Writer's Almanac

I think Samuel may have officially entered his "terrible two's" "annoying" phase.  Maybe.  It's not "terrible," but it is pretty annoying.  He's kind of latched on to a few things (listening to music all day, sitting at the steering wheel for a minute before going anywhere in the car) and then freaks out when he doesn't get to do those things.  Basically, just kinda freaking out whenever he doesn't get what he wants.  Ugh.  I'm glad that I spent the summer with him BEFORE all this hit.  Jeannie's been home a lot with him for the last few weeks and I think she's about ready to throw him off a bridge a little bit.

Luckily, he is, at times, still very cute.  Like when he says, "potato," or leans in and gives spontaneous kisses. 

Anyway, enough about the boy. 

The fam and I went to ChesShakes new years' party today, which was uneventful.  Consisted mostly of trying to make sure that Sam wasn't throwing himself in the fireplace or breaking anything. 

I really enjoy listening to "The Writer's Almanac" in the car.  Since I never get to listen to them on the radio, I download the podcasts, save them up, and listen to a week's worth on Friday mornings when I drive to work.  It's a little bit of a treat. 

2013 was a good year for me, mainly because of job-switching, but also because I think that, as a family, Jeannie and Sam and I learned some things about trying to balance all the stuff that we need in our lives. 

What do I wish for 2014?  Of course, continued health and stuff for the people I love, but also:

1.  successful new building opening
2.  kitchen renovation
3.  figuring out how vacations work at the new job
4.  a bulk purchase of RUNTS candy
5.  Lemonade, all the time.
6.  Spreadable port wine cheese and reduced-fat Wheat Thins.

I got myself a new pillow after Christmas.  So far I'm really liking it.  I sleep in all different positions, so, historically, it's been hard for me to find a pillow that I like.  And my last pillow sucked (basically like sleeping on a piece of padded paper), so I am excited that this one seems to cut the pillow-mustard. 

Smartie Sicko

Back from another Christmas in the Lou.  We had a few more days this year, but for some reason this Christmas seemed busier than ever.   Sam was still kinda sick all week and not sleeping well, which means that none of us slept well.   It feels good to be home, although at the moment Sam is wailing in his room and just having a hard time of it. 

He seemed to make a bit of a cognitive leap this week -- he's getting his colors right, and he's saying more words, and getting people's name right.  I think that being around a lot of people, getting near-constant attention and stimulation, was good for him. 

Went to a gathering at Eric E's house on Friday, and got to see The Drew, which was nice.  I kinda wish that the 3 of us had been able to sneak off somewheres, but alas, no such luck.  If only I had been able to say longer; it seems I had to leave right when the sitting-and-talking portion of the evening was beginning. 

Hmm.  I feel like I had more to write when I sat down.  Should I try and have more dinner? 

Merry (barf!) Christmas!

Perhaps I am doomed to never arrive in St. Louis before Christmas eve.  The fam and I are scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning, but last night Sam decided to start puking at around midnight, and the jury's still out as to whether he has stopped yet.  He's asleep now, and he hasn't woken up to puke, which is a good sign, but not definitive.  We're waiting to see if he can go 4 hours without yakking, and then we'll consider him in the clear.   Let me just say that his barf smelled terrible last night.  Ugh.  YOU OWE ME, SON.  AND YOU OWE YOUR MOTHER MORE. 

Not how I expected to spend my night (or day today) when I got off work yesterday.  Work ended on a high note, with a very productive meeting with our theatre consultant who was in town from N. Carolina.  Got some questions ironed out amongst our contractor and our performance lighting subcontractor, and the theatre consultant (who designed the system).  I was definitely the dumbest guy in the room, but nobody seems to mind too much.  So that's good.   Also, I found out that a lighting console is included in the contract, which is good because I was figuring that it wasn't and that we would have to dig up another 10 grand somewhere. 

What else?  Gonna be a weird Christmas, but I'm looking forward to it.  I hope the little guy is feeling better when he wakes up so we can get away on time rather than trying to deal with the headache of trying to switch our flight at the last minute, 3 days before Christmas. 

