More meetings than actual time working. Crap.

A full-on day of HouseCraft. Garbage, some last snow removal from a flat roof, bathrooms - with heavy mechanically assisted scrubbing of the bathtub, kitchen - with some detail work, newspapers.

Tried a new place just up the road from us for dinner, an Irish pub called "Cheney's". Thumbs up. The bar dude had never heard of the movie "Heidi".

Made bread and flan.

A night off of sorts last night. No practice, and we went out for dinner. I had no energy to cook, even to microwave leftovers. We went to a new fave Chinese restaurant, and I had a very interesting time. In addition to eating and conversing with my wife (always nice to do), I was captivated by the waiter. He wasn't doing anything wrong or rude, per se, but his actions an movement were very wasteful and lacked attention. The way he moved, the way he delivered the food, the way he poured the water in particular, all lacked attention and care. I noticed that I was particularly sensitive to this. I beleive it's the first time since the Intro that I have been to a sit-down restaurant and had a chance to observe things.

A productive morning. The past two weeks have felt like they were in slow motion. More happening, or perhaps I'm more aware of them. Lunch today will be out, wishing a colleague well as she moves to another job. Margaritas are on the menu.

Woohoo! No margaritas, but Negra Modelo was in da house. Some good news at lunch about some of the other people caught in the layoffs.

More snow today, bad roads, so I worked from home. Telecommuting requires a qualitative difference in attention. Working at home has the potential to pull me away from my regular work. This isn't always a bad thing, as I can manage to truly multi-task on days such as this (joke: Where is the one place a man can multi-task? a: on the toilet). Today, no such luck, though I did manage to catch wandering attention and bring it back where it belonged. It was fun watching the dog bury hs head in the snow looking for something, though.

Driveway cleared twice today. This should be it for a while. Next week I hear it is supposed to rain. I love winter in New England!

One other thing I noticed this week: I am not sick. I have felt run down and very tired (this morning in particular - very glad I didn't drive in), but I am eluding sickness. I notice this for two reasons: 1 - Level T on the Intro Course specifically alludes to this, and 2 - reading the Intro diaries for Italy, sickness appears to be creeping in, in the middle.

Now, dinner and some guitar practice.

Flat out this morning. More carveout work, and explaining (again) what I need for this to go smoothly. Moving and copying applications like mad. More meetings, more work. Not quite managing to keep contact with the limbs. Practice makes perfect.

Spent the day getting things in order, so that I can tear into the current "big" project. Many details to cover, and make sure that instructions are clear. I want no miscommunications during this process. Some sense of the rotation of limbs while doing this keeps me focused.

Take a colleague to have her car worked on at lunch. While waiting for her to return from the service office, I read some of Blake's "Intelligent Enneagram". Dense, but informative. I need to take small bites of this work, and not try to rush ahead in order to "find" something.

Off home earlier than normal, as I have to mind the dog tonight, as L is going to be home late.

Make dinner (stuffed chicken breasts, corn) and then practice for about 60 minutes. Hammer-on/pull-off exercises, Hammerhead primary work (3124, 3142), Overture (especially the "Bitch") and Witness or Kingpin (the 13s

I awaken late (intentional sleep-in, due to the snow). I spend the morning doing the driveway and walkways.

Afternoon spent finishing the bathroom work. Some cool TV, with views of a bunch of the new games that are out. Addictive. Also caught some of the playoff games. At the moment, NE is beating the Steelers. Now to finish and send out the 2005 objectives for the team.

Ahhh. On to the Super Bowl...

Trek to the YGP meeting. I arrive late, and just in time for the snow to begin. We work for about one hour before Marc and I beat a hasty retreat. The ride normally takes 90 minutes - I get home in 150. Not bad, considering the near whiteout conditions.

Home, I make dinner (stuffed pork chops and parmesian pasta), and bread (cheesy onion garlic wheat). I maintain contact with my limbs and the enneagram throughout the making of the meal.

9:00 PM - Snow. Thoughts go out to the Italian Intro Course and the Kitchen Course. Two weeks ago, I began something similar.

I actually was working from home in order to take delivery of a new clothes dryer. This is because, as is the norm while I'm away from home, something broke. The last time, it was the water heater. Before that, 18" of snow. I have to reduce my travel, not only because it saves my company money, but because I end up paying for something that breaks whle I'm gone.

Removed an old carpet to prepare fo the dryer (it will become floor covering for my shop area), and put a new one down once the dryer was installed. The installation was going on during a phone conference I was on finalizing the objectives. There's never just one thing going at a given time. Managed to get tons of work done today (as is always the case when I stay home) as well as install shelving in the shower, and make stuffing bones for the dog (made with mashed potatoes). The work on the stuffng bones reminded me immediately of work in the kitchen at the Intro, and I worked around the enneagram as I prepared them.

