06.29.03
During the last week of storms, we had some wind along with the rain, and that wind knocked a couple branches out of our trees. Fortunately, it was nothing that caused any damage, but I'd been putting off the cleanup of a rather large branch that had fallen into a neighbors yard, which they were fortunately cool with. This afternoon, we finally tackled it with an axe and it only took a couple good chops between us to cut the whole thing into very manageable pieces. After we'd finished, I borrowed the axe to tackle another branch that had broken off long before we moved into the house, but was dead and hanging over the other neighbors yard. This dead branch was about 20 feet up in a mulberry tree, so I maneuvered myself up into the branches and slowly hacked away at it. After about an hour (thick branch), I finally got through and it cracked off and was hung up on some other branches up in the tree. After some more work, it came crashing down on the little chain link fence and I broke it into slightly smaller pieces and put it into a pile. It was a hell of a lot more work than I thought it would be, but it ended up being some pretty good exercise, and despite looking somewhat precarious (swinging an axe with two hands while 20 feet in the air and keeping myself steady with my legs wrapped around other branches), I never felt like I was putting myself in any danger.
Being up there actually reminded me of the mulberry tree that I used to play in at one of my very first babysitters houses. Hers was even larger (or perhaps I've just gotten larger and it was really about the same size) than the one we have in our backyard, and myself and neighbors would climb way up into it and swing around on the branches and finally jump down. Surprisingly enough, there was only one injury that I can ever recall during the couple years that I was there. The older sister of a neighbor came over and tried to mimic a certain monkey-type of swinging that we'd do on some of the branches. On one of the last swings, she didn't grip a branch well enough before letting go of the previous one and she fell backwards onto her other arm (which she'd tried to catch herself with from what was probably 7 feet in the air) and broke it. I remember us all freaking out and wondering whether we'd get in trouble or anything like that, but we were back out in the tree the very next day.
The other very clear memory I have of that old mulberry tree is that we used to get into mulberry fights with one another. You could only do it once a year when the mulberries were really ripe (dark purple and soft), but it seemed like the most hilarious thing in the world that we could do. We'd all get in a big circle around the tree and it was basically a free-for-all in picking them up and throwing them at one another. Of course, whenever one hit your clothing with enough speed, it would leave a mark (and picking them up would leave your hands stained as well), so whoever had the least stains at the end of the day was the winner. I'm sure our parents got mad at us for most likely ruining a pair of shorts and a shirt, but it must have not been too bad because that memory has faded and all I'm left with is the one of laughing maniacally after looking at my stained hands and watching chunks of dark purple splatter off the arms, face, and clothes of friends while they picked up and threw as many as they could back at me.
06.27.03
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been getting a little disheartened over the course of the past couple weeks in regards to nobody reviewing our CD. It's almost become a jokeworthy topic (albeit one that was slightly tinged with frustration) in wondering whether or not anyone would even mention us at all. We'd sent out a batch of between 15-20 CDs almost two months ago, including copies to local publications and many online review sites that we frequent and enjoy. Up until today, absolutely nothing had showed up. Completely ignored on the local scene, and although we got some nice comments from random people who had bought the CD (which are really appreciated), nobody had actually spilled a full review for the disc. In some ways, I felt like it was karma of some sort coming around to bite me in the ass for the large pile of unreviewed CDs I have sitting on my personal desk at the moment.
At any rate, I was doing my usual online review reading this morning when I loaded up Splendidezine like normal and saw that Onward+Upward was one of the featured reviews for the day. Not only that, but the review was rather lengthy and just about as positive as any of us could have asked for. Valid points were made about a couple weaknesses (many of which I can at least partially agree with), and very nice comparisons and comments were made. It was a super happy surprise to my morning, and it felt good finally getting some outside comments on something that I'd put some much work into (and very nice ones at that). Because the site updates daily, we won't stay on the front page past today, so the direct (and hopefully permanent) link to the review is here.
As an interesting (or possibly not) aside, Splendidezine is actually one of the online review sites that I've read for the longest time. Back when I was in college, I wrote for an actual print zine called "You Could Do Worse." It was a quarterly zine that usually had something like 300 music reviews in each issue, and I wrote both reviews and an electronic music column. It was a lot of fun, but eventually the founder had other life issues come up and it slowly dissolved. From its ashes (and writers), however, came Splendid. At the time, I thought about continuing writing for them, but eventually decided to go at it myself, for reasons that have mainly turned out for the better. I'm obviously not the most well-known review site out there, but I have a lot of fun doing it and I don't have to answer to (or rely on) anyone but myself. I've always had a lot of respect for Splendid, though, simply for the sheer amount of reviews that they run each day (between 10 and 15). It's pretty unbelievable, and based on my little contact with the editor (George Z), I'm amazed at how well they have their eggs in a row.
