The Crawfish Boil

Again, I am late on this, but I can't let the Crawfish Boil & Americana Music Fest go unmentioned. I had a FANTASTIC time. For $12 it was all you can eat crawfish, potatoes and corn (I ate about 5 mini ears- not kidding) and all you can listen awesome local musicians. Beautiful weather, cold beer, great music- I hate how much I love this town sometimes.

By the way, are you noticing the quality of my photos? Are you noticing that there's a bit of quality there? I am working hard on them, but mostly I am loving downloading them onto the computer and not groaning at all of them. I still groan at a fair amount, but hey! I got a few good ones.

In which I play with my food and the macro function:

The Use Me Up Challenge

Okay so, the Challenge has an official name. I really thought that Ricë was right in that the name should have the word fuck in it. But I think that the only substitute for The F Word is a bit of Bill Withers. I was listening to Live at Carnegie Hall today and the idea came to me in my favorite way- when I was thinking about Nothing At All. Well that's a lie, I was singing my heart out and dancing from the waist up (I was in the car). But still.

For a quick word on Bill Withers, I will say that if I were only allowed to listen to 5 cd's for the rest of my life, Live At Carnegie Hall would be one of them. It's one of those albums that EVERYONE likes, and everyone can find at least one song they love. I love all of them, but Use Me is one of my favorite.



So yeah, that's the name. I made stuff last night, and I will make some more tonight. I will tell you one thing that I hoped would happen, didn't know if it would happen, and am happy that it has happened: I am Seeing Things Differently. Now everything I look at I give a second or third look to see if it might be something I could use with something else to make something altogether different. And that is awesome. Who knew that one day into a challenge I would be raiding the recycle bin for tin cans and pausing and considering my birth control?

I should just stop now.

And I'm Back

A very happy new year to all of you!

I am back, having just dropped BF off at the airport an hour or so ago. The fits of body-shaking, snot-gushing, tear-filled sobs seem to have stopped for the time being, so I figured I should get something out of the Happy Time (it comes and goes in waves, the whole me being able to function or wailing and moaning and clutching some unfortunate cat or dog and wiping my face in their fur. Cute, I know.). So anyway, New Years was wonderful and just what I wanted it to be- full of great food, music, friends, and lots of good wishes and high hopes for an awesome 2009.

We saw the Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival at the Fabulous Fox and it was fantastic. Our seats were GREAT, and the theater is one of those places that enhances the show you are seeing just by virtue of being a Real Life Theater- it's the Fabulous Fox, not the Verizon Wireless This or the Pepsi That, and is it just felt special. Did you know that it was the location of the first ever showing of Gone With the Wind? It was. And also, my Girl Crush on Susan Tedeschi has grown even bigger. She has an amazing voice, can rock the blues guitar, and has shiny hair. Sigh. And before too long, it was midnight and BF and I were celebrating our anniversary and a new year. I love that two very important celebrations in my life are marked at the exact same moment. That makes me smile.

Anyway- before I have to run off and wipe my face on the cat, let's talk resolutions.

I know that some people hate them. And after reading all sorts of blog posts- some people have lists a mile long, others don't bother with them at all and get sort of resentful about them. Resolutions are important- whether they are yearly, monthly, whatever- it's important to just try. You can insert lots of clever quotes here said by people far more eloquent and accomplished than I, but they all say the same thing. Just fucking try, ok? I mean, yeah I will probably not succeed with a lot of mine. But hey, in the time in which I am trying I am being better than if I just sat on the couch eating chips, accepting the status quo for another 365 days. And if one resolution is a total failure- it will most likely be because I was chasing the wrong thing, and it gave way to something better. That's alright, don't you think. Just trying is good.

So here's my list (even though I told you last week that I wouldn't be posting it. I changed my mind, and I can do that.)

• Embrace change, and accept it as part of life.
  
• Share all the good tidings and crap I hate during the holidays all year long.
  
• Be involved in and vocal about things I believe in. Write congressmen, give of time and money, and generally stand up for what I think is right.
  
• Practice contentment, and stop comparing myself to others. Enjoy and be happy with what is right now.
  
