Foul and Fowl

These were the two themes of my recent weekend in Asheville, NC. It all began on a miserably rainy and cold Thursday night. We left after rush hour and drove part of the way there. We made a junk food stop at the Sheetz in Salem, VA and a five pack of Peeps seemed like an appropriate snack. That is until the guy rang them up and I saw this:

If you can't read what the cash register says, click on the picture!

I temporarily lost my appetite after that so I ate them the next day instead. And speaking of Peeps, you must check out the World's Cutest Peep Post at [F]oxymoron's blog. It's absolutely adorable! Go look!

On Friday we were driving through the beautiful mountains of southern Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. I pulled over at a "scenic overlook" and took a picture of the foggy mountains. The view was more subdued than usual.

On Saturday while Doug was doing his workshop at UNC Asheville, I did a little exploring. I went up Town Mountain Road to see what I could see. It was rainy and foggy but there were still fun things to see, like:

A castle!

And turkeys! I almost ran over the first batch of them because I driving just a little too fast on that winding mountain road. They were all over the road like worms on a sidewalk. I saw about twenty of them altogether at various times. As you can see in this video, they don't move very fast.

One of them kept ruffling his feathers at me.

And then he farted at me. Or at least that's what it sounded like.

Speaking of farting, on Sunday I took Doug up there to show him the turkeys on our way out of town. It was sunny for about an hour and there were suddenly no turkeys to be found anywhere. Maybe they only go near the road when the weather is crappy. In spite of the weather everything was in full bloom down there in Asheville.

By the time we got to Lexington Virginia I was getting really bored with the interstate scenery so I decided to see where one of the side roads went. We went by VMI and Washington and Lee and then continued down that road for a while and tried a few others, just for fun. Getting lost on purpose is my idea of a good time. You never know where you'll end up.

The road wound around in what seemed like a big circle. It went across a river, over some mountains and through a forest, past a graveyard and some farms, and it even became a dirt road for a while.

Eventually we found our way back to the highway again. But not before coming across one additional turkey.

So it was indeed a foul and fowl weekend. At least it was as far as the weather, and the various birds were concerned.

DC Police swarm H Street

I decided to stay in my car and make a little video while I waited.

Also, I can't seem to make myself stop taking pictures of Magnolias lately. So here are some more:

unbusy and unproductive

There's a beautiful song called Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. I don't feel particularly hung up by Spring just yet - it's more like I'm hung up in spite of Spring. This week I am on spring break so I'm dealing or not dealing with my least favorite kind of schedule - the kind where I have lots to do and plenty of time to get it all done. I'm completely schedule-free for the most part. I should be happy that the treadmill has momentarily stopped and enjoy the flexible schedule.

So I have tons of work to do for school over the break and all kinds of time to do it for a change, but am I doing it? Not really. In the past few days I went for a walk, I went to a couple of movies at the AFI, I did all of my laundry, cleaned the parts of the house that have been driving me crazy, and I've been spending TONS of completely aimless time on the internet writing a bunch of long-winded comments on other people's blogs. I haven't done a thing yet that I really need to do.

But hey, now it's Thursday so the break is almost over, the weekend will be busier, and I'm starting to feel a little pumped with excitement at the prospect of having to rush through all of my work in order to do a decent job on it and still finish. And I have a rehearsal tonight which will probably be the most fun I've had all week.

So I guess I'll get started on my stuff tonight after the rehearsal. By then I'll be feeling more useful. I really hate being unbusy. It causes procrastination. I need structure!!! Or a REAL vacation.

I've been reading things this week that make me sad. On Monday some guy threw himself on the Metro tracks and was killed. But the news link said a man was killed by a Metro train and it was intentional. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. I didn't know whether to be mad about a murderer or sad about a suicide. Then Natasha Richardson died as a result of a fall during a ski lesson on a beginner slope. She banged her head and 24 hours later she was dead. It was really kind of disconcerting to see her talk in her usual vivacious way on the presentation the AFI does on itself before the movie after just hearing that she had died.

