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Jan 1. Traditional ceremony of bread, wine, and cheese at the Solomon's. Susan has a variety of friends from all walks of life. Always pure pleasure.
Jan 2. Munchies with Ray and Sandy (our neighbors) and their son Andrew. Annual get together when we learn about their family problems and the development of the son.
Jan 7. CT scan of my abdomen to check whether the colon cancer has spread to other organs. Why? My CEA level (tumor monitor from the blood) has risen to 4.7. Results? Negative, nothing to worry about. Doc says the main result of CEA testing is to raise the patients anxiety level. My objection to CT scanning is that it gives you a massive one rem of radiation. Not at all a trivial amount. Six rem will make you vomit. Yuck!

Mar 29. Music from Henry Purcell's London, presented by the Practitioners of Musick at the Brailovsky Residence. John Burkhalter on the flute and Donovan Klotzbeacher at the harpsichord.

Apr 5. Recital at apt of Ms Kit Gill on 5th Ave. Phillip Schneider-Siemssen 7 of his works at the meeting of the Wagner Society. Good chat with Geraldine L and Harry Wagner. Tasty reception to follow.

June 2: Dinner at NONNA, 520 Columbus Ave, with Debbie and Carl. Lots of space, little noise, pleasant waitress, and specials at $14.95 (3 items). Food OK. Recommended.

June 25. A failed valve in our Kitchenaid dishwasher in Princeton almost spelled disaster. Usually, I set the dishwasher just before I go to bed. Luckily, yesterday I waited until after breakfast. The washer went through its cycles, but the valve never turned off. The kitchen filled with water and most it dripped downstairs, messing up the cellar. Couldn't close the valve under the sink, so I hurried downstairs to turn off the main valve into the house. If I had turned on the dishwasher at night, I would have flooded the lower level of the house and the basement. AVAMIAN in East Windsor came to the rescue, replacing the valve for $305. Should I have replaced the 26 year old dishwasher? Only the future will tell.

June 22. Hot water runs out in 5 minutes and the hot water is filled with white plastic pieces. What's wrong? It's the dip tube, stupid. (didn't know what that was until this week) The dip tube transfers the cold water from the top of the tank to the bottom, where it is heated. During the nineties most manufacturers used inferior materials that broke up in a few years. I was never told about the recall. Our handy plumber came in and replaced the tube.. Now to see whether Marian will have plenty of hot water for her baths.

Aug 14-17. Visit Bard University in Annandale on Hudson, NY for the Wagner Festival. Stayed at the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck, about 10 miles from the campus. For details, look at the music page of this website.L\

Sept 29. Visited my cousin Jim Motley at Sterling Drive in Piscataway, NJ. (Don't forget to turn left when you see the church spire on the right and the Bank of California on the left).Learned that his daughter died of cancer a few months ago. He was so overwhelmed by this that he collapsed and was hospitalized for a few weeks. All they found was a blood spot on his brain. He has recovered somewhat, but still uses a cane to walk.

Oct 20. A reminder this week how Princeton keeps one alive and perky in old age. This week Alan Bennett, who became famous for his work in Beyond the Fringe on British TV, and who has written the scripts for the theater and TV, notably The History Boys a year or so ago is speaking at McCosh on the campus. Tomorrow Paul Krugman, the Novel Laureate in Economics who writes for the Times will talk at McCosh on Depression economics .

Nov 11. Busy day in Princeton. Went to hear organ concert in the U chapel: Alain and Durufle, non better. Then off to see the eye doc about my pink eyes. She says the eyes are recovering, but to continue the antibiotic ointment. Then to the enginering quad to hear how Princeton students and grads are developing Apps for the iPhone. More than 100 thousand available at the moment. Biggest problem is to lift yourself out of this maelstrom, they say. That problem can be approached through the social networks, like utube, etc. Then I forgot to go to the library, where a speaker gave lessons on how to sell your house. Damn. Probably the most practical talk of the day.

Nov 15. The VCR section of our VCR/DVD has been malfunctioning for a year or so. We got fed up with our Zenith player, which produced periods of noise every 30 seconds or so. Cleaned the tape with no result. Decided to buy a new Memorex player on eBay. Much to our chagrin the new player was just as bad as the old one, even after we bought new tapes. Almost gave up, but after a day or so I realized that VCR tape can be contaminated by magnetic fields. Looking closely at our hookup, I noticed that the tape was sited immediately below the cable modem, and might be affected by the fields from the transformer, etc. Positioned the new player well below the modem and placed the old player between to shield from any fluctuating fields. Gess what. The new player now works perfectly, with no miserable rain of noise, visual and audio, every half minute. Couldn't find any advice anywhere, in the service manual or on the internet to fix this problem.