back home for the weekend

I had the chance to see my brother Sean before I left his place today to go back to my mountain hideaway. Sean got to see my new car-- the gray jellybean-- for the first time today. I said my goodbyes to Maqz the chihuahua, who was happy as a clam to have had both his master and his master's big brother sitting on the living room couch for a brief while. Sean has a wedding gig to play; he's got more gigs on Saturday and Sunday, and then he's back on vacation until Wednesday. I'll be dog-sitting again on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Last weekend, I bought two new shirts and an el-cheapo necktie at the local giant Wal-Mart when I went to get my oil changed; the two shirts replace two other button-down shirts that had been too tight from the beginning; the new tie replaces a tie I'd bought back in March or April-- one of questionable taste. The new tie is much more me.

That leaves me with little else aside from website work and GRE study to do. Hard to believe that I'm taking the revised GRE a week from today. The Kaplan guide has been pretty good; the ETS guide as well. Both references have made me feel very familiar with the upcoming test. I still haven't taken the "realistic" ETS test on the CD-ROM that came with my ETS manual, but I'll be tackling the computer test either on Sunday or early next week. Here's hoping I do well on it, and that I don't choke on the real thing.

Many thanks to Jason, another friend I've never met, who recently came back from a trip to Korea, and who is mailing me a made-to-order dojang (seal, chop) that I'd had the nerve to request. Once I grab some of those faux calligraphy brushes (called but-pen in Korean: "brush pen"), I plan on making and stamping a few dozen pieces of art to sell locally. Add that to my list of projects!


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