I hit my head while skiing one time - and pretty hard too. I was skiing alone on my new skiis and zooming really fast straight down a slope that suddenly became much steeper than I was ready for and I wasn't leaning forward enough relative to my speed, so I ended up smacking the back of my head on the hill behind me. That's how steep the hill suddenly became. After the stars went away and I realized that I wasn't paralyzed from the neck down, I skiied rather shakily down to the bottom and drove myself home. That was probably a bad idea but I made it. No brain damage happened as far as I can tell.

Anyway, there she was, having fun and suddenly she's here one minute and gone the next. I feel so bad for her family having to deal with this so unexpectedly. And I don't feel particularly lucky about my skiing accident either. I feel more creeped out than anything. Life can be pretty unfair sometimes. I guess I should count my blessings.

Karaoke Conductor

Tonight I conducted in public for the very first time. One of my duties as a teaching assistant this semester is conducting the largest jazz ensemble at UMD for a few tunes at each concert. I have no idea what I'm doing. I never took conducting, so I'm kind of bad at it, I think. I can't actually tell. Anyway I did it and good or bad, it was kind of fun. I counted them off, waved my arms and pointed at people, and announced the tunes.

This particular band is huge - all the parts are doubled. They have about 12 saxes - maybe more, 6 trombones, 8 or 9 trumpets, 2 clarinets, 2 flutes, 2 guitars, accordian, vibes, piano, bass, drums, and a vocalist. Fortunately for me, a large jazz ensemble usually does not require much in the way of conducting skills. Once you count it off, it kind of plays itself. It will keep going even if you mess up. Just like karaoke.

I love how obvious it is that Spring is on its way and you can tell that even at night. That little white spot is the moon. It didn't photograph nearly as big as it actually was. But at least the trees look kind of cool.

my kind of day

Lately I've been feeling like I'm on a treadmill. The stuff I have to do never stops. It's really too bad I don't have time to get on a real treadmill. That would actually be fun - and good for me too!

Today was an excellent day. I was playing bass all day long so I'm all happy and unexhausted and my back feels great for a change. Poor Doug had to work over at the house all by himself today. Too bad. I'm tired of being tired. I needed a break. He likes working on the house so he can just keep doing it until he's finished.

Anyway, I played in the crazy time signature big band up in Baltimore from 11:00 until 1:00 and then played the 2:30 show of The Music Man at the Atlas Theater - sightreading=fun! Then I went with some orchestra people to the Argonaut and had a lovely Portobello mushroom sandwich and sweet potato fries, followed by a fabulous latte at Sova, my favorite H Street coffeehouse. Then we all went back and played the 7:00 show.

The Music Man is not really one of my favorite shows - it's kind of square or something - and not very "jazzy" but it does have some lovely bowed string parts, so I enjoyed it anyway.

The thing that really made my day happened during the opening scene where all of the travelling salesmen are riding the train to their next destination and reading newspapers while they ride. The guy in front who I could see from the pit had an old looking newspaper with a picture on the back of a kid with an afro. I thought that was kind of odd. It was a little too 1970s-looking for a show that supposedly takes place in 1912. Then I looked again and I swear that picture was of Michael Jackson when he was about 10 years old. And that is hilarious because Michael Jackson is originally from Gary, Indiana. Gary, Indiana is mentioned a lot in the show and there's even a song with that title.

So whenever you hear "Gary, Indiana" mentioned, are you reminded more of Michael Jackson, or the song from The Music Man? I guess it might depend on how old you are.

Here's the video from the movie, which features Ron Howard in his pre-Opie days and Shirley Jones in her pre-Partridge Family days. It's kind of adorable but it's also slightly cringe-worthy. Enjoy!

