Last night it was late and Owen (and I) were getting ready for bed. Ernie was standing there talking to us and I don't remember why but somehow Ernie and I started getting irritated with each other, saying things like, "I just MEANT....." and the like. Owen trotted off to the bathroom and by the time he got back Ernie and I had somehow dissolved into laughter. Owen looked at us and just shook his head, saying, "look, you were getting all mad at each other and now you're laughing. I just don't understand grown-up love." We just laughed some more and told him we didn't either....
Our next house concert is coming up on Friday, September 16, 2011. You know the drill….potluck at 6:00, music to follow. Tommy will be hysterically funny and heartbreakingly wonderful. I made up a quick flier to have at our David Olney house concert. I just put the bio from his website below a picture. The next day there were still a few left on the coffee table and Owen looked at it for awhile and started giggling…then laughing harder and harder. “What?” I asked defensively. And he bent over, holding his side laughing as he told me it looked like a flier for lost pets. He said it looked like Tommy was lost and I was asking people to find him for us.
I think he’s right. Oh well….. Here’s the lost pet Tommy flier if you’d like:
Life has just been too busy to blog. I gotta say....I don't LIKE that! The weekend flew by but despite the speed has been quite lovely. Friday evening we stopped by our friends' house to say happy birthday to our beloved Bob and toast him with champagne and Ann's wonderful strawberry pie. Good LORD but that woman can bake!
Saturday....I'm not quite sure what happened but somehow late morning I said to Ernie that we should go buy iPhones. Now why I thought we could afford that I do not know but off we went. Of course now we just sit and look at our gorgeous little iPhones (his is black with a black case, mine is white with a turquoise case)....staring at them in awe the way you do with a newborn infant. Then our beloved friend Steve came over and attempted to figure out the mystery of why our electricity goes off and on in our bedroom (again I feel the need to say 'no jokes' although no one has ever made any humph). They went up the stairs and down the stairs and then up the stairs and down the stairs. So on and so forth. No immediate solution although Steve has graciously come up with an idea that he has offered to implement. He is so wonderful. And Heather and Evaline even showed up so I could sit and smile at them just like they were new iPhones....
Then we took the boys to Fries and Peanuts for New School Lunch. I know it wasn't lunch, it was dinner...and we were supposed to have taken them last Monday but stuff happens. It was quite delightful despite the delay.
We came home and all indulged ourselves. The boys played some video game with Parker and Dema until they had to leave, Ernie read the paper and patted his iPhone and I read my kindle and kept complaining about the light. I know it was nice out but somehow it felt comforting to be inside and have it dark outside....the beginning of that fall shift I guess....
Eventually I went up to bed to read and shone a flashlight on my kindle. This morning Owen woke me up and showed me that the power was back on. Sigh. Ernie made his biscuits. I take mine with a bit of cheddar, a dash of mustard aoli and some bacon on the side. He used half bread flour this morning and they were amazing.
Eventually we made our way upstairs and started on the great bedroom merge. We did the bunkbeds last weekend so this weekend we moved furniture out of Leo's room and moved in Owen's desk and dresser. This involved moving more Lego and train parts than I could possibly describe. Suffice to say, we worked through an embarrassing amount of dust. Yeesh.
The room looks great (although a tad crowded to say the least) although the great Lego room switch has yet to take place. We need another weekend for that....and God knows Leo has complicated plans for the whole thing......
At one point this morning, when Ernie and I walked into their room to get things moving, we found Leo and Owen looking like two little puppies, rolling around in the top bunk. I asked them to start doing something and they immediately started doing umpteen rounds of RocksPaper Scissor to decide who was first. Ernie stood there smiling and laughing up at them and they all looked so beautiful. I just felt the moment click into my memory. Just laughter...and then their squawks...."one more..........no, wait, three out of five" and Ernie just laughing and laughing and looking so beautiful.
1. It’s supposed to be 94 degrees today. I’m so glad Owen just left for school wearing a jacket. I guess he figures it’s a good look. Who am I to argue?
2. RAIN! At least we finally got a bit of rain. 1.14 inches to be exact.
3. I’m discombobulated…between the start of school, new stuff at work, and a couple of wild cards….. Discombobulated.
4. Listened and watched Eric Brace and Peter Cooper on Stage-it.com last night. Lord but they are wonderful and just to make things even more ridiculously great----they had Bill Lloyd with them. Life. IS. Good. I begged and begged for him to play Trampoline and he kindly did. Owen, Ernie and I were VERY happy. Leo even walked by and kinda smiled at us.
5. Then it was 9:00 so I talked to my sister (I love you Debbie) and threw together some leftovers for Ernie and me as we had let the guys eat earlier. Let me tell you…..home made carmelized onion dip may not be the healthiest food in the universe but it was damn good over some cut up microwaved potatoes.
6. I was in Target for a total of….mmmmm….maybe 20 minutes. I was just there to pick up some small, inexpensive little items. $140 later…. How does that HAPPEN?
