One of my favorite Bread songs.... years ago I could only imagine being able to play and sing it out loud. I was playing that this morning before work.
I am addicted to my guitar. I have to play it for at least a few minutes every morning before work. You know that feeling you get when you connect a bat solidly with a baseball, or when you swish a basketball through a hoop -- when you time something just perfectly and everything comes together in a moment and just "works"?
When you sit there and do a song you love - it's like extending a little moment like that for 2 or 3 minutes -- and then.... you can play another! And time flies by.
Looking for places to stay in (or near) Jackson, WY during the first part of June. We really need to get this trip squared away so it will happen. Everything I've seen around that area is so pretty. Man! Mountains get my blood going.
Talked to Carol Lynn last night for the first time in a long time. I was beginning to think they'd dropped off of the east coast and disappeared. Nope. Guy's birthday is Wednesday, I think. Then he'll be "old" like the rest of us. I can't imagine what kind of evil Carol has planned. She's got a good, solid "tease" streak in her. She sent me a picture of them... they look great! Both of them. We exchanged a bunch of family pictures and talked for an hour or so over MSN. They're going to Scotland this summer. Vicki and I would both love to go there.
She promised lots of pictures. Ha! She probably thinks I won't want to see them all. Of course I do -- at least I can live vicariously through them. Carol is at least as much of a shutterbug as I am. And it sounds like she's bringing Ashley up the same way.
It rained a lot this weekend (like 5 inches Thursday-Sunday). Saturday afternoon was pretty, though -- I went out and got some new screen to fix the sliding screen door. And a new lamp for by my bed. Sunday I even went out and got a new bedside table. Round. Mahogany. Pretty. Zen alarm and new lamp look nice on it. Oh, and my miniature daffodils are blooming, and the flowering pears popped out. My redbud is about to bloom as well. Kind of reminds me of that song "Sing Joy Spring" (I think Clifford Brown -- but the version the Manhattan Transfer did on Vocalese with the Jon Hendricks lyrics) -- a google search'll find it easy enough for you if you're curious.
Oh, also listened to Clapton's new album on Rhapsody -- it was out on Rhapsody last week, but isn't being released to the stores until this Wednesday, now how do you like that? It's called "Mr Johnson and Me" -- a bunch of Robert Johnson stuff. Very good stuff.
Welp. Gotta go.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
Ok, it's been much longer than I realized.... I keep thinking "oh, it's been a week or so". Well, today's the 23rd, and not for too much longer, either. And the last post was 19, count them, 19 days ago. And I was so proud of myself for that sudden spurt of activity there around the end of Feb, beggining of March. Haven't listened to Chicago in a very long time. I whipped up some of their older stuff on Rhapsody today and have been having a great time listening to it. I have the first 17 albums on Vinyl... I should look into getting the CD's used if I can. I think I just have IX on CD.
Let's see, what's going on....
Ripped out all the lettuce from the hydroponic pipes. Re-planted some watercress, and planted tomato seeds and roquette. I'm going to do a hydroponic hanging watercress basket this summer. I ordered a pump of of Ebay yesterday for that. I brought a a couple of bags of well rotted horse crud from Mom and Dad's when I went out to help Tom & Betty cut wood.... I could use about 4 more. That's for the outside garden. Nice day last saturday, and I used it to prune a couple of trees and re-stack our own fallen woodpile. A couple more outdoor things, too.
Friday evening we sat out with Ryan and Kristie & Daryl -- and Deb when she got home from work. Had pizza and beer and sat by the chiminea well in to the night. Nice evening.
Sunday I spent going through records to get rid of. Lois should be proud. I threw out about ... oh, 200 of them. We're going down there for the big "Life Laundry" event sometime mid to late April.
I got a Zen Alarm Clock... this little baby dings one of those long-resonating, tuned tone bars at the time you set it. Then again 3.5 minutes later... slowly increasing frequency over 10 minutes to every 4.5 seconds or so. It's supposed to be a really gentle way to wake up. I hate regular alarms, I'm too lazy to change the CD in the CD alarm clock - and I love chimes. So what could be better? Well, we'll find out tomorrow morning. I just got it today.
The guitar is going pretty well... my fingers are slowly agreeing to do things they had much more trouble with just a few weeks ago -- I am playing less stuff, but more often again, and I'm practicing a few scales finally. And learning "Ripple". Not just the chords, baby... the melody. Cool. I'm also getting much better at "Red Haired Boy". And I'm going to learn those treble string sequences if it kills me, and it probably will. I even wrote a song the other day. Maybe I'll post that in a bit. It could use a little more tweaking.... but I kinda like it.
And I'm getting closer and closer to "Pencil Thin Mustache" -- with it's F#7 and B .... I hate "B"'s. Well, I like hearing them. Just hate trying to finger them.
I guess that's it for today. I'm sure other stuff went on in the past couple of weeks... but you know, if you don't write it down... whooosh! Out the window. So... maybe I'll go diddle on the guit... wait!!!! It's 10:00!!!! Dang. Gonna turn into a pumpkin.
*poof*
Let's see, what's going on....
Ripped out all the lettuce from the hydroponic pipes. Re-planted some watercress, and planted tomato seeds and roquette. I'm going to do a hydroponic hanging watercress basket this summer. I ordered a pump of of Ebay yesterday for that. I brought a a couple of bags of well rotted horse crud from Mom and Dad's when I went out to help Tom & Betty cut wood.... I could use about 4 more. That's for the outside garden. Nice day last saturday, and I used it to prune a couple of trees and re-stack our own fallen woodpile. A couple more outdoor things, too.
Friday evening we sat out with Ryan and Kristie & Daryl -- and Deb when she got home from work. Had pizza and beer and sat by the chiminea well in to the night. Nice evening.
Sunday I spent going through records to get rid of. Lois should be proud. I threw out about ... oh, 200 of them. We're going down there for the big "Life Laundry" event sometime mid to late April.
I got a Zen Alarm Clock... this little baby dings one of those long-resonating, tuned tone bars at the time you set it. Then again 3.5 minutes later... slowly increasing frequency over 10 minutes to every 4.5 seconds or so. It's supposed to be a really gentle way to wake up. I hate regular alarms, I'm too lazy to change the CD in the CD alarm clock - and I love chimes. So what could be better? Well, we'll find out tomorrow morning. I just got it today.
The guitar is going pretty well... my fingers are slowly agreeing to do things they had much more trouble with just a few weeks ago -- I am playing less stuff, but more often again, and I'm practicing a few scales finally. And learning "Ripple". Not just the chords, baby... the melody. Cool. I'm also getting much better at "Red Haired Boy". And I'm going to learn those treble string sequences if it kills me, and it probably will. I even wrote a song the other day. Maybe I'll post that in a bit. It could use a little more tweaking.... but I kinda like it.
And I'm getting closer and closer to "Pencil Thin Mustache" -- with it's F#7 and B .... I hate "B"'s. Well, I like hearing them. Just hate trying to finger them.
I guess that's it for today. I'm sure other stuff went on in the past couple of weeks... but you know, if you don't write it down... whooosh! Out the window. So... maybe I'll go diddle on the guit... wait!!!! It's 10:00!!!! Dang. Gonna turn into a pumpkin.
*poof*
Thursday, March 04, 2004
It's Just a Box of Rain
Actually, we haven't had any real decent rain for a long time. We're supposed to get maybe 3" out of this whole 3 day event. Good... the cinders and salt from the snow we had earlier this winter need washing away.
Sam & Connie came over to discuss plans for Jackson Hole and maybe order some tickets... the tickets out there were quite a bit higher than they'd thought... previously. Looks like if we fly in to Pocatello we can get a better rate in exchange for a 3 hour drive when we get there. I guess I just figured a day of traveling getting there and a day getting back -- But Sam's hoping someone will bite on Priceline for a less expensive flight right in to Jackson. We'll see.
We're also talking about a trip down to Atlanta at some unknown time so Mom can see her sister (Aunt Ruth) .... she's about 102 and apparently slowly fading. She'd like to see her sister one more time.
And then of course there's Brian's graduation to go to in May. Gonna have to fire up that side business ... any day now.
Whipped out some Grateful Dead this morning. Haven't listened to the Dead in quite a while. Richard started playing "Ripple" at this week's tuesday lunchroom jam. And I suddenly got the urge to learn it. It is a very good song. Has all the elements I look for in a song. Nice melody, some nice harmonies (that wouldn't be too difficult) and well-written lyrics. Plus... it's easy to play for an open-position chord guy like me. ;-) "the fourth element", as it were. Big-botta-boom.
We're headed out to Olathe to see the Groves this weekend. Probably ought to firm up the arrival plans.
Well -- I'm off.
Sam & Connie came over to discuss plans for Jackson Hole and maybe order some tickets... the tickets out there were quite a bit higher than they'd thought... previously. Looks like if we fly in to Pocatello we can get a better rate in exchange for a 3 hour drive when we get there. I guess I just figured a day of traveling getting there and a day getting back -- But Sam's hoping someone will bite on Priceline for a less expensive flight right in to Jackson. We'll see.
We're also talking about a trip down to Atlanta at some unknown time so Mom can see her sister (Aunt Ruth) .... she's about 102 and apparently slowly fading. She'd like to see her sister one more time.
And then of course there's Brian's graduation to go to in May. Gonna have to fire up that side business ... any day now.
Whipped out some Grateful Dead this morning. Haven't listened to the Dead in quite a while. Richard started playing "Ripple" at this week's tuesday lunchroom jam. And I suddenly got the urge to learn it. It is a very good song. Has all the elements I look for in a song. Nice melody, some nice harmonies (that wouldn't be too difficult) and well-written lyrics. Plus... it's easy to play for an open-position chord guy like me. ;-) "the fourth element", as it were. Big-botta-boom.
We're headed out to Olathe to see the Groves this weekend. Probably ought to firm up the arrival plans.
Well -- I'm off.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Long Promised Road
(Obscure Beach Boys reference for those of you keeping track....)
I promised a post about the bedroom make over. Yep, we pulled a "Changing Rooms". We swapped houses with ourselves, and re-did our bedroom. Boy were we surprised when we opened our eyes ;-)
Before we moved into the house, what, 5 years ago? We painted every last wall inside the place. Vicki was tired of living in white-walled places, and we picked some nice colors everywhere. And there was thought and time put into decorating everywhere... Except our bedroom. Silly, you start and end your day there. It really ought to be a nice place.
It was a moss green -- Vicki loves that color, and we actually did have a bedspread we bought to go with it -- a little flowery... I never liked it a lot, nor did I dislike it. It was just there. Even had a shower curtain that matched. And I'd bought some antique rose prints at Inside Outlet that went with the bedspread ok. But no serious thought was ever given to furniture arrangement, and it was just a room with a bed in it. A nice bed, with nice bedroom furniture. A set, even. Wow! Eventually we got rid of the bedspread and had a plain cream one. The room just felt cold. Bland. Not terribly inviting.
For years I've had this idea -- either an Indian/Bali (that's the country, India) or a West Indies look and feel. "Tropical British Empire", I decided. I wanted a room that said "come in, relax.... spend some time in here."