Mizell Lumber & Hardware

We recently went to Mizell Lumber & Hardware in Kensington because we needed to buy some doors and they had given us a very reasonable price quote. Mizell is one of those old-timey hardware stores that has all kinds of things no one else carries. It looks like it could be about 100 years old.

I remember when I was a kid I would sometimes get to go there with my Dad back when we lived in Kensington. I really liked being there because it was right next to the train tracks, nearly directly across from the Kensington station. Anytime I got near train tracks I would daydream about jumping on the train and going off by myself to who knows where. I don't know why, but this was a recurring fantasy during my childhood. I loved hearing the sound of the train at night. There used to be a wooden bridge that went over the tracks off of Howard Avenue. It was rickety and felt dangerous but I just loved the feeling of going over that bridge.

So as a grownup going back to Mizell, I enjoyed remembering my little childhood fantasies (which I sometimes still have) but it was also a good experience for a grown up (I think!?) consumer. The salespeople there are knowledgeable and very helpful. They aren't snotty and rude and/or dumb the way they are at some hardware stores. I got some very useful information about thresholds there.

This lovely formica display made me start thinking about how much less expensive our countertops could have been, and they would still be very pretty. But it's too late now.

They sell nails by the pound!

Their shelves are stocked full of all kinds of cool stuff. If you are ever in Kensington, be sure to check out Mizell Lumber & Hardware.

V is for.....

Venus! Has anyone else out there noticed how big and bright Venus has been lately? If not, check it out around 8pm in the western sky. It's up at about a 45% angle from the ground. It almost looks like an airplane headlight except that it doesn't move. I've never seen it this bright before.

V is for....

..... The Virgin Lodge!!! Calling all virgins!!! Get your single rooms for only $47.00 a night. I thought it was especially funny to see this at the end of a very long Valentine's Day. We were heading down Route 1 last night on the way to Krispy Kreme after our gig at the Carlyle Club to obtain some celebratory hot ones when I spotted this sign.

So yesterday I gave my masters recital. It went pretty well I think. There was a good crowd there and they all seemed to be very enthusiastic. The band sounded great. I sounded okay, all things considered. I've had limited time to practice and the abuse that I've been subjecting my hands to over at the house continues to take its toll. But I laid off of physical work for the past week and they were feeling pretty good yesterday. Only a few more months and I might have a chance to actually get back in shape. Wouldn't that be nice? Anyway, the recital went well overall and I'm really glad to have it behind me.

I thought I had bought way too much food for the reception and I was completely delighted to discover that there was very little left over by the time everyone was gone because we had to go straight from there to our gig at the Carlyle Club and we couldn't really deal with a bunch of leftover food.

My feet were so tired by the end of the night that I thought they deserved some Krispy Kremes. Healthy eating resumes, I mean begins, today!

ALSO: Barbara came to the recital and wrote a really nice post about it here. And I just stole this picture from her post without permission, which her husband took on his iPhone without permission, hahaha!!! That's fair, right?

Happy Friday the 13th!!!

Cute, huh? That's all I've got today.

looking back....

Today is an anniversary of sorts. Four years ago on this date and actually at this very moment I was sitting in my neighbor's kitchen watching through their patio door as 75 (according to the news) firemen battled the flames that ended up completely gutting the main part of our house. We lost all of our personal belongings and one of our two cats. Clothing, photos, furniture, you name it - all destroyed. We were very lucky that the fire did not go into the addition where we kept most of our music stuff, but all in all the experience was pretty hellacious.

The first year we were both pretty much in shock, whether we realized it or not. The insurance situation was very ambiguous for a really long time. We tried to keep life as normal as possible, and continued to do our road and cruise ship gigs.

The ambiguity was the hardest part. We had different ideas about what to do with the house. I wanted to have it repaired so that we could get back in and get on with our lives as soon as possible. Doug had a much more complicated thing in mind which I very reluctantly went along with.

So at our first anniversary we were on the road, planning the new version of our house with the architect via phone and fax. I had a sense of doom and gloom about the financial feasibility of this project which continues to this day.