Afterlife

An example of what I really like about my job:  this week, I've been working on fixing a set, loading/unloading and assembling said set on a high school tour, playing Horatio in the show that's touring, brokering a deal on the alarm system for the new building, and figuring out A/V needs for the new building.  It's quite a mixed bag, and I can do a lot of it (but not all of it, which is good cause I need a little bit of provided structure) on my own schedule, I can do some of it by myself and some of it with others, some of it during the day and some of it at night.  Pretty much the exact opposite of standing in the same spot all day doing the same thing day after day while encountering the same fairly annoying people.  Lovin' it!

My favorite thing in the world to do right now is to crank up Arcade Fire's song, "Afterlife," on the stereo, pick up Sam and dance with him in the living room.  He will get a big smile on his face when the song come on, run to me with his arms out and then put his head down on my shoulder while I hug him and we bounce and sway and swoop.  It's pretty great.  I love that he likes music.  I like that he can be fussy in the car and then I put on The National's cd and he pretty much instantly calms down and just sits and quietly entertains himself (except for in-between songs when he puts up a little bit if a fuss until the next song starts). 

A few years ago, Jeannie and I made a deal that we would never watch Law and Order on Netflix, because that seemed like the lowest point of lazy TV watching, and L&O is just the type of "this-isn't-really-that-good-but-it's-here-and-I-want-to-avoid-doing-other-things" television that Jerns and I were trying to avoid by not having a TV.  But the other night we were both pretty tired and we were looking through Netflix for something to watch, and we didn't want to try something new, and we didn't want to invest the time in a movie, so we ended up watching L&O.  And damn if it wasn't awesome, and damn if it didn't make me feel like it was 2002 again, and that I was 25 again, and now I see that Law and Order is perfect for an hour of TV just before bed.  You can give it 15% of your attention and it will completely clear your mind and turn you into a blank slate that is entirely ready for a restful night's sleep.  Plus, I also get to repeatedly do my Sam Watertson impersonation, and that's one of my favorites. 

History

 1885

 1901

 

early 1900's

 

1958

 

 

1980's

 

 

2013

Whizzdom Teef

The Jeanners had her wisdom teeth taken out today.  She was doing ok for most of the day but then puked a bit as I was getting Sam ready for bed.  I think it was a particular medication that caused the puking, so I think I'm going to not give her that medication anymore.  But the pain meds that the dentist gave her seem to stay down OK, so I'll keep up with those.

Anyway, I stayed home from rehearsal tonight to look after J, and she's snoozing now so I've got an unexpected free evening in front of me.  Feeling a little bored, but also pretty tired because it was a pretty busy day -- looking after Sam, making sure Jeannie was ok, and fielding a bunch of work e-mails and appointments and such.  So I'm thinking it will be an early night.

Tomorrow, depending on the health of Jerns, I will try to head to work for a meeting in the early afternoon and I will spend a good chunk of the day working on a Hamlet set at home.  Sammyboy is at the sitter's for the day, which should make it a bit of an easier day.  Hopefully Jeannie is able to keep food down and keep pain meds down and isn't too bruised and swollen.

By the way, having something done to my wisdom teeth is like my scariest nightmare ever.

Fuck.  That.  Shit.



(pardon my language)

No. Carolina

The family and I got back from North Carolina this evening, where we were visiting Jeannie's brother and meeting his fiancee.  Jeannie's other brother came up from Florida and her dad drove out from St. Louis as well.  So we hung out there for a couple of days, and had a fairly relaxing Thanksgiving, and Sam did surprisingly well in the car, especially today.  Today he slept for the first 2.5 hours of the drive and then just kinda hung out and listened to the music and looked at books and played quietly with toys in his car seat.  Very little fussing.  It was awesome.  Very thankful for that. 

What else?  Jeanners is gettin' her wisdom teeth out on Tuesday, which I am anticipating to be sucky for her, but I will try to keep her entertained as best I can. 

Had a nice little visit with the Beej on Tuesday night before we left.  Always good to see the Beej, and things seem to be rolling along pleasantly for him.  Wonder where he will end up? 

The time between now and Christmas should be very busy, work-wise.  Good busy, though, hopefully.  And the first holiday season of no-retail.  Huzzah!