06.26.03
It's been a couple mornings in a row of Zooey wanting to play at about 5am. That's nearly 2 hours before the alarm usually goes off, so with a groggy hand wave we've been picking her up and trying to get her to settle down, which she usually does after a couple minutes and ends up sleeping until we're ready to get up. She's a pretty smart little dog, and seems to be slowly catching on to the whole housetraining thing, which is good.
Because of puppy antics, I haven't gotten quite as much done this week as I usually do, but it's not a very big deal. It's probably a good thing that I'm not spending so much time on my computer each night anyway. Emails will take a little longer to respond to than normal, and I only managed 4 new reviews instead of 5. Still none out there for Marianas, though. Huzzah.
06.25.03
We've now had Zooey for a couple days and I'm starting to be a little less uptight about her the further we go. I'm pretty much acting just like I didn't think I would, worrying about every single possible thing that could go wrong with her, especially when it comes to her running around the house. I'm worried she'll eat something that makes her sick or something will fall over on her or she'll take a tumble down the stairs, so I'm probably even more attentive with her than I need to be. The first night, I slept as light as I had in ages, waking up and sitting alert whenever I heard her make the slightest sound. Of course, it was never anything bad, but I had to make sure. I slept a little better last night, and tonight I think I'll do even better. At 9 weeks old, she isn't housetrained yet, but we're working with her and I swear that there has been progress already. She's been eating voraciously, but we've been giving her plenty of exercise, running around the living room with her and playing tug-of-war and even letting her run around in the backyard with a leash.
The worst part is actually having to leave her here. We've set up a little blocked-off area in the kitchen, and when we leave to go to work, she cries and it makes me sad. Alas, the bills must be paid, and she lets us know how much she missed us by jumping all over us and licking our faces when we get home. I'm already more attached to her than I thought I could be, but as I mentioned below, it's impossible to not be won over by her charms.
06.23.03
After work tonight, TG and I drove to a farm near Lincoln and went to look at a puppy that we'd seen an ad for in the paper. We'd been looking for puppies for quite some time, and we've done a lot of research about what breed would be the best for us and our lifestyle. Upon pulling into the driveway and seeing the little puppy, I pretty much knew that it was the one for us, and after playing with her for awhile, the decision was made. We brought her home and forgot to eat while she alternately played in the living room and slept on the floor. She had one accident (pee) on the carpet already, but that sort of thing happens with puppies. We're excited to have a new little friend to share the house with. I'm sure I'll become one of those sappy people who is always posting pictures of the pet on my site, but you have to trust me when I say that this little puppy could win over just about anyone in less than one minute. We're calling her Zooey for now, but that might change...
06.22.03
This was yet another in the long line of weekends that was here and gone in what now seems like an instant. Friday evening and almost the entirety of Saturday was spent in preparation for and having a garage sale. We not only priced things for ourselves, but for TG's parents and my grandma. We hauled two loads to my brothers house and sat things up early. Although we had the sale listed (in the paper and on signs) to start at 9am, someone drove by at 6:45 (no shit) in the morning while we were still setting up and asked us whether we were open or not yet. We were mean to them and they never came back. By 8 in the morning, a steady tide of people were arriving (and we were prepared), so we gave in and let people go ahead and start looking and buying. The day went slowly in parts, with severe lulls in traffic at points (especially when it started sprinkling for awhile), but overall went well. At the end of the day, we ended up donating everything else to Goodwill. There is now a much larger clear spot in our basement and it feels good to rid of lots of things that we don't need. As an added bonus, we made some money.
Today, we took a deserved sleep-in break, then had a lazy breakfast and lunch before I buckled down and again tackled the master bedroom with musical accompaniment by Four Tet, Broken Social Scene, and Explosions In The Sky. TG came in about an hour behind me and we made some quick tag-team work, with me scraping tile and tarpaper and her doing the detail work behind me. In about 5 hours time, we got a whole lot done and now the room is near half-complete in terms of the floor being uncovered. There is really a light at the end of the tunnel at this point, and it makes the work easier, even though it was super-humid and hot today. I kept having to empty out my goggles because they'd get filled with sweat and it would roll around in front of my eyes. To combat things, I ended up drinking an 80 ounce pitcher of water. After I finished, I gave myself a quick haircut before hopping in the shower and finally fixing some dinner. After scarfing that down, I've been alternately spaced-out feeling and pretty much all-around lazy.
