Our girl Karen is 40

We had another large potluck last night. It was our beloved Karen's 40th. Our keg blew, so we asked folks to supply some beer. Boy, we made out very very well. I guess we'll be plying the band with all these leftover IPAs, stouts, and bitters.

At one point, there were 8 people crammed into the banquette area of the "Bad Girl Trailer." It was fun to see.

The boy was the only child out of 50 or so folks, but he didn't seem to mind.

Concert Promotion Bizzo

There has been great response to the upcoming show. Kids who don't get out of the Valley much say they are coming. Grizzled old timers say they are coming. District attorneys and city councilors say they are coming.
I guess the proof will be in the pudding.

Folks are getting ready for the "It's a Lie!" singalong on Nest Egg.

We've got almost all the backline secured and on a donation basis to boot. Just need to find a drum set. Who knew there were so many sets of congas in the Owens Valley?
We've got this fantabulous mural of Paas bunnies riding a UFO hovering over a herd of stampeding horses.
We've got donations from local businesses.

Even still, between the venue hire, guarantee, PA system hire, and a few other sundry things, I've gone past the $1,000 mark. Good thing we have a home equity line of credit we don't use very much.
Any money made will go towards these expenses and anything left over will be icing for the band and the opening act. We're also selling a locals' edition t-shirt (see one incarnation above) and profits off that will go the band, too.
Matty and I are kicking in for the ear plugs, glow sticks, and dessert for the gig and food, booze, hot spring passes, and accommodation for the guys. Rock and roll hostel. Yeah! Luckily our house used to be a boarding or whore house, so we've got the room.

Bless Bibi. She's flying across the country and taking a week off work to help. Bless everyone like Janet, Michelle, AT, Karen, Matty, Derik, Zach, Milo etc. who have already spent hours listening to my nattering on about details and hours working on T-shirts, giveaways, etc.
For liability reasons, I am operating this show like a house concert. This means using the invite system, heavily policing for underage drinking, and running it as a not-for-profit deal.

I've learned heaps. I am fairly focused. I am scared and thrilled all at once. If it goes well, I think I could handle doing this once a year.
Babbo is pretty excited about "the band" coming. He thinks they are coming to play for him.

Matty has his old Hobiecat sailboat. I have my rock and roll bands. We all have our expensive hobbies.

Bloody Hell, all that courting worked

Phoenix Foundation Makes American Debut
2007-05-17 12:53:57.533,
Story by: Taylor Mason

New Zealand group the Phoenix Foundation are preparing to make their mark in the States, as they release their debut album, Horsepower (Young American Recordings), June 5, in addition to embarking on their first North American tour. The band will also premiere their work on Miramax Films' Eagle VS Shark, a film for which the band contributed six songs, including three score pieces. The Phoenix Foundation launch their stateside dates, which will feature Eagle VS Shark screenings, May 30 in Bishop, California.

Tour Dates For The Phoenix Foundation:
05/30 - Bishop, CA - The Masonic Temple
06/01 - Seattle, WA - The Seattle Film Festival
06/02 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
06/03 - San Francisco, CA - Amoeba Records
06/04 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
06/06 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
06/07 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge**
06/08 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall**
06/09 - Boston, MA - Great Scott**
06/12 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe
* with Voxtrot
** with the Veils

www.thephoenixfoundation.co.nz

from CMJ News 5/17/07


This thing has been logistically even more interesting than trying to entertain 200 people in a sheep pasture (that would have been our wedding back in 1999). People are coming out of the woodwork to help and by golly, do I owe some folks.

I have to be the luckiest woman alive to be married to Matty. He has been awesome and supportive and just just so - calm.

A HUGE shout out to the Phoenix Foundation, their manager Matt McLeod, and their engineer Brett Stanton. They are giving us our chance to pull this thing off and hopefully put little ol' Bishop on the tour circuit.

Weaned

Bloody hell. We did it and it was painless for all involved!
Day five and counting.

We're gonna live like bachelors

The boy and I are solo this weekend. This means fries from McDonalds and unadulterated, straight fruit juice.

Still sick. Bloody hell.

Still trying to woo the Phoenix Foundation to Bishop. Getting close. Great press leading up to the release of Eagle vs. Shark and the re-re-release of the band's debut Horsepower.

I avoid the news. I know how sick I feel thinking about the folks left behind after the Virginia Tech murders. Nothing will change. This is America afterall. I lost a cousin to a holdup that went wrong. I almost lost an uncle. This is a reality I am uneasy with. I think about Wyatt growing old and being happy and hope for the best.