My ideas were fuzzy, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Finally, we decided "This Weekend", and we went to Lowe's and looked at paint. I wanted clay-looking walls. Soft gold -- something you'd expect to find in the Indies. We picked one and went to look at curtains.
Well none of the curtains went well with the paint, so we found some curtains we liked and went back to the paint. Found a paint we liked with the curtains. Then Vicki saw the area rugs -- Persian style. One of them really spoke to us. But it didn't go with the paint or the curtains. So we took the rug to the curtains, picked out some other curtains we liked that complimented the rug, and went back to the paint to marry them.
Got the paint, curtains, rods, and rug. And a live palm on clearance for $4.64. Anyway, we WERE just going to paint that day and go from there. So what was going to be $45 worth of paint turned in to $450 worth of stuff to redecorate. But -- it was the way to do it, for sure.
We painted it in one day, and re-arranged the furniture. We were going to do the paint-glazing effects thing, but decided we liked the color as it was and didn't want to do the extra work. I bought a wall-shelf for some of my eastern statues, and a little bamboo "table-let" for my Kamakura Buddha. Printed some antique botanical prints of palms to replace the roses in their frames. Put the palm tree in, and got a mosquito netting "canopy" thingy because... well, the corner just needed something. Without it, the bedroom was "almost" there, but it was like missing the mark. The netting really changed the center of gravity and pulled it out of the fire.
We succeeded. It is warm and inviting. The only other thing I'd like (I never liked a television in the bedroom, for the record -- but it does come in handy sometimes) is to replace the television with an LCD wal-mount... maybe a 15" or 17". It doesn't have to be big... nor would I want it to be. I want it to be inconspicuous. TV's aren't pretty. The big one's down in the family room with the surround sound and all. However, a TV like that starts at about $500 -- and we have other things to spend $500 on right now.
So here it is. One "before" picture, and a few "after" pictures (of course, don't expect the links to be good a year after the posting, but it'll probably work until then....) the big bedroom makeover
Enjoy!
I promised a post about the bedroom make over. Yep, we pulled a "Changing Rooms". We swapped houses with ourselves, and re-did our bedroom. Boy were we surprised when we opened our eyes ;-)
Before we moved into the house, what, 5 years ago? We painted every last wall inside the place. Vicki was tired of living in white-walled places, and we picked some nice colors everywhere. And there was thought and time put into decorating everywhere... Except our bedroom. Silly, you start and end your day there. It really ought to be a nice place.
It was a moss green -- Vicki loves that color, and we actually did have a bedspread we bought to go with it -- a little flowery... I never liked it a lot, nor did I dislike it. It was just there. Even had a shower curtain that matched. And I'd bought some antique rose prints at Inside Outlet that went with the bedspread ok. But no serious thought was ever given to furniture arrangement, and it was just a room with a bed in it. A nice bed, with nice bedroom furniture. A set, even. Wow! Eventually we got rid of the bedspread and had a plain cream one. The room just felt cold. Bland. Not terribly inviting.
For years I've had this idea -- either an Indian/Bali (that's the country, India) or a West Indies look and feel. "Tropical British Empire", I decided. I wanted a room that said "come in, relax.... spend some time in here."
My ideas were fuzzy, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Finally, we decided "This Weekend", and we went to Lowe's and looked at paint. I wanted clay-looking walls. Soft gold -- something you'd expect to find in the Indies. We picked one and went to look at curtains.
Well none of the curtains went well with the paint, so we found some curtains we liked and went back to the paint. Found a paint we liked with the curtains. Then Vicki saw the area rugs -- Persian style. One of them really spoke to us. But it didn't go with the paint or the curtains. So we took the rug to the curtains, picked out some other curtains we liked that complimented the rug, and went back to the paint to marry them.
Got the paint, curtains, rods, and rug. And a live palm on clearance for $4.64. Anyway, we WERE just going to paint that day and go from there. So what was going to be $45 worth of paint turned in to $450 worth of stuff to redecorate. But -- it was the way to do it, for sure.
We painted it in one day, and re-arranged the furniture. We were going to do the paint-glazing effects thing, but decided we liked the color as it was and didn't want to do the extra work. I bought a wall-shelf for some of my eastern statues, and a little bamboo "table-let" for my Kamakura Buddha. Printed some antique botanical prints of palms to replace the roses in their frames. Put the palm tree in, and got a mosquito netting "canopy" thingy because... well, the corner just needed something. Without it, the bedroom was "almost" there, but it was like missing the mark. The netting really changed the center of gravity and pulled it out of the fire.
We succeeded. It is warm and inviting. The only other thing I'd like (I never liked a television in the bedroom, for the record -- but it does come in handy sometimes) is to replace the television with an LCD wal-mount... maybe a 15" or 17". It doesn't have to be big... nor would I want it to be. I want it to be inconspicuous. TV's aren't pretty. The big one's down in the family room with the surround sound and all. However, a TV like that starts at about $500 -- and we have other things to spend $500 on right now.
So here it is. One "before" picture, and a few "after" pictures (of course, don't expect the links to be good a year after the posting, but it'll probably work until then....) the big bedroom makeover
Enjoy!
Everyone Knows it's Windy
The last couple of days were pretty windy. Yesterday it was in the upper 50's, but it didn't feel like it. Felt much colder.There are few sights in the world that can compare to blowing skirts on windy days. I happen to think that dresses and skirts form a natural extension to the feminine form - they accentuate and extend the softness and grace of a woman. Windy days, aside from the obvious effects ala Marilyn Monroe (ok, usually not that dramatic, but it doesn't have to be) even a rippling hemline or the way it pushes the fabric against one side of her body, revealing form in an almost Picasso style -- just a curved line on the upwind side, proudly cutting the wind and then blending into a flutter of gracefulness on the downwind side. It's beautiful. And ok, it's sexy as well. Then there's more complex element of the balance between a woman who is aware of her feminine beauty and is not afraid to have her sensuality revealed a bit -- and the minor drama she must endure to retain her dignity that just makes her even more attractive. You can humph! and think "dirty old man", but that's not the way it is. It's truly beautiful.
I love women. I am truly dedicated to mine, but I remain a big fan.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Up On the Roof
Got up to a whopping 62 degrees today. Just the day I needed to go up and paint the siding around the chimney before all the wood rots away.
Now, here's the thing... by the time you're 40, which I am, you're supposed to be smarter than to let your brain get away with the following type of rationalization:
"Hmmm, the ladder slips on the deck some. But.. they're rubber feet, they should hold. Let's try it." So, I made an attempt up to the roof. Sure enough, my weight seemed to combine with the coefficient of friction between the feet of the ladder and the deck and I got to the top. As I stepped off, it started to slide. Oops.
I painted the chimney cap to keep it from rusting further. Then came carefully back down the ladder. And once again, I thought to myself... "hey, you'd feel REALLY stupid, not to mention be in a lot of pain and possibly medical expense... if that ladder slipped. You should really get some rubber matting." I briefly looked around to see if there was any of that no-slip rubber matting around I could use. It didn't come out and bite me in the nose, so I stopped looking. The rationalizing Phil said "ah, we'll get by."
Had to go back up and paint the siding itself. Found the old can of siding stain left by the remodelers last summer. Took it up to the roof, thinking -- "well, hey, a few times up and a few times down, I'll just be very careful." Went up... forgot the brush. Went back down. Got the brush, backup again. About 2/3 of the way up, sure enough, the ladder slipped. Now I knew ahead of time that if this happened, there wouldn't be a hell of a lot I could do about it, and that there would likely be bone breakage involved what with legs and ladders tangling all that slipping and sliding and flailing. Somehow, I had the presence of mind to step through the ladder on the way down and try to land on my feet, albeit with a ladder around one of them. Fortunately, it worked. Sort of.
I am a very lucky man not to have a broken leg right now, I must keep telling myself. I must keep telling myself that for two reasons. One, so I don't pull a stunt like that again, and two -- my left knee and ankle are killing me. They just started a little over an hour ago.
I had walked it off and it didn't seem to hurt much. The stain was dried to rubber anyway, so I took it to Sherwin Williams to have it matched. Little did I know that unlike Lowe's, they typically require 24 hours to match paint -- instead of 5 minutes. However, the boy assured me that nobody was ahead of me so he could have it done by 3:00. Good, I thought. It'll still be warm out and I can get it done.
So, I went to the International Grocery and bought some brown rice and sweet rice (I'm going to try the sweet rice for "popcorn rice" in some gumbo tomorrow -- after beignets and chickory coffee in the morning... mmmmmm) -- then I went to Circuit City and bought a 256 MB stick of memory to set my poor computer free from swapping so much. Then I went to HyVee and bought some shrimp and ham and other stuff for gumbo, and came home about 2:20. Vicki had just gotten back from lunch with Connie, and said the paint people called and the paint was ready. Put the groceries away. Went out and got the paint and went back up on the roof ... this time on the STEP LADDER.... see, I DO learn -- (but still, that whole wisdom thing was supposed to kick in BEFORE I did something stupid). Painted the chimney. Came down and put my memory in the computer (it's much happier now).
So, that's pretty much been my day. Vicki went to feed Connie's dad dinner at the hospital, I went back to the grocery store and got some potatoes to make that potato-green bean-polish sausage dish. Yep, that's the ingredients. Dump, cook, and it's sooooo good. Filled up the bird feeders and bird bath. Made dinner. Now I'm waiting for Vicki to get back.
Oh, about the leg. Right before I went back to the grocery store (remember all that running around in the afternoon?) my knee and ankle decided they were going to let me know just how stupid I'd been. I guess they were afraid I'd forget. Well I'll be reminded when I have to go out and replace the screen I ripped on the way down anyway, (thank you very much mister knee...)
Aren't you so glad you read this now? An exciting day in the life of Phil. Anyway, I popped 4 ibuprofen, and my knee feels better, but I need to stay off it all the same.
We went out to "Dinner and a Show" last night at the Artisan. Jane (Ida Jane, that is) is unhappy with them. Says that they don't treat artists well... especially female ones. I believe her. I don't go there a lot because of that. But, that's where everyone wanted to go and it sounded like fun. So Jorgies, Dourty's, Us & Kevin, Walkers, and Alex and Myla (Alex works with me -- he's Ukranian -- Myla's his wife). Myla is very bright and charming. Interesting couple to be around. We all had a good time. Some local dude was playing light jazz piano.
Well, I oughta wrap up.
Now, here's the thing... by the time you're 40, which I am, you're supposed to be smarter than to let your brain get away with the following type of rationalization:
"Hmmm, the ladder slips on the deck some. But.. they're rubber feet, they should hold. Let's try it." So, I made an attempt up to the roof. Sure enough, my weight seemed to combine with the coefficient of friction between the feet of the ladder and the deck and I got to the top. As I stepped off, it started to slide. Oops.
I painted the chimney cap to keep it from rusting further. Then came carefully back down the ladder. And once again, I thought to myself... "hey, you'd feel REALLY stupid, not to mention be in a lot of pain and possibly medical expense... if that ladder slipped. You should really get some rubber matting." I briefly looked around to see if there was any of that no-slip rubber matting around I could use. It didn't come out and bite me in the nose, so I stopped looking. The rationalizing Phil said "ah, we'll get by."