Loofah / China

Earlier in November I decided to buy Jeannie a loofah, because the loofah that she's been using has been falling apart.  So I went to target and couldn't find what I was looking for, and I looked at Bed Bath and Beyond but I couldn't find it there, either, so I said screw it and came home and ordered it on Amazon.  It was like 5 bucks and I thought it was weird that it said shipping would take 3-4 weeks, but whatever.  I figured it was just Amazon over-estimating how long it would take.  Well, 3 weeks later I thought it was weird that the loofah had not arrived yet, so I tracked the order and it said that the thing was somewhere in China.  And then it arrived yesterday, and sure enough, it was packaged up and shipped by some guy (or gal) somewhere in somewheresville, China.  My five dollar loofah.  I have a picture of a little Chinese boy hurriedly riding a bicycle miles and miles across some Chinese province and handing it off to some Mongolian horsemen, who take it north and sneak it to some Russian border guards, etc., etc., etc. 

Thanks for the loofah, everybody!

Retreat

My back/neck's been hurting for the last week or so, due either to poor leaf-raking technique or a monster-sized toddler who wants to be lugged around all the time by his pappy. 

I have come to the conclusion that I sometimes over-hyphenate, but that I don't mind and that I want it to be part of my personal style.  If it bothers you, I apologize. 

Yesterday we had a staff retreat at work, and we got a friend of ours to let us use a conference room at her large, international company's office building.  A building which was large and happened to be right on the harbor and had a great view of Baltimore.  And I was not expecting much from the retreat, because it was sorta last-minute and it seemed like only one person in the office really wanted to do it.  But I enjoyed it, because my boss did what I think was a really good job leading it, and it was productive and not a complete waste of time.  Plus, free lunch and stuff. 

You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's having work done on the car. 

Contra

Last night Jerns and I went contra dancing for our anniversary.  Contra dancing is like square dancing, but instead of being performed by the Amish and hillbillies wearing overalls and straw hats, it is performed by aging hippies wearing skirts and sweaty headbands.  It was kinda fun, but I prefer my dancing to be monogamous, intimate, and sexy rather than communal and happy.  It was sort of like having to make small talk with a lot of different people, set to string band music.  But anyway, it's been on our list of things to do, and now it's done, and I don't know that we'll be going back anytime soon.  It left me dizzy and with a headache.  And I don't think it's something that's worth getting a babysitter for.  But it was good to get out and do something different. 

What else?  Work is keeping us busy, Sam is talking a lot and trying to say whatever Jeans and I say, and also starting to imitate us while we sweep the floor or rake leaves. 

We will be heading down to Jeannie's brother's house in one of the Carolinas -- I forget which one [Carolina, not brother] -- for Thanksgiving.  Also trying to see if we can get Jeannie's dad to fly down there, too.  Might be a bit of a weird holiday season this year....

Wazoo!

Dracoola has ended, which is good.  Ready to be done with it.  Ready to have evenings mostly free, ready to not worry about the weather forecast, ready to not be screwing around with fishing line and fake bats made out of wood and felt.  The show, though, was a success, and mostly a lot of fun to work on, and a great way to start my job at ChesShakes. 

Jeanners and I had a good day of being outside today, she working on getting the garden cleaned up and me mowing the lawn and being on Sam duty.  It was a pretty day and a good day to watch afternoon light spill through the autumn leaves on the trees.  Sam got his first haircut yesterday, so he looks like a tidy, cute little boy instead of a cute, wild-haired, androgynous hippie child.  Mixed feelings about that, but he's pretty danged cute even without the curls.

Next week should be a busy week at work.  Lots of meetings about building-related things that I've been putting off.

It's been a little over 3 weeks since I've had any booze.  Hasn't been too bad.  I don't think I was ever really physically addicted to alcohol, but I was definitely in the habit of having a drink or 2 every night.  It's been fairly easy to substitute lemonade for my nightly drink and Sprite for when I'm out at social events.  Definitely nowhere near as bad as quitting smoking. 

The other day the writer of the Wazoo Farm blog left a comment on my last post.  It's weird, because I've never met her (she could probably best be described as a friend of a friend of a friend), but we apparently read each others' blogs with at least semi-regularity.  So I feel like I know her.  But I also feel like I don't know her.  Sort of in the way that you feel like you both know and don't know celebrities.  So when she left a comment on my blog it was kind of like having a celebrity leave a comment on my blog and made me feel special and a little famous.  Thanks, Kimberly!

