Dinner with friend; tool-bonding with brother

Last night (Monday), had dinner with ''The Artist Formerly Known as Jennifer'' -- a friend I haven't seen in, oh, fifteen(?) years. Went well: Still a nice lady, found a good guy to marry (kind, but with strength), and has a good kid.

This morning, my brother and I walked to Hardwick's, a slightly peculiar harware store in the University District in Seattle. I'd never noticed it before, back when I lived in the area (and before I got into woodworking tools), but they have a **lot** of great handtools -- ranging from expensive and botique-y, down to reasonably-priced. I almost picked up a US$13 Japanese handsaw like my brother has, but decided I wouldn't use it for a few months, anyhow: I'll catch it on the next visit. We also oohed and ahhed over the old-timey handtools stuck to the wall high up. Good brotherly bonding over tools.

Then we walked to Half-Price Books, where we each picked up a few used/surplus woodworking books to give to each other over the next birthday/Christmas.

Finally, we walked over to the Trading Musician (mentioned in a previous post), where I tested out, and bought, the blue, old-timey DOD chorus pedal. Sticker price US$49, offered $40 (and expecting a counter-offer), but took the offer of ''$49 including tax'' -- which was US$45, plus tax. O.k.

Also tried out an off-brand electric guitar with built in guitar effects. Had I not tried it out, I would've regretted not picking it up (it was very reasonably priced). But now that I've tried it, I know that the effects were, for the most part, weak or watery (and not in a good way). So I left it there, with no regrets. I'm a collector, but I want everything to be a ''user'' -- somthing that both works properly, and that isn't so precious that I'm afraid to use it.

Tonight, am staying at my parents' home -- along w/ my brother, his wife, and their kid; my sister; and a former Japanese exchange student, her husband (nice guy!), and their kid. All three kids (ours, theirs, theirs) are within two months of each other, so it's kinda funny to watch them interact. Kinda like guinea pigs, or slow hamsters.

Full house, and (so says The Lady) a little loud. But fun.


--GG