Well, dear readers, today is the day for a band to play because today I am finally getting a haircut after almost five months. I’ve chopped off some twice during that time, but it will be so nice to be completely kempt again. That’s the big news of the day. Last night, I got the book back from the designers to do the final proofing, but I want them to fix the big stuff before we do that, the stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with proofing – just stuff like the chapters starting too high on the page a bit, the font for the chapter headings and sub-heading being italics, which I never used in my designed guide copy, a dedication page that’s not centered correctly, stuff like that. Once that’s done, then the page count will be right, and the final proofing should go easily. But it looks rather spiffy. Prior to that, I nodded off on the couch for about an hour, watched an hour-long conversation with Mike Nichols and Elaine May they did after a screening of Ishtar – that was fun. I may have to watch The Heartbreak Kid again soon. I’m weening myself off watching YouTube “shorts” – they’re just too irritating and I waste too much time responding to the most irritating ones. I put up a new track, and I’m currently waiting for the book pre-order page to arrive so I can get that live. Earlier, I’d gotten a bit over seven hours of sleep, got up, answered some e-mails, and then shaved and showered. Then I moseyed on over to Shanghai Rose, a Chinese jernt in the City of Studio. Cousins Dee Dee and Alan, Mickey, and my brother were there, as well as my brother’s friend, who is also a cousin of some sort on my mother’s side. I believe the dishes that were ordered were: Pork baos, pork fried rice, orange chicken, duck, Kung Pao shrimp, and string beans. I think that was it. I had one pork bao, some fried rice, some orange chicken, on shrimp, and a few string beans. Not nearly as much as I usually eat, so that’s good. We were there for almost two-and-a-half hours, I think, but it was really fun. Brother has a Tevye beard now, Cousin Alan has a beard, brother’s friend has a goatee, and Mickey and I were clean shaven. The one thing we all had in common was gray hair. Here we all are.
After that, I didn’t do any runs, I just came home. Once home, I read the e-mails that had come in, watched the stuff I watched, then the designed book arrived and I spent an hour noting the big stuff that needed to get adjusted and in so doing, I did find one missing bit of punctuation, a close parens. Glad I caught it now, because I probably wouldn’t have because the open parens was on the page before. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll shower, then at one I’m getting the haircut. I’ll be done with that by two, and then I’m having a lunch with a friend at two-thirty. After that, I’ll come home and perhaps the adjusted designed book will be back – the adjustments are really super simple – and if so, we’ll begin the final proofing. I’m hoping we can lock that by Wednesday. We’ll make the book pre-order page live as soon as possible, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week will be finishing the final proofing, finalizing the designed book and locking it, writing, meetings and meals, and doing whatever needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do whatever needs doing, shower, have a haircut, have a lunch, begin proofing if we have the designed book back with the adjustments, hopefully the book pre-order page will be live sooner than later, and then I’ll watch, listen and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Mike Nichols and Elaine May movies – for the latter you can include acting performances, too. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know that we’ll be having the proper cutting of the hair very soon.