Nap Time is Not Going Well

Sam said he wanted to take a nap, even though he hadn't eaten lunch yet, so I put him into bed, and then just as I was putting him into bed he changed his mind and decided he didn't want to be in bed, so he's been laying in there moaning to himself for the last half hour or so, and then I went in to ask him if he wanted lunch, and he said no, and I asked him if he wanted to take a nap, and he said no, which made me realize that he just wanted to get out of bed and play, which is NOT an option, so I just put him down into bed and he started crying a little bit but has just now within the last few minutes stopped crying and, I think, fallen asleep. 

So he'll have lunch when he wakes up. 

Also, I have been scheduling a meeting between architects (who said that they would attend the meeting as long as I provided candy) and a guy in the Mayor's office (who has a very weird name which I will not reproduce here) (but his first and last name together rhyme with "Hollywood").  It can be tricky scheduling meetings amongst multiple parties via e-mail.  Still better than working at the Nobes, though. 

Speaking of the Nobes, I had a dream last night that they needed somebody to cover a shift there so they asked me if I could come back and work it, and I did and it sucked. 

What should I have for lunch? Breakfast, really, cause I haven't eaten anything yet today. 

Went to the Y and worked out, though. 

Dumbphone

Well, I have officially retired my trusty Motorola Razr in favor of a phone that can text message and surf the internets.  It is both exciting and sad.  I do like that flashlight app, though. 

Had a shitty weekend of Dracoola.  Rained out on Thursday and Friday, then on Saturday I was the senior company member at the show, and thus in charge of making the call as to whether we cancel or go on, with a close to capacity crowd, and it decided to rain off-and-on again all night.  And rain just hard enough to NOT cancel the show.  So we got a complete show in, but everybody got wet and uncomfortable as hell.  And we might have ruined some borrowed furniture.  But the audience loved it and we made good money on the show, so we can afford to buy the ruined furniture and buy everybody in the cast a drink so that they don't get too crabby, so I guess everything works out in the end. 

I'm still loving the job.  I feel like I have been dead for the last 10 years and somebody just came and woke me up and now I get to be alive again.  It's really quite wonderful.  The only thing the job is missing is a nerf basketball in the office. 

Oh, and since I'm feeling generally better about life and my hangovers seem to last for about 3 days now, I think I'm going to try and not drink all the time.  Yay, me!

Opened

Opening weekend for Dracula is over.  It went pretty well.  I'll still have to do some work at future shows, but now that the show is open I'll be focusing most of my attention at work on new building shit.  Getting the phone/network systems designed and some incoming phone line issues straightened out and starting work on maybe trying to get the address changed.  Things I'm not really looking forward to, but things that need to get done.  I think I'd much rather be building a coffin outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. 

It will be nice tomorrow to spend an evening at home, a luxury that hasn't happened in awhile.  My vow is to not waste it watching any TV shows (although maybe I'll waste an evening later this week doing exactly that).  Haven't had much quality time with the J-Dog lately, although we've found that we both enjoy me being away some evenings.  That way she gets some time to herself, and I'm not sitting around waiting for her to get home from work only to find that she has to spend the evening working at home.  And it makes us miss each other a little bit, and I have a theory that since we (Jeannie + I) spent a good part of the beginning of our relationship missing each other that it's something that we need to have in our lives in order to feel like things are normal. 

Going to see Junip at the Ottobar on Wednesday with Abby and a friend of hers.  Looking forward to it.

Parenting fail.

The lil' dude fell down our concrete front steps this morning as we were heading out the door to the baby sitter.  He only fell about 3 steps, and it wasn't a very percussive fall, but he's scraped up his face fairly decently.  So I feel pretty bad about that.  Basically, I was trying to carry too much shit and didn't get a good grab of his hand as we started to go down the steps.

Other than that, it's been a pretty decent day, and I actually found some time to come home between work and rehearsal, which is good because I think i'll be at rehearsal a bunch in the coming week.