7. My menu planning thing only lasted one day. Hence the leftovers for dinner. Oh well.
8. Here’s your treat for reading through all that babble…..David Olney and Sergio Webb, doing Upside Down and Wait Here for the Cops in our very own living room. And yeah, I know it’s a little dark.
Damn but Sunday was a shitty day. I don't know why. Letdown from David Olney? Anxiety before school starting? Damned if I know. The morning was pretty peaceful, reading the paper and eating Ernie's Sunday biscuits (although he burned one batch first which is UNHEARD of...perhaps that was the jinx) until the alarm at my work went off and I had to go in. But everything was fine and we came back and I fussed with pictures of the house concert. Somewhere around midday (at one point Ernie yelled to Leo "what time is it" and he answered "it's midday." When queried further he said it was noon. Geesh.) I switched over to trying to get organized and spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to make to-do lists and find a template for meal planning. What the hell am I thinking? Like I'll ever USE it. I tried though. Although....I swear to God....do people really schedule different breakfasts for every day and two snacks for each afternoon? Who ARE these people? I finally found something and deleted various columns to make it more realistic. After I did that Ernie and I went over what had to happen this week....OH and I totally left out the part of the day where I supervised my children packing their backpacks with the required school supplies and almost bloody KILLED them. Anyway, so then Ernie took Leo to get a new bike lock and a new bike helmet (read BATTLE). While they were gone I tried to go online and get them more time on their freaking tracfones. It MUST be my problem but that site makes me INSANE. I eventually tried to sign them up for a family value plan which I THOUGHT we were already signed up for but evidently from all the emails it is ending in FIVE DAYS FIVE DAYS FIVE DAYS. However when it went through somehow only Leo's phone was credited so I tried deleting the whole thing to try again but it wouldn't LET me...I have to wait twenty four hours. So then I got so irritated that I went to Verizon to just look up what it would cost to just get two smart phones like I want and switch the boys' phones over and it kept asking me for information I didn't know until it LOCKED me out. Then it asked me if I wanted to live chat so I said YES and then when I told them what was going on the said they couldn't help me. THEN I wanted to punch the laptop just like Ernie did but for GOD'S sake that cost us $700 and the laptop isn't even WORTH that anymore so I controlled myself. Then family members kept getting cross at each other and we all fell quiet for awhile. I made the mistake of walking into the kitchen where Ernie was and asking him what was playing. He said, "uh....Lucinda Williams?" and I said, "no it's not....it's Lucy Kaplansky." He looked guilty and said he'd hoped I wouldn't hear. My sister Judi adored Lucy Kaplansky and even though I'm better these days....I listen to John Hiatt for God's sake.....but Judi had a lot of female musicians that she really loved...and I still find it hard to listen to them. I should be over it...right? It's been two years since she died oddly enough. But somewhow I nodded pleasantly and then walked back to the living room and cried and cried. I tried to be silent but I kept doing those "uh uh uh" breaths...so the boys came out and huddled around me and patted my back and told me it was o.k. Unfortunately Ernie didn't get the message that everything was o.k. because the boys were being sweet instead of little jerks and so he was still cross and the whole thing went downhill from there.
Do the rest of you have days like this?
We attempted to get the boys to bed early-ish that night as Monday was the first day of school. Only moderately successful. We were ready to get the damn day over already so we went upstairs ourselves only to find Owen sobbing in his new bunkbed telling us he couldn't sleep. I got him calmed down and went to bed. The power still doesn't work in the bedroom but thus far, fortunately, the ceiling fan is somehow not part of that circuit or whatever and still worked which is necessary even when the a/c is on because it never really gets cool up there. Last night? The freaking ceiling fan stopped working. It seems to WANT to so evidently it is mechanical and not electrical. Then Owen started crying again. We tried deep breaths. I asked him why he was crying and he finally said because it was such a bad day. Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about the water stain we now have on our living room ceiling because somebody (read OWEN) spilled a glass of water while he was playing upstairs and didn't bother to wipe it up. Anyway it took several round of deep breathing, calm down sessions which my beloved husband chose not be involved in. I finally let Owen sleep with us for a bit (read HOT) until I kicked him out in the middle of the night. The next morning he didn't seem to remember any of it. In fact he had the temerity to say, "I slept great last night Mom. After you calmed me down I was fine." WHICH time I calmed you down was that OWEN?
So for whatever reason I was a bit frazzled at work yesterday. Then Ernie calls me mid afternoon to tell me that as they were heading out to get Leo's gym shoes he needs for today that Owen fell and hit his head really hard and he's taking him to convenient care. My maternal instincts kicked in and I said, "well you got the shoes first didn't you?" No. Sigh.
Suffice to say Owen has a bump on his head and was able to milk the situation for all it was worth but is totally fine.
Ernie and Leo did eventually get his gym shoes.
However....
