Suddenly Eric shows up; he's a massage therapist, and when he works at trade shows in the area, he usually comes home with free goodies to share. Today he was at a food show, so he's got all kinds of weird stuff...Note: the vintage juicer is a pre-existing item, as is the very disturbing squash next to it. Nobody seems to remember who brought that thing home...


Here we are in the storage/workshop area between the east and west wings, where Andrew has his amazing collection of tools- most of them bought at yard sales and auctions. Some of them are very nice functional antiques. He was just using the shaper, so there's sawdust flying about. He's a very good carpenter- mostly does custom stuff. That's Lyell, the "house mother" and leaseholder, examining some part he's made for the restoration of the old house she recently bought in Asbury Park, NJ. She, her daughter Parlin (being picked up here by Andrew), and Parlin's father Doug spend most of their time there nowadays, but occasionally hang out in their suite of rooms here at the loft. Lyell  is a painter/plasterer who has her own business, but also does freelance display/museum shop work, and is a very good jazz singer to boot. She and Doug, who's a guitarist, routinely play gigs in the area. Little Parlin was actually born here in the loft 5 years ago last December; Lyell and Doug hired 2 midwives who brought a neat little inflatable jacuzzi-thing for Lyell to soak in during labor, and Parlin came into the world through a nice "buffer zone" of warm water before being hit with the hard reality of light and air. Long labor, but the delivery went like clockwork, I heard. I waited up for a while for the birth, but had to turn in, and somebody woke me up at about 1:30AM to meet the new arrival. It was extraordinary- never met anybody that young before. We all love Parlin- she's a rather bossy, willful 5-yr-old, but she can also be very warm and sweet. She's just like her Mom!   You can probably see her "lazy eye" eyepatch in the photo; she has to wear that once in a while.

Well, looks like nobody's inspired to go out tonight- too cold. So it's become a TV night. That's Maz on the left- he's a brilliant special-effects artist who has his own little shop here- mostly makes exploding heads for indie films, that sort of thing. He and I and Peg drove out to his friends' house in New Mexico last October, and we've became good friends. As you can probably see, we're watching the Simpsons...

Here's the resident cat, Vision, saying hello. She pretty much ignores me as I will not feed her (that's become Maz's job, and I have Peg to deal with), so this is a rare moment. She and Peg play at hating each other, but it's all bluster, and I've caught them snuggling in the wee hours more than once...


?? hrs:
As usual, the day ends with me at the computer. Too tired to fly tonight, so maybe I'll just see what's going on over at SimV...and goodnight!


Hope somebody finds this series interesting... also hope to see somebody follow suit w/one of their own!

Glad you like it. Yeah, we can get a little loud here, although one has to consider other roomies and our buddies downstairs. We have a stage set up (visible in the TV photo), and have a few musicians here (I play drums, but sold my kit years ago. We have one here, but it's crap!). The guys downstairs have an elaborate studio setup, and last night they had a party with a DJ, MC, and various guitar/bass/drummers, plus my man Zef on electric violin (he, his brother, and some other guys had a local-favorite band called Sweet Lizard Illtet (aka Illness) back in the day), just jamming for hours. I tried playing conga for a while, but my hands are outta condition. Wish I'd taken some pictures...

Quote:

How wonderfully corrupt. Go for it!

I moved away from this place for over two years to live on my own, and wound up missing the stimulation of having others around (missed the space, too!). This current crop of roommates is OK... some have their annoying habits, but basically they're alright. But I think my life is pretty dull!

And BTW, I haven't got a digital yet (saving up for a good camcorder that will also take nice stills); I took this with crappy throwaway 35mm cameras, then had the pics processed to CD only- $3.00 for 48 exposures plus 24 I took w/my film SLR, and no scanning. for these fun snapshots, it's perfect.

Nice Series, seeing peoples daily lives is interesting for the most part