I really really like the job, though.  I hope it doesn't start sucking too quickly.  I remember a day when I used to like working at the Noble...

Dracularry

It is a little after 5 and I am in the office, not working but catching up on computer shit.  Actually, I am working a little bit because I was tallying receipts and whatnot.  But also doing online definite not-work shit. 

Today was a pretty good day.  A gorgeous, cool, sunny day that I got to spend outside leisurely painting set pieces and listening to music.  Rehearsal tonight.

Tomorrow I am off and spending the day with Sammers.  Not sure what all we will do, but I think we'll hit the YMCA and I'll work out while he plays with trucks.  Then maybe we'll go for a walk somewhere in the afternoon. 

Not too much else going on.  Jeanners and I have been watching the final episodes of Breaking Bad and we are mostly caught up.  Looking forward to watching last night's episode at some point. 

bom chicka wah wah

Found out today that two of the companies that licensed my songs are porn companies.  One of the other ones is a European wristwatch company that used a song in a commercial video on their website.  The last one might be EuroDisney.   It might not. 

Other than that, life has been very busy.  Busy good. 

Working Late Again (from "The Christmas Box")

First week of work is over, and I enjoyed it very much.  I put in a lot of hours and I wasn't home very much, but it feels good to be working on creative endeavors with people that I like, and also to have a decent amount of control over my own time.  It looks like I'll be splitting my time between a little bit of office work, working at the site of our fall show, working at our storage units, and working at the new building.  And as the new building progresses, I'll be spending more and more time there, especially when we're not working on a show.  Although once the new building is complete, we'll pretty much be working on a show all the time.  Here's what the new place was looking like yesterday afternoon:

  

Sam spent 3 days with babysitters this week - one day at the home of what will be his regular daycare person on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and two days with a different babysitter at our house.  He did much better on the days when he was at home, it seems.  But I'm sure he will get more used to it, and I think it will be good for him to spend some time with other kids at daycare, although I'm thankful that we only need to use it 2 days a week, both for financial reasons and also because I want Jeannie and I to be able to spend some time with our kid and not be working all the time.  I don't think that would be particularly healthy for us.  

Speaking of healthy, life has felt much more balanced this week than it had all summer.  I think that when Jeannie and I both get to spend some work time and some home time, things work better.  I enjoyed being at home with Sam, but I would spend all day at home waiting for Jeannie to get home so we could spend some time together, then she would get home and need to spend her evenings working, and it just felt very hard for everyone to get what they needed.  So anyway, I hope things continue to feel balanced.  

What else?  I got the new resonator guitar on Wednesday and finally got a chance to get it set up the way I want last night.  I had to do a little bit of work on it (I had read online about someone else doing similar work on this guitar, which is what gave me the idea to do so), but now I've got it up and running, and I really like the sound of it.  And I enjoy having a guitar that I can just keep in open tuning and grab when I need to.  

Jeannie and Sam are back from their run.  That's all!

To the Loom

Today is my first official day working for ChesShakes, although I am not actually working.  I mean, I did do a little bit of work, but it's not like I had to go into work or anything.  That won't happen until Tuesday.  But, according to my job description, I started today.  Yay me!

Today Jerns took Sam to some sort of cookout or picnic in Frederick, MD, so I had a 4-hour chunk of the afternoon to myself.  Pretty wonderful.  Started with a big nap and then worked on sanding some door jambs.  Hopefully we'll get some trim up and have our dining room (and maybe living room?) painted within the next 2 weeks or so.

Yesterday we had our annual ChesShakes company member retreat, and it was a good time.  Jeannie's brother was visiting us from Florida for the day, so Jeannie and Sam stayed home and I was by myself at the retreat.  Which was fine.  I didn't drink too much and I didn't say anything too stupid, which is what I usually worry about at places like that, so I will count the day as a success.

I decided last week what to do with some of the unexpected royalty money that I made -- I bought myself a resonator guitar.  Which is something I've been wanting to do for many many years, and I saw that they had some cheap (but still decent-looking) ones on Amazon that got some good reviews.  So I did it.  It should be arriving in a day or two, and I'm very excited to be able to have one guitar here that is in standard tuning and then keep the resonator in an open tuning.

