Last Wednesday night, Emma emailed a dozen of our friends, inviting them to join us for Thanks­giv­ing dinner. One reply arrived the next morning. Then nothing.

By Sunday evening, I had grown ex­as­per­at­ed enough to send out a snarky followup:

The courtesy of a belated reply would be ap­pre­ci­at­ed. So far, we've got exactly one RSVP.

It served its purpose. Replies cascaded in. Most, alas, said "no"; they had other plans.

Would that this were an isolated incident. Time and again, I've issued in­vi­ta­tions that were not responded to. A simple "yes" or "no" is ideal. A "maybe" is acceptable too, especially if you follow up with a "yes" or a "no".

RSVP is not …continue.

On Tuesday night, Emma sent this out to our list of friends.

Subject: Decision about evacuee housing

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:22:32 -0700

From: Emma Bartholomew

Hello all,

Thank you to everyone who has assisted George & me in our attempt to ready our home for hurricane evacuees.

Re­gret­tably, I have come to realize that I'm not emo­tion­al­ly able to make this commitment after all. I thought I could open my home to others, but I have sunk into a depression over the past few weeks that has finally convinced me that I tried to bite off more than I could …continue.

The basement looks far better tonight than last night.

Yesterday, I removed all the lower panels along the entire front wall, and filled in the cracks with concrete. I also bought some in­ex­pen­sive folding doors that will require some framing.

Today, Chuck came over after the BiNet Brunch and helped me put back up the panels and finish all the painting. It looks intensely yellow. The dark blue carpet will help tone it down.

After I've framed the doors, the carpet can be layed. I'm busy all next weekend, at Tim Grey's Photoshop Seminar, so I'll have to do it in the evenings.

I have not yet been able to order the window. Although the window was …continue.

This afternoon I would have said that the basement was close to being finished. The painting was almost done, the carpet was due to come in tomorrow, and the window will arrive in two-to-three weeks. But we've had a setback.

Since the last update, I have finished painting the spare bedroom. Emma will move in there as soon as I finish writing this post. She was waiting for the paint fumes to dissipate.

After Lowe's sent someone out to measure the new window hole, I boarded it up with some plywood and 2x4s.

Dipankar came over Wednesday afternoon and helped me paint the basement -- at least the parts that …continue.

Work on the basement proceeds.

Our neighbor Leo helped me out with carpentry in the basement on Saturday. Emma and Delf went to Oregon on Friday for the Flock and Fiber Festival, and didn't get back until Saturday night. Leo and I stablized the framing around the furnace, put up all the paneling, routed the TV cables above the ceiling, and replaced the missing ceiling tiles.

On Sunday, we planned to paint the spare bedroom and the basement. It didn't work out as planned. Just before lunch, Emma fell off a stepstool while priming the walls of the spare bedroom, and hurt herself. She spent six hours waiting in the Emergency Room at Swedish …continue.

Last weekend, we made good progress on the basement. On Saturday, Dale and Ernest helped us out, doing some demolition in the basement, and bringing loads to Goodwill and to the dump in their truck.

On Sunday, Jill and Delf helped us clean the remaining stuff out of the basement. Louise excavated a hole outside the window that we're going to enlarge. Deb, currently hors de combat with a pinched nerve, dropped by to provide moral support, as did Frank and Lyndol. Delf spent nearly twelve hours with us that day, and thanks to his experience in con­struc­tion, he and I built framing around the furnace.

Peter and Lucinda have provided …continue.

Two weeks ago, I completed a year as a contractor at Microsoft. After the permatemps lawsuits, no contractor may work more than 12 months at Microsoft without taking a 100-day break. (Con­trac­tors are free to work elsewhere, of course, during the break.)

Emma quit her job at washington Mutual the same week in order to set up her own business. It will be months before she starts making money, so it seemed prudent for me to find a full-time job.

Last week, I in­ter­viewed with Amazon. This week, I in­ter­viewed with the group at Microsoft that I just left, Atlas DMT, and Google.

Microsoft and Atlas both made very attractive offers. This …continue.

I mentioned recently that I would be walking in this year's AIDS Walk. And so I did.

After months of dry, sunny weather in Seattle, I have grown un­ac­cus­tomed to rain. It was an unpleasant morning and an unpleasant shock. The skies opened and I stood in an endless line waiting to register. I raised $1180, which entitled me to huddle in the VIP tent, as the rain continued. The rain finally let up about halfway along the route, as we debouched onto Broadway.

Thanks to my fellow Team BiNet Seattle fundrais­ers, Emily and Meghan, who raised a few hundred more between them. Double thanks to Emily for giving …continue.

My good friend Frank Maloney turned 60 the other day. A few months ago, he invited Emma and me to join him and his partner, Lyndol, at The Herbfarm. The Herbfarm is one of the very best restau­rants in the Seattle area. Certainly one of the most expensive.

Frank brought us to The Herbfarm, but not at his own expense. One of Frank's college roommates was Ron Zimmerman, the owner of The Herbfarm, and Ron had invited Frank to bring Lyndol and two guests over for his 60th birthday. Ron semi-seriously credits Frank with in­tro­duc­ing him to good wine, when Frank was a sommelier in the Seventies.

We had a marvelous time. This was …continue.