Planting out the garden with perennials and veggies with a vengeance. Come Autumn, I will probably be cut up six ways from Sunday. It's probably not my hips, says the brutally honest and refreshing hip specialist Dr. Mast, but my femurs. They are all cattywampus. I have the early signs of arthritis. A CT scan in June will help him get to a good diagnosis.

New words on the block

Macchiato
Devious
Opportunist
Sadist

Wyatt can also sing the first line of Happy Birthday, in tune to boot.

Worms eat our leftovers

One of my greatest gardening pleasures has been vermicomposting, having wee redworms dine on our food scraps.

Unfortunately, a few years back, I managed to kill all my worms when I added chicken shit and straw bedding into the pile. I gassed and cooked those poor things into oblivion.

I just had been too preoccupied with other things to try again. Until now.

A pound of new worms just came in the mail. The boy will delight. I will delight. We're rich again I tells ya, rich.

March was

one huge sinus infection that still hasn't gone away.
Just say "no" to a headful of goo.
It was just a wee pressie from daycare.

Oh well. We joined the ranks.

"You can see the bind I'm in."

$30 for a pound of redworms aka composting worms for the garden that is waking from its slumber or $40 for a bottle of 2003 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir for my mouth and gut that have soooo loved this wine (for its fine balance of acid and pinot goodness without being too vegetal or thin).

Peter and Konrad went to the Western Barista Comps and gave a good showing for the East Side, but sadly, didn't make the finals.

Tomato seedlings coming along.

Just coming back from the dead. Have had the baby's cold for the last week and a half. I will never EVER poo poo a head cold again. EVER. I can't hear well and have goo and a sore throat, still. The baby looks like somebody went over his cheeks with sandpaper. 10 grit.

Just say "no" to goo and wash those hands.

Guinea Pigus Maximus

Wednesday morning, we booked over to the Black Sheep coffee bar to act as guinea pigs for Peter and Konrad who are trying to get their 4 shots, 4 cappuccinos, and 4 specialty drinks pulled in under 15 minutes. They were practicing for the regional barista competition.

Peter is using a new single origin Rwandan which he is factoring into his Sierra Oro blend. It is lovely, bright, with apricot and blueberries, but not the huge brightness bomb that Ethiopian Yirgacheffe can sometimes be. Other folks are getting cinnamon and butterscotch. I haven't yet.

We had Peter's sublime straight single shot (and I don't normally like straight espressos) and smooth, creamy, intriguing single cappuccino. Good grief, he is ready. Each cap featured the same damn latte art fan in the same scale. It was a sight to behold four identical drinks.

The boy has a cold. The boy is getting pinkeye. Matty still accommodating, with our goo and crabbiness.

All hail the weekend

I think I'm in love with the Scottish pop band Camera Obscura. Been hearing them on Radio Active. The band remind me of the Sundays had a baby with Altered Images had a baby with the Lucksmiths.

Going for a ski tomorrow. Must make use of those ever so dear Mammoth Value Passes. Jean-Mi and Lucie will be flying up for the day (knowing snooty "ooooooOOOOO" goes here. Nah, they are hitching a ride with a friend with a plane). There will probably be a million others there, too.

Staring tomato seeds for the year on Sunday. March the latest I've sown seeds in the 8 years I've been at it. Preliminary list includes:
Kosovo
Snow White Cherry
Kellogg's Breakfast
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Moneymaker
Earl of Edgecombe
Opalka
Green Grape

Schober Freak Show

Wyatt started climbing up Matt's back the other night. The boy is so light that Matt didn't quite realize what was going on.

The boy just got given a skateboard today. Blame my dad. The rule is no helmet, no skateboard. We watch him like a hawk, too.

Can you say, "shred?"

NB: New laptop. Microsoft Vista sucks. I needed a new one for work. I don't have to pay interest until August, when it will be paid off.

The painting of Matt's grandpa Art (behind Wyatt) in all his Western splendor.

[Bootsy] Collins Pond has been frozen since November.

Daycare

Wyatt started morning daycare today. He LOVED it. This makes Matty and me feel good. We were having the normal trepidation that parents get when they put their wains in daycare. Matt felt weird when we were getting together the things the boy might need. The trigger was the new sippy cup. Do you remember the strange feeling of excitement over getting new school gear, but the queasiness of being settled into the middle an alien environment with strange kids?