Oh, and TG and I are going to look at a puppy tomorrow night. We've been excited about getting one for awhile, but I have a feeling this might be the one.
06.19.03
Finished a book about a week ago, but forgot to even write about it here for some reason. After an period of not reading at all for almost two months after moving in, I've gotten back into the habit and will try to continue a little bit before bed each night unless I'm completely worn out (which is sometimes the case). At any rate, the book that I finished was Banvard's Folly by Paul Collins. As stated by the subtitle of the book, it is "thirteen tales of renowned obscurity, famous anonymity, and rotten luck." That's a pretty good description, but the stories were still all very fascinating in their own ways. The title story is about John Banvard, an artist who probably became the first millionaire artist in the world in the mid 1800's. He was painter of scrolling canvas scenes, and told tales to match them (sort of like an early motion picture). Due to some bad decisions (trying to take on P.T. Barnum), he ended up losing nearly all his money, and died a pauper. That's just one of the stories, some of which deal with frauds, people slightly ahead of their time, or just plain misguided. At any rate, Collins is a writer for McSweeneys, among other places, and his tales were quite good. Highly recommended for a quick read.
On todays music review update, I did something I've been wrangling with for awhile now. I added small buttons on each review that either link to a page on Amazon or a label site for ordering of the CD that is reviewed within. It's a minor change, and one that doesn't really affect much, but it was one that I didn't make lightly. So far, I've eschewed advertising completely with the site, but I wanted to try to offset the hosting costs slightly if I could by getting a bit more Amazon affiliation or just flat out more people viewing sites and buying releases. The latter doesn't really help me, unless those label sites see that people are coming from my site more often and decide to send me things to review, but that's not my huge concern. At any rate, it's an experiment, and hopefully I don't get too many (or any) complaints. In my opinion, it's much better than advertising.
06.18.03
Haha. I wrote up last nights entry and then forgot to even post the darn thing. So it goes... In doing the entry last night, I also forgot to mention that TG and I rented Frida last night and watched it. After the tooth removal, I was supposed to take things easy, and that's just what I did for the evening. Directed by Julie Taymor, I thought it was a great flick, and Salma Hayek impressed me a lot in her role, as I haven't seen her in a whole lot of films to date. In fact, everyone in the film was very good (except for a slightly-miscast Ashley Judd), including Alfred Molina who played Diego Riveria. There were some scenes that started out seemingly as nothing more than miniature head-trips, but then wrapped around full-circle and acted as possible ideas for how Kahlo got inspiration for some of her paintings. The cinematography was gorgeous, and it was one of the most vivid films that I've seen in some time. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you have at least a passing interest in Kahlo or the creation and inspiration for art.
As a funny sidenote, I have to mention that I know Jennifer Lopez was at one time talking about making a Frida Kahlo film herself. I can't imagine how bad that would have probably turned out. Egad.
06.17.03
Got my tooth pulled this morning and it was a much different experience than having my top wisdom teeth out. The main difference was that this tooth was in the front of my mouth, but another major difference was the process of removal. Since this front tooth had infection in it (as well as most likely a vertical crack), they had to be pretty careful in taking it out so it didn't just fall apart in the gum. What that meant for me is a longer extraction process, which felt like several minutes but was probably just under two (but definitely longer than one). After it was all done with, I sat and got the information about cleaning and whatnot, then drove on home only 30 minutes after I'd entered the office. When I got home, the pain steadily increased as the novacaine wore off and I got a rather viscious headache that lasted most of the afternoon. After some soup and ice cream for dinner, I'm feeling better. The damage is below, but I get to put in a fake-tooth retainer starting tomorrow, so it won't look as gnarley in person (although I can take out the retainer if you really want to see the hot socket).
06.16.03
The show last night went just about as well as I think any of us could have hoped for. We'd been practicing quite a bit during the weeks leading up to it, and despite a pretty lackluster run-through just previous to when we went downtown, things went pretty smoothly. The 'other things' that I mentioned in the last post was actually a video backdrop that we'd filmed and edited (Ryan doing some extracurricular work in the editing and dubbing department - big props) just last week when we realized that the venue had a system for projection. Even with the short time span to prepare, we had some rough syncs to what we'd constructed and we got some nice comments from people for both the visuals and the overall sound. It was nice to hear and play the songs at a venue where everything was at a nice volume and the songs that rock (yes, we have songs that rock) shake things down a bit. We didn't end up selling any CDs, but we got more than enough nice comments from people to make up for it. Hopefully we'll be playing another show at Duffy's in the future. Huge thanks to everyone who showed up, including Malcom (who has seen every single show of ours), George, Dan, Shannon, Mike, Chris, Andrew, and of course TG (who saved my arse by bringing down a backpack full of stuff I needed that I'd forgotten at home).