Had to go back up and paint the siding itself. Found the old can of siding stain left by the remodelers last summer. Took it up to the roof, thinking -- "well, hey, a few times up and a few times down, I'll just be very careful." Went up... forgot the brush. Went back down. Got the brush, backup again. About 2/3 of the way up, sure enough, the ladder slipped. Now I knew ahead of time that if this happened, there wouldn't be a hell of a lot I could do about it, and that there would likely be bone breakage involved what with legs and ladders tangling all that slipping and sliding and flailing. Somehow, I had the presence of mind to step through the ladder on the way down and try to land on my feet, albeit with a ladder around one of them. Fortunately, it worked. Sort of.
I am a very lucky man not to have a broken leg right now, I must keep telling myself. I must keep telling myself that for two reasons. One, so I don't pull a stunt like that again, and two -- my left knee and ankle are killing me. They just started a little over an hour ago.
I had walked it off and it didn't seem to hurt much. The stain was dried to rubber anyway, so I took it to Sherwin Williams to have it matched. Little did I know that unlike Lowe's, they typically require 24 hours to match paint -- instead of 5 minutes. However, the boy assured me that nobody was ahead of me so he could have it done by 3:00. Good, I thought. It'll still be warm out and I can get it done.
So, I went to the International Grocery and bought some brown rice and sweet rice (I'm going to try the sweet rice for "popcorn rice" in some gumbo tomorrow -- after beignets and chickory coffee in the morning... mmmmmm) -- then I went to Circuit City and bought a 256 MB stick of memory to set my poor computer free from swapping so much. Then I went to HyVee and bought some shrimp and ham and other stuff for gumbo, and came home about 2:20. Vicki had just gotten back from lunch with Connie, and said the paint people called and the paint was ready. Put the groceries away. Went out and got the paint and went back up on the roof ... this time on the STEP LADDER.... see, I DO learn -- (but still, that whole wisdom thing was supposed to kick in BEFORE I did something stupid). Painted the chimney. Came down and put my memory in the computer (it's much happier now).
So, that's pretty much been my day. Vicki went to feed Connie's dad dinner at the hospital, I went back to the grocery store and got some potatoes to make that potato-green bean-polish sausage dish. Yep, that's the ingredients. Dump, cook, and it's sooooo good. Filled up the bird feeders and bird bath. Made dinner. Now I'm waiting for Vicki to get back.
Oh, about the leg. Right before I went back to the grocery store (remember all that running around in the afternoon?) my knee and ankle decided they were going to let me know just how stupid I'd been. I guess they were afraid I'd forget. Well I'll be reminded when I have to go out and replace the screen I ripped on the way down anyway, (thank you very much mister knee...)
Aren't you so glad you read this now? An exciting day in the life of Phil. Anyway, I popped 4 ibuprofen, and my knee feels better, but I need to stay off it all the same.
We went out to "Dinner and a Show" last night at the Artisan. Jane (Ida Jane, that is) is unhappy with them. Says that they don't treat artists well... especially female ones. I believe her. I don't go there a lot because of that. But, that's where everyone wanted to go and it sounded like fun. So Jorgies, Dourty's, Us & Kevin, Walkers, and Alex and Myla (Alex works with me -- he's Ukranian -- Myla's his wife). Myla is very bright and charming. Interesting couple to be around. We all had a good time. Some local dude was playing light jazz piano.
Well, I oughta wrap up.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Needles and pins-ah
Thus endeth the acupuncture experiment. After about a dozen sessions and wondering if maybe there might be some possible noticeable benefit.... well, if you have to spend that much time to try to rationalize that there might possibly be some benefit, there can't be enough to justify the $200 a month bill.
Or even $100. If progress was infinitesimal at once a week, imagine halving that at twice a month.
So, we went back to the Western doctors to have a look at her nose. The primary doctor just shrugs and puts her on antihistamines and steroid spray again and sends us to the ENT. We did find out what we wanted to find out from the ENT. Her nose is fine. Septum healed well and is pretty straight. Turbinates look good, and she even has more air passage than a lot of people through that area. Tonsils are bigger than normal. The nighttime breathing problems (especially when she has a cold or something) are likely related to that. So they may have to come out.
So, it looks like it's not allergies causing her problems. The may exacerbate the problem somewhat when they flare up, but... and it isn't her nose.
Guitar is going pretty good. I'm slowly improving. Getting closer and closer to being able to land that barred-F in a playing situation... and the Bm is very similar. The pattern picking is getting pretty good on the 1-2-1 pattern. One down.... 26 to go. But there's progress every week and it is encouraging.
Went over to Connie's aunt Ruth's last Saturday night for a sing-a-long, where George, Sam, and I played guitars and we all sang songs -- mostly country and old rock and had a very good time. Nice people, those. I introduced them to "I'm Too Far Away From My Beer" -- heh-heh.... that's always a fun one to spring on people.
Got a subwoofer amp for the living room stereo. So now once again the sub is properly crossed over and independently amped. Balances the sound nicely. And only $36 from Ebay... hey, can't beat it.
Also had to clean Mom's computer -- XP was complaining about running low on disk space. It was down under 200MB on the system partition. Sure glad I put VNC on there as an afterthought when I couldn't get XP's terminal service working on it. Saves having to drive 500 miles every time there's a problem (and that's ONE WAY). I should have split the disk 4GB/2GB instead of 3GB/3GB (system/data), I guess. Well, we'll just bring Partition Magic up there when we go for Brian's graduation and fix that.
We re-did the bedroom, finally. I'll wait to post about that -- it turned out nice, though.
Well, later....
Or even $100. If progress was infinitesimal at once a week, imagine halving that at twice a month.
So, we went back to the Western doctors to have a look at her nose. The primary doctor just shrugs and puts her on antihistamines and steroid spray again and sends us to the ENT. We did find out what we wanted to find out from the ENT. Her nose is fine. Septum healed well and is pretty straight. Turbinates look good, and she even has more air passage than a lot of people through that area. Tonsils are bigger than normal. The nighttime breathing problems (especially when she has a cold or something) are likely related to that. So they may have to come out.
So, it looks like it's not allergies causing her problems. The may exacerbate the problem somewhat when they flare up, but... and it isn't her nose.
Guitar is going pretty good. I'm slowly improving. Getting closer and closer to being able to land that barred-F in a playing situation... and the Bm is very similar. The pattern picking is getting pretty good on the 1-2-1 pattern. One down.... 26 to go. But there's progress every week and it is encouraging.
Went over to Connie's aunt Ruth's last Saturday night for a sing-a-long, where George, Sam, and I played guitars and we all sang songs -- mostly country and old rock and had a very good time. Nice people, those. I introduced them to "I'm Too Far Away From My Beer" -- heh-heh.... that's always a fun one to spring on people.
Got a subwoofer amp for the living room stereo. So now once again the sub is properly crossed over and independently amped. Balances the sound nicely. And only $36 from Ebay... hey, can't beat it.
Also had to clean Mom's computer -- XP was complaining about running low on disk space. It was down under 200MB on the system partition. Sure glad I put VNC on there as an afterthought when I couldn't get XP's terminal service working on it. Saves having to drive 500 miles every time there's a problem (and that's ONE WAY). I should have split the disk 4GB/2GB instead of 3GB/3GB (system/data), I guess. Well, we'll just bring Partition Magic up there when we go for Brian's graduation and fix that.
We re-did the bedroom, finally. I'll wait to post about that -- it turned out nice, though.
Well, later....
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Stuff
There's just a lot of stuff. Stuff everywhere. I've noticed it before, as in "yes, I like that bit of stuff, but I have no room for it in my house." Which has been a helpful attitude I've developed over the past two years or so. But more and more I see stuff for the sake of stuff. People want to sell you more stuff, all the time, everywhere. And people get more and more of it even when they have no place to.... well.... stuff it.
Perhaps watching "The Life Laundry" on BBCA a few times heightened my awareness. Some people have so much stuff you can't even see what any of it is. It's all just a big blurry jumble of stuff.
My house isn't like that. Probably mostly thanks to my wife. But I feel like I have too much stuff nonetheless. Stuff in the attic. Stuff in the garage. Stuff in boxes on my closet shelf. Stuff under the bed. Stuff in a junk drawer. Stuff in cabinets I bought specifically to hold stuff I have. I recently got rid of a bunch of stuff from my office. Well, I really haven't gotten "rid" of it yet. It's in my trunk. It's stuff I need to go through. Or do I? I couldn't tell you what much of it is. If I just tossed the box in a dumpster, would I ever miss any of it? Probalby not.
And that's what I'm talking about. I walked into the grocery store the other day to pick up, get this... "food", and started down the first aisle of produce.... produce on the right that is. On the left.... a bunch of shelves with .... stuff. Things. Knicknacks. Gadgets. Things with team logos. And all kinds of things on the packaging telling me why I need it.
Just because something is kind of neat or unique, or because it is associated with or reminds us of something we like doesn't mean we need to posess it. It won't make me "cool" if I have a Kansas City Chiefs paperweight that looks just like a regulation helmet.
I've become very stuff-conscious. I'm not anti-stuff. I'm no anti-capitalist. I just don't want more stuff. I want to get rid of stuff. And any new stuff I get I will be very selective about. And I'll have to keep reviewing the stuff I have, to see if it really has enough value for me to keep and add to the burden of stuff I own.
So that's today's rant on stuff.
Perhaps watching "The Life Laundry" on BBCA a few times heightened my awareness. Some people have so much stuff you can't even see what any of it is. It's all just a big blurry jumble of stuff.
My house isn't like that. Probably mostly thanks to my wife. But I feel like I have too much stuff nonetheless. Stuff in the attic. Stuff in the garage. Stuff in boxes on my closet shelf. Stuff under the bed. Stuff in a junk drawer. Stuff in cabinets I bought specifically to hold stuff I have. I recently got rid of a bunch of stuff from my office. Well, I really haven't gotten "rid" of it yet. It's in my trunk. It's stuff I need to go through. Or do I? I couldn't tell you what much of it is. If I just tossed the box in a dumpster, would I ever miss any of it? Probalby not.
And that's what I'm talking about. I walked into the grocery store the other day to pick up, get this... "food", and started down the first aisle of produce.... produce on the right that is. On the left.... a bunch of shelves with .... stuff. Things. Knicknacks. Gadgets. Things with team logos. And all kinds of things on the packaging telling me why I need it.
Just because something is kind of neat or unique, or because it is associated with or reminds us of something we like doesn't mean we need to posess it. It won't make me "cool" if I have a Kansas City Chiefs paperweight that looks just like a regulation helmet.
I've become very stuff-conscious. I'm not anti-stuff. I'm no anti-capitalist. I just don't want more stuff. I want to get rid of stuff. And any new stuff I get I will be very selective about. And I'll have to keep reviewing the stuff I have, to see if it really has enough value for me to keep and add to the burden of stuff I own.
So that's today's rant on stuff.
Monday, February 02, 2004
Ass Storm
We were all geared up for another ass storm... oops, I mean ice storm, last night and today, but the warm air nudged far enough north that it's all rain until this afternoon.
The "ass" storm reference is to a time my inlaws were traveling through the bootheel on the way back from Texas. Stopped in Cairo, Mo where everyone was talking about a big "ass" storm that was a'comin'. It took them quite a while to figure out that that's just how southeast-Missourians say "ice". We had a good ass storm a little over a week ago followed by a little snow storm. Looks like we should have another here Wednesday. Snow. Not ass.
