ATL

I had a nice time. I had to go to a looooooong meeting, but after, I did get to check out the corndogorama at The Earl. It was a very happy crowd, but I only saw two bands.

One was The Woggles (yes, I did keep wanting to call them The Rutles), whose lead singer reminded me a great deal of Bill Nighy's character in "Love, Actually." (One of my all time, ever favorite movie characters. Watch the movie immediately if you haven't seen it.) The band was okay, I guess.

The second one I saw was called, I think, The 45s. They also wore matching shirts, as did The Woggles. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not.

So the music was good but not great. I'm sure there were lots of other great bands playing, but I was only there for a few hours because I was at that meeting for so long before and we didn't get there until 11ish.

I did have one very bizarre encounter there with the ex-girlfriend of the person I went there with, who essentially told me I should watch out for this guy. She didn't elaborate, although I think she would have with only a modicum of encouragement from me, which she did not get. It all felt very freshman-year-of-college to be at a club, with live music, and have a girl tell me this about the guy I came with.

The Earl is a very cool place and I did meet several other very interesting people while there.

Also while I was in Atlanta, I went to look at a house my friend is considering buying. It's a great little house - a craftsman cottage with all the original wood and fixtures. It's only about 1500 sq feet, but it has four fireplaces, including one in the kitchen. I really, really loved this house. It's a big mess at the moment, but with not too much effort, it could be awesome, and really, it's livable now if it were cleaned thoroughly. It had all my favorite small house things, including a good flow through the rooms with french doors, and a bank of windows over the kitchen sink. The original wood windows are all double hung and intact... a great house. I love finding a house like that-- completely wonderful but inderappreciated and underloved. This house needs some love. And window boxes with gerbera daisies.

It's a cool neighborhood too. I really like Atlanta. I may be spending more time there for work stuff going fwd, and I am liking it more every time I'm there.

I did have a bad run-in while there a misogynistic cat. She pounced on me and punctured my arm. But I'm always so beat-up anyway from various horse and other mishaps (I'm a bit clumsy) that it wasn't too big a deal. I have a goal to make this cat like me, though. It's a challenge.