The Sandwich Life

Random Notes from the Sandwich Life

1.  The other day we were driving and Ernie put on a Zappa tape.  "ugh" I said mentally but Owen said, "Is this the guy who died of prostitute cancer Dad?"  Ernie of course snorted and I said, "well yeah honey, but actually it's called prostate cancer."  Owen insisted, "No, people call it prostitute cancer." I glared at Ernie who was still making noises and said, "uh well, no, actually a prostitute is someone who has sex for money and a prostate is part of a man's body."  Of course then poor Owen was mortified and cranky because I'd mentioned sex....so I tried to be helpful by segueing into the difference between prostate and prostrate because an amazing number of people call it prostrate cancer....  Ernie finally got control of himself and then....well, we were just quiet for the rest of the drive......

2.  The boys had a wonderful time trick or treating and came home with plastic pumpkins FULL of candy.....but without a SINGLE Butterfingers.  The deal is that they ALWAYS give me their Butterfingers....I mean WTF????  Luckily Owen is my sweet pea and when he went to the grocery store today with his father he asked if he could buy a Butterfingers for me.....and as he gleefully said, "IT'S HUGE!"

3.  This nursing home stuff is painful.  I'm too sad to even talk about it and I feel absolutely lost.  It's funny----either Debbie or Judi would be better advocates for my mother than I am.....yet here I am.  I'm trying....I really am but all I can say is that it's breaking my heart.  Just breaking it.  I love her so much and yet I don't know if I'm doing the best I can for her.

4.  We'll see how things go....we may have to bring my Mom's cat Annie back to stay with us for a while.....  Poor Abby, who was named after Abigail Adams, is gone.  I forget who Annie was named after.  My father was a big fan of John and Abigail Adams.  I  miss him.

5.  Remember the two little old white houses that Owen and I photographed because we were worried about them?  We pulled up to the parking lot for the farmers' market on Saturday only to be met by empty lots....they have been torn down.  Owen was sad and frustrated and kept saying, "but all they needed was some paint and someone to take care of them."  I know honey.....I know.

6.  Today Owen was talking about some kids that he sometimes has problems with and he said, very earnestly as he is wont to do, "you know I think the reason they pick on us is because they're jealous of us.  I mean look at this great house we have, and our garden and we have friends, and I mean....I'm even friends with Adam SCHMITT.  I bet they don't know any singers like that" and he nodded seriously.  I assured him he was right because, of course......he is.

7.  Some beautiful heirloom sweet potatoes from the last farmers' market.  Aren't they beautiful?

Glowing Leaves at the Sandwich Life.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random, Random, Random.....and more Round Up.....

1.  Yesterday morning Owen expressed concern that  Monkey (or Mr. Monkey as he is sometimes known) might be lonely while he was at school.  He said that Monkey had been wanting to go to work with me for some time now.  I was flattered so off Monkey and I went.....  A good time was had by all.

 

2.   A picture of Milktoast from Rob Loerzel (thanks Rob).  Any others out there?????  It accompanied some other pictures from the evening as well as a great write up.....

3.  Vron also had a great blog post about the reunion AND some pictures of Bob Draznik as well as the Brats.....so life is good....

4.  The guys (and Ernie and I) had our first geocaching adventure with Vron.....it was great fun.   Thanks Vron!

 

 

Vron even managed to get a shot of Leo's face!!!

5.  Pictures of the Brats on flickr here, here and here.

6.  Leo is still a bit sick but doesn't seem to have a fever today.  I don't like him being sick this long. 

7.  I bought a handle/rail for my mother's bed yesterday.  Hopefully it will help with the falling issue....  The other night she couldn't get into bed but she didn't want to bother us so she called her homecare worker.  She came over and got her settled.  Now WHERE is it Leo got his stubborness?

8.  Lots of Vertebrats clips popping up on youtube.....I like this one because you can hear Kenny say, "We're the Vertebrats from Champaign-Urbana" and you can also tell how much he misses Roy when he talks about him....