Decaf, take me away

Yesterday, I had six shots in three coffee drinks. Konrad's cappuccino at Black Sheep still slays me. I didn't order it, but that place is like Cheers and like our old bar in Hong Kong, they start pulling your drink the minute you walk through the door.

Konrad and Peter are going to the Western Regional Barista Comps in a few weeks. Matt and I won't be going as part of the support team because we have a weddin' to attend, but GO EASTSIDE!

Pulled the first shot I have liked on the Silvia- George Howell's DECAF La Lapa from Costa Rica. You wouldn't know that it was decaf. Lovely crema. Smooth. Fine with or without milk. We are really starting to geek out, keeping a notebook of grind settings and relative humidity for different beans.

Having fun with the Silvia

The new Rancilio Silvia has a steep learning curve, but it's fun. It makes lovely microfoamed milk, too. The tamper got left out from the shipment, so it's only going to get better. I am not comfortable enough to use the naked/crotchless/bottomless portafilter with the 3 shot basket. I'm busy working on my temperature surfing techniques.

Matt's ankle hurts and my hip hurts. This means a big storm is coming in. Big enough to keep my dad home and not hang out with Wyatt tomorrow.

Daycare will be a bit of an adjustment for Wyatt. He's just not used to being around so many children. His peer group so far has been a bunch of 40 year old alcoholics who swear too much. He will have to learn about children sometime. It won't be the end of the world for him. We're only looking at daycare 2 mornings a week. He's been lucky to have had it so good for so long.

NPR's Day to Day did a lovely wee segment about the Front Lawn. Naomi mentioned something over Chinese New Year festivities about "some obscure New Zealand band on NPR." Little did I realize it would be something so near and dear to my heart. It was lovely, they talked to both Harry Sinclair and Don McGlashan who said the Front Lawn releases still sell. Bless.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

My mom is 60, which makes her an auspicious piggy this year. The boy and I will have a contest to see who can go the longest without a hairwashing. The Chinese believe that it's bad luck to wash one's hair on or close to Chinese New Year.

We went down to LA to celebrate the new year with Naomi and Dave. Jean-Michel and Lucie and Michelle and other nice folks were there, too. It was fun. It was more traditional than I've had it in years and years and years.

The boy was a doll baby and mostly kind and even tempered. There is a god.

I got my fill of tripe and Asian food. We returned the Saeco and came home to the Rancilio Silvia waiting for us on the doorstep. There is a god, and he loves us! We are not cremamasters yet, but the shots are already smoother and lovelier than from the best ones from the Saeco.

Wyatt is speaking

Sometime in the last few days Wyatt started reading his Richard Scarry books to us. The syllables spill out all over the place, but they are all mostly there. Bless him. "Bulldozer" is his crowning achievement.

He told me and Kylee (his 16 babysitter whom he calls "Tyee" because hard "Ks" are still impossible) that his Puppy doll was a girl. I think it is because Puppy lacks a penis.

ski and coffee

First ski of the season for me. It's been a dry, dry year. Matty and I will take turns skiing and watching the boy.

We are trading in the Saeco Aroma espresso machine for a Rancilio Silvia. Just realized that we should probably have the machine we want now instead of working up towards it. It's helped by the fact that Costco will give us back the $215 we paid for the Saeco. Wow. We don't normally return things, but in this case, the machine didn't quite work as we hoped .

The refurbed Mazzer Major doserless beast (it weighs twice as much as Wyatt) that Billy made for us is working well. It grinds beans like a champ.

We've been trying lots of different espressos with Peter in the last month. Ecco (astringent?), Intelligentsia's Kid O (fabby everyday dark chocolate tones), George Howell's Terroir (peanut butter nut fluff marzipan, but the Decaf La Capa is pretty amazing), Vivace's Vita and Dolce (really needs the milk to bring out the sweetness)...At the end of the day, I'm still pretty happy with what Peter's got going on at the Black Sheep most weekends. I'm grateful for what Chris Tacy taught Matt and me about coffee going back five or so years now and for what Peter provides to the wee community of coffee addicts. How sweet is it that one of the best coffeebars is only a few hundred yards away?

So, no, this home set up isn't replacing going to the coffeebar, it's just making our rushed weekday mornings a bit easier from home.

bliss

Was able to finish all the articles out of an issue of the New Yorker (less the fiction, I'm bad that way) last night. That was the first time in years.