We're planning on taking one night off from practicing, then meet up and hopefully watch the videotape of the performance (taped ever so graciously by the main man Jason), then buckle down and record our new song and get to work on creating some other new tracks. After a good performance, I think it will be easier to settle down and feel inspired to work on things again. In the near future, we'll be putting up either a video or MP3 (or both) from the show for download on the band website.
I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow morning, as I have to get my front tooth extracted. At this point, I'm ready to have it done, as it's slowly dying and my gum seems to be getting more and more pressure on it from internal infection. Sounds yummy, I know, but after tomorrow I'll be kickin' it gap-tooth style for awhile until things heal up and I can get an implant (although I will have a fake-tooth retainer so it's not completely one-mudflap style). If I'm lucky, I'll have some gorey pictures to post.
06.14.03
This last week went by in a flash and this weekend is doing the same. Many projects to stay on top of, as well as more preparation for the show tomorrow evening. Just in case you haven't heard, Marianas is going to be playing at Duffy's Tavern tomorrow evening (June 15th) at 10p.m. We've been running through our setlist lots and lots of times already, and we seem to be at a point where things are sounding pretty darn good nearly every time we play them. We've also been working on some other things for the show to hopefully make it a little more interesting and everything seems to be coming together almost exactly as planned. At this point, I feel like I know the songs well enough that hopefully the extra dimension of having a crowd watching won't be enough to throw me off. Damn straight I'll be nervous, but I'm hoping that it mainly melts away into the excitement of playing our music for what will probably be the largest audience we've had to date.
At our very first show, way back in October, I was shaking so much during the first song that I could barely keep my hand in control to move the mouse around and operate the laptop. At our second show, we had so many technical difficulties that by the time we were ready to play, all nervousness had completely gone out the door and I was simply ready to freaking play the songs already. At our third show, I managed to keep almost everything under control, and even though the first track (which was just me improvising on the laptop), everything went pretty smoothly and I slipped into a fairly comfortable (and rather excited and giddy) mood for the rest of the show. I'm hoping that will be the case tomorrow night as well. The songs (especially our newest track) are fun to play, and I just need to remember that. I think my mantra will be; It's not surgery, it's rock n' roll. Hopefully that comes through in the performance (wish me luck).
06.12.03
Today is the birthday of Mr. Aaron G. We went out to eat this evening and drank a bit of wine and shot the usual shizzle. It was a good time, and I ate quite a lot.
Although I know I've been mentioning it a lot lately, I feel like I should make note of the weather once again, simply because we've been having quite an interesting June. After the previous years of having little to no (last year there was literally no measurable rainfall for the month of June, putting the big hurt on crops in many parts of the state) precipitation, We've had almost 4 inches of rain during the first two weeks of this month already. This week alone, we've gotten over three inches of rain, and lately I feel like I've magically been transported to the upper Northwest somehow. Not too much sunshine, and lots of rain. In addition, we've had some pretty wicked storms in the past week. Two nights (and especially last night), we got some of the loudest thunder I've heard in a long time. One crack at 5:15 this morning (I remember the time specifically, because I sat bolt upright in bed) sounded like a gunshot going off right outside our window. It wasn't a deep rumble, it was more like a sharp whipcrack from the sky. Weird.
Like a lot of Nebraskans, I happened to be up last night and caught Bright Eyes on David Letterman. Was interesting to see a band that you've seen many times placed in a setting of having to bust out a song in less than 3.5 minutes (or risk getting cut off), as well as being surrounded by so many commercials. In the 9 minutes that I had the television on, I would venture to say that probably only 4 minutes were devoted to the actual television show. The remaining were commercials of some sort, and it was during that time that I realized why I don't watch much television anymore. At any rate, I don't know many of the musicians in the area personally, but I'm happy for all of them. They've worked their asses off for the most part, and they deserve to get a little recognition.