Just celebrated our 12th anniversary yesterday. An even dozen. Went out for lunch. By the time our anniversary rolls around, we're worn out from Brian's birthday, Thanksgiving, Vicki's birthday, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. It really gets neglected. Then we went home and watched the new movie we bought, "Open Range". It's the movie I knew I had to see when in the previews I heard the phrases "rustle up some grub" and "sticks in my craw".
The "ass" storm reference is to a time my inlaws were traveling through the bootheel on the way back from Texas. Stopped in Cairo, Mo where everyone was talking about a big "ass" storm that was a'comin'. It took them quite a while to figure out that that's just how southeast-Missourians say "ice". We had a good ass storm a little over a week ago followed by a little snow storm. Looks like we should have another here Wednesday. Snow. Not ass.
Just celebrated our 12th anniversary yesterday. An even dozen. Went out for lunch. By the time our anniversary rolls around, we're worn out from Brian's birthday, Thanksgiving, Vicki's birthday, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. It really gets neglected. Then we went home and watched the new movie we bought, "Open Range". It's the movie I knew I had to see when in the previews I heard the phrases "rustle up some grub" and "sticks in my craw".
Friday, January 02, 2004
And a Happy New Year
And a Happy New Year
As e'r it could be
With my wassailing bowl, I drink to thee!
Happy New Year to all....
Had bro-fest, as it were. Joel and Dawn, Tom and Betty. Jeff called to chime in, and Ryan & Kristy, along with Deb, Daryl, and his friend John came over. Kevin, Brian, and his friend Keith were in and out. Had an outdoor fire and tiki torches on the deck. We had Southwest Shepherd's pie (kind of like tamale pie). Margaritas. Midnight came as expected, and we stayed up talking until... oh... almost 2:00.
My new HP 1210v printer/scanner/copier went back to Walmart today. The scanning was lousy. Had thin, horizontal lighter bands all through the scans. Not acceptable. HP Technical support was not paying attention to what I was telling them. I told them it printed just fine, but it scanned lousy -- and how. They said the print cartridges were probably clogged. Really? And it still prints great but the scanning sucks? Do tell! I clarified the symptoms, and they said the glass was dirty. On my brand new PSC? Mighty regular dirt pattern on that glass. I gave up. Their tech support is lousy.
So I got my money back and went to Sam's where they have the 1210xi for $12 less. I've read great reviews on these things... I figure the first one I got was defective. To get past possible problems with a lot shipped to Walmart I figured a different store and a different model number would do the trick. We'll see tonight.
Also our DVD player fritzed out. Vicki went out and got a new one. Man, have they come down in price.
Guess we'll down the Christmas decorations this weekend. Go see LOTR III again. And there's a couple others Vicki wants to see as well.
Oh, last night some guys came by with a pickup full of wood and offered to sell a "woodrack" full for $45. Probably 1/3 cord at the most... but it was convenient and not green so I bit. Now we have enough to burn this winter without digging into the green stuff and it can season this summer.
Well, better get going.
As e'r it could be
With my wassailing bowl, I drink to thee!
Happy New Year to all....
Had bro-fest, as it were. Joel and Dawn, Tom and Betty. Jeff called to chime in, and Ryan & Kristy, along with Deb, Daryl, and his friend John came over. Kevin, Brian, and his friend Keith were in and out. Had an outdoor fire and tiki torches on the deck. We had Southwest Shepherd's pie (kind of like tamale pie). Margaritas. Midnight came as expected, and we stayed up talking until... oh... almost 2:00.
My new HP 1210v printer/scanner/copier went back to Walmart today. The scanning was lousy. Had thin, horizontal lighter bands all through the scans. Not acceptable. HP Technical support was not paying attention to what I was telling them. I told them it printed just fine, but it scanned lousy -- and how. They said the print cartridges were probably clogged. Really? And it still prints great but the scanning sucks? Do tell! I clarified the symptoms, and they said the glass was dirty. On my brand new PSC? Mighty regular dirt pattern on that glass. I gave up. Their tech support is lousy.
So I got my money back and went to Sam's where they have the 1210xi for $12 less. I've read great reviews on these things... I figure the first one I got was defective. To get past possible problems with a lot shipped to Walmart I figured a different store and a different model number would do the trick. We'll see tonight.
Also our DVD player fritzed out. Vicki went out and got a new one. Man, have they come down in price.
Guess we'll down the Christmas decorations this weekend. Go see LOTR III again. And there's a couple others Vicki wants to see as well.
Oh, last night some guys came by with a pickup full of wood and offered to sell a "woodrack" full for $45. Probably 1/3 cord at the most... but it was convenient and not green so I bit. Now we have enough to burn this winter without digging into the green stuff and it can season this summer.
Well, better get going.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Wassail!
Wassail! Wassail! All over the town
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown
Our bowl it is made from the white maple tree
With my wassailing bowl I drink to thee!
Took Friday and Monday off. We were way behind on holiday preparations. I put up the outside lights.... house only. Didn't get to the trees and bushes this year.
The tree is up and decorated. It is a little lopsided on it's trunk and unfortunately the side facing the room is the side with the most branches... and all the ornaments on that side did make it fall over, but very little damage was done. The water was sucked up and a few ornaments placed back on the tree and key balancing measures were put in to effect. Halls decked, cookies baked. Shrub made. (brandy, lemon, and wine... good drink).
We saw The Lord of the Rings, last installment. Good. Probably have to see it again -- a lot happened in that movie. That being said, it did drag, I thought, in a few places. I realize there was a lot of despair in the story... but the way that was portrayed in the movie was a lot of long, long shots of Frodo's legendarily expressive eyes .... you know, showing... despair. Lots and lots of it. Couldn't they have cut 7 minutes of despair and put, maybe, Saramaun's 7 minute scene back in?
We did not get Christmas cards out this year. Sorry, those of you who did not get them (which would be pretty much all of you) but that's the way it went this year. Don't feel left out. You weren't.
I hear Mahtaj, a lady I work with, is off camping in Colorado. Ah, to just take off and go on a whim. I'm so jealous.
I still have to wrap Vicki's gifts. Looks like once again that will happen on Christmas Eve. I don't particularly like doing it Christmas Eve, but that's when it seems to happen.
Installed MSN9 on Mom's computer, but man, it's bogging it down. May have to go back to 8. I put 9 on there for the popup-stopping capabilities. But really. I think it should run much better than that.
As the season wears on, I listen to more and more traditional Christmas music. Right now I'm listening to "The Sixteen". Mediaeval Christmas music. Pretty much Church music (for the most part). Makes me want to burn some of that incense that we burned at church. Vicki hates the aroma. A lot of people do. I always liked it. Used to be able to buy it at Cool Stuff. "Gloria Blend", it is.
I've learned the chords to "The Gloucestershire Wassail" -- now I just need to learn all the words. It's another Wassailing song that I like better than "Here We Come a Wassailing". It really captures the spirit of wassailing very well. I've also learned "The Boar's Head Carol" -- another of my favorites.
If you haven't guessed, I really like the traditions and circumstance around Christmas and its pagan northern-European counterpart, "Yule". Most of it seems to be centered around (1) the fact that it's a cold, dark time of year when a little cheer is most welcomed, and (2) our own persistence and renewal of that on which we subsist (agriculture -- food) from a time when you couldn't just pop down to the local store and buy some apples or whatever else you lacked in the middle of the winter. The story of the birth of a redeemer fits well into the old pagan ideas -- hope in the middle of dark times and the promise of an eternal life. From what I understand scholars put the birth of the actual Christ sometime in summer, but the church moved the feast to coincide with the grand traditions of the midwinter festivals. Probably not only a politically wise move, but a fitting one as well. I don't see Christmastime through the same polarizing lenses the right and the left see it through. Yes, the word Christmas itself refers to the celebration of the birth of Christ and many of the traditions we see this time of year come from that tradition. Many others come from other traditions. I see them as a remarkably rich blend, not as one side or another being "the right way". This bunk about removing Christmas Trees from public places is a bit nuts to me. I understand the whole separation of Church and State thing but is State to remain completely sterile from culture as well? There is a difference, I think, between endorsing a particular religion and acknowledging that a very large portion of our population is in fact, Christian.
So, as we near Christmas, everybody enjoy the lights, the trees, Mr. Claus and his flying reindeer, the nativity scenes, the church music and the secular music and bask in the synergy of traditions that is known collectively as "Christmas" to Christians and non-Christians alike. And whether you're dreaming of a White Christmas or on a beach on Christmas Island with your stocking hanging on a great big coconut tree.... have a very very merry one, and do your best to ensure those around you do the same. The smile you send out comes back to you a thousand times. Whether you're smiling yourself or doing something to cause someone else to smile, do your part. You'll get yours.
Merry Christmas!
- P
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown
Our bowl it is made from the white maple tree
With my wassailing bowl I drink to thee!
Took Friday and Monday off. We were way behind on holiday preparations. I put up the outside lights.... house only. Didn't get to the trees and bushes this year.
The tree is up and decorated. It is a little lopsided on it's trunk and unfortunately the side facing the room is the side with the most branches... and all the ornaments on that side did make it fall over, but very little damage was done. The water was sucked up and a few ornaments placed back on the tree and key balancing measures were put in to effect. Halls decked, cookies baked. Shrub made. (brandy, lemon, and wine... good drink).
We saw The Lord of the Rings, last installment. Good. Probably have to see it again -- a lot happened in that movie. That being said, it did drag, I thought, in a few places. I realize there was a lot of despair in the story... but the way that was portrayed in the movie was a lot of long, long shots of Frodo's legendarily expressive eyes .... you know, showing... despair. Lots and lots of it. Couldn't they have cut 7 minutes of despair and put, maybe, Saramaun's 7 minute scene back in?
We did not get Christmas cards out this year. Sorry, those of you who did not get them (which would be pretty much all of you) but that's the way it went this year. Don't feel left out. You weren't.
I hear Mahtaj, a lady I work with, is off camping in Colorado. Ah, to just take off and go on a whim. I'm so jealous.
I still have to wrap Vicki's gifts. Looks like once again that will happen on Christmas Eve. I don't particularly like doing it Christmas Eve, but that's when it seems to happen.
Installed MSN9 on Mom's computer, but man, it's bogging it down. May have to go back to 8. I put 9 on there for the popup-stopping capabilities. But really. I think it should run much better than that.
As the season wears on, I listen to more and more traditional Christmas music. Right now I'm listening to "The Sixteen". Mediaeval Christmas music. Pretty much Church music (for the most part). Makes me want to burn some of that incense that we burned at church. Vicki hates the aroma. A lot of people do. I always liked it. Used to be able to buy it at Cool Stuff. "Gloria Blend", it is.
I've learned the chords to "The Gloucestershire Wassail" -- now I just need to learn all the words. It's another Wassailing song that I like better than "Here We Come a Wassailing". It really captures the spirit of wassailing very well. I've also learned "The Boar's Head Carol" -- another of my favorites.
