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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?

Ugh, remind me never to drink an iced cappuccino at 6:30 p.m. again.  I can’t remember when I’ve had a worse sleep.

The good news is that I drank it while meeting with a guitarist who is interested in starting an original hard rock band.  We chatted about band goals, music and uncommitted band members.  His last band had the opportunity to play at a big festival but had to turn it down because one of the players decided at the last minute that he couldn’t take a day off work.

I listened to eight songs he’d brought and liked them a lot.  He liked my vocals from the two songs on my old band’s website, which he listened to later that evening after we parted ways because I forgot to bring a CD – oops.

Before the weekend is out, my plan is to write lyrics for at least one of his songs and record vocals over it in our home studio.  After that, assuming all goes well, we’ll find a bass player, probably start recording and practicing at my house, and have my husband as our drummer until we find someone permanent.

That means it’s time for me to get my equipment back from the old drummer’s house – the sooner the better.  I’m going to shoot for this Saturday afternoon.  I have no idea where I’m going to put a huge PA at our house right now.  I suppose it’s time to go forward with our plan to convert the guest room into a band practice room.

After almost a year of apathetic band members, it’ll be a real treat to work with someone who’s enthusiastic about writing songs and recording.  All my weekly vocal lessons will actually pay off now!

Well, off to listen to the songs over and over until one of them starts to suggest lyrics to me.  Wish me luck!

Once again, I find myself in mid-May with nothing pretty planted in front of my house.  Well, except for the peony bush that comes up no matter what I do.  Right now, there are so many gigantic weeds surrounding the peonies that it’s a little tough to see them.

I find that I move through several mindsets to get to this point:

1. The Seed Stage – This happens in the early spring when it’s just started getting warm.  I look at the bare, empty flower beds and think, "If I tilled the soil now, I could plant $5.00 worth of seeds and have the best flower garden ever!"
2. Potted Plant Stage I – When it’s clearly too late to plant seeds in time to get any kind of flower bed going, I come to the realization that I’m going to need to buy flowering plants.  This usually happens when I don’t have any money, so it gives me lots of time to think about what I might want.  Marigolds?  Pansies?  Impatiens?  Some kind of perennial so I don’t have keep going through this every single year?
3. Potted Plant Stage II – Eventually, I’ll go to the nursery and buy many flats of plants (never enough, though).  I always time it so that I can’t plant them right then, but I make plans to plant them the next day…or week…or fortnight.  I’m usually pretty good about keeping them watered until they’re planted, but sometimes a few of the plants die before I can get them in the ground.
4. The Planting Stage – Finally, I’ll have a weekend day free, nothing much recorded on the TiVo from the previous week and a wild hare to get the flowers into the ground.  I’ll pull up the weeds, run the rototiller, haul filthy bags of soil supplements and mulch home from the garden store in my car, and finally get some nice flower beds planted.

Right now I’m in Potted Plant Stage I, but I’ve decided on marigolds.  That’s progress, isn’t it?

On Saturday morning, I participated in a 5k run/walk (mostly walking).  I was a last-minute substitution for another co-worker, and I’d warmed up somewhat with a 1-mile walk the previous evening.  I’m not sure what made me agree to do it, but I figured it wouldn’t kill me.

Mostly I just walked fast with little bursts of jogging now and then.  When I was getting close to the end, I started to break into one last jog and my right calf muscle said, "Whoa there!  That’s enough of that!"

I felt a little sproing that was enough to remind me that one trip to the gym every month does not constitute training.  I walked the rest of the way.  The good news is that I still managed to make the 3.1 miles in 46 minutes.  They’d allotted a whole hour!

The next morning, I woke up stiff from my ribcage to my calves.  I immediately unrolled my yoga mat in the living room and did sun salutations until my Tin Woodman-like gait subsided.  I’ll be doing another round today before I leave for work.

I hope this experience will spur me to establish a more consistent exercise routine.  It would certainly be nice if I could slim down a bit before summer kicks in.  I’ve already permanently banished shorts from my wardrobe, but I’d hate to have to let the skirts and capris go, too.  It gets hot here!