Not too much else to report.  Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with Sam, and then on Tuesday he'll be heading to a babysitter, which will be a new experience for him.  I think he's ready.  The boy needs to spend some time around some other kids and learn how to share.

Getty

Fun surprise:

About 10 months ago, there was an option through Soundcloud (a website where I have uploaded some of my songs to share with random people) to license the songs through Getty (which is the company that licenses pictures and stuff for public use.  They do music, too.)

So I licensed the songs, which consisted of clicking a mouse a few times and sending off a tax form to Getty.  Pretty much on a lark.  It doesn't cost me anything but a stamp, so why not? 

Then I promptly forgot about it.  Completely forgot that I ever did it. 

Then on Friday I got an e-mail from Getty that said I should update my contact information and view any royalty reports that I might have, and I was like, "Oh yeah, I remember doing that.  Let me go to that site and see what it looks like."  And I went to the site and the first report that I looked at said what most reports of that nature that I've looked at say:  "No data for the specified time period."  But then the second report said that I've got royalties of $228 coming my way.  So I looked a little more in depth, and it seems that since February, 4 of my songs have been licensed (2 in the USA, 2 in France) to the tune of 650 bucks, and my 35% cut is $228.  So now I have made exactly $228 more than I ever thought I would off of those recordings.  And now I want to license everything I've ever done, cause who knows? 

Trouble Will Find Me

The Jeanners is up at the YMCA for a late-night gym session.  i was supposed to go outside and sand some trim tonight, but she convinced me not to.  Instead I have spent my evening reading old blog posts from 2009.  2009 was a good year for us, I think.  It was the year we bought the house and we got off our asses and started to move things forward a little bit.   Although if I knew then that the house still wouldn't be done in good ol' 2013 I probably would have shot myself in the head.

My blog posts were funnier in 2009, I think.  I think I'm getting progressively less funny with each passing year.  I think the "with each passing year" in that last sentence was redundant.  "Progressively" pretty much covers it.

I've been thinking about my life lately and how different it is now than how it used to be.  The main difference, I think, being having a kid.  I remember days when I used to not have anything to do.  And really, my days are still kind of like that except that there's a kid here who gets pissed if I look at the internet all day.  Oh, and he would also probably get sick and die because I wouldn't be feeding him and de-pooping him if I was looking at the Internet all day.  But anyway, he demands attention.   Much like every kid, I suppose.  And he's cute and funny and fun.  But some days I wish I could sit and write an e-mail without someone banging on the number pad.

Got an e-mail about a production  meeting for 'Dracula' next week.  I'm really looking forward to working on that show.  Outdoor, autumn, good people.  And getting paid!  All good things in my book.

I continue to binge on this album by The National.  It doesn't help that I've discovered that it's a good album to run and/or workout to.  Now I listen to it exercising, in the car, and at night.  Which is pretty much the major times of day that I listen to music.  During the day Sam and I listen to the mix of music that he likes, which consists of Iron & Wine, The Samples, Mavis Staples, The Band, Josh Rouse, Lord Huron, Daft Punk, U2, and Bonnie Raitt.

I miss my friends!  For awhile now it's felt kinda like Jeannie and I have been living in a vacuum.  Is everybody OK out there?

Vole in the Hole

What's been going on?

I'm down to 2 weeks left of no-job.  I am both ready to go back to work and not ready to go back to work.

I had a birthday somewhere in there.  I'm now 36.  Jeannie got me candy for my birthday, which was awesome, and some of the ugliest coasters you've ever seen, which was less-than awesome.  And a big ol', double-burner, cast-iron griddle, which was way awesome.  Now I can cook up mass quantities of bacon and/or eggs.  I can also make 2 (maybe even 3!) pancakes at once.

"Vole in the Hole" is going to be the title of my autobiography (if it's not already taken).  It came to me today, as Jeannie and Sam and I were on a lovely nature walk, and we saw a hole in the ground, and I postulated that there might, perhaps, be a vole in the hole.

I just looked up 'postulate.'  Turns out it's not quite the word I was looking for.  What's a better word?  Hypothesized?  Posited?