9.  O.K.....off to work.....if only I had the life of Bob the cat.....

Random Notes from the Vertebrats Reunion

1.  On Friday night Owen wanted to stand up front to watch Milktoast (this morning on the way to school he reported to Becca, our crossing guard, that Dad was GREAT and then turned to Ernie and said, "and I REALLY mean that when I say you were great Daddy.").  After the first song he put his hands over his ears and told me it was loud (Owen, not Ernie).  Berni started giving me shit about being a bad mother for not giving my child ear plugs and as I laughingly agreed someone came over and very kindly gave me earplugs.  I tried to put them in Owen's ears only to be met with GREAT disdain.  God I love that boy.  So having no pockets on me I stuck them in my bra.  Later I got back to the table to check on Leo and he, being Leo, OF COURSE complained about it being loud so I started digging around in my bra for the earplugs.  Leo's big eyes got even bigger as he stared at me and I think the other people at the table just tried to ignore me.  I finally dug them out and tried to get Leo to wear them.  He tried them but then pulled them out and said, "they DON'T work."  I swear to God I've got the greatest guys.....they just amuse the hell out of me and hopefully I haven't scarred Leo by digging around in my bra for things to put in his ears....

2. Seeing Ileana Gomez for the first time in uh......a HELL of a lot of years.....was amazing.  Ile, you must come down sometimes so we can really talk.  And she had all this HAIR....beautiful waving hair.  When did that happen?  Oh, in the ensuing decades since I last saw her you say?  I guess that makes sense.  Anyway.....what a treat.

3. Whenever I go to Sasha's house I ridicule her for her deep love of her labelmaker.  Honestly deep down I'm really impressed by it but it still really entertains me to see little drawers for instance labeled 'barrettes' and 'hair ties.'  It wouldn't matter if I had twin girls instead of the testosterone ridden creatures I have.....there's no way hair ties and barrettes would ever refuse to co-mingle in my house----labels or no.  So as soon as Vron and I walked into her kitchen, Vron noted the labels.....I SWEAR to God I didn't bring it up Sasha.  I felt the need to point this out to  Sasha and she put up with me until she showed up with a label for me that said 'Cynthia.'  I was quite honored actually as she didn't label any of her OTHER friends and I proudly put it on my shirt.  That would have been fine if I hadn't gotten up late this morning and grabbed the shirt I wore to her house.....  Luckily I happened to catch a glimpse of my labeled self in the reflection of my computer screen and I think I got it off before anyone noticed.  But now my big old work iMac is officially labeled "Cynthia.'

4.  How many people shed tears at some point before, during or after the reunion?  You may comment anonymously.  So far I know Kenny did, I did and Ernie did.  Anybody else?  I'm not articulate enough to explain why....but there it is.....we did.....

5.  I was standing in Sasha's kitchen talking with several people including Matt's wife Virginia (who was delightful I might note) and she was telling an anecdote that included Matt.  Sasha walked up and asked me, "is she talking about a child or an adult" and I replied, "her husband."  Sasha gave me one of those hooded eyed looks and said, "nice dodge."  I must say I was highly amused but I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY MATT!  But I'm still amused.....  Love that Sasha....

6.  Beth---I tried to find you on facebook to no avail.  If  you're on there let me know....

7.  Another person I wish I'd gotten a picture with Steve Scariano.  Next time Steve.....

8. Smile Politely has a nice write up on Friday's show.....as well as a wonderful story about the Brats coming to somebody in a dream.....reminds me of the time I dreamed they were playing on the roof of my grandparents' house in Maine....

9.  Oh, and Melissa Records.....I got to see Melissa Records.....man.....life is good......

10.  No doubt there's more to come.....

Vertebrats Roundup

Thanks everyone for posting these----I'm just putting them all here for my own pleasure!

WBEZ from Chicago----story on the Vertebrats reunion.  Thanks Annette!

Big Yellow Bus complete with the BYB Chorus consisting of Wendy, Jon, Liane, Tina and Cathy (do I have that all right?)

This is from the first night----with Mark Rubel on bass. Even though we missed Roy----Mark sounded fantastic!

And here's Big Yellow Bus from the first night.....

Still looking forward to other songs and, of course, the second night's version of Electric Chair complete with the assistance of not only Kim Butler......but Bob Draznik......come on people----we need to relive this!

Oh, and did anybody see this on youtube from about a month ago?

Gimme a V.....Gimme an E.....Gimme an R.....Gimme a......

1.  Yup.  I'm happy.  My knee hurts like hell and I think I'm going to borrow some of my mother's vicodin today but that's OK because we had a WONDERFUL time last night.

2.  The Vertebrats sounded wonderful....I'm sad that Roy wasn't there....if for no other reason to have that visual image of all of them on that stage together.  However----the bass playing of Mark Rubel is pretty damn wonderful so they did sound great.  Their voices sounded really strong----so it wasn't just their playing---between Jimmy, Matt and Kenny combined with the power of John Richardson's drumming and Mark's bass....they were....well....they were my Vertebrats and more.....

