Last Tuesday was our gig at the Sea Dogs game. Much bigger turnout than I had expected, but it was a themed night, after all -- Portland's first "Japan Night," bolstered by a recent surprise rehab appearance by Masataka Yoshida. No Japanese players on the roster that day, but all six of us Japanese Mainers enjoyed the festivities. The Sea Dogs entertainment group was a bit all over the place, but so were we (as usual), and the performance itself was great.

The following weekend, Pilot and I went to the final day of the regular season at First Tracks Cumberland. Horses were admired; a bet was placed; a wager was lost. Next month, we'll see some regular flat racing in Maryland (as opposed to the harness races Maine exclusively hosts). Then back to harness racing when county fair season rolls around later in the fall.

In the meantime: working on an arrangement of Koki Suzuki's "Harmony" for a small taiko ensemble. I've come to realize that I'm much more of a performer than a composer/arranger. I suppose that can change with practice.

Finally, yesterday, Chiha was diagnosed with a common heart disease. Hurts to hear, especially as it's progressive and incurable, though as of now her quality of life is unaffected. It's better to know now than be surprised later. More imminently, this diagnosis gave us the go-ahead to put her under general anaesthesia for a dental operation she's been needing. Her resorptive teeth are painful, so despite the bad news, being able to remove them means her immediate outcome will be a more comfortable day-to-day life.

It took a few years, but I moved my website off of 22slides.

I started off wasting too many hours agonizing over pre-made templates, so I finally bit the bullet and studied up on (read: watched about 2.5hrs of youtube) how to build a basic site from scratch. Counterintuitively, this was way easier than working from a template. Starting from scratch means I've only included the stuff I want, cutting down on visual noise and confusion. I feel I have a much better understanding of HTML and CSS than before.

Up next: create a photo diary page and migrate the 10MT articles over here.