If you haven't guessed, I really like the traditions and circumstance around Christmas and its pagan northern-European counterpart, "Yule". Most of it seems to be centered around (1) the fact that it's a cold, dark time of year when a little cheer is most welcomed, and (2) our own persistence and renewal of that on which we subsist (agriculture -- food) from a time when you couldn't just pop down to the local store and buy some apples or whatever else you lacked in the middle of the winter. The story of the birth of a redeemer fits well into the old pagan ideas -- hope in the middle of dark times and the promise of an eternal life. From what I understand scholars put the birth of the actual Christ sometime in summer, but the church moved the feast to coincide with the grand traditions of the midwinter festivals. Probably not only a politically wise move, but a fitting one as well. I don't see Christmastime through the same polarizing lenses the right and the left see it through. Yes, the word Christmas itself refers to the celebration of the birth of Christ and many of the traditions we see this time of year come from that tradition. Many others come from other traditions. I see them as a remarkably rich blend, not as one side or another being "the right way". This bunk about removing Christmas Trees from public places is a bit nuts to me. I understand the whole separation of Church and State thing but is State to remain completely sterile from culture as well? There is a difference, I think, between endorsing a particular religion and acknowledging that a very large portion of our population is in fact, Christian.
So, as we near Christmas, everybody enjoy the lights, the trees, Mr. Claus and his flying reindeer, the nativity scenes, the church music and the secular music and bask in the synergy of traditions that is known collectively as "Christmas" to Christians and non-Christians alike. And whether you're dreaming of a White Christmas or on a beach on Christmas Island with your stocking hanging on a great big coconut tree.... have a very very merry one, and do your best to ensure those around you do the same. The smile you send out comes back to you a thousand times. Whether you're smiling yourself or doing something to cause someone else to smile, do your part. You'll get yours.
Merry Christmas!
- P
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long
A very long time. I've been bad. Thanksgiving was cool. We got Mom (Krick) a laptop to replace her MSN companion. Got that up and working well, took it home with her and set it up. I can even remote control it from here so I can help her out. She's doing really well with it.
So we had Mom, Bri, Kev, Ken, and Mom along with Sam and Connie over for Thanksgiving. My stuffing didn't turn out as good as it could've. I shoudln't have covered it. Everything else was great. Connie made sweet potato pie in place of pumpkin -- I knew they were similar -- it was very good.
Ok, between helping kids out with finances, fixing Vicki's car, me frying my computer, (got a new one... 2.6GHz E-machine) and the beer fridge conked out.... we've spent a darned lot of money over the last two months. Hopefully things will get better after this. That heat pump probably won't last forever. It's at the end of its life cycle.
So we got a new refrigerator for the kitchen. Vicki wanted the freezer on the bottom. It's cool. You don't have to bend down to see what's in the fridge. It's a bigger one, too. The kitchen fridge was retired to the garage as the new beer fridge.
Vicki is punting the job as the secretary of the homeowners association -- too stressful for someone with a full-time job. Which means there's another $600 a year we will get to shell out, but it's worth her not being stressed, to be sure.
So, we have her going to a... get this.... acupunturist. I know, I know. Practical Phil, right behind her on this, belive it or not. Her doctors are bent on treating her symptoms, this guy claims to know the cause (liver problems) and he can fix it by.... sticking needles in her and improving her Chi flow -- ok... well... they've been doing it in China for 2,300 years.... so either they can't afford an education in modern medical practice or maybe they've been onto something all this time. Time will tell. Hopefully not too much, as this, too, is expensive.... and not covered by insurance.
Went to an exxxxxxxcellent housewarming party at Alex's house (guy I work with). He has a charming and brilliant wife (cardiovascular research) and they are great hosts. We had lots of interesting food from the Ukraine & other republics of the former Soviet Union. Mostly Ukranian. They have a fabulous house overlooking a bluff on a creek, looking out the back over a floodplain. It was beautiful with 5" of snow covering everything. Then we went out to Vicki's boss's party at their house... that's always a nice party -- and closed the night down with Sam & Connie and ate at the waffle house at 1:30 in the morning. Heck, I didn't party that much when I was in COLLEGE.
The Groves were up two weekends ago. It was a quick visit -- plus, the Lord of the Rings II extended version took about 4 hours out of that. But as always, it was nice having them around.
Sadness... Brian and Jess broke up. We sure like her. She sounds pretty strong, so no matter how this turns out she'll do great. Apparently Brian's just not ready for a Jess at this time. Which is too bad, because you don't run across them every day. Everybody has to figure it out in their own time, I guess. What's that Gerry Rafferty song... "If you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time"? Yeah. Good song (http://www.yimpan.com/Songsite/Lyric/index.asp?sid=3516)
Got the tree up, with just lights on it. Have very little Christmas decorating up. Very unusual for us. Have to get it done this week. I'm taking Friday and monday off. Get some baking done and the rest of the decorating.
For Vicki's birthday we're going to see the Return of the King (with Sam & Connie). Bri and Mom should be home Friday. I'm taking Friday and Monday off, but I have to work Tue/Wed/Fri. Then I'm taking of the next monday and tuesday and working Wed/Friday. And of course Brofest on New Years Eve. Looks like Mexican this year. Ryan and Kristie will probably come over. Kristie has to work late -- but she'll be over before midnight.
Ryan got rid of the bowflex and the freeweights and bought a Wieder C670 weight machine that we're using to work out. He really wants to get 120 workouts in this year -- and that means 10 more before Jan 1. I don't think so, Tim. We'll see.
Well, that's a quick recap. I'll try to be better from now on.
So we had Mom, Bri, Kev, Ken, and Mom along with Sam and Connie over for Thanksgiving. My stuffing didn't turn out as good as it could've. I shoudln't have covered it. Everything else was great. Connie made sweet potato pie in place of pumpkin -- I knew they were similar -- it was very good.
Ok, between helping kids out with finances, fixing Vicki's car, me frying my computer, (got a new one... 2.6GHz E-machine) and the beer fridge conked out.... we've spent a darned lot of money over the last two months. Hopefully things will get better after this. That heat pump probably won't last forever. It's at the end of its life cycle.
So we got a new refrigerator for the kitchen. Vicki wanted the freezer on the bottom. It's cool. You don't have to bend down to see what's in the fridge. It's a bigger one, too. The kitchen fridge was retired to the garage as the new beer fridge.
Vicki is punting the job as the secretary of the homeowners association -- too stressful for someone with a full-time job. Which means there's another $600 a year we will get to shell out, but it's worth her not being stressed, to be sure.
So, we have her going to a... get this.... acupunturist. I know, I know. Practical Phil, right behind her on this, belive it or not. Her doctors are bent on treating her symptoms, this guy claims to know the cause (liver problems) and he can fix it by.... sticking needles in her and improving her Chi flow -- ok... well... they've been doing it in China for 2,300 years.... so either they can't afford an education in modern medical practice or maybe they've been onto something all this time. Time will tell. Hopefully not too much, as this, too, is expensive.... and not covered by insurance.
Went to an exxxxxxxcellent housewarming party at Alex's house (guy I work with). He has a charming and brilliant wife (cardiovascular research) and they are great hosts. We had lots of interesting food from the Ukraine & other republics of the former Soviet Union. Mostly Ukranian. They have a fabulous house overlooking a bluff on a creek, looking out the back over a floodplain. It was beautiful with 5" of snow covering everything. Then we went out to Vicki's boss's party at their house... that's always a nice party -- and closed the night down with Sam & Connie and ate at the waffle house at 1:30 in the morning. Heck, I didn't party that much when I was in COLLEGE.
The Groves were up two weekends ago. It was a quick visit -- plus, the Lord of the Rings II extended version took about 4 hours out of that. But as always, it was nice having them around.
Sadness... Brian and Jess broke up. We sure like her. She sounds pretty strong, so no matter how this turns out she'll do great. Apparently Brian's just not ready for a Jess at this time. Which is too bad, because you don't run across them every day. Everybody has to figure it out in their own time, I guess. What's that Gerry Rafferty song... "If you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time"? Yeah. Good song (http://www.yimpan.com/Songsite/Lyric/index.asp?sid=3516)
Got the tree up, with just lights on it. Have very little Christmas decorating up. Very unusual for us. Have to get it done this week. I'm taking Friday and monday off. Get some baking done and the rest of the decorating.
For Vicki's birthday we're going to see the Return of the King (with Sam & Connie). Bri and Mom should be home Friday. I'm taking Friday and Monday off, but I have to work Tue/Wed/Fri. Then I'm taking of the next monday and tuesday and working Wed/Friday. And of course Brofest on New Years Eve. Looks like Mexican this year. Ryan and Kristie will probably come over. Kristie has to work late -- but she'll be over before midnight.
Ryan got rid of the bowflex and the freeweights and bought a Wieder C670 weight machine that we're using to work out. He really wants to get 120 workouts in this year -- and that means 10 more before Jan 1. I don't think so, Tim. We'll see.
Well, that's a quick recap. I'll try to be better from now on.
Monday, November 10, 2003
Sometimes you feel like Anutt
Drove down to beautiful downtown Anutt, Mo to the home of Mike & Lois (and Ben & Abigail) Hilgers for a visit. Played gutiars, ate... played with kids, ate some more, played some more.... Mike's been working on his classical guitar. Sounds pretty darned good to me. We're never happy with what we can do, because -- well, we know where our mistakes and limitations are. But those listening to us aren't always so aware and so it sounds great to them -- and so it sounded great to me. And isn't that what matters?
Abigail is a bit of a little cherub-faced doll which can be pretty difficult to resist. And it's always fun to watch Ben try to sort out and prioritize all the thoughts that come into his brain. It's even more fun to try to figure out what they are and put words in to his mouth. Mike is particularly adept at this.
I won't go into any particular details of the visit, because to an outsider it'd just be boring. But most people know that just hanging with friends for a while is cool without having to have anything in particular going on.
Got home and whipped out my Christmas guitar book to see if I can get through any of it any better this year. Looks like I can -- as long as it's all open chords I'm getting relatively adept. And I learned 2 new open chords last night... Am7 and Dm7.
Got the hole in Vicki's car fixed a couple of weeks ago. Rust spot over the back right fender. Then the master cylinder went out so we got that fixed. Nothing like a non-rusty car that stops.
Finished testing Mom's new computer (that's Mom Fort Wayne, not Mom Lonedell) -- ordered a copy of XP for it and also bought Trend Micro's Internet Security suite for it. Slapped MSN 8 and Messenger 6.1 and AIM on it. I think that Wordpad is plenty of word processor for her purposes, so we won't bother with Office or anything like that.
Brian & Jess will be coming out for Brian's birthday this weekend. Haven't seen Jess in a while. She's such a sweetie. Don't know how much of her we'll see over the holidays.
Speaking of those... Need to get the house ready (clean and repaired) for the holidays anyway. The dining room chandalier needs to be repaired and there's a patch on the wall in the living room I need to fix from a piece of furniture dinging it. Gotta clean out the bird-bath and put the stock tank heater in it for the winter, clean off the deck.... get wood for winter fires....
The drums keep pounding the rhythm to the brain.....
Abigail is a bit of a little cherub-faced doll which can be pretty difficult to resist. And it's always fun to watch Ben try to sort out and prioritize all the thoughts that come into his brain. It's even more fun to try to figure out what they are and put words in to his mouth. Mike is particularly adept at this.