3.  Milktoast was wonderful....ragged but right to quote a George Jones song.....and of course I love hearing Ernie sing.  Owen was in awe of them....he kept turning to me with his mouth open and his hands spread, yelling, "I can't believe they're this good.  I didn't KNOW Dad could sing this great" in great joy.  Of course in the chaos of getting there and getting the guys settled I didn't change the settings of my camera so my pictures of Milktoast look like this:

 

Does anybody out there have a good picture of them?  All photo contributions welcome!

4.  Owen was not just in awe of how many drumsticks Pat broke or how wonderful Milktoast was or how exciting it was to be at Cowboy Monkey (on the way there he confessed that he thought we'd be going someplace out of town.....like.....Urbana).  He was, of course, over the moon....because.....yes....he met ADAM SCHMITT.  And Adam could not have been more charming.  I already thought Adam was a lovely guy but for being so sweet to an adoring young fan I will love him forever.  Owen's mantra on the way home and this morning....."Adam seems like a REALLY nice guy" and then a few moments later, "Adam seems like a REALLY nice guy."  Leo and I were outside waiting (the noise and crowd was a bit much for Leo although he says his father was 'wonderful' when Ernie and Owen burst out with Owen holding two drumsticks of Pat's saying in an awed voice, "Mom.....Adam says he wants to see me AGAIN sometime."

Life is good.

5.  One of my favorite moments of the night was sitting outside with Leo waiting for Ernie and Owen to come out so I could drive the boys back to our neighbor Dave's house.  I introduced Phil Harris (whom I adore and yes you're going to get a lot of comments like that in this post) to him and Phil said, in perfect understanding, "so are you having a shitty time right now?"  Leo blinked up at him and said, "what?"  perhaps amazed that someone other than his father was using this word so Phil repeated his questions and Leo said, "well kinda."  My sweet pea.  It's always so nice when someone understands....

6. So many people that I got to see and not talk enough to....but tonight there will be more chances hopefully....

7.  Look what our beloved Jim Dennison created for the evening.  They were in hot demand.

8.  Personally, I thought Berni and Ernie (WHY do Berni and Wendy have to live so far from us?) were the two best dressed last night.....

9.  More to come of course.....and in the meantime if anyone has any pictures they wouldn't mind me posting of the weekend please send them!

An Afternoon of Champaign.....

 My mother called me late last night unsure what to do about her insulin.....sigh.  I called her this morning and talked to her and then we headed over around noon to bring lunch and do her shopping.  Things have really changed over there and I am beyond concerned.  I hate having that sick feeling in my stomach again....  But she perked up seeing the boys chase each other around her house and we talked while Ernie shopped. 

When we left we were supposed to go run errands but the boys begged and begged to go to Fries and Peanuts as they said they were weak with hunger.  They were so cheerful and getting along so well that we had to acquiesce....  We giggled through lunch with them and they chatted away brainstorming ideas for birthday cakes (ranging from an actual recreation of the Fries and Peanuts building complete with little tables outside to actual fries and peanuts recreated in birthday cake).  Then we discussed the fact that Daddy's old band was going to play and whether they wanted to go (uh YEAH).  When I told them what the name of the band was they were beside themselves giggling.....then they turned to ideas for staging.....they want flashpots of milk and kind of a confetti of toast pouring down behind them....then Ernie began thinking of having a little piece of toast come down a la Stonehenge in Spinal Tap......  A good lunch.....

When we left the plan was to go to Prairie Gardens and buy a couple of evergreen trees we've been pondering.....but I asked them if I could go take some pictures of the old freight station.....so we ended spending half the afternoon wandering around the buildings and the railroad tracks.....one of those days that makes me really appreciate living in Champaign....forgive the plethora of pictures.....

the collapse on the ground was just for dramatic effect......

 

looking at this view down the street with the Metropolitan Building missing is still hard.....

Owen was QUITE pleased that he snuck a picture of Leo....

Showing off just a few of the railroad spikes and other bits of metal they found.....

my beautiful boy:

this isn't a view of downtown that I usually see so I really enjoyed it....

The Great Milktoast Reunion of 2009

....and so it begins.....

Houses and Mothers and Bikes...

Ohhhhhh.....SO many things to worry about in life, huh?  Houses being torn down, mothers not doing well and bikes being stolen are just a few among the many.

