Ok, this is weird...

Last Friday, I was working on the front walkway. Chipping out some broke pieces of slate and putting new ones in. Easy-peasy. I had the right tools, knee pads and oodles of experience.
After quitting time I noticed my knee was a little tender. No wonder, I'd just spent 4 hours on it. A few advil and shower will fix that.
By dinner time it had puffed up to the size of a softball and gotten all pink and stiff.
The next morning I couldn't stand on it or bend it. Very strange.
Go to health barn and get some Anti-inflammatory stuff and go home.
Can't sleep because of the throbbing; that and every-time Marilyn rolls over or the cats jump on the bed they whack my knee.
oh-well.
The upside is, the walkway looks bitchen and I have only a few more tiles to set (the fiddly-cut ones) and the in-floor lights to plug in and I'm done. Maybe next week.....

It's out! Buy some!

Marilyn's newest book is finally out! Marilyn did the artwork for Vile Things. It's cool as all the flora and fauna in the book are real. Very gross, Very cool.
We're hoping it'll go to a third book (book 2 comes out next year) because that's when the big bucks start.
Here's the link.
http://www.amazon.com/Search-Vile-Things-One/dp/0439908884/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225556354&sr=8-1

Practicing....

I'm taking a break from Romanza, mainly because I'm having trouble with the #@%&* B7 chord and some pinky stretches I can't quite do. I've tried other positions and other voicings but I get muted strings (they go thud) and it bugs me. So I'm taking a break.
This week we're working on polishing Penetration and working on the solo to Pipeline for my surf pieces. I am coming back to Bouree after several weeks off. I was able to sight read through with only minor mistakes. I am also working on Tush and La Grange, both by ZZ Top.
It's funny how a phrase in one piece will trigger a lesson in another song. In Bach's Bouree there are a couple chromatic runs, that lead to a discussion on types of scales, which lead to Pentatonic (5-note or blues) scales. So we had to work on La Grange/Tush.
It was fun jamming on these songs. It's different when you have the chance to switch back and forth from lead to rhythm parts. The only rule was that I had to use Pentatonic scales or chromatic runs. It's cool when you start to hear the out of key notes. I mean, be aware of them. They were there before in my playing but I didn't notice I guess.
Also with the ZZ Top pieces I get to practice with my distortion and compressor pedals.
I am also digging my new ISP Decimator. It's a noise reduction pedal that sucks out the amp-buzz that comes from having non-grounded outlets.

It's Finally Here!

Marilyn received an advance copy of her book Vile Things today!
You can pre-order it thru Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Search-Vile-Things-One/dp/0439908884
It'll probably be in the Scholastic Book Fair after November.
The Second book is done and will be on shelves sometime next year. We're hoping it goes to a third or more in the series. $$!!
We will need to travel to exotic lands so she can observe animals up close.
Meanwhile, she is hard at work on her next series: Haunted Histories. Hopefully it'll be out 2010. It takes about 18 months for a book go through "the machine". The writing and artwork are actually faster than what happens after the publisher gets it. It'll be very fun.

I am very proud of her.

My son the dancer!

Photo courtesy of lawrence Kims' blog: http://www.laurencekimblog.com/

Two weeks ago my sister Wendy got married on San Juan Island. The wedding photographer posted some of the photos on his blog. Check them out. Wendy and Brett are the second group down. Joel was the king of the dance floor that night.

Neemo update

After spending 2 nights at the vet's Neemo came home. We have to give him antibiotics for a few more days but he is back to his old self.
The vet wasn't sure why he was sick. The IV and the antibiotics helped.
Today, he woke me up 3 times while I was trying to take a nap because he needed attention or because I wasn't supposed to be napping. So, things are back to normal.
We had to go out of town the day after he came home so he was probably a little disoriented for a day or so. He was very POed with me last night. He sat on my night stand facing away from me while I read. Then slept on my shoulder after I went to sleep, facing away from me. So I guess I have been shunned. I hope I learned my lesson.
I'm glad he's ok. I really am a creature of habit and cats seem to reinforce that. After being on the road for a few days, it's good to be able to fall back into those familiar routines (ruts?).