We finally came to our senses and realized that we would not be able to work on our house from out on the road. I had a really hard time dealing with the fact that I was going to have to leave the life I loved so much. I really really miss travelling. And I was really dreading the inevitable - that I would have to be physically involved in the housebuilding process. But we are a team and if something ends up going a certain way we both need to be on board for it. So we tore down our 130 year old house and began preparing for the addition to become our newer, smaller but still pretty big, house.

Two years after the fire we were ready for some actual housebuilding activities to occur, and we supposedly had a contractor, but not much had happened yet as you can probably tell from this conversation. 2007 was mostly the year of building porches, inside walls and ceilings, and installing windows.

The following year I realized that things were not going to work out with our contractor since he basically had abandoned us about six months earlier. Doug had to do a lot of remedial carpentry work and then continued with the rest of the framing since the carpenters were no longer coming. The contractor apparently had issues with Doug's need for straight walls and correct measurements. Doug is very particular and likes to do things himself which is fine except that it usually means that I'm stuck helping him with these things. Needless to say, the progress was slow.

Around this time last year the electrician started doing the rough-ins. The plumber started in the spring and we passed our framing inspection at the end of July. After that we started putting up the siding, but we didn't finish all of the trim because that would be too logical and methodical. "We" prefer to flit around from one activity to the next. Eventually we may actually finish everything.

So here we are now. Our house is "almost finished" (at this point I have no idea what that means) and it is going to be beautiful, incredible, and far nicer than what people of our income level usually have. That creeps me out quite a bit, but I'm sure I will love living there.

We have gone from having a completely paid-for house to being in debt for the rest of our lives, or at least 30 years - whichever comes first. But the joy of living in such a beautiful house that we mostly designed and built ourselves is likely to make it all worthwhile in the end. Or at least I hope so!

So now it's time to look ahead. Pretty soon I'll have performed my recital, I'll be back in my house, I'll have my master's degree, and I'll be free to do ship gigs and go out on the road once again. That is, if I can bear to leave my totally amazing house. It will be so nice to once again be free to do as I please.

I'm just going to look back one more time. Before the fire I never realized how important photographs can be. They provide such wonderful glimpses into the past and they really intensify all of those memories. The first time I realized this was when I discovered, a year and a half later, that my brand new camera had somehow miraculously survived the fire and all of the photos were still intact on the memory card.

This past Christmas my parents presented me with a replacement of the huge album of photos from my childhood that my mother had assembled for me about ten years earlier. And just last week a friend from way way back in my MC days sent me a really cute photo of a group of us who were performing in a production of "Carmen."

It means a lot to have these reminders of some of the happy times in my past. Maybe that's why I take so many more pictures now. It's a way to prolong the present. I'm also really glad that I discovered blogging because when I look at "old" (from four years ago) photos that I've posted it feels like I just took them a few days ago. I sort of like that feeling of compressed time. Now if I could just get the past four years to really feel like four days......well parts of it anyway. I definitely do intend to savor the present - from now on!!!

The Robins Think it's Spring...

Here are seven of the twelve robins I saw sitting all in one tree today.

I don't know what the turtle thinks. Fear the Turtle!

hello

I just wanted to say hi on this lovely moonlit night. I've been SO busy lately - it's been absolutely ridiculous. Wednesday night, I mean Thursday morning, I went to bed at 8AM. Now I have what feels like jet lag. Oh well, I got done what I needed to get done so it's all good. This week I had a lot of fun playing Suessical the Musical with my electric bass, which I don't get to play too often. And that's pretty much it for now.

Snow Day!

So I'm back in school over at the UMD. We had a snow day on the second day of classes - awesome! Those college kids are keeping me young, that's for sure. Yesterday I wrote a comment on somebody's blog where I said "She's all like....." Unbelievable. I don't think ever I've heard myself use that expression out loud - yet, that is. Maybe I have used it and don't realize it. And how ironic is it that this way of talking is creeping in as a result of increased contact with an educational institution? It's definitely not from watching TV because I don't have one. Anyway, I'm sort of amused by this recent development.

