Category: Daily Life

I finally bought the marigolds I’d decided on back in May and spent Sunday afternoon digging up my front flower beds and planting them.  I got a large marigold variety – they almost look like zinnias – in orange, yellow and a buttercream yellow.  In the two containers I keep in the front of the house I planted red gerbera daisies.

I also restocked my herb garden as only the lime thyme from last year survived the winter.  I planted rosemary, a different thyme variety, a beautiful purple-leaved basil, oregano, parsley, garlic chives and cilantro.

It’s all part of my plan to get the yard tidied up for our annual backyard party, which will be held the weekend after next.  I still have quite a bit of yard work to do before I’m really ready, but at least I’m finished with the front yard now.

As for the herb garden, I’m hoping it helps me further my goal of cooking at home more often.  I’ve had about all the restaurant food a person can stand lately.  Tonight:  something on the grill.

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Speaking of growing things, here’s a group of guys who all grew moustaches for a Moustache May competition.  There are some pretty good ones.  Voting is open until Friday, June 9th, so choose your favorite.

I’ve been sleeping rather poorly this week, which is unusual for me.  Thanks to my spotty morning sleep I’ve been remembering a lot of dreams, including one of a type I haven’t had in a while.

When I used to let my tabby cat go outside, I had a lot of dreams that featured her – probably because I worried about her when she was out.  In most of the dreams, we were traveling together.  I’d be walking down the road or through an airport and she’d be trotting along beside me.  I remember one particular dream where I went into a cafe and she jumped up onto the counter and climbed into the pie safe.  Very odd.

My dream about her this week involved some kind of fair or festival.  I was walking through the crowd when I noticed my cat nearby.  I picked her up, tucked her into my shirt and carried her quite a distance to the house where we were staying (as if she’d really stand for something like that!).

When I woke up, I had the same impulse to seek her out and make sure she was okay as I had back when she was a semi-outdoor cat.

Let’s hope I manage to sleep in on Saturday morning.

So tired…oh, so tired.  I stayed up past midnight to watch the VH1 Rock Honors show (which was AWESOME!), but I’m a little dragged out this morning. 

Still, it was a great show.  It started off with an impressive Queen tribute by the Foo Fighters, followed by a superb performance by Queen with Paul Rogers as frontman and both Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters joining in on drums.  Man, that must have been loud!

Godsmack played a Judas Priest medley way too fast and their singer was flat on every line of "Victim of Changes" but otherwise okay.  Judas Priest sounded great – better than in their most recent concert DVD.  They always make me want to go out and purchase copious quantities of studded leather apparel.

The All-American Rejects, of whom I must admit I’d never heard until now, did a nice job with their Def Leppard tribute.  Def Leppard was okay musicially but Joe Elliot’s voice sounded fried. (His hair, on the other hand, wasn’t fried at all, unlike every time I’ve seen him over the past several years.  They must have put him in the path of a good stylist before the show.)

The apparently last-minute-replacement "Supergroup" of Rob Zombie, Scott Ian, Slash, Gilbey Clark and Tommy Lee (joined by Ace Frehley) actually sounded better playing Kiss than Kiss themselves did. 

Jillian Barberie, the host of the pre-show, is my new hero for unhesitatingly mentioning her age (39) during her interview with the All-American Rejects, who are probably young enough to be her kids. 

Anyway, I need to get cleaned up and off to work.  I had weird dreams all morning long and some of them included work I need to do today, which is a hint that I can use all the head start I can get.

Four-day weekend or not, it’s still a typical, rushed Wednesday for me.  In lieu of a narrative today, here are some links to other cool stuff:

• Here’s a fascinating story about a blogger who tracked down the identity thieves who’d charged thousands of dollars to his credit cards.
• I must have this flooring installed in our guest room when we finally get around to remodeling it.
• I’ve always thought it would be fascinating to make a living trying to anticipate cultural and consumer trends.  This company does just that – and blogs about it, too.
• Have a baby?  Enjoy cryptozoology?  Hipster Baby T’s has the perfect onesies for you!

Random enough for you?  I thought so!  Have a great day.

I almost forgot to relate the air conditioner repair saga.  It turns out, our a/c wasn’t producing cool air because my husband and I are stupid.

The repair guy went down to the basement and within five seconds said, "Here’s your problem." 

He came out from behind the furnace brandishing the system’s air filter, which was so clogged with dust and probably cat hair that it was completely opaque.