I won't go into any particular details of the visit, because to an outsider it'd just be boring. But most people know that just hanging with friends for a while is cool without having to have anything in particular going on.
Got home and whipped out my Christmas guitar book to see if I can get through any of it any better this year. Looks like I can -- as long as it's all open chords I'm getting relatively adept. And I learned 2 new open chords last night... Am7 and Dm7.
Got the hole in Vicki's car fixed a couple of weeks ago. Rust spot over the back right fender. Then the master cylinder went out so we got that fixed. Nothing like a non-rusty car that stops.
Finished testing Mom's new computer (that's Mom Fort Wayne, not Mom Lonedell) -- ordered a copy of XP for it and also bought Trend Micro's Internet Security suite for it. Slapped MSN 8 and Messenger 6.1 and AIM on it. I think that Wordpad is plenty of word processor for her purposes, so we won't bother with Office or anything like that.
Brian & Jess will be coming out for Brian's birthday this weekend. Haven't seen Jess in a while. She's such a sweetie. Don't know how much of her we'll see over the holidays.
Speaking of those... Need to get the house ready (clean and repaired) for the holidays anyway. The dining room chandalier needs to be repaired and there's a patch on the wall in the living room I need to fix from a piece of furniture dinging it. Gotta clean out the bird-bath and put the stock tank heater in it for the winter, clean off the deck.... get wood for winter fires....
The drums keep pounding the rhythm to the brain.....
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Half of what I say is meaningless
...But I say it just to reach you, Julia
First, held Garage Sale Part II -- same lousy weather as Part I, and even less business. Oh well. Pack it up and wait until Spring.
Saturday night we went to a barn party for Vicki's work... had deep fried turkey and George Dickel Whiskey. Al Jolly played music along with some people Vicki works with. The guy on the slide guitar is really good.
Connie and I attempted to dance. We're really lousy so we make good partners -- good to amuse people, anyway. Oh well, we just said everyone would just figure we were drunk.... which wouldn't be horribly far from the truth but it's not the reason why we can't dance. Vicki and Sam are both good dancers so Connie and I figure hey, it's a good thing that they can actually have fun with someone who knows how and we'll just stumble through every now and then ourselves just so we can say we tried.
Sam and I never got around to playing guitars.... we're not stage performers... more like living-room and campfire players. But there was plenty of company and plenty to do so we never actually got them out.
Sunday we drove out to Lonedell. Stopped in Washington to visit Dad in the hospital. He's being a surpisingly good patient. Even surprised himself, I think. Anyway, sounds like the blood clot's gone and if he is diabetic it's just borderline. He went home Monday. Anyway we continued on to Lonedell and met Aunt Julie and our... now I can never figure this stuff out.... son of a cousin is a.... first cousin once removed? Second cousin? Anyway, the baby, Logan. Cute baby. Victor (cousin) wasn't there -- he was bringing his sister (obviously another cousin) Stephanie back from Florida. Aunt Julie's still a pretty lady and seems to enjoy the baby (her grandchild -- getting all this?)
Jef, Joel & Dawn, and Tom & BJ were there. Another couple from Mom & Dad's church came to relieve Aunt Julie of looking after Mom (she had to go back and close on her house) and we had good food, etc.
Took dad's John Wayne movies back with us to drop them off for him at the hospital and did that, drove the rest of the two hours home. And crashed into bed immediately... zzzzzzzzz!
I have a Toshiba laptop on a trial basis to get working for Mom (Vicki's mom, that is) to replace her MSN companion. I'm checking out how it runs Windows XP. It's just a PII, but it does have 160MB of memory. Seems to run OK -- if I'm happy with it I'll have to go buy a copy of it. Otherwise I think it'll have to be Windows ME. I'm just a little concerned about compatibility issues in a year or two. Probably shouldn't be, though.
Unfortunately right now I can't test her MSN stuff on it because MSN's signup server is out and -- well apparently your passport/password isn't really your dialup authentication and it needs to go out to the passport signup server to get your REAL dialup userid... sigh. It's been down about a day.
Well, that's all for this morning.
First, held Garage Sale Part II -- same lousy weather as Part I, and even less business. Oh well. Pack it up and wait until Spring.
Saturday night we went to a barn party for Vicki's work... had deep fried turkey and George Dickel Whiskey. Al Jolly played music along with some people Vicki works with. The guy on the slide guitar is really good.
Connie and I attempted to dance. We're really lousy so we make good partners -- good to amuse people, anyway. Oh well, we just said everyone would just figure we were drunk.... which wouldn't be horribly far from the truth but it's not the reason why we can't dance. Vicki and Sam are both good dancers so Connie and I figure hey, it's a good thing that they can actually have fun with someone who knows how and we'll just stumble through every now and then ourselves just so we can say we tried.
Sam and I never got around to playing guitars.... we're not stage performers... more like living-room and campfire players. But there was plenty of company and plenty to do so we never actually got them out.
Sunday we drove out to Lonedell. Stopped in Washington to visit Dad in the hospital. He's being a surpisingly good patient. Even surprised himself, I think. Anyway, sounds like the blood clot's gone and if he is diabetic it's just borderline. He went home Monday. Anyway we continued on to Lonedell and met Aunt Julie and our... now I can never figure this stuff out.... son of a cousin is a.... first cousin once removed? Second cousin? Anyway, the baby, Logan. Cute baby. Victor (cousin) wasn't there -- he was bringing his sister (obviously another cousin) Stephanie back from Florida. Aunt Julie's still a pretty lady and seems to enjoy the baby (her grandchild -- getting all this?)
Jef, Joel & Dawn, and Tom & BJ were there. Another couple from Mom & Dad's church came to relieve Aunt Julie of looking after Mom (she had to go back and close on her house) and we had good food, etc.
Took dad's John Wayne movies back with us to drop them off for him at the hospital and did that, drove the rest of the two hours home. And crashed into bed immediately... zzzzzzzzz!
I have a Toshiba laptop on a trial basis to get working for Mom (Vicki's mom, that is) to replace her MSN companion. I'm checking out how it runs Windows XP. It's just a PII, but it does have 160MB of memory. Seems to run OK -- if I'm happy with it I'll have to go buy a copy of it. Otherwise I think it'll have to be Windows ME. I'm just a little concerned about compatibility issues in a year or two. Probably shouldn't be, though.
Unfortunately right now I can't test her MSN stuff on it because MSN's signup server is out and -- well apparently your passport/password isn't really your dialup authentication and it needs to go out to the passport signup server to get your REAL dialup userid... sigh. It's been down about a day.
Well, that's all for this morning.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Sometimes Dad is Dad
Dad went into the hospital Monday morning. He's Washington with a huge blood clot in his leg. Fortunately, my Aunt Julie just moved up from Florida to Licking, MO (about 30 miles SW of Anutt -- 15 miles west of my brother Jeff's house which isn't near anything but Mauntauk St. Park) Anyway, she's already at my Mom's house and plans to stay there as long as needed. Tom's still without a job -- but his car's broken... her son Victor picked up Tom today to take him to see Dad and will take him out to Mom and Dad's... so Mom and Dave will be taken care of. Hopefully they can dissolve the clot and keep pieces of it from breaking off and heading for heart/lungs/brain. They said he'd be there at least 5 days. I THINK since they're over 65 they have medicare/cade benefits.
Called Mom today, and she says his blood's thinned by 20% since Monday, but his blood sugar's high. So they're doing a diabetes test and I believe an upper GI to look for ulcers. Apparently he's been nauseated a lot and they gave him Prevacid which has helped some.
So I'll probably be going out there Sunday. I haven't seen my Aunt Julie (Dad's youngest sister) since about 1976. Her son Victor (yes, named after Dad), who had just been born then has been helping out out at Dad's.... he has a baby of his own now, too, which I guess he's the sole parent of. Mom's certainly enjoying having a baby in the house.
Plus I called my dear cousin Angie in San Diego -- she's got two sisters and one of our uncles whos been evacuated because of the wildfires out there and her husband (works for San Diego Gas & Electric) has been recruited to fight fires since there's just not enough firemen. She had a little scare when he was driving and on the cell phone with her and he said "Oh my god, there's a HUGE tornado of fire on the road in front of me *pfftfffttttfffttttffft---- buuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" but... they just lost the signal. He was alright.
Well, that's all for now.
Called Mom today, and she says his blood's thinned by 20% since Monday, but his blood sugar's high. So they're doing a diabetes test and I believe an upper GI to look for ulcers. Apparently he's been nauseated a lot and they gave him Prevacid which has helped some.
So I'll probably be going out there Sunday. I haven't seen my Aunt Julie (Dad's youngest sister) since about 1976. Her son Victor (yes, named after Dad), who had just been born then has been helping out out at Dad's.... he has a baby of his own now, too, which I guess he's the sole parent of. Mom's certainly enjoying having a baby in the house.
Plus I called my dear cousin Angie in San Diego -- she's got two sisters and one of our uncles whos been evacuated because of the wildfires out there and her husband (works for San Diego Gas & Electric) has been recruited to fight fires since there's just not enough firemen. She had a little scare when he was driving and on the cell phone with her and he said "Oh my god, there's a HUGE tornado of fire on the road in front of me *pfftfffttttfffttttffft---- buuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" but... they just lost the signal. He was alright.
Well, that's all for now.
10 Days After
Hmmm.... haven't posted anything since the 20th, and it's the 30th. Well, we had our garage sale, but it was cool and wet and we didn't get much business. So we're opening up again this saturday for a final "blow-out" sale. It's supposed to be warmer, but still a chance of rain.
Watched Mizzou play OSU. Hey, we beat Nebraska last game. And this time we actuall WON, too. We beat them in 1997 and lost. The last time we actually won I was in High School -- and it was in Lincoln. Well, we played OSU rather well, so I guess the Tigers are for real. Brad Smith and the Offensive Line certainly are. And Abron seems to be a reliable player. 62-31. Not bad.
I quit Gold's Gym -- I was on a 3 month hiatus from it working out with Ryan at his house instead. I'm getting a better workout there. The only thing I DON'T like about it is working out from 5:30-6:30 puts a severe dent in my evening.
The winter salad garden is started up again -- at least cleaning fluid is running through it. I need some rockwool to start the lettuce, roquette & spinach. The plants from the summer deck will winter over down there under the lights again this winter. They're already down there. This year, it'll be easier to take care of. Ryan and I installed a water spigot down there a couple of weeks ago.
There's an office party for Vicki's work Saturday PM. Bonfire/Barn party. Lots of people will be bringing their guitars. I'm hauling mine along. Al Jolly's supposed to be there along with some other professional/semi professional musicians. Sam and I may have to go off to the side with a bottle of whiskey and pick some by ourselves -- I doubt we'll be able to keep up with them. Bring on the Buffett! Well, and the Denver, too.
Have to teach him "I'm too Far Away From My Beer" ;-)
Anyway, more serious post coming up......
Watched Mizzou play OSU. Hey, we beat Nebraska last game. And this time we actuall WON, too. We beat them in 1997 and lost. The last time we actually won I was in High School -- and it was in Lincoln. Well, we played OSU rather well, so I guess the Tigers are for real. Brad Smith and the Offensive Line certainly are. And Abron seems to be a reliable player. 62-31. Not bad.
