Almost July

But you wouldn't know it from this weather. Very cool tonight. Played some guitar out on the patio inspired by seeing Todd at the Ark Saturday which was FABULOUS!!!! Not too much singing along by the audience. Some unnecessary CLAPPING which at one point I was going to chuck my beer bottle at somebody who was SO out of rhythm it was unbearable. Great meal at Conor O'Neil's prior to. Thanks to Jim for driving us bags.

Todd did a goofy rendition of "Brandy" for which he had to read the words off a music stand. This is the song he said his dad loved when Todd was a kid in the second NPR piece last week about him. Sherry asked in the car on the way home how old Todd is and I said 43 (which he'll be in October). People were amazed.

I love it when he tells the stories about why he writes songs. He told a great one about the song Stuck on a Corner from Peace Queer. "My wife and daughter spend my money pretty much all the time." OMG we were laughing continuously.

So Sunday morning, I got up and ordered "Viva Satellite" and "Near Truths and Hotel Rooms" from half. com. That last one is a live concert CD which is what we love about Todd, with the stories and stuff.

So I mowed yesterday and dug up all the weeds out of part outside the east kitchen window. And pulled up a bunch of ground ivy which plagues my grass. I see that I have to apply some chemical after the first frost to get rid of this stuff.

I went to the farmers market Saturday and got black raspberries from which I made a cobbler and some cucumbers and some various colored eggs. I stopped myself from buying more perennials although there were some great day lilies cheap.

GNO Wednesday at Sherry's where it will be cool as it was last year when she had it.

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Swelterish

It has been 85+ every day this week. Fortunately we got a splash of rain Wednesday night when I was at Amy's drinking wine and some good downpours last night during some light thunderstorming. But I watered tonight as things still look stressed.

Those plants out front are doing pretty well although I moved that one wormwood because it was crowding that spirea looking thing. But on the west side of the porch, a big tall thing is crowding a fancy hydrangea thing. I nearly lost the plants in my windowboxes to lack of water. Gotta keep an eye on them. The far back, as I call it, is so heavily entrenched, perennial-wise, that it doesn't seem to matter that it gets no rain but I watered it tonight too. Maybe in the AM I can do some weeding back there. My grass is longish but I will probably wait until the beginning of the week to mow when it supposedly will be cooler. Actually it's kinda lush.

The raised bed is a cacophony of weird flowers and a lavender and tomato and pepper plants. It needs some attention. Herbs are doing great except the cilantro which I bought the slow-bolting kind and still it bolts. Tom and Jessica and I were talking about how it's weird that so much Mexican food features cilantro but how do they grow it in that heat?

I took Amy to the Crosby Gardens preview show tonight where (1) it was pretty hot and (2) the food was lackluster and (3) we didn't see anything we would lay out money for, even if we'd had a bunch to lay out. They had this Caribbean slant to the chow with chicken kabobs and fish kabobs and salad and black bean soup (a little toasty for THAT) and pineapple upside down cake. No chocolate. What were they thinking?? I kept wracking my brain to remember who I took last year, but I couldn't come up with anything and when I look back on the blog, I don't see that I went.

NPR interviewed Todd Snider the other day and it was such a bummer interview, I felt compelled to write and complain. They made him sound like a drug-addled rehab alumnus whose songs were full of pain. Come on! What about Happy to Be Here and Late Last Night and oh, I could go on. Tomorrow night, Todd at the Ark. I'm excited.

So, it's July Wednesday and GNO at Sherry's.
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So I'm behind. Again.

I was looking on etsy.com for a vintage sundress and I really like this one but alas it's $275 but worse, the waist on it is 26 inches.



Tom called Sunday afternoon and he and Jessica were on their way to BG from some wedding they'd been at in Michigan so they stopped by for about 4 hours. I gave them some coffee and gelato. They had had a few drinks at the wedding. I was once again invited to Austin for Christmastime. I should just book a flight now.

We went to the park Saturday afternoon for an Alicia's Voice benefit featuring JoeBob Duda and Rod's Collision. It was a beautiful day. Afterward, Stubbs and Chip and Amy and I played cards chez moi. Others went to Sherry and Fred's and played a board game, I hear on Facebook.

My old friend Sue Lorenz has friended me on Facebook. I haven't heard from her in a long time. People are congratulating her on her new job but I don't what that is. She is playing Mafia Wars which is some online game for which you have to download some special software which I am unwilling to do.

Looking forward to seeing Todd Snider at the Ark on Saturday. Cripe it's almost the end of June already.
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Thanks Deb for taking my picture

At city park with JoeBob Duda

Mid-June

I'm just going to blather on here.

Amy is having a goofy golf party at her house on July 4. You're invited. No idea of when it starts or anything.

Continual home owner slavery takes place. Yesterday Amy and I cleaned out our eaves which has left me today with innumerable bruises and general fatigue. Although I did come home tonight and mow the back and water the plantings and get clean sheets on the bed and shopped at Kroger ($17, what can you get for that? Crumbled Roquefort, half and half, a pint of Hagen Daas, toothpaste, Kleenex, a chocolate bar, 3 bananas.).