I love school so much! It's so much more fun than what I'm stuck doing when I'm not in school. And when the Foam Core Fantasy is finally finished, my entire life will be fantastic!

Water Tower, Final Installment

I'm kind of running out of material here, so I'm going to wrap up the water tower "series" with this photo of the one in Montgomery Hills. Sorry, Scenic Wheaton, no calendar for you!

I'm happy that this shot includes a prominent view of Armand's Chicago Pizzeria. This has been my favorite pizza place since I was about nineteen. And just how long has that been? Um, anyway, deep dish pizza is decadently delicious!

And here's a little sunrise shot. The sky is the only good thing happening at that time of day, if you ask me. I was not happy to be awake then. The sky made it much better.

New Skillz

I've added another skill to the rapidly growing list of recent things I've learned how to do but didn't want to. See that floor down there? I installed that today. By myself. I read the instructions. I did the measurements. I learned how to use a miter saw. It requires about the same level of intellect as putting up siding. Maybe less. It is also much easier and less interesting than sewing. But it takes a long time. I'm totally exhausted. I hope that purple doesn't keep me awake at night after we move back in.


There is a peace sign in my floor, just growing there in the wood. Can you see it? It's just to the right of the rabbit.

The FISH PEDICURE comes to Aspen Hill

Would you pay money to have a bunch of fish gnaw away at the dead skin on your feet? I heard there was a place in Alexandria that you could go to for this exciting beauty treatment. And now it's available in northwest Silver Spring, in the Aspen Hill shopping center right next to Panera.

click on the picture to see the fishies nibbling on the footsies

I have to admit I am somewhat intrigued by this method of exfoliation. I've imagined my feet in the water with all the little fish in there nibbling away. I like being nibbled upon and always have. When I was in second grade my class had a pet mouse or hamster, or maybe it was a guinea pig, in a cage. One day I stuck my finger in there and he came over and started ever so gently chewing on my finger. "Oooh, he must really like me!" I thought. It didn't hurt at all - I kind of enjoyed how it felt. I was really feeling the love. This went on for about five minutes when all of a sudden my finger started bleeding a little bit.

I got yelled at by my teacher and by my parents and I had to get a tetanus shot - they decided to take their chances with the rabies apparently, because they told me "If he has rabies you are going to die." And I had this vision of myself loping down the street foaming at the mouth like that dog in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and falling down dead next to the curb. Fortunately the cute little whatever-it-was rodent did not have rabies.

So I'm imagining this fish treatment, which I first heard about from a friend who really wanted to do it, and I was thinking that it might feel kind of good to be chewed on by a whole bunch of little critters instead of just one. I was kind of getting off on the idea. Do I have a "getting nibbled" fetish maybe? I've definitely had some good nibbling experiences. The whole mouse thing was absolutely worth it, in spite of everything.

All of a sudden, just as I was taking this picture, an old hippie-looking dude with long gray hair and an army jacket walked by and "the fish are great but the fumes are unbearable - it smells like a glue factory in there." Was he speaking from experience? Hmmm.....

Okay I definitely do not want to be chewed on by a bunch of fish who may have been chewing on that guy's toes earlier in the day. That's disgusting. That's how diseases are spread. Who would voluntarily engage in such an unsanitary activity - even if they changed the water, it's still gross. Do they rinse off the fish in between treatments? I only want super clean fish chewing on me.

How did they come up with this anyway? Why would the fish want to eat dead skin off of my feet? How do they know which skin is dead? If you keep your feet in there long enough will they chew all the way through to the live skin? Will they keep chewing after you start bleeding? Maybe that's their goal. Why are these fish so desparately hungry that they'll eat dead skin from feet? Do they starve them poor fishes? If they're not hungry do you still have to pay? I don't like the idea that they'd try to get the fishes hungry enough to eat dead human feet skin. That's not very nice at all.

