Early summer in N.C.

The weather here has been pleasant. Often warm and humid, sometimes delightfully beautiful, and occasionally pretty hot. I haven't yet had the experience this summer of opening the front door and feeling like I was going to wilt right away. That's a relief. For years I didn't want to live anyplace but New England for the climate. But it's manageable here.

I got a pleasant new roommate who moved in on the same day in June the old one moved out. We get along fine, and we have different schedules and don't see that much of each other.

Also in the place, I finally got kitchen stuff to actually be able to cook reasonably -- good pots and knives and staple food. Not that I've been doing much cooking, but at least I know it's an option.

Work has been quite busy with finishing up for a release soon. To carry on the architectural analogy I made last time, instead of figuring out where walls and doors are, now we're getting trim right, getting fixtures in such. We're also growing and hiring, and will move close to RDU airport in a few weeks. My commute will be 30 (!) times longer -- from 0.3 miles to 9 miles. I have enjoyed being able to walk to work, and I'll still be able to walk to the store and gym, but for a driving commute, it shouldn't be bad at 10 minutes.

For work and pleasure I've taken a few trips. I was in San Francisco twice, once for the Maker Faire, which was kind of cool and fun, but didn't knock my socks off, and aother time for work, visiting and two-stepping. I went to Texas twice for work and got to visit a high school friend and his great family. I went up to Washington, D.C. for the Fourth of July, but didn't end up going to the fireworks (the occasion for my trip) between the weather being iffy and actually really enjoying myself with my college friend and his wife hosts and their fun friends over dinner and games and talk.

The chorus has been fun. We performed in Greensboro, Raleigh and Chapel hill, and the highlight was the big gay chorus convention in Miami a couple weeks ago. Thousands of singers and well over a hundred choruses sang just about every day for a week (I only stayed for a few nights until we performed), some of which really impressed me. I also got to visit with friends who were down from Pittsburgh, got to see a couple people I knew who I wasn't expecting to see, and made a nice new friend who'll be down to visit next weekend. We have the rest of the summer off from singing, except, I think, for a few songs at the pride celebration in Raleigh.

I've been seeing shows, too, most notably Pilobolus and Avenue Q again. If you're interested in that kind of thing, I keep a list of upcoming and past stuff here.

I've been getting to the gym more often (adding Pilates to my workouts -- with a really friendly crowd, too), and I ran for the first time last weekend since last summer. Clothes still fell tight, though, even though I think I've been cutting back on the sweets (darn the free M&Ms at work!). Rowing has been too far to get excited about going early in the morning, and I've missed hiking in the mountains, since they're about four hours away from here.

In August I'll be going to a week's retreat in New York north of Albany. This summer I'll be a participant, as opposed to the assisting that I did last summer. I'm looking forward to it.

In September I'll be going to Las Vegas for our big launch trade show. I'm looking forward to the work and to seeing a Cirque show and having some other fun, too.