Anyway, the nature walk was lovely, somewhere we'd never been before, and it culminated in what was described in the description of the hike as an "idyllic pool and rock formation."  I think it was a pretty good description.  The pool was pretty cool, and perhaps made more idyllic by the fact that it was kind of an overcast day and we were the only ones there.  Probably less than idyllic when there are a handful of teenagers around pooping on everything good.  Or whatever it is that the teenagers do these days.

A Young Congregation

My parents were here visiting over the weekend.  It went OK, although the visit was probably about a day too long and we had to struggle a little bit to find something to keep my mom occupied.  Keeping her occupied keeps her from continually suggesting that we work on our house.  In addition to that suggestion, she also suggested we:

1.  Send our child to a Catholic grade school that she knows nothing about. 
2.  Put a stick on our curtains so they're easier to close.
3.  Put our vincas in the sun, where they would thrive. 

But, aside from those suggestions getting a little annoying, it wasn't too bad.  Coulda been a lot worse.  And the visit was otherwise enjoyable.  It was fun watching my Mom and Dad play with Sam, and also fun that we were able to get a semi-major job scratched off our house-list with the help of my Mom and Dad. 

But they left this morning, and Jeannie and I are looking forward to life getting back to normal.  We had a meeting this morning with a woman who will probably be watching Sam for a couple of days a week when I go back to work in September.  We both liked her, and she's in the neighborhood, and relatively inexpensive, and Sam immediately started playing in her house and didn't really want to leave, so we'll probably end up using her.  It feels good to have a solution for that particular problem. 

Ok, gotta go.  Gotta take a car to the shop for a recall of the passenger airbag and other minor repairs. 

Big Brass Lamp Kinda Girl

What life looks like right now:

Sitting in this room drinking a G&T, listening to The National's latest album (Trouble Will Find Me) while the Jeanners works in the back bedroom and Sam sleeps the night away.  

Also:  I have rediscovered my love of hand-held electronic bathroom Yahtzee.  Although now I don't do any reading at all.  

Bubble Cocks

I must write fast because I must go clean up toys and books and pine cones out of the living room while J-Dog puts the Samsonite to bed. 

Over the weekend we went on a 24-hour vacation to stunning and tropical Frederick, MD.  We spent Friday night at a suite at the Courtyard by Marriott and ate Mexican food at a perfect Mexican restaurant and listened to Sam as he tried to go to sleep in an unfamiliar place.  He had a little trouble.  But once he fell asleep he slept through the night and Jeannie and I had a chance to watch "Orange is the New Black" and eat Newman's Own brand microwave popcorn.  Then on Saturday we hiked on Sugarloaf Mountain.  The highlight (for me) was singing a 45 minute long version of "Old McDonald" in the rain while we hiked down the mountain and pretended we were in the south of France. 

Speaking of "OitNB", J-Dog and I were in bed the other night and were almost asleep, and we were talking about "OitNB" and whether it was a book before it was a TV show, and who wrote it, and blah, blah, blah, and I told her that one day they were going to make a TV show out of my blog and did she know what they were going to call it? And she said, "Bubble Cocks."  Or maybe it was "Bubblecocks."  Anyway, I found it funny.  Why would they call a TV show made from my blog "Bubblecocks"?  You'd have to ask Jeannie.  She mostly didn't remember the conversation the next day. 

I went and helped with the strike for the summer shows today.  It's become quite a large operation.  Good to see how it's done so I can hopefully figure out how to do it next year. 

My folks are coming to visit this week.  Must straighten up the house.  And porch.  And yard. 

Stones and Gas

The title of this blog is going to be the name of the new cereal that J-Dog and I are gonna sell.  If you'd like to invest, PM me.  (PM means "private message.)

I have been having some very whack-ass dreams lately.  Like, every night.  One dream I had the other night featured the line, "The biggest turds come from the littlest buttholes."  In another one I was given a George Foreman Grill as an end-of-the-year PSR class gift.  (PSR stands for Parish School of Religion and was a class that I had to go to as a kid every Monday night to learn about the Jesus.  It was because I went to a public grade school that I had to go to PSR.  Actually, it was because my parents made me.)

The Jeanners' super crazy busy time at work is over, thank god. 

Sam continues to transform from a baby to a little boy.  He's running around and falling and jabbering and seems to be doing OK. 