As I paid him a ridiculous amount of money for the service call, he said, "Yeah, you really need to change those filters every one to two months."

I couldn’t stop myself from a further demonstration of how ignorant I am about proper home maintenance.  I said, "Really?!?" 

Seriously, I’d have thought that once or twice a year would be plenty often enough.  Then again, it’s probably been at least a year since the filter was last changed – maybe longer.

Don’t even ask me how we’ve managed to live here for almost eleven years without either of us coming to understand what it takes to properly maintain our heating and cooling systems.  Next, I’ll be wedging myself into the upstairs closet to find out what size filter that system needs.  Heaven knows when someone last did that.

Can I just say how wonderful it is to have so many days off from work?  Ahhhh.  I slept until 9:30 this morning and it was fabulous, even if we did forget to shut the cats out of the bedroom.  Once our male cat stopped stepping on my throat and brushing my lips with his whiskers, everything was fine.

So far, I’ve spent most the weekend just hanging out at home with my husband.  We’ve gotten completely hooked on the new VH1 show "Supergroup," cleaned up the studio (as much as possible), and tidied up the rest of the house as well.  I even have the trash bagged up and ready to go out tomorrow, along with a TON of recycling (mainly drumhead boxes).

Yesterday, we got together with the guitarist I met a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted him to meet my husband as a potential drummer for the project, and let them talk about studio stuff. 

The guitarist has long, curly hair – the longest hair I’ve seen on a musician since the early ’90s.  When we went out to dinner after we finished up in the studio, I could see that his look attracted a lot of attention.  In L.A. nobody would bat an eye, but in the Midwest he definitely stands out. 

It reminded me of all the years I used to date long-haired musicians (including my husband, who is growing his hair long again now).  People would call them "ma’am" and we’d hear a lot of barely audible comments as we passed.  I don’t remember if any of the comments were directed at me – I think women get a pass on a lot of fashion issues.  I’ve always been somewhat of a chameleon anyway, changing my makeup, hairstyle and clothing depending on whether I’m at work, in a band setting or elsewhere.

I think it’s going to be fun to sing heavy metal with all the trappings again.  I’ll need to stock up on liquid eyeliner, AquaNet hairspray and new stage clothes.  (Okay, maybe not AquaNet – I think I’ve learned my lesson there.) 

First, though, I need to devote a serious amount of time to writing.  I have more than a dozen songs to complete, and the "waiting for inspiration to strike" method of lyric writing just doesn’t work for me, unfortunately.  Watching "Supergroup," I was impressed by Sebastian Bach’s database of song title and lyric ideas.  I need to be more disciplined about keeping track of the ideas that float into my brain, only to be forgotten because I don’t write them down right away.

Enough blathering from me.  Frankly, I hope you’re all out enjoying the day instead of sitting in front of a computer screen surfing.  More tomorrow…

I’ve just awakened, filled with a sense of the unlimited promise of my four-day weekend.  Okay, the promise is somewhat limited because it turns out that I’m out of money and I don’t get paid until next Wednesday.

I found that out the hard way last night when I tried to pay for dinner with my debit card and got declined.  (That’s always awkward, but as I told my husband, it’s lost its sting because it happens so frequently.)  I’d had money in the bank earlier in the day, but our house payment came out ahead of payday – again – and ate up the balance.  Sigh.

But wouldn’t I know when to expect the payments to come out?  You’d think so, but you’re talking about someone who hasn’t balanced her checkbook in more than a decade and who is certainly not organized enough to keep track of the chart that explains the random, bi-weekly dates of the house payment debits. 

The whole thing’s going to leave me charging my way through the long weekend.  I’m not that concerned with my credit card balance because I just found out earlier in the week that I’ll be receiving money from my grandmother’s estate within the next month or so.  I’ll be paying off (and cutting up) my credit card then anyway.

Still, it’s a pain to be out of ready cash over the holiday weekend.  On the bright side, it gives us more incentive to stay home and clean out our overstuffed studio closet and carry out our plan to turn our guest room into a band practice room.  I guess these things always work out in the end…

Sadly, it’s not in a Zoolander "she’s so hot right now" kind of way, but literally.  On Tuesday night, I was awakened in the middle of the night by a severe thunderstorm that drove rain in through the windows on opposite sides of the house.  I ran around and shut the windows, turned off the attic fan and turned the air conditioning on.