Now, watching "Mucha Lucha" with the wife, and to bed. With the snow coming, this will be a busy weekend.

Found the blessing from before the meal Thursday:

"All life is one, and everything that lives is holy.
Plants, animals and people all must eat to live and nourish one another.
We bless the lives that have died to give us this food,
let us eat consciously, resolving by our work,
to pay the debt of our existence."

Grouchy in the evening. Leftovers for dinner (an odd combination or Chinese and Indian with rice). Wanted to take the dog for a longer walk later in the evening, but someone (not the dog) couldn't wait. Grrr.

So far, the high point of my day has been the asparagus at lunch. That ought to tell you something.

Still going at 5:50 PM. Many application changes to complete, as well as some other responsibilities newly added. I have ample time. Right.

Late lunch at the Oriental Cafe, followed by some time running the dog around the local park. Necessary for him, as he really needs the exercise, especially at this time of year. Actually, so do I.

After a nap, out to dinner with friends, and back home to some last minute things. Snow begins to fall as I put out the garbage and recyclables. L4 AAD notes from the Intro course (a different theme than DavidS and I expected, but still some observations available from the week). The themes work is on a 4 week break, but I have two themes I'd like to revisit - Food and Talking. Now, after seeing the Patriots get to met Pittsburgh in the division championship, I can go to bed...

Rise once at 5:30 to attend to the dog. Back to bed. Rise luxuriously a second time at 9:30. Acknowledge that I am alive, greet the day. Sitting, with good wishes sent out to the GC community.

HouseCraft today, with the bathroom and the kitchen on the hit list. Bathroom patially complete. A new tool to help with the shower is charging. I'm all for applying mechanical power to problems.

Walk the dog, do more cleaning and laundry. Out for a quick sushi lunch while Lisa is out at a gardening seminar.

Dinner, putting away dishes, checking out the pictures from the new camera. Now a shower before bed. Diaries, such as they are, from the Intro course to be posted shortly.

Dr. Cosmo refers to Curt as "Mister Nimble Fingers" on the program this evening. Amusing. Booming sound from the studio mics during the introductions of all the people in the room. Lots of boom in the recording. A little sound processing to clean it up wouldn't have hurt...

So, I was afraid from the way the program started, that it would be a straight playback of our entire day. I can't imagine what someone else listening to this might think. Parts, I believe, were sound collage. If not, I don't recall the density of what was going on at the time.

KT personal meeting in the AM w/Curt. We discuss the enneagram, and how it can be viewed, the difficulty of the internal process vs. the external process, how to view the restoration line from the performance. He also gives me three chords and a count for this evening's circle.

Dinner this evening involves the entire house. It has a sense of being on the edge the entire time, but the work is done honorably, if not quietly. I am working a bit with Sven; he will be setting the tables. He gets a sense of the meal and assembles most of what is needed, forgetting glasses. I forgot to have him envision what the table should look like, so do not ask him if the final result is what he envisioned. I did have to remind him that, though he was responsible for setting the tables, he could ask for help, if he needed it.

At the meal, Curt gives the blessing from Claymont "All life is one..." It has a power in this moment that is quite palpable. I need to learn this blessing.

Evening circle and all the chords are assembled, Ian on the 1s, Dev on the 2s, me on the 3s and AlexK on the 4s. A thrakking version of "Misplaced Faith" ensues. Following this, a sectioned tremolo piece that I have heard before, with notes being played by each section at different times (4, 5, 6 and 7, 1 beat rest, then the first note). We make it through once and I lose it, as I can't recall hearing it quite this way before. My team helps get me on track again, and I hear it come around twice more. At one point the tremolo drones are dropped out, and we are just playing the melody notes. A lot more listening happening here.

Little commentary at the final meeting. My observations regarded the power of the Group to elevate the individuals (I clearly felt this in the rehearsals and the performance), the sense of real listening happening, and that my personal aim to learn and perform Voices of Ancient Children had been met.

The course is completed at 11:54.

10:00 We arrive at Princeton, and unload into the space. The station is pretty big, and the room we are in is more than adequate to fit the 16 of us. The room sounds good, and we work through the set:

3 Cued Chords, any note
Aspiration
Growing Circle

Break - Dr. Cosmo talks with Curt, Tony, Tom & the team

Ikada-Jima
Blockhead
Where it Goes

Break - More talk with Dr. Cosmo

Eye of the Needle
C Harm. Minor Circulation w/cascades
Voices of Ancient Children
Trapiche
Asturias

Once complete, we eat lunch. The energy leaks pretty badly at this point, and I do my best to stay contained. On the ride back, I have to lie down. After about 40 minutes, most of the talking ceases, and quiet settles over the team.