• Eat better, and love cooking again
• Buy locally, handmade, or from companies with a conscience, making my money do more good than for just me and Wal*Fart.
  
• Learn something new
• Regularly send cards, letters, and notes in the mail, because it's nice and makes people feel good.
  
• Take a class. I am pretty proud of my ability to teach myself things with the help of books or the internet, but learning in a group is pretty cool especially when creativity and enthusiasm are contagious. Right now I am considering yoga, pottery, or Italian. Or cooking.
  
• Travel more
• Manage time better, and stop procrastinating by playing on the internet.
  
• Write more- and not just about botched or barely completed projects. I learned this year that I sort of like it, and people seem to find it amusing so I'd like to do more of it. But I won't take a writing class. Pottery sounds like more fun, and Italian too.
  
• Free myself from materialistic/compulsive hoarding tendencies. I would like to learn to trade More for Better or Special. I think that I could apply this to every single thing I purchase.
  

I think that's about it. It seems like a lot, but I feel like if I can put most of it into at least semi-regular practice then I can make my life better, or at least try. It's more about the trying anyway, isn't it?

If You Really Like Good Music.....

then go bid on this auction! The auction is **HERE** I am so so very sad to get rid of this ticket. I bought it back in April and counted down the days till I was supposed to go. I have booked a room. I talked my sister into going. Now it seems that I cannot make it to the festival. I am seriously sad about it, and I want this ticket to find a good home with someone who will go see Vampire Weekend, David Byrne, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, adele, Ryan Bingham, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and so so so many others. Go buy it and enjoy it.

More Music You HAVE to Listen To

I love when things grow on me.

Wait, that sounds bad. I don't mean like moss or irregular moles or anything like that. I mean like when there is something that you either hear or see or watch or wear or make or eat and it doesn't do much for you the first time around. Then, the second time or maybe it takes till the third time you hear or see or watch or wear or make or eat it, but then all of a sudden it just blows you away.

I especially like it when it happens with music. It's cool how I almost missed out on how great this is, but then I didn't and now I know how great it is. This very thing happened today as a matter of fact.



It's Adele, a 20-year-old English jazz singer. She's fantastic. I can't get over this girl's voice- how the hell does she sing like that? I mean being so young and yet so soulful, not how does she actually go about the business of singing. She's like Amy Winehouse, but without the beehive and scabs and crack pipe.

Real Quick

Okay, this is gonna have to be a super quick update. I didn't want to lapse back into not really updating even when I have things to say.

Off to Charlotte tomorrow to see Panic close out the summer tour. Yay.

Maya is going to be boarded with her best dog friend for the weekend, and I am very nervous about it. I am sure she will be just fine, and she will probably not even care that I am not around. But dammit, that little freckle face goes with me everywhere and I will really miss her. I have never been away from her overnight, and I know that it will feel like something is missing, and she will always be in the back of my mind. I will wonder if she is having a blast and not missing her mom, and I will wonder if she is crouched in a corner, wondering why I abandoned her. Sigh.

MSG will not be there this weekend. Double sigh. I really miss him when I am at shows. That is one of the things we love doing together most.

Okay so maybe after this trip this blog will get more interesting. I should be home with no big trips or travel plans for several months and I think that will give me the time to get a lot of the fixer upper projects done that I want to do.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Long Time, No Update

Wow, it's been forever since I updated, and now July is almost over. At least that is what it feels like to me! Alright so here's what I have been up to (you may want to get a snack, or a beer or something. Go on, I'll wait.)

Okay so I returned home from Knoxville, and it was awesome! Lots of time by the pool, three stellar shows at an amazing venue, and most importantly plenty of quality time with MSG. It was great to have that time together, and we had a blast. Of course, it was terribly hard to say good bye, but there is still so much going on that I am just trying not to dwell on it too much. Anyway, the shows were truly something. I just love being able to see a concert like that; it just feels so much more intimate than a big amphitheater. Fancy! Maya was on super good girl behavior the whole week. She was perfect in the car for the 5+ hour drives and just generally nice to have around. Thank god for that one, because it could really have been a disaster.