Do you know anyone who has had this foot treatment? I think I've talked myself out of it, mostly because of the germ factor. To me this is one potentially delightful sensation that is definitely not worth experiencing.

On a less disgusting note, tonight's sunset was rather pleasant!

UPDATE: Commenter #13 wrote an absolutely fabulous post last fall about his fish pedicure. Follow this link - it is both insightful and entertaining. Also, it seems that some states are now beginning to ban the fish pedicure, including Texas, Washington state, and New Hampshire.

Color Therapy

Apparently neutral and "safe" colors depress me. My house is turning into a color riot. Considering the grueling ordeal that my life has been for the past few years, I need some cheering up and this color may very well do the trick. And when I grow up a few years from now I can always change it to something more mature, and elegant, as my mother would say.

How do you like my new couch? It's the most comfy piece of furniture we have over there at the moment. Yep, I'm losing it.....

Water Tower, Part Two

Since I have nothing interesting to blog about except for this, I guess I'll just post another water tower picture. Do two entries make a series?

This trio of towers can be found near the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and Route 28/198.

Water Tower

I took this photo a few days ago because this ugly old water tower was suddenly looking prettier than I've ever seen it. I guess the sunset helped quite a bit.

MEMEMEMEME

Kate over at The Big Piece of Cake tagged me a few weeks ago for the WORLD'S LONGEST MEME!!! I've never seen such a long one before. It's been like a final project or something, and I started it last year so the dates are all off now. I'm not doing it over, so here's what I've got:


ALL ABOUT ME
10 years ago: This is hard - so much has happened since then! In 1998 I was in my second year of officially being just a bass player and not a piano teacher. I played in a bunch of local big bands and orchestras and with a jazz septet up in Baltimore. I played a bunch of shows and other miscellaneous gigs. I did a show called "Swingtime Canteen" for six weeks in North Carolina, and forced my husband to become more organized in the way he ran his business. What did I do for fun? Most of my fun involved playing the bass!

8 years ago: In 2000, I was playing in a popular local swing quintet, I had my first steady restaurant gig with a jazz trio - 2 nights a week for four years, I played for a big band theme cruise on the QE2, followed by a fabulous vacation in France and the Netherlands, and I ended the year at Bluesville in Tunica MS playing with the Artie Shaw band for New Year's Eve. I continued to work on the side as Doug's "office manager."

6 years ago: In 2002 I got my thyroid taken out and, like magic, I was no longer depressed for no apparent reason. I had started working on my M.M. in jazz studies but that was interrupted by a touring opportunity in the fall which lasted for four years. At the end of the year I ended up being car number 3 in a four car pileup and my bass was completely demolished. The repairs took 8 months but when I got my bass back it was better than ever.


2 years ago: 2006 was easily the crappiest year of my life. Although the fire happened in 2005, it wasn't until 2006 that I finally began to realize what we were in for. We were still dealing with all kinds of fire-related issues, both emotional and financial in nature, and I was not at all happy that I would have to stop touring and doing cruise gigs in order to deal with everything. We tried to plan our house while we were on the road but it was impossible. We were on tour for the first half of the year and had loads of fun in Albuquerque and Hawaii and other places too, but there was also a huge shadow hanging over us. When we got back home we emptied out the charred remains of our house into four huge dumpsters, sawed through the connection between our old house and the addition and watched the 1870s part, which we had lived in for our entire married life, get torn down and carried away. And then basically nothing else happened for the rest of the year. Except I took jazz theory at UMD to keep my mind off of all of the things that weren't happening. I told you it was a crappy year!

Five yummy things:
1. Peppermint ice cream from Gifford's.
2. Mexican chocolate - the kind that has cinnamon in it.
3. Smoked trout - I've only ever had it on cruise ships but it is definitely very very yummy.
4. Sauted spinach - see, I like nutritious food too.
5. Grilled cheese sandwiches made by Doug

That's not all, of course! And since it didn't say favorite yummy things, I just listed the first five things that popped into my head.