I quit Gold's Gym -- I was on a 3 month hiatus from it working out with Ryan at his house instead. I'm getting a better workout there. The only thing I DON'T like about it is working out from 5:30-6:30 puts a severe dent in my evening.
The winter salad garden is started up again -- at least cleaning fluid is running through it. I need some rockwool to start the lettuce, roquette & spinach. The plants from the summer deck will winter over down there under the lights again this winter. They're already down there. This year, it'll be easier to take care of. Ryan and I installed a water spigot down there a couple of weeks ago.
There's an office party for Vicki's work Saturday PM. Bonfire/Barn party. Lots of people will be bringing their guitars. I'm hauling mine along. Al Jolly's supposed to be there along with some other professional/semi professional musicians. Sam and I may have to go off to the side with a bottle of whiskey and pick some by ourselves -- I doubt we'll be able to keep up with them. Bring on the Buffett! Well, and the Denver, too.
Have to teach him "I'm too Far Away From My Beer" ;-)
Anyway, more serious post coming up......
Monday, October 20, 2003
I'm Too Far Away From My Beer
Now thare's a story behin' this 'ere song.... way back in ought 84 or 85 'er so, I was a'browsin' threw sum rekurds here in this ole college-boy town en a store called Al's Records.
An in th' background, thes heav'nly sound, like'n a quire of angels come a'sangin' this lah-ment, which ah felt frum the bottom o' my bellehhhhhhh.
"I'm too far away from my beer
It's way over there and I'm way over here
And I'm too far away from my beer
It's way over there and I'm here"
Seriously, that was it. I heard it, and I laughed. I wan't much into anything sounding like country at the time so I didn't even inquire about it, a course of non-action which I would regret for almost 20 years. As corny as the song was, it was twice that much fun, and I'd tell people about it even though all I could remember was the chorus (above). Periodically I'd do web searches which turned up empty on those words. Well last friday, I tried it again.
And I came across a post by a lady from California named Janet Lenore who has a band (named after herself, no less), and she mentioned something about the traditional rousing round of "Too Far Away From My Beer". So I sent her a note about asking about it. She pointed me toward her music partner Topher Gayle, who had a very similar story to mine. He'd heard it on a radio show he was taping.... and 10 years later when he played the tape back he decided he needed to play it. He was kind enough to send me the song. Neither one of us know who did it or who wrote it (but would love to find out).
Falling Leaves
The color is about as good as it gets here. Not all the trees are ever turning at the same time in the midwest, but we can still have some passable falls, and this one is passable for sure. So check out the pix I took today (for a limited time, this is a temporary thing so check this posting date) click here for the pics
Cleaned out the garage this weekend... well, straightened it up and made three piles is more accurate. One pile for the garage sale, one pile for going through, and the other is trash. I also sealed up the bedroom windows a little better to help shut out noise. Didn't think it would help much once I got started, but it helped quite a bit. Cool!
Welp, off to the races.
An in th' background, thes heav'nly sound, like'n a quire of angels come a'sangin' this lah-ment, which ah felt frum the bottom o' my bellehhhhhhh.
"I'm too far away from my beer
It's way over there and I'm way over here
And I'm too far away from my beer
It's way over there and I'm here"
Seriously, that was it. I heard it, and I laughed. I wan't much into anything sounding like country at the time so I didn't even inquire about it, a course of non-action which I would regret for almost 20 years. As corny as the song was, it was twice that much fun, and I'd tell people about it even though all I could remember was the chorus (above). Periodically I'd do web searches which turned up empty on those words. Well last friday, I tried it again.
And I came across a post by a lady from California named Janet Lenore who has a band (named after herself, no less), and she mentioned something about the traditional rousing round of "Too Far Away From My Beer". So I sent her a note about asking about it. She pointed me toward her music partner Topher Gayle, who had a very similar story to mine. He'd heard it on a radio show he was taping.... and 10 years later when he played the tape back he decided he needed to play it. He was kind enough to send me the song. Neither one of us know who did it or who wrote it (but would love to find out).
Falling Leaves
The color is about as good as it gets here. Not all the trees are ever turning at the same time in the midwest, but we can still have some passable falls, and this one is passable for sure. So check out the pix I took today (for a limited time, this is a temporary thing so check this posting date) click here for the pics
Cleaned out the garage this weekend... well, straightened it up and made three piles is more accurate. One pile for the garage sale, one pile for going through, and the other is trash. I also sealed up the bedroom windows a little better to help shut out noise. Didn't think it would help much once I got started, but it helped quite a bit. Cool!
Welp, off to the races.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Catscram Fever
Well! The Cat Scram 9000 appears to be very effective. Got home from work last night to the sight of Theo plodding up the stairs. Vicki mentioned that she heard something turn on a few minutes earlier. I went down and tripped the "alarm" myself, and she said "yup, that was it". The landing is dry. So I'll leave the thing up for 4-6 weeks until it's burned into his little cat brain that he doesn't like going over there.
He just uses the litterbox now. I did have to build a little platform for him to get in and out of it from/to so he doesn't have to stand at the edge (right where he's taken to "going") and have litter goo all over his feet and track it all over.
I re-discovered Wishbone Ash yesterday on Rhapsody. I bought "Argus" and "Pilgrimage" on vinyl years ago and some other one... I recall I liked them very much. But my extensive vinyl collection mostly languishes these days. The separation of vinyl and turntable (downstairs/upstairs) has something to do with it. The lack of need for music to fill an empty spot in my life has something to do with it. Spending much of my time practicing guitar has something to do with it as well. There's so much good stuff that's not getting listened to.
On the flip side of that, even though I'm far from public-performance ready, the joy of being able to sit down and make music myself is incredible. The kickstart the bluegrass workshops gave me followed by my decision to go to Lee Ruth for further instruction have opened up lots of new possibilities. While Lee focuses on technique on .... mostly the same basic songs, I take those techniques and apply them to my growing reportiore. Matter of fact (and this is somewhat bad but... ) I spend much more time practicing the techniques on songs outside of his instruction set. It's good, because you have to keep in mind I play for enjoyment, and I can go back and play the songs for him I'm supposed to play because after all, I HAVE been practicing the techniques and they're just chords right now for the most part. The bad part is I tend to avoid songs with "F"s in them (tend to... not completely) because the barred "F" is something I've been struggling with since February. Fingering it isn't much of a problem, but getting to it and back out of it is not easy.
In addition to teaching me new techniques, having weekly lessons keeps me focused on pushing myself some, practicing when I otherwise might not. It's a good thing.
Vicki and I are 4 days into this virus.... It must be a close cousin of a recent flu, because the antibodies are catching up with it pretty quickly in both of us and about everyone else who's had it.
Fall is starting to fall... it's a lot prettier than I expected after our hot dry late summer, but we've had a nice long spell of warm days and cool nights, which is the key to a pretty fall.
Well, got stuff to do.
He just uses the litterbox now. I did have to build a little platform for him to get in and out of it from/to so he doesn't have to stand at the edge (right where he's taken to "going") and have litter goo all over his feet and track it all over.
I re-discovered Wishbone Ash yesterday on Rhapsody. I bought "Argus" and "Pilgrimage" on vinyl years ago and some other one... I recall I liked them very much. But my extensive vinyl collection mostly languishes these days. The separation of vinyl and turntable (downstairs/upstairs) has something to do with it. The lack of need for music to fill an empty spot in my life has something to do with it. Spending much of my time practicing guitar has something to do with it as well. There's so much good stuff that's not getting listened to.
On the flip side of that, even though I'm far from public-performance ready, the joy of being able to sit down and make music myself is incredible. The kickstart the bluegrass workshops gave me followed by my decision to go to Lee Ruth for further instruction have opened up lots of new possibilities. While Lee focuses on technique on .... mostly the same basic songs, I take those techniques and apply them to my growing reportiore. Matter of fact (and this is somewhat bad but... ) I spend much more time practicing the techniques on songs outside of his instruction set. It's good, because you have to keep in mind I play for enjoyment, and I can go back and play the songs for him I'm supposed to play because after all, I HAVE been practicing the techniques and they're just chords right now for the most part. The bad part is I tend to avoid songs with "F"s in them (tend to... not completely) because the barred "F" is something I've been struggling with since February. Fingering it isn't much of a problem, but getting to it and back out of it is not easy.
In addition to teaching me new techniques, having weekly lessons keeps me focused on pushing myself some, practicing when I otherwise might not. It's a good thing.
Vicki and I are 4 days into this virus.... It must be a close cousin of a recent flu, because the antibodies are catching up with it pretty quickly in both of us and about everyone else who's had it.
Fall is starting to fall... it's a lot prettier than I expected after our hot dry late summer, but we've had a nice long spell of warm days and cool nights, which is the key to a pretty fall.
Well, got stuff to do.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
As I was going to Alesburry all on a market day
Ok, renfest went well. Vicki's outfit turned out pretty nice. The underdress was actually better. It fit pretty well and she could move in it. The day was nice, although I think they had a record crowd of over 20,400 people. About 2:00 in the afternoon the crowd definitely started detracting some from our ablility to enjoy the fair -- it was hard enough to keep track of your wife much less two young excited children. All in all, though, Cassie and Nathanial are well behaved so it was quite doable.
I wasn't so sure about my outfit.... it was something I threw together at the last minute from a very nice green shirt Mark had made me a few years ago, some grey tights I dyed brown, and the ever-popular Minnatonka moccasin-boots with the fringe cut off. I used some of Mark's cuffs to spruce it up a little, and a black belt and my tankard. That was about it. And that got me solicited twice by Faire people to enter their costume contest (which I didn't, but it made me feel better about the costume).
The "haunted float" went pretty well, too. We packed Kristie's Ford Escape (Molly) up good and full and threw the tents and some stuff on top and headed down to Eminence, Mo. Camped out in the public camp site there. It was a little noisy but people for the most part quiteted down after 10:00. There were no radios blaring. It was all people talking and having a good time. Saturday morning we got out in the Jack's Fork river at Alley Spring about 10:30. Filtered some water from the spring branch as we went by it. Vicki and I had never canoed together before, so that took some adjusting. I figured out that we had different ideas about where on the river we wanted to be. Once she knew what I was thinking and I knew what she was thinking it got a lot better. The clouds hung around all day so the color in the pictures wasn't as vivid as you'd like for fall pictures, but we got some good ones. Didn't tip (although at one point we got hung up on a branch in the river and came too close for my comfort). It went fast. 6 or 7 mile floats in rafts on the Big Piney can take all day. On the Jack's Fork in a canoe we really had to drag our feet to stretch it out until 4:00. And it didn't seem like that long.
We went to the "Haunting in the Hills" up at Alley Spring -- actually the primary reason for going. There must have been 1,000 candles in 1,000 paper bags lining all the sidewalks -- it looked SO COOL. They put a lot of work in to it. People dressed up in period outfits (ca. 1800 or so) and three main events... one was Mitch Jayne -- bluegrass musician (from the Dillards; some might remember from the Andy Griffith show) turned author. He told a story about Little Owl, an Indian woman who travelled with a band of Civil War outlaws as their cook -- and ended up poisoning all of them when they killed a group of indians. They say her spirit is in the barred owl, who's call sounds kind of like "Who cooks for you?" A reminder to evildoers that their comeuppance could be any time.