I wish I could haul my ass out of bed around 6:30 on work days and enjoy some of these beautiful June mornings.

Today when I left for work, three city trucks and a forklift were out in front of my house but when I came home, nothing was different.

My water bill this month was $107. Usually it's about $12. Apparently I left my toilet running while I was in New Orleans. So the cost on that trip just keeps mounting. I could have had Gearhart come and determine what the problem was and possibly got a discount on the water bill but I figure I would cut my losses since it was probably nothing but the toilet running. If it's high next month, I'll reconsider.

I volunteered Sunday afternoon at the Wood Co. Historical Society Heritage Days. I mostly just stood around for 2 hours and greeted people coming in on the front porch.

Saturday was Rod's Collision at the ClaZel. Larry got up and sang Stand By Me with the band and indeed I was wrong when last time he did this, I said he was great. I must have been tanky. There was a pretty good crowd, I thought but the band did not. Even at the early time, it is hard to get the old people out. The band was smoking. As in hot.

I have made no progress on getting anybody to fix my front steps or build me a screen porch and deck out back. Tonight, while sitting on the patio, I realize the traffic noise encroaches more all the time. I thought briefly I should sell my house and move into the countryside, but seriously. It's tough for an old broad to live alone out in the sticks. I get all piney for the great outdoors and think about how many little houses around little lakes just over the Michigan line are probably in foreclosure and how if I quit throwing my monthly IRA payment into what is no doubt the pit of no returns, I could buy one. If you have any info on this, clue me in.

Of course, it takes all my energy to keep this place up so how would I do another one if I was at it every weekend? I need a staff.

I need to play my guitar. I need to throw some dinner parties. I need a ride out to Horseshoe Lake. I have a ticket left to see Todd at the Ark June 27. You could accompany me and Amy and Sherry. I have just figured this out on guitar. Not for public performance.

The CD drive on my home computer is dysfunctional. It will not record audio CDs and now it won't play movie DVDs. I was going to buy another DVD player since my old one is now powering my stereo but ALAS I think this is the final sign to cross over to the MP3/iPod side. Erin at work said she got a cable that plugs into the auxiliary on her stereo amp and it plays from the iPod. Yes, there would be some tedious loading of recent stuff into the digital realm but it could be done. Much like the basement could get cleaned out. HAHAHAHHAHAHA.

I participated in much digital TV switch angst, answering the phones for 7 hours, taking calls from (old) people about how they couldn't figure out those converter boxes or where their coax plugs into or why their antenna was no good. This is one of the US Congress's largest mistakes. There better be some explanation of how the new, freed-up broadcast streams are going to benefit the populace real damn soon.

Hey, look! You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I can post to this blog and Twitter from my phone. There's no reason for you NOT to know what I am doing every second of my life. Is this the kind of world we want to live in?

I will be participating again in the Dragon Boat races. Although this year, I will have movie star shades. And a better haircut. July 25. It's a good time. Last year I saw Empire Drift and some reggae band while waiting around to paddle. There's an area of free samples/craft vendors/Chinese culture displays. And good festival eats: pizza, Eye-talian sausage, etc.

I started watching the HBO series Entourage on DVD from Netflix. I may be hooked. I see it is in season 6. My kids are into this. Maybe I will leave it for cold weather.

I read this 900+-page book: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It was a 12th century "Dallas." Lot of wife-messing and nefarious money deals and family loyalties. I have it in case you need some bedtime reading.

Sherry has a lot of wine that we need to drink. Let's get that together, girls!
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Front porch

Volunteering at the Wood Co historical society Heritage Days. This is the stairway inside the front porch.

Rod's Collision at the ClaZel

Sashem and Todd at the Zoo to Do

East River Drive at the Zoo to Do

Ana Popovic at Fat Fish Blue

Some pictures

Here are some sliders Anne had at Stanley. They were oysters and Korean beef and club.


On this side street, I think it was Ursulines, they had torn up the street and made it into an oldtime street for a movie they were shooting. Another night we saw a porch on an old house all lit up with floodlights and they were shooting another scene. I don't know what it was.


Here is a statue of Jesus and the Sepulchre or something from the St. Roch cemetery.


Above ground resting places at St. Roch.


A brass band playing in Jackson Square.


Here is the Gazebo Cafe on Decatur where they have live blues and you can get a beer.


Here are Tom and Jessica at Iris where we went to have cocktails and ended up staying for dinner. She is much cuter than this picture. I had to photoshop it for color balance.


Tom and Anne at Stanley.


Streetcars down by the riverfront.


Part of a Segway tour group. Tom knew this guy. He knows about half the people in New Orleans.


The guy on the right who is standing on his hands had just jumped over that line of people kneeling down.


A piano at the Roots of Louisiana Rock and Roll exhibit that possibly belonged to Fats Domino but you couldn't tell from the information.


Clifton Chenier, king of Zydeco, his crown.


One of the statues in the St. Roch cemetery.


A mosaic at St. Roch. With Tom.


This room full of casts and stuff where people put them so the saints will bless them. Or something. You know me and religion.


A poster in the rock exhibit. I just like the Look out, Bitches part.


A balcony on possibly Chartres St.

Connie Ds waterfall