Neemo

My best buddy, Neemo is in the hospital tonight. He's our cat of 15 years. He has been feeling poorly the last week or so. We thought is was just the heat or fleas, I took him to the vet and they wanted to keep him overnight because he was dehydrated and needed an IV drip and antibiotics.
We knew that something was not right because usually when anyone comes into the house Neemo would run in terror to hide under the bed. But lately, he would just look up from the file cabinet next to my desk where he naps and then just go back to sleeping.
It's hard for me to get to sleep since for the past decade or so, Neemo has at 9pm every night come and meowed in a voice belonging to a much larger cat, at me, telling me it's time for bed. I then spend the next hour or so reading while Neemo makes biscuits on my shoulder. After I go to sleep, Neemo sleeps on top of me. Five minutes before the alarm goes off, he is meowing and pushing on my face to wake up. We're still working on the idea of weekends, but he means well...
We couldn't bring him home tonight because he's not eating. He has always been a fussy eater, but the vet wanted to make sure he was ok. Hopefully, he'll be well enough to come home tomorrow.
We really are cat people. The rhythm of our house revolve around their whims. I feel a little lost.

Here's a picture Marilyn drew of Neemo and a photo of him when he brought me a mouse at 3 am(I was so proud)!

Marilyn's book got reviewed

This is Marilyn's toy book. You can check it out at http://thetoymaker.com/
She's had millions of her toys downloaded by people all over the world. It's pretty cool to see her be able to touch that many people's lives in a positive way.

George Carlin 1937-2008

I grew up listening to George Carlin records. I was introduced to them by a friend who had an older brother and he would let us listen to his records--they were much cooler than ours. My sister Val and I would memorize some of the cleaner routines and repeat them at the dinner table. Everyone one would laugh till it hurt. We thought his drug humor was funny even though we did "get" all of the joke.

Through George Carlin I got interested in all sorts of other comedians and writers. Every time I use the word "stuff" I think about his riff on "stuff".

Earlier this year, we rented his last HBO special from net flicks and thought we'd watch it as a family. We talked to our son before and prepped him for the language part; none of this is repeatable at school. That many swear words just got boring.
I enjoyed his observations and his message that we need to not take things for granted, but the swearing got old fast. Maybe I'm getting old?

Here's the wikipedia link for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_carlin

Grooming gone bad

Most days I am so proud of my child.  

Then this evening he was combing his hair and somehow GOT HIS COMB STUCK IN HIS HAIR!  How does this happen?

Maybe we're just crappy parents for letting him use something so obviously dangerous without appropriate supervision.  

Oh well, here's one more thing for those future therapy sessions....

That's my boy!

Bathroom Hell update

I insulated the walls, put up the wonderboard, got the tile on the floor (except for the hole, which is waiting for the plumber) and the tile on the walls, painted the walls and and put the light fixture up.  Yesterday, we put the new clawfoot tub in.  

All that's left is having the plumber connect the drain and put the valves on and patch the hole.  Then I can grout the tile, and hook up the sink, tub and toilet.  Then again, the fixtures for the tub, and the whole sink have yet to arrive.... 

I have some trim tiles too but I'm hoping i can finish that this week.

Maybe by this weekend?

Bathroom Hell!

What's better than having a water leak in one bathroom?  Having a water leak in both bathrooms!

We noticed some water staining along the base boards and near the tub drain in our big (?) bathroom at the end of the hall.  We had been planning to do a remodel for some time but want to wait till we could afford it etc...  Oh, well.

I pulled up one of the base boards and found mold of various colors.  So, that lead to cutting out some of the wainscoting, which lead to a total bathroom re-do.  After I got the wall boards off we found that the shower pan in the other bathroom is leaking as well!  Wonderful.

We also found that our tub drain was cracked below the slab and needed to be replaced!

This calls for a real plumber, so we call a friend of a friend who is real good/cheap and he makes a big hole in the floor, cuts out the old drain then tells us he has to go out of town for a week or two!

This projects is approaching the point where it is cheaper and easier to just burn the house down and start over.

The good news is I am off-track (since I work through the summer I get to take time off thru the year) all next week so I am going to be able to work on the bathroom.  

My district has "spring break" in April so I can work on the other bathroom then.  Oh-boy!

Then again is is very therapeutic for me.