Five songs I know by heart:
I know a lot of different kinds of songs, and it's harder to think of the songs than it is to remember the words. This is a completely random list.

1. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
2. Deep Purple (When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, etc...)
3. My Girl
4. Natural Woman
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)

Five places I would like to escape to:
1. Italy
2. Spain
3. Greece
4. New Zealand
5. Hawaii


Five things I would never wear:
1. Hats - I hate wearing hats!
2. Shoes that are too tight
3. Christmas sweaters
4. Orange
5. Chunky jewelry


Five favorite TV shows:
I haven't had a TV since 2005 and I've only watched TV in hotels since then so this list is kind of random and old.

1. Law and Order - all versions of it.
2. ER - is it still on?
3. Weeds - I rented it and watched it on my computer. I thought Season One was better than Season Two.
4. Friends - I only ever saw reruns. It reconfirmed my secret desire to live in NYC.
5. Days of Our Lives - but I haven't seen it in years.

Five things I enjoy doing:
1. Playing music
2. Traveling
3. Going to movies
4. Going to jazz clubs
5. Imagining my house being finished so I can get on with my life

Five Favorite toys: (in no particular order)
1. My Laptop, although I liked my last one better
2. My "Thumper"
3. Blanche (my CRV)
4. My instruments - although I don't really regard them as toys
5. My new sewing machine, although I haven't had much time to use it yet.

I'm sure this list will be completely different in another few months. It will hopefully contain exciting things like dishwasher, garbage disposal, TV, etc.
Five people who I am tagging to fill this out:
I don't like to bug people, but I guess tagging is part of the whole meme process, so here are the lucky recipients:

1. Sing Like Sassy - to get back at her for tagging me for my first and hopefully next to last meme.
2. Bozoette - because the last time I tagged her she said she actually enjoyed doing memes.
3. Livit, Luvit - because she might enjoy doing this and I think people would enjoy reading it.
4. Looking2Live - because it's her fault I even got into blogging!
5. The Gilahi Blog - this is kind of a random choice because I mostly just lurk around his blog - he's probably going to wonder "what the hell?" if he ever even happens to stumble upon this.

Whew, done!!! Enough about me already!

Resolutions

Since 2009 is probably going to be the best year I've had in a long time, I thought it might be appropriate to make a couple of resolutions that will make the year be even better. I don't usually bother making resolutions but this year seems different somehow.

From now on, for as long as it lasts, I'm not going to turn on my computer each day until I've put in 45 minutes on the Lifecycle. So I'm replacing 45 minutes of sitting around wasting time with 45 minutes of exercise. Going online will be my reward for having exercised. It's a win-win situation.

I'm going to go back to the tall skim latte as my drink of choice. It's time for the peppermint mocha phase to end. So I'll be saving money and calories - another win-win situation.

The good things in store for me this year are moving back into my house, getting my master's, taking a trip to Norway and Denmark, getting back into exercising, and who knows what else.

Happy New Year!!!!!

We are home from our New Years Eve gig already. I think this might be the best one ever. It was a short concert with a good friend of ours so it was fun and we got home at 10:00. Amazing! We get to celebrate together at home for a change.

This got me thinking about past New Years Eve gigs. Doug has always worked on New Years Eve so I'm pretty used to not ringing in the new year with him. We always see each other later. There were two particularly lonely years when one or the other of us was working on a cruise ship over the holidays. For me it was harder when I was on the ship and he was home than the other way around.

In recent years we've actually played some gigs together. The first time we were playing in two different groups, but in the same hotel so we carpooled down to DC. We worked up in Baltimore with our friend Bob Fields a couple of times. In 2000 we played with the Artie Shaw band in a casino in Tunica, MS at a place called Bluesville. The next year we played at the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels.