The next was an indian woman... or someone portraying an indian woman, telling a story of a chief's son who couldn't hunt and his marriage to a supernatural woman who lived in a volcano. It was a long story. She told it well, but the story itself needed some help.
The final stop was a local graveyard, or "burrying ground". When the Irish first moved there there were no churches and families had burrying grounds usually just to the west of the settlement. He told about some superstitions. All in all, it wasn't that spooky, but a very thick fog rolled down through some bare trees over the graveyard during the talk -- that was kind of cool.
Theo has taken to peeing on the floor in front of the downstairs door. Fortunately, it's a very good lanoleum floor (especially NOT carpet or wood) and it cleans up easily -- but still... how to break him of the habit? We bought some CatScrams -- somethind Mark & Cami had some success with. It works great on Bart, but doesn't affect Theo at all. I think a lot of his hearing is gone.
So... I've rigged up a "Theo" version of the Cat Scram... it's a motion sensor mounted to an outlet in an an outlet box. When the motion sensor kicks on, anything plugged in to that outlet turns on. Well, what I plugged in to it is our little Dirt Devil hand vaccuum cleaner. He HATES vaccuum cleaners. It's on "test" mode, so it only turns on for 4 seconds at a time. The moment anything steps on that lanoleum, it kicks on. I think a few weeks of that will break him of the habit. I'd love to see him try to go there. I imagine his scampering would be quite funny.
There was no pee there this morning.
That's all for this time!
I wasn't so sure about my outfit.... it was something I threw together at the last minute from a very nice green shirt Mark had made me a few years ago, some grey tights I dyed brown, and the ever-popular Minnatonka moccasin-boots with the fringe cut off. I used some of Mark's cuffs to spruce it up a little, and a black belt and my tankard. That was about it. And that got me solicited twice by Faire people to enter their costume contest (which I didn't, but it made me feel better about the costume).
The "haunted float" went pretty well, too. We packed Kristie's Ford Escape (Molly) up good and full and threw the tents and some stuff on top and headed down to Eminence, Mo. Camped out in the public camp site there. It was a little noisy but people for the most part quiteted down after 10:00. There were no radios blaring. It was all people talking and having a good time. Saturday morning we got out in the Jack's Fork river at Alley Spring about 10:30. Filtered some water from the spring branch as we went by it. Vicki and I had never canoed together before, so that took some adjusting. I figured out that we had different ideas about where on the river we wanted to be. Once she knew what I was thinking and I knew what she was thinking it got a lot better. The clouds hung around all day so the color in the pictures wasn't as vivid as you'd like for fall pictures, but we got some good ones. Didn't tip (although at one point we got hung up on a branch in the river and came too close for my comfort). It went fast. 6 or 7 mile floats in rafts on the Big Piney can take all day. On the Jack's Fork in a canoe we really had to drag our feet to stretch it out until 4:00. And it didn't seem like that long.
We went to the "Haunting in the Hills" up at Alley Spring -- actually the primary reason for going. There must have been 1,000 candles in 1,000 paper bags lining all the sidewalks -- it looked SO COOL. They put a lot of work in to it. People dressed up in period outfits (ca. 1800 or so) and three main events... one was Mitch Jayne -- bluegrass musician (from the Dillards; some might remember from the Andy Griffith show) turned author. He told a story about Little Owl, an Indian woman who travelled with a band of Civil War outlaws as their cook -- and ended up poisoning all of them when they killed a group of indians. They say her spirit is in the barred owl, who's call sounds kind of like "Who cooks for you?" A reminder to evildoers that their comeuppance could be any time.
The next was an indian woman... or someone portraying an indian woman, telling a story of a chief's son who couldn't hunt and his marriage to a supernatural woman who lived in a volcano. It was a long story. She told it well, but the story itself needed some help.
The final stop was a local graveyard, or "burrying ground". When the Irish first moved there there were no churches and families had burrying grounds usually just to the west of the settlement. He told about some superstitions. All in all, it wasn't that spooky, but a very thick fog rolled down through some bare trees over the graveyard during the talk -- that was kind of cool.
Theo has taken to peeing on the floor in front of the downstairs door. Fortunately, it's a very good lanoleum floor (especially NOT carpet or wood) and it cleans up easily -- but still... how to break him of the habit? We bought some CatScrams -- somethind Mark & Cami had some success with. It works great on Bart, but doesn't affect Theo at all. I think a lot of his hearing is gone.
So... I've rigged up a "Theo" version of the Cat Scram... it's a motion sensor mounted to an outlet in an an outlet box. When the motion sensor kicks on, anything plugged in to that outlet turns on. Well, what I plugged in to it is our little Dirt Devil hand vaccuum cleaner. He HATES vaccuum cleaners. It's on "test" mode, so it only turns on for 4 seconds at a time. The moment anything steps on that lanoleum, it kicks on. I think a few weeks of that will break him of the habit. I'd love to see him try to go there. I imagine his scampering would be quite funny.
There was no pee there this morning.
That's all for this time!
Monday, September 29, 2003
Where's the dress?
Ok... I'm man enough to where I don't feel threatened. I am.... making a dress. Two of them actually.
I'm doing a lousy job -- and no wonder. I only know how to sew a straight line on solid, non-stretch fabric. And I'm not using a pattern. Or rather, I'm making my own patterns. Probably for a first try it's not too bad, but who wants to wear a first try -- or in this instance... who wants their wife to wear a first try? Well -- I guess I do because it's for her to wear to the Renfest this weekend. It's based on Eowyn's "refugee" outfit from "The Two Towers".
The overdress I made a little too small and not exactly like a woman's surcoat but sort of close. I made it fit fairly close (matter of fact I had to let it out a little at the hips last night) so that it would move with her hips -- there's nothing like the way a woman's skirt/dress moves when it moves with her hips. I have to hem the bottom of that and add gromets and laces for the side.
Yesterday I tackled the underdress, my first project ever (out of maybe 5 projects my entire life spread out over the last 25 years) that I ever had to make and attach. First go I put it on inside out. I'm sure I'm not the first to do that. Anyway, this thing I made of crinkled cotton so it looks kind of wrinkly like the one in the movie and so it would be stretchy and comfortable which I'm told it is. I dyed the material a while back. Got it for a buck a yard at wally world. Anyway, I got everything on right and went to hem the neck. I was so proud I found out how to use the old "Griest" hemmer attachment on my 50-year-old Monarch sewing machine. Well.... turns out when you hem crinkle fabric against the crinkle-grain... it stretches out and the neck is Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. Cutting it smaller would have helped -- but I can't do that now. So it looks like a drawstring neckline... like you find on a lot of the chemises you see at ren-fests. So I'll probably tackle that tonight. It's all gotta be done by Thursday night, as we're leaving Friday night and going Saturday morning.
Saturday I ran all over town spending money like I had it -- went to Lowe's and picked some stuff up to try to fix the litterbox so that Theo has to actually walk farther into it before he can do anything. He goes right in front of the litterbox "door", then turns around and steps in it on his way out getting wet gucky litter all in his paws. Oh, and one of his claws came out the other day and he bled all over the carpet - yeah, that's another thing I got at wally world... more spot shot. Also went to Sam's and got a case of Beck's Octoberfest (it was the only Octoberfest they had) because...
Saturday night Ryan and Kristie were BBQ-ing a big ham.... We brought corn casarole and salad and pie (but we never got around to the pie) and had one of our outdoor neighborhood cookouts and sat up talking around our chiminea until 10. It was the first official and successful use of the chiminea. Turns out for one like mine you need small chunks of wood. Small logs no good. Chunks. That's what you want. It was pretty chilly out, but it was a fun time.
Also got stuff for the upcoming "Haunted Float" -- which is really just an October float trip with "A Haunting In the Hills" that night at Alley Springs. Local ghost stories told by lantern light. Alley Springs is absolutely beautiful -- check it out yourself as long as this link is good: Alley Springs Anyway, we now have matching sleeping bags (they match the tent -- oooh-eee!) and fleece liners for them and a self-inflating pad for Vicki. I'll use the foam pad.
Well folks, that's about all we have time for today, so until next time, vaya con dios.
I'm doing a lousy job -- and no wonder. I only know how to sew a straight line on solid, non-stretch fabric. And I'm not using a pattern. Or rather, I'm making my own patterns. Probably for a first try it's not too bad, but who wants to wear a first try -- or in this instance... who wants their wife to wear a first try? Well -- I guess I do because it's for her to wear to the Renfest this weekend. It's based on Eowyn's "refugee" outfit from "The Two Towers".
The overdress I made a little too small and not exactly like a woman's surcoat but sort of close. I made it fit fairly close (matter of fact I had to let it out a little at the hips last night) so that it would move with her hips -- there's nothing like the way a woman's skirt/dress moves when it moves with her hips. I have to hem the bottom of that and add gromets and laces for the side.
Yesterday I tackled the underdress, my first project ever (out of maybe 5 projects my entire life spread out over the last 25 years) that I ever had to make and attach. First go I put it on inside out. I'm sure I'm not the first to do that. Anyway, this thing I made of crinkled cotton so it looks kind of wrinkly like the one in the movie and so it would be stretchy and comfortable which I'm told it is. I dyed the material a while back. Got it for a buck a yard at wally world. Anyway, I got everything on right and went to hem the neck. I was so proud I found out how to use the old "Griest" hemmer attachment on my 50-year-old Monarch sewing machine. Well.... turns out when you hem crinkle fabric against the crinkle-grain... it stretches out and the neck is Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. Cutting it smaller would have helped -- but I can't do that now. So it looks like a drawstring neckline... like you find on a lot of the chemises you see at ren-fests. So I'll probably tackle that tonight. It's all gotta be done by Thursday night, as we're leaving Friday night and going Saturday morning.
Saturday I ran all over town spending money like I had it -- went to Lowe's and picked some stuff up to try to fix the litterbox so that Theo has to actually walk farther into it before he can do anything. He goes right in front of the litterbox "door", then turns around and steps in it on his way out getting wet gucky litter all in his paws. Oh, and one of his claws came out the other day and he bled all over the carpet - yeah, that's another thing I got at wally world... more spot shot. Also went to Sam's and got a case of Beck's Octoberfest (it was the only Octoberfest they had) because...
Saturday night Ryan and Kristie were BBQ-ing a big ham.... We brought corn casarole and salad and pie (but we never got around to the pie) and had one of our outdoor neighborhood cookouts and sat up talking around our chiminea until 10. It was the first official and successful use of the chiminea. Turns out for one like mine you need small chunks of wood. Small logs no good. Chunks. That's what you want. It was pretty chilly out, but it was a fun time.
Also got stuff for the upcoming "Haunted Float" -- which is really just an October float trip with "A Haunting In the Hills" that night at Alley Springs. Local ghost stories told by lantern light. Alley Springs is absolutely beautiful -- check it out yourself as long as this link is good: Alley Springs Anyway, we now have matching sleeping bags (they match the tent -- oooh-eee!) and fleece liners for them and a self-inflating pad for Vicki. I'll use the foam pad.
Well folks, that's about all we have time for today, so until next time, vaya con dios.
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