As we turn back onto Blossom Hill, Curt pulls out the harmonica and starts playing "Oh Susannah".

We return to the site, and have tea. Dinner will be burritos, and I make the decision to make the flan. I manage to pull it together (while managing to burn my left index finger on the caramel for the flan). The burritos are excellent, and the flan goes over well.

4:00 Tea - Blockhead team (me, TerryK, AlexK, Ian) perform. Better than last night.

8:30 PM Intro team performance followed by open rehearsal for PT. There is something available tonight. We run through Blockhead again at the end of the session, and it's a go for tomorrow. Curt mentions that he wishes we had another day. The pieces the Intro Team had would have been radio ready with one more day's work.

10:30 Exercise of ample time. The KT works with SBC and Steph on lunch, and envisioning that there is ample time to do the work. We work through this, and though some items are miscalulated (things that need to be cooked, etc.) we are able to deliver lunch only slightly late.

12:06 Lunch. Discussion with some observations, and a brief visit from silence. Present for me this time, but not to the degree on Saturday.

2:00 PM All teams practice.
4:00 PM Tea
5:00 Work with Curt on Ikida-jima
6:00 PM AT Liedown
7:00 PM Dinner
8:45 Intro team performs: A Night on Crafty Mountain and Lazy Like Sven. Honorable performances by both. One team appeared to have visited Hell at some point.

9:05 PT Performance. Not particularly good, but certainly instructive. We ended up playing most of the set twice, as we really hadn't nailed a lot of what we had. Set list:

Circulation C Maj (brisk)
Three Cued Chords (C Major)
Growing Circle
Aspiration
C Natural Minor Chords with cascades
Voices of Ancient Children

Encore (not played): Asturias

9:30 Group Circle in the ballroom. We worked on Mistakes, and passing them through us and the circle. Also, a Thrak.
11:00 Group meeting w/o guitars. Observations on the performance, the group work and the day.
11:30 Work on Ikadajima
12:00 Bed

Circulation (C Maj)
Third Relation
Eye of the Needle
Aspiration

4:00 Tea
4:30 Dinner prep: me, Leslie, David. Menu is veggie lasagne, salad, garlic bread w/sorbet for dessert (panna cotta moved to another night due to missing ingredients). We work our way through the proccess using the Enneagram. A moment when all the ovens are firing and the lasagne is almost ready to go in the oven to transform, and the kitchen is so warm a window must be opened.

7:00 Dinner. At the end of the meal, a well earned "Bravo" from the head table. Very gratifying. We work to clean the kitchen, and intentionally leave one thing until later, postponing our completion.

8:30 Green Room

8:45 Performance. Set list:

Circulation (C Major) with three cued chords
Third Relation
Eye of the Needle
Aspiration

I lead the circle in, and find that I am placed directly next to the radiator. Already sweating profusely from doing dishes in the kitchen, I sweat even more. When my solo comes up for Aspiration, it really pours out.

At around 1:00 PM the YGP arrive, and we spend about 35 minutes warming up before our meeting withi Curt. He joins us and we present Unbound, Columbia, Havre de Grace and Witness or Kingpin?. He asks us how he can help, and we spend some time asking questions, offering some information about our current state and challenges and a group with limited time to meet and various things that are coming up, and how they put pressure on our original aim of composing together. He offers some tips and indicates that the Ennegram might help some. I'll be spending the week with it, so I might be able to get some insights. At the end of the meeting, Curt indicated that he liked what he heard from us, and that he wouuld like to hear Havre de Grace and Witness or Kingpin? at the meal this evening.

From here, I return to my work getting the kitchen ready, and then spend another 40 minutes with the YGP preparing for the performance.

At 4:45, Dev and I begin preparing the kheer for dessert. We allow this to cool on the deck outside, since the refrigerator space is limited.

As we wait for dinner to begin, Silence attempts to come in twice, but is unable to. Dinner is late, and at 7:40, Silence will not be denied. It remains so until dinner is served.

YGP performance at dinner: Havre de Grace goes reasonably well, as does Witness. We are called back for an encore and perform Unbound (which goes very well up until the very end).

After this, Dev and I complete the assembly of dessert and serve. Good response all around.

The course beigins at about 10:00 PM, with introductions. Curt gives two exercises to the team for tonight until the Intro get to play their first notes tomorrow.

Kitchen team meeting from 11:00 until 12:00. Observations made by the team and the instructors on the meal, presentation, etc. Presentation of the Enneagram, the kitchen version from Mr. B's Enneagram Studies. Performance challenge is given, Wednesday, 10 AM, WPBR (Princeton) on the Dr. Cosmo Show.

Abed around 12:15.