It didn’t take long before we suspected that the central air wasn’t actually working downstairs.  I’d noticed that there’s quite a lot of water around the bottom of the a/c unit in the basement, but I figured that it was just condensation runoff.  I even called a service company to come out for our spring clean-and-check, but I couldn’t get it scheduled until June 16th – unless I thought there was something wrong with the a/c.

I didn’t think so at the time, but now it’s clear that the unit isn’t producing any cold air at all.  In fact, I had the thermostat set at 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the thermometer read 80.  Sigh.  My husband even took the betta tank upstairs to the studio to keep the poor little fishy from cooking.  Fortunately, there’s a separate central air unit up there.

For now, it’s cool enough in the evenings to get by with the attic fan (when it’s not storming anyway).  However, it’s way too hot during the day to make do with just circulating outdoor air.  The cats are probably wishing we’d shave them.

I guess I have no choice but to call the service company back and see if the new situation provokes a more timely response.  Otherwise, I think we’re going to be spending an awful lot of time in the studio this weekend.  I guess that’s one way to get a lot of lyrics written…

My workplace has a program that allows half the employees to take off the Friday before Memorial Day and the other half to take the Friday before Labor Day.  I didn’t really care which day I got, but I ended up with this coming Friday.  Four-day weekend – woohoo!

So far my Friday plans include ordering a new pair of glasses for the first time in at least eight or nine years, getting a massage and going to the chiropractor.  I’ll also set aside some time for lyric writing.

But first I have two jam-packed work days ahead of me.  I’m handling so many projects at once that I keep getting confused about which is which.  That’s okay, though, as long as I manage to meet my deadlines.

However, it does mean I’m pressed for time, so I’ll keep this short today.  Here are a few fun links to keep you surfing:

• The Museum of Kitschy Stitches – Hideous crocheted and knitted items, with accompanying snarky commentary.
• Ze Frank – The Show.  It’s my favorite three minutes of every weekday.  I linked to it when he first started videoblogging within his regular blog, but now it has its own page.
• Happy Owl Glassworks – Pretty glass jewelry with animals on it!

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Ahh, for once I had a weekend set aside for rest and relaxation.  My husband and I decided to forego most organized activities and just hang out at home, run some errands and play in the studio.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at about 12:30 p.m., which set the tone for a low-key day.  We ran around to the health food store, the home improvement store, Target and a drum shop.  Somewhere in there we managed to go to my old drummer’s house and pick up my music gear.

As we went back and forth from home, we kept encountering two sets of gung-ho neighbors who seem to spend every waking moment working on their houses and grounds.  It makes us feel a little embarrassed to see them working and working and working when we haven’t even bothered to plant flowers this year yet.  At least our lawn guy keeps our yard looking good otherwise.

As we drove around on Saturday, I kept listening to the two songs for which I planned to write lyrics over the weekend.  On Sunday morning, I woke up early and immediately thought of a good first line for one of the songs.  That told me what the song was about (being haunted, if you’re curious), and I spent the next couple of hours writing the rest of it. 

I was anxious to record the vocals, but we had plans to take my stepmother out to lunch and to see a local history documentary.  After a lovely afternoon, we finally settled into the studio around 5:00 p.m. and I managed a good enough recording to at least show my new collaborator what I’m capable of lyrically and vocally.  My husband layered on some effects, mixed it down, saved it as an MP3 and uploaded it to YouSendIt so I could forward it to the guitarist.

He called within the hour.  As soon as I answered the phone, I started spewing excuses, "It’s a rough recording…I know the verses sound a little Disturbed-y…the vocals are mixed too hot…I meant to get more than one done…"  Gah! What’s wrong with me?  It wasn’t 100% perfect, but I did a good job and I know it.  Why do I let musical stuff suck the confidence right out of me?

Luckily, it was clear that he was impressed, and we made plans to get together next weekend so he can bring me a bunch more songs that are just guitar right now.  My husband is interested in playing on the tracks and recording us, so it looks like I’m in a band again.  Now all we need is a bass player.

All that wrapped up in time for us to watch "Desperate Housewives" and "The Sopranos" before we went to bed.  I’m looking forward to being less of a slave to the TV now that summer is almost upon us.

I can already feel that this is going to be a busy work week.  I have lots of writing to do on a variety of projects.  However, I may take Friday off, so that should balance everything nicely.

How’s the week looking for you?