During the time we were on the road, the NYE gigs became more sporadic. Sometimes Doug would have one and sometimes I would. But we've never both been off at the same time, until this year. So it's time to crack open the champagne now. Happy New Year!!!

distracted by nature

We finally figured out a way to get all of the excess 12x4 sheets of drywall down two flights of stairs without killing ourselves.
Step One was to cut half of them down to 10 feet and the rest to 8 feet lengths. It is amazing what a difference that makes. They are about 17 percent less heavy, and with the shorter and more manueverable length they are completely manageable.
Step Two was to pace ourselves, so there was a little free time between each panel to check out the rather dramatic and rapidly changing weather. I took these out of the window of my house.

So windy!

And snowy!

And even snowier!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

dirty and tired...and tired of being dirty

I have no life. I've spent the past week covered in fiberglass and drywall dust. It's gross. I hate getting all dirty. I can't stand it. People look at me funny when I go up to MacDonalds to use the restroom. The only place where I feel that I look acceptable is at the dump. I love the dump. I can get rid of nasty dirty pieces of junk. People don't look at me funny there. I have to wear a dust mask all day long. That is uncomfortable. It's too humid around my mouth when I wear a dust mask. When the dust clogs the outside of the mask it feels like I'm being smothered and I start to gag. Yuck. Clearly I wasn't cut out for this lifestyle, that's all there is to it.

Today started out nicely enough though. I got up and washed my hair and it stayed clean for five whole hours while I played my brunch gig. I love my brunch gig so much more than I love working on my house. It's such a wonderful escape from life's daily trials. I escape easily, or perhaps I should say I amuse myself easily. Today while playing I began to notice some rather interesting things in the floor tile at my brunch gig. Am I hallucinating again?

This little dude's hairdo reminds me of Kid'n'Play from the early '90s.


A couple of ladies - can you see them?


Kermit, is that you?

Look, a little fishy!



and Mr. Hippopotamus







SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

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so busy....

My blogs have kind of fallen by the wayside recently, and now that I finally have a free minute, I guess I might as well throw up some pictures (since I seem to also have diarrhea of the camera) and try to remember what I've been doing for the last week.

The trip to Atlantic City last Friday was quick but fun. My friend MyCatTom and I yakked away for the entire trip up and the entire trip back which made the drive seem really short. We rehearsed in the afternoon and did the concert that night. The various "Swingettes" came from DC, NY, Philadelphia, North Carolina, and Atlantic City. I enjoyed playing with all of them. There wasn't much free time, but I was able to hobble on down to the beach. It was unbelievably cold and windy there. On the way home the road was extremely well-lit by an enormous full moon.

The things you can buy in New Jersey!

Why is the beach so pink?

I guess I was walking around in the Red Light District

We saw this on the way home. Too bad they were closed!

The Messiah rehearsal and concert over on Kent Island last weekend went well. But I had to get up at the crack of dawn, which not exactly my favorite time of day.

Sunrise on the Severn

This must be the Great Wye Oak's great grandson.

I'm totally finished with school for the semester. I really enjoyed teaching my class, but I'm glad I don't have to do it next semester because my own course load is going to be much larger than it was this fall.

I'm playing a musical adaptation of Theodore Roethke's poem "The Waking" for December graduation at UMD tomorrow. Just me and a singer. She has a beautiful voice and it's a pretty cool piece. The bass part works great in the original "guy" key but the transposed bass part lies in a kind of awkward and less resonant area of the bass, so there's no way to make it sound as good as the recording. Even the bass player on the recording would not be able to sound as good in the key I'm doing it in. So that's a little frustrating, but I think the over all effect will still be nice. I haven't played in a hall as big as the Comcast Center for a few years so I'm looking forward to that as well. We had the soundcheck this morning and the sound guy is great. I'm digging the reverb - a lot! Anyway, here's the original version of the piece, in the original, more resonant key.