They tie.
This is a problem.
At an age appropriate time we tried to teach Leo how to tie his shoes. He adamently refused. He told us he didn't need to know how. We countered. No success. He told us he would not be able to remember. We countered again, pointing out the steel trap mind that could at that time name various train engines, their companies and the years they were made. We told him there were going to be times when he would NEED to know this. He glowered at us and said, "give me ONE example." None of them were convincing enough. Eventually we gave into the whole 'choose your battles' theory because believe you me there were plenty of other battles to focus upon....
So tonight we teach him how to ties his shoes. For God's sake.
Oh, and last night Owen woke us up again numerous times saying he couldn't sleep. This morning he cheerfully said to me, "I wonder if I'm ready for bunkbeds." I glared at him sleepily and he continued, "I think I am" and smiled.
Oh, and at 7:20 there was another child (not ours) wandering our living room.
I just don't think I'm up for this.
Somehow this song by Tom Mason seems appropriate....
I'm sitting here listening to David Olney sing "Red Guitar" and watching the boys carry huge empty boxes down the stairs and out to the alley. Ernie is upstairs putting together their new bunk beds. They came to terms over paint color and they are VERY excited to share a room and have bunk beds. Little freaks. Lord but I love them.
I am enjoying that post music glow that is like...well....little else. David and Sergio were absolutely amazing last night. Honest to God I don't have the words. Incredible musicianship, incredible songs, incredible performance and really.....incrediblely lovely people..... I just sat there on the couch, with them a few feet away, wondering at how fortunate we are to have them sharing this with us in our home.
And our friends---old ones and new ones! They are so generous---bringing wonderful food and drink--and doing things like just emptying the trash when it's full.... I feel like these house concerts have a wonderful spirit and it's really all the sharing that goes on. And of course MANY thanks to Jon Pines of Private Studios who so graciously loans his equipment. We are so fortunate!!
I only recorded one song because I hate sitting there doing it. I could have kicked myself however for not recording the last one, Red Guitar, because it was freaking amazing. Whew. Last time we saw them I thought it was a stand out as well. Here's a version of it from a couple of years ago. If anyone has any videos/pictures please share!!!
I gotta say when you've got a busy week and you're trying to get ready for a ton of people at your house....and energy is say, just a bit lacking? Rockpile does the trick.....
Oh, and you gotta watch the Behind the Scenes version of Nick Lowe's I Knew the Bride....don't forget to look for former local girl Gia Ciambotti you C-Uers....
Ernie always expected me to be crazy about Nick Lowe. Sigh. He just doesn't understand. I'm a Dave Edmonds girl all the way.......alllllll the way......
Now if I could only have found Ernie's Rockpile buttons....they're four little buttons---one says RO, one says CK, one says PI and of course the last says LE. Pretty damn cool. We still have them somewhere....
O.k. people....this is IT! It is HERE! THIS Friday evening.....David Olney and Sergio Webb in the ramshackle glory of our home.
I think I have finally settled on a menu with curried chicken legs over rice and some sweet/garlicky pork chops with some sesame pasta and vegetables. And who knows what else as I keep changing my mind. I had this Indian lamb dish in mind but when Ernie called and asked what the lamb would cost...well....my menu quickly changed. "Chicken legs are on sale!," he said...... So anything and everything is welcome. We'll have some cheap wine and beer, some lemonade and some iced tea. We'll start the potluck at 6:00 and music to follow...maybe 7:30ish if that sounds o.k. to David and Sergio.
$20 for adults (kids free). If you can get it to us ahead of time it would be MUCH appreciated----it really makes it easier for us. Someone said they were having problems with the PayPal link but it's working o.k. for others so who knows..... Give the link at the top right of this page a try though.
Please feel free to encourage friends that you think might enjoy it to come....we can use every little $20 bill we can get!! School starts on Monday.....this is the perfect send off of summer!
But eventually I found myself screaming, "I WANT EVERY PIECE OF LEGO OFF THE GOD DAMN FLOORS. DO YOU HEAR ME?"
I really am Joe Voelkl's daughter. It's just what he would have done.
Of course then Ernie yelled, "WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?" And I yelled back, "I'M NOT YELLING AT YOU...I'M YELLING AT THEM!"
It actually worked for awhile. Lego started flying into the bins.
Well, it worked for everyone except for Owen. He cried, he moved a piece or two of Lego and then started playing. It pretty much went downhill from there.
Here are two pictures of Owen from Saturday: lugging a big watermelon through the farmers' market and chopping onions with his swim goggles on--to keep his eyes from watering of course.
These pictures are to remind me that I adore him. Actually at one point in the midst of the mayham...when I had sent Leo and Ernie off to have lunch on their own, Owen asked, "so do you hate me?" I assured him that I never hated him...that sometimes he made me angry but I never hated him. Eventually we calmed down and he chose that moment to ask for a new $100 Lego set. I kid you not.
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