We've been trying to get little things done around the house during the summer (we've made a list of things we want to get done by the time I have to go back to work in September) and I am amazed at how long each little job takes.  For example, in order to put the trim up around one doorway, these are the steps (and when paired with the hurdles of watching Sam and only working around Sam's sleeping schedule, each step takes about a day or two):

1.  Strip the door jambs.
2.  Put jamb extensions on the door jambs.
3.  Clean up and sand the door jambs.
4.  Strip the trim.
5.  Sand the trim.  
6.  Prime the trim.
7.  Paint the trim. 
8   Install the trim.

So that's about 8-10 days of work for 1 doorway.  And really, it's still not done then because you have to go back and fill all the holes and caulk and then repaint everything with another coat.  So anyway, it's kinda sucky.  And the work isn't bad, it just takes a long time.

Sam seems to be taking craps about every 3 hours.  I'm getting very tired of cleaning up poopy butts, including my own.   I'm putting the boy on an all-cheese-and-bread diet.  

BJ Party

Today, myself and the fam will be heading to a BJ party, which does not stand for 'blowjob party,' but rather is a party for one Benjamin Joseph and his betrothed.  Should be a good time, although it's balls hot and there is potential for a storm this afternoon. 

Been a relatively uneventful week.  Jeannie's been busy at work, I've been watching Sam, we've been trying to get some shit done on the house in the evenings.  This week we got the door jamb between living room and dining room stripped of paint, and also the basement door sanded, primed, and halfway painted.  Tonight or tomorrow hopefully we will finish the basement door and get it hung.  We've got a schedule to keep, dammit!   Next up on the list is making a little built-in desk and bookshelves in the rear bedroom. 

I have no idea where Jeannie and Sam are right now, other than that they went there on foot.  I went in to take a poop and when I came out they were gone.  Was I in there that long?  I hope Jeannie has not decided to leave me.  My guess is that she has busted out the stroller and taken the little dude to the park. 

Been really enjoying the latest CD by The National (Trouble Will Find Me) over the last few weeks.  

I bought some new sheets for our bed, and they were supposed to be the good kind -- high thread count and all that -- and they feel like sleeping in a burlap sack.  I believe I also likened them to sleeping inside of a Treader Joe's bag.  Which, maybe it's not like this near you, but the Trader Joe's that I go to uses fairly heavy, rough brown paper bags.  Hence the humor. 

Today my severance period is officially half over. 

Good Times

Hi-lite of my day yesterday: lying on the living room floor amidst toys and books, listening to Jeannie feeding Samuel some dinner in the kitchen, listening to new-ish Greg Brown on the stereo, watching the ceiling fan spin, thinking of Seanyboy, and half falling asleep.

 Also, I forgot to mention in my last post that the groundbreaking ceremony was pretty danged awesome. Definitely in the Top 10 Days of My Life list.

"Blue Train, Bitches - Suck It" (or something like that)

The groundbreaking is over and went well. We were able to get the A/C in the building turned on an hour before the event started. The Mayor spoke. Nobody got hurt. Good press was pressed. Many people complimented me for doing an amount of work that I didn't actually do. That kinda seems to happen a lot. People say, "Wow, thanks for all your hard work! Everything went really well thanks to you!" when I really didn't do all that much hard work. Maybe 4 or 5 hours worth. But anyway, it beats selling Member Cards, fishing turds out of urinals, and chaperoning half-naked homeless people while they take makeshift showers in B&N's bathrooms.

Jeannie's older brother came for a visit for a few days, which was great except for the fact that Jeannie was working all of those days so she only got to see him in the evenings. But he had not met Sam before (he travels a lot), so it was nice that they got to spend some time together and get acquainted. I think they took to each other nicely.

 I'm expecting to not get to spend much quality time with my lady friend for the next few weeks. She's getting a little crazy busy at work, and probably will stay that way until the end of the month. So I'm resigned to it but not looking forward to it. Maybe we could sneak in a date night somewhere.

Jeannie's brother discovered a decent Indian/Nepali restaurant a mile and a half from our house that has free delivery and is relatively cheap. Score.

The title of this post was said by my wife last night while playing the family board game "Ticket to Ride."

The Talking Heads