In health news, I am under the weather. I think that it just comes as a side effect of Post Panic Depression. I usually get a case of the sniffles along with PPD, so this little summer cold was not unexpected. Too much hotel room air, booze, and late nights. They catch up to me these days. Sigh.

Luckily since I have been under the weather I finally got to get back to the knitting. I have really neglected that for about as long as I neglected the blog. Shame on me! But now I am working on the calorimetry again- this time in Lamb's pride Worsted- it's a wool blend and it is some leftovers in the prettiest color blue. Anyway it is a belated b-day present now, and I think that it will be just the thing for the recipient. Hopefully i will take some pics tomorrow of all my WIPs so that I can actually have pics on this blog again. Anyway, I think that 6th time is the charm. Now if I could just finish that damn bag!

Let's see what else: oh I have new music to share with you:
This album is fantastic, and I highly suggest picking it up:

Buddy Guy can't really do much wring in my eyes, but when you add in others that I also happen to like a whole lot like Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and Robert Randolph (well his act is a bit tired IMO but he is still talented nonetheless)and wow, just wow. Also, this is a band I heard on the radio this morning and I thought they were really great. I liked what I heard on MySpace a lot:

Wild Sweet Orange outta Birmingham. You can listen to them on their MySpace so that you can rapidly fall in love with them and then snag their album (and their EP for that matter!) just like I did. Anyway, I like finding out about good new bands that everyone else should know and love. Telling others about music is just a stunning combo of some of my favorite things: music, telling people what to think, and my impeccable taste. Sadly, my humility does not fit in there anywhere. Oh well.

Alright, that is all the news that is fit to print today. I think that I am going to start tackling the second bedroom, this den of clutter and ick in which I sit to blog, and then maybe go to the soup store and get some soup. Yes, sick people need soup. Everyone knows that. In which case, maybe I will go for soup first. You know, to build up my strength. Yeah that's it. Then some knitting, then some napping. Yeah, there's worse things that being me today.

Premature Hump Day

Hooray!

Today is sort of like hump day for me since it is a short week what with Fourth of July and all. Thank goodness too, because I have very little patience with my job right now. I am really looking forward to the long weekend, followed by one week, then my trip to Knoxville! Hooray! I am excited for the week off, and I am excited for the three Panic shows at the Tennessee Theater, which is truly a special place to see a show, but mostly I am excited to see G again. We haven't seen each other since Memorial Day weekend, and that distance gets to be really tough after a while. I love when it gets down to us counting down the days, and then the time together flies by, and then it's super hard to say goodbye. But right now it is close, and I love having big fun times to look forward to.

The great destash is going well. I haven't listed anything else other than those three cabs because I am a total slacker. But, I have tons of books to list, and several tools, and some silver maybe, oh and lotsa beads. And resin stuff! I hope to get a lot of that up this weekend so that I can be done with it till someone buys it.

Let's see, what else? Ah yes, knitting crap. Well, I finally cast on that cable scarf, and I am loving it. It is really the first thing I have done like it: my first go at cables, and also the first pattern in a while where there's a lot of changing up of stitches and what not. It's really fun, and it is helping to break the monotony of the bag that wants to kill me. Still working on it, but I had to set it aside because I am just bored to tears with the never ending body. Oh well. I really need to get some more pics of my stuff so that I can show instead of just telling. I hate that I am making stuff hoping that I can use it for Christmas presents, but I love it so much that I want to keep it for myself! Oh well, I am sure that once I finish it and toss it in a trunk it will be forgotten about while I move onto the next big thing. I know that I am joining my first ever knitalong, and it was a really good one to get into right now for me- it's a small headband type thingy for winter, so i could actually wear it, it takes one skein, free pattern, and uses needles I already have. Plus it looks like it knits up so quickly that I could make one for me and still have one to give away come Christmas. I plan to head on down to Knit on Thursday with that $4 that I faithfully did not spend- I got an uber-clearance e-mail, so that must be a sign that I deserve to find a new super cheap and fun skein or two for my very own. You know I won't leave spending only $4, though. Oh well.

okay well that's all I got. This night really seems to have gotten away from me, so maybe I should go do something, or go entertain the dog before she eats my notes for another pattern. Sigh.