Hopefully the boys' new bikes won't be stolen.  We splurged a bit and bought them two good new bikes.  Owen's last bike (the one that was stolen) was a Wal-Mart bike and it was starting to fall apart little over six months after he got it.  We first went to Champaign Cycle and were less then impressed with the customer service so we headed off to Durst Cycle.  They were in the midst of one of their big garage sale things but despite being so busy the people we dealt with were great.  A happy Leo is a wondrous thing and also happens to talk non stop.  On the way home he chattered incessantly, insisting that we would NEVER go ANYwhere other than Durst (mind you they also sell Lionel trains) again and that we HAD to drop him off at Parker and Dema's house....he just didn't have time to go home first.....and on and on.  Truly a wondrous thing.  Owen was also beside himself and got not just a light for his as Leo did but also a water bottle and holder.  I asked Leo if he wanted a water bottle and he calmly said, "no, I have no use for something like that."  God I love him.  The boys are under strict instructions never to leave the bikes in the front yard.....we'll see how that goes.

Mothers?  Well we were planning to head over to my mothers for shopping and lunch.  We had bought good bacon at Triple S Farms at the farmers' market so I figured a classic BLT would make my mother happy.  I called her today before hand to check on her shopping needs and she sounded terrible.  She said, "oh well you don't usually call me early in the morning."  I said, "uh Mom...it's almost 11:00."  She was amazed....she hadn't had her insulin or breakfast.....sigh.  I told her we'd be over soon....and I told the boys they could ride their bikes right into her living room so she could see them.  They were amazed.  When we got there we realized we didn't have her front door key so I went around to the back and went in.  I walked in to the sound of her vomiting.  Hmmmm  I told the boys to stay outside for awhile and helped her get cleaned up.  Of course my wretched gag reflex came into play but we laughed about it.....just as Judi and I did.

After a bit she seemed better, the boys showed off their bikes, I made fabulous BLT's, replanted some things on her deck and kissed her goodbye.  I do worry about her.  Eh, well....I take her to see her gerontologist this Friday.....we'll see.....

When we were at the farmers' market yesterday I noticed that one of my favorite little houses near there looked as though it was probably on its way out of this world.  It's empty and the trees around it have been cut down....it looks as though it and its neighboring old white house are going to be torn down.  I've always had a soft spot for this little house so I asked the guys if we could stop on my way home from Mom's to take a picture. 

Owen asked me why I was taking a picture of it and I explained that I thought it might be torn down and it made me sad so I was taking a picture of it.  Here he is, standing in front of the garage, passionately explaining, complete with waving hands, that all someone had to do was clean everything up and give it some paint and it would be FINE.    I told him that maybe when he was grown up he could save some houses.  He nodded and asked me if I would come see them if I was still around.....even if I was in a wheelchair.  I told him that yes, I would always come, even if I was in a wheelchair.

Best of 82 Redux!

Annette sent me some more nostalgia and this one really cracked me up.  Check out what 1982 Champaign Urbana luminaries picked for their best music of the year.....includes my very own Ernest Blackwelder, and other folks such as Paul Budin, Steve Scariano, Phil Strang, Fred Anderson, Tom Erbe, Van Cagle, Scott Parson, Carla Peyton, Chuck Tripp, Tim Barwell, The Quaker, Andy Burnett, Jon Ginoli, Larry Grossberg, Larry Marx, Adrian Belew, Super Eight, Melba Toast, Jon Crane, Paul Rock,Ronny Reggae, V'RON Veronica Rusnak, Conflict, Sue Van Peursem, Glenn Graham, Tina Woelke and Steve Lindstrom.

Amusing points:

1.  Ernie is so sweet....he's the only one that said, "thanks for asking me."

2.  Steve Scariano didn't rest with merely putting down what he liked he also had a list of Hates.  Very Steve (and I mean that lovingly).

3.  Steve Lindstrom wrote about a Sparks show, "if they hadn't postponed this one until I was 21 I would have killed myself."  Part of me thought, geesh....he was only 21 and then I remembered...oh yeah....we were ALL babies....

Please let me know what amuses you and if any of your picks stand up....

Oh, and Annette sent this as a series of scans.  I patched them together best I could but some stuff is missing.....  it should enlarge enough to be legible if you click on it....

UPDATE  God I love Annette....after I posted this she felt guilty for cutting some stuff out so she sent me some more....as she said, "i just felt bad if ole zack nauth came ambling by, looking for his day in the spotlight, and i just, zip!, cut 'em off..."  So here is a slightly more complete version lol....

 

and some of the next page: