What Ripple Effect? and other thoughts

In this economy, I'm not seeing many ripples.  I am seeing a large number of tsunamis and dominoes, however.  They are even starting to reach their cold mixed-metaphorical hands into my workplace and into our personal financial decisions.  

In other thoughts, I'm very interested in Obama's first week at work.  He's been very busy, no?  So far, he's taking action to deliver on his campaign promises as well as govern with pragmatism.  That missile strike in Pakistan?  Not the act of a weeny liberal.  The plan for economic stimulus?  Not the plan of a bleeding-heart liberal.  Obama is governing from the center, with a vengeance.  He ran to the left of Hillary, which is still where he is.  Which shows that real political liberals don't get very far.  I've really liked his approach.  And I love the look of his cabinet and appointees.  Especially the picks for OLC and DOE.  These are both cases of completely apolitical political appointees.  Both candidates are very qualified in their field, and are accustomed to leading where people will follow.  The OLC choice in particular was like an addict setting limits for himself: she's a fierce critic of over-reaching executive power, and Obama can expect that if he does things he's not supposed to, she'll stop him.  

The office at home is coming together nicely.  We went to City Liquidators in Portland and found a pile of beautiful wood.  We're refinishing it and turning it into a huge T-shaped desk for the new office.  We have a bunch of extra, so we've been experimenting on a smaller piece to make sure it turns out like we want it before we do all 28 sq feet.  Cost for a similar setup that still isn't quite right: $1000.  Our cost: $300.  It's gonna be bee-you-ti-full!

The audition today was a blast.  Sometimes when you audition, you do a less-than-acceptable job, and you think, "I blew it".  Sometimes you audition and you think, "That wasn't my best run ever, but it was good enough.  If they don't pick me, it's not because I screwed up."  Today was one of the latter.  This performance was a big step up for us as a group (The Morning Stars) because of several factors.  The piece was more challenging harmonically and rythmically than we've done before, the audience was a lot more discerning, and we had to make a change on the fly because one of our members wasn't able to make it.  And despite all of that, it worked out.  Yeah!  I expect to hear soon whether we made it or not, and I'll post.