely to see Jess, of course! He charmed the pants off my mom, as usual, and bought us 2 CDs at the "singer rate". Now that he's leaving Chanticleer and its associated crazy touring schedule, maybe he'll actually be home next time I'm in Berkeley and I can hang out with him and his wife.

Now I'm home and am eating noodles (with yummy mushrooms from my trip to Providence!) at 11pm and trying to wind down by endeavoring to increase the bacterial content of my kombucha culture. I've missed my sourdough culture so much (darned wheat-free lifestyle) that I'm having tons of fun with my new kombucha "pet". Wheeeeeeeeee!

Today was a gorgeous day in Portland. After picking up my freshly-rehaired bow, trading musician gossip with B., teaching the kids at PATHS, and cleaning my apartment, I strode out the door for a walk to church to pick up the music for Sunday. On the way back, I stopped at the Paris Farmers Union to pick up a new flapper for the downstairs toilet.

Once back at home, I quickly made the flapper switcheroo and was delighted that the tank filled and remained filled. Woohoo! Not wanting to throw the old flapper away (though what I'll use it for I have no idea, I just can't bear to pitch it), I debated about where to store it. Finally I decided on the under-sink cabinet in the bathroom that I never use. I opened up the cabinet, and there on the shelf was...a new toilet flapper. Actually, a 2-pack of flappers, with one missing. From the previous homeowners. Yup.

This requires a corollary to Bruce's Law.

Bruce's Law (Corollary 1):
The replacement part you bought was the one you already had but didn't know it.
Bruce's Law (Corollary 2):
The replacement part you bought was one that you know you have somewhere but you told your wife you don't have one because you can't find it because the cellar/garage is too messy. Ahem.

#2 applies to my dad, not to me, though sometimes I do wish I had a wife, or at least someone to occasionally cook me dinner and rub my feet and knock some sense into me when I'm doing something dumb/insane/dangerous/fattening. Although I'm not into girls, so it would have to be a husband. Do husbands do that? If so, sign me up!

Where is the sweet church choir job I had in college? The one where I walked downtown on Sundays at 9am, rehearsed for an hour, sang for the service, got paid $50, and got to read novels or do crossword puzzles in the choir loft during the service? Jess and I reminisced about those good old days last night after his concert. Couple of heathens, for sure. :-)