New Lighting

The lighting in the main part of the house has been an eclectic mix of stuff, ranging from some lamps that were given to me by a friend to fixtures selected by the ex-wife. All of it has been insufficient for this house. Let's see--I've been in the house for what...fifteen years now!?

Since she moved in, Sabrina has been wanting to replace the lighting. Her apartment had a south-south-west facing view, and so she was very used to the sunlight. The main living area of my house, quite differently, faces north, and there are many fewer windows, those are smaller, and I put up floor to ceiling drapes. The relative darkness has been bugging her for just over a year.

Well, we fixed that this last weekend. New fixtures. New lamps. Even the kids got new ones for their rooms. Okay, so it was more money than I wanted to spend on Father's Day, but it sure does make the day memorable!

I broke my own guideline. Since wrapping up so many projects outside work, I told myself I wasn't going to do anything else that got in the way of me sewing my outfit for the wedding. Well, at least I didn't give myself a project that would last; I got everything installed (except the one we had to order) installed yesterday.

Okay, so there is one small thing. The law of unintended consequences came into play. The light switch now has 570 Watts running through it--I need a more robust one. But, that's a quick fix!

Here are some of the things we got:

• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Apollo-Collection-Eight-Light-Chandelier__72587.html
• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Bronze-Tortoise-Shell-Font-Floor-Lamp__98142.html
• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Bronze-Tortoise-Shell-Font-Floor-Lamp__98142.html
• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Casa-Sorrento-19-1-8-inch-High-Bronze-Wall-Mount__45219.html
• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Apollo-Collection-Four-Light-Pendant-Chandelier__07324.html
• http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Fairy-Dreamer-Statue__56213.html

It's good to be the lead drummer

There's a lady who teaches belly dance at a few of the recreation centers in the cities around here, and who also hosts belly dance parties at her house about twice a year. I've been doing middle eastern drumming for so long, teaching it weekly for the last five years, and running drum circles so often that she asks me to lead the drumming for her parties; I've done that for at least two years now.

At the November 2007 party, I became entranced by one of the dancers from the moment she hit the dance floor for her solo. It's been years since a dancer has thrown off my rhythm, but later that night she did. We really connected at the party, but it took until the end of the night before I could work up the courage to even ask for her phone number.

Our first date was just a couple days later, and we've really connected since then. Besides the obvious shared hobby of middle eastern drum and dance, we have very similar styles about the way we go about life.

It's grown so much that on Valentine's Day 2008 I asked; after a brief, stunned silence she excitedly said yes, and we're engaged to be married! We are going for a long engagement and haven't set a date, but we're thinking mid to late 2009.