Speaking of recognition (don't you just love my segways?), there still aren't any reviews of Onward+Upward out there (other than little bits that people have written back to us in emails, which we're happy to receive, mind you). I've slowly come to realize that it's pretty futile to rely on anyone reviewing it, although I'm still holding out a little hope. I can't expect everyone to move it to the top of a review pile and make it a priority (especially when this year has been so good for music already overall), but that doesn't mean I don't believe in it. I still stand by the record as something that I enjoy and am proud of, and perhaps eventually someone will come along and find something in it that they like as well. To close, my new reviews for the week.
06.10.03
I remember back in the days when I used to religiously update this site every day. In the first few years after college, I really only had one friend that I spent much time with, and he was often as much as a hermit as I was. Due to this, I spent many a night crouched in front of my computer simply typing away whatever came to mind. Looking back over it all, there's a lot of things that I sort of cringe while reading, but I simply can't take any of that old stuff down. It's an interesting record of where I've been and how I've changed and how (hopefully) my writing has gotten a bit better. Having said that, most posts in this section are done on a first-draft sort of basis, and I admittingly rarely use a spell check at all. I've always been one to simply put all my thoughts down on the page at first thought, then worry about editing at a later date in order to polish things up a bit. Since this section is mainly off-the-cuff thoughts and late-night ramblings, it sort of feels right to me that I usually don't pore over an entry to look for grammatical or spelling errors. That said, if I completely botch something up, or if you see a problem that occurs on a regular basis, please feel free to call me on it.
Starting roughly last weekend, I entered what will probably be a two-week period of being busy beyond belief. I have band practice several nights this week, I have a birthday celebration to attend to, my teeth get cleaned in a couple days, there are two fathers day events this weekend, we have a show Sunday evening, I get my tooth pulled next week, and I have to get ready for a big garage-sale that TG, my brother, and I are having on the 21st of the month (along with various items that family members have contributed as well). I know there are things that I'm forgetting, so if I don't post as much as usual, any of the above excuses will do (and I also realize I just wrote an enormous run-on sentence above, so appy polly loggies from me).
06.07.03
After taking a week off from movie watching last weekend, TG and I sat down last night and viewed Strangers On A Train. It was one of the classic Hitchcock films that I had yet to see, and I'm really glad that I finally got around to it. I'm not sure where it would rank on my list of favorite Hitchcock films (Rear Window still easily takes the top spot), but it would easily be in the top 5. I have to admit that for some reason or another, I almost always really find myself liking the 'bad' characters in his films. This was no exception, as Bruno was one of those rather twisted suave fellows that you can't help but liking a little bit. The DVD that we watched had both the British (which was a bit longer and was edited to show a more homoerotic attraction from Bruno to Guy) and the American version (which had a happier ending tagged on and was tamed down a bit in editing). We decided to watch the British version, since that was the way it was originally meant to be, and I'm glad we chose that one. A fine film, indeed. Now I want to watch Vertigo again.
Today, I spent about 7 hours busting up tile and peeling tar paper off the floor of the master bedroom. With the huge tile busting blade scraper that we got last night, I thought it would be easier going, but I was only half-right. Whereas I had to kneel and crack everything off by hand before, now I can at least crack the tile off with the new blade, but most of the time I have to get down and scrape off the tar paper with the hand scraper, because the big blade doesn't have enough finesse to it. Got the floor approximately 1/5th scraped free of tile, and approximately 1/10th down to the wood. I have pictures, but I want to wait until I have a little bit more done before posting before and afters.
I know I haven't mentioned it yet, but I get my front tooth removed in just over a week from now. It's a problem that I've discussed before within this section, but I'm finally taking steps to (hopefully) have it fixed for good. Because it's a front tooth, I basically had three options. One was that I could simply have it removed (and it does need to be removed, because there's an infection along the base that will start rotting the roots of other teeth in time) and leave the gap open in my mouth hillbilly style, but I decided against that pretty quickly. My other option was to have a bridge put in the front, but that would mean grinding down the teeth on either side of the missing one (which includes the other front tooth), which could leave me with yet more problems in the future. The third option (and the one that I'm going with) is to get an implant done, which is sort of a long process, but hopefully it works out the best. Basically it involves planted a metal pin in my jaw and letting the bone set around in, on which a fake tooth will be placed to look exactly like the one that was taken out. Because the bone has to heal around the pin that is being set, I will be without any sort of front tooth for approximately 4-6 months depending on healing time. I will have a small 'flapper' tooth so there isn't a gap in my mouth, but if you see me on the 17th of the month, I'll officially be missing the real thing (and probably in some pain on that day and following ones).
