there is a light that will sometimes go out

...and tonight i have found many of them. You see, I'm hosting my friend Allan's birthday party in my backyard on Saturday. We've spent the last week painting, scraping, power washing, rearranging,building, fixing and generally working on the house. It's been pretty exhausting, i'll admit. Now that the parental units have gone, i'm working by myself and getting a bit overwhelmed. I'm trying to stay positive, so i'm giving myself as many small, focused projects as possible. Today, as soon as we got home from Louisville, I got a little work done on the compy, then got to work.

I installed a clothes rack in the attic to house some more clothes temporarily. It was absurdly hot and a desk fell on me, but I finished and took about 4 loads of clothes up there to store. I ended up biting the bullet and weedeating despite the crazy heat. After that was finished, i decided to finish burying the wires for the outdoor lighting by digging little trenches for the wires to rest in, then covering them with dirt. It was a little fun getting to use the axe and the pick axe with the shovel, but after a while, the wonder fades and it's just hard work.

Wanting to light the back corner of the yard with Christmas lights, I scurried up to the attic and brought down 2 large rubbermaid tubs of lights....only lights. I would like to report that after untangling and testing each strand, i have found 4 strands of white lights that work. seriously? 2 tubs and only four strands work??!? it boggles the damn mind, i tell ya.

luuuuulvllll

this is the correct pronunciation of louisville. i'm just sayin.

greetings from a strongly scented Ramada Inn. Claire and I are currently watching an episode of Sex & The City...the same episode, coincidentally, that Katie is watching in the conjoining room next door.

It was a hot one in the Bluegrass state today. We started the show around 6pm and were followed by an 8 piece irish band..um... i can't remember their name...oh. The Elders. Claire used to Irish dance and gave us a couple of glimpses into the glory that once was her dancing past. it was a blessing. we got some amazing video footage i'll have to put up here at some point including all of us hula hooping.


As we were hanging out in the crowd after our set, we ended up sitting by the playground area with a ton of very cute little kids. We had an idea to go up to each of them (ranging in ages from 6 months or so to 6 years) and have katie ask them what they thought of her show and make a video blog of it. I think it would have been hilarious, but we thought the parents might get a little weirded out. perhaps so. we did get one family of 10 (only 5 were there) to sit down and talk to us. one small step.

there was a gorgeous sunset over the water. here, katie chooses to enjoy it by working on her computer.




back home now and there is much to do before Allan's bday party on Saturday. I need to get motivated to do the little stuff...it's just so not the fun part. projects, i love...this....not so much. off to get motivated.

shalom.


oh. here's a little gem from the WFPK studio where we found a computer that i felt i could really empathize with.

You can't afford the freeway

In Louisville, KY to play WFPK's Waterfront Wednesday with Katie. We got in last night and stayed with Pam & Mike Helton (friends of my family's for too many years to count). They're so generous and it was great to be able to spend some time with them. They cooked a delicious meal and i broke down and finally ate red meat (first time in.....maybe 6 months?)

I got up around 7:30am. I just can't seem to shake the waking early thing lately. Finally went back to sleep and woke up again around 9:15 and guessed that was enough trying to sleep. Of course it's 11 and no one's up yet.

I started reading Godric by Frederick Buechner this morning. I had been wanting to get into Buechner as a lot of literarily credible friends :) have been singing his praises for years. Jason Killingsworth let me borrow his gorgeous hardback of Godric the last time i visited him in Atlanta and I've been so wanting to dive in. Having just read two modern non-fictions (a rarity for me), Godric is making me work. It's kind of nice. I've definitely had to re-read a few passages. it's pretty dense language, but i love it.

Watched a few videos of Aimee Mann & her band this morning. It's interesting how Paul Bryan's voice is such an integral part of her sound now. There's some great footage of her talking about getting signed to a major and the mythology about what that means....how maintaining the shoulder padded 80s look is difficult to do when you're dirt poor and living on $150/week on the road. Don't i know it. the hairspray alone gets me every week.

half and half

My internal clock has been waking me up pretty consistently lately at 8:15. That's kind of wild if you think about your body waking up on it's own at the same time every day...no alarm.... no matter when you go to sleep. 8:15 every day. kind of mysterious to me.

Dropped by Katie's this weekend, and set out on an unexpected mission around town to upgrade her whole home studio. Saw Patty Griffin at the Mac store buying an iphone case. Good times.

In unrelated news, I'm 9077 days old.

This weekend perpetuated the luke-warm phase i've been in for over a week. I feel like i haven't been able to get motivated to work OR play in an unadulterated way lately. I can't just focus and work without ceasing or rest without thinking of to-do lists. The result is this weird half-life version of both. It's kind of dreadful and makes for a pretty compromised version of both. I've had quite a few deadlines fall around the same time which has lengthened the to-do list a bit. Maybe i just need to get over that deadline hump... Hopefully that will end soon.

so flossy flossy

To Butterfly's for rehearsal. Some of the chords were so ridiculous, i had to take pictures on the iphone so i'd remember them. ok, so it's a little lazy, but... come on... so convenient. I think the show with Dawson and Butter will be fun. I just have NO idea what to expect. We decided to head to La Hacienda after rehearsal. Why is Mexican food and a cold Dos Equis such an amazing combination? It's like they chemically engineer the flavors to be exponentially more delicious together. Only THEN do their secret powers activate. Called Katie to meet us. We all decided to go to the Sex & The City movie (of course). It exceed my expectiations, actually.

crab legs and drinking to the dregs

derek's birthday.

we ended up going to south street. The Cooleys, Allan, Derek, Sandra and I celebrated Derek's birth with seafood and laughs. not a bad way to spend an evening. I got there early and ended up sitting on a bench outside and finished listening to "Eat. Pray. Love." I'm always sad when books end...well...good books. I had to work extra hard on my Catfish to get all the bones out...it was secretly a little fun. It's so fun to have Allan in town. Back to the Webb plantation where Sandra and her neighbor Kari had made homeade butterscotch pie. and by homemade, i mean seriously homemade. made the crust...everything. sooo yummy...and impressive. Played tennis on dw's new Wii. Cason was really getting into it....endlessly entertaining.



As I was working in the yard today, i was thinking about people i know who are amazing cooks like that who seem to have that gift of tending for and creating things things around the house with such great care. It's amazing to watch. Or those friends who are master gardeners... I'm so not that person. I love those things, but they are not a part of my daily life like i see in these people; they're like little holidays that i enjoy when they come my way.

I wonder if that's an age thing. Is that what I'll do when I retire? ... Suddenly have this gift for rose gardens, cooking and housekeeping? I just don't know. Maybe it's not in my gift bag. :) Wait a second. retire? what am i talking about? i can't imagine me having something to retire from. who knows.