06.05.03
This week has been another non-stop action-packed 4 days, so I'm glad that it's finally time to cruise into Friday and the weekend. Being a normal weekend in my world, it probably won't be filled with much downtime, and I plan on attacking the master bedroom with a full head of steam on Saturday morning and see how much I can get done before I completely burn myself out physically. On the agenda will be the final stripping and sanding on the wood trim, as well as busting up floor tile and scraping tar paper. Sounds like fun, eh? I'll get pictures this time so everyone can get in on the hot action.
One cool music thing that happened this week was that an artist that I really enjoy wrote me an email out of the blue and told me that he reads my music reviews almost every week. It arrived in my inbox about halfway through the week, and I've since emailed back and forth with him a couple times. Twas a nice surprise, and very excellent. I've only emailed and/or spoken with a couple of the artists that I've reviewed on my site, but this is one of the first times ever that someone has actually sent me the email first.
Speaking of reviews, nobody has stepped up to the plate and reviewed the Marianas CD yet, but I can feel at least one coming on in the near future. I suppose I've talked enough about reviews, how about some new ones?
06.03.03
The weather here has been _insane_ for the past month or so. Not only have we gotten decent amounts of sporadic rain (an anomaly in past years), but the temperature has been very mild and cool as well. In past years, I can remember lots of 90-plus degree days happening in May, yet I think it may have only happened once last month, and so far this month the forecast only calls for one day in the near future above 80. I know that all this will change eventually and we'll be pitched headlong into a blazing inferno with 90% humidity as we always are, but I could honestly stand for the weather that we've been having (3 days high 70s to low 80s with 1 day of overcast and rain) all summer. I'll admit that I'm not the biggest hot weather person, and one of my favorite things is to sleep with the windows open and have enough of a chill come in that getting out of bed in the morning is even more of a chore. Granted, I don't like getting out of bed as much when that happens, but I like the cool weather, especially since I'm living in a house with no central air. I even wore a light sweater to work today, which is completely weird.
In other news, I'm slowly becoming the soup master. After last nights feat of pumpkin/butternut squash, tonight I put together some brocolli cheese soup and despite being a smidge on the runny side (too much veggie boullon and not enough grated potatoes), it was quite good. We recently got a book of 1000 vegetarian recipes, 130 of which are soups. I've officially made two of them, and I want to eventually try to cook up most of them (the ones that look really good anyway). Anyone want to give me a cooking show where all I make is soup?
06.02.03
Instead of doing a little bit of the typical relaxing over the last weekend, it was pretty much full-throttle all the way through in terms of working around the house and getting things done. On Friday night, TG and I priced a bunch of items for a garage sale that we're going to be having along with my brother in the near future. On Saturday, I mowed the lawn and then worked on the master bedroom for awhile, sanding the trim some more. Saturday night, it was more pricing and a little bit of writing and some other projects. Sunday, I went back to work in the master bedroom, while TG went outside and did a ton of yard cleanup (we'd neglected some long grass and weeds since we got here, but she took care of it all). In working in the master bedroom, I started chipping up some of the tar paper and tile that is covering the wood floor and decided that instead of recarpeting the room, I'm going to try to bust out all the tile and scrape up all the tar paper and refinish the already-existing wood floor. It's going to be a hellacious amount of work, but I'm always down for a challenge. I'll definitely get some pictures for comparison, because it's going to get ugly (and then hopefully pretty).
Now it's Monday night and I haven't shaved in a week and I just got done with the first of several band practices for the week. The show is now officially a go. We're playing on Sunday June 15th (Fathers Day) at Duffys Tavern in downtown Lincoln. We're opening for a fellow named Pete Hoffman from Minneapolis and it should be a good time. Unlike some of our earlier shows, which were cram sessions up until the last minute, we've spent some time planning and practicing for this one, so hopefully it will be a nice stepping stone to even more.
I have to mention food for one moment now. Over the course of the past couple weeks, I've gotten into a habit of making at least one big batch of soup every 10 days or so. Either because I'm starting to get really good in the kitchen, or simply because I'm lucky, each batch of soup for the past month has been pretty darn good, and tonights batch was no exception. I put together some cream of pumpkin soup with fresh basil and chives and it was quite yummy. In combination with some Asparagus quiche that TG made, I was in food heaven tonight. I used to not know the joys of cooking, but it's much easier to spend time cooking something nice when you know that part of it is going to someone else. Food has become my drug of choice lately. Just the right combination of spices (like tonight) give me a buzz that can't be beat. That probably sounds cheesy, but so be it.
